Chapter 234: This item is durable and can be passed down for three generations

Jiang Jianhua steamed the egg custard until it turned a tender yellow. He gently cut it open with a porcelain spoon, and the runny inside flowed out like honey.

"Nian'an, come quickly," she sprinkled a handful of sesame salt into the soup, "the eggs will get cold if you don't eat them now."

Nian An ran in holding a basket of sweet potato seedlings. The mud on the edge of the basket rubbed against his tiger-striped bellyband, making it look like he had added a circle of brown fur to the tiger.

Fu Yucheng was teaching Xiaolan how to support the sweet potato seedlings in the field. He pinched the roots of the seedlings with his fingertips and gently pressed them into the soil: "The roots must be stretched out, otherwise they won't grow well."

Xiaolan learned carefully and placed the bamboo rabbit basket on the edge of the field. The peppers inside were as red as fire.

"Do you think this is right?" She patted the soil around the seedlings, and beads of sweat on her forehead rolled into her collar, shining in the morning light.

The porridge pot in the kitchen was bubbling, and Jiang Jianhua sprinkled a handful of osmanthus flowers into it.

"This osmanthus flower was dried last year," she said, stirring the porridge with a wooden spoon. "Mixed with the sweet potato fragrance, it's sweeter than sugar."

Song Yushuang came in, sewing the soles of shoes. The hemp thread was wrapped around the cloth to form a delicate pattern. "I have finished sewing Nian'an's cotton shoes. I embroidered a little tiger on the toe of the shoe. It will match his bellyband perfectly."

In the threshing ground, Fu Yuanshan arranged the dried sweet potatoes more evenly, and the strips in the bamboo basket glowed with amber light.

"Dry it in the sun until it's not sticky when you pinch it," he said, turning the sweet potato fries. "Dry it in the shade for two days so it's chewy."

Nian An squatted beside and picked up the fallen debris. His little hands were stuffed full, and the silver longevity lock jingled against the bamboo plaque.

Yun Tangyin sealed the jar of sesame salt and covered the mud seal with a lotus leaf.

"This jar has to be placed upside down," she said, tying the top of the jar tightly with a rope, "to keep moisture out."

Xiaolan came back with a basket of sweet potato seedlings covered in fresh soil. "My mother said that if we plant these seedlings, we can harvest three baskets of sweet potatoes next year."

Yun Tangyin smiled and stuffed a piece of sweet potato cake into her pocket: "Then next year I will use new sweet potatoes to make wedding cakes for your dowry."

The midday sun made the ground hot. Fu Yucheng came back carrying half a basket of freshly picked peppers. The red and green peppers swayed like flowers in the basket.

"These peppers need to be pickled while they're fresh," he said, placing the basket on the stone table. "Soak them in salt water. They're most delicious when eaten with porridge in winter."

Nian An raised a red pepper and was about to bite it, but Jiang Jianhua quickly snatched it away: "Little ancestor, this is spicy. One bite will make you cry for a long time."

Jiang Jianhua cut the peppers into rings, sprinkled salt on them and rubbed them to extract the juice.

"It has to be pickled until it turns red," she said, adding that she was filling the jar with chili peppers. "Then add some white wine, so it's crispy enough to make a sound when you chew it."

Aunt Zhang came over with a basket to borrow a wooden mold. When she saw the peppers in the jar, she smacked her lips and said, "Sister Jianhua, give me some when they're pickled. My husband loves them."

The evening glow dyed the courtyard wall rouge, and Fu Yuanshan put the dried sweet potatoes into a bamboo basket.

"This is packed tightly," he said, lining the basket with oil paper. "I'll save it for the kids as New Year's money."

Nian An held the basket tightly and refused to let go. The dried sweet potatoes in his mouth made a crunching sound, and the sugar residue on his tiger-striped bellyband trembled slightly in the wind.

The dinner table was filled with fried sweet potato stems with chili peppers, sweet potato porridge with osmanthus, egg custard, and steamed sweet potato cubes.

Nian'an held the bowl of porridge and drank it until his face was covered with it. The osmanthus flowers fell on the tip of his nose like gold powder.

Xiaolan put some sweet potato stems into his bowl with chopsticks: "You need to chew these stems more. My mother said that eating them can help you gain strength."

As the moonlight climbed up to the top of the locust tree, Jiang Jianhua tried on cotton shoes for Nian'an. The little tiger on the toe of the shoe came alive under the oil lamp.

"You can wear it next spring," she gestured, pinching the shoe upper. "Even if your feet are longer, you can stuff cotton socks into them."

Song Yushuang sat beside him mending socks, a ball of thread rolling back and forth on her knees. "I took apart my old cotton-padded jacket and stuffed it inside Nian'an's cotton-padded trousers. It's warmer than new cotton."

Fu Yucheng and Fu Yuanshan sat in the yard smoking, the flames of their pipes illuminating the sweet potato basket in the corner.

"Tomorrow I'll go cut some reeds to build a shed for the sweet potatoes to protect them from the rain."

Fu Yuanshan nodded: "I will weave a reed curtain and cover the vegetable cellar in winter to keep out the wind and snow."

The sweet aroma of dried sweet potatoes wafted from the kitchen, mixed with the chirping of crickets, filling the yard.

Nian An was lying on the small bed holding a sweet potato cushion and fell asleep with a piece of dried sweet potato in his hand.

Jiang Jianhua covered him with the quilt and saw that the Yuhua Stone beside the pillow was still shining in the moonlight.

"This child," she smiled and tucked in the quilt, "even holds his food in his hand while sleeping."

The leaves of the locust trees outside the window rustled, as if they were counting the bamboo plaques, jars and pots in the yard, and counting the days immersed in fireworks.

At dawn, Zhou Desheng's daughter-in-law brought freshly baked sesame cakes. The sesame grains on the cakes gleamed in the morning light.

"My husband said thank you for helping to harvest the sesame seeds," she said, placing the cake on the stone table. "There's some mashed sweet potatoes in this cake. The kids will love it."

Nian An ran out rubbing his eyes, grabbed the cake and stuffed it into his mouth, and the sesame seeds on the tiger-striped bellyband got all over his body.

Fu Yucheng carried a hoe to check on the newly planted sweet potato seedlings. The morning dew on the leaves rolled into the soil, like water to the roots of the seedlings.

"This seedling is alive," he stroked the spreading new leaves, "and next year we'll definitely have a good harvest."

Nian An followed behind and stepped in puddles, his cotton shoes getting wet, and the silver longevity lock on his chest was jumping happily.

Jiang Jianhua cut the sesame cakes from Zhou Desheng's house into small pieces and sprinkled some white sugar on the plate.

"This pancake goes perfectly with sweet potato porridge," she handed the pancakes to the children. "Desheng's wife's cooking skills are getting better and better."

Xiaolan bit the biscuit and nodded. A bamboo rabbit basket was placed at her feet. It was filled with little grasshoppers she had woven for Nian'an. They were as green as if they had just jumped out of the grass.

The bamboo plaques on the threshing ground were empty, so Fu Yuanshan stacked them up and covered them tightly with cloth.

"I'll use it next year when I dry the new wheat," he said, brushing off the dust on the bamboo plaque. "This thing is so durable it can be passed down for three generations."

Yun Tangyin moved the last jar of sesame salt into the storage room. The pottery jars in the corner were neatly lined up, as if waiting for the call of winter.

When the last ray of sunlight passed through the leaves of the locust tree, the fish and the little frogs in Nian An's small fish tank had grown a little bigger.

Fu Yucheng put a new lotus leaf into the tank, and immediately fine ripples appeared on the water surface.

"After a while," he stroked Nian'an's head, "we'll return the frog to the lotus pond and let it catch pests."

Nian An nodded as if he understood, and gently touched the wall of the fish tank with his little hand, startling the fish so much that they jumped out in a silver line.

In the kitchen, Jiang Jianhua was putting sweet potato sesame cakes into a gift box covered with a red cloth embroidered with a chubby tiger.

"This is for Xiaolan," she tied a red knot, "let her take it back for her parents to try."

Xiaolan took the gift box. The sweet potato seedlings in the rabbit basket had already sprouted new leaves and swayed gently in the evening breeze, as if saying that these days were just like the sweet potato vines. Once they took root, they would slowly climb all over the fence of time and produce one sweet crop after another.

As Xiaolan walked home holding the gift box, the sunset glow in the sky was gradually fading into light purple.

The new leaves of the sweet potato seedlings in the rabbit basket were still stained with mud from the Fu family's yard. The little grasshoppers made of bamboo woven grasshoppers swayed gently at the corner of the basket, as if jumping along with her footsteps.

When passing by the lotus pond, she saw Fu Yucheng taking Nian An to release the frog. The little frog jumped into the water with a "splash", and a lotus leaf was floating in the ripples caused by it.