Rebirth begins with an arranged marriage

Chapter 46 Oil, Salt, Soy Sauce, and Vinegar

The owl cooed twice more, tilting its head as Tang Huaiyi preened its feathers.

Tang Huaiyi reached out and combed its hair, and then the owl spread its wings and flew away.

Tang Huaiyi went back to his room to rest. Not long after, just as he was half asleep, he heard the hooting of an owl in the courtyard.

Tang Huaiyi got up and went outside. The owl tossed a wild rabbit that wasn't quite dead yet in front of him, turned its head slightly, and waited for Tang Huaiyi to preen its feathers as a reward.

Reach out and preen the owl's feathers, pat its head, and the bird will coo softly and joyfully.

"Catching rabbits today wasn't easy either, thank you for your hard work... If you find anything similar to what I showed you in the future, bring it to me."

"Gurgle...gurgle..."

The owl spread its wings and flew away.

As soon as Tang Huaiyi entered the room, Tang Huaili asked sleepily, "Second Brother, why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I went to the outhouse and came back with a rabbit."

As Tang Huaiyi spoke, he carried the rabbit into the house.

"Oh...ah?" Tang Huaili immediately sprang to his feet and jumped out of bed. "Where's the rabbit? Let me see!"

"It's so dark, how can you see anything?"

"I'll light the lamp!"

Tang Huaili was in high spirits. He fumbled for a match, struck it with a "hiss," lit it, and used it to light a small candle in the room. Then he held the candle up and looked ahead.

Tang Huaiyi then saw the rabbit in his hand. It had grayish-yellow fur, was a little over ten centimeters long, and weighed less than a pound. It was a small rabbit. The owl that Tang Huaiyi had encountered was not very big. It seemed that it could only catch small rabbits like this and could not catch large wild rabbits.

Although the rabbit was small, Tang Huaili couldn't help but cheer, and his drowsiness vanished.

"Second brother, how did you find it?"

Tang Huai-ren, who had been sleeping soundly, rubbed his eyes and sat up halfway when he heard the noise: "Huai-yi, Huai-li, what are you two doing instead of sleeping?"

"Second brother just found a rabbit in the yard!" Tang Huaili said excitedly. "Big brother, look!"

Tang Huai-ren was also somewhat surprised upon hearing this: "There's such a good thing?"

He got up and looked at it by the candlelight, then exclaimed happily, "It really is a wild rabbit! Looks like some kind of bird pecked it to death—we'll have meat to eat tomorrow!"

Tang Huaiyi nodded and also saw the wound on the back of the rabbit's head. By this time, the rabbit was completely dead and motionless.

"Go to bed early."

"Okay, go to bed early."

The three brothers went to bed. Tang Huai-ren and Tang Huai-yi were fine, but Tang Huai-li was too excited to sleep. He kept tossing and turning, wanting to talk about the wild rabbit and asking Tang Huai-yi how he found it. He kept repeating it over and over.

He finally fell asleep.

The next morning, Tang Huaiyi showed the wild rabbit to his mother, Wang Lanhua, while Tang Huaili, still fast asleep from being too happy the night before, was still fast asleep.

Wang Lanhua glanced at it, somewhat surprised: "This stuff isn't very filling..."

But something is better than nothing. We haven't had meat at home for a while, so smacking our lips and tasting some meat is good enough.

Moreover, the rabbit skin can be used in the home.

Wang Lanhua skinned the rabbit and removed its gallbladder. After doing all this, she chopped the rabbit open with a knife, leaving only a bowlful with bones and meat, and even then, there was more bone than meat.

Tang Xiaoli, the younger sister, watched with great interest, looking forward to having meat for lunch.

Tang Huaili got out of bed and saw that the rabbits had been killed. He immediately felt as if he had missed some important ceremony. However, when his younger sister asked him something, he perked up and kept telling her about what happened last night.

What was originally a simple matter of Tang Huaiyi finding a rabbit was transformed into a suspenseful tale by Tang Huaili, as if it were some extraordinary legendary story, leaving Tang Xiaoli completely bewildered.

Tang Huaiyi smiled as he watched his third brother and younger sister, one daring to ask questions and the other daring to speak. He felt as if he were becoming the monster in Journey to the West who captured Tang Sanzang and ate his flesh, possessing great abilities.

"Huh, we're out of soy sauce?"

Wang Lanhua said something in the kitchen.

Tang Xiaoli immediately leaned over: "How can we eat rabbit meat without soy sauce?"

"Just rinse the soy sauce bottle with water, that'll give it a little flavor," Wang Lanhua said. "There's no need to be so particular about it."

Tang Huaiyi was also a little surprised when he heard this. He looked into the kitchen and saw his mother holding an empty, clean bottle in her hand—the soy sauce bottle had been rinsed countless times and was already clean.

Sigh, life at home is tough.

Tang Huaiyi walked into the kitchen, took the soy sauce bottle from his mother's hand, and glanced at the vinegar bottle, salt jar, oil bottle... all of which were nearly empty.

"Third brother, come here," Tang Huaiyi said.

"What is it, Second Brother?"

Tang Huaili came over and asked.

Tang Huaiyi smiled and handed him the oil bottle, then handed the salt shaker to Tang Xiaoli, and picked up the soy sauce and vinegar bottles himself: "Come on, let's go to the 'consignment point' to buy soy sauce."

Tang Huaiyi and Tang Xiaoli both showed joy and followed him out.

With the right seasonings (oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar), today's rabbit meat will definitely be flavorful and delicious.

Wang Lanhua sensed something was wrong: "Hey, Huaiyi, where did you get the money?"

"You can't touch the money your third uncle gave you!"

"Don't worry, Mother, I have a way." Tang Huaiyi said with a smile, without explaining further, and led his third brother and younger sister out of the house to the Tangmaji Village sales point.

Wang Lanhua called out again from behind, "Hey, don't get too much, just enough to eat!"

What does it mean for this family to have "enough to eat"?

Enough to eat, actually not enough to eat, but we can manage to eat as much as we need by being frugal.

Because it has been selling oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and various other food products for many years, the Tangmaji Village sales point has a lingering, mixed aroma of soy sauce, vinegar, and sweetness, with the vinegar smell being the most prominent.

This unique and rich aroma, though not exactly a pleasant smell, evoked a sense of nostalgia for Tang Huaiyi, but for the children who were constantly lacking in various things, it was a scent that made them reflexively swallow their saliva.

This smell means there's something delicious to eat, something that can satisfy a craving.

A penny for vinegar, two cents for soy sauce, eight cents for oil, and a large lump of salt for one or three cents...

After paying, Tang Huaiyi saw Tang Huaili and Tang Xiaoli standing at the door with bottles in their hands. He smiled and asked without looking at them, "Is there anything you want to eat? Your second brother will buy it for you."

Tang Huaiyi and Tang Xiaoli shook their heads repeatedly, indicating that they did not want to.

They were all over ten years old, which is quite old, but they hadn't really eaten many snacks.

Tang Huaiyi looked at his sensible younger siblings, said nothing, patted their heads, and walked out of the sales point together.

Before they even got home, the three siblings saw a man sitting on a stone bench, head down, smoking and sighing.

"Third Uncle? What's wrong?" Tang Xiaoli asked.

Uncle Tang Zhengcai turned his head to the side, revealing a disheveled face with red eyes.

Upon seeing that it was Tang Huaiyi and his two companions, he hurriedly stubbed out his cigarette and stood up, saying, "It's nothing, it's nothing, I'm just rolling a cigarette... You guys go home."

Tang Huaiyi immediately understood: "Third Uncle, are you keeping watch outside Widow Ma's house?"