Erwang, “Don’t embarrass yourself— do you think that someone would want you just because you want them?”
“So what’s the matter?” Lin Lan said, “Ambition should be established from an early age. Let me tell you, first of all, you have to be the type of person that you want to find. For example, if you don’t want to cook and only desire to eat, then you have to be someone who is good at eating. Only then will you be able to find someone who is able to make you a bunch of good food. If you want more white noodles than you can eat, then you have to have the social skills and the ability to strike a deal with such people. If you don’t want to study, you will spend your whole life dealing with people in the village, so at best you might probably have a partner who is a butcher. But if you study hard and go to high school later, you can work in the city. For that to happen, you have to study and do well in the tests to enrol in a university or perhaps, even a named university. Ha! Now that would be amazing! The people you will be in contact with are those from the upper class and the circle of activities would also be composed of cultural citizens. By then, rice noodles and oil will be the least of your luxuries. So, everything starts with you!”
Lin Lan nodded at Maisui, “For example, what is the use if you’re in high school and you don’t want to make any sort of academic progress while dressing up all day and staring at the punks of the junior cadres in the class?”
Maisui suddenly realised, “Mother, are you talking about my youngest aunt?”
Lin Lan, I’m talking about you!
Xiaowang, “Mother, I want to hear the best voice!”
Lin Lan kissed his little forehead, “Then you must first develop a pair of ears that can hear.”
Xiaowang immediately listened to her, “Mother, hurrah!”
Lin Lan, “Gee, hurry up, I spent so long talking to you guys!”
After a while, the pot was sizzling, signalling that the chives and the eggs were finally fried.
Lin Lan first scooped out the scrambled eggs, letting the children eat something to satisfy their hunger. Then, she added half a scoop of water to the oil pot and then poured the washed beans and eggplants into it before adding some farmhouse sauce. Then, she rolled the cornmeal into dough balls and flattened them, proceeding to place them in salted water and setting them on the side of the dishes as flatbread.
Xiaowang and Erwang were also rushing to flatten the flatbread.
The ground pot chicken that was eaten in the modern era was made of pancakes like this. In the future, she would also find a way to make some of that for the children.
The chicken would be placed in the middle of the pot, decorated with crispy Chinese crackers on the side. There was no need to clarify how fragrant the aroma would be.
While thinking about it, she swallowed her saliva before placing the lid on the pan to let things simmer.
Soon, the scent wafted out.
“Mother, what are you making that smells so delicious? I can smell it all the way from afar,” Sanwang carried a wooden stick, his clothes and his pair of straw sandals. He ran back from the outside wearing only a pair of pants and couldn’t wait to rush into the house, enamoured by the aroma of the food. When he saw a pot of scrambled eggs with chives on the table, his eyes immediately lit up as he reached out and wanted to grab it.
Erwang lightly tapped on his brother’s hand, “If you were going to be wandering around in the water all day, you could have caught a few fish before coming back.”