Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 368 - 347: Eat, Eat, Eat (Two-in-One) Part 3
Li Xianglu sighed, touched Xu Wu’s head, said nothing, and Da Li, who blurted out something earlier, kept quiet and continued to eat his meal.
After Xu Wu finished eating, Li Xianglu fished out a crimson cashmere sweater with a heart-shaped collar from a bag nearby and said, "I knitted this for you during my free time. Try it on and see if it fits?"
Xu Wu, looking delighted like a child, held the sweater up against his body, then quickly removed the one he was wearing and put on the new one, feeling its softness and comfort.
Li Xianglu stood up and pulled the sweater a bit, looked him up and down before saying, "Not bad, you look good in anything with your fair complexion, not like your brother-in-law who is picky about colors."
Xu Wu’s eyes curved into a smile, clearly very pleased.
Seeing his childish behavior, Li Xianglu shook her head and said to Da Li, "Are you busy recently? If not, you should stay here, the two kids have been missing their uncle."
Da Li looked towards Xu Wu without daring to say a word. Xu Wu told Li Xianglu, "I’ll need two or three more days before I can rest."
Li Xianglu took the hint and didn’t press the matter further, as there were still important things to take care of.
Then came the time for a holiday. After Li Xianglu and Su Yan took a day off, they started shopping extensively. It’s true that shopping is in a woman’s nature. They bought a lot of things from top to bottom, inside and out, all imported woolen materials from the Overseas Chinese Store.
They also ordered goose down jackets, making a set for everyone in the family—light and comfortable to wear, and made of satin regardless of gender, adding festivity for the New Year. Li Xianglu, thinking the styles were a bit too retro, tried to sketch out a design for a modern Tang suit.
The tailor found the design very bold upon seeing it and, after discussing it with Li Xianglu, decided to waive half the labor costs, planning to use this new design in the future.
Such days continued until the twenty-first day of the twelfth lunar month, leaving nine days before the New Year. Upon receiving news that Qin Zhen and his family of three would return, Li Xianglu started to purchase more food.
Xu Wu had prepared the meat—a couple of pigs, a lamb, and half a deer, not to mention the seafood, five large boxes shipped from Hong Kong.
The deer meat was precious, and Li Xianglu was somewhat reluctant to eat it. After all, who raised deer nowadays? It must be wild, and it would soon become a nationally protected animal.
However, seeing the old man eagerly looking forward to it for several days, Li Xianglu could do nothing but cook a piece with salt for everyone to try.
The deer, not yet a year old, had very tender meat. The family tried it, finding it exceptionally tender, and the children couldn’t stop eating. They only managed to eat a palm-sized amount before Li Xianglu intervened.
The next day, except for Su Yan and Li Xianglu, everyone else got nosebleeds. The children woke up bleeding from the nose, which frightened them into crying.
Su Yan’s constitution was somewhat cold, and after eating the meat, she felt warm in the soles of her feet. The old man’s body felt too warm and he didn’t sleep well at night. Li Xianglu didn’t eat much, partly because she felt uneasy—it was a protected animal, after all. Nowadays, many people wore fur, and although Su Yan bought it to wear, Li Xianglu never did. She believed that without trading, there would be no harm done, but she didn’t stop others, understanding that everyone has different views.
On the twenty-seventh of the year, Qin Zhen returned and the deer meat issue could not be avoided. The two young children, now eloquent, were deeply impressed by the incident of eating deer meat and getting nosebleeds, and mentioned it to everyone they met. Xiao Dou and Xiao Mi of the An Family knew about it, then Minmin also came back, and when the three kids were together, the two brothers talked about it again.
Especially Ba’er exaggeratedly said, "Eat deer meat, bleed!"
Ba Yi added to his brother’s story, "Lots of blood!"
Minmin, who was a few months older than the two, had never seen blood and so did not react.
Meanwhile, Qin Zhen, who was munching on hand-grabbed lamb meat, understood clearly, his eyes wide with urgency: "Sister-in-law, we have deer meat at home?!"
Li Xianglu, carrying a tray with four bowls of lamb soup, looked towards her two sons upon hearing Qin Zhen’s question.
Seeing Li Xianglu not speaking, Qin Zhen continued, "I’ve never eaten deer meat before, is it delicious?"
Li Xianglu felt helpless and thus, another plate of salted deer meat was prepared for dinner. This time around, everyone was wise and only ate a little bit, knowing it was nourishing in small amounts, but would cause blood loss if consumed in excess!
So, the next morning, Qin Zhen used two cotton balls to block his nose as he took his wife and child to his mother-in-law’s house. According to Lu Anna, Qin Zhen bled a whole cup’s worth in the morning, unstoppable!
