When they got home, Pei Yichen and Xiao Xuan'er were awake. When Xuan'er saw Pei Yao, she sweetly hugged her older sister's leg.
"Sister, what delicious food did you bring back today?"
Pei Yao shook her basket: "How about we have grilled sea urchin for lunch today?"
Although Xuan'er didn't know what a sea urchin was, she clapped her hands happily and jumped around joyfully.
"Yay, time to eat sea urchin!"
"What's a sea urchin?" Pei Yichen asked, scratching his head as he came out of the room.
Pei Xuan pointed to the black, thorny creature her older sister had just told her about: "This thorny thing is it."
To open a sea urchin, you need scissors. Since it was still early, Pei Yao went to Uncle Niu's house to borrow some. The village wasn't big, and even though Uncle Niu's house was at one end of the village and Pei Yao's house was at the other, it wouldn't take more than fifteen minutes to walk there.
However, Uncle Niu Er was not at home; it was Aunt Niu Er and Niu Qingshan who were there.
Aunt Niu was cleaning the fishing nets in the yard, while Niu Qingshan was cleaning the fish.
Pei Yao had a sweet tongue and called out "Grandma" to Aunt Niu Er right at the door.
Aunt Niu didn't know who she was, but the little girl was so polite, calling her Grandma Niu as soon as she entered the door, so she had a pretty good impression of her.
"Young lady, who are you looking for?"
Just then, Niu Qingshan also saw Pei Yao and immediately got up and walked over: "Sister Yao, what brings you here?"
Niu Qingshan, being quite burly, simply blocked Pei Yao's path with a wall. Pei Yao turned her head to look at Aunt Niu from beside him.
He politely replied to her question: "Grandma Niu, I'm looking for Brother Qingshan."
Aunt Niu smiled, then gave a cryptic look.
He looked at his grandson, then at the little girl whose head was peeking out.
Then, Shui Lingling went back to her room, leaving only Niu Qingshan and Pei Yao in the courtyard.
However, Pei Yao came to see Niu Qingshan with important business.
"Brother Qingshan, do you have any scissors? I'd like to borrow them for a bit, and I'll return them to you when I'm done."
"Yes, it's in the kitchen. Wait a moment, I'll go get it for you." After saying that, Niu Qingshan went to the kitchen and got a pair of scissors for Pei Yao.
"Use it as you like, there's no rush to return it."
Pei Yao quickly thanked Niu Qingshan, then exchanged a few pleasantries with He Qingshan before getting to the main purpose of her visit.
Pei Yao: "Brother Qingshan, what day is the market day in town recently?"
Qingshan thought for a moment: "The next market day is in three days. Here, the market is held every five days. The nearest town is called Meilin Town. It takes about three hours to walk there, or about an hour and a half by oxcart."
"Okay, thank you, Brother Qingshan."
Qingshan smiled broadly: "What, Yaomei, are you going to the market? It's too far to walk. You can take my oxcart."
Uncle Niu's family owns an oxcart. Usually, most people in the village take his oxcart to the market, and it costs two coins per person.
Pei Yao knew perfectly well that the oxcart ride wasn't free, but she didn't have the money to afford it.
Qingshan noticed her predicament. He had heard that these exiled people had their belongings confiscated by the government officials before their exile, and they probably didn't have a single penny left.
Niu Qingshan: "You're just a little girl, you won't take up much space. I'll just give you a ride on my way."
Pei Yao's eyes lit up: "Really?"
Hitchhiking wasn't the most important thing; the most important thing was that the mountain roads here were so winding that he couldn't find the way to town at all.
If she could ride in Niu Qingshan's oxcart, that would be best. As for how much it would cost, she would definitely pay her back and would not let Niu Qingshan suffer any loss.
After saying goodbye to Niu Qingshan, Pei Yao went home.
Yunniang and Chen Fang were not home. Pei Yichen said that after returning, they put down their things and went to pick chili peppers.
Pei Yao looked up; it was almost noon (10:50 a.m.), and the sun overhead was blazing.
She glanced in the direction of the chili peppers and understood.
Don't let Yunniang's gentle and weak appearance fool you; she's a person who refuses to admit defeat at heart, and Chen Fang is even more so.
Seeing how hard Pei Yao, a young girl, works for the family, the two of them are unwilling to be idle, for fear of holding the family back.
Pei Yao understood that the current situation indeed required the whole family to work together to make a living.
Pei Yao went to the cellar and cooked the remaining two sweet potatoes. She also added some kudzu root, washed it, and cooked it together. This was her main meal for the day.
Pei Yao used mud, pebbles, and water to make a simple circular structure next to the stove, leaving an opening in front for stuffing charcoal. Then she found several thick, fresh wooden sticks and fixed them one by one to the structure.
If only a small amount of charcoal is placed underneath, this type of wooden stick is difficult to burn through and can be used for a period of time.
He also wanted to make a simple barbecue grill out of wire, but iron was not cheap in those days.
All the ironware in their house consisted of a large cleaver and a tool for prying oysters, a thick stick with an iron rod about the thickness of a chopstick inserted into it, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a thick iron wire.
She had built many of these barbecue grills in the countryside and fields when she was a child.
Take a few larger pieces of charcoal from the stove and drop them in. Once the mud has dried slightly, it's ready to use.
Taking advantage of the break, Pei Yao used the scissors borrowed from Niu Qingshan to do some simple processing on the sea urchins, cleaning out the black membrane inside bit by bit.
After he finished processing it, the barbecue grill was dry. Pei Yao put the prepared sea urchin on it and grilled it for a few minutes before sprinkling some chopped chili peppers and wild garlic.
There were a few that didn't have chili peppers added. Everyone else in the family is quite tolerant of spicy food, but Pei Xuan is still a child and can't eat spicy food.
However, the sea urchin has a great texture and tastes good even without garlic.
A dish of roasted sea urchin with garlic is now complete.
Sea urchins can actually be eaten raw, and that makes them taste even more delicious.
However, considering that everyone had been starving for almost every day during their five months of exile and their bodies had not yet recovered, Pei Yao was afraid that eating raw food would be bad for their health, so she did not dare to try it.
I went out for a walk again and picked a small bunch of wildflowers to make soup with clams when I got home.
A meal was ready in no time; it was simple but delicious.
Pei Yao took the unburnt matches out of the stove, extinguished them with water, and then took out the still-burning charcoal from under her and threw it into a dirty earthenware pot, before covering it with a stone.
This way, the embers won't come into contact with air and will quickly extinguish, leaving behind intact embers.
After doing all this, Pei Yao stood at the entrance of the courtyard and shouted at the top of her lungs towards the valley opposite the spicy peppers.
"Auntie! Mother! Come home for dinner... Come home for dinner... Dinner's ready... Dinner's ready..."
The girl's voice echoed throughout the valley, making Xiao Xuan'er laugh heartily.
How amazing, there's even an echo!
Little Xuan'er also imitated her older sister, spreading her palm into a megaphone shape and placing it near her mouth, shouting sweetly at the mountaintop.
"Mom, Auntie, come home for dinner!"
"Hey, sister-in-law, I heard it too. It really is Yao'er calling us home for dinner. Let's go then."
Yunniang had just heard her sister-in-law say that Yao'er was calling her, but she didn't believe it. A little while later, she heard it herself.
Yunniang stopped what she was doing and looked at Chen Fang.
Chen Fang quickened her pace: "Right? I told you I didn't hear wrong. Wait a minute, I'll pick the last bit of this one, right away."
Yunniang walked over to her and helped her: "Okay, I'll help you."
These wild chilies grew all over the hillside, their lush green and bright red colors were very beautiful and made people feel good just looking at them.
Yunniang looked away and clumsily pulled at the chili pepper tree in front of Chen Fang.
I don't know why Yao'er wants so many chili peppers, but Yao'er is so smart, she must have her reasons.
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