Back to 1978

Chapter 27 Your death is a waste of food
Amid the smoke coming out of the stove and the mist coming out of the pot, the young woman behind the stall raised her head and looked at Xie Hushan through the hazy smoke.

In the eyes of Xie Hushan, who had seen the world in his previous life, the woman was not a stunning beauty. She was just pretty and good-looking. She was in her early twenties, about 1.6 meters tall, with neat short hair that just covered her ears. She was wearing a blue worker's uniform that was obviously not hers and had been altered to be smaller.

Perhaps because she had been setting up stalls all year round and had not worked in the fields, she did not have the wheat-colored or bronze skin common among other female comrades in the production team. The skin on her face and neck, which was exposed to the air, was white, a rare color among country women.

The adjectives that Ma Laowu used to describe his niece were just right for the woman in front of him: fair! Fresh!

The only thing that caught Xie Hushan's eyes was the pair of beautiful almond-shaped eyes of the woman. Even when she casually glanced at him, she exuded a kind of charm that could make a man's heart slightly warm.

"Vegetarian wontons, 1.2 cents a bowl." Han Hongzhen said to the young man in front of her with a smile.

When eating at the market in the countryside, you don't need to pay for food coupons, but the prices will be slightly higher. A bowl of vegetarian wontons in a county restaurant would cost no more than eight cents with food coupons.

Xie Hushan took out two dimes and placed them on the edge of the chopping board. Han Hongzhen did not reach out to take them. Instead, she lifted the lid of the wontons and held it over the soup pot. She used her fingers to flexibly push the fifteen wontons into the soup pot, and then asked:

"I'm afraid one bowl of wontons won't fill me up. Would you like two more sesame cakes?"

"No." Xie Hushan shook his head and smiled at the other party.

Han Hongzhen turned around and shouted, "Mom, give this guy eight cents."

Xie Hushan looked in the direction of the voice and saw a middle-aged woman in her forties limping over from a few small wooden tables at the back. She carefully unbuttoned her collar, fished out a stack of coins, counted out eight one-cent coins, and handed them to Xie Hushan, then put away the two dimes on the chopping board.

Xie Hushan noticed that the man's right leg was missing below the knee, and under the empty trouser leg was a sawed-off wooden table leg.

Only after collecting the money did the middle-aged woman look at Xie Hushan in a trance. She was stunned at first, and then laughed: "Isn't this... Hushan from Xie Qiwu's family? Why did you run so far to the market?"

Seeing that her mother-in-law knew the man, Han Hongzhen looked at Xie Hushan again, and then asked her mother-in-law, "Is this boy also from our team?"

"He was from our third team. His mother and I were in the same production team at that time. If it weren't for the earthquake..." The middle-aged woman said halfway, sighed, then forced a smile and urged Xie Hushan:

"Go, push the cart aside. I'll watch it for you. It won't get lost. Go sit at the table and wait for your meal."

When Xie Hushan heard that the other party knew his deceased mother, he called her "Aunt" according to her seniority.

When Han Hongzhen heard that the other party was also in the same production team as her, she lifted the lid again, put two more wontons into the soup pot, and smiled at Xie Hushan:
"Go sit down, I'll bring it to you when it's ready."

Xie Hushan parked his bike and sat down at a low table. After a while, Han Hongzhen came over with a big bowl of steaming wontons and put it down: "Eat it while it's hot."

Then he turned around and walked back to the chopping board to continue his work.

Xie Hushan was eating wontons while looking around. At this stall, Han Hongzhen was responsible for making the soup, wrapping the wontons, boiling the wontons, and serving the rice, while her mother-in-law was responsible for adding firewood, fetching water, cleaning up the dishes, and collecting money and giving change.

It seems that the mother-in-law's work is dirtier, but in fact Han Hongzhen is worried about her mother-in-law's inconvenient legs and feet, so she tries her best to let her avoid doing work that may cause burns.

She needs to stand in front of the chopping board all the time, but after working for a while, the mother-in-law can always sit down and rest.

She ate the wontons slowly and carefully. During the time she was eating the wontons, there were so many people from different villages and teams going in and out of the market, but only a mother and her son came to buy a bowl of wontons. The child was clamoring for wontons, so the mother bought him a bowl. It's unscientific. Such a fair and charming young widow set up a stall on the street. Even if the location is not good, she can't expect to attract all men, but the vast number of rural bachelors should also support her.

"Auntie, please keep an eye on my bike for me. I'll go eat something over there." After finishing his meal, Xie Hushan stood up, said hello to Han Hongzhen's mother-in-law, walked towards the stalls over there, and started eating from the first one next to the wontons.

The occupancy rate of the fried dough sticks and tofu pudding stall is slightly better than that of the wonton stall, with most customers buying two and eating while walking. The oil used for frying the dough sticks has already had a slightly rancid smell, but the company is reluctant to change the oil. However, judging by the customers' reactions, it is obvious that they don't care about this issue. The advantage of having more oil and water can make them ignore the other shortcomings of the food.

The bone soup and pancakes, the big bones in the soup pot that all the customers can see, are probably left over from the Jurassic period. There is no meat flavor at all. When you eat it, it tastes like vegetable soup and pancakes with a few drops of oil floating in the soup. However, there are many more customers than those who buy greasy food like fried dough sticks, obviously they come for the meat flavor. However, after eating it, the comments are not very good.

We ate at six stalls in a row until the last one, which was also the best location in the market. There was an endless stream of people queuing up to eat in front of the stall. They were either wealthy rickshaw drivers or parents who brought their children to satisfy their cravings.

This was a stall selling meat buns and meatball soup. Xie Hushan waited in line for about half an hour before he bought two buns and a bowl of meatballs. However, when he wanted to sit down and eat, there were no seats left. Many people who had queued in front of him were already squatting beside them, eating with their bowls in hand.

The booming business shows that the farmers' desire for greasy, meaty food has surpassed their desire for young and beautiful women of the opposite sex.

Unable to find a seat, he simply used straw paper to pad the hot soup bowl and returned to the wonton stall with the buns. Seeing Xie Hushan bringing other people's food to his stall, Han Hongzhen was stunned for a moment and felt that this young man seemed to be missing something in his brain.

Even if they are just fellow villagers, you can't do this. Isn't that the same as putting eye drops on her wontons?
"You..." She frowned and wanted to speak, but Xie Hushan had already put the hot meatball soup on the chopping board, blew on his burning palms, pinched his earlobes, burped loudly, and said with a painful expression:
"No, I really can't eat any more. You and Auntie can eat the buns, and leave two meatballs for me to try."

As he said that, he walked towards the empty place at the back of the stall. Han Hongzhen looked at Xie Hushan, who was walking with his trousers lifted up, as if he was a lunatic: "What are you doing? You are a grown man, don't you have any shame? Go to the toilet..."

"I'm full, what's there to be ashamed of loosening my belt?" Xie Hushan walked to an empty corner without looking back and loosened his belt.

After loosening his belt and coming back, he saw Han Hongzhen pushing the meatballs and buns to a corner of the chopping board with disdain. Xie Hushan walked over, picked up a bun and handed it to her mother-in-law: "Auntie, eat the buns, I can't eat any more."

"Child, this food is quite expensive, you should keep it for yourself..." Han Hongzhen's mother-in-law declined quickly, saying that it was not easy for country people to eat meat.

Xie Hushan stuffed the bun into the other person's hand and said, "I just ate all the way from the wonton stand. Didn't you see me? I really can't eat any more, hiccup~"

"I ate a bowl of wontons, a fried dough stick, a bowl of tofu pudding, a bowl of bone soup pancake, a bowl of fried noodles, a fried pork chop, a sesame sauce pancake, and a..."

He named the food he had just eaten, which made Han Hongzhen and her mother-in-law stunned. In addition, he generously invited them to eat, which made them alert. The mother-in-law looked at Xie Hushan and said hesitantly:

"Hushan, I hope something happened to your child."

"Huh?" Xie Hushan looked at him puzzledly: "I'm fine, I just feel bloated."

"Mom, I think you're right. This guy must have encountered something that made him upset. He was going to... well, a few months ago, a guy in Hanjialou died in the same way. He had a big meal before leaving, and then jumped into the river after eating." Han Hongzhen also came over at this time, took a look at Xie Hushan's condition, lowered her voice and gave her opinion to her mother-in-law:

"You persuade him to stop. I'll go to the livestock market to get our team members to come over. He's not right. There's no good person in our countryside who eats like this. He must be thinking before he leaves..."

The mother-in-law obviously agreed with Han Hongzhen's words. She grabbed Xie Hushan's wrist and let Han Hongzhen go to call for help. She spoke earnestly to Xie Hushan, who looked confused and was suddenly defined as someone who wanted to commit suicide:

"Child, don't be so depressed. Your parents are gone, but your grandma is still alive. Besides, your death will waste food. As the old saying goes, you should die of fullness, not bloating."

(End of this chapter)