As the dawn breaks, every household is filled with joy. The wealthy families decorate their houses with lights and lanterns hanging from the eaves, and their doors are covered with specially commissioned paintings of door gods that ward off evil spirits and protect the home.
The poorer people could only buy some red paper and ask the nearby scholars to help write a couplet, which they could only paste on the door. On the door, they would also paste two upside-down "Fu" characters on it, which meant good fortune would come in the coming year.
When the Chinese New Year is approaching, many scholars and juren will help people write couplets for free.
The Pei family bought red paper a few days ago and wrote several couplets, which were not only posted on the main door, but also on the kitchen, main hall and west wing in the courtyard.
There was even one posted on the wooden shed next to the kitchen, with words like "good harvest, happy family" and so on, as well as a lot of upside-down blessings, and it was posted on the door.
The couplet was naturally written by Pei Weixuan. His handwriting was like the strong branches of a pine tree. Even Xu Qinyu, who didn't know much about calligraphy, could see that his handwriting was very powerful and beautiful.
Xu Qinyu cooked some paste for pasting couplets. When the paste was used up, all the couplets and the word "Fu" were pasted.
Pei Jianing exclaimed: "Fourth sister-in-law is really amazing."
The paste cooked was just enough to paste the couplets, neither more nor less.
Xu Qinyu smiled with a slight raise of her eyebrows. Of course, she was very good at controlling the amount. Once she got something, she could tell how many pounds and ounces it was without error.
After pasting the couplets and the word "Fu", Xu Qinyu cooked a simple breakfast.
For breakfast, she cooked plain noodles with a poached egg on top. Since she didn't have any green vegetables, she used Chinese cabbage and sprinkled a few chopped green onions on it at the end. It was light and refreshing. The soup was clear but tasted very fresh.
Of course, there was also a share for Shao Ge'er. It was Zhuzi who came. Zhuzi was also wearing new clothes today. When he saw the Pei family, he was very happy and said auspicious words for the New Year.
After Zhuzi left, Xu Qinyu also began to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner.
This is the first New Year staying here, which is of great significance to Xu Qinyu and the Pei family.
So Xu Qinyu planned to make this New Year’s Eve dinner richer.
It was still early, so she just prepared the ingredients and would start cooking the New Year’s Eve dinner in the afternoon.
She prepared a lot of ingredients, including pig's stomach, old duck, and mandarin fish. She had asked Uncle He to keep an eye out for the mandarin fish a few days ago. There were also mandarin fish here, but perhaps due to the water quality or something else, there were relatively few of them. Black carp and crucian carp were the most abundant, and there were also several other species of fish.
Among all fish, mandarin fish has the least bones and the least fishy smell, so some large restaurants also cook mandarin fish, but it seems that not many people like to eat it. It may be that the taste is not right.
Therefore, mandarin fish is the most expensive among all fish. Black carp and crucian carp cost one cent per catty, while this one costs more than ten cents per catty.
In addition to these ingredients, there is also lamb.
There are six people in the family. Xu Qinyu doesn't cook too many dishes. If she cooks too much, she will have to eat leftovers for several days in a row. No matter how delicious the food is, the taste will be greatly reduced once it is eaten for the second time.
So she made stewed old duck and pork tripe soup, which was stewed early in the morning, simmered slowly in a casserole until dusk. The soup was fresh and the meat was tender, nourishing yin and reducing fire, and could be eaten with mutton.
There is also a squirrel mandarin fish dish, which is made from mandarin fish. The fish bones are separated, the fish meat is carved, seasoned and marinated, then coated with egg yolk and fried in oil. Finally, it is served on a plate and poured with sweet and sour sauce. It tastes sweet and sour and is appetizing. Children prefer this sour and sweet dish. It does not have fish bones, so they can eat it with confidence.
The mutton is quite smelly. The mutton here is smelly. The mutton raised in places like the grassland is not so smelly. It can be eaten steamed and served with chives or dipping sauce. The meat is tender and not smelly. You can enjoy its original flavor. The mutton here is best fried, stewed or roasted.
So Xu Qinyu stewed radish with lamb ribs. Stewing can better remove the mutton smell and it tastes delicious.
There are also several fried dishes that can be eaten after being heated in the pot, or you can add some broth, fried meatballs, radish balls, some other bean sprouts, tofu and other side dishes to the mutton pot at the end.
In addition to several main dishes, Xu Qinyu also made a dish of eight-treasure glutinous rice.
The eight-treasure glutinous rice is made differently in each place. The one she makes is sweet and is a traditional delicacy in Ningbo. It is made with glutinous rice, red bean paste, date paste, several other dried fruits and lard. It has beautiful color and tastes soft, sweet and sticky.
Finally, I stir-fried bean sprouts with some chopped green onions, which was crisp and refreshing.
When Xu Qinyu was cooking the New Year's Eve dinner, the Pei family members also stayed in the kitchen, either helping or watching the fire. The family was very warm.
Today is Chinese New Year, and the whole family specially changed into new clothes. Although they bought thin jackets, they wore other clothes underneath, so they didn’t feel cold.
In the past, the Pei family had worn all kinds of silks and satins, and even the most precious silk brocade was worn out by them. But now the two children kept touching the new clothes from time to time, and Xu Qinyu couldn't help feeling a little sad.
When it was time for dinner, every household would start to hear the sound of firecrackers.
Of course, there was no gunpowder or firecrackers here. During the New Year, firecrackers were burned with bamboo, which made crackling sounds when burned. The purpose of setting off firecrackers during the New Year was to scare away the "Nian Beast". The story of the Nian Beast has a long history, and even here there are legends about the Nian Beast.
The food was ready. The Pei family helped bring the food to the main room, and Pei Weixuan went to the yard to burn bamboo.
The bamboo is dried. I bought it a few days ago. Someone was selling it during the Chinese New Year. Two pieces were for one cent.
When Pei Weixuan lit the bamboo with a fire stick, the bamboo burned and made crackling sounds, which was really like setting off firecrackers.
Xu Qinyu pursed her lips and smiled, which reminded her of when she was in the orphanage. During the Chinese New Year, the director would also set off firecrackers. A group of children would hide in the dining room and chatter. When the firecrackers were set off, the children all covered their ears and looked at the director outside with shining eyes.
In fact, although those kids always fought when they were young, as is the case with kids when they are young, they have a very close relationship when they grow up. Some of them keep in touch frequently and are her few friends.
After burning the bamboo, everyone went into the main room to eat.
All six people sat at the table, even Feng Ge'er and Yan Jie'er sat at the table.
Xu Qinyu made glutinous rice wine a few days ago. Glutinous rice wine is also called sweet wine. The glutinous rice is soaked for several hours, steamed and then placed in a wooden barrel. Some broken up koji and cold boiled water are added. The glutinous rice is pressed, and the heart is dug out and waited for the sweet wine to ferment.
The most important thing about sweet wine is the fermentation temperature. The weather is too cold, so she ferments it on the kitchen stove.
There is also wine yeast here, but it is quite expensive.
The sweet wine tastes sour and sweet. The glutinous rice wine she fermented has a very authentic flavor, with almost no alcohol taste, and can be drunk as thirst quencher.
Yinzikeshui almost means drink.
Of course, after all, it is fermented with koji, so it can still be considered wine if it has a low alcohol content and tastes sour and sweet.
Children are not allowed to touch it at all.
Of course, the adults can drink a few bowls happily.
Sweet wine was poured into everyone's bowls. Xu Qinyu picked up the bowl and said with a smile, "Mother, Sister Ning, Fourth Brother, Brother Feng, Sister Yan, Happy New Year! I hope everyone will be healthy and have everything go well in the new year."
Several people raised the bowls in front of them. Wen and Ning Jie'er had red eyes. After saying auspicious words, everyone drank the sweet wine in the bowl.
Fengger and Yanjieer can't drink sweet wine, so Xu Qinyu made them some sugar water.
I didn’t find any cow’s milk or goat’s milk for sale, otherwise I could make some milk tea for my two children.
A rich New Year's Eve dinner, accompanied by sweet wine, everyone enjoyed it very much, and there was not much left over from several dishes.
Fengger and Yanjieer’s favorites are squirrel mandarin fish and glutinous rice eight-treasure rice pudding.
Xu Qinyu didn't dare let them eat too much glutinous rice and eight-treasure rice pudding, so each person had only a small bowl, otherwise she was afraid of indigestion.
After the New Year’s Eve dinner, Wen went to the kitchen to wash the dishes and asked Yu Niang and the others to go out for a walk.
Wen didn't go, she stayed at home to keep watch.
Xu Qinyu rarely had a chance to rest, and since it was Chinese New Year, she naturally wanted to go out for a walk. Besides, there was only a night market in the town during Chinese New Year, but not on weekdays.
The night market is run by the gentry and wealthy people on East Street and West Street. Some people guess lantern riddles for free. As long as you can guess the riddle, you will get a lantern. With Pei Weixuan around, the riddles are always guessed correctly. Xu Qinyu, Ning Jie'er, Feng Ge'er and Yan Jie'er all hold a lantern in their hands.
There were also many small vendors selling food, jewelry, and various small clay figurines and toys. There were too many to count. I originally wanted to buy some small toys from Fengger and Yanjieer, but the two children didn't want them. In the end, we just took a look around and went back.
Then on the first day of the new year, Xu Qinyu had a better relationship with the Xia family, and the two families wished each other a happy new year.
In the next few days, Xu Qinyu had nothing to do and just rested at home.
…
While the Pei family had a warm New Year, the Wen family was different.
It was also the first year that the Wen family celebrated the New Year in the border town. Without servants and cooks at home, the New Year’s Eve dinner was prepared by the third wife and two old concubines.
The master of the third house is a bastard, born to concubine Bai, and married to Meng. Meng's status is not high, and she was originally a girl from a poor family. Over the years, she has been in love with the master of the third house, Wen Zixiao, and has given birth to two sons and a daughter. The daughter, Wen Yuntao, is one year younger than Wen Yunling from the first house, and is almost fifteen years old.
Therefore, the New Year's Eve dinner was prepared by Meng, Wen Yuntao and two old concubines from the third house. They were preparing a New Year's Eve dinner for the whole family for more than 30 days, and they had no special cooking skills, so you can imagine how it would taste.
There are more than 30 people in the Wen family. They all had the New Year's Eve dinner in the living room and sat at three large tables.
The third room of Aunt Gui and Aunt Bai sat together. The New Year's Eve dinner tasted really bad and no one ate it with any appetite.
The third master, Wen Zixiao, was not at home. After arriving in the border town, he looked for work outside. Although he was in his thirties, he had some martial arts skills and could do all kinds of work. Occasionally, he would go to the mountains to catch some prey to sell, but the money he brought home was not much, not even two taels of silver a month. Old Lady Wen always suspected that he had secretly earned money but did not hand it all over. But she could not search the illegitimate son's body, as she was not capable of doing such a thing.
Wen Zixiao was not at home during the New Year, and I don’t know what he was doing outside.
Mrs. Wen was in a bad mood as she ate the tasteless New Year's Eve dinner. Seeing that the third son was not there, she couldn't help but ask Meng with a stern face, "Why hasn't the third son come back yet? It's New Year's Day, and you, as a wife, don't even take care of your husband."
Mrs. Meng said gently, "In reply to Mother, I don't really know what the master does outside. He must be earning money. There's nothing to do at home, and the master is worried that the family will run out of money. Although the money he brings home every month is not much, it's much better than what ordinary people can earn. We have to take it slow."
Old Lady Wen didn't want to talk to Meng anymore. No matter what you said to Meng, she would be gentle, but her gentle tone of voice always made people feel unhappy. If you continued to scold her, she would bow her head and admit her mistakes and let you scold her.
Old Lady Wen originally wanted to scold the two grandsons from the third room, Wen Shuncheng and Wen Shungong, because they abandoned Ling Jie'er on the road a few days ago. She finally caught them during the New Year, but Old Master Wen was there, and it was New Year. Even if she scolded her grandsons for this bad luck, Old Master Wen would not give her any face.
Even though Old Master Wen doesn't say much on weekdays, Old Madam Wen is still quite afraid of him.
Mrs. Wen had no choice but to give up.
The whole family ate the New Year's Eve dinner in silence.
Wen Yunling didn't want to eat anymore after taking two bites. It was too disgusting and not as good as the food bought from the stalls outside.
Aunt Gui sat at the same table with the third wife.
Aunt Gui kept coughing while eating. She was afraid that others would hear her, so she could only cough softly. But since everyone was eating in the same room, how could they not hear her? Old Lady Wen was really annoyed and couldn't help but say, "Aunt Gui, what's wrong with you? You keep coughing. Is there any etiquette for you to cough like this? Will you let us eat?"
Aunt Gui whispered, "Maybe there was a draft in the window of the side room a few days ago, and it was a little cold at night. It should be fine in a couple of days."
Mrs. Wen wanted to say something, but Old Master Wen frowned and said, "Okay, it's New Year's Day, don't talk anymore, let's eat quickly. After eating, the children can go out to the night market. Remember to come back early."
The whole family then continued to eat, not daring to speak anymore.
Aunt Gui still had a slight cough, and Aunt Bai looked at her with some concern.
After dinner, Old Master Wen, Old Lady Wen, and the people from the first and second wives left first, leaving the third wife behind to clean up.
Aunt Bai asked worriedly, "Aunt Gui, are you okay?"
Aunt Gui shook her head and said, "It's okay, sister, don't worry. It will probably be fine in two days." Aunt Bai is younger than her.
In this mansion, she had the best relationship with Aunt Bai, but she didn't dare tell Aunt Bai about this. After she left, Aunt Bai still had the protection of the Third Brother. She knew that the Third Brother was not a weak person who could be manipulated by others. By then, the Wen family would definitely be divided.
After the family split up, the third brother would definitely take Aunt Bai to live with him. However, it would definitely be difficult to take her away, and I'm afraid the third brother would have to pay some money.
What's more, Old Lady Wen just wanted to control her and didn't want Aunt Bai to be an eyesore in front of her all the time, because Old Master Wen doted on Aunt Bai when he was young, and Old Lady Wen was eager for Aunt Bai to leave.
Aunt Bai nodded and whispered, "Why don't you find a doctor to see him tomorrow? I have some small change here."
Needless to say, it must have been given secretly by the third brother.
Aunt Gui shook her head. "No need. Just wait a couple of days and you'll be fine. If you really feel unwell, I'll ask the old lady for money to see a doctor."
The two old sisters talked for a while and then went to the kitchen to wash dishes. Aunt Bai asked Aunt Gui to rest more and not to be busy anymore, but Aunt Gui was unwilling to do so. She wanted to help finish the work early so that everyone could rest.
…
Xu Qinyu rested at home for several days and felt much better. On the sixth day of the New Year, she planned to rest for another day and then go to the dock to take a look and buy some ingredients to continue setting up her stall.
I went to the dock to see if the merchant ships were still there. It hadn't snowed during the New Year holidays, and the weather was warmer than before. If the ice on the canal melted, the merchant ships would definitely not stay and would leave.
However, even without merchant ships, there should be other merchant caravans coming and going, so the breakfast stall should still be able to operate. If there are not many people at the dock, she plans to close the breakfast stall for a while. She can't go to East Street and West Street to sell roujiamo and glutinous rice intestines. It will take a while, at least until she brings Concubine Gui back home. Otherwise, she might make some mistakes. After all, the Wen family lives in East Street, and Concubine Gui has not been brought back yet, so it's better to be safe.
Just after breakfast in the morning, Xu Qinyu was sitting in the yard basking in the sun when she heard a knock on the door. She went to open the door and saw that it was Xu Kongmu.
She was surprised and asked, "Master Xu, why are you here?"
Xu Kongmu clasped his fists towards Xu Qinyu and said, "I apologize for bothering you during the New Year. I came today to ask you to prepare a banquet. Don't worry, I have all the ingredients. Once the banquet is ready, I will pay you ten taels of silver. This banquet is also for our superiors."
His superior is naturally the county magistrate of Yuanbao Town. It is an annual custom to invite the county magistrate to a banquet at home during the Chinese New Year, which is also a way to entertain guests during the Chinese New Year.
He used to buy food from Donglaiju, but he had tasted the food made by Miss Xu and was amazed by it, so he wanted to ask Miss Xu to come to his house and cook this year.
Ten taels of silver?
Xu Qinyu's eyes lit up. She had worked hard for ten days setting up her stall and could barely earn ten taels. But she could earn ten taels by preparing a banquet, so naturally she was willing to do so.
"Master Xu, of course I am willing."
Xu Kongmu's expression also relaxed a bit, and he said with a smile: "Then young lady, please tell your family first."
Xu Qinyu went back to the house and told the Pei family.
The Pei family also knew Xu Kongmu. Wen was worried, so she called Pei Weixuan to go with Yu Niang.
Pei Weixuan had nothing to do at home, so he followed Yu Niang.
Xu Kongmu also knew that it was not a good idea to let the young lady come with him alone, so he felt more at ease when he saw Pei Weixuan coming with him. The two of them nodded slightly when they met.
The three of them left Guihua Lane and got on a carriage heading straight towards West Street.
The Xu family has a horse-drawn carriage. Although it is not used much on weekdays, Xu Kongmu is driving the carriage himself at this moment.
They soon arrived at the Xu family. The Xu family lived in Yangfeng Lane, West Street. The house with two entrances was just big enough for the whole family.
After entering the Xu family's house, Xu Kongmu stopped the carriage and took the two of them directly to the kitchen.
The Xu family's kitchen was very spacious. They bought a lot of ingredients, including chicken, duck, fish, mutton, pork, and even a piece of beef. In terms of vegetables, in addition to the common radish, cabbage, bean sprouts, tofu, there were also lotus roots, yams, and even a small basket of water chestnuts. These were precious items, more expensive than pork. They could also be considered fruits, not unique to the southwest. They had to be shipped from other places and were only available in Raozhou City. Xu Kongmu must have asked someone to buy them from the city specially. The beef was also probably bought from Raozhou City. She had never seen it sold in the town.
In ancient times, beef was really hard to buy. Cows were used for farming and were very precious. The government did not allow private individuals to slaughter cows. Cows would only be killed and sold for beef if they died of illness or accidents. However, the government would also send coroners to investigate how the cows died, for fear that someone would deliberately kill the cows. Anyone who slaughtered cows casually would be beaten with a stick and imprisoned.
In addition to these, there are some dried goods and a small basket of river shrimp.
People here eat shrimps, and only river shrimps. However, river shrimps are not big, so most people just cook them in a pot and eat them by pinching off the tails. There is only a tiny bit of meat. Some people find it troublesome and just chew and eat the head together. If you don’t know how to cook it, the taste will not be very good. So most people don’t like to buy them and eat them. They think it is better to cut off two taels of meat and eat them than to eat these dry ones.
The price of small river shrimps is not expensive, a few cents per pound, but the price of very large river shrimps is different, they can be sold for twenty cents per pound.
But even so, most families with twenty cents would rather buy pork, especially fattier pork, as they think it is oily. River shrimps do not taste oily at all.
But big river shrimps are hard to catch. The river shrimps in this small basket are quite big, and they are delicious even after peeling the shrimps.
In addition to these ingredients, there are also seasonings, and there are even quite a few spices.
Seeing these ingredients, Xu Qinyu said to Xu Kongmu, "Don't worry, Master Xu, I'll take care of it. May I ask if there are any dietary restrictions for the upper echelons?"
Xu Kongmu thought about it and realized that his superiors were easy to get along with and there were no dietary restrictions.
"There's nothing to be restricted by."
Xu Qinyu nodded, "Okay."
Xu Kongmu should be entertaining his superiors at dusk, and it is just past 9 o'clock now, so there are still a few hours left, so there is plenty of time.
Xu Kongmu looked at it for a while and couldn't help but say, "Miss Xu, can you make the fish with pig intestines again?"
He had it once and couldn't forget it. It was especially to his liking, so he even bought some offal for his family.
Xu Qinyu laughed, "Okay, don't worry, sir. I'll wash the intestines and braise them in a moment."
She planned to prepare the ingredients first.
Seeing that Miss Xu started to get busy, Xu Kongmu stopped disturbing her and left the kitchen.
When he walked to the front yard, his wife Xiang saw him and asked hurriedly, "Have you invited the people?"
Xu Kongmu nodded and said, "They are here and are already busy in the kitchen."
Xiang couldn't help but feel a little worried, "Can it really work?"
She hadn't tried any of Xu Kongmu's other dishes, but she had tried her fish. The braised fish, fish balls, and fish heads were truly amazing. The taste was truly divine. But she couldn't help but feel a little skeptical. After all, Xu was only fifteen, the same age as her daughter Yunlan. Could she really cook? Could she really make other dishes better than the chef at Donglaiju?
Although she had suggested asking Miss Xu to be the chef last time, she was still a little worried when it came to the end.
Xu Kongmu comforted his wife, "Don't worry, my lady. Miss Xu won't let us down."
He had eaten the dishes cooked by Miss Xu, otherwise he would not have believed that a girl in her teens had such cooking skills.
Xu Yunlan, who was standing next to her, listened to what her parents said and couldn't help but become interested in this young lady who was about the same age as her but had an excellent craft.
She peeked at her parents and found that they were not paying attention to her, so she snuck into the kitchen with her little nephew Xiger in her arms.
When she arrived at the kitchen, Xu Yunlan saw a thin but pretty young lady busy in the kitchen.
Xu Qinyu also noticed the girl holding a child and secretly looking at her at the kitchen door.
She smiled at the girl and continued to work.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
