The modern fortune-telling history of a small shopkeeper

After the water boiled, the fish balls in the pot floated up one by one.

"Well, brother, these fish balls are delicious." Looking at the white balls in the pot and smelling the smell of fish balls, Qiao Mingcheng swallowed and said.

"Well, yes, it should be pretty good. It's not cooked yet, so I can eat it later." When the water boils, it needs to be cooked for a while.Qiao Minglang looked at the fishballs in the pot. The kitchen was too hot. He reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead. The heat made him a little dizzy.

Taking time, he saw that it was almost time, so he fished out the fish balls from the pot and put them in the pot to dry.

"Is that enough?"

"Yep."

Qiao Xiaohui and Qiao Mingcheng watched the fish balls in the basin drooling, but neither of them reached out to eat them.

"These are ready, you can try one if you want." Qiao Minglang couldn't help laughing seeing the two children looking at the fish balls, and let them try one.Both of them shook their heads at the same time, and Qiao Xiaohui said, "We'll finish it later, and we'll eat together."

"Okay, let's wait for a while, there are still two pots here, and it will be ready soon."

After taking out a pot, Qiao Minglang added cold water to it, and then repeated the same method, squeezing out the fish balls one by one with the mouth of a tiger, and putting them into the pot.At this time, the action should be quick, otherwise the ones that go down first will be cooked, and the ones that are put down in the back are not yet cooked, which will affect the taste of this pot of fish balls.

The fish balls in the next two pots are cooked, and there are more than half of the pots of fish balls.

The surface of each fish ball is smooth, the color is white and tender, and it smells like fish, without any fishy smell.At this time, the porridge boiled in the pot was ready, and they also fried a pot of wild vegetables.

"Okay, let's take the things out and go to the big house to eat." Qiao Minglang put a bowl of fish balls in a big bowl, and left the rest there to dry, then took something to cover the top, and said : "Put these here, let's send some to Grandpa and Uncle Erbo later."

Their grandpa lives in the uncle's house, and it happens that they have to go to the uncle to borrow some rice later, and by the way, he still has something to discuss with his grandpa.

"All right."

The younger ones have no objection to sending things to grandpa and uncles.When something happened to their family, several uncles helped them in the house, and several uncles would put some food into their hands when they were hungry. These children all remember it.

They brought the prepared food to the big house and put it on the table.

A pot of porridge water, a big bowl of fish balls and a pot of wild vegetables are already good things for them.

Everyone sat down around the table. There were so many of them that one table was just enough for them to sit.

Seeing that the eldest brother hadn't come over, the younger ones didn't do anything. The two youngest little guys saw food on the table and smelled the aroma, so greedy that they screamed. If it wasn't for the sister holding them down, they would have climbed to the table a long time ago. up.

"You don't have to wait for me, eat quickly." Qiao Minglang was the last one to come in, and he raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, seeing a few little ones waiting for him, he couldn't help but smile.He sat down in the vacant seat, picked up the chopsticks and picked up a fish ball for each of the two little guys, and said with a smile, "Everyone eat, don't need to watch."

Qiao Xiaofen grabbed the chopsticks and quickly put a fish ball into her mouth. While eating, she said, "It's delicious, it's delicious." She has never eaten such a delicious thing in her life. It was so delicious!

"Brother, the fish balls you made are really delicious."

Qiao Xiaohui and Qiao Mingcheng didn't move so fast, but they both picked up their chopsticks and put a fish ball into their mouths.They watched the big brother make fish balls, but they didn't expect that the fish balls made by doing this would be so delicious.

"It's delicious, everyone, eat more. We'll make it next time." Qiao Minglang stirred the porridge in the bowl with chopsticks, took a sip of the porridge from the bowl, and tasted a meatball himself. Not bad.

However, the taste and texture are still a little lacking, presumably because he hasn't cooked it for a long time, and his cooking skills are a bit rusty.It should be better when you go back and do it a few more times.

When he was young, he followed the old shopkeeper. The old shopkeeper didn't know much about cooking, so when he grew up a little bit, he cooked all the meals at home.Later, when the old peddler left, he was the only one, and he wanted to do everything by himself.

When I was young, I carried burdens, walked the streets, met many people, and learned a lot.At that time, he met an old cook. The old cook was a widower. His wife died and he had no children. He opened a small teahouse by the side of the road, selling some tea and steamed buns, and cooking some food for passers-by.

He carried the burden to sell things, passed by the old cook's teahouse every day, and often went to the old cook's teahouse to rest and drink tea.

The two of them were considered destined, all their relatives were gone, and without any relatives around, the two of them often got together to drink tea and chat, and later they often gathered at a table for dinner.

The old cook said that he used to be the chef of a certain restaurant in the capital. Qiao Minglang had never been to the capital at that time, but he felt that the old cook was not lying, because the food made by the old cook was delicious, and the merchants and hawkers who sold the goods They all like to come to the teahouse of the old cook to rest their feet.

In the years when he was young, he often went to the old cook's place, and sometimes he would help the old cook with his work.One winter, the old cook fell and lay in bed for a whole month, and he took good care of him.That is to say, from that time on, the old cook treated him as his half-son and entrusted him with all his cooking skills.

It's just that he doesn't have this ambition, and he doesn't want to be a cook for a lifetime like the old cook, just open a small teahouse.So later he followed others to go further afield to run a business, and the number of times he went back to see the old cook became less and less.One year he went away for a whole year and came back. When he went to see the old cook again, he found that the teahouse had changed people. After asking, he found out that the old cook got sick last winter and passed away before spring.

The old cook didn't have any relatives around him, but the old cook was kind to others all his life. After he died, the neighbor bought a thin coffin with the money left by the old cook and hid it on the hillside outside the city.

When Qiao Minglang looked for it, the man told him where the old cook was buried. He made the old cook's favorite pork head and bought a jug of good wine to visit the old cook.He remembered that in the autumn of that year, the leaves on the mountain were particularly red, and the old cook had been away for more than half a year...

The younger ones stopped their chopsticks when they saw their brother crying, and looked at him with their eyes.

Qiao Mingcheng was pushed out by his two sisters, and asked hesitantly, "Brother, why are you crying? Is the food not tasty?" No, today's fish balls are obviously delicious, so why is my brother still crying? .

"Ah?" Qiao Minglang was stunned for a moment, reached out to touch his face, touched the tears all over his face, and realized that he didn't know when tears fell.When he met a few pairs of eyes looking at him, he felt a little embarrassed, and said, "Brother is not crying, it's because the wind is strong, and Shasha squinted his eyes."

"It's not bad, it's delicious, eat it quickly."

"oh oh."

Is it windy in the house?

Qiao Mingcheng and Qiao Xiaofen obviously didn't believe what their brother said, but they didn't dare to say anything more.

"Brother, no, no..." Qiao Xiaobao was on top of his brother, wanting to comfort him, but said something awkward, not knowing how to express it.

It was still Qiao Xiaomei who was smart, she rounded up what Qiao Xiaobao said later, and stretched out her little hand to pat her brother's arm, saying "Don't cry, don't cry."

"Yes, brother didn't cry, brother is happy." Qiao Minglang touched the faces of the two little guys and smiled.

At lunch in summer, the brothers and sisters sat in the house and had lunch.

After eating, the two little guys looked sleepy. Qiao Xiaohui and Qiao Xiaofen wiped the hands, feet and faces of the younger brothers and sisters, and took them back to their room to sleep.The two little guys have been sleeping in the same room with them so that they can take care of them at night.

"Brother, you have a break. I'll clean it up here." Qiao Mingcheng cleaned up the dishes on the table and took them to the kitchen to wash them.

It happened that there was a bamboo chair in the big house, Qiao Minglang was too tired, so he didn't help to pack things, and let his younger brother do it.He lay down on the recliner, trying to squint for a while, but fell asleep after a while.

When Qiao Mingcheng came back from washing the dishes, he saw his brother falling asleep.

It happened that Qiao Xiaohui coaxed her younger brother and younger sister to come over, and when she saw the elder brother who was sleeping here, she compared her lips with her fingers, went back to the house, took a thin quilt, covered her elder brother, pulled her younger brother on and went outside out.

***

In the afternoon, when Uncle Qiao and Aunt Qiao came back from the field, they saw that the eldest son had already returned home. After asking a few questions, they knew that the nephew had returned from the hospital.Aunt Qiao nodded and said, "Oh, as long as Minglang is fine, I'll go and see the child later."

Speaking of their sixth uncle's house, the two adults have left, and now there is a room full of small ones, and they don't know what to do.

But they also have a family to support here, and the second elder lives on their side, and they are all raised by them, and the other families will send some rice every month.

There are quite a few people in their own family. The two sons in the family are married, and there are two grandchildren to support. The monthly food alone costs hundreds of catties. There is a lot of money for food.So for some things, even if they sympathize with others in their hearts, if they want to help, they can only do what they can. If they can help, they will help.

"Mother, I went to their place the day before yesterday and saw that they had no food in their house. You can bring half a bag of rice there later." Uncle Qiao was sitting at the door smoking a pipe, somewhat sympathetic to his younger brother's family.

Aunt Qiao paused for a moment, but still said "OK", after thinking about it, she still didn't say anything, and went into the house.

The mother-in-law went in, and Uncle Qiao sat at the door, smoking dry cigarettes one after another.