15 Healthy Meals
◎He smiled with his eyes down◎
"Sir, what would you like to order?" Seeing that the customer in front of him did not move for a long time, the waiter said, "This is our signature dish." He bent down slightly and gently pointed at the five-treasure fresh vegetable dish on the menu.
Tian Nongxi's eyes swept across the menu and fell on the prices behind it. As if burned, he quickly pushed the menu away, looked up and smiled, "A pearl jade soup, thank you."
The waiter's smile froze a little, but he still agreed in a very friendly manner. He raised his foot to leave but was suddenly stopped.
Turning around, the unfamiliar guest asked with a smile and without any embarrassment.
"Could you please send me some rice?"
"It's a gift, sir. Our rice is free and unlimited."
Tian Nongxi got a satisfactory answer, breathed a sigh of relief, and looked around casually while drinking the tea just poured by the waiter.
The dishes at Linqing Pavilion are extremely expensive. The five-treasure fresh vegetable dish just now cost two hundred coins, which is almost half a month's income for a peasant family.
She thought about it over and over again, and even though she had dozens of taels in her pocket, she was reluctant to spend more. She even felt that spending thirty cents was a bit of a loss, so she had to make up for it on rice and tea.
Linqing Pavilion is not big, with only three floors. The first floor is where ordinary guests eat. The design is nothing special. Like other restaurants, there is a table in the middle where storytellers tell stories or singers and dancers perform.
But if you look more closely, you will find that there is something hidden inside. The tables and chairs are all made of fine mahogany, and even the winding stairs are made of white jade. There is a pot of flowers on each step going up.
There are dozens of private rooms on the second floor, each with a wooden doorplate hanging on the door. Without exception, there are two strong men standing at the door of every occupied room. When they notice the gaze, they look over with bared teeth, and the knives in their hands are about to come out.
The third floor was a bit far away, and Tian Nongxi looked at it from afar, but it was blurry, so he stopped looking at it.
She sighed in her heart, feeling that the thirty cents she spent today might have been wasted. She had originally wanted to come and learn from others, but she found that Linqing Pavilion's reputation might be built on four words - rich and powerful.
Just when I was feeling depressed, the food was served.
In the crowded Linqing Pavilion, she was the only one who ordered only one dish, so when the waiter was still far away, Tian Nongxi picked up her chopsticks and looked forward to it.
With the words "Your dish is here", Tian Nongxi finally saw what the cabbage that cost thirty cents looked like - a bowl of cabbage soup the size of a palm. The soup base was made of milk and was milky white. It was dotted with a few chopped green onions and a few drops of oil. Apart from that, there was nothing else.
Take a sip and it’s full of freshness and fragrance. The milk only adds a bit of mellowness, without any fishy smell.
The dish is as its name suggests, white in color and mellow in flavor, and goes well with rice.
Tian Nongxi has been quite tired recently. He eats like a glutton at every meal and has gained several pounds. His appetite has also increased a lot.
Just as she was waving to the waiter for another bowl, she suddenly heard the scolding from the next table.
"...How can others eat so much? Your appetite is not even as big as a rabbit's. How can you grow?" The woman with a pearl hairpin on her head was busy scolding the people opposite her, while she kept using her chopsticks to pick up food and put it into their bowls.
"These dishes are too greasy and will make you fat," the teenage boy said aggrievedly. "Appearance is also part of the teacher's assessment."
He watched as the girl, who was a few years younger than him, nodded in agreement.
"That person..." The woman suddenly retracted her pointing hand, smiled apologetically at Tian Nongxi, and apologized with her mouth.
Tian Nongxi shook his head to indicate that it was okay, and his gaze returned to the empty dish in front of him.
Looking at the full bowl of rice brought back by the waiter, my thoughts had already drifted away.
He instinctively picked up the dishes and mixed the rice, and his eyes couldn't help but glance at the table next to him.
Under the woman's coercion and inducement, the boy was the first to give in. He symbolically picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. After taking a few bites, which tasted like chewing wax, he put down his chopsticks again.
The girl kept her head down and her hands under the table.
The woman seemed to be in a hurry, her breathing was heavier. She rolled her eyes at them and then went back to eating.
Tian Nongxi thought for a moment and turned around to ask, "Don't your classmates eat?"
The girl raised her head, looked at her timidly, and then nodded slightly.
The woman took over the conversation. "Yes, everyone in the family is worried sick." She sighed and put down her chopsticks. "It's not just them. Now that we have enough food and clothing, there are fewer people like you who can eat as much as you can."
Tian Nongxi choked for a moment, then noticed that the woman's expression was full of admiration, so he smiled and agreed.
The diet in Ruiyang County is high in oil and sugar. Although it is delicious, it is indeed easy to gain weight.
Tian Nongxi looked at the two people who insisted on going back home to eat boiled vegetables, and an idea quietly sprouted in his mind.
——Fat-reducing meal.
She did it right away. She said goodbye to the three people, paid the bill and went straight to the vegetable stall.
I bought two cucumbers, two eggs, and a pound of brown rice, then turned around and bought an old hen.
Thinking of the aroma wafting through the dormitory when my college roommate was eating a fat-reducing meal, I threw the chicken back into the backpack and freed up my hands to buy vinegar, sesame seeds, and chili peppers.
It cost a total of fifty-two cents.
While counting the money with his fingers, Tian Nongxi told the boss who was greeting him on the roadside that he still had some cabbage at home.
Just as I was feeling heartbroken, I passed by a storybook stall, gritted my teeth, and stopped.
I haven't read the storybook...how pitiful.
She squatted down amid the rapid clucking of chickens, rummaged from one stall to the other, and finally picked up a copy of "The Merry Widow and the Pretty Widower" and handed it to the boss who was cleaning his ears.
After thinking for a while, he picked up a copy of "The No. 1 Expert in the World" and handed it over.
"Let's check out together."
One for women and one for men, both thin and not very expensive. Tian Nongxi smiled with satisfaction.
"Eighteen cents."
-
When I got home, my grandma was cooking medicine in the yard. The fragrance of the herbs filled my nose, and the hot air was dazzling.
Tian Nongxi rushed into the kitchen with the bags of purchases, put down the things, stuck his head out and asked, "Are you sick?" Rural elderly people are reluctant to spend money, and they can get over minor illnesses by enduring them. Now that they are cooking medicine with great fanfare, Tian Nongxi feels inexplicably uneasy.
She really had no idea where the plot was going to go. She felt like she was walking in a foggy day, and she couldn't help but feel nervous if something was a little unusual.
Grandma stood there, not quite nodding, not quite shaking her head, but simply saying, "No big deal."
Tian Nongxi paused while boiling water, exclaimed "Ah," and asked cautiously, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Farmers have to go to the fields almost every day, and women have to take care of all the chores at home, so back pain is common.
Grandma just smiled and said, "Your uncle is filial and prescribed medicine for me." All the money in the family was with the old man. She was only good at washing clothes and cooking, so naturally she had no reason to spend money. She could hear the questioning tone of her granddaughter.
Tian Nongxi had no idea that she had misunderstood the idea. Seeing that she was unwilling to talk more, he just guessed what kind of tonic it was. He didn't ask any more questions and washed the vegetables he had just bought with cold water.
Just as I finished washing and was about to take it to the kitchen, the lightly closed door creaked and Lin Luan walked in carrying a bamboo basket.
He was wearing an ill-fitting linen shirt with short trouser legs. These were old clothes of his elder brother that Tian Nongxi had found in the closet.
Tian Nongxi asked, "Have you watered it?"
"Yeah." Lin Luan handed over a bamboo basket full of bok choy.
He washed his hands, said hello to the farm lady who was sitting there cooking medicine, and said, "It's okay, I'll go take a bath." He was quick before and sent Wenxun Wuxu to do the task, but he didn't want others to know his whereabouts, so today he had to go it alone. He was watering the empty farmland alone. When he looked up occasionally, there were only a few birds flying by, and they were covered with the smell of mud.
It's like being exiled for rebelling.
Tian Nongxi shook his head and pointed to the pot where water was boiling, "This is for killing chickens." The implication was, just wait.
She suddenly remembered the storybook she had just bought and called out to Lin Luan, "Come here."
Lin Luan followed him into the kitchen, his face even more stinky than when he first got home.
Tian Nongxi turned around in shock, his hand holding the storybook froze, and he was about to hand it over. He asked, "You, you can't read?"
How could she forget this?
But Lin Luan has an outstanding temperament and doesn’t look like an illiterate person. Could it be that what he said is true - that his parents are both dead and he has been wandering since childhood?
However, Tian Nongxi glanced at Lin Luan out of the corner of his eye - where did he get so many clothes?
The images in her mind ranged from the illegitimate son of a wealthy businessman to the young prostitute who went out every day to serve men with his beauty. As her expression became more and more ferocious, Lin Luan finally closed the book.
He lowered his eyes, let out a muffled laugh from his chest, and leaned in closer to ask, "Can you read?"
His tone suddenly softened, as gentle as the staff who went to the orphanage to investigate the school-age children's situation when he was a child.
Tian Nongxi's brain short-circuited for a moment, and he said honestly, "I know." He looked at Lin Luan's curved eyes again, came to his senses, and shook his head hurriedly, but his eyes were vague and he didn't dare to look him directly.
Lin Luan didn't ask how a peasant girl who barely survived could read. He just smiled, stood up, and put some distance between them before saying softly, "Thank you... Second Mother."
The boiling water in the pot bubbled up and almost splashed on Tian Nongxi's hand. She dodged to the side, her eyes closely following Lin Luan's movements.
With a "click", the lid of the pot was closed, the environment became ruthlessly quiet, and the air seemed to be suddenly sucked out.
Tian Nongxi could hear her own heartbeat clearly. She turned her head away, not wanting to see Lin Luan's inquiring eyes again. She even used some strength to open the lid of the pot.
"I changed my name, so what? Is it not okay?" She stared at the bubbling water wholeheartedly, took the dish handed to her by Lin Luan and threw it into the pot with an angry look on her face.
Even though she was illiterate, she spoke with confidence.
After all, even if the soul is transported by a body check, nothing can be found out, not to mention - Tian Nongxi raised his eyebrows slightly, looked at Lin Luan, whose identity was even more confusing, and thought: You are the only one who is still checking the identity, if you are not careful, the werewolf will explode.
“It sounds good.”
"What?" Tian Nongxi's high morale was dampened, and he asked with a frown.
"It sounds very nice." Lin Luan emphasized his tone and spoke word by word.
"...Thank you." A punch hit the cotton.
Tian Nongxi took the chopsticks, took out the cooked dishes and put them in a bowl to cool, then used a gourd ladle to get a bucket of hot water to prepare for killing the chicken. He then put the chopsticks sideways into the pot, placed two raw eggs steadily on the chopsticks, and finally closed the pot lid and clapped his hands.
"Move aside."
"Okay." Lin Luan stepped aside to let Tian Nongxi out. He watched her roll up her sleeves and try to catch the chicken, and asked, "Do you need my help?"
Tian Nongxi pondered for a moment, then picked up the chicken's two wings with one hand and held them in front of him, asking doubtfully, "Can you do this?"
Lin Luan's lips curled up with a faint smile, and he stepped forward and said, "You can give it a try."
Two of them, one carrying a chicken and the other carrying a knife and a bucket, moved to the yard.
Plucking hair, cutting throat and bleeding are done in one go.
Soon, the chicken died.
Tian Nongxi squatted down and used a ladle to scald the chicken all over, then quickly plucked all the feathers except the neck. While concentrating, he did not forget to ask Lin Luan to go to the stove to get the eggs.
While Lin Luan took out the eggs, Tian Nongxi carried the clean chicken into the kitchen.
Lin Luan asked: "Where did you get so much money?"
Tian Nongxi was busy chopping off the chicken legs. She took a moment to glance at him and said with a smile, "I pawned the hairpin my aunt gave me for fifty taels. I want to do some small business."
"..." Lin Luan recalled the priceless golden lotus hairpin and nodded lightly.
"Fifty taels of silver." Tian Nongxi was still complacent. If his hands were free, he would probably have gestured to show it.
The empty pot was used to steam brown rice, and Tian Nongxi had to prepare the seasoning.
She was quite good at cutting, and she quickly cut the chili peppers into needle-tip size pieces, then added vinegar and roasted sesame seeds. In an instant, the small kitchen was filled with fragrance.
She took a notched bowl and covered it, and asked Lin Luan to get three identical bowls. She started cutting the cucumber into thin slices and placed them in the bowls. She also peeled the eggshell, cut it horizontally in the middle, and put it into the bowl with the back of the knife.
The same is true for bok choy.
She stuffed the extra half egg into her mouth, chopped off the chicken legs and peeled them, and put the remaining parts into the cabinet.
In just a cup of tea, the brown rice was steamed.
Tian Nongxi took out the brown rice and placed it in the middle of the bowl, then took some water to boil the chicken legs. When the chicken legs were cooked, he put them in the bowl and poured in the sauce. A homemade fat-reducing meal was ready.
Tian Nongxi looked at it again and again, and was very satisfied, as if he was looking at pieces of gold.
She brought a bowl of chicken leg fat-reducing meal to her grandmother in the room, and then came back to give the one without chicken leg to Lin Luan.
If it tastes good, she will buy some seeds of seasonal vegetables and plant them. Having different combinations in each season can also keep the food fresh for customers. If she names it "healthy meal", wouldn't it be popular in Ruiyang?
Tian Nongxi was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Lin Luan shaking his head. She held the bowl in her hands and wished she could throw herself into his arms.
So Lin Luan shook his head again: "I'm going to take a shower."
Tian Nongxi didn't take his hand back. He guessed that Lin Luan wanted to eat the chicken leg, but he was reluctant to give him his. He just said, "There's more in the cupboard. I'll make braised chicken tomorrow."
Lin Luan chuckled and responded, "I really need to take a shower."
"Okay." Tian Nongxi curled her lips and didn't insist anymore, "Then I'll go give it to Qi Hengan. I wonder if he has eaten it." Qi Hengan didn't know there was a chicken leg, so he would definitely not feel partiality.
"……etc."
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