My Courtyard Refuge

Ma Lingling’s Day (Part 1)

On August 18, the five-country delegation from Daxia and Xianan Peninsula held a closed-door meeting in the capital of Qiongzhou.

The two sides conducted a new round of consultations and negotiations on the distribution of water sources for international rivers such as the Meigong River.

But the result is still unhappy.

Daxia’s attitude is still as usual, and he refuses to open the gate to release the water again on the grounds that it involves national security.

Simple and rude!

In retaliation and at the same time to exert pressure, before and after the meeting, the five countries blatantly drove millions of refugees to the border areas of the two sides.

This move directly triggered a wave of refugees in the southern border of Daxia, so that the pressure on the frontier defense increased, and finally had to ask for help from the higher authorities.

Speaking of which, Xiang Xin was also one of the victims.

…

August 20th, today is Ma Lingling’s 18th day in Yanjing. She is very glad that she did not take a summer job, otherwise she would have died.

Over the past half month, she has fully seen what the life of a “rich family” is, and it would be a lie to say that she doesn’t envy her.

At 6:30 in the morning, the mobile phone alarm clock rang, and Ma Lingling got up as usual. After all, she was a big girl, and she didn’t have the face to stay in bed like a younger brother.

The bedroom here is huge, nearly 40 square meters, bigger than her living room.

After washing up, Ma Lingling went to the kitchen to help grandma and aunt make breakfast.

Today’s breakfast is rice porridge, which is not uncommon, and their family also eats porridge and rice every day.

What is rare is the few side dishes that grandma will cook next.

First up was a plate of shredded pork with green peppers.

The pork was bought by my uncle last night. Basically every few days, my uncle would bring back a few catties of pork.

According to my grandmother, a catty of pork costs at least several thousand yuan in the market now, and in many cases, it is not always possible to buy it with money.

Calculated in this way, one meal at grandma’s house is almost a month’s living expenses for their family, and the gap is indeed quite astonishing.

Next came a plate of fried salted fish. Salted fish is dried seafood. Ma Lingling likes it very much. Grandma saw that she likes to eat it, and it is almost a must-have every day.

There is also a plate of stir-fried lettuce, a plate of squashed cucumber, and a plate of fried water spinach. The ingredients are all picked from the vegetable garden in the morning, and the food is fresh.

Finally, of course, there is also a plate of salted beans, which is used by grandpa and grandma as an appetizer.

The grandpa eats first at home, and usually leaves the house on time from one to seven o’clock.

And half an hour later, it will be the normal breakfast time for the whole family. Except for the triplets, the triplets usually don’t get up until 8 o’clock, and the temperature has already risen by then.

Before breakfast, my aunt usually asks:

“Lingling, Xiaoxu, do you want soy milk or milk?”

The soy milk is freshly ground by a soymilk machine, and the milk is made with powdered milk. A pot is prepared every morning.

Ma Lingling chooses milk most of the time. After all, milk is more nutritious, and drinking milk often will make girls’ skin whiter.

Looking at the rosy and rosy faces of the two little cousins, one knows that they must have beendrink.

But today she chose soy milk, because she drank a few extra boxes of deluxe yesterday, and unexpectedly she had diarrhea. It is estimated that the next few days are not suitable for touching milk.

After breakfast, my uncle drove to work; my aunt began to circle around the triplets; the two younger cousins ​​and my younger brother were blowing on the air conditioner, watching TV, and doing their summer homework by the way.

Ma Lingling wasn’t idle here either, helping grandma clean up and washing clothes.

Laundry is more troublesome and needs to be washed by hand. After all, the washing machine is too wasteful of water, and the price of water is so expensive, even if the grandmother’s family has money, they can’t bear it.

Fortunately, the change and washing are all light and thin clothes such as body jackets, so it doesn’t take much effort to soak them with laundry detergent and water.

In addition, the waste water left over from washing clothes cannot be poured, it can be used to flush the toilet, and there will be no water in Yanjing after eight o’clock.

In Luyang, the tap water was stopped two months ago, and everyone has become accustomed to carrying a bucket every day to a designated place to collect water.

After finishing the housework, it was about nine o’clock. Ma Lingling went to the living room to watch TV, and then helped her little aunt to take care of her three little cousins.

“Lingling, look here is a bag, I think it suits you quite well, what do you think, how about I give it to you?”

Right now, due to the shortage of supplies, shopping websites, large and small, are almost closing down, but the second-hand commodity trading platform led by Xianyuwang is bucking the trend and rising suddenly.

Ma Lingling took the phone and looked at it. She felt that it was not bad, and immediately said happily, “Thank you, little aunt.”

“You are a real kid, we are all a family, so don’t be polite to me!” Yang Lina laughed.

Ma Lingling found out that this little aunt likes to buy things online. She often buys online with her mobile phone when she has nothing to do. The family receives several express deliveries every day. This is probably the daily life of Mrs. Kuo!

After dawdling until eleven o’clock, Xu’s mother was about to prepare lunch again. According to the usual practice, lunch must be richer than breakfast.

“Lingling, Xiaoxu, what do you two want for lunch?” Mama Xu came over and asked.

Ma Xu’s eyes lit up, and he immediately replied: “Grandma, I want to eat stewed pork.”

Ma Lingling swallowed unconsciously when she heard this. The first meal the two of them ate in Yanjing was stewed pork noodles. Looking back now, they still have endless aftertastes.

“Grandma, I want to eat stewed pork too.” Lele shouted.

“This…I’ll make it for you when I get the pork head meat. Besides stewed pork, what else do you want to eat?”

“Grandma, why don’t we make dumplings for lunch?” Ma Lingling quickly suggested.

She was afraid that the younger brother would not be able to eat the stewed pork, and he might have to play a little temper, which would make the younger aunt and the others unhappy.

Xu Ma nodded and said, “Okay, then let’s eat dumplings at noon.”

Dumplings are delicious, but it is very troublesome to make. You can’t buy ready-made dumpling wrappers right now, so you can only make them honestly from dough.

After an hour, the dumplings were finally wrapped. There are two kinds of fillings, one is cabbage and pork stuffing; the other is three fresh vegetarian stuffing made with dried shrimps, spinach and carrots.

After another ten minutes, the steamed dumplings were finally ready to be cooked, and Dad Xu just arrived home at this time.

“Lingling, what are you having for lunch?”

“Grandpa, grandma made dumplings and they will be ready soon.” Ma Lingling said happily.

“Really? Your grandma hasn’t made dumplings for more than half a year. This time, you and Xiaoxu are lucky.” Dad Xu joked.

Ma Lingling smiled and said, “Then I will come to Yanjing to accompany you during the winter vacation.”

“I’ll call your mother later, and you will definitely come over during the winter vacation.” Father Xu promised.

“Grandpa, you are so kind!”

Madam Xu came out with the dumplings and said, “The dumplings are ready, come and eat, don’t forget to wash your hands.”

Dad Xu made an exception and drank a glass of white wine at noon. How did he say that sentence:

The dumplings are paired with wine, the more you drink, the more delicious you are.