Chapter 183 French Fries

After taking a short break at noon, Wen Yongnan and his brother had to go back to the private school as they had classes in the afternoon.

Chen Hanxing had nothing to do now, so he taught Wen Zhenyi and a few other children how to read.

Wen Zhenyi glanced at Shen Hanxing: “Grandpa Shen, aren’t you coming to eat these days?”

Shen Hanxing smiled and nodded: "He needs to prepare some things. I originally said I would go by myself, but he said it was his business."

"Prepare something."

Chen Hanxing smiled faintly without saying anything, then turned around and went to teach Hu Zi and the others how to read.

Wen Zhenyi was full of questions, but he simply stopped thinking about it. Not long after he started learning, customers came to the store.

Shen Hanxing got up to take care of things in the store, and the children went back to their rooms for a nap.

Wen Zhenyi took a stroll around the market and bought all the potatoes he could find there.

When Zhu Tao and the others passed by the backyard, they saw a lot of potatoes piled up in the yard: "Yi Yi, are these potatoes you're going to use the day after tomorrow?"

"Well, I'm going to take care of it." Wen Zhenyi grabbed Ma Ruier and Ma Yushun to do the work.

Ma Yushun looked at the potatoes in the yard and was a little confused: "Do they have to peel them all?"

"Yeah, hurry up and help with the work."

Ma Yushun could only help with the work without complaint.

Ma Ruier washed the peeled potatoes and soaked them in a bucket of water. "Cousin, are you going to make potato chips out of these?"

"No, I want to make French fries."

"What are French fries?"

Wen Zhenyi thought for a moment and said, "You can think of it as a kind of potato chips, just with a different taste."

“Is it more complicated to do?”

“The process is a little more involved.”

Wen Zhenyi was peeling potatoes with a knife when he suddenly thought of asking Xiong Lu to help with something: "Rui'er, when you go back today, ask Xiong Lu to come over tomorrow."

"Are you going to make something with it?"

"Yeah, there are quite a few things I want him to do."

Ma Yushun had been peeling potatoes for the entire afternoon and now felt a little nauseous just looking at potatoes.

Wen Zhenyi cut the potatoes into long strips and threw them into clean water to soak out the excess starch.

When Geng Ru and her friends finished cleaning up the shop, they had not yet finished processing the potatoes.

"Yi Yi, what are you going to do now?"

"I'm preparing ingredients for tea the day after tomorrow."

"Wouldn't it be too late to do it tomorrow?"

"I'm going to make chrysanthemum cakes or something like that tomorrow. I have to go to the market to find some ingredients, so I'm a bit pressed for time."

"You're right. We need to prepare the bamboo basket and there's a lot of work to do."

"Yes, basically everything has to be prepared in advance."

Wen Zhenyi looked at the potato chips and saw that they were almost enough, so he asked them to stop and rest, and then he got up to prepare dinner.

They have been busy all day, so it’s better for them to cook dinner themselves.

She noticed that everyone had a poor appetite recently and didn't like to eat much because of the hot weather, so she simply made noodles with soybean paste. There was no pork yet, but there was beef sauce.

After kneading the dough, she set it aside to rise while she shredded the cucumber and carrot and minced the onion, garlic and ginger.

Geng Ru and the others couldn't sit still either, so they wanted to come and see what she was doing and learn something from her.

Wen Zhenyi never hid anything from them and taught them everything he knew.

Geng Ru saw that she was just preparing something: "Yi Yi, are you going to make noodles?"

"Well, I'm going to make noodles with soybean paste. Noodles with soybean paste are supposed to use pork, but there's no pork in town right now, so I'm going to use the beef paste I already have."

Wen Zhenyi took out the rested noodles as he spoke, preparing to make ramen.

Geng Ru watched as the noodles grew from one to countless, each noodle evenly thick and thin. They couldn't achieve this effect by rolling noodles by hand: "How did they make this?"

"Aunt, this is ramen. I'll teach you when I'm done with this."

"Okay, there's no rush anyway. You can teach me after you're done with this busy period."

Wen Zhenyi put the noodles into the pot. After the noodles were cooked, he took them out, scooped a spoonful of beef sauce on them, added the seasonings he had just cut, mixed them well and they were ready to eat.

Everyone in the yard took a bowl and started eating. Although it was not as hot as soup noodles, it was very suitable for eating in summer.

Geng Ru and the others will go back after dinner and come back early tomorrow morning.

Wen Zhenyi sent them out of the store and went back to the kitchen to start working again.

Zhu Tao and the others wanted to help, but she sent them off to wash up and rest.

"You've all been busy all day, and we have to get up early to open the store tomorrow. I can do it by myself here, so I don't need you."

"But..." Aunt You and the others wanted to say something.

Wen Zhenyi interrupted what they were about to say: "No buts, have a good rest. If you get sick from exhaustion, that will give me a headache."

Aunt Ding looked at her: "You really don't need our help?"

"Really? It's just some simple preliminary preparations, and I can do it all by myself."

Aunt Yin patted their arms and said, "Let's go. Let's not cause any more trouble for her."

Wen Zhenyi watched them all go to rest, then started to process the potato chips.

Boil water in a pot, take out the potato strips soaked in the water, put them into the pot and cook for a while, then take them out, drain and let them cool.

While waiting for the water to drain, she also took the time to take a bath.

Place the drained potato strips in a clean bowl and freeze them on ice.

Although the freezing effect is not as good as that of a refrigerator, one day is enough for them to be frozen.

When Cream woke up and didn't see her, she ran out of the window. Seeing that the oil lamp was still on in the kitchen, she didn't go in, but sat outside in the yard waiting.

It knew it couldn't enter the kitchen, as Wen Zhenyi had told it.

Wen Zhenyi finished processing the French fries and turned around to see Butter squatting at the door, looking at her with his head tilted. He took a small jar from a shelf, grabbed a handful of beef cubes from it, and held it in his palm.

She blew out the kitchen lamp and walked out of the kitchen: "Come on, Cream."

Cream followed behind her, neither too far nor too close, and only jumped into her arms after she sat on the stool.

Wen Zhen saw its little black paws leaving plum blossom prints on his clothes and said, "Your little paws are so dirty." He put the beef cubes on the table and got up to get a towel to wipe its feet.

Naiyou enjoyed her service very much. He spread himself out like a big letter and let her wash his feet and wipe his body.

Wen Zhenyi looked at its enjoying expression and flicked its little nose lightly.

Cream instantly turned over and jumped up, looking at her with tears in her eyes.

Wen Zhenyi didn't realize how much strength he had used and thought he had hurt it. He rubbed its head twice and said, "Alright, eat your meatballs. I'm going to sleep after you finish."

Cream jumped onto the table and ate his own meat, making some happy noises from time to time.