Chapter 20 It's raining.
Jiang Yuan has a big appetite, so he can't eat meat as much as he wants and has to supplement his diet with flatbread and vegetables.
Therefore, Xie Wanniang not only stir-fried a large pot of mixed vegetables, but also made a pot of braised rabbit meat with green beans, which was at least 70% green beans and less than 30% rabbit meat with a very tempting color and aroma.
When Jiang Yuan brought the braised rabbit meat with green beans and stir-fried mixed vegetables to the main room, Xie Wanniang opened the pickled vegetable jar and took out some pickled cucumbers and radishes.
Jiang Yuan had already prepared the bowls, chopsticks, and warm water. After Xie Wanniang, carrying pickled vegetables, turned off the fire and entered the main room, the two of them sat facing each other to enjoy their dinner after a long day of work.
Unlike most families in the village who only eat three meals a day during spring planting, autumn harvest, and festivals, Jiang Yuan has always eaten three meals a day since he was able to eat.
His adoptive mother injured her body when she gave birth to Wang Xiaozhi. They only had two children, him and Wang Xiaozhi. Compared to couples who have three, four, five, six, or seven children in their lifetime, they didn't need to be too frugal with their food and clothing.
In addition, Hao Yu would occasionally supplement their family's diet with some grain and meat by asking his adoptive mother and sister to help with some chores, so their family had no shortage of food.
Not to mention how good the food is, at least there are plenty of vegetables and whole grains, and occasionally we can have some refined grains and a bit of oil and meat.
Of course, this is also largely due to the fact that Mingfu Village has always been relatively peaceful.
Although Mingfu Village, like Xiejia Village where Xie Wanniang lived, was also visited by refugees and bandits, and also bore a relatively heavy burden of extortion and taxes, their lives were still quite good compared to those people living in the so-called "strategic locations" that were fought over by various warlords and frequently plundered by soldiers and bandits.
Like him, Xie Wanniang was blessed by the Xie family's profound heritage. Although she was born in a Taoist temple and grew up in the countryside, she rarely experienced the hardship of lacking food and clothing.
This led to neither of them feeling that there was anything wrong with their three meals a day.
After finishing their meal under the last bit of daylight, one of them ran to the kitchen to wash pots and dishes, boil water, and collect the meat sauce and jerky that had cooled down, while the other ran in and out, collecting stacks of bamboo baskets filled with dried medicinal herbs into the house.
The two of them worked up a sweat, and after washing up in their rooms, Xie Wanniang opened the window and instructed Jiang Yuan, "A Yuan, wake me up early tomorrow, I want to use the remaining bones to make soup and cook noodles."
Jiang Yuan hummed in agreement, but he didn't wake Xie Wanniang up early the next day.
The reason is simple—it suddenly rained in the middle of the night.
The rain here doesn't last indefinitely, and the rainfall is much less than in the south, but Jiang Yuan felt it was better for Xie Wanniang not to go to the mountain after the rain.
He, on the other hand, would put on straw sandals and not care whether there was water or mud.
After carefully arming himself as quietly as possible, and leaving a small note on the stove for Xie Wanniang that read "I'm going up the mountain," Jiang Yuan ate two pancakes and a few pieces of dried meat for breakfast before quietly opening the courtyard gate and going out.
He got up exceptionally early, and since it was raining and not suitable for working in the fields, the few villagers who got up as early as him were all staying at home, waiting for a hot breakfast.
Therefore, no villagers noticed that Jiang Yuan left alone.
After locking the courtyard gate, Jiang Yuan walked quickly and steadily toward the low hill closest to Mingfu Village.
The vegetation on the mountain was still damp, and there weren't many animals out foraging, so Jiang Yuan wasn't in a hurry to look for prey. He looked around and first dug up some tender and fresh wild vegetables, then picked up some non-toxic mushrooms he recognized, such as straw mushrooms, chicken leg mushrooms, and porcini mushrooms.
As the sun came out, the rainwater on the flowers, grass, and trees gradually evaporated, and the ground gradually dried under the sunlight. Jiang Yuan then hid his basket among the branches of the apricot tree and took his bow and arrows to search for pheasants and rabbits that came out to forage.
Xie Wanniang, who had slept soundly all night, opened her eyes when the first rays of sunlight shone on her face. The bright daylight outside made her realize that she had definitely overslept today.
After stretching her aching limbs and tapping her equally sore back and waist, Xie Wanniang slowly got dressed, tidied her bedding, got off the kang (heated brick bed), opened the door, and went out into the yard to investigate.
The wet patches on the ground caught her eye, and she belatedly realized, "Oh, it rained last night."
Stretching, I walked into the kitchen and saw the note that Jiang Yuan had placed in a prominent position on the stove.
She picked it up and glanced at it, then chuckled softly.
Her concise style remained unchanged; the neat but unremarkable charcoal writing showed no trace of the style and spirit her adoptive father admired.
Of course, Xie Wanniang was the same in this respect. She could copy the various versions of calligraphy models given to her by her adoptive father with great skill, but she could never develop her own personal style. Her writing was completely devoid of any "spirit and essence".
Her adoptive father sighed and lamented, but she didn't care at all. She even secretly joked that if her adoptive father had also traveled from another time, he would probably have given her the nickname "human copying machine".
With these thoughts in mind, Xie Wanniang first boiled a pot of water, poured it into an earthenware pot to cool, and then heated up two flatbreads, spread meat sauce on them, and ate them.
After finishing the meal and washing the dishes, Xie Wanniang prepared the leftover bones from last night, put them in the pot, added water, and simmered them over low heat to make soup.
Since it rained last night and she was left at home without going out, Jiang Yuan probably won't go far today. Since she couldn't use the bones this morning, she'll just cook a pot of bone broth noodles for lunch.
Add two poached eggs and lots of baby spinach, and the aroma will be so enticing it'll make your eyebrows fall off.
If they find it too bland, they can add some dried fish or meat, or scoop in some meat sauce.
Just thinking about it made Xie Wanniang swallow hard.
After boiling the bone broth, Xie Wanniang saw that the courtyard had been restored to dryness, so she ran to the main room and moved all her baskets containing medicinal herbs back into the sun.
The frame that Jiang Yuan had the carpenter make for her was very smooth and sturdy, showing that he had put a lot of care into it.
Every time Xie Wanniang carried a basket onto it, she couldn't help but marvel at how genuine the craftsmen of this day were. No matter what they made, they never cut corners or did anything shoddy.
After panting heavily as she moved all the baskets, Xie Wanniang leaned against the door frame, gasping for breath, and once again felt envious of Jiang Yuan's great strength.
If Jiang Yuan were here, he could have easily moved all these baskets. Unlike her, who carried them one by one until she was almost exhausted.
What Xie Wanniang didn't know was that Jiang, the strongman she was thinking about, was actually quite tired at the moment.
Finally, the sun evaporated the remaining moisture on the ground, flowers, and trees, and all the small animals came out to forage for food. He naturally wanted to take this opportunity to try to make up for the losses caused by yesterday's bad luck.
While racing against pheasants and rabbits in the mountains, he also had to shoot arrows, collect the prey and arrows he had shot, which was quite physically demanding.
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