Chapter 238: Zhongping is pretty good

“At night, Hong Kong Island is the brightest city in Asia. I’m not bragging about it. This is the answer obtained by foreigners after a special investigation. Little Japan or the capital of South Korea can’t compare to here.” Xie Hushan and Taozi stood next to each other in Victoria Harbour, looking at the night view in the distance.

Xie Hushan was biting a skewer of fried stuffed salmon, while Taozi, who was sitting next to him, was tricked by him into buying a portion of Hong Kong Island “braised pork”. However, Taozi was reluctant to eat it as she felt a little pain in her stomach when she saw the radish and beef offal in it.

This small cup of braised beef offal from the street in Kowloon, which San Ge boasted was a famous Hong Kong delicacy comparable to the braised pork and steamed buns in Zhongping, was priced at fifteen dollars. This was because the boss who sold the beef offal said that he saw Taozi was thin, so he added two more pieces of beef tripe for her.

Taozi felt that if she gave the beef offal to Daxiu, it would only be enough for three mouthfuls at most, and that would have to include the soup…

Selling such a small thing for fifteen dollars is like being robbed.

If Zhou Hongmei, the second aunt who is now in charge of selling braised pork in Zhongping, knew that the comrades from Hong Kong Island bought cheap beef cattle from Bingyang at a low price and then sold the beef offal to her at 15 yuan per portion, she would probably go back and tell the uncles and aunts not to sell beef cattle cheaply to Hong Kong Island in the future, as the people here are not honest.

“Didn’t the country ship so many beef and vegetables here so that people in Hong Kong can eat cheap vegetables? This isn’t cheap, is it? This small portion costs fifteen dollars?” Taozi took a bite of the beef offal. It tasted quite good, but it was a little too light. The folks in her hometown, Xishan, who did manual labor in the brick factory, might not be used to such light and vegetarian meat and would not be able to satisfy their cravings.

In fact, when she bought foreign goods for everyone, she didn’t think the things were expensive. After all, she had been influenced by them since she was a child, and had been taught that foreign goods were good things and that it was reasonable for them to be expensive.

But she didn’t understand why beef offal was so expensive, and most of the beef from Hong Kong was transported here by her husband Xie Hushan and countless militiamen from all over the country who had endured hardships. It could not be called foreign at all.

Maybe the beef offal we are eating now is the Bingyang beef cattle that our third brother brought with great difficulty.

They are all the same cows. In Bingyang, the best beef might only cost one or two yuan per pound. But here, a few pieces of beef offal are sold for an astonishing fifteen yuan?
Xie Hushan had already swallowed the string of fried stuffed three treasures. At this moment, he took advantage of the bamboo stick in Taozi’s hand and picked up a piece of it and put it into his mouth to taste:

“It really doesn’t taste good. It’s not as good as the stewed food I made. If this thing is set up at a market stall in Bingyang, it won’t be able to compete with the stewed food. It’s too light, suitable for eating plain, not soaking dry food.”

“The last time you came to Hong Kong Island, did you actually not want to go back to Zhongping?” Taozi saw that Xie Hushan seemed more interested in beef offal, so she picked them up with a bamboo stick and fed them to Xie Hushan piece by piece, and asked with a smile.

Xie Hushan did not deny it and nodded calmly:
“I did think so, but later I was taught a lesson by you, Old Yang, Accountant Zhao, the fourth girl, Ermianfei, and Han Laogou. I gave up the idea, didn’t I?”

“Hong Kong Island is quite beautiful. Standing on the pier, the lights are as beautiful as paintings. It’s normal that you don’t want to go back. No wonder translator Lin and Comrade Zhu insisted on coming here. The food, clothing and housing there are indeed better than those in our country.” Taozi said with emotion, looking at the brightly lit direction of Hong Kong Island like a little adult.

Xie Hushan swallowed the beef offal, looked at Taozi looking at the night view with emotion, and immediately said: “It’s okay if you want to stay now, and that’s exactly what I mean…”

“I won’t stay. I will have my own new house built by the time I get back. It will have three main rooms, east and west wing rooms, flower walls, and a moon gate…” Taozi didn’t wait for Xie Hushan to finish. She turned around and interrupted Xie Hushan seriously:

“No matter how good this is, it’s not home.”

As he spoke, he picked up a piece of beef offal with a bamboo stick and stuffed it into Xie Hushan’s mouth, saying like a kid playing a joke: “Shut up!”

Xie Hushan bit the beef offal and said vaguely:

“What I mean is that you should just stay here after we get married, and I’ll go back. You can get used to it, and then when you have nothing to do, you can go back and do some ideological work for our grandma and aunt…”

“When Sister Da Qiao left, I went to see her off. I think she said something that you were right…” When Taozi heard Xie Hushan lecturing her again, she immediately brought up a name that Xie Hushan was too lazy to mention.

“Don’t listen to that stupid woman.” As expected, when Xie Hushan heard this name, the smile on his face immediately disappeared. Taozi rolled her eyes at Xie Hushan:
“Then you can change it to Lv Yuan. Lv Yuan also told me in private that you are a male chauvinist. Deep down, you look down on women. You say that men and women are equal, but in your heart, men are superior to women. You look down on Fourth Sister, Zhu Youjun, and Lin Meiyang…”

“Don’t listen to her nonsense. I’ll ask Lao Yang to deal with her later. Ask which old hunter in Xishan has deer whips at home, and get two for Lao Yang to help him strengthen his marital status. Don’t let his wife free up her energy to instigate other couples’ relationships behind their backs.” Xie Hushan immediately interrupted Taozi, snatched the bamboo stick, picked up a piece of beef offal and handed it to Taozi’s mouth.

Taozi finished eating the offal before continuing, “She also said that Xie Hushan, the male chauvinist, was very good to you, Taozi…”

“You’re too hasty. It seems that my niece’s wife’s opinion of her uncle, me, is quite fair. I like to hear it. Go on.” Xie Hushan’s eyes immediately lit up.

Taozi immediately continued: “She said, but Taozi, you have to figure out why she is nice to you, she said…”

“Stop, stop, stop talking. Lü Yuan and Da Qiao are from the same family. Nothing good can come out of a dog’s mouth. Don’t listen to them. It’s easy to learn bad things. Be careful of these city women who use the excuses of love and equality to destroy normal marriages.” Xie Hushan finished the beef offal in a few bites and made an exaggerated gesture to Taozi to shut up:
“If you really want to listen to the indoctrination of city women, I think it’s better to listen to the indoctrination of girls from Hong Kong Island. The young girls and wives here are different from those crazy old women in Yaoshan City. The women in Yaoshan are really liberated in their thinking. The women here may look open-minded on the outside, but they are feudal and traditional in their hearts…”

“You just look down on people and are afraid of being exposed. I know Third Brother is good to me, but it’s also true that you look down on women…” Taozi was amused by his gesture and said with a smile.

Xie Hushan stretched out his hand and turned Taozi’s face, looking at her carefully: “What’s the matter, are you going to rebel and break off the engagement? I bought a lot of books, but there shouldn’t be any books about breaking off the engagement?”

“Why do you want to cancel the engagement? I’m a man who was lucky enough to choose. Why should I cancel it? What I mean is that I have to improve myself. Later I will cure your habit of looking down on women.” Taozi glared at Xie Hushan when she heard that he thought she wanted to cancel the engagement:
“I won’t withdraw. You’re just dreaming. Don’t think I didn’t see it just now. When you heard the word ‘broke off the engagement’, your eyes sparkled.”

“Don’t try to develop any skills, just grow taller.” Xie Hushan let go of Taozi’s chin, put his arm around her shoulders, and looked at the sea view together.

Taozi leaned against Xie Hushan, looked at the lights in the distance and let out a sigh:

“You said, this place is not as good as home. It’s almost wheat harvest season. The endless yellow wheat fields make me feel happy. Today, translator Lin took me shopping. Looking at the tall buildings on both sides of the road, I felt suffocated. All the places I saw were good. Translator Lin and Comrade Zhu also said good things to me. But Chief of Staff Han would tell me the truth. He said, sister-in-law, this place is not good at all. Many people don’t even have a place to sleep.”

“Tsk tsk, Chief of Staff Han is so aware. I feel sorry for the organization for not recruiting him into the party. They have lost such a firm comrade.” Xie Hushan said with a smile when he heard Taozi say that Han Hongbing had introduced the situation in Hong Kong Island to her.

Taozi gently rested her head on Xie Hushan’s shoulder, looked into the distance and said with a smile:

“He also said that in this place, you can see hooligans fighting in broad daylight on the streets, and no one dares to intervene when they go to shops to collect money. It’s not like in Zhongping, where if you see a thief stealing eggs on the street, everyone will be as happy as if it were New Year’s Day. They wish they could be surrounded by a platoon of militiamen, lined up to arrest him, and make him a hero… Here, if you want to be brave and righteous, you have to be careful not to get into trouble.”

“There is no food at home. We can’t borrow food from the production team. If we want to borrow money, the interest is high and we can’t pay it back in this lifetime. If we are lucky enough to find a church nearby, we can go there to beg for food. But the church won’t give food for free. You have to promise to believe in their gods and promise to double the money you have in the future. You have to swear an oath before you can let them give you a meal…”

“Chief of Staff Han also told me that there are always people who trick silly girls from the countryside into coming here, and once they come, they are forced to come… So is this place good? Translator Lin, Comrade Zhu can only be considered lucky, because he has seen that the cannibalism here is even worse than in our countryside…”

“You are so young, why do you live so sensibly? I shouldn’t have asked you to read more books and spend more time with grandma at the stove.” Xie Hushan scratched Taozi’s hair.

“Besides, our Zhongping is not that good. It’s far from it.”

Taozi leaned on Xie Hushan’s shoulder, letting her third brother rub her hair, and said with a smile:

“I think Zhongping is great. Zhongping has you. You make everyone live a good life.”

(End of this chapter)