Chapter 12
Potato and Pork Ribs Stew
After Mrs. Yang left, Xiaoguo walked home with Zhuang Zhuang. The sun was about to set. The two of them brought in the clothes, bed linen, and furniture that had been put out to dry under the sun. As Zhuang Zhuang placed the last chair back in the house, he said to Xiaoguo, “Mom, our house is so clean.”
Zhuang Zhuang didn’t manage to look around the house when he woke up earlier on. Taking a closer look now, he saw that there was no more dust on the floor. The cobwebs had been removed from the walls too. Xiaoguo was extremely pleased with the results of her cleaning. It was a blessing that the Jiang family had laid bricks for the walls and floor when they built this house. Most houses around the village were built using soil. The brick walls really saved Xiaoguo a lot of trouble when cleaning the house.
Zhuang Zhuang jumped around with his eyes wide open, as if he was looking at his home for the first time. Xiaoguo stopped Zhuang Zhuang and asked him what he wanted for dinner. After a long thought, Zhuang Zhuang said tentatively, “I want to eat rice.” It had been a long time since he had eaten rice. He was craving for warm and fragrant rice that was freshly cooked. But he suddenly remembered that they had no rice at home, so he swiftly said again, “I want to have vegetable soup.”
Xiaoguo was about to say yes to having rice, but Zhuang Zhuang had changed his mind in an instant, asking for vegetable porridge instead. She didn’t understand why at first, but she quickly knew the reason. They were still in a situation where they had nothing much at home. It was still a necessity to leave the house and forage for food on a daily basis.
Xiaoguo squatted down and looked at this endearing child. He was only three years old, but he was so sensible. “Zhuang Zhuang, listen to me. We are not lacking food at the moment. I shall let you have meat for every meal. A while back, I managed to set aside a substantial amount of food. Moreover, the fields are now planted with seeds, we will not have to worry about our meals anymore .”
Zhuang Zhuang nodded his head, feeling slightly confused. They had been drinking vegetable soup all this while. He could not understand why his mother said that there was no lack of food. However, this was his mother—the person who loved him the most in this world. No matter what she said, it must be right.
Zhuang Zhuang smiled brightly at his mother. “I want rice, Mom.”
Xiaoguo patted his little face and said, “Then let’s eat rice!”
Walking into the kitchen. Zhuang Zhuang took his position at the small stool to light the fire. Xiaoguo moved out of Zhuang Zhuang’s view, and zipped into the other space using the ring. She took a bag of rice, a plate of ribs, some white sugar, and a few potatoes from the fridge. Recalling that there were some vermicelli—which she forgot to take—Xiaoguo returned again with the ring and opened the dining cabinet. Sure enough, she found a handful of vermicelli inside. This was given to her by one of the mutants who went out to find supplies. Before leaving the space, Xiaoguo checked again to see if anything was left out.
As soon as she came out of the space, she heard Zhuang Zhuang calling her from the kitchen. Xiaoguo left the things outside the kitchen door and walked in. When Zhuang Zhuang saw Xiaoguo coming in, he asked curiously, “Mom, where did you go? I just called you a few times.”
Xiaoguo chuckled and came up with an excuse. “Mother just went to the toilet. What’s wrong?”
“I have lit the fire.”
Xiaoguo thought about how to get Zhuang Zhuang out of the kitchen so that she could bring in the things outside the kitchen door. Coincidentally, there was no more firewood and the firewood was placed by the main entrance of the house. “Zhuang Zhuang, there’s no more firewood. Go and bring some here.”
Zhuang Zhuang answered with a yes and ran out. Xiaoguo took the opportunity to bring in the items from outside the kitchen door. She quickly poured the rice into the rice jar and threw the rice bag into the fire. At that moment, Zhuang Zhuang returned. The young child staggered in with a bundle of firewood that was taller than him. Xiaoguo was shocked and quickly took it from his hands. She looked at him in astonishment and thought, ”
From whom did this child inherit his strength from
?”
Xiaoguo added water to the pot, and brought the pork ribs to the chopping board. Zhuang Zhuang ran over and leaned on the table. He asked his mother curiously, “Mother, what is this?”
“This is a pork rib bone.” Then, worried that he wouldn’t understand what a rib bone was, she reached out and pointed to her own ribcage. “It’s also called a pork rib. The meat here is especially fragrant. I’ll make you a potato and pork rib stew later.”