Chapter 278： Shang Xin

Chapter 278: Shangxin

"These are the ones left, but not all of them belong to you." Zhao Hongbing said, licking his lips with his hand, and counted out eight cents from the small red cloth package in the palm of his hand, "Mo Zhiqing, this is compensation. Do you have any objection to the medical expenses for Si Zhiqing and the accommodation expenses for those days in the county? "

Zhao Hongbing shook a few cents in his hand.

Mo Bei was silent, nodded seriously and said three words, "No objection."

Zhao Hongbing nodded with satisfaction and handed the money to Si Ningning. After Si Ningning took it, he turned sideways and waved his hand, "That's it, nothing else. You can just keep busy!"

Zhao Hongbing arrived suddenly and left neatly.

Si Ningning glanced at the dime in her hand, then at the big unity and several colorful bills in Mo Bei's hand, swallowed the words "don't want" back to her stomach, and silently collected her portion. Into the pocket.

There is definitely no problem with Zhao Hongbing's allocation like this. If she wants to talk more, it will only cause more trouble, so she might as well be more direct.

Si Ningning.

"Um?"

Si Ningning took a step forward and turned around when she heard Mo Bei's voice, "What's the matter?"

Mo Beiling opened and closed his lips slightly, as if he was briefly troubled. He raised the cooing hen in his hand awkwardly, "Can you help me with this?"

"Hmm..." Si Ningning said hesitantly, staring at the gap between the tree shadows for a while, then withdrew his eyes and considered answering Mo Bei's question, "I should be fine with cooking, but if it's killing chickens, I’m not good at it.”

It’s not that it’s not very good, it’s that it’s very bad.

Si Ningning doesn't know **** a chicken, and don't expect the cold-faced young master Mo Bei who has always been pampered to do so.

The two stood in awkward silence for a long time. Xu Shuhua, who came back from the well after washing the radishes, saw them and broke the silence first:

“What are you doing standing here? To meditate on Buddha and enter samadhi?”

Si Ningning raised her chin to Mo Bei's hand and gave a random excuse, "The captain said that Mo Bei performed well and rewarded him with a hen. He entrusted me to kill it. How could I do it?"

Si Ningning spread his hands out, looking extremely helpless.

Xu Shuhua glanced at the two of them with a funny smile, "What's so difficult about killing a chicken? When do you plan to kill it?"

Xu Shuhua's eyes fell on Mo Bei, "Do you want to kill him now? If you want to kill him, go to the kitchen and get a bowl. The kitchen knife happens to be by the well."

Si Ningning also set his sights on Mo Bei.

She really doesn’t know **** a chicken. If Xu Shuhua plans to kill a chicken now, she will just watch and learn from the side.

As for other things, Si Ningning is still very confident in her learning ability. If she roughly understands the operation process, she can try to do it directly in the space later.

Mo Bei was silent for a while. Under the burning gazes of the two people, he nodded lightly and said, "You can kill him."

After speaking, he looked at Si Ningning emphatically, but Si Ningning didn't notice it. Instead, she ran to the kitchen to get a bowl the moment Mo Bei finished speaking.

Mo Bei had no choice but to put the words in his stomach for the time being.

Xu Shuhua was killing chickens by the well, while Si Ningning and Jiang Yue were squatting aside and watching.

Everyone is very envious and curious about the origin of this "reward", and they always talk about it intentionally or unintentionally.

Si Ningning knew the whole reason, so she was not as curious as everyone else. She squatted closest to Xu Shuhua, on Xu Shuhua's left side. While everyone was chatting, she reached out to help Xu Shuhua.

Si Ningning stretched out her hands frequently, and Xu Shuhua seemed to see her purpose. Her eyes were bright and considerate, and she had to stop and explain every step to Si Ningning:

"Just like this, step on the two chicken feet with your feet, hold the chicken head back with your hands and pinch it together with the wings. Won't the piece of it leak out?"

Xu Shuhua put down the kitchen knife and touched the chicken's neck with her hand. "Pull off this piece of chicken feathers to expose the neck, so that you can cut it."

After Xu Shuhua finished speaking, she pulled off the chicken feathers, picked up the kitchen knife, and scratched the chicken's neck back and forth, and the chicken's blood immediately began to flow out.

Xu Shuhua put down the kitchen knife with a click, quickly grabbed the prepared bowl and slapped the **** chicken neck into it. She raised her head and smiled at the people around her:

“The first step is almost done here. Drain the chicken blood. When it is almost done, the chicken will not move. At that time, you can boil hot water to molt the chicken feathers.”

The chicken's blood was gushing out rapidly. After Xu Shuhua's words fell, the old hen had gradually stopped moving at a speed visible to the naked eye from struggling hard at the beginning.

Song Xiaoyun stood up and volunteered, "Then I'll heat the hot water!"

After saying that, he ran back to the house with a bang.

Mo Bei watched for a while, unable to find a suitable opportunity to speak. After Song Xiaoyun ran away, he thought for a moment and said, "Let's eat tonight. Let's eat together."

Si Ningning was looking attentively. When he heard this, he raised his head and said, "You hit your head last time and it looked very serious. This chicken was given to you by the captain. How can we have the nerve to eat it..."

Things belong to Mo Bei. Logically speaking, Si Ningning has nothing to do with what Mo Bei wants to do with it, and he doesn't want to meddle in it.

But she always remembered that it was because of her that Mo Bei lost so much blood.

This chicken was originally given to Mo Bei as compensation to replenish his body and energy. With so many educated youths, there must be no shortage of people who are greedy for meat. Looking back at the chopsticks fight at the table, how many pieces can Mo Bei get?

How can I replenish my body if I can’t eat anything?

Si Ningning's mind was racing. He looked around the crowd and chose a solution: "If you feel embarrassed that we watch you eat alone, then you can eat chicken and let us deal with the offal."

This statement neither hurts Mo Bei's face nor makes everyone dissatisfied.

As soon as Si Ningning finished speaking, someone immediately scratched their heads: "Logically speaking, we shouldn't want chicken offal, but Mo Bei, you shouldn't eat chicken offal, right? Then we can let Si Zhiqing try it, maybe it can be done too What fresh and delicious flavor can you create?”

Mo Bei originally wanted to interact with Si Ningning through cooking. He didn't really care who ate the food and how much, so he nodded without thinking, "Okay. "

…

Hearing this answer, Si Ningning breathed a sigh of relief.

She was really afraid that Mo Bei, a young man who didn't know dry food and bitter herbs, would mess with her and get food into his mouth, which would make everyone look bad.

Fortunately, Mo Bei stopped his mouth in time.

Si Ningning's heart was jumping up and down wildly, and Xu Shuhua's surprised cry came from the side, "Hey, look at this chicken!"

Si Ningning quickly took a closer look and saw that Xu Shuhua had opened the chicken belly and took out a complete white-shelled egg. In addition, there was a small bunch of egg yolks that were as round as bunches of grapes.

“This is still a hen that is laying eggs. If you don’t kill it and keep it, it will definitely be fine if the number of yolks remains stable for two days.”

“That being said, it’s a pity to kill this chicken!”

"It's no pity. Who could have predicted this in advance?" Xu Shuhua chuckled and said, "Okay, you all should spread out! It's getting dark, and you can't see anything if you are all gathered here."

At this time, everyone realized that it was getting late, and hurriedly ran back to the house to pick up the dirty clothes and soak them in preparation for washing tomorrow.

Si Ningning and Jiang Yue sent the washed radishes back together, and when they came back again they took the unused jars in the house to the well to wash them.

During this period, she and Xu Shuhua were talking together:

"It was dark in a blink of an eye. Time flies so fast day by day."

“Who says it’s not? Looking back, we have been here for half a year.”

"Really or not? Oh my god, it's true! Are we living too comfortably here? Time flies too fast!"     "Isn't it good to live in peace? Didn't I listen when I went back to town? By the way, the educated youths in several brigades nearby are having a hard time. I heard that they even broke their heads and went to the commune because of their job as teachers. "

“Really? Really? Tell me in detail?”

There is no shortage of gossip-loving people everywhere, especially among women.

The girls were chatting animatedly, but Si Ningning, the first person to open the topic, fell silent.

Silently busy washing aside, listening in his spare time, and when he heard something interesting, Si Ningning would also smile along with it.

They are all girls aged 16 or 17 or 17 or 18. They are chattering and laughing. The atmosphere is lively and full of youthful atmosphere. It is so happy and beautiful.

Si Ningning was very concerned about Mo Bei, his benefactor. He considered the best way to prepare chicken to absorb nutrients, and also considered that Mo Bei could not finish a whole chicken.

After pondering over it, Si Ningning chopped a chicken into small pieces, first took the offal and a quarter of the chicken and blanched it in preparation for making soup.

As a result, Xu Shuhua discovered her intention and stopped her forcefully.

What Xu Shuhua stopped was not to let Si Ningning pour the soup in which the chicken was blanched, "What did you pour it for? There is still so much oil floating on it!"

Xu Shuhua came close to the gourd ladle filled with water and took a deep breath, "It smells like meat, how fragrant it is! Take out the chicken you cooked for Mo Bei, and give me the remaining soup and chicken, and I'll cut some Throw in the chopped green onions and salt, and you’ll be sure there’s nothing left at the bottom of the bowl!”

"Why…"

Si Ningning stretched out her hand, and before she could say anything else, Xu Shuhua had already poured the soup from the gourd into the sea bowl, took out a separate bowl, took out the chicken from the pot, and poured out the remaining soup and chicken mixture. Put it into the previous sea bowl.

"Ning Ning, just listen to me on this matter, ah! You, continue to do yours!"

“Hey, Shuhua…”

As if to guard against her, Xu Shuhua had already ran out the door holding the sea bowl.

Si Ningning was speechless for a while and slowly retracted his hand.

To be honest, my feelings are quite complicated.

In the context of the times, it is difficult to have a full stomach, so no one is willing to waste a penny on food that is stained with meat or oil.

 Probably because he had experienced and seen too many similar things during his time here, Si Ningning suddenly felt an indescribable feeling of melancholy in his heart.

It can’t be said to be sad, but it’s really too painful...

At this time, one person really needs to stand up, lead changes, and slowly open up a new situation.

As he was thinking about it, he found a small clay pot and poured the chicken into it. He added water, an appropriate amount of salt, and a little green onion. Si Ningning stirred it with chopsticks until it was almost evenly mixed and put a bowl upside down on the mouth of the clay pot. .

Pushing away the charcoal fire in the stove, Si Ningning carefully pushed the clay pot in and started simmering it over the charcoal fire.

  Without a gas stove, it is impossible to stew over low heat. If you put it directly in the pot, the soup will be dried out quickly. This method is currently safer.

After finishing her work, Si Ningning fetched a few buckets of water into the house. First, she filled half the basin, and then she put a wooden bucket filled with half a bucket of water into the basin. Si Ningning found a sea bowl and put the remaining chicken in it. In the barrel.

It has been cooked twice inside and outside. Now that the temperature has dropped, these chickens can be stored for two to three days without any problem.

Si Ningning swayed on the handle of the bucket to make sure that the bowl floating on the water would not sink to the bottom, then stood up and prepared to go out to eat.

At this moment, the voices of Song Shuhan and others came from outside the door:

“Where is Si Zhiqing? What are you busy with? Let’s go out to eat together first.”

“This is coming.”

Si Ningning bent her eyes and smiled, then ran out with a "da da da" sound.

It took nearly 40 minutes to eat dinner, and when I came back from washing, I smelled a strong aroma coming from the kitchen.

Just now, a large bowl of soup with oily and meaty taste was shared among the melons. Everyone was already full, but when they smelled the rich and tantalizing aroma, their mouths started to drool again.

In order to avoid the embarrassment of making a fool of themselves, the group of people pushed and dispersed:

“Let me take a shower today. I sweated a lot during the day.”

“I went to fetch water to take a shower. I was exhausted. I quickly finished my shower and went to bed..."

"The door to the vegetable patch seems not closed properly. I'll go over and have a look."

…”

In the blink of an eye, half of the people in the hall were gone.

Si Ningning blinked hesitantly and turned to look at Mo Bei, "You ate a lot just now, can you still eat it now? The chicken is firmer now. If it is stewed for a while, the meat will become softer."

“...can be eaten.”

“Then I’ll take it out.” Si Ningning responded and walked towards the kitchen.

Mo Bei followed closely, "Do you need my help?"

"No, you don't know how the pot is placed. If you come here, it won't matter if it is knocked over. But if it gets burned, it's really not worth it."

…Okay then, be careful.”

"Um."

Si Ningning said "hmm" and was already sitting at the stove and starting to work.

There is no kerosene lamp in the kitchen, so the light is very dim, but there are still some scattered sparks in the stove, and you can more or less see them.

Si Ningning wet the rag and held the handle of the pot, and slowly pulled the pot out. "Get out of the way...go get the bowl first! I'll take it to the main room."

"good."

After Mo Bei made way, Si Ningning took the hot pottery pot to the table in the main room and put it down in one go.

It was pitch dark in the kitchen and nothing could be seen. Si Ningning groped for the chopping board, used a kitchen knife to put the chopped green onions into his hand, took out a pair of chopsticks and left the kitchen.

Throw the green onion into the pot, and then mix it with chopsticks. At this time, Mo Bei was already sitting at the table with a bowl.

Si Ningning glanced at the position of the bowl, rolled up the rag, picked up the clay pot, and poured a little soup out, "Try to taste the saltiness first?"

(End of this chapter)