Chapter 56 - A Disastrous Year (1/2)

“Daughter-in-law can’t take credit for the dishes. Xiaocao was the one who came up with these dishes.” Madam Liu looked at her daughter proudly and gave her some vermicelli. Her daughter was so clever to be able make such delicious vermicelli with the sweet potato flour. Her daughter should eat more as a reward!

They had made a decent amount of each dish. Madam Zhang was enjoying the delicious dishes, so she didn’t make any jarring remarks regarding Madam Liu giving her children more food. She had originally thought that they would spend the New Year frugally, but she hadn’t expected that such simple ingredients could also make a lavish New Year meal.

Madam Li stuffed a mouthful of food into her mouth as she said, “Xiaocao came up with them? She’s the one only in the family with the leisure to think of these things.”

Yu Xiaocao glared at Madam Li: ‘This fat woman never has anything good to say. She’s making it seem like she’s a gluttonous person who only thinks about eating!’

“Stop talking so much if you don’t have anything good to say. You won’t shut up even when you’re eating!” Yu Dashan had noticed his second brother’s displeasure and hastily reprimanded his wife.

Madam Zhao, who seldom ate together with the Yu Family, had several small plates placed in front of her. The food inside were exactly the same as everyone else. Madam Zhang knew that her youngest daughter-in-law was very particular about eating and didn’t like eating from the same plates as everyone. Thus, a separate set of the dishes was specially prepared for Madam Zhao and her son.

Little Doudou sucked a strand of vermicelli into his mouth with much effort, and then chewed it with a smile on his face. He beamed a smile at Xiaocao and said, “Second Sister’s cooking is the best! Doudou likes this really long thing. It’s very tasty!”

“This is vermicelli! Since our Doudou likes it, Second Sister will make some more for you to take back to town!” Yu Xiaocao never had any resistance towards cute children. Although it was quite laborious to make vermicelli, it was also good to have an improvement to their meals with a new type of dish.

“Yes, yes! This year’s yield of sweet potato is very high. We have enough sweet potato flour until the harvest in the fall. If we make some more vermicelli, we’ll have another type of dish to eat during the winter! The stewed bean sprouts and vermicelli tastes very good!” Madam Li sucked on the grease on her chopsticks, and then she used her chopsticks to rummage through the dishes. When she found a piece of fatty meat, she immediately stuffed it into her mouth.

Heizi, who sat beside her, had even stood up. He wiped his snot on his blackened sleeve, and then poked around in the dishes with his chopsticks. It seemed like he would never stop until he found a piece of meat.

Seeing the dirty appearance of the mother and son pair, no matter how delicious that homemade dish was, Yu Xiaocao still didn’t want to eat it anymore. With her head lowered, she concentrated on eating the dry-fried bean sprouts in front of her. She was seriously about to vomit if she looked at them any longer.

Dry-fried bean sprouts was made with bean sprouts that had just grown about one or two centimeters. After heating the lard in a hot pot, dried chili pepper was put into the pot and stir-fried. After that, bean sprouts, seasonings, and garlic sprouts were added into the pot and stir-fried. With the refreshing taste of the bean sprouts and the addition of lard as a base ingredient, it was natural that the taste wouldn’t be bad.

Unexpectedly, Madam Zhang was the first one to comment on Madam Li and her son’s unsightly eating manner, “How are other people supposed to eat when you guys keep picking and choosing in the dishes? If you’re going to keep doing this, then go back to your room to eat! Stop being so loathsome here!”

As she spoke, she also glanced at her youngest daughter-in-law’s direction. It turned out that Madam Zhang, who had been paying attention to her youngest daughter-in-law and grandson, noticed that from time to time Madam Zhao would look at her eldest daughter-in-law in disgust. Madam Zhao, who was originally enjoying the meal, had suddenly set down her chopsticks. Thus, she finally spoke up to stop Madam Li and her son’s unsightly behavior.

Seeing that the meat in the dishes were mostly gone, Madam Li finally stopped searching with her chopsticks. However, she still wolfed down the rest of the dishes, as if there was someone fighting over them with her.

The New Year Eve lunch ended shortly after this small episode. For this meal, Madam Zhang didn’t limit how much everyone could eat. Thus, even if the staple food was still coarse grain pancakes, the entire family still ate with a rare sense of satisfaction. The main reason was that it was a more sumptuous meal than in the previous years.

After the meal, Madam Zhang’s heart ached at the sight of the swiftly depleted food and muttered endlessly. With a grim expression, she finally stopped her complaints when Old Yu scolded her for ‘being so fussy even during the New Year’.

Dumplings were usually eaten in the evening during the New Year celebration. The Yu Family didn’t buy a lot of meat in the first place, so even when the stuffing was mixed with a lot of cabbage, it still wasn’t enough to fill everyone’s stomach.

There were only two types of fillings in the Yu Family’s dumplings, which were pork with cabbage and lard mixed with cabbage. On the evening of New Year's Eve, the men were given twenty dumplings each, while the womenfolk got ten each. The children received half of what the women got.

With only five small dumplings, even the three year old Little Doudou wasn’t full, let alone Yu Xiaocao and the others. Yu Heizi wasn’t satisfied after he finished his portion, so he swiftly stole one of Little Shitou’s dumplings when he wasn’t paying attention and stuffed it into his own mouth. He disregarded Little Shitou’s angry cries and approached Yu Xiaocao and Yu Xiaolian.

Yu Xiaocao swiftly pulled her siblings to their father’s table and stayed beside him. In the presence of Old Yu and their father, Yu Heizi naturally didn’t dare to act rashly. He could only brazenly go ask his own mother for more dumplings.

Madam Li was a greedy woman, who wasn’t even willing to share her dumplings with her own child. Thus, she begged her mother-in-law shamelessly, “Mother, Heizi is a growing youth, who can eat as much as an adult. So five dumplings isn’t even enough as an appetizer. Mother, this daughter-in-law doesn’t dare request that he gets the same amount as the men. Just give him five more so that he’ll have the same amount as us!”

Madam Zhang looked up toward Madam Liu and nonchalantly said, “If you can guarantee that no one will complain that I’m being biased, then I don’t mind giving him five extra dumplings since it’s the New Year.”