Mother Yan's eyes darted away. "We've been taking care of you at the hospital the whole time. We don't know anything about those things. You should lie down and rest. I'll go tell the attending physician that you've woken up."
As she left the private hospital room, Yan's mother sighed helplessly.
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On the first morning of spring plowing, everyone stood on the threshing ground, waiting for Captain Qian to assign tasks. Captain Qian first gave a passionate speech to motivate everyone before assigning tasks to them.
Then the crowd dispersed from the threshing ground and went to the fields with their respective group leaders, busily working in the fields. Their busy figures could be seen in every paddy field.
Wenxi and the other two ate breakfast at home and then went up the mountain together. Shen Jiaojiao and Jiang Yue went to pick bamboo shoots, while Wenxi went to dig for wild vegetables.
Although pig feed hasn't sprouted yet this season, pig feed doesn't refer to a specific type of grass. It's a general term that includes any grass that pigs can eat.
Since the Lunar New Year, after Wenxi applied to gather pig feed, although she didn't gather pig feed every day, she delivered two baskets of wild vegetables to the pigsty every day in exchange for two work points.
Because she had already dug up a lot of wild vegetables and stored them in the system warehouse, when she didn't have time, she would directly use the wild vegetables she had stored to exchange for work points.
At nine o'clock, Wenxi and the other two arrived at the cafeteria. The food and vegetables were already there, and all the five of them needed to do was prepare them.
"Aunt Xiaoju, why are you so happy? Did something good happen?" Wenxi asked curiously, seeing the smiles on Wang Xiaoju and Sun Mei's faces.
Wang Xiaoju lifted the burlap sack covering the bamboo basket, revealing a basket full of bones, and said with a smile, "Captain Qian sent someone to the pork stall to buy a basket of bones. We can have bone soup for lunch."
At this point, the bones are real bones, with all the meat removed. You can taste the meat flavor when you make soup!
Wen Xi said with a smile, "Aunt Xiao Ju, today is the first time the three of us have cooked together, so let me cook the bones. Let me show everyone what I'm capable of, okay?"
Wang Xiaoju looked at Wen Xi with a troubled expression, because she felt that these city girls were all pampered and never lifted a finger. If they ruined the bone broth, everyone would definitely blame them.
“Aunt Xiaoju, Xiaoxi is a very good cook. Xiaoxi does all the cooking in our family, and Xiaoyue and I are in charge of doing the odd jobs!” Shen Jiaojiao said when she saw that Wang Xiaoju did not believe Wenxi.
Jiang Yue pointed to the basket hanging on her wrist and said, "To show our sincerity, we even brought our own oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar!"
"Aunt Xiaoju, please let me try. If my bone broth doesn't taste good, I'll buy bones tomorrow to make it up to everyone, okay?" Wenxi shook Wang Xiaoju's arm.
Wang Xiaoju hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
Afterwards, Wenxi and the other two carried the bones to the river bend to wash them. Wenxi poured the bones onto the grass next to her and then threw the bamboo basket into the water. The basket had a slightly fishy smell, which should attract some small fish. That way, they would have meat for tomorrow.
During busy farming seasons, we must make sure everyone is well-fed so they have the energy to work.
While Shen Jiaojiao and Jiang Yue went back to the cafeteria to get vegetables to wash, Wen Xi took out some finger-sized wild fish from the system warehouse and kept them in a wooden basin with river water.
When she went to the waterfall to plant those fruit and vegetable seedlings, she used a little fish sedative and caught fish in it for an hour. There were some bigmouth bass weighing over a pound and half a pound, as well as wild small fish only the size of a finger. But it would be difficult to explain if she brought out the bigmouth bass, so she brought out the wild small fish and said that she caught them with a basket.
When Shen Jiaojiao and Jiang Yue carried the vegetables that needed washing to the riverbank, they were both very surprised to see the small, dark fish huddled together in the wooden basin. "Xiaoxi, you caught so many fish?"
Jiang Yue exclaimed, "Look, a fish has gone into the basket!"
There are fish in the basket, but not enough to eat. In other words, Wenxi still needs to take some out of the system warehouse to make enough for a meal.
"Go wash the vegetables quickly, don't delay things or you'll get scolded by Aunt Xiaoju and Aunt Mei." The two of them were always around her, so she couldn't cheat and had to urge them to leave.
Shen Jiaojiao and Jiang Yue went to wash vegetables on the nearby rocks, while Wen Xi started washing ribs. Once fish were in the bamboo basket, she lifted the basket out of the water, poured the fish into a wooden basin, and then quietly transferred some small fish from the system warehouse. With so many people eating, at least two basins of small fish were needed.
Wenxi had to go back to cook, so she didn't stay there catching small fish. Instead, she quickly cleaned the ribs. While cleaning, she secretly counted them and realized there wasn't enough for one person. So she took some bones from the ones she had bought to make up the difference and ensure that everyone could get a bone.
After washing the ribs, the three of them carried them back. With so many ribs, Wenxi stewed them in three iron pots. She also cut the white radish into chunks and left Chen Jiaojiao to watch the pot. Once the pot was boiling, she would put the white radish in.
Wenxi then took Jiangyue to the river bend, where she had Jiangyue remove the internal organs from the small fish. Although they could eat them without removing the internal organs, they would taste a little bitter if they didn't, and since they were going to eat them themselves, they had to take it seriously.
Wenxi continued to catch fish with a bamboo basket. The two of them worked together and returned with a basin of cleaned and prepared small fish.
Wang Xiaoju and Sun Mei were both surprised to see the two of them carrying back so many small fish. "Xiaoxi, why did you catch so many small fish? These small fish use up too much oil, and we don't have that much oil to cook them!"
"Aunt Xiaoju, don't worry, I know a way to cook it that doesn't require much oil," Wenxi said with a smile. She then poured the small fish onto a winnowing basket and took it outside the dining hall to dry.
If these small fish are not fried and are cooked directly in a pot, they will turn into a pot of mush and be inedible. However, since there is not enough oil available now, the only option is to dry them in the sun.
Although Wenxi has oil, it's only available through a voucher, and once it's used up, it's gone, so naturally, it needs to be used sparingly.
There are ten pots in the canteen. One pot is used to boil tea for everyone, and it must not be oily. Four pots are used to cook rice and steam cornbread. The remaining five pots are used for stir-frying vegetables. Now two pots are being used to stew soup, so there are only three pots left for cooking vegetables.
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