I was reborn after my cousin stole my life.

Chapter 77: Awesome

Have you read the newspaper?

Yuan Xiu got home earlier than Jiang Zhou after get off work today. When Jiang Zhou arrived home, Yuan Xiu had already started making dinner.

Upon seeing him arrive home, Yuan Xiu, without even putting down the kitchen knife in her hand, ran out to ask him questions.

Her eyes were bright and sparkling, so bright that Jiang Zhou subconsciously closed his eyes. "I see it."

His voice was a little hoarse, "Great!"

Yuan Xiu's heart suddenly soared, and with a forced smile, she said politely, "Actually, it's alright. By the way, would you like some sausage? And cured meat? If you want some, I'll make some."

Jiang Zhou knew she was busy: "Isn't it too tiring?"

"No, it won't take much effort. If you have time, go outside and get some cypress branches for me. I'll make it when we have more meat ration coupons at home."

Jiang Zhou nodded in agreement and began to think about where he could get more meat ration coupons. As for cypress branches, he could just buy them from the villagers in the suburbs.

"Xiao Yuan, I heard you were in the newspaper? Wow! You're such a good doctor, no wonder you got a job at the hospital."

"Little Jiang's wife, I want to apologize to you. I didn't know you were such a good doctor before, and I even talked about you behind your back. I'm sorry, I was being petty..."

"Little Yuan..."

"Little Jiang's wife..."

Because it was reported in the newspaper, no one dared to gossip about Yuan Xiu being admitted to the hospital anymore.

Even if someone is making noise, others will immediately retort, "If you're so capable, why don't you get those foreigners to give you a thumbs up!"

The cricket-loving person: "..."

……

Before she knew it, Yuan Xiu had been working at the hospital for a month. At first, all her energy was focused on the rows of medicine cabinets that covered the walls. After she got the hang of it, she started bringing her medical books to work. When she wasn’t busy, she would take out her medical books and take notes while reading. After work, she would go to Dr. Liu for answers to her questions.

Throughout the day, she would also sneak into the clinic a few times. When there were patients, she would deliberately stay and stand by to observe how the senior doctor treated them.

She was so frequent that the doctors naturally noticed. No one dislikes a studious and ambitious young person. Sometimes, if they didn't see her, they would come out to greet her and ask her to bring something over, giving her a reason to come to the clinic.

Director Hao saw it several times but didn't say anything.

Yuan Xiu was quite popular at the hospital, thanks to her newspaper appearance. Her reputation had grown considerably, and people were generally willing to greet her with a smile. Of course, there were also some who disliked her…

"Who is that woman?" Yuan Xiu asked Hao Jia.

The girl seemed to be from the Western medicine department. Judging from her clothes, she should be a nurse. In the past few days, whether Yuan Xiu encountered her in the cafeteria or elsewhere, she could clearly feel that the girl was rolling her eyes at her.

Hao Jia peeked out the window and said, "Her? It's Wang Xiaomei! Why are you asking about her? Did she say something nasty?"

Yuan Xiu shook her head: "Why do you think she would say something unpleasant to me?"

Hao Jia pulled a handful of sunflower seeds from her pocket and gave half to Yuan Xiu. "Our pharmacy always needs two people, according to the staffing requirements. Do you know who the person in front of you is?"

Yuan Xiu: "Wang Xiaomei?"

"Yes, that's her!" Hao Jia began to tell her why Wang Xiaomei left the pharmacy.

"She also studied pharmacy, but I don't know how they taught her at school. She didn't learn any basic knowledge and made a lot of jokes when she first arrived..."

"Can you believe it? Someone who studied traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy couldn't even distinguish between licorice tablets and astragalus tablets, and made the wrong prescription several times. After working for almost half a year, she still couldn't recognize all the medicines in the medicine cabinet. Later, Director Hao sent her back to the personnel department, and now she's a nurse in the inpatient department."

Yuan Xiu understood now. No wonder she rolled her eyes at her. She, a graduate of a regular school, didn't stay, while she, who came from a self-taught background, did. Anyone who felt resentful would dislike her.

"A nurse's job must be more demanding than working in a pharmacy, right?"

"Of course, Wang Xiaomei is just a nurse in a regular ward. With her skill level, the hospital wouldn't dare to put her in the VIP ward."

Hao Jia munched on sunflower seeds. "If she says anything, don't hold back. Although there aren't many people in our Traditional Chinese Medicine department, we're not people who can be bullied. If things get out of hand, she'll lose face."

Yuan Xiu smiled and said, "I know."

She felt it wouldn't cause a scene unless the girl wanted people to laugh at them and openly compare the two of them.

……

That day, Yuan Xiu finally had time to start making cured meat and sausages.

She had stored ten pounds of meat at home, which she sealed and marinated with salt and spices for a few days before hanging it under the eaves to dry for three days.

She had already prepared the meat for making sausages, just waiting to cut it into small pieces, add seasonings, and stuff it into the sausage casings.

Jiang Zhou was idle at home, so Yuan Xiu entrusted him with the task of cutting meat.

Yuan Xiu used a tin bucket with one corner missing, leaving only three sides. Inside the bucket were cypress branches and rice husks. Yuan Xiu placed the marinated and semi-dried meat on a rack on top of the tin bucket, lit the cypress branches, and began to smoke the meat.

When smoking meat, the branches cannot be burned; instead, rice husks are placed on the branches so that only smoke rises without any fire.

Yuan Xiu watched the thick smoke rising, "...Won't people think our house is on fire?"

Jiang Zhou glanced at it: "No, at most they'll think we're cooking too often."

After saying that, he started chopping the meat.

She didn't prepare many sausages, only about ten in total. It wasn't that Yuan Xiu didn't want to make more, but the casings were hard to find. She had asked her master to save these casings for her, and she even gave him a pack of cigarettes that Jiang Zhou didn't smoke.

Meat coupons were hard to come by; Jiang Zhou had gone to great lengths to obtain the coupons for just ten catties of meat and three catties of sausage.

When he had almost finished cutting, Yuan Xiu went over to take a look and said, "It's ready. Go cut me a section of bamboo, about this thick and this short."

She gestured with her hands as she spoke to Jiang Zhou.

While Jiangzhou went to find bamboo joints, Yuanxiu began to season the meat filling.

Salt, Sichuan peppercorn powder, chili powder, sugar, white wine, fermented glutinous rice, pepper powder...

When Jiangzhou returned with a section of bamboo, the meat in the basin had turned bright red. Although it was impossible to taste it now, judging from the color and aroma, the sausage would definitely be delicious!

Jiang Zhou subconsciously swallowed.

Yuan Xiu took the bamboo section from his hand. "Watch the fire in the bucket. Make sure it doesn't catch fire, or the meat will burn."

Speaking of burning meat, Old Lady Yuan had done it before. That year, the family was doing well, and Yuan Xiu fed two pigs. She sold one and kept the other for herself. Yuan Xiu used the meat from the whole pig to make cured meat, hoping to have a good New Year.

Old Lady Yuan disappeared while smoking the meat; by the time Yuan Xiu returned from the field, the meat was already burning.

The meat, worth over a thousand yuan, was burned down to only twenty or thirty jin. Of those twenty or thirty jin, Grandma Yuan gave half of it to her uncle Yuan's family in town.