Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife
Chapter 1023: Return to My Mother’s Home 2

Chapter 1023: Chapter 1023: Return to My Mother’s Home 2

Wang Zhengguo cradled Fubao in one arm and waved with the other, "Most of you are older than me; how can I take the seat of honor? Today is Xibao’s birthday, so let’s sit according to age, with the eldest taking the seat of honor."

He wasn’t ignorant or uncouth, how could he be rude?

Apart from two schoolteachers, the others were all luminaries of the academic world, faces that, in the past, he wouldn’t have even been able to see.

Now that they had fallen on hard times, treating them well would be a way for him to build good karma for the Wanglou Brigade and his family. After all, fortunes change: "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west." Besides, the folks of the Wanglou Brigade all listened to him, and it wasn’t as if he had anything to lose.

Wen Ruyu was the eldest and also Feng Qingxue’s teacher, so everyone unanimously urged him to take the seat of honor.

"Since there are no strangers here, I will accept the seat without protest," said Wen Ruyu as he took his seat. He waved Xibao over, "Xibao, as the birthday boy, how about you sit with grandpa? Don’t ask your Grandpa Jin those tricky and weird questions—he won’t be able to answer them. Just grow up, study hard, and reach for the stars, and you’ll understand why radios and telephones make sounds."

"Radio?" Wang Zhengguo only then noticed the radio on the long narrow table, broadcasting the sweet voice of the announcer, talking about recent news and the latest directives from the old leader, and so forth.

Such news was hard to come by in the countryside; with no radios around, and newspapers nowhere to be bought.

Thus, whatever directives came from above were passed down layer by layer, and the countryside often heard them last, the information significantly outdated.

Everyone gradually stopped talking and listened quietly for a while. Lu Jiang and Feng Qingxue knew that some of the news was outdated, such as banning students from connecting, calling for the protection of national property, and economical revolutionizing and so on—those were issues from March. However, there was also some new content, like our army shooting down twenty-six American planes and the like, which was particularly exhilarating.

Once the broadcast had finished, Wang Zhengguo commented, "That’s good, that’s really good. Ajiang, Xiaoxue, you did well buying that radio. We can know the directives from above earlier and make corresponding arrangements to cope with the outside world."

The group deeply agreed with this sentiment.

Feng Qingxue invited everyone to be seated while the Guan Cheng brothers and Feng Qingyun brought out the dishes and served the rice.

Each table had both identical and different dishes, but all were very lavish.

The main dish at each table was braised pork, followed by a series of pork offal—stir-fried pig intestines, pig’s head meat in a cold dressing, pig’s feet soup with soybeans, pork liver stir-fried with hot peppers, or cold dressed pig’s lung, heart, and tails. Since not every ingredient was in ample supply, some tables had stir-fried pork liver while others had the cold dressed pig’s lung, heart, and tails. The final dishes included dry string beans stir-fried with cured meat, steamed air-dried chicken, braised tofu, stir-fried vegetables, cucumber with scrambled eggs, loofah egg drop soup, cold dressed peanuts, and mung bean sprouts stewed with glass noodles.

Lu Jiang brought out a jar of liquor—not Maotai, nor Fenjiu, but pure grain alcohol from the Northeast, stored in Feng Qingxue’s space.

Most of the men drank while not a single woman did, so they chose the table at the very end, sitting with a few young children, leaving the men both young and old at the other two tables to eat and drink heartily.

Xibao, despite being at the head table, didn’t sit down, instead standing between Wen Ruyu and Jin Ruochu, with Lu Jiang seated in the third place.

Xibao picked up the small cup of wine in front of Wen Ruyu, steadied it into Wen’s hands, then turned to serve Jin Ruochu a cup, "Grandpa Wen, Grandpa Jin, drink up."

"Certainly, certainly, you are the birthday boy, and we must drink the wine you serve!"

After saying that, Jin Ruochu and Wen Ruyu tilted their heads and emptied their glasses in one go.