Although separated by a dark coarse porcelain bowl, the moment the liquid was poured onto the ground, the two children were surprised to notice that the gray wood ash water in the wooden barrel had turned into a clear and slightly yellowish color.

Su Qingluan turned around and put the soy milk that Su Xuanhe had just ground into another earthenware jar, added the water that had been prepared in advance, put it on the stove and stirred it constantly with a long wooden stick. After the soy milk started to boil, she quickly poured in the wood ash.

"Er Zhuang, come and help!" Su Qingluan called Er Zhuang by his nickname in a hurry, which made him a little unhappy - after all, he now fully understood that compared to Er Zhuang, the name "Xuan He" sounded better.

But for the sake of food, Su Erzhuang decided not to care.

Although Su Xuanhe was less than eight years old, he had considerable strength in his hands. With his help, Su Qingluan transferred the soy milk to a square, open-topped wooden box, approximately two feet square and two or three inches deep, padded with white gauze. This was the same wooden box the Su family used to press tofu.

After pouring in the soy milk and seeing the tofu gradually solidifying, Su Qingluan covered it with gauze, covered it with the matching template, and pressed a kimchi jar on each side, and then left it alone for the time being.

"It's done!" Su Qingluan patted the sawdust and soy milk residue on her hands. "You guys go out and play for a while, and then you can eat delicious soft tofu."

After coaxing her two younger brothers and sisters out, Su Qingluan washed her hands again, took out a cloth bag from the cabinet where grain was stored, looked at the words written on it, and poured out some bean powder into an enamel basin.

Since there was no food stall today, there were no rolls left, so Su Qingluan wanted to eat bean cakes in the evening.

After stirring the bean powder until it could be shaped with a light touch and was slightly moist and water-permeable, Su Qingluan placed another basin on top of the basin containing the bean cakes and placed it outside where it could be exposed to sunlight.

After Su Qingluan finished making the bean cakes, she turned around to look at the tofu. Due to the gravity of the two kimchi jars and the wooden board, the tofu had been pressed.

Although this two-foot square piece of tofu is not very thick, it is still too much for the Su family to finish.

So, Su Qingluan simply divided the tofu into several equal pieces, leaving enough for the Su family to eat, and distributed the rest to neighbors and fellow villagers. Then she received food such as salted fish, jerky, dried vegetables, chicken eggs, etc. from the villagers as "thank you gifts".

Su Qingluan looked at the pile of food in her hands and smiled helplessly: these neighbors seemed to be afraid that she would suffer a loss. They just gave her a piece of tofu and brought out a lot of things in large and small packages.

If Su Qingluan didn't accept it, they would be unhappy one by one, raising their eyebrows and glaring at her: "What's the matter, Su family girl, do you look down on me?"

In one word, Su Qingluan lost her temper.

And so she came back with more stuff than when she left.

Not to mention that Yang and Su Guangfu were at a loss whether to laugh or cry when they saw these things, Su Qingluan was busy in the kitchen at the moment.

She brought the basin containing the bean flour balls back to the kitchen from outside the door. Because the basin was quite dark in color, a brown color that was almost black, it naturally absorbed heat. Coupled with the high temperature in summer, the entire enamel basin was heated by the sun in just a short period of time.

Su Qingluan opened the enamel basin, and a slight wave of heat hit her face. Su Qingluan pressed the bean flour mixed with water. The soft touch told her that the bean flour was well fermented.

Then, she grabbed a piece of bean flour ball, slightly bent the fingers of both hands to form a "gathering" gesture, turned her wrist over and gently threw the bean flour cake in one hand into the palm of the other hand. After doing this back and forth several times, the bean flour cake ball gradually became an ellipsoid.

Su Qingluan put the bean cake in her hand against the edge of the frying pan with a "snap". The bean cake was quite heavy, and the frying pan was pressed so that it lost its center balance and tilted slightly.

Seeing this, Su Qingluan quickly made another bean cake ball of similar size and placed it in the same position as the previous bean cake.

First, he pasted one on each of the top, bottom, left and right sides, and then pasted four more in the gaps between the four bean cakes. Then he broke off the last small piece and pasted it on a slightly smaller bean cake, until the last small piece was completely cut into pieces.

Su Qingluan put all the bean cakes on it and poured some water into the depression in the middle. Then she brought the frying pan to the stove.

Su Qingluan looked at the depression in the iron pot and found that it could actually hold quite a bit of water.

She looked around the kitchen and finally turned the lid of the steamer basket over and covered the iron frying pan - it was just the right size to prevent the moisture inside from escaping.

Su Qingluan looked down at the fire in the stove and saw that it was burning too strongly, so she pulled out two thicker pieces of firewood to reduce the fire by a little.

Then she turned and looked at the bowl of two large pieces of tender tofu soaked in water on the platform below the window.

Su Qingluan carefully, almost reverently, took the kitchen knife that Old Master Xu had given her today, a barely perceptible smile forming on the corners of her mouth. "New buddy, today I'm going to see you show off your prowess!"

After making a joke, the corners of her smiling mouth suddenly drooped, and her eyes became sharp and focused, making them look particularly deep.

Then, she took out a piece of tofu and placed it steadily on the chopping board in front of her. Then, she held the tofu slightly with her left and right hands, and raised the knife with her right hand!

Su Qingluan thought about it and simply divided the tofu into two halves without adjusting the shape.

After all, although the tofu was irregular in shape, it would only cause the chef's ghost - if there really was one - to nag at her, but if her mother knew that she had thrown away usable ingredients, she would probably be scolded and might even be punished with mixed doubles.

After all, for ordinary people who have suffered a lot, there is no greater sin than wasting food.

Then, the kitchen knife in his right hand fell gently, and the originally white jade-like tender tofu curled up like a page of white paper.

Looking closely, I realized that it was not a piece of paper, but a piece of tender tofu as thin as paper.

"Dong dong dong dong..." As the sound of the blade tapping the chopping board sounded regularly, the original whole piece of tender tofu seemed to have lost its force. As the blade slowly moved horizontally, the tofu gradually tilted to the side.

Looking closely, it was found that the piece of tofu was cut into countless thin slices. Without the support of volume, the thin slice of tender tofu naturally tilted to one side.

After cutting all the tofu slices into pieces, Su Qingluan used the sharp side of a kitchen knife to wipe the tofu slices in the opposite direction of their fall, and the "thin paper" pieces fell neatly to the other side.