After Zhou Xudong left, Zhou Guoqiang and the others didn't compromise with Gu Nuan because they had grain in their hands.
Thus, while Gu Nuan and Zhou Yiyang were eating breakfast in the central room, Zhao Xiuzhen washed and steamed the sweet potatoes that Zhou Guoqiang borrowed from his uncle's house.
As for why Zhao Xiuzhen didn't add some rice to the sweet potatoes to make the sweet potato porridge that the Zhou Family ate before, it was because rice was a precious thing. No family would be willing to eat it, let alone borrow it casually. For example, when the Zhou Family made sweet potato porridge with rice, it was also because of the busy farming season that people couldn't stand eating only sweet potatoes. That was why Old Madam Zhou was willing to use some rice to cook.
After steaming the sweet potatoes and putting them aside, Zhao Xiuzhen went to the private plot of land to pick some cabbage. After picking a few cucumbers, he prepared to make a few dishes with pickled vegetables.
After breakfast, while Gu Nuan took Zhou Yiyang to the well to wash his and Yangyang's clothes, Sun Yumin, who had gone to the back of the mountain to gather pigweed, came back.
As soon as she entered the courtyard, she suddenly saw Gu Nuan. Sun Yumin was shocked.
She heard from her sister-in-law that when Gu Nuan was unhappy yesterday, he dragged her mother-in-law to the room and tied her to the bed for nearly an hour!
Sun Yumin's heart became more and more afraid of Gu Nuan. In the past, after she suffered losses at the hands of Zhao Xiuzhen, she didn't dare to put on airs or find fault with "Gu Nuan" to regain her prestige. She was worried that Gu Nuan would remember these things and do something to her. Thus, Sun Yumin avoided Gu Nuan like the plague and went to the kitchen.
After seeing Sun Yumin's movements from the corner of his eye, Gu Nuan didn't pay much attention to it. He curled his lips and continued to wash the clothes.
Soon, Old Madam Zhou and the others finished their breakfast.
Just as she was about to go to work, Old Madam Zhou suddenly saw Gu Nuan washing clothes by the well.
Old Madam Zhou's face immediately turned ashen.
It was almost time to go to work, but Death Star was still leisurely washing the clothes. Did he not want to go to work again?
She didn't go to work, didn't do any chores at home, and even wanted to eat well for every meal. What kind of sin did her Zhou Family's ancestors suffer to provoke such a lazy daughter-in-law?!
Zhou Guoqiang, who was next to Old Madam Zhou, saw Old Madam Zhou stop walking and look at Gu Nuan's gloomy face. He knew that his mother was unhappy again. Afraid that his mother would impulsively stroke Gu Nuan's tiger fur again, Zhou Guoqiang hurriedly stepped forward and blocked his mother's gaze. He said, "Mom, it's almost time to go to work. Let's hurry over. Otherwise, the captain will have something to say if we're late."
After being reminded by Zhou Guoqiang, Old Madam Zhou finally remembered that it was already late. She turned her head and walked out of the Zhou Family's courtyard with a gloomy face.
… …
After washing the clothes, Gu Nuan began to make fried dough twists with flour.
As for going to work, she didn't plan to go in the near future.
This was because Zhou Yiyang didn't have a suitable place to stay.
As for Cheng Jing, Gu Nuan felt that Cheng Jing's belly was too big now. It wasn't easy for her to just take care of herself, let alone take care of Zhou Yiyang. It was actually a bit strenuous.
Unless there was no other way, she didn't want to trouble Cheng Jing.
In any case, she wasn't like the original owner. She had a lot of strength. If she wanted to go into the back of the mountain to hunt some meat, she could go into her own vegetable garden and didn't need to worry about her safety. In addition, she had made her own traps. If she wanted to hunt some meat and sell it at the black market, it wouldn't be a problem at all. Therefore, she didn't need to completely rely on the hard work she earned from farm work to exchange for food and money to survive. As such, even if she didn't go to work occasionally, it wouldn't be a problem.
After pouring some Fuqiang powder into a wooden basin, Gu Nuan added some white sugar, oil, and other ingredients into the wooden basin. She then cracked two eggs and put them in. After kneading it into a hard dough, she put it aside and let it slowly dry.
While kneading the dough, Gu Nuan boiled a pot of hot water. She plucked the pheasant she hunted in the back of the mountain, removed its feathers, and other internal organs, then washed it and put it away for later use.
After handling the pheasant, the dough was also done. Gu Nuan divided the big dough into about 30 grams of small dough. Then, she kneaded the small dough into long strips of about the same thickness. She covered them with a clean cloth to prevent them from drying out.
After that, Gu Nuan took out a long strip from the cloth. She folded the two ends of the long strip into a twist, then put it back into the cloth and covered it properly.
After folding all the long strips into a twist, Gu Nuan heated up the pot and poured an appropriate amount of oil into it. After the oil heated up, Gu Nuan went around to the stove and took out a portion of the burning firewood. Then, she buried it in the ashes below.
She asked Zhou Yiyang to help her scoop some water. She poured it over the bucket of hogwash on her hands. After slowly washing off the dust on her hands from holding the firewood, Gu Nuan used her chopsticks to pick up a portion of the sesame and peanuts. Then, she put them into the hot oil in the pot and slowly fried them with a small flame.
She fried the dough until it slowly became bigger and its color gradually deepened to a brilliant yellow. Then, Gu Nuan used her chopsticks to scoop out the dough one by one. After controlling the oil, she put them into a prepared porcelain plate to cool them down.
She even deliberately left a piece of the fried dough twist until it was bright yellow and placed it in a small porcelain bowl. After adding a spoon to the bowl, Gu Nuan handed the bowl to Zhou Yiyang, who had been eagerly watching from the side for a long time. "Yangyang, blow on it. Once it's not hot anymore, you can eat it."
Zhou Yiyang took the porcelain bowl as if it was a treasure. "Okay!"
After solemnly agreeing, Zhou Yiyang lowered her head. Her small mouth contracted as she earnestly blew on the fried dough twist in the bowl.
Looking at the top of Zhou Yiyang's black head, Gu Nuan was a little absent-minded.
When she was a child, when her mother was frying the fried dough twist at home, she was also like a little girl. She stayed close to her mother so that she could eat the fried dough twist made by her mother earlier.
Therefore, every time her mother finished frying the fried dough twist, the first thing she would do was scoop it up and put it aside to cool.
After that, her mother would continue to scoop up the other fried dough twists in the pot and put them on the plate to cool.
Thinking about her mother who had passed away, Gu Nuan's mood was a little complicated.
The world she transmigrated to was a parallel world to her original world. From the original owner's memory, she knew that the development of China in this world was basically the same as the development in her original world. The only difference was that in her world, before the apocalypse, the big shots who appeared in the news every day were all gone.
And in the same position as them, there were some names that Gu Nuan had never heard of in her original world.
Therefore, she judged this world to be a parallel world to her original world.
Although this meant that when 2016 came, there was a big possibility that this world would not enter the apocalypse like her previous world. However, this also meant that in this world, she would not be able to find her relatives from the previous world.
When Gu Nuan's expression was gloomy, Zhou Yiyang blew on the fried dough twist to cool it. She raised the porcelain bowl high and presented it to Gu Nuan. "Mother, the fried dough twist is done. Here you go."
Gu Nuan came back to her senses.
Because the little fellow had not been exposed to the sun for a long time, it was a little too pale. Its pair of skinny little hands held the porcelain bowl up high, and its grape-like big eyes were wide open as it stared at her without blinking. That pair of clear eyes that were not tainted by the dust of the mortal world seemed to be saying: Mummy, hurry up and eat!
Gu Nuan's heart suddenly flowed with a warm current. She suddenly felt a little relieved.
She was already lucky that she came back from the dead. If she asked for more, she would be too greedy.
What's more, among her family, other than her who didn't die or become a zombie due to her awakening, her parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew were all unable to withstand the invasion of the T-virus and directly passed away in their sleep. Although they also passed away, it could be considered a peaceful death.
The apocalypse forced her to get used to the days when her family was not by her side. Gu Nuan was able to calmly accept the death of her relatives.
Therefore, although she felt a little regretful, she did not have any thoughts of blaming the heavens or blaming others.
"Mother?" Seeing that Gu Nuan did not have any reaction for a long time, Zhou Yiyang strangely called out to Gu Nuan.
Gu Nuan collected her thoughts. She bent down slightly, scooped up the spoon in the porcelain bowl, scooped out the fried dough twist, and took a small bite.
The freshly made fried dough twists were crispy, and the fragrance of the oil was very light. It wouldn't make people feel greasy just by smelling it. The sugar was just right, and after chewing, there was a faint sweetness between the lips and teeth.
Gu Nuan was a little surprised.
She did not expect that the first fried dough twist she made according to her mother's previous method would be so good.
However, although the fried dough twist was delicious, Gu Nuan was not in the mood to eat more.
First of all, this fried dough twist was for the little guy to eat. She could not steal the little guy's food. Second of all, the oil in the pot was still burning. She had to quickly continue frying the rest of the fried dough twist.
"Okay, mother finished eating. Yangyang, eat. Mother will continue frying the other fried dough twist." Gu Nuan said after putting the fried dough twist into the porcelain bowl.
Zhou Yiyang lowered her head and looked at the small bite Gu Nuan made on the fried dough twist. Her small eyebrows wrinkled. "Yangyang wants mother to eat a little more."
"Yangyang, you don't have to worry that mother won't have anything to eat. Look, there are still so many fried dough twists on the plate over there. When mother finishes frying them one by one, we can eat them. Mother won't be able to eat all of them at that time." Gu Nuan touched the two hairs on Zhou Yiyang's head and felt a little warm in her heart.
Zhou Yiyang stood on tiptoe and glanced at the plate Gu Nuan was talking about. After thinking for a while, she felt that what her mother said was true, so she obediently listened. "Okay."
Gu Nuan rubbed Zhou Yiyang's soft hair again. She turned around and slowly picked up a batch of fried dough twists with her chopsticks and put it into the pot.
***
At noon.
Because old Madam Zhou was responsible for plucking the seedlings, which was different from Zhou Guoqiang and the others, she got off work a little earlier than them.
Old Madam Zhou had just walked to the entrance of her courtyard when her neighbor, Old Madam He, got up from the chair under the locust tree in front of her house. She walked over to the Zhou Family with her wrapped little feet and complained, "Elder sister, your third daughter-in-law is too outrageous!"
Old Madam Zhou stopped walking and turned around to look at Old Madam He. "What do you mean by that?"
"Your third daughter-in-law took advantage of the fact that you weren't home to kill the chickens at home and take them out. She also took a basket. I don't know what's in it, but it seems like she's going to give someone a gift!"
As she spoke, Old Madam He remembered the smell of chicken soup from the Zhou Family. She felt some sympathy for old Madam Zhou. "Smell it. There's still the smell of chicken soup in the air!
I don't know how many chickens your third daughter-in-law killed!
How is this a woman who lives her life! "
Actually, old Madam Zhou had already smelled the smell of chicken soup in the air.
But she was used to thinking. She didn't think that anyone would dare to kill the chickens at home behind her back, so she didn't think that the smell of chicken soup came from her own house. Coincidentally, it was a little windy today, so she thought that the smell of chicken soup came from someone else's house.
In her heart, she was laughing at other people for not knowing how to live their lives. It wasn't the New Year or a festival, so why would they kill a chicken!
But she didn't expect that this chicken was actually hers!
Old Madam Zhou's heart immediately ached as if someone had cut off her flesh. She fiercely cursed, "Goddamn Death Star!" Then, she didn't even have time to say anything to Old Madam He and quickly rushed into the courtyard.