That day, we happened to come across a grove of sugar plum trees. The sugar plums, bright red in autumn, grew in clusters on the branches, a truly rare sight.

Sheng Xiping put down his basket and climbed directly up the sugar plum tree.

A light frost fell a couple of days ago, and the sugar plums that were affected by the frost had a mushy flesh. When I picked one and put it in my mouth, it was sweet with a hint of sourness, unlike before when it was both sour and astringent.

If this were in later generations, there would be plenty of fruits and snacks available, and nobody would care about this.

Right now, these little sugar plums are definitely one of the most popular snacks among children.

Sheng Xiping ignored all that and used both hands to pick the sugar plums from the tree.

They picked them and threw them on the ground. After picking all the plums from one tree, they went down and scooped up the sugar plums from the ground, putting them all into their baskets.

In just one afternoon, Sheng Xiping picked a full basket of sugar plums and carried it home.

As soon as he entered, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu came up to him, "Dad?"

These days, Sheng Xiping goes into the mountains every day. Sometimes when he finds jujubes or wild grapes, he brings some back for the children. So when the two children see their father come back, they rush to greet him.

"Here, these are sugar plums. You two can have some first." Sheng Xiping grabbed a handful of sugar plums and handed them to the children.

"Mom, where's our basket? I need to use it."

The basket that Sheng Xiping mentioned refers to is a tool made of wood or bamboo strips, forming a circle, with fine wire mesh nailed to the bottom.

This thing comes in many models, and it's generally used to sift small grains, cornmeal, and the like.

These days, most families can't afford processed grains; they take corn to the mill to grind it into coarse grains, fine grains, cornmeal, and so on.

Corn grits come in all sizes; just by winnowing them and picking them by hand, you don't have to do anything else all day.

Therefore, most households will have a set of sieves custom-made, with mesh sizes of varying sizes, to sift all kinds of things.

Although the Sheng family receives government-supplied grain, the supply is insufficient for their large family size, requiring them to supplement their diet with a significant amount of corn.

Therefore, the Sheng family also had a set of sieves for sifting slag and flour.

"It's hanging on the wall in the east room. Take it yourself. What do you need it for?"

Zhang Shuzhen was busy cooking and didn't have time to deal with these things, so she told Sheng Xiping to go get them himself, and casually asked him a question.

"Oh, didn't I pick some sugar plums today? They're all ripe. If we just rub the seeds out, the flesh will be wasted."

So I thought I'd rub the pulp out and make something to eat, to keep as a snack for the two kids.

Sheng Xiping entered the room, took a basket off the wall, and picked out a suitable one with a hole in it.

Afterwards, Sheng Xiping found a basin, washed the sugar plums with water, and then rubbed a handful on a basket.

The skin of the sugar plum is very thin, and the inside is full of powdery flesh.

With this rubbing motion, the peel breaks, the flesh is squeezed out through the mesh, while the seeds and stems remain on the basket.

Once enough seeds have accumulated, they are transferred to another basin. This process continues until all the sugar plums have been rubbed, at which point the basin will be filled with a significant amount of red fruit pulp.

Add some sugar or honey to the fruit pulp, then add a little flour and mix well before steaming.

Then take them out and while they're still hot, make them into small round cakes. Place them on a cutting board or a bamboo mat, and take them out to dry during the day. After a few days, they'll be dried and can be eaten as a snack, somewhat like hawthorn slices.

In those days of scarcity, any family's child who got one of these things would be overjoyed for half a day.

For the remaining seeds and fruit stalks, simply rinse them with water, remove the fruit stalks, and let the shriveled seeds float on top. The good ones are at the bottom.

Wash the seeds twice, then spread them out on a tattered mat to dry. Once dry, they can be handed over.

While Sheng Xiping was busy preparing the sugar plums, his two children, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu, finished eating and then joined in the fun, watching their father work.

Sheng Xinyu is still young and has a mischievous streak; he's always thinking of helping out.

Sheng Xiping immediately thought, "This won't do. The fruit pulp is meant to be eaten. If my son's little black hands mess it up, how can we keep it?"

"Huahua, bring Jiaojiao and Zhuangzhuang out so we can play with them for a while." Sheng Xiping pushed his youngest son's hand away and turned to call into the house.

Upon hearing this, Hua Hua, who was sleeping inside, jumped out of the flower basket, grabbed one of the tiger cubs, threw it in front of Sheng Xinhua, and then turned around to grab another one.

Jiaojiao and Zhuangzhuang are already three months old. Compared to when Huahua was a kitten, they are quite happy.

Hua Hua nurses them, and Sheng Xiping also occasionally feeds them some formula.

They don't drink milk much anymore. Every night, Hua Hua goes out hunting, and Sheng Xiping occasionally leaves them a lot of meat when he goes into the mountains.

So these two tiger cubs grew up very quickly, their fur was so smooth and shiny, they were quite a sight to behold.

The two tiger cubs were sleeping in their den when, because of a single sentence from Sheng Xiping, Hua Hua dragged them out and threw them into the yard.

The two little guys were a bit confused. They shook their heads and shook their fur before wandering around and playing in the yard.

These tiger cubs are so big; they're at the perfect age to be mischievous.

The Sheng family raises several chickens, and they've already gone into their coop at this time.

Jiaojiao strolled over to the chicken coop, glanced at the chickens inside, then opened her mouth wide and hissed at them, startling the chickens into squawking.

Fortunately, the Sheng family's chickens weren't free-range; they were kept in a designated area in the yard, surrounded by poles as tall as a person, with nets strung across them.

Otherwise, these chickens would be in trouble. They would be chased by the two children or the two tiger cubs, constantly jumping around in fear. How could they lay eggs?

Jiaojiao was scaring the chickens, while Zhuangzhuang sauntered over to the dogs, wanting to play with them.

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