Chapter 6 The driver helped me to buy food

The aunts and aunts around my mother have different styles and are good at winning games. They have different appearances, different temperaments, and of course different ways of housekeeping. For example, Mrs. Tseng, who is known for being tall, is very strict in housekeeping. When her family has a poker game, the servants who help her are particularly hard-working. Like when I was young, if there were guests at home who came to play mahjong, in the tea service part, at best, when the guests came to the table, the thermos cups of the brewed tea were sent to the guests. The cups are withdrawn into the tea room, and tea is added to the weak ones, and boiling water is added to the cold ones, that's all.

The only thing that can be added is that my father has an almost paranoid obsession with "all containers". As long as he likes it, whether it is a cup or a plate, an ashtray or a spittoon jar, he will take the trouble to buy it buy again. Therefore, when serving tea to guests, our family usually only wins with "containers", teacups and coffee cups, which are constantly refurbished and pursue "breakthroughs". I often suspect that Dad is very happy to see a set of four teacups break one piece.Because this way he couldn't make a set of four, and he would have another excuse to buy new things.

In addition to the "container" in my house, I don't care at all about what is put in the container.I don't know how to taste tea or choose coffee beans until now, all because of "tutoring". Even thermos cups have to be refined. I remember that my father was very excited to present a set of four thermos cups with silver and iron shells for the guests who played cards. Unfortunately, it was tried by my mother at the table. The trial results, my mother I found that the appearance of the four thermos cups was exactly the same, and the guests got confused as soon as they moved their seats. It was very troublesome. Without further ado, my mother took out the nail polish that could not be washed off from the room, and with a swipe of a pen, put it on the new thermos cup Draw one, two, three, and four in bright red.Let the new cup break.

Some people pay attention to teacups, and some people pay attention to tea leaves. The tall Mrs. Zeng pays attention to the tea temperature—— The tea is not hot, which seems to be a very serious matter in Mrs. Zeng's house. Mrs. Zeng even sent an aunt who works in her house to stand next to the card table with a boiling water bottle. In the next second immediately add boiling water to the cup. Of course, this will bring a lot of pressure to the guests who play cards. If you take a sip, she will take another sip. It's like practicing Shaolin boxing or passing Shiba Tongren Lane. Who wouldn't be nervous?

Moreover, it is very labor-intensive. If her family opens four tables of mahjong, four "tea warming supervisors" will be mobilized and nailed to the table next to the card tables. Such an exaggerated way of hospitality is indeed unique and famous. Ten thousand. However, Mrs. Zeng's strict housekeeping has a more famous trick—— In order to guard against the cook at home, when buying food, buy less and report more, and buy low and report high, this Mrs. Zeng actually resorted to the trick of drawing the bottom line, driving the market every day. It is a matter of course for housewives to go to the vegetable market, but if there are more than three aunts in the family, and they insist on going to the vegetable market by themselves, it is "natural".

In my memory, among my mother's group of friends, those who go to the vegetable market by themselves are really rare.Among them, Mrs. Zeng's imperial conquest was the most spectacular, just like Guan Gong in Peking Opera, with a groom leading a horse in front and Zhou Cang carrying a knife behind. Every morning at eight o'clock, Mrs. Zeng sat in her family's big car, driven by the driver, and accompanied by an aunt who carried a vegetable basket, and went straight to the vegetable market full of sewage and unevenness. I heard that once, Mrs. Zeng slipped and fell to the ground in the vegetable market. The expensive cheongsam was soaked in the sewage. The driver quickly reached out to help her. Pushing away the driver's hand, he slowly got up.

I really can't remember how this gossip came to my ears and stored in my memory. I just sometimes compare such an exaggerated housekeeping style with my mother's style. I think my mother, who sleeps until noon every day and never knows how much the food costs, makes me feel more at ease. Go to bed late and be sloppy, this is like the mood of life of the downtrodden.