Ningxia thought for a moment and placed a few Patchouli leaves in Maomao's water tank. Sangsang had force-fed fresh Patchouli to Maomao without any problems, so she thought dried Patchouli leaves would also work.
"Has everything in the yard been turned over?"
It was already completely dark. Lin Yi stood beside Ningxia with a candle, watching her busying around. "Yes, it's all turned over."
Sangsang sat on a small stool in the kitchen and looked at his brother and sister: "Xia Xia, what are we eating?"
The little girl went to the river to soak away the heat, regain her spirits, and have the energy to eat.
Ningxia washed and chopped the bacon next to her. In the basin beside her was a bowl of washed, wilted mushrooms. Without even looking up, she replied, "I'll make you some buns."
Ningxia had been eating whole grains lately, and with the hot weather, she wanted to use some flour to improve her diet. She didn't add any whole grains, using only fine wheat flour, which was quite a luxury.
The two pieces of bacon on the beam couldn't be kept much longer, and Ningxia wanted to use them up as quickly as possible, so she cut off a large piece and planned to mix it with chopped mushrooms to make bacon buns.
"Steamed buns? What are they?"
"It's just dumplings." Ningxia was too lazy to talk nonsense with her and answered casually.
"What are dumplings?"
Ningxia was about to speak to fool around when Lin Yi spoke up: "Baozi is steamed buns with meat in them."
"Oh~" Sangsang said in a long tone, nodding as if he understood: "Meat bun~"
Ningxia no longer cared about the brother and sister and concentrated on the things at hand. The weather was too hot, so she asked Lin Yi to light the fire on the stove, left a candle and drove the brother and sister out of the kitchen.
Ningxia separated the lean meat from the fat, mincing the lean meat and mixing it with the chopped mushrooms. The fat was cut into thumb-sized pieces and thrown into the pot. Over high heat, it quickly became golden and crispy. Ningxia didn't hesitate to pour all the meat and oil into the filling bowl.
Just the step of stir-frying the meat made the bath by the Ningxia River completely in vain, and now my clothes are completely wet.
She wiped the sweat off her face, took a gulp of the already cold chrysanthemum tea, and felt much better. There were water cups everywhere in the house now, and Ningxia had taken out all the fancy cups in the house, just so she could drink from them wherever she went.
Lin Yi also brought in chopped chives from outside, and Ningxia gestured for him to pour them into the pot of filling. Mixing them with chopped green onions and salt, he stirred them evenly, and the filling was ready.
The heat in the kitchen was still lingering, so Ningxia decided to go to the dining table and make dumplings. The temperature was favorable, and the dough had risen nicely. However, it was still a long way from the soft and fluffy yeast-raised buns I'd always gotten.
Ningxia stopped after making twenty buns in a row. She calculated it just right and used up all the filling and dough.
"Sister Xia Xia, aren't we going to light a fire and steam it now?"
Ningxia raised her wrist and looked at her watch in the candlelight: "Let it ferment for another twenty minutes. Are you hungry?"
Lin Yi lowered his eyes. Just when Ning Xia thought he would say he wasn't hungry, Lin Yi said, "Yeah, I'm hungry."
Ningxia looked at him and slowly raised her lips: "Aren't there still quite a few dried bananas left? Come on, let's go eat some."
By the time they finished their first meal of the day, it was already ten o'clock in the evening. They were so anxious to cool down that they didn't even use stools, but sat on the cool floor. Ningxia pulled up a chair and placed the steaming buns on it. Each of them had a large cup of chrysanthemum tea at their laps, staring at the buns eagerly.
Ningxia reached for one, ripping it open in the middle without caring about the heat. The fragrant filling overflowed onto the clean white wrapper. The candlelight was too dim to make out the filling, but the aroma lingered in her nose.
Ningxia took a bite of the bun with the skin and meat. The aroma of bacon was wrapped in the fragrance of leeks, and the unique aroma of mushrooms was also thoroughly stimulated, accompanied by a strong smell of lard, which was not greasy at all. The bun skin was also rare and not a hard lump, with a fluffy and firm texture. It was a delicious bun with a very distinctive flavor, and the glutton in Ningxia's stomach rushed out.
She handed the other bun to the eagerly awaiting Sangsang: "Be careful, it's hot. Eat slowly."
Lin Yi also took one for himself and took a bite. The dancing candlelight could not suppress the light emanating from his eyes.
The three of them were busy eating, raising their hands from time to time to drink chrysanthemum tea. Even though they were sweating profusely, no one stopped.
It was not until they had eaten five or six buns that Ningxia and Lin Yi slowed down. Sangsang was a slow eater to begin with. Ningxia and Lin Yi had already finished two big buns each, but Sangsang had not finished the first one in his hand yet. He ate it in small bites, shaking his head.
Seeing that Sangsang loved them, Ningxia breathed a sigh of relief. She'd worried the girl wouldn't want to eat the mushrooms, so she'd deliberately used very few and chopped them up very finely to minimize their presence. Unexpectedly, when Sangsang occasionally chewed on a larger, firm, and smooth nugget, she'd look up and say, "I got some mushrooms!" Her tone wasn't even slightly unhappy.
Ningxia made twenty big buns with thin skin and big fillings, and ate eight of them in one meal.
"It's so delicious! I'm so full. I want to eat buns every day!" Sangsang lay on the sofa and touched his belly.
They were all made of high-quality ingredients, so of course they were delicious. Ningxia looked at her with amusement: "What good things are you dreaming of? You want to eat it every day? You have to finish it in two more meals at most."
"Why?"
"It's too hot, it's going to spoil." Ningxia wasn't worried at all. There were twelve buns left, enough for two meals. It was just too hot to cook, and she was sweating profusely. Ningxia felt like she'd have to be lazy for a while before she could really show off her skills, unless air conditioning came down from the sky.
It was almost midnight, and for the three siblings, life had just begun. After all, they had only been up for less than six hours.
After resting enough, Ningxia asked Lin Yi to get some water for Sangsang to wipe his body. He was sweating all over and he should not get sick.
The boiled water at home was almost used up, so Ningxia worked hard to boil a large pot again, enough for them to drink for two days.
"Xia Xia, what are you doing?"
The three of them returned to the gum carpet in the room, and Sangsang looked curiously at Ningxia as she brought in a large pile of colorful materials.
"I'll sew you a cotton coat."
Upon hearing this, Sangsang frowned, her tone full of embarrassment: "Xia Xia...why don't you just stop doing it...it's too hot...I...don't really want to wear it..."
Ningxia smiled and pinched her arm: "Who told you to wear it now? Idiot."
Sangsang chuckled softly, knowing that she didn't need to put it on now, so she went to play with the dinosaur in her hand with peace of mind.
Lin Yi got up and went to the attic, bringing down a large bag of cotton. The cotton had been ripped from the original quilt and pillow inserts, dried and stored. There was also a large pile of doll "innards" he had collected from the attic and the children's room. Two of the dolls were taller than Ningxia. These large bags of cotton had made Ningxia incredibly happy. The cotton was good, and Yan Hanyue didn't have to spend money to buy it.
As for the pile of colorful cloths in Ningxia's hands, they were the "corpses" of the dolls whose "innards" had been hollowed out. She had promised to make a doll cotton coat for Sangsang, but the little girl had obviously forgotten it long ago.
"Sister Xia Xia, the candlelight is too dim. Making clothes will hurt your eyes. Why don't you stop doing it?" Lin Yi reached out to help Ningxia tidy up.
"It's okay. I have nothing to do anyway. Once the scorching sun month is over, I'll have to reclaim the land and plant crops. I won't have time to do it then. I do have two cotton-padded jackets, but you two won't have anything to wear when the weather gets cold. I won't make them too elaborate now that I'm free. It won't hurt your eyes."
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