Chapter 48, Chapter 48, Part 4...
Chapter Forty-Eight
After finishing with the ointment and perfume, Yao Anhui, now with some free time, resumed her previous leisurely life.
I sleep until I naturally wake up every morning, do some housework at noon, cook a meal whenever I feel like it, and if I don't feel like cooking, I wait for Lu Yuanqing to come back and cook, or I go to Hua Fangling's house next door for a free meal.
However, since she had nothing to do today, Yao Anhui decided to make dried vegetables. It is said that the winters here are very cold, and every autumn they have to stock up on vegetables. In winter, they mostly eat cabbage and potatoes.
When I talked about this with Hua Fangling a few days ago, we were both stunned. Southerners who have never lived in the North really don't know this.
I asked around and found out there was a way to dry vegetables. The locals had already dried a lot of vegetables, like dried potato slices, dried cucumbers, and dried cabbage. What were Hua Fangling and Yao Anhui going to do? They had to quickly prepare vegetables for the winter.
Yao Anhui herself had no experience in this area, but the original owner's memories would suffice. There were many ways to cook food in Jiangnan Town, and Yao Anhui planned to make all the dishes she knew, since she couldn't stand eating potatoes and cabbage every day anyway.
Yao Anhui rummaged through the original owner's memories again and again, and finally found a classmate who was good friends with the original owner in a corner.
The original owner's classmate was named Qi Chunfang. The two were high school classmates and had a pretty good relationship. They kept in touch after graduation until Qi Chunfang couldn't find a job and went to the countryside, at which point their contact became less frequent.
After Yao Anhui arrived, they stopped corresponding for fear of being exposed. However, they were able to resume their correspondence, because Qi Chunfang communicated by letter after going to the countryside. In particular, Qi Chunfang found it difficult to adapt to working in the fields and was exhausted. She had no energy left to write letters.
Qi Chunfang was sent to a place known as the "Bamboo Country." She had mentioned in a previous letter that the bamboo shoots there were delicious. Yao Anhui wrote a letter to Qi Chunfang, sending her some useful coupons and a sum of money, asking her to exchange them privately for dried bamboo shoots, dried plums, dried chili peppers from Jiangnan, Jiangxi rice noodles, pickled scallions, and fish floss—things that Yao Anhui couldn't find anywhere in the north.
Besides asking Qi Chunfang to help replace the items, they also started pickling the special pickled vegetables from Jiangnan. The original owner had a tutorial in her memory, so she could learn it in no time. They pickled a jar of pickled cowpeas, which Yao Anhui loved, and a large jar of white and red radishes.
And then there's Hua Fangling next door, a true culinary genius. The Sichuan-style pickled vegetables she makes are absolutely delicious. Yao Anhui even prepared several large jars and asked Hua Fangling to pickle two for her.
After making kimchi, there are also pickled vegetables, such as pickled green beans and pickled taro stems. This is very simple: just wash them clean, dry them in the sun, cut them into small pieces, marinate them with salt, and seal them in a jar. You don't need to add anything else.
Then today we're going to dry vegetables, mainly green beans. These green beans were brought by Lu Yuanqing, who supposedly bought them from the logistics department.
The military region has its own farmland. The amount of rice and vegetables consumed daily by such a large military region is enormous. Where would they get so much money if they had to buy everything?
In order to achieve the goal of food self-sufficiency, officers and soldiers of the military region personally participated in land reclamation and planting, which was specifically assigned to each company. Whether the officers and soldiers of the company could eat well depended entirely on themselves.
Some company quartermasters would go to great lengths to ensure their soldiers ate well, raising everything from pigs and chickens to rabbits.
These green beans were bought by Lu Yuanqing from a company commander and quartermaster.
It was the weekend, and Qi Mingzhe didn't have to go to school. He would be sent to school after the start of the new semester in September.
The young boy is exceptionally diligent. Whenever he's home, he doesn't let Yao Anhui do any chores. Since he came, Yao Anhui hasn't even had a chance to touch a broom, let alone wash dishes or water vegetables. All Yao Anhui can do each day is wash clothes, cook a meal, and then rest.
Yao Anhui was even considering whether she should find a job.
Of course, this was just an idea; she couldn't stand being controlled by others.
Drying green beans is simple: wash the green beans thoroughly, remove the ends, soak them in salt water for 30 minutes, then add enough water and salt to a pot, bring it to a boil over high heat, and add the green beans. Cook until the green beans turn a darker color, then remove them from the pot.
The final step is to place the blanched green beans in a drying basket to air dry.
The only problem was the quantity, because it takes more than ten kilograms of green beans to dry one kilogram of dried green beans. The 150 kilograms of fresh green beans that Lu Yuanqing bought were cooked pot after pot.
By noon, Lu Yuanqing had returned, and Yao Anhui had just finished. She was exhausted and covered in sweat.
Lu Yuanqing was heartbroken and said, "I should have just asked the quartermaster to help dry them, or bought some that were already dried."
"Is this okay? Won't people talk about it?" Yao Anhui, who had been busy all morning, was tempted, wondering when she had ever done this kind of work before.
"It's nothing. At worst, I'll find a way to get them some meat, and they'll thank us." Lu Yuanqing would rather spend money than let Yao Anhui suffer.
"Then let them dry the eggplant? And the spiced radish." Yao Anhui immediately objected, thinking that things that could be solved with money shouldn't be bothered.
"Do you want anything else? Dried cabbage, dried potatoes, dried cucumber slices, dried pumpkin?" Lu Yuanqing asked again.
"I don't know how many dishes to prepare. Why don't you bring a little of each kind?" Yao Anhui, a southerner, had no idea how many dishes to eat in winter.
"Then I'll have the quartermaster keep an eye on the drying." Lu Yuanqing asked, "What do you want for lunch? I'll make it."
"I'm too tired to eat. How about we have some cucumber salad?" Yao Anhui had absolutely no appetite.
"Okay, go inside and lie down for a while?"
"good."
Yao Anhui is becoming more and more relaxed when she's with Lu Yuanqing. At first, Yao Anhui was a bit reserved, which isn't meant as a bad thing. Yao Anhui herself didn't realize that she was subconsciously maintaining an image in front of Lu Yuanqing, probably because her lifestyle in her previous life made her always maintain proper etiquette.
But things are different now. Yao Anhui is becoming more and more relaxed. She herself doesn't feel anything, but Lu Yuanqing sees everything.
Lu Yuanqing saw this and was secretly delighted. In his excitement, he lost all sense of shame, took a bowl to the next room, and returned a short while later, having stolen a bowl of meat.
Yao Anhui was covered in sweat and felt sticky all over. Luckily, there was hot water, so she took a shower. When she came out of the shower, she found that Lu Yuanqing had already set out the dishes and chopsticks.
The cucumber salad that Yao Anhui wanted to eat was ready, and there was also an extra bowl of braised pork on the table.
"Where did you get braised pork? Didn't we not buy any meat today?" The meat ration coupons for each month are fixed. Apart from the monthly meat ration coupons, their family relies entirely on Hua Fangling for the rest of their meat consumption. Who told her to be so lucky?
"I thought you didn't have much of an appetite, so I went next door and got you a different dish." Lu Yuanqing couldn't help but blush as he spoke. This was the first time he had ever done something like this. Heaven knows how surprised Shen Wenkang was when he saw him take a bowl and go over to ask for meat. But compared to his wife going hungry, his shamelessness was nothing. So what if he was shameless?
However, one should still maintain a certain image in front of one's wife.
So instead of saying "want", it was changed to "change".
"Fangling made so much?" Yao Anhui was unaware of the inside story. She was still wondering why Hua Fangling had made so much braised pork when she saw that there was more than half a bowl of braised pork in the bowl. Little did she know that Lu Yuanqing had taken more than half of the braised pork from the plate.
"Hmm... apparently it's because of pregnancy symptoms that she can't eat." It's because Hua Fangling can't eat that Lu Yuanqing took so much food; he wouldn't steal meat from a pregnant woman.
As for Shen Wenkang? Didn't they leave her a small portion?
Yao Anhui was touched, because after spending so much time together, she knew that Lu Yuanqing was someone who didn't like to trouble others and would do things himself if he could.
Yao Anhui was also surprised that Lu Yuanqing would put aside his pride and accept her casual remark that he had no appetite. It can only be said that Lu Yuanqing's way of being good to her is the most touching way.
Also, Hua Fangling's cooking skills are really good. Hua Fangling didn't have much of an appetite at first, but she still ate happily in the end.
I am once again impressed by Yao Anhui's self-control. No matter how delicious or her favorite food is in front of her, Yao Anhui still only eats until she is 80% full at each meal.
In the afternoon, just after the men left for work, Hua Fangling arrived and surrounded Yao Anhui, looking her over and over, which puzzled her: "What are you doing?"
"Look how strange! You have no idea how funny your husband was at lunch today. He brought over a bowl before our food was even on the table."
Hua Fangling laughed uncontrollably: "With his expressionless face, he said, 'My wife doesn't have a good appetite, could you give me some food?' At first, he only picked up a little bit of braised pork. After I said I had morning sickness and couldn't eat, he immediately picked up the plate and ate most of it. My husband was so annoyed."
"Huh? But he told me he went to your house to exchange it." Yao Anhui was also stunned. What kind of crazy move was this? Lu Yuanqing and this area.
"It's not that it wasn't. He gave me 10 yuan before he left, telling me to make an extra portion of whatever delicious food I make in the future, and he would pay me back." Hua Fangling laughed heartily, "Your husband is like a domineering CEO, it's so funny."
Yao Anhui was already used to Hua Fangling occasionally throwing out some words she couldn't understand when she spoke, but she grasped the key point: Lu Yuanqing asked Hua Fangling to make her a delicious meal as well.
"So, did you agree?" Yao Anhui was actually curious about Shen Wenkang's reaction; she guessed he really wanted to beat him up.
"Do you think it's my place to agree? Don't you know who I am now? Before I could even say anything, my husband, Lao Shen, got upset and started pulling out money like your husband, Lao Lu, saying, 'My wife is pregnant and can't stand the smell of cooking oil. Could you please take care of her?'" Hua Fangling not only said this but also put on a funny performance for Yao Anhui.
"Not bad, not bad, your husband Lao Shen is a caring person."
"Do you want to hear your husband's answer?" Without waiting for Yao Anhui's reply, Hua Fangling laughed to herself: "Your husband immediately put the money in his pocket and didn't say a word. Tell me, your husband is afraid that you will get tired from dancing, so he doesn't even want to say a polite word. Doesn't he think about the braised pork I'm holding in his hand?"
"Pfft..." This time Yao Anhui really couldn't help herself. Hmm, her man is quite cute.
"So?" Hua Fangling asked slyly, "Were you moved after hearing my description? Do you love your husband Lao Lu even more now?"
I was touched, of course. I don't know if I love her or not, but I do like her. But I don't need to tell Hua Fangling that.
"And you, do you feel like you have particularly good taste right now?"
“Of course!” Hua Fangling said proudly.
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Author's Note: I drank eight cups of coffee last night and stayed up all night writing this chapter, so I'm updating earlier today. If we reach 2000 favorites today, I'll add an extra chapter.
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