Zhao Qingyun helped her put the ground soy milk in the kitchen. She set up a cross on the stove, tied gauze to the four corners, scooped a large spoonful of soy milk in, and said to the camera: "This step is to filter the soy pulp. Add the boiled water that was prepared earlier, and then mix it evenly with the soy milk. You can knead it several times until the soy pulp is smooth."

It was a bit hot by the stove, so Xu Lai raised her hand to wipe the sweat with her sleeve and continued to add water and knead the soybean pulp.

"Don't throw away the soybean pulp after you've filtered it. You can keep it to feed the chickens or throw it into the pond to feed the fish. Actually, soybean pulp is edible; you can fry it into small balls. But my family doesn't really like it, so I just feed it to the chickens."

It took her another hour to filter all the soy milk. Xu Lai hurriedly ate lunch and then started again.

She lit a fire, placed two large, durable firewood on it, and waited until the pot was almost hot before pouring in the soy milk. She struggled a bit to move it, but thankfully it didn't spill.

While waiting for it to boil, she kept stirring it with a spatula, explaining, "This step is to prevent it from sticking to the pot."

When it came time to apply the lime water, Xu Lai called her grandmother over. She didn't do much herself and wasn't very good at controlling the amount of lime, so she asked her grandmother to come and help her to be on the safe side in order to avoid messing it up.

"First, slake the lime. This is edible. Don't get it wrong and buy the kind of lime used for plastering walls," Xu Lai said while pounding the lime.

Before adding lime water, Xu Lai filled a basin with some soy milk to keep, intending to add some sugar and drink it directly.

Grandma first put a dot in the pot, then brushed lime water into the vat and poured in the soy milk.

Xu Lai ladled some soy milk into a bowl, took a sip, and instantly felt that all the hard work of the past half-day had been worthwhile.

After a while, she prepared the gauze and the container for holding the tofu. She scooped out a large spoonful of tofu and said, "The tofu hasn't been pressed down yet, so you can take some out. This is what we call tofu pudding."

She scooped the rest of the tofu in, wrapped it tightly in gauze, and then placed a large stone on top to weigh it down. To make sure it wasn't sealed properly, she added an extra large stone. Now she just waited for the tofu to set.

Xu Lai took two bowls of tofu pudding to the next room and said, "Grandma Jiang, this is freshly made tofu pudding. Please try it."

Grandma Jiang smiled and said, "Alright, alright, you've always been skillful with your hands, let me taste it."

Grandma Jiang took a bite and praised, "I think it's delicious, tender and smooth."

Xu Lai smiled and said, "Then please eat more. I'll bring you some tofu later."

Xu Lai waited for more than an hour before removing the gauze. The tofu had already set. She touched it and found that the texture was exactly what she wanted, and it was neither too tough nor too soft.

There was a lot of tofu made this time, and the three of them at home definitely couldn't finish it all, so Xu Lai packed two pieces into each bag and delivered them to the neighbors nearby.

She delivered it to the neighbor's house last, and she made sure to take a few extra pieces. Zhao Qingyun was washing vegetables with his sleeves rolled up when he saw her and asked with interest, "Is the tofu finally finished?"

Xu Lai nodded: "I'll bring you some."

Zhao Qingyun scoffed: "It took almost a whole day to make this. Wouldn't it have been better to just buy a block of tofu from the street?"

Xu Lai ignored him, but still retorted, "What do you know? This is homemade, so it's definitely different from what you buy."

Just as Zhao Qingyun was about to continue speaking, Grandma Jiang appeared out from behind him at some point, smacked him hard on the head, and said, "You don't know about the things that ordinary people live in. In the past, we didn't have money to buy tofu. We made it at home, and each household would get a share. The next time someone else made it, we would get two pieces too. It was a back-and-forth exchange."