Chapter 056 Almond Goat Milk
Being in an art troupe is definitely a popular profession nowadays.
Of course, decades later too.
But, if Wen Jiajia remembers correctly, the age limit is 16, right?
Wei Dai nodded, served the meal and said, "She wanted to change her age. She said a colleague's daughter changed her age and joined the art troupe. She also said that the number of places will be reduced in the future, so she will try to send Wenzhu in when she is 14 years old."
Wen Jiajia washed her hands, sat at the table and asked him, "So what are you going to say to your elder sister, how are you going to reply?"
Wei Dai: "How should I reply? Ignoring her is the best reply."
Well, she should not get involved in matters between siblings.
But... Wen Jiajia raised her chin, motioning him to take a look at the pile of things sent by her elder sister.
Wei Dai picked up a piece of tofu and gave it to her: "It's ok, just keep it. When the weather clears up, we can buy some things and send them to her."
Wen Jiajia agreed, took a bite of the tofu and asked, "Where did you buy this tofu? It's so tender. We have to grind tofu now, is there a stone mill in the family yard? It's the end of the year, and we not only have to grind tofu, but also grind rice milk to make rice cakes and fried pancakes. There are no pancakes for sale here, and I really want to eat some."
Before she started eating, Wei Dai picked up some tofu for Wen Chun and Wen Xuan. The tofu was too tender and the two sisters easily broke it.
After picking up the food, he finally started to eat it, saying, "I asked someone to buy it in the nearby village. There are still six pieces in the cupboard. I have already sprinkled salt on it. I can have another meal tomorrow."
Wen Jiajia's eyes sparkled: "There must be a tofu shop in that village, right? Why don't we ask the tofu shop in the village to make it? Even a dime or two is fine."
Wei Dai: "I'm afraid I'll disappoint you. This tofu is probably made by the villagers themselves. As far as I know, there is no tofu shop."
Wen Jiajia was indeed disappointed. She put two more pieces of tofu into the rice and mixed them together, saying, "Tofu is not easy to buy in the market. Even if you have a soy product ticket, you may not be able to buy it."
There are many kinds of tickets these days. In addition to the non-staple food tickets, the tickets that can be used to buy tofu are the soy product tickets. In addition, if you want to buy dried tofu, there are special dried tofu tickets.
Wei Dai's fried tofu became more and more delicious. He controlled the heat well and did not use too much oil. As a result, the fried tofu was golden on the outside and soft on the inside.
The key is to have a well-seasoned sauce, which is salty and a little spicy. It is thickened before being served, and the sauce becomes thicker. It is wrapped around the golden tofu and is especially fragrant when mixed with rice.
So Wen Jiajia ordered the recipe in advance, chewed the rice in her mouth and swallowed it, then said, "I'll make the tofu the same way tomorrow."
Wei Dai couldn't help but agree: "Since you like it, I'll buy more and make more."
After all, it’s not meat, so I have to let my wife enjoy it.
After dinner, Wen Jiajia began to unpack the package. She weighed it before unpacking it: "It's quite heavy."
Then he untied the rope to reveal the things inside.
The first thing to take out is brown sugar.
My hometown is a sugarcane-growing area, so brown sugar is easier to buy and cheaper than here. Of course, it means it is cheaper when bought privately.
Wen Jiajia went to the utility room to get a scale, and after weighing it, she said, "There are a full six and a half kilograms of brown sugar. We don't need to buy any more brown sugar next year."
Wei Dai took the brown sugar from her hand, wrapped it in oil paper and said, "It's still not enough if I make you sweet soup every now and then."
Wen Jiajia rolled her eyes at him and snorted, "No, I don't want to get fat."
What he meant by "every now and then" was at least three or four servings of sweet soup a week. Even if she wasn't afraid of getting fat, Wen Jiajia was still afraid of getting diabetes.
Wei Dai put the brown sugar in the drawer in the middle of the cabinet and said, "The doctor told you to drink more. If you get fat, you'll look better."
Wen Jiajia thought to herself, this is what people say when they are thin, but when they really gain weight, they will find that they look better when they are thin.
Then he took out the second thing, which was two pieces of bacon. Wen Jiajia looked at it carefully, but couldn't tell what kind of animal it was.
"Take a look." She handed it to Wei Dai again.
Wei Dai took it, smelled it, and then carefully observed it under the light. After half a minute, he came to the answer: "It's venison."
Wen Jiajia raised her eyebrows: "It's actually venison!"
She rarely eats venison. She had eaten it a few times in a restaurant in her previous life and thought it tasted pretty good.
Wei Dai said: "This is probably smoked by my eldest sister herself. Mom always says she is lazy and greedy, but she is very smart when it comes to eating. She makes these smoked and delicious foods very well."
Wen Jiajia laughed dryly: "As a person, it's enough to have one skill."
Next came five kilograms of millet. Wen Jiajia once mentioned that she liked to eat millet porridge, and it seemed that her elder sister had taken note of it.
Finally, there were two bottles of vanishing cream, which were obviously also for Wen Jiajia.
She didn't expect that her elder sister was actually quite nice to her.
Don’t think that Wen Jiajia doesn’t like vanishing cream very much, but vanishing cream is considered a luxury item these days and is quite expensive.
Wen Jiajia felt a little uncomfortable holding this, after all, apart from the relationship with the Wei family, she herself did not have much friendship with Sister Wei.
Wei Dai said, "My elder sister is sometimes silly and sometimes clever. She always does things according to her mood. Don't you want to make lipstick? Just send her two bottles when the time comes."
Wen Jiajia flipped her ponytail and said, "Humph, you're still talking about lipstick. How can you make lipstick without beeswax?"
As he said this, he went to the room with two bottles of cream in his hands.
Wei Dai said to her from behind: "I will definitely find beeswax for you in a week."
One week later.
Just when Wen Jiajia thought Wei Dai was going to break his promise, Wei Dai gave her the beeswax at exactly 7 o'clock on the night of the seventh day.
There was not only beeswax, but also nearly five pounds of honey. The honey was in a jar and was already frozen, so if you wanted to eat it, you had to use a spoon or chopsticks to scoop it out.
Beeswax, on the other hand, appears to have been boiled and filtered, so it can be used directly.
Wei Dai was pleased: "If I say I can get it, I can get it."
Wen Jiajia stood on the bed, hugged him, crossed her arms and placed them on the back of his neck, and leaned over to give him two kisses: "Thank you so much!"
Wei Dai hugged her tightly, his eyes never leaving her face: "How do you thank me?"
Wen Jiajia kissed him twice more: "Like this."
"That's all?"
"Hmm!"
The smile on Wei Dai's face froze. He gave her a slap and then pressed her waist tightly to prevent her from leaving: "I'm not satisfied."
Wen Jiajia's neck was itchy from his breath, so she quickly dodged: "It doesn't matter whether you are satisfied or not, the goods have arrived anyway."
Wei Dai threw her a hand and said, "If that's the case, I'll force you to pay the bill."
“Shameless!”
"Learn from you."
The couple fought a battle on the bed, and in the end, Wen Jiajia was defeated as expected. She could only lie there weakly, gasping for breath.
Wei Dai looked very satisfied. He hugged her and rubbed her waist: "We did a good job on this deal. We can come more often in the future."
Wen Jiajia didn't even have the strength to pinch him, so she could only accuse him with her eyes.
This man was a little too cruel this time, and Wen Jiajia was not to be outdone, so the two of them quarreled until midnight. But that feeling... I have to say, the couple both liked it very much.
In the blink of an eye, we entered the Leaning Moon.
The temperature had obviously dropped a lot, and the vegetables in the vegetable garden outside the house were even frozen. Fortunately, Wen Jiajia picked the grown cabbages in advance and put them indoors.
The water in the faucet has also frozen, and every morning I have to pour hot water on it to melt it.
People who live in family buildings don't have this worry.
They don't need to boil the faucet every day, nor do they need to empty the toilet in the cold wind, nor do they need to climb to the roof to sweep snow on snowy days.
Wen Jiajia couldn't help but sigh that it was indeed happier to live in the family building during winter.
"I told you a long time ago, but you just didn't believe it." As a building control, Wei Dai was quite angry about Wen Jiajia's sigh. If his wife hadn't insisted on a bungalow, he would definitely choose a building.
Wen Jiajia huddled in a thick cotton-padded coat. The stove in front of her was cooking goat milk. After the goat milk was cooked, she poured it out and took a sip carefully. The fragrant milk flowed through the esophagus into the stomach, dispelling all the coldness in her body.
"I just said it casually. If you let me choose again now, I would still choose the bungalow we live in now." Wen Jiajia licked her tongue and put down the cup.
No matter how cold it is, it only lasts for a month or so a year. But the rest of the time, the bungalow is comfortable, so how can you lose the big picture for the small?
"Well, let's not talk about this anymore. We've already made our choice, so why bother about it after living here for so long? Try the goat's milk. I put almonds in it when cooking, and sure enough, it doesn't have any mutton smell anymore." Wen Jiajia poured out some more goat's milk and handed it to Wei Dai to drink.
Wei Dai took it, took a sip and nodded, "It really doesn't have any smell, and it tastes better than milk made from toffee."
Wen Jiajia was delighted: "Really? I told you almonds are useful, but Bao Jie didn't believe me."
Wei Dai: "Sister Bao is definitely not unbelieving, but she is reluctant to use almonds to cook goat milk."
Although almonds are not expensive, they are hard to find. I finally bought a bag of almonds and planned to keep them for Chinese New Year. How could I bear to use them to make goat milk?
Only his wife could be so generous.
Wen Jiajia said, "Actually, flowers can be used, but jasmine is best." Jasmine tea has its own fragrance, and she prefers the taste when combined with goat milk.
"But we don't grow jasmine here much. I haven't seen a jasmine tree in all the time I've been here. If there's really no other way, just add ginger, honey, or even brown sugar. All are fine." She said as she took another sip of goat's milk, her brows slightly wrinkled. It seemed that vinegar might also work, but she had never tried vinegar. Should she try it... Forget it. There was only aged vinegar and no white vinegar at home, and there wasn't much goat's milk every day.
Now that the farm has been opened, the cows have not given birth yet, so naturally there is no milk.
But the sheep has given birth, and many people are not used to drinking goat's milk, so Wen Jiajia took this opportunity to order goat's milk for a period of time, and then order cow's milk when cow's milk is available.
I originally thought that Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were not used to the taste of goat milk, but who knew they actually liked it very much.
Wen Jiajia, on the other hand, was unable to accept it and had to add almonds to remove the mutton smell from the goat milk before she could drink it.
——
At the end of the year, we need to prepare New Year’s goods.
Wen Jiajia started to save up her meat coupons. She didn't use any of last month's meat coupons, and saved them all for this month.
Not only that, she also found someone to exchange a few of them.
But Wen Jiajia still felt that it was not much. How could a mere five kilograms be considered a lot?
Bacon needs to be cooked, and so does sausage.
But during the Chinese New Year, we can’t just eat bacon and sausage, we have to buy fresh meat as well. Besides that, do we not need chicken, duck, and fish?
Influenced by her past life, Wen Jiajia believes that the New Year's Eve dinner must be rich, with pork, chicken, duck, fish, and mutton.
If beef wasn't hard to buy, she would have wanted it even more. In her previous life, she had a dish of braised steak for the New Year's Eve dinner every year, and it tasted really good.
Last year she didn't have the conditions, but this year she has a job and the vegetable market is full of all kinds of food, so of course she has to find a way to prepare a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner.
Just when Wen Jiajia was thinking about who she could find to exchange for a few meat coupons, the manuscript she sent out last month was published, still in the Workers' Daily.
In the entire pharmaceutical factory, only Wen Jiajia was featured in the Workers' Daily for the second time, which made everyone's reaction this time even more intense than last time.
After all, the first time I climbed up, I could say it was an accident, or I was just lucky. But this is the second time I climbed up. Can I climb up again if I don’t have the strength?
This is not a city newspaper!
Pharmaceutical companies are financially strong and are not stingy with rewards. It is said that the subsidies for researchers are quite high, and they can get a bonus for each new drug they develop.
So when Wen Jiajia received her salary this month, she obviously noticed that the bills she received were much larger.
Sure enough, before she could react, the finance person said, "Jia Jia, you have a few extra tickets here. They are allocated to you by the higher authorities."
Wen Jiajia was delighted and almost wanted to ask, but when she thought about the people queuing behind her, she suppressed her joy and quickly returned to the office.
There was no one in the office, Shayue and the others were all queuing.
The three of them were reluctant to go out in the cold wind so early, and they were not fully dressed like Wen Jiajia, with hats, scarves and cotton coats, so they waited until most people in the workshop had received their tickets before going out to line up.
Taking this opportunity, Wen Jiajia took out the money from her pocket.
The money is still the same money.
Wen Jiajia was not surprised, because the money was fixed and distributed every month according to the level. Even when giving rewards to researchers, they would only start with tickets or some supplies.
Besides, tickets are harder to come by than money these days.
For many workers, money is not a problem, but tickets are extremely scarce.
As Wen Jiajia counted the bills one by one, her eyes lit up.
There are two extra industrial coupons. Wen Jiajia has been thinking about buying a sewing machine. Once these two industrial coupons arrive, she can buy it.
But there was no rush, since there wasn't much clothing to make recently. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan's cotton jackets were still wearable, so Wen Jiajia wasn't going to make new clothes for them.
Then there were the meat coupons, of which there were also two, each weighing two kilograms, which made up four kilograms in total. Together with the meat coupons that were supposed to be issued this month, the total was four and a half kilograms.
She still has five kilograms in her hand, and Wei Dai can get about two kilograms of meat coupons this month... add up to more than eleven kilograms.
Not only that, there are also festival benefits at the end of the year. I just don't know if they will give out meat. I heard that last year they gave out canned food and other things, but no meat. But the year before last, they gave out half a pound of meat.
Wen Jiajia flipped through it again and saw two furniture tickets.
Furniture tickets are useless. Wei Dai’s carpentry is pretty good, but you can exchange them with others.
After all, city dwellers must use furniture tickets to buy furniture. Even if you are a carpenter, you have no trees to cut down, and village people will not easily let outsiders cut down trees.
The finance department did not make the fact that they gave Wen Jiajia a few extra tickets known to everyone, which shows that they still have a strong sense of professional ethics.
So Wen Jiajia came to the city early the next day. What did she do? To buy meat.
Not only did Wen Jiajia go to the market to buy it herself, she also gave the ticket to Wei Dai, asking Wei Dai to go to his friend at the meat processing factory to buy it when he was free. She even asked the chef from the state-owned hotel to help her buy it.
The master had his own channels, and Wen Jiajia not only gave him the ticket, but also gave him extra money, so he didn't refuse.
Wen Jiajia was very suspicious that this master's private channel was probably the legendary black market.
To be honest, I haven't set foot in this black market in more than a year. It wasn't there in my hometown, and it's still not there when I came here.
Wen Jiajia is timid, and the black market is often inspected, so those who can't run fast have been detained several times, and they no longer have the courage to go to the black market. Wen Jiajia is not only slow, but also mentally weak, so she won't go even if someone she knows takes her there.
After buying the meat that day, she went to the hotel to ask the chef for more meat. She bought ribs and pork belly, and the chef bought her the best leg meat.
Looking at the thick fat, Wen Jiajia couldn't help but nodded, feeling very satisfied that her money was worth it.
After buying the meat, we went to the Hao family. Wen Jiajia had already made an appointment with Hao Qingying yesterday and would give the meat to her today. The Hao family was also making bacon at this time.
Hao Qingying had just finished her meal and wasn't ready to go out yet. She was surprised and said, "So early today? I thought you would go buy it at noon."
Wen Jiajia patted her head which was aching from the wind and said, "Forget it. I feel sleepy after lunch and I don't want to go out anymore."
Hao Qingying quickly took the meat from her hand and said, "Okay, then you come in first. My dad is mixing the spices."
The Hao family is relatively wealthy and has their own yard in a city where housing is in short supply.
The yard is a sanheyuan. Entering through the front gate, you will see the main house, and on both sides of the house are side rooms.
"Oh, it's Comrade Wen!" Hao Weidong said with a smile, looking at the basket full of meat in surprise, "I didn't believe you when you said there were at least six pounds of meat. You are really generous."
Wen Jiajia just smiled and said, "I saved up the meat coupons for a few months and spent them all here."
Hao Weidong thought that even if he had meat coupons, he had to be able to buy meat. As the New Year approached, meat became increasingly difficult to buy.
He weighed the meat in front of Wen Jiajia and said, "Half spicy and half not spicy, right? Don't worry, I'll let Qingying tell you when it's done, and you can just come and get it."
Wen Jiajia took out some money and gave it to him, but Hao Weidong refused: "You are my Qingying's friend, I won't accept it."
He felt that Wen Jiajia was embarrassing him.
Wen Jiajia felt that supplies were tight at the time and those spices were not easily available.
She only bought seasonings such as salt and sugar, and Hao Weidong helped with the rest.
Besides, labor costs are more expensive than seasoning costs.
But she could see that Hao Weidong really didn't want it, so she didn't start with him.
After putting the things down and leaving with Hao Qingying, Wen Jiajia took out two furniture tickets and gave them to Hao Qingying. Before Hao Qingying could refuse, she said, "Don't refuse. You know, furniture tickets are useless to me. They will expire if I keep them. You might as well use them."
Hao Qingying was speechless: "How could a ticket expire? If it's about to expire, can I exchange it with someone else?"
Wen Jiajia said, "You should keep it, otherwise I'll always be thinking about it... That bag of chili powder and spice powder is definitely not something you can get for just a few cents."
On the road, Hao Qingying didn't want to push it around, so she put it away: "Don't mention it, my family is planning to buy a wardrobe recently. Because the tickets are not enough, my mother is thinking of buying a bamboo one. Your two tickets come at the right time."
Then he smiled and said, "Didn't you say you wanted to buy a stone mill? I'll go back and ask my dad where I can buy one. He'll definitely know."
Wen Jiajia was not polite: "That's great, as long as it can grind soy milk, it doesn't need to be too big."
"Okay!"
Arriving at the workshop, the two separated.
Shayue's belly was getting bigger and bigger, and Wen Jiajia felt her heart pounding when she saw it.
"Is your belly a little too big?" She couldn't help but touch it and asked, "Are you having twins? Let me tell you, twins are not good for the mother. You still remember Old Yu on the second floor of the department store? His wife gave birth to twins twice and is still taking medicine to regulate her body."
The doctor was the one she recommended, a Chinese medicine practitioner. At that time, Chinese medicine was not doing well, but fortunately the old Chinese medicine practitioner's grandson was in the army, so he was not affected too much.
The grandson of the old Chinese medicine doctor Wei Daihang is a good friend. After Wen Jiajia came here, it was she who helped her to take care of her health.
As a patient, she could clearly feel that the old Chinese medicine practitioner's medical skills were much better than those of Doctor Fang in her hometown. The original owner's physical impairment was made up by the bowls of Chinese medicine she prescribed.
"Of course not!" Sha Yue shook her head and said, "I went for a checkup at the beginning of last month and was told that I only had one. The doctor said... it was caused by my diet and told me to eat less. I couldn't help it. I was hungry all day and night. I started to feel hungry if I didn't eat for more than three hours. I often woke up in the middle of the night because of hunger."
She had never been one to be unhappy, and now that she was in charge, her stomach naturally swelled up as she ate.
Wen Jiajia frowned: "You should eat small meals more often. It will be difficult to give birth to a baby that is too big."
Sha Yue smiled and said, "You can have a cesarean section."
Wen Jiajia rolled her eyes and said, "Are you stupid? If it was a cesarean section, then it would be fine. Why would the doctor tell you to eat less? A baby that is too big will not only put a greater burden on the mother, but it will also be bad for the baby."
"What do you mean? Wouldn't it be better to eat more and get more nutrition?" Shayue was surprised.
Wen Jiajia shook her head: "If you take too much supplements, you will become an overweight baby. Just ask the doctor and you will know."
Shayue really went to ask.
After lunch, she went to the factory's infirmary to ask.
This is common sense. Even dentists know it, and doctors in the factory certainly know it too.
After getting the answer, Sha Yue became even more frightened, so she begged Wen Jiajia to accompany her to the hospital.
There was no such thing as prenatal check-ups at that time. More than a month had passed, and the doctor who told her to eat less had no idea that Shayue's belly had grown so big.
The doctor measured with a tape measure and said, "Control your diet. To be honest, you are the first one I've ever treated who needs to control your diet. Fortunately, it's not the late stage yet. If you continue to eat like this in the late stage of pregnancy, the baby will definitely be overweight."
Wen Jiajia: “…”
What a weird thing to say.
Sha Yue heaved a sigh of relief, as if a tight rope had suddenly loosened, and said hastily, "Don't worry, I won't eat so much in the future."
The doctor smiled and said, "Why should I be relieved? Your child, you have to be relieved yourself."
She looked at Wen Jiajia again, "Does this comrade also need medical attention?"
Wen Jiajia's mouth twitched: "No need. Uh...wait."
She suddenly turned around, hesitated for a moment, and seeing that the door had not yet been opened, she said, "Can we get free condoms in our hospital?"
The doctor almost spit out the water he had just drunk: "What?"
Wen Jiajia had a blank expression on her face: "...It's okay." She read the city newspaper today, and the newspaper said that no matter what their household registration was, women of appropriate age could get condoms at the hospital.
I was dragged here in this cold weather, it would be a waste not to accept it.
The doctor took out a box from the drawer and handed it to her. He then pushed the form and pen over to her and said, "You need to register first. You can only receive it after you register. You only get one box per month."
It actually exists! Wen Jiajia quickly registered, put it in her pocket, and left happily.
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