This day is Laba Festival. It seems that they don't have the custom of celebrating this festival here, but Xu Lai thought that since it is a festival, she searched online for tutorials on local specialties and prepared to recreate them herself.

She went to the supermarket and bought a pound of purple garlic. She also had garlic cloves at home, but they had white skins. She insisted on following the instructions to avoid wasting time and ingredients if she failed.

She also needed to prepare a bottle of brewed rice vinegar and a bottle of baijiu (Chinese liquor). When she was about to pay the bill, she remembered that she seemed to have some baijiu at home, so she put the liquor back.

Xu Yan grabbed a few packs of instant noodles from the instant noodle section and put them in her shopping cart, then grabbed a few bags of potato chips.

Xu Lai couldn't help but say, "You really are a glutton. I knew it when you heard I was coming to the supermarket, you rushed over here."

Xu Yan chuckled, "Thank you in advance, my dear sister."

Xu Yan also wanted to pay for it himself, but his mother stopped giving him living expenses during winter break. The money he earned from part-time jobs was saved for something useful and couldn't be touched for the time being, so he could only occasionally borrow from his sister.

When the two returned home, Xu Lai stopped Xu Yan, who was about to go upstairs, saying, "Where are you going? Come help me peel garlic."

Xu Yan lifted the bag of snacks. "I'm putting things in here. Don't worry, sis, I won't slack off."

He didn't come down until Xu Lai poured out the garlic and peeled it into individual cloves.

Xu Lai looked up and called out to him, and he shouted back, "Sister, don't rush, everyone has to go to the toilet right now."

Xu Lai couldn't help but roll her eyes. He needed to go to the toilet soon, so she wasn't in a hurry. She took an orange, peeled it slowly, and ate it.

When Xu Yan came downstairs, he found that the garlic hadn't been touched at all. He couldn't help but say, "Sis, you're going too far! Did you really have to wait for me to come?"

Xu Lai had just finished the last bite of her orange. She threw the orange peel into the smoked meat bin behind the house, then walked back and said, "No, I just suddenly wanted to eat an orange, and you just happened to come down at the right time."

She sat down and spread the garlic in front of her. "Come on, get to work. You don't have to do it, but you'll have to cook for yourself. I won't take care of your meals."

Xu Yan immediately became honest, "How could I not do it? I'm such a diligent person, right, sis?"

Xu Lai smiled. Her brother was useless to her; she had to play the game of Tai Chi with him.

Peel the garlic cloves, remove the ends, and then rinse them.

She saw in the tutorial that it should be thrown directly into the jar, but her conscience bothered her, so she washed it twice anyway.

Wash the garlic cloves and place them on paper to absorb the moisture, then you can prepare Laba porridge.

She started soaking the red beans, red rice, and black rice early in the morning, and they soaked for about three hours.

Wash the red dates, peanuts, longan, and glutinous rice thoroughly. Add red beans, red rice, and black rice to a clay pot, add water, and simmer.

She also added some lotus seeds, which she had dried and stored in the summer. Sometimes she would add them to soups or porridge to enhance the flavor.

I replaced a piece of coal in the stove, put the clay pot on top, and then left it to time, occasionally turning it over to prevent the bottom from sticking.

She wiped the garlic dry with a paper towel, then added a spoonful of salt and two spoonfuls of sugar, and stirred well.

Prepare a clean, dry jar. Put the garlic in, pour in rice vinegar until it covers the garlic, then pour in about half a capful of white wine. Stir it with chopsticks, cover the jar opening with plastic wrap, and then put on the lid.

She put it on the table and planned to put it in the refrigerator that evening, as the tutorial said it would make it turn green quickly.

Around noon, the porridge was almost cooked. She added a few pieces of yellow rock sugar, cooked it for a few more minutes, added some goji berries, and it was done.

She made celery stir-fried with dried tofu and bean curd skin stir-fried with meat for lunch. She really didn't know what to cook. Before, when Xu Yan wasn't home, her grandparents could eat whatever they wanted, and she wasn't picky.

Xu Yan would sometimes say he was tired of the food, sometimes that it was too bland, and sometimes that the meat was too greasy. Xu Lai almost wanted to slap him.

Today, he chose the ingredients himself and ordered the dishes by himself. Xu Lai was watching to see how picky he would be this time.

She cooked porridge for lunch but didn't cook rice. There was only leftover rice from last night in the rice cooker, so she poured it out and fried it into an egg fried rice. She put it on the table and told anyone who wanted some to help themselves.

Xu Yan looked at the porridge in front of him, took a sip, and found it very sweet. He couldn't help but say, "This Laba porridge is too sweet. I think sweet porridge with pickled vegetables tastes really strange."

Xu Lai didn't say anything, but directly placed the fried rice in front of him, saying, "Eat this, it's salty."

Xu Yan picked it up again, "This cold rice is rock hard."

Xu Lai was completely enraged by him and scolded, "Xu Yan, do you need a beating? Have I been giving you too much of a hard time these past two days? This Laba porridge isn't sweet at all; it's just right for us. Have you suffered too much hardship, so you can't stand sweet things?"

Xu Yan was too scared to say a word after being scolded. He picked up the bowl of porridge, took a sip, and said, "No, no, I think it's just right. It's fragrant, delicious, soft, and smooth."

Grandpa and Grandma couldn't help but laugh. When the two of them were little, they were just as chaotic as they were when they were children. They thought they had grown up and become more mature, but they didn't expect them to be just like they were when they were little.

Grandma smoothed things over, saying, "Alright, alright, you two are so grown up, why are you still arguing like this? Let's eat."

After finishing the meal, Xu Yan took the initiative to clear the table and wash the dishes.

Xu Lai wasn't angry at all; she just felt that Xu Yan was being too picky. She was already very patient cooking for him every day, and she really couldn't stand indulging his little quirks any longer.

In the afternoon, she took a stroll around the oil mill. The oil mill was about to shut down, and most of the tea seeds had already been bought up. Moreover, there were more than just one oil mill in Heng County, so the supply of raw materials was insufficient.

After this last batch is harvested, we'll have to wait until next year.

When she got home, she found someone in her fan group asking if she had opened another link to sell tea seed oil.

Xu Lai was a little confused. She remembered that after selling it last time, the link was taken down, and now the oil pressed in the factory is sold offline.

She clicked on it and saw that it wasn't their oil at all, but the packaging was exactly the same as hers. The only difference was the product name.

It clearly reads: "Yuxi Tea Oil".

Xu Lai immediately contacted the other party, "Hello, your tea oil packaging box is suspected of misappropriating our product packaging. Please stop using it, otherwise I will sue you according to law."

But the message disappeared without a trace, and no response was received at all.

She received more and more complaints from buyers saying that the oil was not pure. Xu Lai was at a loss for words. She hadn't sold any of those oils, so what did it have to do with her whether it was pure or not? They should contact the manufacturer who sold them the oil.