The grove where Tian Tian is now is at the foot of the hill. This is her first time to come to this place in the past two months.
Tian Tian walked inside, wondering if she could pick up some firewood.
The weather is about to get colder and it's already a little chilly at night. We'll have to heat the kang soon, so pick up as much as you can.
As a result, I faintly heard the voices of a man and a woman talking in the woods.
A small forest?! A man and a woman?!
Tian Tian immediately thought of some unspeakable things. She wanted to turn around and leave, but she couldn't overcome her curiosity. She quietly hid behind a relatively thick tree and poked her head to look over there.
From this angle, she can just see the boy's face, but the girl can only see his back.
"Isn't this that... Meng Rui!" Tian Tian searched through her memory for a while before she found Meng Rui's existence.
The original owner rarely came into contact with educated youth, but Meng Rui was an exception.
Suddenly one day, Meng Rui appeared in front of the original owner. When the original owner was washing clothes, he wanted to help the original owner carry the big basin. When the original owner went to the fields to deliver food, he wanted to help the original owner carry the earthen basket. He also read the sour poems he wrote in the original owner's ear.
The original owner was naive and didn't understand what Meng Rui wanted to do.
However, Tian Tian understood through the original owner's memory that Meng Rui wanted to seduce the original owner in order to avoid the hard working life. It should be said that the original owner's father was the accountant of the brigade and had some status in the brigade.
Fortunately, the original owner was a very obedient and traditional child. He always believed that matters of marriage should be decided by family members and never thought that he could fall in love on his own.
Regarding what Meng Rui did, the original owner only thought that Meng Rui was a good young man in society who was willing to help others.
Apart from whispering some nonsense in her ear, he was generally a good guy and there was nothing else to think about.
Later, the original owner fell into the water, and Meng Rui could not see the original owner, so he stopped targeting her. Now...
Tian Tian remembered what Shen Lingling had told her, that Meng Rui had been pestering Li Jiuniang not long after he fell ill, so the girl in the woods was the heroine.
Tian Tian hid behind the tree and watched the two of them for a while, but she still couldn't see clearly what the heroine looked like. Their words were vague and Tian Tian couldn't hear clearly.
She was afraid that Shen Lingling would come to the woods to find her after washing the clothes, and then shout her name loudly in the grove.
Tian Tian withdrew her gaze and quietly left the grove.
Shen Lingling had indeed finished washing the clothes. She was standing by the river bank, looking into the woods when she saw Tian Tian coming out. "I was just about to go in to look for you, and you came out."
Tian Tian secretly breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, luckily she came out.
She wasn't afraid that the heroine would know she was in the grove, even though eavesdropping would be bad.
Tian Tian didn't want to have anything to do with the heroine. Who knows if she is good or bad? She didn't want to ruin her peaceful and happy life. It would be best if the heroine didn't know she existed.
"I calculated the time and you should have finished washing the clothes, so hurry out." After saying that, Tian Tian picked up the big basin on the ground and went back with Shen Lingling.
Tian Tian returned home and found no one at home. She hung all the clothes up, washed her hands and prepared to cook.
Tian Tian hasn't been out for the past two months. She felt embarrassed to do nothing at home, so she volunteered to take on the job of cooking.
She can cook. In the end times, she cooked for herself, but she doesn’t know how to cook in a big pot.
The most important thing when cooking with a big pot is to control the heat. She helped Old Lady Tian to light the fire for a few days. Only after she thought she had mastered the heat did she talk to Old Lady Tian about cooking.
Old Mrs. Tian was skeptical. Food was precious now, and she felt sorry for Tian Tian, so she had never taught her how to cook. She had thought that Tian Tian would be fifteen years old this year and would get married in a few years, so it was time for her to learn how to cook.
As a result, Tian Tian fell into the water and was ill for another month, so Old Mrs. Tian put the matter aside for the time being.
Now that Tian Tian brought up this matter, Old Mrs. Tian didn't have the heart to dampen her enthusiasm. Thinking that she would have to learn to cook sooner or later, she agreed. Unexpectedly, Tian Tian's cooking was quite delicious. Later, the job of cooking lunch and dinner at home fell to Tian Tian.
She scooped some cornmeal, mixed it with a little white flour, and made a bowl of flour and put it aside to wake up.
They only had one big pot at home, so they couldn't use it to cook all the meals. The pot was covered with patches. Tian Lijuan had taken great pains to get the broken pot back from the county town, and then she specially asked someone to fix it and send it back.
Don’t underestimate this tattered pot. Since the Great Leap Forward, you can’t even get a tattered pot. Not to mention how many people in the village still use clay pots to cook at home.
Tian Tian picked some eggplants from her own vegetable garden, washed them, cut them into strips, and heated oil in a pan.
She used a spatula to scoop a little bit of lard into the pot. It was really just “a little bit”, only the size of Tian Tian’s fingernail.
Old Mrs. Tian was very strict about the amount of lard she used. She would check how much oil was left after every meal she cooked, and Tian Tian didn't dare to use too much.
When the lard in the pot melted, a pot of oil appeared out of thin air in Tian Tian's hand. A quarter of the oil had been used. Tian Tian poured some soybean oil into the pot and then put the oil into her shell.
When the oil is hot, add the scallions, ginger and garlic and sauté them. When the aroma comes out, pour the eggplant in. After the eggplant is fried, add two spoons of the soybean paste prepared by Mrs. Tian.
The soybean paste is already very salty, so there is no need to add other seasonings after adding soybean paste. Tian Tian poured some water into it and started to put the pancakes on the edge of the pot. She rolled the cornmeal into a ball and threw it on the edge of the pot. After throwing it around a bit, she covered the pot and left it there to simmer. After the dish was ready, the pancakes would also be steamed.
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