Old Madam Zhang left with Zhang Cong once she achieved her goal and hurriedly chased after Zhang Qian who had already left.
Qiao Mei and everyone else heaved a sigh of relief and the children also came out of the house timidly. Zhang Miao, being young and lively, ran to Qiao Mei’s side and said timidly, “Thank you, elder sister…”
Qiao Mei was overjoyed and a few older women also smiled when they saw how sensible the children were. Today was finally over. In the future, this old woman would not come and find trouble with them and the children could also live a quiet life.
“Qiao Mei, if you don’t have a receipt or something, what if this old woman really says that she never received any money.” After Auntie Dong said that, the other women also looked at Qiao Mei, worried that Qiao Mei would get cheated.
“It’s fine. This money is not something that they can bring up in public. It’s not as if they dare to report us, they will definitely just take the money and leave. As for whether they confirm receipt or not, that’s a small matter. I, Qiao Mei, am not afraid of anything!” Qiao Mei said as she raised her arm and pointed at her biceps.
The way that Qiao Mei looked made everyone laugh out loud. Indeed, with Qiao Mei’s strength, it was not as if she would be at a disadvantage. If those people were to come again, they would get the brigade’s militiamen to come by as well. They would like to see whether the fists of the Zhang family or the bullets of the brigade’s militiamen were more powerful.
In the evening, everyone went home, still chatting and laughing. Qiao Mei also brought the children and Li Gui to her house to have a good meal. Today was Zhang Wei and Zhang Chao’s first time in the countryside, so they had to eat something different!
“Children, let’s have a barbecue today!” Qiao Mei said.
Barbecue? The children had never tried it before. They imagined it to be eating food that was placed into the fire to be burnt. How could such food be considered delicious? The children looked at Qiao Mei in confusion.
“Elder sister! Are you making a bonfire for cooking!” Zhang Miao asked Qiao Mei curiously.
“No, you’ll know in a while!” Qiao Mei said mysteriously.
In her other life, she loved having barbecue the most. Now that she was here, she had to find a way to have a taste of it. Otherwise, her craving would not be satiated.
Some time ago, she had asked Qiao Qiang to check if anyone he knew had an iron bucket. Then they also found a thick iron sheet, cleaned it up and mounted them together into a simple barbeque pit. Not long ago, she also asked someone to help her buy some charcoal from the city. Everything came in handy today.
There was also eight pounds of beef that Uncle Wang had sent over early in the morning. Uncle Wang happened to be in the city today, so he brought some back with him. She had originally planned to use it to make some side dishes for Xia Zhe, but the barbecue was more important now and Xia Zhe’s beef sauce would have to wait until she got someone to buy more meat for her.
Zhang Qin and Zhang Miao had already started preparing the bowls and chopsticks and went off to get a big basin of water to wash the plates and cutlery. As for Zhang Wei and Zhang Chao, they did not move and just stood there, not knowing what to do.
“Zhang Wei, Zhang Chao, aren’t you the men of the house.” Qiao Mei looked at the two children and asked.
In their family, other than their mother and elder sister, there were only two younger sisters and an old grandfather. The two children thought about it and realized that they were indeed the only men of the house.
Zhang Wei and Zhang Chao nodded.
“A man has to be responsible and can’t just sit there doing nothing while waiting for a pie to fall from the sky. Do you understand?” Qiao Mei said.
The two children nodded again.
Seeing that the children were obedient, Qiao Mei continued, “In the countryside, people have to work in the fields to earn work points. However, our family doesn’t need you to go and do that, so you have to do the work in the house, do you get what I mean.”
The two children immediately knew what they needed to do. Qiao Mei gave them the names of a whole bunch of vegetables to pick in the courtyard and told them to return to ask her if they got confused.
She did not expect Zhang Chao to have such a good memory and remembered everything after she said it once. However, being kids from the city, there were many vegetables that they had never seen before. So they picked those that they knew and then wanted to go back to look for Qiao Mei.
Qiao Mei quietly hid herself and watched the two children busy themselves in the field. She did not want the two children to find her and wanted to see how they worked.
The two children could not find Qiao Mei and did not know how to pick vegetables that they could not recognize, so they could only go and look for Li Gui. The two children walked up to Li Gui slowly, looked at her, and then rubbed their hands. Zhang Wei said to Li Gui, “Mom… Mom, we don’t recognize many of the vegetables that elder sister mentioned. Can you… can you help us?”