Chapter 9: Enough to Eat, Enough

Shen Qing coughed uncomfortably, cleared her throat, and said, "Don't feed the chickens yet. Mother is going to make some food and go to the city to see if she can sell it for money."

Jiang Xiangbei's eyes were suddenly filled with distress: "These fish and shrimps have many bones, large shells and little meat, who would buy them?

It's a waste of oil, salt, and energy. Mom, don't bother making it. You won't be able to sell it at all."

His mother is really different. Not only does she let her sons work, she also tries to make money herself!

Shen Qing: .....I haven’t found a good reason yet.

It's okay, she can still say: "Okay, then mother will take care of it. You've worked hard and go to rest. Mother will make you a delicious dinner."

Jiang Xiangbei was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes.

In the past, mother only cared about and felt sorry for my younger brother, but today she actually felt sorry for him!

It turns out that having a mother’s love feels so good!

He gritted his teeth and said with a firm look, "Mom, I'm going to help my third brother. He's catching eels on the ridges of the paddy fields. Eels can be sold for more than ten coins per pound in the city!

Let's buy a few more pounds and go to the city early tomorrow morning to sell them!"

Shen Qing couldn't wait!

She just wanted Jiang Xiangbei to leave quickly, so she sold the fish and shrimp.

She nodded happily and said, "Okay, go ahead. I'll use the money I earn tomorrow to buy you some meat."

When Jiang Xiangbei heard that there was meat to eat, he almost jumped for joy.

After waiting for Jiang Xiangbei to run far away, Shen Qing carried the big bucket into the room and closed the door for safety. He also adjusted the weight of the small river shrimps in the mall to three catties, leaving four ounces, and then pressed the yes button.

“Three catties of fresh wild river shrimp, thirty-seven yuan per catty, totaling one hundred and eleven yuan;

Seven pounds of fresh wild river fish, thirteen pounds a pound, a total of ninety-one yuan;

The total is 202 yuan, which can be checked at the balance page."

With the balance increasing by more than 200 yuan, Shen Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

You don’t have to worry about the money for Xiaohua’s medicine.

The most important thing is that small fish and shrimp can be sold to the mall, and in the current month, some fish and shrimp can be caught every day. With this source, we don’t have to worry about food for the time being.

You can even try to eat better within limited conditions.

There is no meat and not much oil, so stir-frying or frying leek dumplings is impossible.

However, even if you can’t fry the chive cakes, you can make chive dumplings with them.

The leeks in the yard are fresh and tender, and paired with fried duck eggs, hand-rolled white flour dumpling skins, and white flour and leek dumplings with thin skins and rich fillings, they are delicious no matter where they are placed!

Just do it.

Shen Qing first went to the kitchen to get a large wooden basin, scooped up five large gourd ladles of flour, and added two more ladles for fear that it was not enough - it was cold in late spring, and the leftovers could be left for breakfast the next day.

Although there were only two meals a day during the slack season, Shen Qing was used to three meals a day. If she didn't eat breakfast tomorrow, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to hold on until she could walk to the city.

Moreover, Huo Bing was still in confinement after childbirth. People in confinement get hungry quickly, and the food they eat is not oily, so it was just right for the boss to give her an extra meal in the evening.

After scooping the flour, Shen Qing went behind the door and took out fifteen duck eggs.

Chicken and duck eggs can be exchanged for salt and needles and thread, but Shen Qing is not planning to use eggs to exchange.

Eggs are delicious and easy to digest, especially those laid by chickens and ducks that feed on fish, shrimps and insects. They are nutritious local eggs and are perfect for your family to eat.

After mixing the flour and putting it aside, Shen Qing picked up a kitchen knife and went to the yard to cut all the remaining leeks. After washing them, he picked out the 400 grams of small river shrimp that were not sold, leaving only the shrimp tails after peeling the shells.

Shen Qing was originally distressed about using the shrimp shells to make shrimp oil, but later he rolled the shrimp shells into the chicken coop to feed the chickens, thinking it was not a waste.

Back in the kitchen, Shen Qing fried duck eggs, cut leeks, rolled out dumpling wrappers, made dumplings, marked the dumplings with shrimp meat... He was so busy that he became a team!

When the first pot of dumplings came out of the pottery, Shen Qingsheng reached into the coarse earthenware bowl, took a bite of the white flour dumplings with thin skin and large filling, and almost cried.

There was no dipping sauce, just a little salt for seasoning, but it was still delicious, even better than what she had eaten before!

Shen Qing finished a big dumpling in just a few bites, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and poured the remaining dumplings in the big iron pot into other coarse pottery bowls.

There is only a big iron pot. After Xiaohua's medicine comes back, I still need to boil it, so I have to cook the dumplings before dawn.

Their family still has two meals a day, and the second meal is before dark, around four o'clock. Shen Qing estimated that the time was about right, so he filled the first pot and immediately started cooking the second one.

After the dumplings were put into the pot, Shen Qing brought two bowls of dumplings, one large and one small, to Huo Bing's house.

She greeted him, "Come here, Huo Bing, it's your and Xiaohua's dumplings. Xiaohua, put yours on the stool and eat. Be careful not to burn yourself!"

dumpling?

Huo Bing was confused. He had duck eggs for lunch, and now he would have dumplings for dinner?

She quickly put down the grass in her arms and went forward, taking the coarse earthenware basin from her mother-in-law.

The coarse earthenware bowl that was originally used to hold soup at home was used by her mother-in-law to hold dumplings for her. She put at least more than ten dumplings, each the size of a palm!

She stumbled and asked, "Mom, is this for me and the head of the family?"

If Xiaohua didn't have a separate portion, she would have thought it was for three people.

"No, this is for you alone. The boss will cook it when he comes back. There's still some left in the pot. Eat it quickly and don't save it. You are eating by yourself now to supplement the food for two people. You must eat more." Shen Qing urged.

She has never had a mother-in-law and has never been one, but she knows how difficult life is for women. The time after giving birth is the most difficult time in a woman's life. Putting herself in her mother-in-law's shoes, she knows how she wants her mother-in-law to treat her, and will naturally treat her daughter-in-law according to this requirement.

Huo Bing just felt that her mother-in-law gave all the dumplings to her. When she saw that the dumplings were made of white flour, her first reaction was that she didn't deserve them.

You don’t deserve to eat so many, and you certainly don’t deserve to eat white flour dumplings.

"Mom, there are eggs and shrimps in the dumplings." Huahua, who was squatting beside the chair and taking a bite, looked up and reported to her mother in surprise.

I tasted the egg and shrimp after just one bite!

The dumplings made by grandma are so delicious, and the skin is delicious too, better than any I’ve ever eaten before!

Shen Qing scratched his head embarrassedly and explained to Huo Bing: "Only Xiaohua's dumplings have shrimp. Oh, and Lao Si, he caught some shrimp, and I left him two dumplings with shrimp. We don't have any."

"That's great, Mom. It's great to have dumplings to eat." Huo Bing murmured.

She didn't know what to say, she just felt a warmth she had never felt before welling up in her heart, and this warmth kept flowing into her eyes.

Seeing Huo Bing didn't care at all, Shen Qing smiled and waved his hand: "Okay, there are still dumplings in the pot. I'll watch the fire. If the skin is broken, it won't taste good. If you don't have enough, I'll send you more."

"Enough to eat, more than enough!"