I am He Yuzhu in Siheyuan

Damao has been feeling very sad recently!

Last year, Xu's father went to work in a cinema, got a room, and moved out with Xu's mother and daughter.

At the beginning, Xu Damao was quite excited. Finally, no one was bothering him anymore. He could do whatever he wanted from now on. The emperor was far away and the mountains were high.

But just as the excitement wore off, he got stuck.

As the only male of his generation in the family, he was never asked to do any work. He ate outside the alley in the morning, ate at the factory at noon, and occasionally went to a restaurant at night. He lived a very carefree life.

After just a few days, I felt something was wrong. Was I spending the money and tickets too quickly?

I didn't know until I calculated it, and I was shocked. I was just about to tighten my belt to get through this month (mainly because I was embarrassed to ask his father for money). I just made cornmeal porridge and fried cabbage, and the aroma from the other side came in.

The food that Damao cooks is just edible. If you say it’s that good, he himself wouldn’t believe it.

As we all know, the taste of food at a banquet is just so-so, but if you heat up the leftovers, they will taste so delicious that people will want to drool.

Damao suddenly felt that the rice in his hand no longer tasted good. He put the rice on the table and lay down on the bed.

"This stinky cook just wants to make things difficult for me. He knows I'm having a hard time now and wants to see me laugh! No, I can't let myself be outdone by Sha Zhu. His father lived such a good life after running off with a widow, so I, Xu Damao, will not be worse than him.

After a while, the smell became more and more fragrant.

"You know what, even though Shazhu isn't very good at other things, he's still pretty good at cooking."

Damao recalled the small meal Shazhu had prepared in the kitchen last year.

"Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Only a fool would like the food cooked by Sha Zhu, this stinky cook!"

Damao covered his head with the quilt, trying to block the fragrance from invading his brain, and fell asleep while cursing.

Time slipped away unknowingly, and it was already May.

In the past few months, He Yuzhu has been working hard to practice his cooking skills in the kitchen, Jia Dongxu has been working hard to learn techniques under Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong is training his apprentice while his wife is roaring at him, and Xu Damao has been conscientiously completing the tasks assigned by the Propaganda Department in the countryside.

Everyone is working hard to improve their abilities and strive to go further in the future. You can doubt the character of the people in the Siheyuan, but you must never doubt their abilities.

Of course, Yan Bugui still guarded the door every day. . . .

Time has given rise to many things. There are policies from above and countermeasures from below. The economic plan gave rise to the pigeon market. This relieved Jia Dongxu of a lot of pressure.

The pigeon market is different from the black market. The black market has existed since ancient times and is the target of severe crackdowns by the government. The pigeon market is mostly about bartering, allowing people to exchange some useless things for other things. Although the government does not allow it, the crackdown is not strict.

That day, Xu Damao returned to the courtyard with peppers, garlic, mushrooms and two old hens on the back of his bicycle.

"Da Mao is back? Wow, we have gained a lot."

Yan Bugui came over eagerly and praised him humbly.

"You're too polite, Uncle. Take this bunch of mushrooms back as an extra dish."

"Da Mao is bright and spacious." Yan Bugui exclaimed in praise and quickly caught it with both hands.

"Uncle, I'm going to the countryside for quite a long time this time. Is there anything important happening in the yard?"

"It's still the same, what can happen.

"Well, okay, I won't say any more. I have to go back and rest. I've been exhausted during this period of time."

Xu Damao went home and took a nap. After waking up, he went out to eat something and then bought some potatoes, peppercorns and other seasonings, preparing to stew chicken soup the next day.

The next day, Xu Damao got up early in the morning, boiled water, and started slaughtering and plucking chickens. He started working without even having breakfast.

After working until 10:, Damao finally got to eat the meat and drink the soup.

Damao took a bite and felt something was wrong. The food was fine, but it felt different from what he imagined. He took another bite and it tasted like chicken, except that it was a little fishy, ​​but it was harmless.

After being busy all morning, Damao suddenly lost the desire to eat.

He pushed the door open and was about to go out when he saw He Yushui and Wang Yumei playing with stones. Damao's eyes lit up and he walked towards them, not knowing what he was thinking of.

"Yushui, Yumei, have you eaten yet? I made chicken soup all morning, come and have some."

"No need, Brother Damao, we are not hungry."

The two replied. The children at that time were sensible and knew that food was hard to come by, so they were very well-educated.

"Hey, don't be polite to Brother Damao, come and try his cooking, just consider it as a return gift for the meal Shazhu treated me to last time."

The two came to Xu Damao's house, and Damao served a bowl of chicken

"Come and try your brother Damao's cooking skills. They're no worse than Shazhu's."

After eating a piece, He Yushui said to Xu Damao

"Brother Damao is very good at cooking, but my brother is better at cooking."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. I have been busy all morning and I will be worse than Sha Zhu. I don't believe it."

"Really, the meat you cooked is a bit fishy."

He Yushui argued.

"I don't believe it. How about this, I have another chicken and I'll let your silly brother cook it, and then we can compete."

"Okay, my brother is out preparing a banquet for someone. I'll tell him when he comes back this afternoon."

"Okay, come back this afternoon and ask your brother to come over and do it at my house."

While the two were arguing, Wang Yumei silently finished the meat in the bowl, drank up the soup, and waited for He Yushui to eat.

In the afternoon, He Yuzhu leisurely carried a net bag with two lunch boxes in it.

I didn't meet Yan Bugui today. There's no ice on the river at this time of year, so he must have gone fishing.

"Brother, I made a bet with Xu Damao today that his chicken soup is not as delicious as yours."

He Yuzhu had a puzzled look on his face. After hearing the whole story, he asked

"Don't fall for their provocations next time. I'm a cook, and I'm definitely better at cooking than Xu Damao."

"Brother, I know, but he paid for the chicken, so we are not at a disadvantage."

He Yushui looked very proud and tried to fool me, but I'm not stupid.

"Okay, I'll go take a look."

He Yuzhu came to Xu Damao's house

"Xu Damao, I heard from Yu Shui that you want to compete with me in cooking skills? What's wrong, are you upset?"

"I can't beat you? What, you don't dare?"

"Let's compete, who is afraid of whom?"

He Yuzhu started to kill and pluck the chickens, and asked He Yushui to bring the casserole from home. He used potatoes, peppers, garlic, and mushrooms from Xu Damao's house, took out the leftover seasonings from today from his pocket, and started to get busy.

"Yushui, bring the lunch box I brought back and heat it up here for the old lady."

"okay."

"He Yuzhu has started to get busy at Xu Damao's house."

In the evening, a strong fragrance wafted out of Xu Damao's house, causing people in the yard to talk about it.

"Xu Damao's skill in stewing chicken is pretty good. It smells so good."

"Yes, it smells really good." someone agreed.

"It's not Xu Damao, it's Sha Zhu, Sha Zhu's craftsmanship."

Wang Yumei's father said.

Seeing everyone's puzzled looks, Wang's father smiled and told everyone what his daughter had seen and heard today.

Xu Damao is not a generous person. He is the kind of person who always hires people to help him. Yet, he invited two little girls to eat meat and drink soup. I don't know what he is up to.

People of this generation, when they have good food, they eat it at home behind closed doors. It’s not that Damao is not generous, it’s that everyone does this.

After waiting for a whole day, Xu Damao finally smelled the aroma of stewed chicken. He swallowed his saliva quietly and thought to himself.

"I didn't eat much today. If I'm quick enough, I can definitely eat half of this pot of chicken. The chicken doesn't cost anything, so it's much more cost-effective than eating out."

At this time, Damao suddenly smelled a fragrance, which was very similar to the one that night, and it was quite strong.

Damao's eyes turned and he said righteously

"Silly Zhu, you do things like this. How can you let the old lady eat leftovers when there is chicken soup? Yu Shui, give the old lady more meat and bring it to her quickly."

Yu Shui took the chicken with a confused look on her face, not understanding what Xu Damao was going to do.

After they came back, the three of them were ready to eat, but they saw Damao taking a steamed bun and eating the leftovers from two lunch boxes, which made He Yuzhu and his sister look puzzled.

Damao ate most of the food in the lunch box, plus three steamed buns, then got up and lay down on the bed with a satisfied look on his face.

He Yuzhu raised a wicked smile, secretly called Yu Shui, picked up his own casserole and half a pot of chicken, and walked home without even packing his lunch box.

When Damao saw the two of them leave, he quickly got out of bed, poured the chicken soup he had made in the morning into a bowl, poured the leftovers in the lunch box together with the chicken from the morning, and could heat it up the next day and have it for two more meals.

He Yuzhu brought back half a pot of chicken soup, then closed the door and prepared to lie down on the bed. If Xu Damao had reacted, he would not have opened the door and would have fallen asleep.

Damao was also lying on the bed, too lazy to move, with a look of contentment on his face.

The 17-year-old Damao always felt something was wrong, but he didn't care. He ate very well today and felt very comfortable.

Today, Damao had a satisfying meal, He Yuzhu and his sister had a pot of chicken, and Wang Yumei had a bowl of meat. Everyone was happy.