The one who ca to deliver the gift was still Dongzi, only this ti, besides him, there was also a tall man pushing a cart piled high with all kinds of wild ga.
"Look here, wild pheasants, wild ducks, wild rabbits, yellow sheep, and even deer... Our Qingping County is adjacent to the deep mountains, where so things can be hunted, but yellow sheep and deer must be sourced from other places, so it took a few extra days," Dongzi pointed out each item on the cart to Hua Xiaomai, "Additionally, here are several baskets of wild mushrooms, such as black bolete, morel mushrooms, bamboo fungus, chicken mushrooms... Whether you fry, sauté, boil, or deep-fry, they’re all delicious. Your restaurant can now add so new dishes!"
Hua Xiaomai rarely cooked wild ga but knew that items like yellow sheep and black bolete, were costly in any era. Given the quantity, it would have required a significant amount of money.
She really didn’t want to accept it and imdiately said, "No, I’ve already told Master Wu not to send anymore, you should..."
"Telling won’t do any good, I don’t have the final say. You need to discuss it with our master," Dongzi said cheerfully, as if he had guessed her thoughts, "However, I reckon you’ll have to wait a couple of days. Our master has gone to the Provincial City for so business, taking the Lady with him. They plan to stay there for a while to enjoy so delicacies that might please the Lady and hopefully improve her appetite. The wild mushrooms are not a big deal, but items like wild rabbits and pheasants, which were cleaned and prepared early in the morning, if you don’t take care of them, I’m afraid the at will go bad in a few days!"
Hua Xiaomai was speechless.
This Wu Wenhong, he was far too sly, clearly leaving her no choice but to accept!
Seeing she had nothing to say, Dongzi’s smile was so wide his teeth were all showing, "Don’t worry, you can use this wild ga to cook dishes right now. If there’s too much to eat, just chop it into pieces, coat them with a layer of salt, and hang them up from the house beam; it will stay good until next spring. If there is nothing else you need, shall I be on my way?"
Before his words had finished, the man pulling the cart had run off and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared without a trace.
With this second gift, she really had no choice but to accept it unless she wanted to be accused of wasting food. Hua Xiaomai, having no alternative, divided the wild ga into three portions, keeping the largest at the restaurant for use, taking another portion ho, and sending the last to the Jing Family’s small courtyard.
That evening after closing the restaurant, she instructed Zhou Yunyun to prepare all the vegetables early as she would be coming later the next day. In the morning, she and ng Yuhuai left the house together to collect the neatly wrapped wild ga and mushrooms and imdiately went to the west of the village.
Hua’s sister-in-law, now five months pregnant, had a noticeable bump. At a casual glance, it looked as though she had a small winnowing basket tucked under her clothes. When she saw Hua Xiaomai, she was naturally overjoyed and ca over, abandoning the sewing she was working on.
As they ca together, they inevitably asked about each other’s recent situation. Hua’s sister-in-law was full of questions about how Hua Xiaomai was doing in the ng family, how ng Yuhuai treated her, whether Grandma ng was bullying her; Hua Xiaomai, on the other hand, focused entirely on her sister-in-law’s pregnant belly, asking whether she was eating well and sleeping soundly.
"Everything else is fine," said Hua’s sister-in-law, caressing her belly, "but your brother-in-law, he’s just too fussy. Not to ntion working, he won’t even let cook, treating like an invalid. I’ve told him countless tis that I’m already five months along and there’s no need to worry anymore, but he won’t listen."
"Try to understand your brother-in-law," Hua Xiaomai said with a grin, "He doesn’t want you cooking because he cares about you. With your cooking skills, if you prepared the als, our little nephew might bla you after being born! Now that I’ve brought all these ingredients ho, it’s ti for a good al. I’ll stew the wild chicken soup for a while and when your brother-in-law cos ho in the evening, he’ll have a delicious dinner to enjoy."
Hua’s sister-in-law uniquely didn’t take offense and just glanced at the wild ga with so concern, "You brought so much back, didn’t your mother-in-law nag at you?"
"She didn’t see it, I had Yuhuai bring it out for ," Hua Xiaomai said nonchalantly, raising an eyebrow, "I was just saving myself so trouble, really, but what if she had seen? It’s sothing others gave to , and it’s only right that I decide what to do with it."
Her sister-in-law then smiled and looked down, "Actually, we don’t cook ourselves anymore. Your brother-in-law gives Grandma Pan next door a couple of coins each month to help with food, and he brings her extra ingredients we buy. The old lady is so diligent, especially choosing suitable food for a pregnant woman like to eat, and we’ve been really saving trouble."
When she ntioned Grandma Pan, Hua Xiaomai suddenly rembered sothing and frowned, "Speaking of which, hasn’t Uncle Ping returned yet? He usually cos back in the middle of the month to settle accounts with us and arrange for the next month’s sauce supplies. It’s been several days now, how co we haven’t even seen a shadow of him?"(To be continued. If you like this work, welco to Qidian (qidian) to cast your recomndation ticket, monthly ticket; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian to read.)
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