Chapter 15 Jiangmai's Little Thoughts on the Extra Fried Dough Sticks

The Jiang family hasn't had tofu pudding for several days.

Because it's too much trouble.

Just like now, the Jiang family only has one pot. After making the salt brine, they have to scoop out the brine, then boil water and steam the cakes.

After the soybean cakes are steamed, the soybean pulp needs to be filtered, the soybean milk boiled, and the brine added.

Of course, you can also add the steamed cakes after you've cooked the soy milk.

But the two little ones had to cut the lawn in the morning and didn't have time to stay home and wait for the tofu pudding.

Therefore, these past few mornings, Ye Li has been grinding the soybeans and making breakfast. After breakfast, the two little ones go out, while he cooks the soybeans and makes tofu.

Now that Jiang Ji is back, Ye Li isn't pushing the issue anymore; he has the patience and energy to keep things going.

However, in order to save time, while he was cooking the soybean cakes, he told the two little ones, Jiangmai and Jiangya, to filter the soybean residue first.

When Jiang Ji finished grinding the last bit of soybean pulp and carried the wooden bucket into the kitchen, he saw Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya carefully squeezing out the soybean residue.

Jiang Ya was clutching a burlap sack.

Jiangmai scooped up the liquid with a ladle and poured it into a burlap sack.

After filling the bag, the two of them used all four of their hands to knead and squeeze the soy milk out.

This job is simple; Jiangmai and Jiangya are already very skilled at it and can do it quickly.

Jiang Ji put down the wooden bucket in his hand and said to Ye Li, who was sitting in front of the stove tending the fire, "Give me a cloth bag, and I'll help too."

"The bag is on the cutting board."

Ye Li nodded his chin at the chopping board under the window, on which sat a slightly larger burlap sack.

Seeing Jiang Ji pick up the bag, he smiled and said, "I'll give you a penny for your wages later."

"...Why are you being so polite? You cook for this whole family, and I haven't paid you for it."

Jiang Ji didn't want the money, so he replied, mimicking Ye Li's words from the previous night.

Hearing this, Ye Li was secretly delighted.

Indeed, in the mind of the cheap husband, he is now a family with the three brothers.

It's good to have this understanding.

In a good mood, he didn't say anything more.

The flatbread was quickly steamed, and Ye Li put it into a willow basket and started cooking soy milk.

Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya carried half of the soybean residue to feed the pigs and chickens.

Jiang Ji carried the dirty clothes he had brought back yesterday to the well, intending to wash them.

By the time Ye Li finished making the tofu pudding, the three brothers had also finished their work.

Dinner is served.

I haven't had tofu pudding for several days, and today's savory broth is thick and delicious, just as good as the tofu stalls in the county town.

As a result, not only Ye Li had a big appetite, but Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya also ate a bowl and a half, their bellies were so full that they couldn't eat a single bite of pancake.

After the two little ones finished eating, they got up from the table and prepared to pick up their baskets and go cut grass.

Ye Li hurriedly stopped them: "You two go to your second uncle's house and cut some chives. We'll make egg and chive pancakes for lunch."

Egg and chive pancakes?

Jiang Ya's eyes immediately lit up: "Great!"

Jiang Ji, standing to the side, seemed hesitant to speak.

Isn't that too extravagant?

I ate meat yesterday, and today I'm eating fried dough sticks...

However, Xiaomai and Yage said yesterday that the three of them usually eat soybean pulp and corn pancakes, garlic sprouts and tofu, and corn porridge, with each of them having an egg in the morning.

Therefore, today's fried dough cakes are for him...

Uncontrollably, his narrow eyes gently swept over Ye Li.

When his parents were still alive, when he returned from the private school, his mother would talk gently and softly about her plans to give him an extra meal at lunch, just like a simpleton.

...

He lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes concealing the longing in them.

Since his parents passed away, he has been eating at his second uncle's house every year after returning from the private school.

His second uncle and aunt treated him like their own son.

He was genuinely grateful to them.

But this somewhat dilapidated and low-ceilinged kitchen is where he was born and raised.

Many years later, he returned to this place and not only enjoyed a delicious and satisfying meal in a peaceful state of mind.

It felt like I had returned to the past.

His nose felt a little sore, and he gripped the spoon tightly, trying his best to suppress the turbulent emotions that were beginning to surface.

We must not show anything unusual.

Otherwise, that idiot would definitely laugh at him.

He quickly finished the remaining tofu pudding in the bowl, and as he put the bowl on the stove, he said, "I'm going to my second uncle's house to ask about the situation in the fields."

Upon hearing this, Ye Li immediately felt a little guilty.

Since he transmigrated, he has never cared about the crops in the fields.

Beiyang County has many mountains and little land. Jiang's father was allocated eight mu of land, and his son-in-law was allocated six mu after he turned ten.

The father and son owned a total of fourteen mu of land.

Of these, two mu were of superior quality, five mu were of medium quality, and the remaining seven mu were of inferior quality.

After Jiang's father passed away, no one cultivated these fields, so the cheap man rented out all five acres of medium-sized fields.

Two mu of superior land and four mu of inferior land were given to Jiang Dahe to cultivate for free.

Jiang Dahe's family has many members but little land, and they desperately need land.

The cheap husband doesn't charge rent, and the three brothers all eat at Jiang Dahe's house. Moreover, Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya are young and need someone to take care of them.

How could we let Jiang Dahe's family work so hard only to reap little reward?

But Jiang Dahe absolutely refused to accept it for free, and every year he would give his husband two taels of silver as rent.

Two taels of silver may seem like a lot, but it's only enough for the rent of two mu of high-quality land. Jiang Dahe's family is essentially farming four mu of low-quality land for free.

But my husband is extremely grateful.

Jiang Dahe's family also needs to raise wheat and sprouts!

As for the remaining three mu of inferior land, my husband originally intended to rent it out as well.

However, inferior fields are either far from water sources or lack fertility, so if the rent is too high, no one will be willing to rent them. In Beiyang County, there are many business travelers from other places, and there are many opportunities to do odd jobs. The villagers of Yezaopo do not necessarily have to farm.

If the rent is too low, it's better to grow it yourself.

Although the cheap man was always at the private school, Ye Daji said that the Ye family would often come over to help with the work, and Jiang Dahe also said that it was only three acres of land, so it wouldn't be a problem to take care of it.

Therefore, the cheap husband kept these three acres of inferior land and planted some drought-resistant and high-yield corn and potatoes every year.

After paying all the taxes at the end of the year, the rest was given to Jiang Dahe to use as his daily food rations.

But now it's two mu, and the cheap husband sold one mu to get married.

After Ye Li arrived, she completely forgot about the two acres of land.

Actually, Ye Liang had reminded him a few days ago to go and weed. It had rained the day before he transmigrated, so there was no need for irrigation recently, only weeding.

But he pretended not to hear.

The daily grind of millstones exhausted him, and all he wanted to do when he had a spare moment was lie down.

Now that his cheap husband wants to go to the fields, he simply replies "okay," without saying another word.

After Jiang Ji led the two children out, he washed the dishes and chopsticks, and then started kneading the dough.

He first mixed soybean residue with cornmeal.

There's soybean pulp every day, so we have to steam corn and soybean pulp cakes every day.

Halfway through steaming the soybean pulp and corn cakes, Jiang Ya and Jiang Mai returned with a large bundle of chives.

Jiang Ji didn't come back; he went to the fields to weed, pushing Jiang Dahe's cart.

With Jiang Ji weeding, the two little guys didn't go out to cut grass today. The pigs love to eat the purslane, mugwort, and goosegrass in the field.

Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya stayed home to help pick chives.

There was a lot of chives, so Ye Li prepared two fillings: one with chives and eggs, and the other with chives and tofu.

After mixing the filling, he began kneading the dough.

To make pancakes, you definitely need to use wheat flour. The Jiang family's grain is all delivered by Jiang Dahe, but the amount of wheat flour is small. Now there are less than three catties left, so he poured it all into the earthenware basin and added a bowl of cornmeal.

Seeing this, Jiang Mai couldn't help but remind him, "Uncle's family doesn't have much wheat left either; there's still a month until the wheat harvest."

"It's alright, I'll go buy it from Aunt Qiumei this afternoon."

Ye Lihun didn't care.

He can make money!

Currently, the daily sales volume of tofu is around ten jin (5 kg). Today, a total of sixty jin (30 kg) of tofu was made, ten jin (4 kg) were sold, and the remaining fifty jin (25 kg) can be fried into twenty-five jin (10.5 kg) of tofu puffs and large skewers.

One jin earns five and seven li, so twenty-five jin would earn one hundred and forty-two and five li.

Of course, this is the ideal situation.

But it's pretty much the same; the one or two pounds or two or three pounds that one eats every day doesn't make much difference.

With a daily income of 100 coins, it's no big deal to enjoy a hearty meal of white flour pancakes.

Seeing that Jiang Mai hesitated to speak, he smiled and said, "Alright, alright, with me here, you and Ya-ge should just eat and drink as you please, don't think too much."

Jiang Mai: "..."

Actually, what he meant was that instead of spending the money on food and drinks, he should lend it to his brother so that his brother could focus on his studies.

He will definitely pay it back once his brother passes the imperial examination and becomes a scholar.

But remembering how his brother-in-law always looked exhausted and sweaty every morning, he scratched his head and swallowed his words about borrowing money.

It's not easy for Brother to make money.

Moreover, after only a few days, he actually dared to covet that good-for-nothing's money.

horrible!

Feeling guilty, he got up and ran out.

Jiang Ya sat motionless on the small stool, his little hands cupping his face, his big eyes looking at the ceramic pot: "Brother Li, shall I start the fire later?"

“Okay, then go grab a handful of wheat straw to start a fire.” Ye Li nodded.

Jiang Ya crisply agreed, got up, and ran out.

When Jiang Ji returned with a cart full of green grass, Ye Li had just finished making the fried dough cakes.

Ye Liang also arrived.

Today, Ye Liang brought over four skewers of flatbread: "Brother Yi knows that Xiao Ji is back, so he asked me to bring some flatbread."

He was a little embarrassed: "It's selling like hotcakes, but you haven't tried it yet."

Actually, he had wanted to give it to her before, but Yi Ge'er couldn't bear to part with it and said that Li Ge'er could do it herself.

Last night when he got home, he said that Li Ge'er insisted on letting him gnaw on a big bone, and only then did Yi Ge'er realize that Li Ge'er had really changed his ways.

In addition, Jiang Ji came back. He left town in the morning, and Yi Ge'er gave him four pancakes to bring with him.

Ye Li smiled and said, "Brother, you let us try the pancakes from the beginning. As for the red oil tofu puffs, I can make those myself. Why did you have to walk twenty miles to bring them over?"

"Sit down and eat. Today's lunch is quite sumptuous."

Seeing that Ye Li showed no signs of anger, Ye Liang breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Ji also said, "Brothers, we're family, let's not talk about these things. Sit down and eat."

Upon hearing this, Ye Liang happily exclaimed "Ah!"

The five people sat down at the table, their mouths watering at the sight of the food, and they couldn't wait to pick up their chopsticks.

Jiang Ji ate tofu puffs for the first time—yesterday there were big bones, so Ye Li asked Ye Liang to take all the tofu puffs with him.

After swallowing, he couldn't help but glance at Ye Li across from him, puzzled.

How did this person create such a delicious new food?

But this question only flashed through my mind.

He lowered his head and focused on eating the pancake.

Forget it, he's not familiar with this person. If he asks, he'll probably be rebuffed.

With such delicious food in front of him, he didn't want to make a fool of himself.

After a hearty meal, everyone went about their own business.

Ye Li fries tofu puffs, Ye Liang lights the fire.

Jiang Ji went down to the field to weed, while the two little ones went out to collect firewood.

After seeing Ye Liang off, Ye Li started boiling water.

Well, since we're going to have our wedding night, we definitely need to take a bath first.