Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 191
Father Jiang was silent for a while, then patted her hand and said, “Dad just came back. I’m going to order a bowl of noodles for him.”
Mother Jiang cried silently in the room without making a sound. After a while, she wiped away her tears and walked to the main room. Grandpa Jiang was sitting in the main room while Jiang Ning returned to her room.
When Mother Jiang first found out that Jiang Ning didn’t go to work at the kiln factory, she was very angry and wanted to beat her. After so long, her anger had subsided, but she was still angry with Grandpa Jiang and didn’t even look at him. Seeing that the door to Jiang Ning’s room was closed, she deliberately slapped the door so hard that it hurt her hand, but there was no movement inside. Mother Jiang was so furious that she called out to Jiang Ning, “Ning Ning, come out here! Don’t think you can just pretend to be dead inside, unless you are really dead and can’t come out!”
She knocked on the door angrily, saying, “Look how you’ve spoiled her. When she got home, she didn’t even greet her parents. She just locked herself in her room. Does she think she’s a guest? It isn’t her turn to be a guest!” When she was married, she still had to work when she returned to her parents’ home.
She went back to her parents’ home and did all kinds of work outside the house.
She called Jiang Ning again, “Come out and work! There are a lot of things to do at home. You’re old enough, and you should know how to help!”
What made Mother Jiang the most angry was that her daughter had no life in her eyes. She was as stupid as that old donkey who only moved when whipped. If she hadn’t told her, she wouldn’t have noticed anything, even if there were melon seed shells on the ground. She knew how to sweep it with a broom. The river water had receded, leaving wild lotus roots all along the riverbank. The other girls knew how to dig for lotus roots without asking their parents. Even if she called her daughter, she wouldn’t go.
“What are you doing in there? Are you doing embroidery in the embroidery building? As soon as you come back, you hide in your room and laze around. Come out soon! The riverbank is full of lotus roots. I wonder if you can dig some to sell.”
At that time, there was a pile of lotus roots still covered with river mud in Jiang Ning’s room. Father Jiang had gone to the riverbank a few days ago, dug them up, and sold a lot of them. Mother Jiang also gave many to her brothers and sisters. The rest were kept for home to use.
Anyway, it was idle time, so Mother Jiang wanted Jiang Ning to dig some lotus roots on the riverbank to sell in town. All vegetables were expensive at the end of the year, and lotus roots were two or three times more expensive than usual, so they sold very well.
“We got your dad’s big boots there; they’ll let you go into the water. Many people don’t wear shoes; they just dig lotus roots in the river.”
If there weren’t many things to do at the end of the year, Mother Jiang would want to dig lotus roots.
The water level in the river had receded, and there was no water except for silt on the river beach. It was easy to dig lotus roots.
Grandpa Jiang came back from the river embankment in Wangjiacun. The road was muddy and difficult to walk on. He was tired and sat in the main room to rest. Hearing this, he said angrily, “Ning Ning just came back, and her buttocks aren’t even warmed from sitting! Why are you asking her to dig lotus roots in such cold weather?”
Mother Jiang then turned around and said to Grandpa Jiang in a sarcastic tone, “Which year did Jiang Song and Jiang Bai not dig lotus roots after coming back for winter vacation? If her two brothers can dig them, why can’t she? She’s so precious!”
Grandpa Jiang was so angry that his hands were shaking, but he had nowhere to go. He didn’t want to hear his son and daughter-in-law quarrel, so he stayed on the mountain and avoided coming down. His ranger’s hut was gone, so he could only stay with his younger son and daughter-in-law.
Jiang Ning hid her bankbook, opened the door to her room, looked up with a smile, and called out to Mother Jiang, “Mom.”
She noticed Jiang Ning’s white face and her noticeable height increase, and suddenly realized that the girl had grown so big and still looked so good.
She didn’t hit Jiang Ning anymore but softened her tone, saying, “Don’t dig the lotus roots, then. You know how to help at home. Get some lotus roots, wash them, and come make meatballs with me.”
Every year, Jiang Ning’s job was to make the meatballs.
They celebrated the New Year, and every household made meatballs, symbolizing reunion. This was a must-have dish on the New Year’s dinner table. Every household made a lot of meatballs and froze them outside; whether for the New Year’s Eve dinner or when guests came to the house, they had to have meatball soup.
In the past, when they were poor, every household could only use lotus root and sweet potato flour to make meatballs. Now that things were getting better, people had begun to add some meat to the lotus root to make lotus root meatballs, rolling them into small balls and frying them to make them delicious.
The three siblings of the Jiang family all loved to eat lotus root balls.
Mother Jiang was not always harsh towards Jiang Ning. There were also times when she was very gentle, such as when she was frying these lotus root balls.
Jiang Song and Jiang Bai could do outside work, but most of the work at home was done by Jiang Ning. Jiang Bai was more sensible and would help with some chores, while Jiang Song was rarely seen at that time of the year, always outside playing with his friends.
Sometimes Jiang Bai would go with Jiang Song, and sometimes he would stay home to help.
Jiang Ning was making them on the side while Mother Jiang fried them. Since Jiang Song was not there, after frying the meatballs, Mother Jiang would let Jiang Ning taste a few to check their saltiness.
At that time in her previous life, Jiang Ning wanted very much to please Mother Jiang. She thought that as long as she was better behaved, her mother would love her. She was greedy for the slightest bit of tenderness her mother showed at that time. Eating Mother Jiang’s fried lotus root balls, she nodded vigorously and said, “Tasty.”
At this time, Mother Jiang would also be in a good mood, smiling at her and saying, “If it’s delicious, eat more. There will be more in a while.”
Wild lotus roots were free of charge. Every year, Jiang Song and Jiang Bai would dig up lots of lotus roots with the whole village. The Jiang family would fry a lot of lotus root balls every year.
Jiang Ning no longer coveted that little bit of warmth, but she still didn’t want to face Mother Jiang.
Under the natural suppression of being a parent, she felt she could not receive any favors whenever she faced Mother Jiang. Moreover, she had worked within the system in her previous life, so she couldn’t afford to have a bad reputation in that regard.
She took the vegetable basket and a few whole lotus root segments to wash.
To keep the lotus roots longer, all the lotus roots were dug out from the river mud.
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