Chapter 10: The alkaline rice dumplings made with Huangjing ash water are especially delicious
This is a secret between Lin Xiaopu and Zhou Ye.
Only Lin Xiaopu in the family knew that Zhou Ye had a very big appetite and would wake up hungry before dawn every day. It was okay in autumn because there were many wild fruits and grass roots in the mountains to satisfy his hunger. Spring and summer were the most difficult times for Zhou Ye.
Thinking of this, Lin Xiaopu felt extremely guilty. If only she were as strong as Wang Yingen from the village, then the money she saved on medicinal herbs could buy a lot of whole grains. Brother Aye wouldn't have to go hungry every day like he did now, and Sister Aye could have a meal of white rice from time to time.
After thinking about a bunch of random things, the depressed Lin Xiaopu secretly hugged Lin Shu beside him, and slowly, the corners of his mouth curled up again.
It’s great that she has a sister again.
Sister smells nice and feels soft when hugged. She likes it...
The next day, when Lin Shu got up, the men in the house were gone.
The courtyard was filled with a strong smell of medicine. He Guixiang had boiled the medicine and brought half a bowl of the blackened medicine to Lin Xiaopu. Lin Shu thought it was bitter, but Lin Xiaopu gulped it down in a few mouthfuls without changing his expression. If her face had not wrinkled up after drinking it, Lin Shu would have thought it was chicken soup instead of medicine.
She knew how to make malt sugar. Before the apocalypse, she'd planned to return to her hometown and become a mountain food blogger, but the apocalypse arrived before she could put her plan into action. Grain was incredibly expensive these days, and malt sugar required a lot of wheat to make just a tiny bit of sugar. She hadn't considered food for the time being. She wondered if there were any wild fruits like jujube and golden cherry in the mountains; they could also be used to make sugar, but even if she could find any, they couldn't be picked until after the frost had arrived.
"Mom, where are Dad and Brother Aye?" Lin Shu looked around, and all the men in the family were gone.
"Your father has gone to town to find work, and your brother A'ye has gone deep into the mountains this morning," He Guixiang said. Since both men were going out, she woke up before the roosters crowed to start cooking. Zhou Ye was going to the mountains, and the head of the household was going to town, so they both needed to take some food with them. So, she made a lot of wild onion pancakes out of coarse flour for them to eat along the way.
Lin Shu's eyes lit up when she heard the word "deep mountains". "Mother, I want to go to the mountains too. Is it too late to chase Brother Aye now?"
He Guixiang was terrified. "You can't go! Your brother A'ye is capable of surviving in the mountains. If he can't come back, he can just spend the night there. But it wouldn't work for anyone else."
Fearing Lin Shu might wander off into the mountains for fun, He Guixiang rattled off a bunch of stories. She told of a time when someone went mushroom picking deep in the mountains and strayed too far, nearly getting lost and unable to return. There was also a time when someone broke their leg in the mountains, and the entire village had to work together to find them. And there was another time when someone went into the mountains and never came back, supposedly being eaten by a wild animal.
Lin Shu quickly reassured her, "Don't worry, mother. I won't go."
In the apocalypse, she had immense strength. A stone thrown out of her could knock out or even kill mutated pheasants and ducks. Now she no longer has this strength and is just like an ordinary person. Of course, she wouldn't be so reckless as to rush into the mountains alone to hunt in the wild. If she really had to go into the mountains, she wouldn't go deep into them.
"If you want to go to the mountains, go to the mountain behind our house. Although this mountain can't compare to the deep mountains three miles away, it's not small, and there's everything on the mountain. Every inch of the land behind the mountain has been walked on by the villagers. There are no wild animals, at most there are some insects and snakes. Just avoid them, there's no danger."
"I'll listen to my mother. My sister and I will go for a walk in the back mountain." Lin Shu said.
After hearing this, Lin Xiaopu ran to Lin Shu, held her hand, and looked expectant.
He Guixiang hesitated, "Xiao Pu..."
Seeing that she was hesitant, Lin Shu interrupted her and asked, "Mother, don't you want my sister to go with me?"
"Your sister is weak. When she was little, she was sick every three days or even more often. It made me worry a lot. I took good care of her over the years, and now she is feeling better."
Lin Xiaopu took back the hand holding Lin Shu, lowered his head, and said with such understanding that it made people feel distressed, "Mother, I won't go out."
Lin Shu rubbed her head and asked He Guixiang, "Mother, when was the last time you took Xiao Pu to see a doctor?"
He Guixiang said, "It must have been three years ago, when the doctor first prescribed the medicine."
Lin Shu was shocked when she heard this. "It was three years ago? The doctor prescribed medicine when I first saw him, and I haven't seen him since? What does this medicine treat, Xiao Pu?"
He Guixiang replied, "It's medicine for treating physical weakness. The doctor said I have to take it all the time, at least until I'm ten years old."
"Back then, she almost lost her life." He Guixiang's voice choked slightly as she thought of the past.
The child had been weak since she was born. While other children in the village could recover with the herbs the elders recommended, hers couldn't. She insisted on going to the town clinic for medicine. Three years ago, after the family split up, she had a lot of chores to deal with, and she had temporarily neglected Xiao Pu. The child, fearing she would cause trouble for the family, kept it to herself. By the time A Yao discovered the situation, she was practically succumbing to a fever. The head of the household, without anyone's knowledge, rushed to town to find a doctor. The doctor gave her medicine, but the fever didn't subside. He said if it didn't subside that evening, she could prepare for her funeral.
That incident truly broke He Guixiang's heart. Fortunately, God had mercy on the child and he survived, but she was terrified.
The doctor said that there was a prescription that could improve Xiao Pu's physical weakness, but he would have to take it for several years, at least before he turned ten. After discussing with the head of the household, He Guixiang gritted her teeth and made the decision.
She took the medicine for three years and never stopped taking it, following the old doctor's advice.
"Don't cry, mother. It's all over. Xiao Pu is fine now. But mother, every time you go to the doctor to get medicine, why don't you take Xiao Pu with you and ask the doctor to take a look at him?"
"She's weak, what's the point of taking her? Our Tianshui Village is sixteen miles away from Jingxi Town. It takes more than an hour or even two hours to walk there. Besides, if you see her once, you won't need to see her again. The medicine she gets is the same every time. When Xiao Pu turns ten next year, I'll take her to town to see the old doctor."
Lin Xiaopu on the side listened silently with his lips slightly pursed.
"Mother, how about this? Next time we go to the town doctor to get medicine, I'll go with you and take Xiao Pu with us. I think Xiao Pu is already well now, so the prescription should be changed accordingly."
Lin Shu said that Xiao Pu wasn't seriously ill anymore. It wasn't that taking tonics for a longer period of time would improve her condition. After a certain point, taking more would be ineffective. It was better to slowly recuperate with a medicinal diet. As long as she got enough nutrition and exercised more, her body would strengthen. But she couldn't say this directly, lest her mother misunderstand that she didn't want to spend money on her sister.
He Guixiang hesitated for a moment before agreeing, "You know a lot, I'll listen to you."
Lin Shu continued, "I'll take Xiao Pu and walk slowly. She won't be tired, don't worry, mother."
Lin Xiaopu received Lin Shu's gaze and immediately promised: "Mother, if I'm tired, I will tell my sister."
"I really can't do anything with you. Go ahead and follow your sister carefully. Bring some extra bread with you so you can eat when you're hungry. You must be back before dusk."
After hearing this, Lin Xiaopu was so happy that he and Lin Shu, one carrying a small bamboo basket and the other carrying a bamboo backpack, went to the back mountain hand in hand.
He Guixiang looked at the backs of the two people, and for some reason, she felt happy and sad at the same time.
After the others had gone away, He Guixiang was not idle either. It was the hemp harvest season, and every household had harvested their hemp. After finishing other chores, they began spinning hemp. Spinning hemp means twisting the hemp into thread. It sounds simple, but the process is very complicated. Even if there was not much hemp at home, it was enough to keep He Guixiang busy for a while.
~
The mountains behind Tianshui Village are even richer in resources than Lin Shu had imagined.
Not long after walking, she saw at least five kinds of edible wild vegetables: wild amaranth, wild spinach, shepherd's purse, water spinach, Chinese toon, aralia, and sedge. Although some of them were old and not very tasty, the young leaves were still very delicious.
She also saw Guanyin Chai!
Guanyin wood can be used to make jelly, which is very delicious. After the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather becomes hotter and hotter, which is the best time to eat jelly.
The yellow broom that grows all over the mountains is also a good thing.
Don't be fooled by its ubiquity; this broom is a natural green alkaline substance. Alkaline rice dumplings made with broom ash are particularly fragrant. When the broom seeds ripen, they can be used to make pillows, ensuring a peaceful night's sleep for those with headaches and insomnia.
It happened that she missed the Dragon Boat Festival when she came back this time. Lin Shu felt a little regretful that she couldn't eat rice dumplings. She was so greedy that she turned around to ask her mother if there was any leftover glutinous rice at home. She wanted to make alkaline rice dumplings!
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