Chapter 399: The Mouth of Light

After buying 15 kilograms of locust flowers, Zhao Xiaojing called Chen Huiping while it was still early. When she learned that they were at home, she went back to the store, divided the locust flowers into a bag, and delivered it to Chen Huiping on her delivery tricycle.

Chen Huiping and Wang Jiandang liked this kind of seasonal food. After sending the locust flowers, they gave Zhao Xiaojing a handful of wild onions, saying that they were specially dug from the mountains. Zhao Xiaojing looked at the wild onions with large heads and thin leaves, which looked like both scallions and garlic sprouts, and was very curious for a moment.

That night, Xiaozhi reminded again to adjust the amount of food to be prepared due to the weather change. Zhao Xiaojing hurriedly sent a message to Hou Guihua and readjusted the shopping order.

As soon as the message was sent out, the forecast started from Qingming Festival. The rain that had not fallen for more than ten days finally began to fall. Hou Guihua also replied with a thumbs up at this time, and added a comment that Zhao Xiaojing's mouth was blessed.

The rain was intermittent, so the next morning Zhao Xiaojing hurried out to the store while it was still raining. As soon as she entered the kitchen, she was greeted by a scent of flowers that was even stronger than last night's.

Zhao Xiaojing raised the corners of her mouth happily, took some water and poured all the flower buds that had been left in the basket to dry last night into the vegetable basin.

"What smells so good?"

"This smells like Sophora japonica flowers. Oh, it really is Sophora japonica flowers. Did Xiao Zhao go out to buy Sophora japonica flowers so early?"

While the locust flowers were soaking, Geng Mingyan and Hou Guihua came in one after another carrying the vegetables they had just bought that morning.

"I bought it last night. The flowers look quite fresh, still buds. You went shopping so early, didn't you get wet?"

"We were afraid that we would get wet if it rained again, so we ran out as soon as the rain stopped!" Hou Guihua put the dishes down in a hurry, and then the two of them went out of the kitchen to move the dishes, and Zhao Xiaojing followed quickly behind them.

Hou Guihua and Geng Mingyan live together. Since asking Hou Guihua to help buy groceries, Geng Mingyan often goes along because she can't sleep in the morning. They often buy groceries very early. If the two arrive first, they will cook in the kitchen and cook for Zhao Xiaojing and Su Yuchen together.

"There used to be a locust tree on the hill behind my house. Every year at this time, my mother would go and pick a few bags of locust flowers. We would have them with every meal, from the buds to the flowers. I ate them so much that I'm afraid of them now!" Hou Guihua shook her head as she moved the vegetables.

"I used to be so greedy but couldn't eat them. At that time, the vendors selling locust flowers were all mobile vendors. They would be there one moment and gone the next. If I wanted to eat them, I could only wait for my mother to get off work and run into them on the street. There were very few times when I could buy them." Zhao Xiaojing recalled with a smile.

"Xiao Zhao lives in the city, right? We have plenty of this stuff in the countryside. We can go pick it whenever we want. We go out every year when the season comes, but the best time to eat it is right when the buds are just forming." Geng Mingyan put down the last basket of vegetables and ran to the vegetable bowl to pick up a few flowers. "These flowers are really good, especially when they are at their best. How did you cook the locust flowers that Xiao Zhao ate when he was a child?"

“Making dumplings.”

"Making dumplings? Then your mother must be very patient with you. I've never eaten dumplings made with locust flowers in my life!" Hou Guihua curled her lips and said, "My mother just adds some flour and steams them and eats them as a dish!"

"Me too. My uncle's family also does a perfunctory job. Just steam and mix it, and then give them a bowl of rice, and that's a meal."

"Then let's make dumplings today." Zhao Xiaojing glanced at the overcast sky outside the window with great interest. "It's raining, so business has been affected. We can still spare some time to make locust flower dumplings. When Xiao Wanzi comes, ask him to set up the mini-program for takeout. The roads are slippery due to the rain, so let's just not take any takeout today."

"You! Other bosses are worried about the lack of business, but you are having fun. Fortunately, it rains less often, otherwise I don't think you can pay your employees' salaries every month." Geng Mingyan smiled and shook her head.

"I don't think it will rain!" Hou Guihua also glanced out the window. "The rain has been on and off. I said it was going to rain this morning, but it hasn't rained since I went to buy groceries. I saw the weather forecast says it will be cloudy."

"If it's cloudy, there will be a lot of customers coming. We will definitely focus on business then. When can't we make dumplings? You open a shop to make money. We can easily talk it out. You can just eat something after the customers leave. You don't have to make dumplings and go through the trouble." Geng Mingyan said.

"The weather is unpredictable. It has stopped raining for so long, it will probably rain at noon." Zhao Xiaojing raised a determined smile.

The three of them soaked the meat that needed to be soaked in advance and started preparing breakfast.

Zhao Xiaojing stirred a pot of corn porridge, and Geng Mingyan took out the noodles that she had made at home yesterday from the lunch box, and quickly tore out a few fried dough sticks and fried them. Then she paired them with Zhao Xiaojing's salted duck eggs, which had been pickled until they were oily and sandy, using her increasingly mature pickling technique, and two small pickled vegetables, and a comfortable breakfast was easily prepared.

It started to drizzle while they were having breakfast. At first, Hou Guihua and Geng Mingyan didn't take it seriously, thinking it was just a fluke and would stop after a while. However, the rain continued until noon, and it got heavier as lunch approached. Hou Guihua even ran over from next door to repeat what Zhao Xiaojing had said.

"Your mouth is amazing, more useful than the weather forecast! Luckily I listened to your advice. We didn't pickle many spareribs, otherwise it would have been a waste! When are you going to make dumplings? I'll help!"

It was raining heavily, and there were people coming to eat, but they were all neighbors nearby. Compared with the usual flow of people, the number was simply not on the same level. Therefore, everyone in the store became idle. Hou Guihua, who couldn't sit still, had already started to take the initiative to find things to do.

"I'll wait for Xiao Wenzi to finish kneading the dough so I can mix the filling. After that, Xiao Wenzi and I will roll out the dough and you guys can wrap it."

"I'm almost done. Sister Jingzi, you still want to fry eggs? Go ahead." Lu Hongwen looked up and shouted while kneading the dough.

"Okay." The three chefs were taking turns cooking at this time. Zhao Xiaojing was free at the time, so she glanced at the basin in Lu Hongwen's hand and started heating the oil in the wok.

There were many employees in the store, so Zhao Xiaojing cracked thirty eggs at once. After seasoning and beating them, she poured the egg liquid into the hot oil pan. As the oil pan sizzled, she stirred it quickly with chopsticks. After a while, the eggs were shaped. Zhao Xiaojing picked up the spoon again and stirred the eggs into finer pieces.

After the eggs were out of the pot, Zhao Xiaojing replaced the pot with boiling water, turned on high heat, waited for the water to boil again, and poured in the locust flowers that had been drained on the side.

After a few seconds, the locust flowers turned emerald green. Zhao Xiaojing quickly scooped them out with a colander, put them into an empty basin, and added the second batch of locust flowers.

Then rinse the blanched locust flowers with cold water, wring them dry, chop them into small pieces, drizzle them with half a spoonful of scallion oil and half a spoonful of sesame oil, then add chopped eggs, dried shrimps, a handful of chopped leeks, salt, MSG, and beef bone powder and mix well.

"Not bad, you are quite efficient." After the filling was mixed, Zhao Xiaojing looked up and found that Lu Hongwen had also mixed the dough on time.