Chapter 37 Breaking Corn

"Wild?"

"It must be wild. No one grows chestnuts around here." Su Zi sat back.

"Oh, then I must try this dish. Who will cook later? Can you cook the dish I ordered?"

Su Zi took a sip of tea and said, "I cook all the meals here. My father has given me the secret recipe. You can wait for them to eat in the evening. For breakfast, you can have scallion oil noodles. You can taste my cooking skills later."

As he was speaking, Su Yuehe brought over a bundle of green onions.

Several people quickly cleaned up the onions. Han Chen volunteered to help Su Zi make the fire. Seeing that he was so familiar with the movements, Su Zi confidently handed the task to him.

Bai Youyou cuts the green onions, and Su Zi heats a pot of oil. Fry the chopped green onion whites and green onion leaves separately over low heat. Then put light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce in a bowl and mix evenly.

Fry the scallion oil in the pot for about ten minutes. When it cools down a little, add the prepared juice and simmer on low heat for about one minute. Sprinkle some cooked sesame seeds and the scallion oil for the noodles is ready.

The noodles they ate were handmade noodles that they learned to make yesterday in order to shoot footage. They followed the principle of adding more water when there was more noodles, and successfully had quite a lot of noodles left over. With two more people today, they were able to finish them all.

Add scallion oil to the cooked noodles and mix well. If you can eat spicy food, add a little homemade chili oil.

The six people ate without even raising their heads.

The remaining noodles were divided up by Xu Jinan and Han Chen.

"Su Zi, why didn't you invite me earlier? I think your show needs a permanent guest. What do you think of me?" After finishing the noodles, Han Chen touched his round belly and happily came up to Su Zi and joked.

"Of course, it's not too late to be a permanent guest now. Otherwise, Mr. Han, you should not leave." Su Zi followed his joke, but Han Chen really looked thoughtful.

Xu Jinan quickly stopped him, "Teacher, please take a look at your future schedule before making a decision."

Han Chen rolled his eyes at him in annoyance.

Su Zi didn't want the fight between the two to spread to herself, so she stood up and said with a smile, "Let's go pick some corn."

Although the corn leaves were yellow at this time, they were still very prickly, so everyone changed into long-sleeved shirts and long pants, and wore a hat to cover their faces before going to the fields.

Han Chen saw that everyone went down empty-handed and immediately stopped them, "Are you planning to break the corn like this?"

The five people who had never broken corn before nodded in unison.

Han Chen paused, looking a little helpless.

"Just bend it like this. Your nails will hurt like hell later. Let me find some tools."

He went to the utility room and looked around, found a few long nails and some ropes, then asked them to put on gloves and tie the nails to their index fingers with ropes.

When he got to the field, he first demonstrated it to everyone. He used the sharp end of the nail to gently scratch the corn husk, and the outer layer wrapped around the corn was easily cut open. Then he used his thumb to tear it down to reveal the corn inside.

Break the corn off and throw it on the ground, then use a sickle to cut the corn stalks one inch from the root.

"Cut the corn stalks right after you break the corn, and then pile them up neatly next to it so that it will be convenient for us to work later. Be careful when you move around so you don't get pricked."

"But the corn stalks are not completely dry at this time. Have you ever chewed sugar cane? Corn stalks can be chewed like sugar cane, but they are thinner and still have sweetness and moisture."

"My family was poor when I was a child, and we didn't have as many fruits and snacks to eat as we do now. Corn stalks were one of our snacks when we were young." Han Chen got a corn stalk, peeled it, and started eating it in front of the five people.

The five curious babies immediately followed his example and tried it.

"Really? It really looks exactly like sugarcane." Su Zi felt that all her acting skills for her entire life had been put to use today. She could do these farm chores, but the original owner couldn't. She had no way of explaining why she could do these farm chores, so she could only pretend not to understand.

“It’s not as sweet as sugarcane, but it’s very juicy,” Su Yuehe commented.

Bai Youyou praised Han Chen while chewing, "Teacher Han, you are amazing. How do you know so much?"

"I grew up in Yunnan Province and moved to Taiwan Province when I was an adult. I have been farming for more than ten years. When I was young, I thought farm work was very hard. In the hot autumn weather, I had to pick corn, dig potatoes, and harvest beans. There was no end to the work."

"But I've been away from home for decades, and I didn't do farm work when I went back. After my parents passed away, I hardly ever went back. Today, when I picked up these jobs, I realized that those things were engraved in my memory, and I can't forget them even if I want to."

Han Chen looked a little melancholy at this moment. A gust of wind blew, and the corn stalks swayed in front of everyone, as if saying, "It's a good harvest!"

Han Chen was amused by his own idea and laughed again, "Let's get to work. The sun will be very hot soon."

"There are only two sickles. I have one and Jin'an has one. The four of you girls will be responsible for breaking the corn, and the two of us boys will be responsible for collecting the corn stalks. Is this distribution okay?"

"Okay, Teacher Han, if your waist can't take it later, just tell me and let me take over." Su Zi said while chewing on a corn stalk.

Han Chen just smiled and nodded. People who don't know how to use the sickle can easily cut themselves. He is tough, but a few girls can't.

But the slap in the face came very quickly. When Xu Jinan was using the sickle, he was careless and the sickle cut his shoe, which scared him and he screamed.

Fortunately, it was only on the sole of his shoe, but seeing how he held the sickle, Su Zi didn't dare to take any more risks, so he stepped forward and said, "Brother Jin'an, I don't want to break the corn anymore. Let me try to cut the corn stalks."

Xu Jinan refused to do anything, "No, this is very dangerous."

"I'll just give it a try. If I can't do it, I'll give it back to you."

Seeing Su Zi's insistence, Xu Jinan had to compromise and give the sickle to Su Zi.

Su Zi took the sickle. He was a little unfamiliar with the movements at first, but he became more and more proficient at it as he continued to cut.

"Xiao Su, you are really good. You use the sickle more skillfully than Jin An."

"It's all thanks to Teacher Han's advice just now, Brother Jin An, Teacher Han has recognized my skills, you can go and pick the corn."

Xu Jinan glanced at Han Chen, and seeing that Han Chen did not refuse, he switched positions with Su Zi.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, seeing that it was getting hotter and hotter, Han Chen immediately called a halt, "Take a break, and come back in the afternoon when it's not hot anymore. The autumn heat is no joke."

The four men who were breaking corn with great enthusiasm were sweating profusely. They looked at the sun and saw that it was indeed a bit hot, so they stopped breaking corn and picked up all the corn into baskets and carried them back.

As the only one who could cook here, Su Zi did not participate and went back with Han Chen to prepare lunch.

At lunch, Han Chen saw some freshly picked eggplants, tomatoes and green peppers in the kitchen. So he took some unburned firewood while the fire was burning and cooked the eggplants, tomatoes and green peppers on top.

After cooking, he picked off the burnt layer of skin on the surface, tore it into strands, added some minced garlic, soy sauce, salt, MSG, and chopped green onions, mixed them evenly, and a seasonal farm dish was created in his hands.

This seemingly dark dish received unanimous praise from everyone at the dinner table.

Han Chen was so happy that he couldn't stop grinning, asking why Su Zi didn't invite him earlier.