The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book)- 9

 

| TBBOTOF | 9

The river here wasn't murky, with mud banks on both sides. Many women and men would come together to wash clothes after breakfast.

Children would follow along, wading into the water to fish for fish or catch shrimp, or digging up snails and river clams in the mud.

Usually, children weren't allowed to play by the river without adults, especially during the rainy season when the river could swell and the banks become slippery, making it easy to slip and fall into the water.

However, some children didn't heed their parents' warnings, sneaking away from the adults to play by the river, and sometimes, they wouldn't return.

Tang Yang had learned his lesson after a previous mishap. This time, when catching shrimp, he stayed at the edge of the water pool, away from the riverbank.

Today, he was lucky and caught quite a few shrimp, some of them a decent size.

Seeing the river shrimp in the small bucket, Tang Xu rubbed Tang Yang's head and praised him, "Well done! Later, I'll make you a new net, and you can catch more fish, shrimp, and crabs."

This kind of fishing activity was strangely attractive to children. Hearing about the new net, Tang Yang jumped up excitedly.

"Brother, is it true? Are you really going to make me a new net? Brother, you're the best! You're the best brother!"

If he were taller, he might have jumped up to hug him.

Tang Xu smirked slightly, somewhat disdainful, and said, "Go wash your hands. From now on, the first thing you do when you come back is wash your hands. Wash them before meals, after going to the bathroom, got it?"

Tang Yang nodded eagerly, "I got it, brother. Can you make something delicious for me?"

In a child's mind, whoever can fulfill his requests is considered good.

Tang Xu had deeply felt this in the past few days. Not to mention Tang Yang, even Tang Li's attitude towards him had improved a lot. At least she would smile at him voluntarily now.

"Brother," thinking of Tang Li, he heard her voice coming from behind him. Tang Xu turned to look at her, seeing her holding three eggs. He asked, "Only three eggs?"

"Yeah, Mother picked one this morning." Tang Li put the eggs in the basket for storing eggs and counted them. There were fifteen eggs in total. "Brother, can we eat eggs today?"

Tang Xu looked at the eggs in the basket, recalling that they had last eaten eggs the night before last, so he nodded, "Okay, we'll steam some egg custard later. You go wash the rice, and we'll steam some mixed grain rice."

Tang Li nodded, about to turn around and start working, but then hesitated, looking at him somewhat uncertainly, "Brother, Mother said we can't steam dry rice."

"Why?" Tang Xu paused in his task of picking out stones from the river shrimp. "With so many mixed grains, if we don't eat them, they'll get worms."

There were quite a few grains stored in the small warehouse, in his opinion, even if they didn't have a harvest this year, they wouldn't starve with these grains.

Tang Xu sighed. Liu Xiangxiang was truly unreasonable. The reason she didn't allow steaming dry rice was very simple: because rice sold for a penny more per pound than flour. She wanted to keep more varieties of rice to sell, so the family mainly relied on flour-based foods.

"Steam it. If Mother scolds you, just tell her I told you to. Eating a meal of mixed grain dry rice won't kill us from poverty."

Tang Li responded with an "oh," and briskly went to the kitchen to fetch a basin. She needed to scoop out various grains and mix them together. The rice steamed with mixed grains would definitely be especially fragrant!

Liu Xiangxiang, returning from outside, smelled a strong aroma of rice. Her brows furrowed, and she quickly headed to the kitchen.

A large pot emitted steam, and the hot fragrance of rice filled the air. This smell wasn't that of porridge!

Her eyes narrowed, ready to scold someone. Before she could start yelling, Tang Xu tapped the stove with a fire poker and said, "Mother, I asked Li to steam mixed grain dry rice. We've been eating mantou, pancakes, and noodles for days. It's time for a change."

Liu Xiangxiang's open mouth snapped shut, and she choked back her breath, causing her to hiccup.

Tang Xu sat on a small wooden stool, propping his chin with one hand while poking the stove with the fire poker, stirring the ashes and adding more firewood. "Eating dry rice won't cost you much."

Liu Xiangxiang glared angrily. "You little beast, all you think about is eating. You don't do any work and still want to eat. I think you deserve a beating!"

Tang Xu lazily raised his eyes to look at her, raised an eyebrow, leaned his neck forward, and tilted his face up. "Come on, hit me in the face. Hit me hard. Once you're done hitting me, I'll make a scene in the whole village. Even a mother doesn't allow her family to eat a meal of mixed grain dry rice. Mother, you like chatting with those aunties and uncles so much. They'll definitely be interested in what our family eats every day."

Liu Xiangxiang's chest heaved with anger. "You dare!"

"I dare. Why wouldn't I? I've already died once, so there's nothing I wouldn't dare to do. I have no shame. If you're also shameless, you can do anything." Tang Xu clapped the black ash off his hands and stood up. Hearing the sound from the pot, he realized that the mixed grain dry rice was ready. He lifted the lid, and a wave of hot steam rose up.

He took a deep breath, intoxicated by the aroma, and in a teasing tone, he said to Liu Xiangxiang, "Mother, smell how fragrant it is~~" After saying that, he puffed up his cheeks and blew. The hot air rushed towards Liu Xiangxiang's face.

Liu Xiangxiang's face turned away as if she wanted to beat Tang Xu to death with the pot lid.

But she didn't dare move. She feared that if she did, she would lose control and slap Tang Xu. 

Then he would run outside with the handprint on his face, causing a big scene and letting everyone know that his mother didn't give her child any food! Then she would have no face left!

Seeing Liu Xiangxiang's face, almost ready to pass out from anger, Tang Xu quickly raised his voice and shouted, "Li, come here and help Mother back. I'm going to start cooking!"

On top of the mixed grain dry rice, there was a rack with a coarse pottery bowl on it. He cracked four eggs into it to make steamed egg custard. The smooth custard was yellow and jiggling, and he sprinkled some fresh green onions on top, making the fragrance even stronger.

After scooping the mixed grain dry rice into a basin and scraping the crispy rice crust from the pot onto it, he smelled the aroma of the crispy crust, broke off a small piece, and popped it into his mouth. It was crunchy and delicious.

After cleaning the pot, he poured some oil into it and then poured all the small river shrimps, coated in batter and salt, directly into the pot.

"Ah Yang, come in and watch the fire! Keep it low," Tang Xu shouted outside.

Tang Yang rushed in to watch the fire, slurping his saliva and asking, "Brother, when will dinner be ready?"

"We also have stir-fried wild vegetables. Keep an eye on the fire, and keep it low. High heat will burn it," Tang Xu observed the batter while instructing Tang Yang.

Pan-fried river shrimps were easy to make. Because the batter was thin, it only took a short while to fry them to a golden brown color. He quickly stir-fried the wild vegetables in the remaining oil in the pot, adding a simple pinch of salt for a crispy and refreshing taste.

Tang Erhu particularly enjoyed the small river shrimps, eating them with a big smile on his face.

Tang Xu held a bowl, scooped some egg custard, blew on it, glanced at Liu Xiangxiang, then at Tang Erhu, who was enjoying the river shrimps, and said with a smile, "Father, these small river shrimps were caught by Ah Yang."

Tang Erhu chuckled and praised, "Ah Yang has grown up. Next time, catch more."

"Father, I'll catch even more shrimp for you tomorrow!" Tang Yang stood proudly, looking quite pleased with himself.

Tang Erhu nodded repeatedly and said, "It would be even better with some wine. Life would be much more comfortable."

Before Liu Xiangxiang could speak, Tang Xu said, "Then tomorrow morning, I'll go to town to buy some wine for Father. We're running low on salt and vinegar at home anyway, so I'll pick some up while I'm at it."

Tang Erhu agreed, then turned to Liu Xiangxiang and said, "Later, give the money to Xu Ge'er and let him go early. The sooner he goes, the sooner he'll be back."

Liu Xiangxiang gritted her teeth and nodded reluctantly, her gaze so fierce that she seemed to want to bite Tang Xu to death.

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