Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Translator: Prakriti Bhatta
At noon, Xia Ming simply cooked two dishes. After all, he was only a guest there and the kitchen did not belong to him. So he cooked a beef stew with tofu and a plate of stir-fried seasonal vegetables.
Xia Ming really deserved the title of ”Noble son”. Even if he was only washing his hands and making soup in the dusty old room, it was very pleasing to the eye.
He had a good memory. In just a few days, he had already found out the tastes of his two companions. He remembered that the little guy liked meat and tofu and Yuanfeng also liked meat. As for what kind of vegetables they liked, he still doesn’t know. It might be because his companions were too picky when it comes to vegetables.
The Luo family now had four people. Luo father and Luo mother were staying in the town. Two dishes alone were definitely not enough for all the people there. Therefore, when Luo Cuihua entered the kitchen, Xia Ming naturally let her make the rest of the dishes.
After all the dishes were put on the table, the plate of beef tofu, and stir-fried seasonal vegetables were greatly welcomed. The plate on the table showed how good the skill of its cook was. The little guy kept moving his chopsticks and kept saying “This looks so delicious!”
Yuan Feng also nodded and gave a thumbs-up. He thought no wonder the saying goes, to grab a person, first grab his stomach. No wonder the little idiot always barks “Big Brother Xia Ming Big Brother Xia Ming”. Fake flattering doesn’t need money. So this little dude must have barked so many flattering words unreasonably to get free tasty foods. ohoho what an eater!!! However, it turns out that Xia Ming even knew to cook such delicious foods. If the foods were made by him, everyone would have cursed him, his entire family, and even his ancestors.
The tofu was white and tender and the beef was delicate. And unlike the Luo family who was reluctant to put more ingredients, Xia Ming seemed to control the taste extremely accurately. The seasonings and ingredients were just right. People couldn’t imagine, it was made with the simplest kitchen ingredients of the farm.
The two old people could hardly chew foods, but they couldn’t help holding the tofu. Seeing that the tofu that they were holding on the wooden chopsticks trembled slightly as if they were breaking from the chopsticks’ touch, they hurriedly delivered it to their mouths and then continued to praise Xia Ming.
There were a few other dishes that Luo Cuihua had made.
For example, roast potatoes were tasteless, as if they were not fully cooked. After Yin Minglu ate it with a spoon once, he didn’t want to move the spoon again. Yuan Feng also had just picked the chopsticks to eat that when he stopped his action because of its smell. And in that vegetable soup, the color floating on the surface of the soup was even more strange. Even if their mouth was dry, these young people didn’t dare to scoop it up, thinking about they will just drink water after dinner than drinking that.
Both Luo family members and guests were satisfied with the meal. They were only a bit unsatisfied because Xia Ming had only cooked two dishes. Those two dishes finished too quickly.
The only person that was unhappy was Luo Cuihua, who was totally ignored the entire time.
She saw the reactions of the people from the beginning to the end. Her expression was extremely ugly. Since she had heard about Luo Yusheng’s recent situation that day, her heart had been upset for a while. When she had entered the kitchen, she had wanted to start a conversation with Xia Ming, but the other party ignored her. He looked like he didn’t even want to see her, let alone have a chat with her. So she had to give up and start making food.
When you are in a bad mood, you will naturally do perfunctory works. She had put less salt in one dish while too much vinegar in the other. She had already realized that it might not be delicious, but she didn’t expect that the three young masters would not give her any face at all. In front of the camera, they almost touched her food with their chopsticks from beginning to last only once. Isn’t this telling the audience that she, a rural girl who has been used to housework since she was a child, is not as good as a city’s teenager who has only learned cooking for a few days?
A few days ago, she wanted to get more screen time in front of the camera by relying on her academic performance. After all, she was mediocre in other aspects, but her grades were relatively good. She has always prided herself on being among the best in her grade, thinking that she can definitely overwhelm these good-for-nothing city’s teenagers. It turned out………… she was defeated by that Xia Ming while doing homework. What’s more, that fucker Xia Ming defeated her with so much calm face.
It took her ten minutes to do a math problem. Xia Ming could write the formula and answer the steps to solve the problem at a glance, which made the other two teenagers applaud again and again and again. They boasted so shamelessly: Xia Ming, you are awesome, you deserve to be an international award-winning genius juvenile!
In front of the real genius, she was naturally not given any face. She continuously bit her pen and secretly complained about Xia Ming thinking why didn’t he give her the opportunity to show off? Obviously, as a guest, he doesn’t need this extra screen time.
The audience may sigh at the fact that although this Luo Cuihua grew up doing these things, she still couldn’t beat a city’s child who was there to ”improve” himself. Sure enough, rural children are inferior to city’s children. But audiences will not have much reaction, because this was expected. She lost to Xia Ming’s cooking so badly. She doesn’t even want to imagine how the audience might attack her using various other reasons.
She thought of the previous shots again, all of which were small Luo Cuimiao stepping on a small bench and cooking for everyone. Everyone will definitely wonder if she, the eldest sister, has been a lazy ass all year round and made her five or six years old little sister work so hard. So her cooking skills were so bad.
She didn’t want to carry such a bad reputation. So she deliberately stared at the empty plate of beef and said with red eyes: “I didn’t cook meat. Although I know you guys like meat…but we are different from Yusheng. He only needs to study hard in the city, but here in the village, we still have to plan carefully what to eat for a day. ”
She directly misinterpreted the fact that the teenagers did not eat her dishes because the teenagers liked meat and she did not make meat dishes. That’s the reason they didn’t like her dishes. It’s not that her dishes were uneatable. In her words, she also discredited her younger brother. The subtext is that her younger brother enjoys the blessing in the city and does not need to worry about the price of firewood, rice, oil, and salt.
“It’s not that I didn’t make meat deliberately but……..but you guys don’t know how expensive beef is here. Our poor families usually eat it only during the New Year…” The girl wiped the corners of her eyes and hiccuped.
She clearly meant that these pigs city’s teenagers have eaten too much of their Luo family’s food. And the Luo family being too generous, in order to entertain them, they also let out the beef that they usually can’t afford to eat. The teenagers’ expressions fell suddenly. Yin Minglu also darkened his expression to cooperate with the other two teenagers. His expression was childishly sad.
Luo Cuimiao pulled her sister’s sleeve awkwardly thinking how can her sister say such stupid words. Their brother went to the city. Those people were generous enough to let him have such a blissful life there and they also gave him a lot of good things. In exchange, the three big boys were sent over. As a condition of signing the contract, the program group and the three city families had given the Luo family a lot of expenses and so many living allowances.
Among them, the Yin and the Xia family who hadn’t accepted their children, besides giving money, they had also given away new sets of solid wood furniture, a lot of dried seafood and various daily necessities, etc. Not to mention the others, only a single set of furniture was of thirty to forty thousand yuan.
It is said that children in adolescence have a sharp increase in appetite due to physical needs. So the three young people who are growing up definitely will have a lot of appetites. But even if they will eat and drink too too too much for three months in the Luo family, in front of those allowances that the Luo family had received, their eating costs was like a drop in the bucket.
Collecting money from other people and still complaining because the money givers are eating your family’s meat too much, this behavior is really…
Luo Cuimiao couldn’t say anything in front of everyone. She had received a beautiful ball pen set. Its ink was smooth which had made her writing very smooth too. It was much easier to write with it than the two other pens that she had bought in town for a yuan. She didn’t want to stop writing after using that pen. So she had practiced writing all night before stopping.
And her sister, who obviously had also used the same kinds of stationery products, has forgotten that the person who had provided them with those stationeries hoped that they could take care of the three teenagers.
It’s a pity that Luo Cuihua did not receive the hint that her little sister was trying to give. She only wanted to get rid of the bad impression that she might have left in front of the audience. Anyway, this kind of contract between the city’s families, the Luo family, and the program group was private. Most of the audiences in front of the TV don’t know the inside story and might really think that she was using money and resources carefully and not wastefully and sympathize with her.
This girl was really smart. While beautifying herself, she also blacked out her brother at the same time.
Xia Ming’s eyes were getting colder and colder. After all, she was a person who had been in his heart for more than ten years. It was not easy to let his feelings fade away so quickly, but now after the girl said such a thing, the last bit of a feeling towards her died.
He didn’t speak, but got up and left. That attitude showed his discomfort. The other two teenagers also had the same hatred but could not say a word to Luo Cuihua. So, they also turned back to the room.
Luo Cuihua kept tearing. Humph!!! She is not afraid of the cold faces of these three teenagers because they will have to eat food cooked by her for the next three months. Even if they are stubborn and arrogant and don’t want to eat what she cooks, they will only starve themselves for nothing. And hehe…she will lose nothing.
Luo Cuihua thought this way. And after she acted miserable enough in front of the camera, she returned to her room with peace of mind.
As a result, the next day she learned that the three teenagers had gone to help the villagers to build a new house. They worked very hard in digging and cementing bricks. All they wanted in a return was a delicious meal for themselves.
Originally, fellow villagers in the village had to help to build a house. According to the rules, the owners had to invite the helpers for dinner and give them gifts such as a big pack of cigarettes. Therefore, the owner of the house was not surprised if they were asking for food. But the three teenagers were glamorously dressed, each with handsome faces, and they didn’t seem to be out of food. So the owner asked them why were they asking for food.
After hearing the answer, the owner’s face was especially weird. He didn’t say much, just called the master who cooks big pot dishes and gave these young people bowls full of braised pork.
In the late afternoon, Luo Cuihua thought that these people should have come back.
As a result, when she asked someone about them, she found that those teenagers saw that someone in the village was getting married and the bride’s family had held a running feast[the kind of feast where people don’t go to restaurants and hotels to buy foods like people in the city do. Instead, they set up sheds in their yards, set up stoves, invite two local chefs, and make their own foods for feasts] for the whole village. So the three young boys had gone there.
The venue of the feast was very lively. The gongs and drums were blowing and beating a very festive melody. The bride was very beautiful, the groom was also very blessed, and the feast’s foods were even more delicious. The chefs were killing chickens, ducks, and pigs, washing and cutting vegetables. When the foods were served, they all were delicious.
There were braised prawns, stir-fried lotus root slices, soy sauce braised pork, crab noodles, meatballs, and all kinds of meat dishes. The teenagers at the dinner table gorged on food like crazy.
The bridegroom smiled and said, “Everyone, you guys can eat whatever you want.”
He turned to the bride and said, “When did you even hire a photographer? You didn’t tell me.” But the strange thing was that the photographer wasn’t even taking pictures of them. Obviously, he and his bride were today’s protagonists. But instead of taking pictures of them, the photographer went to take pictures of the people eating their food on the table. Is there anything to watch when the guests are eating and drinking? The bridegroom did not know what the hell was wrong with today’s generation’s weird photographers.
The bride was also at a loss. She knew her family was poor. If she hadn’t married a city man, she wouldn’t have been able to set up this feast. She was still expecting the money that she will get from guests to pay back for the feast’s cost. She had no spare money to hire a photographer.
The two of them didn’t know the inside story, but they still smiled gracefully. When they saw the youngest child, they gave out sweets and a red envelope[small red and gold packet containing money given to children] in order to show their generosity.
Seeing the little guy with red lips and white teeth, just wearing a red jacket, the two of them lighted up. They thought that this was a “rolling boy”[a child who is invited to play and roll on the bed of the newly married couples in order to wish them for healthy childbirth] who was specially invited by the villagers. So they hurriedly pulled him into the room.
So Yin Minglu looked dazed the entire time. He rolled around on the big bed that was sprinkled with red dates, and lotus seeds. He was also taught a few auspicious words, similar to “I wish my brother and sister to give birth to a child”, “I wish my brother and sister to roll on the bed…………” ”I wish my brother and sister to give birth to a superman, superwoman, spiderman…….?”….etc. There was a small red envelope in the palm of his hand at the end.
He squeezed it. But it was not too thin. So he didn’t know whether there were notes of five/ten or hundred.
The audience in front of the screen had already hahahahaed.
[Look at how the eldest master, aka domineering and arrogant overlord, is eating…hahahaha like a poor relative who specializes in eating by using the rich relative’s name…..bwahahahahaha]
[In order to eat and drink, these teenagers can really fight for it]
[The little guy must have felt extraordinarily awkward. He obviously came to have a meal, but he had to roll on someone’s bed…pfttttt]
[He actually got red envelopes, This time he made a lot of money hahahahaha]
[I see fish and different kinds of meat dishes on the table. This villager doesn’t look poor. Is the Luo family too stingy? ?
The three teenagers feasted on others’ wedding banquets, chatting with guests from time to time. The scene was lively. Luo Cuihua held back her anger and sat in the yard, waiting for them to come back.
The Luo family’s two old people have always been a little confused. Only just now did they understand what their granddaughter had said yesterday. Seeing that a whole day was about to pass, and the three children had not come back, the two old people were anxious like ants on a hot pot, urging the two girls to find them.
But Luo Cuihua stubbornly refused to let herself and her sister go to find them. She wanted to wait for the three young masters to return by herself. She waited and waited, but unexpectedly, what came was a rumor that said how she was abusing three city’s teenagers at home by complaining they were eating too much in spite of receiving a lot of benefits from their families.
Luo Cuihua:? ? ?
Thank you guys for reading. Please feel free to comment your thoughts. ?