A Time Travel Effort in the 70s

After a while, Shen Jiaren heard Zhang Aihua shouting in the kitchen,

"Goudan, Erya, it's time to clean the table. Hurry up and clear the table. We will make dumplings on it later."

"Got it, grandma." The two answered at the same time.

After hearing what Zhang Aihua said, Shen Jiaren started to clean the table with Goudan and Erya.

After Zhang Aihua came out with a basin, Liu Hui also came out behind her with a basin.

Seeing this, Goudan and Erya hurriedly pulled Shen Jiaren to wash their hands, ready to help make dumplings later.

After Shen Jiaren washed her hands, she came over and found Liu Hui kneading the dough for dumplings. Shen Jiaren was a little surprised that Liu Hui was actually kneading the dough. After all, she had been in the countryside for a while, and she had never heard of a man cooking. She had basically heard that the women went home to do this and that, and no man helped.

After Zhang Aihua stirred the stuffing with a spoon, she said to Goudan, "Goudan, go peel the garlic and mash it into vinegar water. Then go to the vegetable garden and pick some cucumbers and green tomatoes. Chop them and mix them. Put them there and we'll eat them with the dumplings later.

Erya, go to the kitchen and get two more rolling pins, and you and Goudan will roll the dumpling skins later.

Your uncle and I are making dumplings."

When Shen Jiaren heard that Zhang Aihua didn't tell her to do anything, she asked, "Aunt, what should I do?"

When Zhang Aihua heard Shen Jiaren ask this, she replied, "Xiao Shen, please sit down and set out the dumplings for us."

When Shen Jiaren heard Aunt Aihua say this, she couldn't help but laugh, "Aunt, just wrap the dumplings and put them away. You don't need my help anymore. Otherwise, find me something else to do."

Zhang Aihua thought about it, and then said to Shen Jiaren,

"Then you and Liu Hui can make dough together.

Waiter, take out some dough and teach Xiao Shen how to knead it.

Xiao Shen, I didn't even have the chance to ask you, you said you can't cook, so can you help me knead the dough?"

When Shen Jiaren heard Zhang Aihua say this, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. Because of her living environment, her original body was proficient in washing clothes and cooking, but she was the only one who was confused about cooking. It was a good thing that Aunt Aihua's family didn't think more about it and ask more questions, otherwise she would have told them about the situation at home at that time. Now that she thought about herself saying that she couldn't cook, it was really that if she said one more word, she would have left a hole that she didn't know how to fill.

I hope Aunt Aihua will think that my inability to cook is an excuse to come to her house for a free meal, rather than that I really can’t cook.

"Aunt, I know how to make dumplings, but they're not very good."

"Okay, then you can change your seat and sit next to the waiter. Watch what he does and learn from him."

"Yes, auntie, I understand."

After Shen Jiaren finished answering, she sat next to Liu Hui.

As soon as Shen Jiaren sat next to Liu Hui, Liu Hui felt the fragrance of Shen Jiaren slowly drifting into his nose.

It was different from the aroma of the cabbage and pork stuffing prepared by my mother. It was a faint fragrance. It was hard to describe what the smell was, but it was very fragrant. This fragrance diluted the smell of the cabbage and pork stuffing in Liu Hui's nose.

At this moment, Liu Hui began to understand why many people use the adjective "feminine fragrance" to describe women.

It's true that women and men are different. For example, Shen Zhiqing has a faint fragrance on her body, but he himself has a sweat odor, especially when he sweats. Even if he doesn't sweat, Liu Hui can still smell a bit of sweat.

At this moment, Liu Hui understood that when the aunties in the village gossiped, they used the two words "women are fragrant, men are stinky" to describe men and women.

After Liu Hui took out the dough, divided a small ball into two and gave it to Shen Jiaren, he also took out a ball of his own to demonstrate to Shen Jiaren.

Shen Jiaren saw that Liu Hui had turned a dough into a long strip shape without much effort. Before she had time to see what the strip looked like, she saw Liu Hui had used a knife to slowly turn the long strip of noodles into small pieces of dough.

Before Shen Jiaren could ask, she saw Erya holding a small piece of dough and a rolling pin, ready to start rolling out the dough.

Before Shen Jiaren could look away, she saw Erya's hands and rolling pin just worked together a few times and the dough was rolled into shape.

As soon as Zhang Aihua saw the dough was rolled out, she took the dough and started to put the stuffing into it. With a pinch of her hands, Shen Jiaren saw that a plump, round dumpling had taken shape and was placed on another chopping board.

After watching this series of operations, Shen Jiaren couldn't help but feel shocked.

It would be fine if you said Liu Hui could knead dough and make dumplings, but how come Erya was so skillful at her job, especially when it came to rolling the dumplings. It felt like the dumpling skins were already formed before she even moved her hands.

When I think about myself, I can't help but feel a little embarrassed.

When I was young, my parents left me a house and an old house, so I didn’t have a lot of housing expenses. I earned a good salary, so I asked the cleaning staff to clean the house and ordered takeout for meals. Otherwise, I would ask the chefs to come to my house and prepare the pre-cooked meals for me to eat later.

So, when it comes to cooking and cleaning the house, I am really not very good at it, maybe even worse than Erya.

Seeing how well Aunt Aihua and the others cooperated, Shen Jiaren stopped joining in and just kneaded the dough, helping out on the dumpling-making line.

Zhang Aihua saw Shen Jiaren kneading dough, and fearing that she would feel bored, she said to her, "Xiao Shen, you know, everyone in my family can cook, especially my Xiaoer, who cooks delicious food."

"Well? Aunt? Is this true? Is this really everyone??"

"It's true, it's true for everyone. Children from poor families have to grow up early. Our family is not like other families in the village. The man is a hands-off manager who only cares about the outside work and doesn't care about the life and death of the family.

The men in our family must know how to cook. If they are not busy, when the women are busy in the kitchen, the men will come to help. They are not hands-off managers.

As for Goudan, he is still young and has room for improvement, so, you see, what I arranged for him just now was to crush garlic and prepare cold dishes.

As for your Uncle Liu, he just cooks something edible, so we don’t ask for too much. After all, cooking sometimes requires talent.

But my waiter cooks the best food in our house, better than what I cook all year round.”

"Auntie, is this true? I see you are the one mixing the dumpling stuffing, while Comrade Liu is kneading the dough."

"Xiao Shen, don't call me Comrade Liu, Comrade Liu. I've already called you Xiao Shen, so just call him Second Brother. If you feel embarrassed, you can call me Brother Liu Hui. Comrade Liu, Comrade Liu, I thought someone from the town was coming to inspect.

However, it is true that our waiter cooks delicious food.

Do you know the chef who is in charge of weddings and funerals in the village?"

"Yes, I know. I heard Aunt Zhou mention it when I was working a few days ago."

“She certainly didn’t say anything nice.

However, what I want to say is that we had a relative at that time who was in charge of weddings and funerals. Our family was poor at the time, so the eldest and second sons would follow my relative to weddings and funerals whenever they had time to earn some money to supplement the family income.

As a result, our second child caught the chef's eye and was called to help him instead of being a waiter.

This period of helping out continued until the chef was called by the people in the town to work as the chef in a state-owned restaurant.

Originally, my second child also had the opportunity to work in a state-owned restaurant, as a second-hand worker, not an apprentice.

But unexpectedly, this opportunity was taken by a family with connections in the town at that time.

Our family was very poor at the time, we had no connections, no outlets, and no money. Afterwards, the family came to us and gave us a subsidy of ten yuan, telling us to take it as a subsidy for our household expenses.

The waiter's master knew about it and told us that he had no way to help us, as he was just an employee there. But he asked us to accept the money the other party paid us, after all, the other party was willing to pay to comfort us, and his other apprentice's quota, an apprentice, was robbed and got nothing.

We were so upset at the time and it was the second brother who persuaded us that if the old doesn't go, the new won't come.

Having skills will make you popular anywhere, so we gradually let go of this matter.

But no one knew that later on, by some strange coincidence, he became a tractor driver.

This matter, no one can really say for sure.

But my waiter’s cooking is really delicious.”