814 Local Pork
Xia Wen looked at everyone expressionlessly and said, Am I back at the wrong time?
How would we dare to say that? Come in quickly, Xu Xiang, the Tan family's eldest daughter-in-law, said obsequiously.
This person was their Tan family's God of Fortune. If they made Xia Wen angry, their entire family would not have any money in the future. Tan Jing was of no help to them. All these years, Tan Jing had always dragged her feet when they came to ask her for help. In the end, they found it most efficient to look for Xia Wen.
In the beginning, the Tan family did not go overboard. They knew that they should talk to Tan Jing first and ask her to raise the issues with Xia Wen. After all, in the first few years of their marriage, Xia Wen doted on Tan Jing very much. As long as Tan Jing wanted something, Xia Wen would try his best to help her.
The Tan family took advantage of this and kept asking the Xia family to help make things easier for them. They either wanted help with finding jobs or getting preferential treatment with the authorities.
However, the Tan family's three sons were all people with grandiose aims but puny abilities. Even when Xia Wen found them the easiest jobs, none of them were willing to take it up. They even said that Xia Wen did not put in any effort to help them, that other sons-in-law could find jobs for their younger brothers-in-law that paid more than 100 dollars a month but Xia Wen found them jobs that were tiring and tough and only paid 70 dollars a month.
In this era, it was already a lot to be paid 70 dollars a month. As a university professor, Xia Wen's pay was only 80 dollars a month.
Xia Wen did not stand on ceremony and sat down at the dining table. He picked up the chopsticks beside him and started eating.
He was sure that Tan Jing definitely did not buy the meat herself. She usually could not bear to spend the money on meat and would always go to get some from the Xia family's house. Some time ago, Qiao Mei sent them a lot of meat from the countryside. At that time, Xu Lan had asked him to get rid of the meat. She said that pigs in the countryside were all sickly and had not been through proper treatment.
Currently, people were not allowed to sell pork from pigs that they raised themselves. The authorities were concerned about the pigs not being vaccinated properly and that the viruses from the pigs might spread to humans.
Xu Lan was especially particular about this. Although she liked Qiao Mei very much, she would never be able to enjoy the pork that Qiao Mei sent over.
Xia Wen was so busy that he forgot to deal with it and had stuffed it into the freezer at home. Jiang Yi must have found the meat when she looked into the fridge today.
This pork is really delicious. Mother, what do you think? Xia Wen asked.
Of course it's delicious! Tan Jing even told me that there's nothing in your fridge! How can she not know that such a big piece of meat is in there! Jiang Yi said as she rolled her eyes.
Xia Wen nodded and continued, Mother, if you think it's delicious, then eat more. This is pork that my sister-in-law brought from their village. It's especially fragrant.
Jiang Yi was so shocked that she jumped up.
What! This is local pork! Xu Xiang said in a panic.
Xia Wen did not move at all and ate with relish. Originally, he also minded the fact that the meat was local pork, but now that he ate it, he felt that it was even more fragrant than the store-bought meat. If he had known that the meat Qiao Mei gave them was so delicious, he would have stewed it long ago and not let these people from the Tan family benefit from it.
Hurry up and spit it out! Are you trying to kill my son! Tan Yue, the Tan family's youngest daughter, quickly grabbed her child's throat to make him spit it out.
Everyone in the room kept trying to throw up. One had to know that once one ate contaminated pork, one would definitely die. The seriousness of the illness was one issue, but the other issue was that they did not have the money to go and see a doctor.
After Jiang Yi finished throwing up, she quickly walked up to Tan Jing and gave her a hard slap. Useless thing! How dare you poison us! If we get sick, we won't let you off!
Mother, there's no need to be so agitated. This is good meat and nothing will go wrong. Weren't you eating very happily just now? Xia Wen said.
Jiang Yi could not flare up at Xia Wen, so she could only vent all the resentment in her heart on Tan Jing. Tan Jing felt very aggrieved by the unreasonable scolding. However, what she cared about was not Jiang Yi scolding her, but the fact that Qiao Mei had given the pork to Xia Wen. She never knew about this.
They usually ate in the school canteen where meals were free of charge so that they could save a bit of money. She did not know what was stored in the fridge at home.
If everyone doesn't want to eat it, I'll eat it myself, Xia Wen said with a smile.
The few people behind him exchanged glances. They looked at one another and did not want to be the first to speak. They were just waiting to see who would lose patience first.