Food: The super chef just wants to set up a stall leisurely

The Mid-Autumn Festival lunch, which should have been a happy meal for the family reunion, ended as Zhao Xiaojing had expected with the food tasted bland.

With Zhou Chuyan as a negative example, Zhao Xiaojing was scolded less often, but Dong Mei's similar suppressive rhetoric and low pressure continued during lunch, and even the three-year-old Hanhan didn't dare to say a word.

However, Zhao Xiaojing can understand Dong Mei's anxiety. Zhou Chuyan has only worked for less than three months since graduation. When she was dating Sun Junwei, she told her family that she was going to work in Sichuan. In fact, Sun Junwei was in Sichuan at the time, and she just went there to live with him and play all day, and Sun Junwei paid for all the food and drinks.

Because she had not worked for long, Zhou Chuyan had no basic social security and medical insurance, and the whole family depended on Sun Junwei for support.

According to Dong Mei, Zhou Chuyan is a very stupid girl. She doesn't work and doesn't earn money. She relies on others to support her. She has a bad temper and wants to support her. It's a miracle that Sun Junwei can tolerate it. If Sun Junwei quits supporting her one day, then what will she do?

Zhou Chuyan also has a hot-tempered and strong personality. Before she got married, she was suppressed by her strong parents and she was able to hold herself back. After she got married, her parents rarely disciplined her anymore, and her suppressed temper began to vent like a flood that had burst its dam.

The time Zhao Xiaojing felt Zhou Chuyan's temper most deeply was when Sun Junwei was driving.

That time they also had dinner at Dong Mei's house. It was getting late, so Sun Junwei and Zhou Chuyan sent her home together. Sun Junwei drove and Zhou Chuyan sat in the passenger seat. Zhou Chuyan kept talking the whole way.

"Drive to the left! Can't you see there's someone on the right?"

"Honk! There's an electric car ahead. Honk, can you hear me?"

"Why do you install it on your car if you don't need the horn? Can't you see so many people in front of you?"

"Drive right! There's a car on the left, we might hit it!"

"I told you to turn right, but you didn't hear me? You are not good at anything and you won't listen to me!"

Sun Junwei didn't say a word throughout the whole road, he just drove silently, and when Zhou Chuyan saw that the other party did not drive according to her instructions, she would keep repeating the same instruction over and over again, and her words became more and more harsh, and were full of sarcasm.

Zhao Xiaojing sat in the back seat terrified, not daring to say a word. The whole time, she couldn't help but wonder if Sun Junwei would suddenly explode and kill everyone in the car.

Zhou Chuyan loses her temper regardless of the occasion, so everyone in the family knows how she is when she is with Sun Junwei. Dong Mei initially advised her to control her temper and give Sun Junwei some face, but after many attempts to persuade her to no avail, she began to persuade her to find a job, at least to leave herself a pension.

Dong Mei barely ate lunch. She kept telling Zhou Chuyan to let Hanhan come over, saying that she would retire soon and could help take care of the children, and that Zhou Chuyan should go find a job. Then she told Zhao Xiaojing to quit her job and find a decent job if she wanted to work.

After dinner, Zhao Xiaojing and Zhou Chuyan washed the dishes while Dong Mei was in the living room.

Without Dong Mei in front of them, the tension between the two of them suddenly disappeared. While she couldn't hear them, they whispered in each other's ears.

"Why are you working so hard and still going to work on the construction site! You don't have to do this to resist my mother, right?"

Zhou Chuyan nudged Zhao Xiaojing with her elbow and leaned over to speak in a very low voice.

"No, working on a construction site is really good. I'm just cooking, not moving bricks or sand. Are you really not considering finding a job? Actually, what Third Aunt said makes sense. You can find a job that pays for your five social insurances, and even if you quit later, you can continue to pay for it yourself."

Zhao Xiaojing also leaned forward and lowered her voice.

"Hanhan is only three years old. I should at least take care of her until she goes to primary school. The child is still young and I am worried about her. And why should I let my mother take care of the child while Sun Junwei's mother stays at home to farm? I won't do that."

"Then you don't want Sun Junwei's mother to take care of him?"

"Yeah, his mother doesn't care about hygiene. She picks her feet after coming back from farming. She doesn't wash her hands after picking her feet and then turns around to cut watermelon and asks me to eat it! How dare I let her take care of me?"

Zhou Chuyan showed an exaggerated expression, full of disgust. After being described like this, Zhao Xiaojing suddenly had a strong sense of the picture in her mind, which made her choke involuntarily.

"That's because you didn't allow anyone to take care of you. You said others didn't take care of you and stayed at home to farm?"

"So she didn't take care of it and just farmed at home?"

Zhou Chuyan asked back, emphasizing each word, and Zhao Xiaojing was speechless.

"There are so many men on the construction site, but there's no younger one? Do you like any of them?"

Zhou Chuyan turned around and continued to gossip about Zhao Xiaojing. When asked this question, Zhao Xiaojing couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm so busy every day, how can I pay attention to this! You really have a unique way of thinking!"

"I'm not surprised. My mom said that what you said makes sense. People can't stay single for their whole lives. If you delay for another two years, you won't be able to find a good one! Even if you want to play, you can find someone to play with you. To put it bluntly, if you just stay at a construction site, then you can find someone who works there. You move bricks and he carries sand. That way, there will be someone to accompany you, right?"

Zhou Chuyan's eyes widened, and she returned to her caring expression as a community auntie, and started talking seriously about Zhao Xiaojing.

"I enjoy the freedom to do whatever I want. You don't understand."

After all, she was not facing Dong Mei, so Zhao Xiaojing felt much more relaxed about the topic of urging marriage and answered casually.

"How long can you be free? Can you be free forever? What can you do alone? Another person can do the same thing and accompany you. You don't have to rush to get married now, but you still have to date, right? If you date now, you will be 25 or 26 by the time you get married. Why are you so impatient all the time?"

"Then I have to wait until I am stable and have my own career. I have nothing now. I live in a shabby single room in a rental house. I don't have any education and I haven't found a job."

Zhao Xiaojing reexplained to Zhou Chuyan what she had said to Dong Mei.

"Why do you need all this? Don't you have everything when you get married? Which man doesn't prepare a house for marriage? You can also slowly look for a job after you get married."

"Uh, sister, why don't you think about whether you should find a job first?"

Zhao Xiaojing had already experienced Dong Mei's bandit logic. Not wanting to keep talking about marriage, Zhao Xiaojing chose to change the subject directly.

"Look for it. I didn't say I won't look for it. I'll wait until the child grows up and look for it carefully..."

"Then why don't you consider changing your bad temper towards Sun Junwei? You see, we have a good time chatting with each other."

Zhao Xiaojing tried to persuade her again.

"Why are you trying to persuade me to change? Why is no one trying to persuade him to change? Why am I just..."

The topic returned to the starting point, and it could be said that there was no progress in the whole afternoon chat.

Zhao Xiaojing sighed silently and gave up intervening.

Although Zhou Chuyan's family background was not good, it was much better than Zhao Xiaojing's worrying about her livelihood since she was a child. The two grew up in completely different environments, not to mention that Zhao Xiaojing had experienced a wasted past life, so it was not surprising that they had completely different ideas.

No one can persuade anyone else, so forget it.

After washing the dishes, Zhao Xiaojing walked behind and secretly put a wrapped 10,000 yuan into Dong Mei's cupboard.

She knew Dong Mei, and she knew that Dong Mei would not want the money if she asked her to pay it back directly.

After returning home, Zhao Xiaojing sent another text message to Dong Mei to tell her about the money. As soon as she sent the text message, Dong Mei called her.

"What do you mean? I told you not to do this kind of work anymore, it's embarrassing, why are you using this money to hit me in the face? I'll pay you back by doing this kind of work now?"

Dong Mei's tone on the phone was very bad, and her anger could be felt through the phone. This was the worst case scenario Zhao Xiaojing could imagine.

Zhao Xiaojing was silent for a while and decided to make things clear.

"Aunt, I didn't want to tell you these things.

You don't know, before I went to high school, my mother told you that she worked in a cotton mill, but she was actually lying to you. You didn't interact much at that time, so you didn't find out.

She didn't go to the canteen to wash dishes because she couldn't stand the three-shift work in the cotton mill. It was just an excuse for her to wash dishes when you found out later.

At that time, the cotton mill only recruited people under the age of 35. Any formal job had an age limit, so my mother couldn't get in at all.

She lied to you because even though you rarely chatted every time you met, you would always ask her about her work and whether she had enough money to support me. She didn't want to trouble you or make you worry.

In fact, she had to get up early every day to set up a small stall to sell fried cakes, tofu pudding and porridge. After selling them, she went to work in the canteen. Sometimes she would string some beads at night and take them to the night market to earn some money.

I am good at cooking porridge, not because I learned it after she fell ill, but because I helped her cook it before.

Later, when my mother was ill, I helped Ding Laowu's pork stall deliver lard, 20 kilograms at a time, to the fourth floor. When my mother found out, she cried, but she didn't stop me. She just said that after she left, I wouldn't starve to death.

So, Third Aunt, for me and my mother, we have done all these really hard things, and working on construction sites and setting up stalls to earn money is not shameful at all. Poor people have no face, my mother has long been indifferent to it, and so have I.

Besides, I am much better off now than she was back then. I don’t have a child who is studying hard and needs to spend a lot of money, and my work is much easier than she was back then.”

Zhao Xiaojing had nowhere else to turn, so she just dumped out everything in her heart. Her family was different from Dong Mei's. Dong Mei and her husband had stable jobs, but she and her mother were struggling to survive, so their acceptance of some things was different.

In her previous life, she had kept these things from Dong Mei for her entire life, and she was always submissive to Dong Mei, and she herself lived in confusion. In this life, she had already thought it through. It was difficult to be herself, but she didn't have the courage to do it. What was the point of rebirth for her?

"Third Aunt, my mother told me that I must pay you back when I make money in the future, and that I must remember your kindness to our family. If I can't pay you back all at once, I can pay you back bit by bit.

She also said that if I rely on myself, it will take a long time to pay you back. If I have the ability, I will pay you more interest. If I don’t have the ability, at least I have to pay back the principal. This is also my mother’s wish. She has always been thinking about your kindness. "

Things that are difficult to say become much easier once you start. Zhao Xiaojing pours out all the beans in a bamboo tube.

Dong Mei on the other end of the phone remained in the same position for a long time, deeply shocked.

She never thought that Zhao Xiaojing's family would be like this. She had been puzzled before. Her sister used to have a formal job and worked in the factory for so many years. She also received gifts during the New Year holidays. She should have saved some money. How could it all be depleted when she got sick?

She was not careful enough. She had clearly noticed that at the same time, her neighbors who worked in the cotton mill had distributed holiday supplies, but her sister's family had no holiday supplies. She had clearly said that they worked in three shifts, but her sister's rest time was always inconsistent...

She didn't give her sister enough care!

Dong Mei closed her mouth tightly, controlled her trembling jaw, fell into uncontrollable guilt, and hung up the phone gently.