Chapter 138: Reusing "child labor" for food + mugwort pancake + borrowing...
Lin Shu felt that it was very difficult for her to hold on until now. Although Tianshui Village was close to the mountains and it was not too hot at night after the summer, that was only when there was a night breeze at night, not during the day.
She had just woken up twice from the heat while taking a nap in the house. If it delayed any longer, it would be midsummer. Even at night, the night breeze would be hot. How could anyone endure it?
She doesn't want to endure the heat, she just wants to cool down.
Although Wang Yingen and the others thought that what Lin Shu wanted was very strange, they thought that Sister Shu was so smart, so she must have her own intentions. Moreover, they were very happy that Sister Shu was willing to ask them to do something. This made them feel that they were being valued, which was something they had never felt before.
More importantly, they can get benefits from Sister Shu. It feels great to be rewarded after working hard.
Wang Yingen quickly patted his chest and said, "Sister Shu, it's a small matter. Leave it to us!"
There are dozens of households in Tianshui Village. They dig some soil from the base of each house, but not too much. If they dig too much, their uncles and aunts will definitely scold them. They dig a small jar from the base of each wall, which adds up to a lot.
If the owner of the house didn't want to dig at all, he remembered that there were several abandoned old huts in the village, and he could shovel the foundation soil of the old house first.
And if that wasn't enough... well, they went and dug outside the toilet.
Every household in the village has a toilet, which is built outside the courtyard. Some are right behind the house, and some are a little further away. They go to dig some soil outside the toilet. No one should say anything, but the toilet is too smelly, and they have to endure the stench and dig the soil. After all, Sister Shu said that the closer to the toilet, the better.
Lin Shu showed Wang Yingen and the others the small bamboo shovels at home. "Come to my yard tomorrow. I'll ask your elder brother Aye to make each of you a small shovel like this. You can use the small shovels to shovel the soil. I'll dig a pit outside the yard. The soil you shovel will be placed in this small pit. Once the pit is filled, your mission will be completed."
Wang Yingen, Sun Laifu and others all smiled happily when they saw the small bamboo shovel in Lin Shu's hand.
These naughty kids have all played with mud before, but they don’t have tools like shovels, so they just pick up a stick and dig. With this little shovel, shoveling soil will be much more convenient. And this little shovel looks fun.
"Okay, Sister Shu, don't worry, we promise to complete the task well!"
Lin Shu waved her hand and said, "Let's go play."
Seeing this, Wang Yingen knew that they would not be able to have dinner, but since they had just received new tasks, they were not too disappointed.
They were very satisfied after eating a bowl of fruit jelly in the courtyard at noon.
The group of noisy children left quickly, but Lin Xiaopu did not follow them. She had not reviewed her homework for the day yet, and her elder sister would tell her a story soon. She liked listening to what her elder sister told her and could learn a lot from it.
He Guixiang knew that the two of them needed to use the table, so she moved the cloth and sewing basket to the low table in the yard and sat on a small bamboo stool to continue working.
With Lin Zhaodi's help, measuring measurements and cutting cloth became much easier.
Soon, the voice of Ah Shu teaching could be heard from inside the house. The voice was neither fast nor slow. As Lin Zhaodi listened, her heart became more and more peaceful.
This kind of life without arguments and calculations was what she wanted most in the past. Every time she entered the Zhao family's house, it was either the eldest sister-in-law who smiled and asked her to help, even if she could do the work alone, or the second sister-in-law who used the excuse of being busy to directly throw the work to her, and said it was for her own good. Not to mention the mother-in-law, who had one face in front of outsiders and Sanlang, and another face when Sanlang was not around. She saw the bullying of her two sisters-in-law, both openly and secretly, but she thought it was natural. Although her father-in-law didn't say anything, the look in his eyes when he looked at her was dissatisfied and disgusted.
They all thought that she was unable to give birth to a child for the Zhao family, and that marrying her was like getting a free meal, and that people who get a free meal should work harder.
But if the wife you marry can't give birth to a child, does that mean she deserves to work hard somewhere else?
Lin Zhaodi is not afraid of hard work. If they treat her sincerely, she will do the hard work without them throwing it to her. But if they throw it to her, she just doesn't want to do it as they wish.
He Guixiang was surprised to see her cutting cloth with considerable skill. "Zhao Di, Ping'er does a lot of needlework, doesn't she?"
Lin Zhaodi smiled and said, "When I was eleven, I did all the needlework at home, but I could only do some rough work like mending and patching, unlike Sister Qiaohua, who could also do embroidery. After I married Zhao San, I also cut and sewed clothes for Zhao San and my parents-in-law."
In the first three years after her marriage, she was a good daughter-in-law of the Zhao family. She was filial to her parents-in-law, respectful to her brother and sister-in-law, and did many heavy and rough jobs. However, as the years went by, she was unable to give birth to children, and the Zhao family's attitude towards her gradually changed. She also became cold-hearted and no longer wanted to be a good daughter-in-law or brother-in-law.
Lin Zhaodi said this calmly, without a trace of bitterness. She knew He Guixiang had suffered even more than she had.
There are few women in this world who are not miserable, especially those like them who were born in poor families.
He Guixiang didn't say anything, but just silently patted Lin Zhaodi's shoulder.
If a woman has a bad life in her parents' home, after she gets married, if her husband's family is good, she will be able to escape from the sea of suffering; if her husband's family is not good, she will jump from one fire pit to another.
To judge whether the husband's family is good or not, it is not enough to just look at the man himself, but also the parents-in-law, brothers, and sisters-in-law.
"Sister He, I'm fine, you don't need to comfort me." Lin Zhaodi said.
The thought of selling ice jelly filled her heart with joy, and she wanted to share this joy with Zhao San immediately. But she would save this for when she closed the shop at night.
When Ah Shu's voice in the main hall stopped, Lin Zhaodi estimated that it was almost time, so she asked loudly, "Ah Shu, shall I cook the porridge first?"
The villagers usually eat porridge with pickles for dinner. This porridge can be cooked first.
Lin Shu responded from inside the room, and then said, "When the porridge is cooked, serve it out. I'm going to use the iron pot to make pancakes."
In fact, Lin Shu was more craving the taste of scallion pancakes, but scallion pancakes were too oily. Not to mention that a group of people were eating from a big pot now, she wouldn't be willing to make them even on normal days.
When she receives the final payment for the chicken mushroom sauce, she will indulge herself and make some scallion pancakes!
Lin Zhaodi: "Pan Bing? It's another delicious thing I haven't tasted before."
People in the village rarely use pancakes to make cakes. They usually make cakes with solid ingredients. Men stick the palm-sized cakes on the wall of the pan without adding oil. They turn the cakes over a few times and cook them. What kind of cakes are these? Lin Zhaodi has never eaten them before.
After He Guixiang explained it to her, Lin Zhaodi finally understood. She thought happily, "Using the prepared batter to make pancakes, and making a large pancake at a time, Ah Shu is really good at saving her flour." He's wife also said that if the batter could be made thinner, one bowl of batter could make several pancakes!
This time, Lin Shu didn't need to do anything. After Lin Zhaodi knew that a lot of wild onions would be needed, she went outside and picked a basket of wild onions.
"Sister He, do you think these wild onions are enough?"
He Guixiang replied, "That's enough, that's enough. I just sprinkled a handful in. That's too much!"
Lin Zhaodi said cheerfully, "I know a lot more, but the rest can be planted in the vegetable patch. Ping'er can just pick them from the patch whenever she wants to eat them, saving Ah Shu the trouble of going outside to pick them."
He Guixiang was at a loss for words. "There are plenty of wild onions outside. There's no need to plant them in a vegetable patch. You'd better spoil her. She'll become lazier in the future."
"A girl like Ah Shu deserves to be spoiled." Lin Zhaodi said, grabbing a handful of wild onions, and carrying the rest to the vegetable patch behind the house, and planting them in the soil with skillful movements.
She had also planted this wild onion in the Zhao family's vegetable patch. It grew very well and Ping'er didn't have to take care of it much.
After the porridge was cooked, Lin Zhaodi scooped out some with a large spoon. When she thought it was almost done, she took two wet rags, wrapped the handles on both sides of the iron pot, and picked up the whole pot.
He Guixiang exclaimed, "Zhao Di, you are really strong."
Although she was also used to doing odd jobs, she was nowhere near as strong as Lin Zhaodi. There was still half a pot of porridge in the pot, and Lin Zhaodi actually lifted the entire iron pot and the porridge from the stove. She had been the one who served the porridge yesterday, and she had scooped out all the porridge and rinsed it directly with water without removing the iron pot.
Lin Zhaodi had already emptied half the pot of porridge into the earthenware pot. She turned around and said, "I'm only slightly stronger than the average woman, but I can't compare with the men."
Because of her great strength, her parents always treated her like a man when she was a child. Cooking and washing dishes were considered easy tasks for her. She also did things like chopping wood.
The reason why her mother-in-law chose her as her daughter-in-law was probably because she had a good reputation for being capable in their village.
After pouring out all the porridge from the iron pot, Lin Zhaodi directly took it to the bamboo pipe to collect water for washing. "Sister He, with this bamboo pipe to draw water, it's very convenient to use water. Ah Shu is really smart!"
She praised Lin Shu whenever she got the chance, and she didn't know how many times she had praised her in a day. He Guixiang was modest at first, but now she just let her praise her and smiled.
He Guixiang also knew how to make this pancake, so she didn't ask Lin Shu to help when she was having dinner. She taught Lin Zhaodi how to make it and then asked her to come.
Add water to the flour and mix it into a slightly thinner batter, but not too thin, otherwise the pancakes will be difficult to shape. He Guixiang and Lin Shu have done it several times and can now mix the batter very well, ensuring that the pancakes are soft and delicious.
We used too many eggs in the past two days, so we won’t add eggs to the batter today.
Although adding eggs makes the pancake softer and chewier, it is also delicious without adding eggs. The texture is softer and more glutinous, it takes shape quickly, and it is not easy to break when turned over.
After the batter is prepared, sprinkle in a handful of chopped green onions. The green onions will add fragrance and the pancake will taste great.
While the two were mixing the batter, Lin Shu took Lin Xiaopu for a walk outside to stretch their muscles and also brought back two handfuls of mugwort leaves.
Lin Shu washed the mugwort leaves, put them in a garlic mortar, and crushed them with a pestle to get out the green juice.
At this moment, Lin Zhaodi had already made twelve or thirteen pancakes according to He Guixiang's instructions, and had just finished making a bowl of batter.
The pancakes looked big, but they were made thinly. Each man had to get three or four. Adding Zhou Ye, who ate the most, she had to make about forty pancakes, which was exactly the amount of batter for three bowls.
Making this pancake saves dough, but you have to keep working by the stove. Lin Zhaodi was so hot that she was sweating all over. He Guixiang would occasionally help her for a while, but Lin Zhaodi was too embarrassed to do it, so she would take over the job again after a short break.
After one bowl of batter was used up, He Guixiang made another bowl of thin batter, and Lin Shu happened to pour the mugwort juice pounded in the stone mortar into it.
"Last time, I only told Mother and Aunt Lin about the beauty and health benefits of mugwort, but forgot the most important thing: eating it. Although mugwort can be found everywhere, it is a real good thing. Not only can it be added to Qingming Baba during the Qingming Festival, but it can also be added to other snacks at ordinary times. Mother, look, the batter with the mugwort juice has turned green. The pancakes we will make will also be green."
As she spoke, Lin Shu smiled at Lin Zhaodi and said, "Aunt Lin, you can eat more. You don't have to make pancakes. You can put it in when Ping'er makes porridge. If you find it troublesome, just throw in a few pieces of moxa leaves."
"Okay, when I move here, I'll make mugwort porridge every day!" Lin Zhaodi responded with a smile.
Just as Ah Shu said, the pancakes made with mugwort juice are indeed green. Not only do they look good, but they also have a light mugwort fragrance when eaten.
After the three bowls of thin batter were used up, a total of thirty-eight pancakes were made, stacked into two large piles and placed on two large plates. He Guixiang also served a small plate of soaked radish.
Unlike sun-dried radish, pickled radish is prepared in a special jar. Cut radish strips are sealed and soaked in a mixture of sweet and sour water for three to five days. The resulting pickled radish is crispy and delicious, perfect with rice. While most people can't afford sugar and only use salt and vinegar, the pickled radish still tastes good.
A plate of this pickled radish can be found on the dining table of almost every household.
When Lin Xiaopu called people over for dinner, the men became excited as soon as they saw the two piles of pancakes on the table.
After washing their hands, as soon as they sat at the table, several people immediately picked up a piece with chopsticks and ate it. In the end, they were so busy that they didn't even bother to use chopsticks and just took it with their hands.
It's delicious! Thin, soft and fragrant, with the aroma of wild onions mixed with a hint of the fragrance of mugwort. They can eat seven or eight of these pancakes and never think it's too much!
When Liu Erzhuang saw Zhou Ye pick up two soaked radishes and roll them up on the pancake to eat, he followed suit. It turned out that eating it this way had a unique taste.
Lin Dashan was an experienced eater of pancakes. Seeing this, he suddenly remembered something and shouted to Lin Shu's table, "Girl, where is our chicken mushroom sauce?"
When He Guixiang heard this, she really wanted to hit Lin Dashan hard on the head.
She was Lin Dashan's wife, so how could she not know that Lin Dashan was having his old habit of showing off?
But he didn't even consider how many mouths were feeding him. How could that little bit of chicken mushroom sauce be enough for so many mouths? Besides, Ah Shu had used a lot of oil to make the chicken mushroom sauce. All that oil was money. How could he bear to part with it?
He Guixiang wasn't exactly a stingy person, but she couldn't be so generous as to share the food she'd spent so much money cooking with others. Whose money just came from the wind?!
Zhou Ye also glanced at Lin Dashan subtly. This chicken mushroom sauce belonged to Ah Shu.
He had no complaints about how Uncle Lin and Ping'er used him as a favor, but if Ah Shu didn't want something, he didn't want Ah Shu to agree to it reluctantly.
Liu Erzhuang had heard it and asked curiously, "Uncle Lin, what is this chicken mushroom sauce?"
Lin Dashan explained with a chuckle, "It's made with the chicken mushrooms from the chicken mushroom soup you had yesterday. It's really fragrant. It's a sauce my Ah Shu made. It's delicious whether you mix it with rice or noodles. Wrap this pancake with the chicken mushroom sauce and eat it. It's so delicious!"
Liu Erzhuang and Wang Changshun started to swallow their saliva just by listening.
All sauces sold in the town are expensive. The wealthier families in the village would at most buy vinegar, soy sauce, etc., and would not spend money on other sauces. I didn’t expect that Sister Lin Shu could make her own sauces.
Lin Shucai was not one to indulge Lin Dashan. She immediately replied with a smile, "Father, there's not enough left for you. You wouldn't want to eat all of it alone, would you? I'll make some more tomorrow so you can have your fill."
When Zhou Ye heard this, he secretly raised the corners of his mouth while drinking porridge from the cover of the ceramic bowl.
He was overthinking it. Ah Shu wouldn't let anyone take advantage of her. No one could force her to do something she didn't want to do.
Lin Shu happened to glance at him and saw him slurping down his porridge. She couldn't help but wonder, "How come I'm still so hungry after eating such a big bowl of fruit jelly at noon?"
She guessed that Aye must have ignored her words again and worked very hard.
She took advantage of this opportunity to say to Uncle Zhao: "Uncle Zhao, I'd like to borrow Ah Ye for half a day tomorrow and ask him to accompany me to the mountains to pick some mushrooms. I've already picked most of the ones in the back mountains."
Of course not. Chicken mushrooms grow fast, and she didn't damage the roots when she picked them. They would grow again in seven or eight days. But her words were not false. Although the mountain behind was large, she had already picked mushrooms from all the places close by.
No matter how many mushrooms there are in the back mountain, they cannot compare to those in the deep mountain forest three miles away.
She had wanted to take a walk in the mountains and had wanted to go there for a long time.
and--
When Zhou Ye heard her words, he couldn't help but look at her. Lin Shu immediately looked at him, and a smirk flashed across her eyes that only Zhou Ye could understand.
She missed Aye and wanted to be alone with Aye.
The deep mountains and old forests are good. No one will disturb them, and they don’t have to be sneaky if they want to do something.
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