It’s a Stepmother, Not a Sister [70s] - Chapter 9

It took Jiang Shuangling two or three days to smoke the bacon, and it tasted pretty good, but she was also almost exhausted.

Eating meat was truly difficult.

Bright-colored strips of bacon hung from the kitchen ceiling. When you got close to smell it, it emitted an enticing salty fragrance. When she marinated it, she added a bit of sugar, so when chewing the bacon, there was a hint of sweetness in the aftertaste.

It was much tastier than the overly salty bacon made by Li Erhua that could kill a person.

When she cooked the bacon, she was reluctant to wash it too much, afraid of washing away that salty flavor. Therefore, the dishes made with that old bacon were both salty and bitter.

Jiang Shuangling and her brother couldn’t eat much meat in one meal, so she would cut a small piece, with both fat and lean, and sometimes steam it together with rice. The salty fragrance of the bacon would blend into the soft white grains of rice.

The greasy bacon seemed to melt away, and it didn’t feel greasy when eaten.

When Jiang Shuangling steamed rice, she was accustomed to adding a little sesame oil. With rice steamed like this, paired with bacon, even four-year-old Jiang Che could eat a bowl of rice dry.

“Big sis! It’s so delicious!!” Little Jiang Che wiped the oil from the corner of his mouth excitedly. After eating rice for a few days, his complexion had improved a lot, and he seemed livelier.

But he didn’t like to play outside; he just loved to wander around aimlessly behind his big sister or help her with chores.

“Tasty, isn’t it?” Jiang Shuangling smiled. She also found it delicious, but right now, she was craving sausage even more. When winter came this year, she would definitely make a lot of sausage to keep. Sausage with steamed rice was the ultimate delicacy.

When the time came, she could consider making clay pot rice.

Just the thought of clay pot rice made her crave rice rolls and various dim sum.

“When I have time in the future, I can give it a try…”

Jiang Shuangling bought all these things, and the expenses were only a little over ten yuan. She couldn’t help but marvel at the purchasing power of a hundred yuan in this era.

Later, she went back to the Jiang family to get the money that Qi Heng had left that day. Li Erhua originally didn’t want to give it, saying how much they had spent taking care of the two siblings over the years. Jiang Shuangling sneered and was about to settle the accounts with her.

“How much did my parents leave? How much can we, siblings, eat? Should we calculate it carefully?”

…

This account couldn’t be reconciled. Jiang Shuangling knew that the previous matters were hard to calculate, but she had to get back these two hundred yuan now.

Jiang Chuanfu handed her the money and the receipts. As for the rest, it had been four or five years already, and they couldn’t make up for it anymore.

Jiang Shuangling wasn’t interested in arguing with these people anymore. She took the money and left. As she walked out, she could still hear Li Erhua muttering angrily.

“If you have the guts, speak louder so that everyone around knows.”

Jiang Shuangling received the message sent by Qi Heng’s messenger, saying that the day of departure was April 23rd and asking her to wait for him at the county train station.

There were still about ten days left until that day.

Jiang Shuangling didn’t have anything else to do. Since she didn’t have to go to work during the day, she practiced painting in the inn. She was consciously entering the portable inn, while her body was essentially sleeping outside.

She painted a picture of Qi Heng in his military uniform in a realistic style, exceptionally beautiful. Jiang Shuangling admired it for a while, then put the painting down. She couldn’t take these paintings with her, so they would disappear from the inn the next day.

“What a pity.”

The other person’s face gave her a lot of inspiration. Jiang Shuangling even sketched out a series of interstellar military officers, consisting of eight sets of drawings, depicting exceptionally handsome figures, exuding a sense of…

The aura of money.

“What a pity they can’t be sold here…” Jiang Shuangling sighed. In the end, she decided not to draw the other person. Drawing something that couldn’t be kept was distressing; not being able to sell it was even more distressing.

Feeling very frustrated, Jiang Shuangling went to the county town to buy paper, brushes, pigments typical of this era, and various promotional paintings. She also bought a few comic books.

At home, she spread out the paper and began to learn the painting style of this era.

Intentionally leaving behind many rough sketches that looked like they were drawn by novices, in line with the frugal style of the era, she drew on a piece of paper until it couldn’t be drawn on anymore.

Imitating the doodles of a novice was quite fun.

“It’s probably like wanting to keep what isn’t suitable to keep, and not wanting to keep what’s suitable to keep…” Jiang Shuangling looked at the things on the paper, feeling somewhat amused and exasperated.

She painted a picture of the members of their production team planting crops and pretended to enthusiastically give it to the head of the production team.

The production team leader received her painting, looking surprised. “You painted this?”

The painting depicted the sun hanging high in the sky, with several members of the team busy planting seedlings in the muddy water. In the distance, there were cows flicking their tails. The people in the painting were all in high spirits, exuding the joy of spring plowing.

—Though abstract, at least it was clear what was being depicted.

And the figures were barely recognizable.

It was an exaggerated yet amusing painting.

The production team leader’s face twitched, as if trying to suppress a laugh. “Really, it’s quite nice.”

“Yes, I painted it,” Jiang Shuangling nodded, her face turning red. She couldn’t help but blush at having painted such a picture.

She even felt like laughing, a self-deprecating laugh.

“I’m leaving, and I wanted to leave something for everyone, so I, uh… I painted several, but this one looked better…” Jiang Shuangling said, her face growing even redder.

Pure embarrassment flooded her.

But to the production team leader, this blush seemed particularly sincere.

“Alright, alright, on behalf of the production team, I thank you. I’ll have someone put it up in a moment.”

Before long, the spring plowing picture was posted on the publicity wall, drawing a crowd of production team members.

Next to it was another propaganda painting by a famous artist. In comparison, Jiang Shuangling’s painting seemed particularly naive and inexperienced, but it still passed muster.

—At least it resembled a person.

The onlookers felt a sense of novelty. Although they had seen many propaganda pictures, it was rare to see one depicting their own people, so they were very eager to discuss it.

“Who painted this?”

“It was painted by Jiang’s eldest daughter. Who knew she had such talent?”

“It’s not bad. Look at this person, it’s Uncle He San, right? Oh, if only I had gone that day…”

“Is this supposed to be me? Why do I look so strange?”

“Is my body really that crooked?”

“Why do I look so radiant when I smile?”

…

Jiang Shuangling walked past the propaganda wall with a wooden expression, comforting herself in her heart that it was okay. At least the purpose had been achieved.

Now, most of the team members knew she could draw, even though her drawings were poor. But at least she could draw something, showing a bit of talent.

If her works became famous in the future, she could trace back her love for drawing to this time.

Jiang Shuangling thought to herself dully, “I’ve had it tough. Even the drawings I did in elementary school were better than this.”

As the day of departure approached, Jiang Shuangling kept busy. She tried making some easy-to-store snacks, and her first choice was — fried twist dough.

Although there was little meat, there was plenty of lard, thanks to the blessings from the portable inn that reset every day.

Jiang Shuangling tried several variations of fried twist dough. There was crispy sweet twist dough with a hint of honey, as well as crunchy savory twist dough. Jiang Che liked the sweet and soft ones, while Jiang Shuangling preferred the slightly salty and crispy ones.

During the process, there were quite a few failed products, all of which ended up in the siblings’ stomachs. After all, it was hard for any kind of fried snack to taste bad, especially when sprinkled with a bit of sesame, making it crispy and irresistible.

With a background in fine arts, Jiang Shuangling had strong DIY skills, and the shapes of each twist dough she made were exceptionally beautiful under her hands.

“Maybe in the future, I can set up a stall on the street and get rich…”

“I just need a soy milk machine.”

In addition to frying, Jiang Shuangling also tried baking cakes. After several failed attempts, she managed to concoct a tender yellow honey egg cake. It was soft and fragrant, with no problem for the first few bites, but it became overwhelmingly greasy after eating too much.

But there was no other way; besides honey, she only had honey.

In her portable inn, there were only five edible items: wild honey, lard, eggs, preserved eggs, and rice. Except for rice, the other four were main courses that could easily become too greasy when eaten in excess.

This honey egg cake was too sweet and greasy for adults, but children liked it a lot, and it smelled great, so Jiang Shuangling still made some.

Her hand-drawn propaganda paintings caused a stir in the village. In the past few days, other things had happened in the village as well, such as Xue Ningning accidentally falling into the well and falling ill for three or four days, and Jiang’s second sister seemed to be interested in the landlord Xiao’s puppy.

After Li Erhua found out, she went to the Xiao family and ranted at them, also scolding the villagers for spreading rumors…

Regarding these matters, Jiang Shuangling just listened without prying too much. After all, she was about to leave this place.

Before she left, Jiang Hongping came to see her once.

“Cousin, you will regret this,” Jiang Hongping’s tone seemed to inform her while also trying to convince herself.

“Is that so?”

“Do you believe it or not, you won’t be able to stay away for long. That Qi captain isn’t here to find a woman. He’s just—”

“I don’t believe it.” Jiang Shuangling smiled faintly, then saw her off.

“Then just wait and see! When you come back later, I’ll marry Xiao Zhenchang.”

“Then I wish you an early marriage to Xiao Zhenchang.”

Early in the morning on the 23rd, Jiang Shuangling, accompanied by her brother and a large bundle of belongings, headed to the county town. She didn’t bring much with her; most of her luggage consisted of food and clothes, especially her bacon, which took up a lot of space. The rest was food prepared for the journey.

After the experience of moving to the inn last time, Jiang Shuangling brought plenty of delicious snacks.

She also brought brushes, paint, and paper, as well as… some of her own paintings. Most of these paintings depicted the natural landscapes of the village and the old Jiang family residence where she had lived.

Although she couldn’t bear to look at these paintings…

Jiang Shuangling couldn’t bring herself to look at them directly.

When they arrived at the county train station, they were early. They waited for about an hour until the train arrived.