Chapter 238 Winter Roasted Sweet Potatoes

The Tao family only ate fish on New Year's Eve, and the Tang sisters did the same, only stewing fish, making cornbread, and steaming dumplings.

The dumplings are filled with radish and pork cracklings. These pork cracklings were saved up from before. We didn't have pork for the New Year's feast, so we used the leftover pork cracklings to make dumpling filling. It's rare for me to use both cornmeal and wheat flour in making the dough. These are all refined grains, and it's only during the New Year that we can be so generous in eating them.

In rural areas, people only pay attention to the food on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. From the second day onwards, people visit relatives. Since neither family has many relatives to visit, the best food is usually saved for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. From the second day onwards, the food is just a little better than usual.

Although the children rarely come back, the neighbors who roam the streets and alleys are eager to see what others are cooking. At this time, one should be even more vigilant. So, in the eyes of outsiders, even the wealthiest Tao family eats no different from them.

"Old Tao, the food you're feeding her is terrible. Her wife is so sick, how can she eat this? At least get her some fine grains!"

This was said to Grandpa. Seeing that Grandma was bedridden, how could she still eat wild vegetable dumplings?

"Changyi, you're a regular employee, you get a government-supplied food ration, and you receive a monthly allowance. Look at what your mother is eating!"

This was said by a busybody to her father, Tao Changyi, and she also took the opportunity to make sarcastic remarks about her mother, her words full of bitterness and schadenfreude.

Fortunately, her father didn't tolerate these people: "During the days my mother was hospitalized, I almost used up all the tickets. You all know that supplies are scarce now, and you can't just buy them with money. Nobody has any extra tickets. Just hold on for a few more days, and you'll have tickets when work resumes."

As more and more people came and saw the old lady, they all knew that she looked so good because she had been taking good care of herself recently. Now that the tickets were all used up, it was no wonder that she was eating poorly. Although they complained, they were actually quite pleased inside, as it proved that their family's meals were not as bad as the rumors suggested.

At least they didn't close their doors like thieves with a guilty conscience. They welcomed and saw people off every day, openly letting you see them. From this point of view, Tao Changyi is a very upright person who doesn't hide anything. With sick people and so many children in his family, being able to feed the whole family is already better than many others.

The New Year during a famine year was really not easy. It was all about having nothing. If you had anything at home, you were afraid that relatives would come and eat you out of house and home. If you didn't have anything, you had to be shameless and bring your own cheap things to other people's homes to freeload. You really had to be thick-skinned. If you were thin-skinned, you couldn't stand just looking at the host's face.

Xiao Jiu still prefers the atmosphere of visiting relatives in later generations, where you put down your things, say a few words, and then leave.

Unlike these days, when people are so warm and friendly, they not only eat together but also stay until late in the morning, and it's already dark when they get home.

If it were just you alone, it would be fine, but most of the time it was people bringing their kids along to freeload, and that scene really broadened her horizons.

It's always the same few gifts going back and forth. If you don't have many relatives, you might find that it's the same few gifts you initially gave out, and in the end, they've all come back to you. It's incredibly frustrating.

In those days when there was no money for food, being able to get a piece of candy was considered incredibly lucky; New Year's money was practically unheard of.

Fortunately, they had few family members and no relatives, so the New Year's money they received was quite generous, ranging from one or five mao to one yuan. She even had a one-yuan bill all to herself.

The main reason is that her older siblings have grown up and no longer want her, so they give her the wine instead. Therefore, Xiao Jiu actually benefits the most during the Lunar New Year.

Since he skipped a grade and entered the graduating class, he had to go back to school on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year. This was the fastest Lunar New Year that Xiaojiu had ever spent at home in all these years.

The older brothers and sisters will not go to their schools until after the Lantern Festival.

While they were at home, Tao An had someone to tutor him, and Xiao Jiu skipped a grade and entered the third year of junior high school, which was something no one expected.

If Tang Cuimei and Tang Cuixiang hadn't been experienced and hadn't come to know Xiaojiu somewhat over the years, they might have thought she was a genius. It's precisely because they both have cheat codes that they're used to it. They even called Xiaojiu over and analyzed the differences between the current high school entrance exam and their world.

Before school started, her older sister called her over and steamed a big pot of shrimp for her. The shrimp were huge, plump, and fresh.

"Your fourth sister took these out. Keep them. Eat a couple when you're hungry; they're very nutritious."

This was the first time Xiao Jiu had been curious about Fourth Sister's special ability, but Cuihua was also unclear about it.

"She seems to have a lot of seafood there, and the seafood is bigger than what we can buy. As for how much, she didn't say, and we don't know either. This is what she brought out for you, so feel free to eat it."

Since her sisters love her so much, she naturally couldn't be stingy. She prepared a variety of foods, including grains, vegetables, fruits, eggs, and other snacks.

"I'll be gone for a week, so I've asked my sister to take care of things at home."

"Alright, everyone's home this time, so they'll definitely be well taken care of. But you, it's still so cold outside. If it's cold in the dorm, just put on an extra layer."

On the morning of the first day of school, Tao Zui rode Tao Changyi's bicycle, carrying Xiao Jiu's neatly packed bedding and luggage rolls, which were tied to both sides of the back seat. Then he carried her onto the bicycle and carefully escorted her to school.

There weren't many students in the entire ninth grade, and there were only four girls in the graduating class. The other three were quite surprised to see her.

"You really skipped a grade?"

Xiao Jiu scratched his head sheepishly, "I was just lucky. My family is struggling financially, so if I study more, I can save some money."

Families facing financial difficulties?

The three girls exchanged glances. To be honest, they couldn't see what difficulties this girl was facing. She was eating the best food in their dormitory, and even her clothes were warm. The bedding she brought was even thicker than what they brought. Moreover, her family came to visit her every few days, and it was clear that her family was quite well-off. Children raised in such an environment, without economic or living pressures, can better focus on their studies, right?

Given that several members of that family had already gone to university, there might really be a genetic predisposition to this, so after the initial shock, I silently accepted the fact that I was inferior to them.

People had already heard that she skipped a grade from the second year of junior high to the final year. After seeing it for themselves, they were more curious. However, seeing that she looked immature and unremarkable, most boys would only glance at her a few times before focusing on their own things.

There was no stove in the classroom of the third grade class. In the dead of winter, it was so cold that people stomped their feet and many of them got chilblains on their hands. Even though Xiao Jiu was wearing gloves that exposed her fingers, she still felt unbearably cold. After a few days, her nose started to feel stuffy.

But nowadays, no family is well-off, and even schools are struggling to make ends meet. Although studying is tough, at least there is a place to study, which is already much better than others. In some places, teachers are falling ill one after another and taking leave, so graduating classes cannot operate normally and rely entirely on self-study.

In the days before hand warmers, life was really tough. Even though she was dressed warmly enough and kept drinking hot water, she still couldn't get through the stuffy nose and sore throat. Luckily, her fifth sister gave her some medicine, which she took and managed to get through it.

There were only graduating students, and the cafeteria only offered one type of food, which didn't look appetizing at all.

In this situation, Xiao Jiu would secretly hide away and go into her space to eat something. Even a simple meal there would be better than the watery soup outside. The key is that it wouldn't even be hot. It's already cold enough. If she ate something cold, wouldn't she just get an upset stomach?

There was a broth already prepared in the room, so she only needed to cook some noodles to eat directly. Her older sister had steamed some shrimp for her, and although the whiskers and other parts had been trimmed, the shrimp veins hadn't been removed, so she had to clean them all over again before eating.

In the midst of food scarcity, she removed the shrimp veins and ate them directly, ignoring the shrimp heads and not wanting to throw them away, finishing them off in just a few bites.

The warehouse in the space also has many pre-made products, such as frozen steamed buns, mantou, red bean paste pies, and various kinds of meatballs.

In later times, this would definitely be considered junk food, but in this era, it was a delicacy she couldn't bear to eat.

Indulging in a meaty meal occasionally feels incredibly satisfying, especially when it's hot pot; a meal like that makes you feel warm all day long.

Because it snowed that night, it was too cold, and there was a power outage, so evening self-study was canceled. Staying in the dormitory, wrapped in blankets, we were still shivering from the cold. We felt like the wind was seeping into our bones. The four girls had no choice but to sleep with two blankets together, head to head. Afterwards, they put a thick blanket on top of each other, which relieved the cold a little.

But Xiao Jiu still woke up hungry that night, and without getting out of bed, went into the warehouse and baked himself a pizza.

A six-inch Orleans chicken pizza isn't particularly delicious, but it's very filling!

Not satisfied with just one bite, I made two more poached eggs and ate them, soup and all, until I felt warm and cozy before finally snuggling into bed.

The bed didn't smell good. She thought she was already very clean and didn't want to sleep with others, but she couldn't resist their enthusiasm. Actually, she was more inclined to believe that they wanted to share a bed with her because they liked her thick blanket.

Well, it's not exactly clean, but at least she ate her fill before sleeping, which is much better than these people.

She managed to get through a week by replenishing her energy at night. When her older brother came to pick her up on Saturday afternoon, he even brought her a roasted sweet potato.

The fragrant sweet potatoes were still steaming hot; they were scalding hot when I held them in my hands: "Did you buy them?"

"Yeah, eat it while it's hot. This week must have been tough. It's cold even at home. Your school must be warmer than home."

Her older brother felt sorry for her; if she hadn't been dressed like a bear, he probably would have brought her a military overcoat or something.

Xiao Jiu took a bite of the soft, sweet roasted sweet potato and immediately offered it to Tao Zui's lips, saying, "Big brother, you should eat some too, it's so sweet."

Tao Zui was reluctant to eat it, but Xiao Jiu was brought directly to her lips. Helpless, she could only take a small bite. In an instant, her mouth was filled with soft and glutinous sweet potato puree. The brother and sister stood in the wind, not allowing Tao Zui to refuse. After she finished a bite, her sister would give her another bite. In this way, she tasted the sweetest and most delicious food in winter.

And this sweet potato is the one that Xiao Jiu remembers as the sweetest food many years later.