Chapter 124: Making Sauce and Brewing Wine

Xu Hexiao rode his bicycle to Brother Tan's house. Brother Tan was not at home. He was received by Brother Tan's wife. Xu Hexiao humbly asked her for advice on issues that girls should pay attention to during their menstrual period.

Brother Tan’s wife has given birth to two children, but this is the first time she has talked about this with a man. Even her own husband has never asked her about her menstrual period.

At first, she felt uncomfortable all over and had to bite the bullet to explain to Xu Hexiao. Gradually, she saw that Xu Hexiao was serious and not frivolous at all, so she relaxed and described in detail the various sufferings that girls would suffer during their menstrual period, and listed a lot of precautions. Finally, she sold a product to Xu Hexiao, "This is called a sanitary napkin. I heard that it is only sold in the Friendship Store and the department store in Haicheng. You can just throw it away after use, no need to wash it, it's clean and convenient. Your brother Tan brought me a lot of it, and I'll share some with my sister-in-law. If my sister-in-law uses it well, I'll ask your brother Tan to bring more next time."

Xu Hexiao accepted it, thanked the other party, and asked about the price.

"No money required. You guys have given us many gifts." Brother Tan's wife said with a smile.

Xu Hexiao hesitated, "This is not cheap—"

"Then I'll collect the money next time. Okay, go back now, or it will be dark when you get home."

When Xu Hexiao came back, Lin Qi had just woken up.

Xu Hexiao placed the packs of sanitary napkins on the bedside. "These are given by Mrs. Tan. Study how to use them. If they work well, I'll ask Brother Tan to bring you more next time."

Lin Qi hummed. She had seen sanitary napkins before. They also existed in the end times, but they were not cheap. This world was probably the same. Otherwise, Lin's mother would not have prepared a cotton-stuffed cloth bag for her instead of this.

However, having cotton is already considered good. Many women in Anliang Brigade use wood ash.

For dinner, Xu Hexiao made chicken soup for Lin Qi. In the chicken soup, there were not only various mushrooms, but also a handful of red dates. The mushroom flavor of the chicken soup was masked, leaving only the strong flavor of red dates.

Lin Qi was somewhat disgusted by this kind of chicken soup.

"I stayed up specially for you. I stayed up for two hours." Xu Hexiao said disappointedly.

Lin Qi: “….”

She knew he was pretending, but she just fell for it.

Forget it, it’s just chicken soup, she can just drink it.

Lin Qi almost ate all the chicken soup in the earthenware pot, which made her feel warm all over. She wanted to sleep again even though she had just woken up a few hours ago.

"Do you want to clean it?" Xu Hexiao asked.

"Okay." She had sweated a lot when she rolled around in bed yesterday. She couldn't take a bath, but it was still necessary to rinse. Besides, Xu Hexiao's quilt was on her bed, and they would have to sleep in the same bed tonight. She didn't want Xu Hexiao to sleep with a smelly body.

Xu Hexiao washed the dishes, took a shower, stayed in the study for an hour, and then turned off the lights and went to Lin Qi's room.

In the past two years, they seldom slept together and kissed each other very rarely. It was not that Lin Qi did not agree to be intimate with him, but he was worried that if they continued to be intimate, he would not be able to help but do something more excessive to her.

She was obviously stronger than him, but she always let him bully her. Sometimes he kissed her too hard, and she would just look at him blankly with tears in her eyes.

But how could he bear to bully such a well-behaved girl?

Lin Qi had already fallen asleep, and Xu Hexiao lay down beside her quietly. Their bodies were close together, and they could feel each other's heat.

Just when Xu Hexiao was about to lie like this all night, Lin Qi got into his arms, resting her head on his chest, with one hand on his waist. Her warm breath sprayed on Xu Hexiao's chest, and the fire in Xu Hexiao's body instantly burned.

It's going to cost him his life!

Lin Qi had no dreams all night and woke up at dawn.

"Good morning." Xu Hexiao kissed her forehead. "How do you feel now? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?"

Lin Qi shook her head, "No."

Xu Hexiao looked at her rosy face. Compared to the pale face yesterday, she looked much better today. He felt relieved and asked, "What do you want to eat?"

"Have a bowl of noodles. After breakfast, I'm going to the planting area. I haven't been there for two days."

"In your current state, will it be harmful to your health if you continue to stimulate the growth of plants?"

"I'm just bleeding, nothing else. Don't worry, it's okay."

Lin Qi's menstrual period lasted for five days before it completely ended, and she was also strictly controlled by Xu Hexiao for five days. Other things were still bearable, but the fact that she couldn't eat spicy food made her extremely uncomfortable.

As soon as her period ended, Lin Qi couldn't help but eat half a bowl of mushroom chili meat sauce for breakfast. While eating, she instructed Xu Hexiao, "This mushroom chili meat sauce is delicious. Make some more and take it out whenever you want to eat it. It's very convenient."

Originally, Xu Hexiao made a lot of mushroom chili meat sauce. He had good skills, was willing to use oil, and used sufficient ingredients. This mushroom chili meat sauce tasted better than any sauce Lin Qi had eaten before. Naturally, this sauce was favored by both Brother Tan and Boss Mo.

A 40-jin jar of mushroom, chili and meat sauce was sold at a high price of 80 yuan, and even at such a high price, it was still in short supply.

"Well, I'll make more during this period." Xu Hexiao agreed. Not only would he make it for Lin Qi, but she would also be able to bring some back for her family to taste when she returned to Zhoucheng for the New Year.

In order to make mushroom chili meat sauce, Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao temporarily lived in a cave.

Lin Qi was in charge of growing mushrooms and peppers, while Xu Hexiao killed a pig. When Xu Hexiao finished killing the pig, Lin Qi had already started chopping mushrooms and peppers.

Three years had passed, and the number of knives and chopping boards in the cave had increased exponentially. Lin Qi didn't move her hands, but used the vines to wrap around the handle of the knife, directing the vines to control the blade to chop mushrooms and peppers.

Every time Xu Hexiao saw her doing these extraordinary things, he could only envy her.

"Cut the meat into pieces and let me chop it." Lin Qi said.

"Okay." Since there was a more efficient way, Xu Hexiao didn't compete with her.

Lin Qi accidentally added too many mushrooms and peppers, and chopped up four full baskets of each.

"So many?" Xu Hexiao raised his eyebrows.

"Working with six knives, it's easy to end up with too many if you're not careful." Lin Qi felt a little guilty. Chopping things was a bit boring, and she was distracted for a while, so this was the result.

"It's okay. There are plenty of empty jars in the cave. There's no need to worry about a lack of containers." Xu Hexiao said.

After he taught himself how to brew wine, there were more empty jars in the cave.

Speaking of winemaking, Xu Hexiao had very little free time because of the busy farm work and herding cattle when he was not busy. He taught himself winemaking for a year and now only learned a few simple ones. However, Lin Qi, who had a lot of free time, got a few winemaking books from Xu Hexiao and now can make seven or eight kinds of wine, and the quality of the wine is pretty good.

The brewed wine was given to Brother Tan to sell, and not to Boss Mo. Instead, it was buried underground.

They already have enough things to sell and they are not short of money, so they are not in a hurry to sell the good wine they brew. If good wine is kept for a longer time and has a longer life, the price will increase several times or even dozens of times in the future. Even if the price cannot be doubled, it is good for them to keep it for themselves.

Two months before the New Year, Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao stayed in the cave, and every day they were either tinkering with mushroom chili meat sauce or brewing wine. They made a full twenty jars of mushroom chili meat sauce, and only stopped making sauce when all the castrated pigs in the planting area were killed.

As for wine, all kinds of wine are brewed, including fruit wines such as grape wine, cherry wine, mulberry wine, as well as high-concentration shochu, sake, and sauce-flavored wine.

That night, Brother Tan came and transported away a batch of pheasants and rabbits, and Xu Hexiao asked him to send over a batch of jars two days later.

"What are you two doing lately? Why do you need so many jars?" He sent them jars three times within half a month.

"Making mushroom chili meat sauce and brewing wine." Xu Hexiao did not hide anything and listed several types of wine.

Brother Tan's eyes lit up, "I'll be responsible for selling it."

"No." Xu Hexiao shook his head. "We plan to bury it underground for a few years, or even ten years later, and then dig it out and drink it."

"No, just sell some of it. Now it's the end of the year, the wine can definitely be sold at a high price." Brother Tan said.

Xu Hexiao hesitated for a while and said, "We can only sell a few of the most common wines."

"Okay. You have good raw materials and good winemaking skills. Even if it's ordinary wine, there will be many people buying it. Besides, everyone doesn't have much money, so drinking some cheap wine is enough. In addition to the wine, give me some mushroom, chili and meat sauce. Twenty jars."

"Twenty jars is our total number. I'll give you ten jars. I'm going to use five jars to exchange for a batch of goods with Boss Mo. As for the remaining five jars, we will eat them ourselves, and Lin Qi will also take some back to Zhoucheng."