Chapter 82: Overeating
After visiting the eldest son's house, Deng Shirong took the Zhang family to tour the houses of his other sons.
Although the main focus of the house visit is the house where the male protagonist lives, Deng Shirong hasn't yet divided the property among his sons, and the houses are newly built. Naturally, every house had to be shown to the woman's family.
The layout of the five sons' houses consists of two bedrooms and one living room. Although each room only has a simple bunk bed and a large wardrobe, the sheer number of them still gave the visitors a big shock. After all, in this era, rural families might not even have the simplest wardrobe, let alone a high-end one.
Deng Shirong's house has more than a dozen rooms, and each room is equipped with a large wardrobe, which is simply outrageous in its luxury.
Not only that, after touring the five 90-square-meter houses, when they came to the 130-square-meter house, they found that two of the rooms also had dressing tables, which they knew were prepared for Deng Yuntai's two younger sisters.
After seeing this, the Zhang family was completely stunned!
When they arrived, they knew the man's family was well-off, but they hadn't expected it to be this well-off.
In addition to feeling envious, Mrs. Zhang Da and Mrs. Zhang Er were also very happy. Since their sister-in-law had married into such a family, they, as the sisters-in-law, would naturally benefit as well.
After touring all the houses, Deng Shirong excused himself and went to the kitchen to start cooking. There were many dishes to prepare today, and his eldest daughter's cooking skills weren't yet up to such a large occasion.
As for the Zhang family, they were naturally greeted by their relatives and Deng Yuntai and the others.
…
The most time-consuming part of cooking is actually the preparation work. Once you start cooking, as long as the pan is big enough and the fire is strong enough, it can be done quickly.
When Deng Shirong went to pick up the Zhang family, he had already instructed everyone to prepare the preliminary work. Dishes that were more time-consuming, such as egg rolls, meatballs, and braised pork, had been prepared as early as midnight the previous day. Dishes that needed to be stewed, such as bone soup, sweet soup, and various white dishes, were all assigned to specific people to handle.
To stew the soup, you just need to explain the process in advance, and then season it yourself at the last step.
As for boiled pork, it's one of the dishes that Bobai people excel at. Basically, anyone who has been in the kitchen can make it, and those with a little experience can control the heat very well. The key to whether boiled pork tastes good, aside from the ingredients themselves, is the sauce (dipping sauce), which is the soul of the dish.
Therefore, Deng Shirong only needed to season the soup, prepare a universal seasoning dish, and then stir-fry the vegetables.
So, in less than an hour, Deng Shirong announced that the meal could officially begin.
By this time, it was already half past twelve in the afternoon. The Zhang family and their group had eaten something early and set off. After walking such a long distance and drinking a bellyful of tea upon arrival, they were now starving.
One by one, they walked toward the dining area under the guidance of the man, filled with great anticipation.
Although Deng Shirong didn't hold a grand ceremony for this visit, he still invited many relatives and friends to join for dinner. Together with the thirteen people from the woman's side, the total number of guests reached sixty or seventy. If counted as ten people per table, there were six or seven tables.
When the Zhang family arrived at the long table, they saw it was filled with all kinds of dishes. The color of each dish was very appealing, which made everyone's appetite grow. There were all kinds of chicken, duck, fish, and meat. It was truly a feast!
Deng Shirong washed his hands and came over to greet them, "Everyone must be hungry, so let's not waste time on polite words. Please sit down and eat!"
That being said, the elders on the woman's side still had to be polite and couldn't just sit down and start eating.
After some polite exchanges, everyone began to eat.
Then, as expected, every member of the Zhang family was stunned!
The deliciousness of the dishes before them was beyond their imagination. These were the most delicious dishes they had ever eaten in their decades of life. Even the humble fire tube dish (rolled green vegetable) tasted much better than what they usually ate.
As for the meat, they ate so much that they wanted to swallow their tongues.
Zhang Xiuping's family wasn't well-off, and her relatives weren't much better off. They seldom ate meat, perhaps once a month. Now, faced with such delicious delicacies, except for the heroine Zhang Xiuping, no one else could control themselves, and they all overate without realizing it!
By the time they realized what was happening, they were so embarrassed that they wanted to find a hole to crawl into.
Anyone who has overeaten knows that if you get up and walk without taking a short rest, your posture will be completely different from normal. You won't even dare to walk quickly and will have to move as cautiously as a pregnant woman.
If they left the table now, their abnormality would definitely be noticed.
There was no other way. In order to hide their embarrassment, the relatives and elders of the Zhang family could only use conversation to distract others and buy some time for digestion.
"Uncle Jiu, I just heard from Yuntai that your family is now growing lychee trees in an orchard?" Aunt Zhang sat up straight and asked.
Deng Shirong nodded and said, "Yes, the orchard has been half reclaimed. It will be ready by the end of November or early December. I've also reserved the lychee seedlings, and we'll be able to plant the lychee trees in early spring next year."
Aunt Zhang continued, "Uncle Jiu, you're such a capable person. You run a tile factory, act as a matchmaker, and now you're cultivating an orchard and planting crops. You're really amazing!"
"I'm just trying without expecting anything. It's hard to say whether I'll make any money." Although Deng Shirong doesn't care about others following his lead, he doesn't want to brag about how profitable lychee planting is before the orchard is established.
If he encourages others to do something before any results are achieved, everyone will be happy if it succeeds. But if something unexpected happens and they fail, others will definitely blame him. He doesn't want to do such a thankless job.
The Zhang family was seated at a long table that could accommodate forty or fifty people. After Aunt Zhang brought up the topic of the orchard, everyone started chatting one after another, and soon more than ten minutes had passed.
With this time buffer, the Zhang family's stomachs were finally not so uncomfortable.
So, after finishing this topic, they left the table.
Because it was a long way from New Dock Village to here and it was getting late, the Zhang family and their group just took a short rest before saying goodbye to Deng Shirong.
Deng Shirong politely tried to persuade them to stay, then took out the red envelopes and five spices that he had prepared long ago and gave them to the Zhang family members one by one.
Each of the five spices weighed about two kilograms. The red envelope given to Zhang Xiuping was 18.88 yuan, and the rest of the people received 8.88 yuan.
(End of this chapter)