Xia Ning looked terrible. She suppressed her nausea and went to stand by the well. Her hands were covered in chicken droppings. Xu Lai was still laughing. Xia Ning couldn't hold back anymore. "Xu Lai, still laughing? Hurry up and pump the water for me!"
She washed it three times, and only stopped when she smelled it and found no odor.
Xu Lai wanted to laugh when she saw Xia Ning's hand, but Xia Ning brought her hand close and said, "Still laughing, huh? I'll let you see enough."
Xu Lai dodged away, saying, "I'm not laughing anymore, I was wrong, I was wrong."
Xu Lai also processed the chicken that Xia Ning brought. This time, she didn't let Xia Ning hold the chicken's feet; she stepped on them herself, then slit the chicken's neck, and that was it.
The rooster had already been thrown into the bucket. Xu Lai took another bucket, threw the chicken in, and then poured hot water over it. The rooster had cooled down and was motionless.
As a result, when the hot water hit the second chicken, it jumped out of the bucket and ran a long way.
Xia Ning, who was watching from the side, was dumbfounded. She was helping Xu Lai film a video when she saw the chicken run out. "It's...it's come back to life?"
Xu Lai was also taken aback, and then quickly ran after the chicken. Fortunately, the chicken was not running fast. She grabbed the chicken's wing, looked at the chicken's neck, and found that it had not been cut open. No wonder it had escaped.
Xia Ning found it increasingly absurd, and she almost laughed herself silly. When her grandmother returned from visiting neighbors, she asked in surprise, "I could hear you laughing from far away. What's making you so happy?"
Xia Ning cleared her throat and pointed at Xu Lai, saying, "Xiao Lai poured hot water on the chicken, and the chicken jumped out of the bucket and ran away."
Grandma followed the direction of her finger and saw Xu Lai clutching the chicken with a mournful expression. The chicken's neck was crooked, clearly indicating that it was dead.
Xu Lai laughed and teased, "Xia Ning, you didn't bring Grandma Xia's strongest chicken, did you? It can run so fast."
Xia Ning shook her head: "I don't know, it's really funny, maybe it doesn't want to go into our stomachs."
After soaking the chicken in hot water for a minute, you can take it out and pluck its feathers. Processing chicken is not too difficult, the feathers are not hard to pluck. What she hates most is dealing with duck feathers. Sometimes small ones get stuck in the pores, which gives her a real headache.
In less than ten minutes, the two chickens were lying naked on the cutting board. The rooster looked like it had more meat, so she removed the heads and tails from both chickens, chopped off the chicken feet, and marinated them with seasonings.
Then she took Xia Ning to the back mountain to dig up yellow mud, the same mud they used to pickle salted duck eggs last time.
While digging in the yellow mud, she saw a tree on the mountain with a few yellow leaves. It looked familiar, so she went over to take a look.
Xia Ning asked, "Xiao Lai, where are you going? Be careful."
Xu Lai replied, "Don't worry, I'm just looking at this tree; it looks kind of familiar."
There were many small fruits on the tree, which smelled somewhat pungent and looked a bit like Sichuan peppercorns. They smelled like wild peppercorns. She remembered that her grandmother used to pick them and sell them.
She broke off a few tree branches, picked up the yellow mud, and went home. She asked her grandmother, "What is this? It looks familiar."
Grandma glanced at it and said, "Isn't this Litsea cubeba?"
"Litsea cubeba? Can you eat it?" Xia Ning asked.
Grandma smiled and said, "Of course you can eat it! You can use it to make oil, sauce, or even spices to repel mosquitoes."
Xu Lai made up her mind to pick some and make some another day. She thought the smell was not bad, although it was a bit pungent, she did not find it unpleasant.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, Xu Lai set up a parasol in the empty vegetable garden at home, and she and Xia Ning dug a hole there, then put small clods of soil on it one by one.
She was almost halfway there, but every time she got to the finishing touches, one side would collapse. She was starting to give up. "That's it then. I'll just get some firewood and keep it burning."
Zhao Qingyun closed the car door and looked at the two figures over there, somewhat puzzled. Were they squatting on the ground counting ants? So seriously.
He walked over and stood behind Xu Lai, asking, "What are you doing?" Xu Lai was planning one last try, and she was just a few pieces of mud away from sealing it when she was startled by the sudden noise. Her hand trembled, and it collapsed again.
Xu Lai was somewhat exasperated. "Zhao Qingyun, can't you see I'm working? You're still causing trouble here."
Zhao Qingyun's eyes were full of doubt. He had only just arrived, so why was he causing trouble?
He glanced at the earthen kiln in front of them, chuckled, and said, "I'll do it." He took off his suit jacket and let Xu Lai carry it, rolled up his sleeves, and started working.
He first pushed away all the mud from the upper part, leaving only a foundation, and then selected suitable clods of earth to start building.
Xu Lai fanned herself, watching him leisurely, thinking to herself, "We've been trying to fix this for ages and it's still not done. Let's see what you're going to do now."
Ten minutes later, Zhao Qingyun put down the last piece of soil, and the top was sealed.
Xu Lai exclaimed in surprise, "No, how did you do that? We tried so many times and it didn't work."
Zhao Qingyun tapped her on the head, patted the mud off her hands, then took the clothes, rolled them up to her elbows, and said, "Find a suitable clod of earth to block that gap, and that'll be fine."
Xu Lai began preparing the chicken. She mixed the yellow mud she dug up with water to make a thin mud, which was ready when it was resistant to stirring. Then she wrapped the chicken, which had been marinating for several hours, in lotus leaves, wrapped it in several layers of tin foil, and finally coated it with yellow mud.
The fire was already burning, and she had prepared some skewers and grilled them on a stove.
Grandpa and Grandma were both too hot to eat, so they chatted in the yard. Xu Lai was worried that they wouldn't be used to the food, so she cooked a few bowls of noodles for them to have something to eat first.
After the firewood has burned out, throw the chicken in, then use a shovel to knock soil on top and bury it for two hours before eating.
Zhao Qingyun was grilling skewers over there. Her home wasn't far from the vegetable garden, so she could deliver the grilled skewers to her grandparents as soon as they were ready.
Xu Lai felt that such a pleasant time couldn't be without wine. She remembered that she had made mulberry wine before, so she took out the jar, took out ice from the refrigerator, and poured a glass for each of them.
As the sun gradually disappeared, they moved to the yard to wait for the chicken to be roasted before bringing it back to eat. The skewers were also moved back, and Zhao Qingyun stayed there to roast them.
Xu Lai poured him a glass and handed it to him, saying, "This is fruit wine I brewed. Try it. The alcohol content is really low this time, trust me."
Since Zhao Qingyun's hands were busy, she said, "You can put it there, I'll drink it later."
Xu Lai thought he was making a fuss and didn't dare to drink it, so she directly put it to his lips, "Open your mouth, I don't believe it, I have to let you try it, the alcohol content is really not high."
Zhao Qingyun was stunned for a moment, then opened his mouth and tasted the wine. Xu Lai asked, "How is it? Not bad, right?"
He licked his lips, his eyes shining, and looked at her, asking, "Can I have some more?"
Xu Lai realized that she was still holding his cup, and she felt her face getting hot, perhaps because she had been drinking.
Faced with his request, Xu Lai simply shoved the cup into his hand: "Drink it yourself, you're a grown man, why do you need me to feed you?"
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