Chapter 044: Dragon Boat Festival
The rice dumplings smell good, the kitchen smells good, and the Dragon Boat Festival is everywhere.
On the Dragon Boat Festival, Wen Jiajia woke up early in the morning and smelled the fragrance of rice dumplings wafting from outside the house.
The weather has been good in the past two years, and everyone wants to make some delicious food to reward themselves.
"It must be the Xu family making zongzi." Wen Jiajia stood at the door of the living room and sniffed hard. "The smell is so strong, it must be almost cooked. They must have made the zongzi in the dark."
She looked at her watch. It was just after seven o'clock.
The sunlight had not even reached their Beishan side from the lake, but it was clear how early the family got up to make zongzi.
Wei Dai was hanging mugwort leaves. Wen Yan looked down at her curiously and said, "How can you smell that the Xu family is the one cooking the rice dumplings?"
In fact, it was the Xu family. When he got up early in the morning to pick mugwort leaves, he passed by the gate of the Xu family and saw several children of the Xu family sitting in the yard making rice dumplings.
Jia Jia always says that Wen Xuan's nose is like a dog's, but actually she herself has a pretty good nose too.
Wen Jiajia touched the wormwood, smelled it again and said, "The Xie family next door didn't make rice dumplings. When I delivered the fish yesterday, I didn't see the Xie family soaking glutinous rice. The Xie family is next door to the Xu family, of course, it could also be Sister Bao's family. But Sister Bao said that her eldest daughter will be back next week, so she will most likely leave the rice dumplings for next week.
As for other houses, they are too far away. Even if they are making zongzi, we can’t smell such a strong fragrance here.”
Wei Dai chuckled: "You are right."
Then he pointed at the dining table and said, "Hurry up and eat. The noodles are almost softened."
Wen Jiajia took a closer look and saw that it was indeed chicken soup noodles.
There were several pieces of chicken in the noodles, luckily they were mixed with some vegetables, otherwise she would have no appetite.
There was also some mung bean paste that had been rolled into balls next to it. Wen Jiajia thought to herself that no wonder she felt like someone was shoveling the pot while she was sleeping. It seemed like there really was someone shoveling it.
To make mung bean paste, you need to use a strong shovel.
"When did you get up today?" Wen Jiajia asked him, "Chun'er and Xuanxuan must have eaten a lot of the mung bean paste."
"Of course not! They both ate and took the food. They waited in the kitchen while I was cooking." Wei Dai smiled and didn't say what time he got up.
Wen Jiajia didn't ask any more questions.
If you want to make green bean paste, you have to cook it first and then fry it. The whole process takes at least an hour. If you do the math, you have to get up after 5 o'clock.
After Wei Dai finished hanging the mugwort leaves, he took care of the yard and vegetable garden.
Wen Jiajia's vegetable growing skills were really not that good. She didn't even know how to pull out the weeds growing around the vegetables. Wei Dai cleared out a basket of weeds.
The mist in the distant mountains gradually dissipated and the temperature gradually rose.
The thick quilts at home had to be replaced. The two of them worked together to take off the quilt covers and sheets of three beds and soaked them in soapy water at about 40 degrees.
When they were almost done soaking, she supported Wen Jiajia and let her walk in barefoot.
"Try harder." Wei Dai said.
Wen Jiajia pulled her pants and stepped hard: "You've already stepped hard enough, turn over." If she stepped harder, her pants would fall off.
In her previous life, Wen Jiajia had to change her bedding every week, but living conditions are not convenient this time, so she doesn't change her quilt covers and sheets as often.
Therefore, it takes extra effort to wash, and this is the only way to wash when the laundry sink is too small.
Wen Jiajia kept jumping and stepping in the big wooden tub for nearly half an hour before she finished. When she came out of the tub, the soles of her feet were slightly wrinkled.
"You almost tired me out. You take care of the rest." She collapsed on the bamboo chair, watching the sunlight slowly move into the yard.
The sun is particularly hot today. It's not even nine o'clock yet, but I can already feel the heat from being exposed to the sun.
Wei Dai moved quickly, using a bucket to collect the water and splashing it into the wooden basin.
The result is that the whole yard is wet, and water drips from the soles of your shoes wherever you step.
Fortunately, the sun is strong and it can be dried by sunbathing.
The two of them used all their strength to twist the quilt cover and sheets. Wei Dai thought Wen Jiajia was not strong enough, so he went next door to ask Xie Yang for help.
"Look, it has to be stretched to this extent." Wei Dai pointed at the sheets and quilts that had been hung out to dry, "Isn't it dripping less? If so, it can be dried at 2 o'clock in the afternoon."
Wen Jiajia was speechless. She kept turning around the quilt cover, wondering how a person could have such great strength that he could twist the quilt cover like it had been torn in a washing machine.
Quilt covers and bed sheets were hung all over one side of the yard, and they swayed in the breeze.
Under the combined effect of sunlight and summer breeze, the moisture in the quilt and sheets gradually evaporated, and they felt somewhat dry to the touch.
At this moment, the aroma of rice dumplings wafted out from the kitchen.
Wen Jiajia is faster at wrapping zongzi than Wei Dai. She can wrap two while Wei Dai can only wrap one.
Soon, the couple finished wrapping the sweet rice dumplings and put them in the pot to cook.
The fragrance of the rice dumplings leaves was so overbearing that it could be smelled from far away. Wen Jiajia even heard someone shouting, asking whose family was cooking rice dumplings.
Wen Jiajia ran to the door and sniffed hard, and it was indeed very fragrant.
She covered her mouth and chuckled: "It's over, we're going to be scolded again." Every time her family cooked something delicious, they would be scolded by their family members when they went out the next day.
I didn't mean any harm. I was just annoyed by my own child and wanted to complain to the "culprit" when I met him.
Steam kept coming out of the pot, prompting Wen Jiajia to open the windows of the kitchen and living room so that the steam would not be trapped in the room.
For fear of the smell, they cooked one pot of sweet rice dumplings and another pot of salty rice dumplings.
The sweet rice dumplings were red bean paste rice dumplings, and the salty rice dumplings were mushroom, salted egg yolk and meat rice dumplings. As for the extra soaked peanuts, Wen Jiajia didn't put them in, because putting too many ingredients would make the taste mixed.
She was going to cook peanut soup in the evening, which was perfect with rice dumplings.
Zongzi must be cooked for at least four hours to make the glutinous rice thoroughly cooked and sticky.
So after the two pots of rice dumplings were cooked, the sun went down and the transparent moon was already hanging in the blue sky.
"Cicada——"
Cicadas chirped as Wen Jiajia carried the burning mugwort around the yard.
In June, there are cicadas and mosquitoes, which makes people feel irritated.
She was afraid that there were mosquitoes in the two rooms, so she closed the windows and doors of the rooms and burned mugwort inside the rooms, hoping to stun the mosquitoes hiding in the rooms.
"I think I need to buy a mosquito net." Wen Jiajia stopped fumigating twice, threw the wormwood outside the kitchen window, and said to Wei Dai inside the window, "But I haven't seen a mosquito net in the department store. Where can I buy this thing? I can't do this every day. When the weather gets hotter in the future, there will be more mosquitoes."
The most important thing is that the troops are close to water, that lake, that river...tsk tsk, they are the mosquitoes' base camp.
Wei Dai took the rice dumplings out of the pot and put them on the dustpan to drip water. He thought for a moment and said, "If the department store doesn't have it, then other places definitely don't have it. But you can go and have a look. Mosquito nets are only needed in summer. Maybe they're available now."
That's true.
The two children came back, and the first thing they did after coming back was to eat rice dumplings.
They ate the sweet rice dumplings first.
Children still like sweets.
Wen Jiajia is generous and puts a lot of fillings, including just enough red bean paste, so the sweet rice dumplings are very delicious.
The rice dumplings were soaked long enough so no alkali was added.
Sweet rice dumplings without alkali are white, which is the original color of the steamed glutinous rice.
Take a bite and the brown and black bean paste inside is revealed. The white and black look like a work of art.
And the rice dumplings were cooked to perfection.
A properly cooked rice dumpling should not have individual grains, but should be integrated into one and sticky enough to stick to your mouth.
Wei Dai put the dripping meat rice dumpling on the table, and then used scissors to cut a few sweet and salty rice dumplings into six portions, and delivered the rice dumplings while everyone was having dinner at home.
Wen Jiajia asked: "Do you want to deliver it to the next door or should I?"
Wei Dai said, "Let me take you there, you sit down and eat."
Wen Jiajia sat back down, scooped herself a bowl of thick white peanut soup that had been simmered for two hours, and cut a salty rice dumpling.
The aroma of salted rice dumplings is really strong. Once you open it, the aroma of meat and mushrooms comes out.
Especially since she put pork belly in it, the pork belly was almost melted, and now the whole zongzi looks shiny and greasy.
Wen Jiajia opened her mouth wide and took a bite, and got the meat and mushrooms in the first bite.
The meat was marinated, salty and fragrant, with the flavor of mushrooms and a little salty egg yolk. The taste was just right, the fat part was not greasy, the lean part was not dry, mixed with sticky glutinous rice... Tsk tsk, if she hadn't eaten too much and couldn't digest it, she could have eaten four in one breath. This combination of carbohydrates and fats is simply irresistible.
Wen Jiajia was relatively restrained, but the two children were not. After eating the sweet rice dumplings, they ate the meat rice dumplings. After eating the meat rice dumplings, they wanted another meat rice dumpling. Wen Jiajia refused to give them anything, and finally she clapped her hands and they calmed down.
"Be careful, you may have a stomachache again!" She said with a frown on her face, truly forgetting the pain once the wound has healed.
Wei Dai came back and was stopped by Wen Jiajia after he ate two rice dumplings.
Fortunately, there were leftovers from lunch, including braised fish and fried eggplant on the table. After heating them up, Wei Dai ate them very happily.
As dusk fell, the sky darkened, but the moon became brighter and the stars began to appear. You could see quite a few of them if you looked up.
Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were lying on bamboo chairs in the yard with their aunt and uncle, with burning mugwort beside them.
Their impression of the Dragon Boat Festival started from this day. There were delicious rice dumplings, the lingering scent of mugwort, and their uncle-in-law who taught them to identify the North Pole under the starry sky, and their aunt-in-law’s slaps…
The Dragon Boat Festival suddenly took shape in their lives.
——
The Dragon Boat Festival is not over and the straw mats will not be put away.
After the Dragon Boat Festival, I wish I could lie on the floor every day.
Life without air conditioning is simply too unbearable. Wen Jiajia is afraid of heat but not cold, and she wants to take off the quilt when she goes to bed at night.
Wei Dai comforted her: "If you calm down, you will feel cooler."
Everyone here is complaining about how hot it is. What should people who live in buildings do? They will only get hotter.
Wen Jiajia pouted: "Fortunately I live in a bungalow. If I were living in a building now, I would definitely have to sleep on the ground floor."
She secretly counted on her fingers and thought it would take her another 15 years to get an air conditioner. She remembered her mother saying that their family got their first air conditioner in 1999.
And it’s imported, so very expensive.
Wen Jiajia decided to save enough money to install air conditioners in every house in her family before 1999.
She refused to listen to any advice about saving the money to buy a house or start a business. Now she is not a millennial, but a person born in the 1950s. Millennials are old, so of course they should enjoy their money while they can.
As Wen Jiajia thought about it, she felt extremely suffocated. She turned over and faced Wei Dai: "Fan me faster."
Wei Dai was speechless and fanned herself faster. Why was she angry again? Who had made her angry again for no reason?
He could only be angry with himself. After all, he had just said one sentence and did not provoke her.
Although it is hot during this period, it is also the peak season for red bayberry.
In the middle of the month, it rained lightly, but after the middle of the month, the sun was like a furnace, eager to dry up all the moisture on the ground.
With plenty of rain and sunshine, the red plums finally ripened.
In fact, Wen Jiajia had been thinking about picking them some time ago, as there was a red bayberry tree growing on the North Mountain.
Moreover, this red bayberry tree matures early, and that was the time when Wen Jiajia knocked Wen Xuan over.
The child fell and cried loudly, holding his forehead. His cries could be heard all the way down the mountain. People down the mountain thought that some naughty child had run into the mountains to play and got into an accident. They almost ran to look for help.
If Wen Jiajia hadn't waved down the mountain to indicate that she was there, the logistics department would have had to make another trip to her home.
But it was not worth it for Wen Xuan to fall. The fruit was so sour that it made her teeth ache. It was obviously a little red, but one bite would make you sour for the whole day. After Wen Jiajia finished eating it, she grimaced and quickly threw a piece of rock sugar into her mouth to calm down.
She finally understood why she could still see the fruits of the red bayberry tree, because no one cared about them.
Even those who are the most advantageous in their own yards and even pick up the shit from their own chickens outside and take it home to use as fertilizer are not interested.
So when she heard that the red bayberries in the nearby village were ripe, Wen Jiajia began to urge Wei Dai: "Are you free recently?"
I don’t know why, but Wei Dai has started reading books recently.
At first Wen Jiajia thought he wouldn't be able to hold on for long, but who would have thought that today is already the third day and he is still holding the book and reading.
What book to read? The Barefoot Doctor's Handbook
Wen Jiajia: …
This was really something she had never expected.
Wei Dai was so absorbed in watching that he didn't hear what Wen Jiajia asked. Wen Jiajia made a "tsk" sound and nudged him: "I'm asking you a question."
"What?" Wei Dai came back to his senses.
Wen Jiajia didn't understand: "How can you be so engrossed in reading this book?" Then you will definitely be a bookworm in the future.
She asked again, and Wei Dai closed the book. "Why don't we go today?"
Wen Jiajia was surprised: "Can we just go there and pick them?"
Wei Dai: "By the time we go there next week, the red bayberries will have been picked, and the quality won't be as good as it is now."
Wen Jiajia stood up and said, "Let's go!"
Of course I wouldn't eat bad food if I could eat good food.
The couple each carried a backpack and rode their bicycles out of the army.
Yangmei is collectively owned, so if you want to pick them, you have to find the village collective first.
Wei Dai stuffed a ticket into the captain's hands, and the captain waved his hand and let them pick it.
"You can only pick two baskets." said the captain.
Wei Dai nodded, he didn't want to pick more.
After leaving the village office, Wei Dai took Wen Jiajia and walked into the mountains.
Wen Jiajia looked behind her and saw that no one was following her. She asked curiously in a low voice, "Hey, do you think he embezzled the ticket or put it on the account?"
Wei Dai laughed: "He can't fool you."
"Hmm? How do you say that?"
"When you first went up the mountain, didn't you see someone in the fields watching the entrance to the mountain? They remember exactly how many people from other villages came to pick red bayberries."
Wen Jiajia suddenly realized: "You are trying to do two things at once."
As they were talking, the two arrived at Yang Meilin.
It can be seen that the people in the village usually take good care of this poplar forest, otherwise it would not produce so many fruits.
Yangmeilin is very large, at least more than ten acres.
Wei Dai selected for a while and finally chose Yang Meilin who was in the middle to pick the fruits.
This location receives the most sunlight, so it should be sweeter than other places.
He led Wen Jiajia up the slope and picked a waxberry growing low for her to eat.
“Hmm——” Wen Jiajia narrowed her eyes.
Wei Dai: "How?"
Wen Jiajia chewed and chewed, her eyes curved into crescents: "It's sweet, about eight parts sweet and two parts sour."
Is this a sweetness scale?
Wei Dai was relieved to know that they were sweet, so he climbed up the tree and said, "You just stand below and eat, and I'll pick them."
He was very agile, like a monkey, and in no time he climbed to a position close to the top.
Wen Jiajia was terrified and quickly shouted, "Slow down, be careful not to fall, or the branches might break."
Wei Dai lowered his head and smiled at her: "Don't worry, I'm better at climbing trees than you."
“…”
Wen Jiajia rolled her eyes, climbed up a low branch of another tree, sat there and leisurely ate waxberries.
Why worry about that?
The waxberries that Wei Dai picked were all big and black. He was not shy about picking and eating them. When he had eaten most of them, he had also picked most of them.
He has a talent for construction. The basket on his back is like a pyramid, very high but not falling down.
Wei Dai was quite regretful: "In fact, we could have used branches or vines to wrap it a few more times, so that we could have at least one or two more kilograms."
Wen Jiajia pulled him and said, "Forget it, I'm full... There are so many mosquitoes, let's go."
Then the two of them left again as the villagers saw them off.
Because the red bayberries were covered by leaves and they were far away, they only knew that the couple were honest and did not use clothes to put the fruits away.
Well, it’s very good. If they want to pick them, they can come and pick them.
Kewen Jiajia felt guilty and didn't feel relieved until the bicycle left the village.
When I get home, I eat one basket immediately and use the other basket to make wine.
The two bottles of wine before were definitely not enough, but fortunately Wei Dai got another barrel from somewhere a few days ago, so now there is no need to use the other two bottles of wine.
Yangberry wine is really simple.
The jars are boiled in boiling water and then placed in the sun to dry.
After cleaning the altar and the poplars, Wei Dai was going to wash them directly in water. Wen Jiajia couldn't stand it, so she took over the job and taught him: "You have to use salt water, salt water can kill insects." Isn't that stupid? How can you wash them clean like this?
The washed waxberries also had to be dried. Wen Jiajia asked Wei Dai to bring out a few round winnowing baskets and pour the waxberries on the baskets to dry.
As time passed, with the help of the sun, the two wine altars dried up, and the bayberries also dried up.
Wen Jiajia put the waxberries into the wine vat one by one, with layers of waxberries and rock sugar on top.
When the bottle was six-tenths full, Wen Jiajia instructed Wei Dai: "Pour the wine in."
Wei Dai had some doubts, but he kept them to himself and at this moment he picked up the wine barrel and poured it into the wine tank.
The wine is a light-fragrant liquor, and as the lid is opened, the aroma wafts into the air.
Wen Jiajia couldn't help but take a sip, her face wrinkled and her eyebrows twisted into wavy lines.
Wei Dai laughed out loud: "You can't eat it."
Wen Jiajia asked him, "How much can you drink?"
Wei Dai put down the wine barrel, covered it again and put it aside, then made the number two with his hand.
"Two bowls?"
“…Not that many.”
Wen Jiajia's mouth twitched: "Two taels?"
Wei Dai nodded. He couldn't drink much.
Wen Jiajia said, "We are both about the same level. After the Yangmei wine is ready, we can only drink half a bowl."
Otherwise, both of them would get drunk, and Wen Jiajia wasn't sure if she would ever go crazy while drunk in her lifetime.
Seal the wine jar and place it in a cool place in the room.
The remaining bayberries were soaked in salt water and placed in the house to dry. The couple couldn't eat them anymore, so they were soaked for Wen Chun and Wen Xuan. Children have weak spleens and stomachs, so they need to be soaked in salt water before they can eat.
The next day.
Wen Jiajia specially brought a bag of starberry to the pharmacy for Shayue, and Shayue was indeed very happy.
"Such big poplars! You can't buy such big poplars at the supply and marketing cooperative." She said excitedly, "I haven't eaten them for two years."
Wen Jiajia whispered, "I picked them in the village. Actually, it's more cost-effective to pick them in the village than to buy them at the supply and marketing cooperative."
Sha Yue sighed: "You live nearby, so you can go pick them. If we go to the village, we will be driven out by the militia without a permit."
Wen Jiajia thought about it carefully and it seemed to be the case.
How should I put it? Rural areas are more xenophobic. Especially in this era when everyone is on high alert, if you suddenly approach a village without giving a reason, you will be taken to the militia.
Even if you say you work for a pharmaceutical factory in the city and want to pick red bayberries, and bring your ID to prove your identity, the villagers will most likely not allow you to go.
Because you don't live nearby, they think you are too risky. If you tell others, you can just walk away, but they can't.
After all, who knows whether the ID you gave me is real or fake? Even if the factory buyers go to the countryside to purchase goods, they have to get the factory to issue a certificate with the official seal before the villagers will believe it.
Sha Yue couldn't wait to stuff a bayberry into her mouth, and the red juice almost overflowed: "Oh, it's so sweet. By the way, Jiajia, are you free this afternoon?"
Wen Jiajia thought about it and said, "I'm free before four o'clock."
I have to go to the data room to look for information after four o'clock. I made an appointment with the people in the data room the day before yesterday.
Sha Yue said, "Then can you accompany me to the Menkou Hotel at two o'clock?"
Wen Jiajia was surprised: "You want to go on a blind date?"
Sha Yue covered her mouth, her ears red as blood dripping: "Hey, keep your voice down!"
She looked around and asked quietly, "How did you know?"
Wen Jiajia said, "He needs someone to accompany him, and he's in a hotel, so it must be a blind date."
She was quite puzzled: "We are going to the state-owned hotel, why don't we have lunch together?"
Sha Yue was even more puzzled: "Eat? What if you feel that the two of you are not suitable after eating?"
"Why don't we meet at a hotel?"
"There are seats in the hotel. The park is too far from here. It takes more than half an hour to walk there."
That's right. Wen Jiajia nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, I'll go with you then." It was her first time to accompany someone on a blind date.
The morning is still busy.
Wen Jiajia now has a desk calendar and writes down what she needs to do every day.
What do you need to do this morning? Write a work report.
Wen Jiajia hates writing this kind of thing the most. She can't even write 200 words after trying for a long time.
I originally thought that writing eight hundred or one thousand would be enough, but who knew that other people also wrote two thousand at least.
Wen Jiajia was so exhausted that she almost vomited blood. She had to spend the entire morning on this work report.
After many twists and turns, I finally saw the light of day before lunch.
Eighteen hundred. Almost done.
At this moment, she was extremely envious of Qiao He, whose talent in languages was truly unparalleled and he finished the report in less than an hour.
When Wen Jiajia asked how many words there were, he flipped through the papers, about five or six pages.
Wen Jiajia understood instantly, about three thousand.
She was silent for a moment, then lowered her head and hurried to work. She was determined to uphold the dignity that belonged to a liberal arts student.
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