Chapter 4 The Three Sisters

  "Come, little flower, come and eat. Sister will add some food for you." Lotus root said to lotus flower, then pulled her and lotus pod to sit down beside a small table in the kitchen.

  After settling down her two sisters, Lotus Root walked to the stove and lifted the lid of the pot to see what was cooking inside.

  Because Qin Ying is relatively tall, at 1.68 meters, the stove was built higher than usual when it was installed, and Lotus Root was still small, so she had to stand on tiptoes to lift the heavy iron lid with great effort, and upon looking inside, the pot was still emitting hot air, with some hot water at the bottom, and a large bowl of rice was placed inside, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a large bowl of radish dried rice, which she loved extremely, this being one of the three sisters' favorite dishes at the time!

  Those years were scarce, ordinary housewives rarely cooked dry rice, let alone stir-fry dishes every meal. Qiao Lian's family was different, her father Qiao Zhenxuan was the principal of a school, with a monthly salary of several tens of dollars, and her mother Qiao Ying was capable and shrewd, managing the household chores neatly, with a good harvest, so although they raised three daughters, the life of the five-member family was not a problem.

  Qiao Lian'ou thought of her parents and asked Ermei Lianhua with some anxiety: "Where did Dad and Mom go, they are not at home?"

  "I know I know!" Lotus Pod hastily said before Lotus could speak, "Dad has gone to a meeting, and Mom has gone to the fields to hoe - hoe weeds!" Lotus Pod sometimes still doesn't speak very fluently.

  Upon hearing this, Qiao Lianyu felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders, the stone in her heart finally fell to the ground. Thank goodness! Everything was still okay, Father was still in this world, Mother was fine too, and both younger sisters were healthy and happy. What could be more comforting and happier than this? So she said to her mother Qin Ying in her heart, "Mother, when you come back, you can hit me as much as you want, however you like, just vent your anger on me, as long as all of you are still in this world, still by my side, even if I'm covered in bruises from your beating, I won't resent you one bit."

  Qiao Lianou smiled, picked up a clean dishcloth from the stove, carefully took out the bowl of radish dried rice with oil gloss from the pot, put it on the small table, then went to the cupboard to take out two small bowls, and sat down with her two sisters to start serving them food.

  "Come, this is lotus root, be good, eat slowly." Qiao Lotus put a small bowl of rice in front of Linpeng. Linpeng looked at it, swallowed saliva, left the chair and ran to the cupboard to get a small spoon, saying:

  "Sister, this is my spoon." After saying that, she lowered her head and ate carefully. Lotus root immediately gave a small bowl to Second Sister Lotus Flower and said: "Here, this is yours, you've eaten already, now eat less, don't stuff yourself."

  The lotus flower didn't stand on ceremony either, took over the bowl and started eating with relish.

  Lotus root knew that when she was a kid, they didn't have many snacks like kids do nowadays. Being able to eat one piece of milk candy was almost like a New Year's treat. Every day was just about filling their bellies with three meals. Her two sisters were picky and didn't like eating sweet potatoes and corn mixed together in porridge, but they loved the oily radish dry rice. So even though they had already eaten lunch, when they saw there was still food left in the pot, their appetite naturally came back and they couldn't help but eat a little more.

  It's said that this radish rice dish was invented by Qin Ying. It has both meat and vegetables, staple food and non-staple food, which are matched together to provide comprehensive nutrition with a simple method. She washed the red and white radishes clean, cut them into half-centimeter-sized dices, sliced a small piece of cured meat hanging on the hook, washed it clean and also cut it into dices, added some ginger, garlic and other seasonings, stir-fried the two kinds of dices until they were fragrant and half-cooked, then added some water. Finally, she poured in the rice that had been cooked to a semi-cooked state and filtered out excess water on top, inserted several air holes on the surface with chopsticks, covered it with a lid, and steamed it over low heat. After ten or more minutes, a strong meaty aroma wafted out. When she opened the lid, stir-frying the rice and the radish and meat dices together resulted in a pot of fragrant mixed rice that made one's mouth water. When eating, there was no need to stir-fry any dishes; just pick up a few pickled vegetables from the jar and eat them with the rice.

  "Sister, why aren't you eating? Didn't you love this dish the most?" Qiao Lianpeng asked, seeing Qiao Lianou standing there with a silly smile.

  "Oh, sister is going to eat now." Qiao Lian'ou glanced at Sanmei, took a mouthful of rice, and a long-forgotten flavor that brought happiness suddenly awakened her taste buds.

  Qiao Lianyu watched Sanmei eating while she ate.

  Lianpeng was about four or five years old, and she looked extremely pretty. She had a round face, chubby cheeks, and smooth skin that was both white and tender, making people want to pinch her all the time. Especially those big eyes, shining brightly with long eyelashes that looked like fine feathers fluttering gently. Her small mouth was red and puffy, with a few grains of rice stuck around it, looking incredibly cute, just like a fresh and delicate little loli. The whole family adored this third sister except for Ermei Lianhua. Qin Ying cut short hair for the first two sisters because it was more convenient to comb, but she left Lianpeng's hair long. Even when she was busy, she would steal some time to braid a new Xinjiang-style head for Lianpeng, which looked incredibly good. The so-called Xinjiang head was a hairstyle where the hair was parted in the middle and combed to the top of both sides, then braided into two braids that were coiled into a bun, finally tied with a red ribbon, looking neat and cute, yet different from others.

  Suddenly, Qiao Lianyu thought of something and immediately said to Sanmei:

  "Xiao Peng, come here, lean your face in and let sister take a look."

  "Hmm, what's up?" Xiaolian didn't know what Jie wanted to do, but still obediently leaned her face over for Jielian to see.

  Qiao Lian'ou gently lifted the chin of the lotus flower, carefully examining its lips, and didn't see any flaws, perfect and plump like a fresh cherry.

  Qiao Lianou let out a sigh of relief, thinking that it was good that the thing hadn't happened yet. No matter what, she had to prevent it from happening and not let her lovely and cute little sister Sanmei get hurt. She was too adorable, clearly a little angel sent to the mortal world, and Qiao Lianou was determined to protect her well.

  "Sister, mom told me to tell you that when she left, later send lotus to kindergarten and then go up the mountain to find the cow and drive it back."

  What? Kindergarten? Qiao Lian'ou thought she had misheard, and it took her a while to recall that her second sister wasn't talking nonsense - at the time, there really was a kindergarten in the village, although this sounded somewhat unbelievable.

  "What are you doing?" Qiao Lianyu smiled brightly at Ermei, who had been running around with her in the sun every day and was also slightly tanned. Her face was round, her eyes were not as big as Sanmei's, but they were also round and spinning rapidly, showing off her cleverness. Her hair was cut short by Qin Ying, commonly known as a "BB head", similar to the popular style of twenty years later.

  "As for me, Mom told me to do my homework." After finishing speaking, her eyes rolled around, she pushed away the bowl that had finished eating, and suddenly ran out, don't know where she went.

  This guy is always lazy. Jiao Lianou sighed with a smile, shook her head and continued eating. Well, if she wants to play, let her play, 7 or 8 years old is the time for kids to have fun, who made me the eldest? Being the eldest means responsibility, means taking on more duties, the second and third child can naturally hide in the shade.

  After dinner, Qiao Lian'ou washed and put away her bowl, then prepared to take Sanmei to kindergarten.