At the entrance to the single-story house, Uncle Zhang scooped up the honeycomb and took it home to clean. Today, he was having bee pupae with his liquor.
Xue Yuantong struggled to hold up the stainless steel basin. "Soup, braised, stir-fried, or deep-fried—which one do you want?"
There were five or six pounds of spare ribs, enough for several meals. To keep them from getting sick of it, Xue Yuantong decided to save more than half in the fridge.
Xue Chuchu offered no opinion. Jiang Ning had gotten the ribs, so he had the right to decide what to do with them.
"Let's try fried ribs," Jiang Ning suggested.
"Fry two pounds?" Xue Yuantong said. "There'll still be some left over, and we can save them for Mom to try."
Xue Yuantong prepared some ginger, cooking wine, light soy sauce, starch, and other ingredients, then began marinating the ribs. Since it would take a while, the three of them went to the doorway to watch the sunset and the shifting clouds.
No one knew who had overturned an ink pot, but black slowly stained the sky, gradually swallowing the sun's brilliance. At last, the last streak of sunset glow vanished from the horizon.
Night fell.
Xue Yuantong switched on the light by the door. Tiny flying insects swirled around the glow, and she suddenly said:
"Since New Year's, it feels like the power hasn't gone out once. I remember it went out several times last year."
Xue Chuchu said, "It isn't the hottest time of year yet. In a few more days, every household will have their air conditioners on, and the strain on the grid will be huge. The power will probably start going out then."
Back when they lived in the village, summer blackouts were common. Whenever that