Chapter 96: Getting out of trouble

"Let's go! Let's make vermicelli!" Su Ying stood up. "Alu, you and Xiaotao, bring me some sour dates and chestnut flour! Remember to bring some honey!"

"Oh, okay!" Su Lu pulled Xiao Tao and ran home.

Su Ying brought Hu Erlang to the village chief's house, "Is grandma here?"

"I'm here, Aying!" Gao came out of the kitchen. "What's up?"

"Grandma, I'll make some vermicelli noodles, dry them, and let my husband take them back. I'll also give them to everyone to taste at lunch!"

Su Ying picked up the fern root powder and kudzu root powder in the winnowing basket and looked at them. There was a mountain breeze and strong sun here. In just one day, the powder had dried and became granular, which could be turned into powder with a light pinch.

"Okay, it's a good opportunity for me to learn from him!" Gao joked.

"Grandma said that making vermicelli is very simple, just like making noodles. Knead it into dough, roll it into sheets and cut it into strips. The trick is in the kneading step." Su Ying said with a smile.

"Oh, what's the secret?" Gao really enjoyed chatting with Su Ying, she was transparent and frank.

"This flour is not sticky. You have to cook part of it with water first, then add cornstarch. The dough will become sticky and can be rolled out and cut into strips."

Su Ying filled a bowl with kudzu root powder and crushed it with a rolling pin on the table.

Take one-third of the soup and add water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into a clay pot and boil it. Stir constantly during boiling to prevent the pot from sticking.

Cook until it becomes a transparent paste, remove from heat, scoop out and cool, then add cornstarch and knead into dough.

Then he took fern root powder and cooked it in the same way. The two doughs became one darker and one lighter in color.

Then roll out the dough very thinly, sprinkle it with cornstarch, overlap it back and forth to form a thick stack, and cut it into the width of a leek leaf with a knife.

When shaken out, the noodles become about two feet long and are neatly arranged.

Su Lu and Xiao Tao brought half a basin of sour dates, a large bowl of chestnut powder, and half a bowl of honey.

"Don't I have honey at home? Why should I take it from yours?" Gao said unhappily.

"It's okay, grandma. This is a sample I made for my husband. It won't cost much honey." Su Ying smiled.

After these busy days, it will be necessary to pick some sour dates and make more with the honey at home.

The output is not large, so it cannot be sold. Hu Erlang would like to give it as a gift to others. He has to visit several surrounding provinces one by one.

"You have never suffered any hardship, so you don't know how to save some money..." Gao stopped talking halfway.

How could they not know to save it? Isn't it all for the village?

Besides, with a girl's ability, if she gave up this little head, she would definitely get a big head in return. She has lived her life in vain, what have she done? And she still criticizes others?

Gao thought about it and found it funny.

"Grandma, what are you laughing at?" Su Ying saw Gao stopped talking and continued laughing.

"It's okay! I'm just happy! Our village is lucky to have you!" Gao smiled, her eyes a little red.

If only some of them had understood these things at the time, they would not have had such a difficult life, and many young and strong people would not have died in vain.

God took pity on them and sent them a capable man to lead them out of their predicament.

Place the fern roots and kudzu root vermicelli separately, then boil the sour jujube in water and remove them after a few minutes.

Su Lu and Xiao Tao peeled the skin.

Su Ying began to cook the vermicelli in a large amount of water. After it was cooked, she took it out and put it in cold water to cool. She kept a bowl each of fern root and kudzu root for cooking.

After cooling, pick up the vermicelli, arrange them and hang them on bamboo poles to dry.

Hu Erlang helped and learned throughout the process, and felt a sense of accomplishment when he saw the vermicelli on the bamboo pole.

The brown ones are fern root vermicelli, and the dark white ones are kudzu root vermicelli.

"Girl, if the quantity is larger, how many people will you need?" Hu Erlang was worried about the slow speed and low output.

"Once your big iron pot arrives, you won't need to use this method anymore! You don't need to knead the dough so dry. Put it into a bucket with a strainer, place it on top of the big iron pot, press it hard, and the vermicelli will leak out of the strainer. Then drop it directly into the pot to cook. One bucket cooks one pot. It's much faster than rolling it into dough."

Su Ying said, shaking her sore arms.

"Oh, how could I forget about it!" Hu Erlang thought it was funny, "I guess we'll have to add a few more big iron pots later!"

"How many more big pots our village can have depends on your ability!" Su Ying joked.

"Girl, you're joking! If we talk about ability, it's the girl!"

The more Hu Erlang interacted with Su Ying, the more he felt that he was shallow in knowledge, and he admired Su Ying even more.

"It would be great if you could get out of Wu County!" Hu Erlang sighed, "You're more successful than me. If you come forward, you'll definitely sell out faster than I can."

Unfortunately, the Su family were newly arrived fugitives and could only move around within Wu County.

"My dear, do you lack confidence in yourself?" Su Ying said with a smile while peeling the jujube.

Hu Erlang is only a high school student in modern society. He is not only well-read, but also manages the family business. He has a certain foresight and is a good scholar.

If he could travel to Chang'an and Jiangnan to broaden his horizons, he would surely become a capable official in the future after passing the imperial examination.

"No, I just think that girls are more capable than me!" Hu Erlang said confidently.

I can’t say about other places, but Hu Erlang is still confident in Wuxian area.

There are few educated people here, and even fewer knowledgeable ones.

I can be considered a general among short men. If I fight hard in the provincial government, I can still rank among the scholars.

"My dear, do you have an older brother?" Su Ying remembered that she seemed to have never heard him and his son mention Hu Dalang.

"Yes, my brother is studying at the provincial government school," Hu Erlang said. "Why do you ask this, young lady?"

"Why don't you go to the provincial capital to study?" Su Ying asked curiously.

"After studying for a few years, there was no one to take care of the family business. My brother didn't like housework, so I came back and read books at home in my free time." Hu Erlang replied.

"No one takes care of it?" Su Ying felt strange.

"Yes! My mother has been managing the business for more than ten years. She has been losing money every time she runs it, so she quits. Someone has to take over for my brother and me." Hu Erlang found it funny as he said this.

The Hu family was not a cunning family. They didn't make much money from their business, so they used most of it to subsidize the county government.

Whoever takes care of it will be upset. Mrs. Hu is always irritated to death by her husband, but she can do nothing about it.

Just out of sight and out of mind, whoever wants to care can do it, just pretend that these businesses don’t exist and you don’t have to work so hard every day.

In the end, this thankless task of managing the business fell on Hu Erlang.

"Don't you regret it?" Su Ying asked.

"What's there to regret? The official school in the provincial capital is just so-so. It's better to study comfortably at home." Hu Erlang didn't care.

There were no famous teachers, and the teachers they hired had old-fashioned and pedantic ideas. Hu Erlang felt that he could not learn anything in the official school.

I'm not opposed to coming back to run the business, but Wu County is so poor that I really can't make any money.

The Hu family is too honest. At this rate of development, the grocery store will close down in another year or two.

But now, there is a turning point.

As long as Jiangdongli and vermicelli are sold, and honey, oil tea, and various edible oils are subsequently added, the Hu family's business will only grow bigger and bigger.

There was half a basin of sour dates, and several people worked together to clean it out quickly.

Stir vigorously with a spoon to separate the sour jujube kernels.

Pick out all the jujube kernels, mix half a bowl of juice with kudzu root powder and cook it, then mix it with chestnut powder and honey into the jujube paste and mix well.

Then put gauze in the dustpan, pour the sour jujube paste into it and spread it into a thin layer, cover it with gauze and dry it in the sun.