Chapter 68 – You’d Better Hurry Up and Get Yourself a Wife!

There are many ways to cook lamb—among the most common are roasted lamb, lamb hotpot, and braised lamb chops.

Today, Zhou Yimin planned to make a braised dish.

He had already prepared all the ingredients.

In this era, when people cooked meat, it was usually just boiled with salt or stir-fried. There weren’t many fancy seasonings. So making it delicious was basically wishful thinking.

Luo Dapeng followed him into the kitchen.

“Want me to help with anything?”

Zhou Yimin shot back, “What could you possibly help with?”

Uh…

Luo Dapeng was speechless. He never cooked at home either, so it was true—he couldn’t really be of any help.

“Alright, then help me peel some garlic,” Zhou Yimin said as he started cutting the lamb. It still needed to be marinated for a bit to remove the gamey smell.

Many people disliked eating lamb because they couldn’t stand that particular odor.

Once the meat was marinated, Zhou Yimin added a suitable amount of oil to the pot, heated it up, and seared the lamb until both sides were golden brown. Then he added seasonings and some water.

“Lai Cai, no need for such a big fire. Take out a couple of sticks,” Zhou Yimin called out.

It was still early, so he could afford to cook it slowly for an hour or two. That way, the meat would become tender, making the braised lamb truly tasty. He also considered that his grandparents didn’t have the best teeth anymore.

“If you’re feeling hot, you don’t need to stay by the stove the whole time. Just come in once in a while to add some firewood,” Zhou Yimin said to Lai Cai.

It was impossible not to feel hot, standing by the stove in this weather.

What a shame! Zhoujia Village didn’t have electricity. Otherwise, he could’ve brought back a couple of electric fans.

At this point in time, electric fans were indeed a rare thing in rural areas, but in the cities, they weren’t considered anything high-tech. In fact, electric fans had already been produced in China before Liberation.

The most famous brand was Huasheng electric fans—top-notch quality, no problem using them for decades.

No electricity—that was a fatal flaw. Without it, many appliances simply couldn’t be used.

Actually, some rural places already had electricity. For example, the nearby Hongxing Commune had been connected a few years ago.

The Hongxing Commune was equivalent to what would later be called a town.

The commune was the highest administrative unit in the countryside at that time. The commune director was essentially the town mayor. So it was only natural for the Hongxing Commune to have electricity.

“Big Brother, I’m not hot.”

Zhou Yimin ignored him. His forehead was covered in sweat, and he was still saying he wasn’t hot?

After peeling the garlic, Luo Dapeng couldn’t sit still and went out to play. When he saw others doing farm work, he decided to try out the “fun” of farm labor himself.

Very quickly, he lost interest.

Then he became the “kid boss,” leading a group of kids who weren’t in school to go hunt sparrows and such. The reason the kids followed him was because he promised to bring them delicious snacks next time he visited Zhoujia Village.

Kids are loyal to whoever feeds them. As soon as they heard there’d be snacks, they didn’t care whether it was true or not. They immediately pledged loyalty and took Luo Dapeng around the whole village.

Before long, Zhou Yimin’s house started to fill with the fragrance of braised lamb.

Once again, the smell pulled the souls out of the workers building the house next door. Their stomachs growled uncontrollably.

They realized that helping Zhou Yimin build a house was actually a blessed gig. These past few days were the best they’d eaten since last year.

Unfortunately, the beam would be raised tomorrow.

Once that was done, it meant the house was nearly complete.

Of course, Zhou Yimin had certain requirements for the interior, so they’d probably have about three to five more days of work.

According to Zhou Zhiming’s plan, he’d be going to the tile kiln tomorrow to haul back the tiles. He’d already visited the kiln two days ago and asked a friend who worked there to reserve a batch of quality tiles.

Luo Dapeng came back right in time for the meal.

Seeing that the lamb was almost done, Zhou Yimin skipped the usual step of turning the heat up to reduce the sauce. In the future, that might be necessary, but for now, it was best to leave the broth as is—it was perfect for mixing into rice!

He scooped the lamb into a large bowl, leaving the broth and about a pound of meat in the pot.

“Brother Zhiming, time to eat!” he called out from the kitchen to the group working on the house.

“Coming!”

Zhou Zhiming quickly responded. He was starving too.

Everyone washed their hands, grabbed their bowls, and headed to Zhou Yimin’s place.

It was still sorghum rice. You scooped as much as you wanted, according to your appetite.

“Don’t overfill it. Come here and get a ladle of lamb broth,” Zhou Yimin reminded them.

“Alright!”

He ladled a scoop of broth—containing two pieces of lamb—onto the rice. The color alone made it look delicious, and the person holding the bowl gulped a few times.

“Thanks, Uncle Sixteen!”

“Mhmm. If you finish, come back for more—there’s plenty.” Zhou Yimin nodded.

That said, by unspoken rule, everyone was planning to eat just one bowl. The second one was usually taken home for younger siblings or their own children.

Eat till full?

That was out of the question.

Nowadays, everyone had bottomless appetites. If you let them, they could eat several bowls.

So now, they all tacitly took just two bowls. Whether to eat both or take one home was up to them. Zhou Zhiming had made that clear from the start.

Seeing Lai Cai soaked in sweat, Zhou Yimin told him to go rinse off.

Honestly, even looking at him made people feel uncomfortable.

Luo Dapeng only started eating after the elders took their first bites. While eating, he bragged about his earlier exploits—he had shot down three sparrows and given them all to the kids.

Of course, he couldn’t be shameless enough to fight the kids for the spoils. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his status as the boss.

“Yimin, your cooking skills aren’t bad! I never noticed before,” Luo Dapeng said in surprise.

In his memory, Zhou Yimin hadn’t cooked much. He’d eaten Zhou’s food before, but it was never this good.

“I didn’t have the ingredients before, and recently I’ve learned a few tricks from someone. You think I’m like you, with a mom at home to cook for you?”

Luo Dapeng chuckled awkwardly.

Not having a mom was tough—not only did he have to cook, he had to wash clothes and everything else.

“I’m telling you, you really ought to hurry up and get yourself a wife! Grandma, don’t you think I’m right?” Luo Dapeng turned to ask the old lady.

That really hit home.

She smiled kindly and said, “Yes, that’s right! Yimin should get married. I just don’t know whether the girl your dad arranged is reliable or not.”

“I’ll bring her home sometime so you can have a look,” Zhou Yimin said.

He knew that this was what the old lady had been hoping for, so he might as well go along with it.

Since he transmigrated here, he hadn’t visited Uncle Zhang’s house yet—the family of his arranged fiancée. From the memories, the girl seemed decent and was still in university!

Uncle Zhang was impressive—a researcher.

Honestly, Zhou Yimin had quite a few doubts in his heart. How did his dad know someone from a research institute, and seem to be so familiar with them? If they weren’t close, there’s no way he could’ve arranged a match like that.

After all this time, it was probably time to make a formal visit.

As expected, the old lady was overjoyed.

“Good, good! Just let Grandma know in advance. No rush—wait until our house is finished.”

The old man was also grinning from ear to ear, clearly pleased. He felt like life was complete.

After Luo Dapeng finished eating, he sat around for a bit before hopping on a tricycle back to the city. He didn’t stay any longer.

(End of Chapter)