Having eaten only one meal in a day and a night, Ye Wenxue was truly starving. She went into the cave and cut a palm-sized piece of cured meat into thin slices of similar size.
I chopped up the last three red chilies and stir-fried them with the newly sprouted matsutake mushrooms I picked on the way back yesterday.
The aroma of cured pork blends with the umami flavor of matsutake mushrooms, while the red chili peppers are stir-fried to release their spicy fragrance, stimulating the mouth to unconsciously salivate.
The cured pork was already salted before smoking, so there's no need to add too much salt during stir-frying. Just add a little salt to enhance the flavor before plating.
Ye Wenxue couldn't resist picking up a piece of cured pork and matsutake mushrooms with her chopsticks. She blew on them to cool them down a bit before eating them in one bite. The aroma made her want to eat two bowls of rice with them.
"Mother..." The three children crowded around the stove, and seeing that their mother was still savoring the memory, they called out softly.
Ye Wenxue snapped out of her daze and, avoiding the chili peppers, served each child a bite of meat and mushrooms: "Hmm, Mother's cooking skills have improved!"
Da Zhuang hesitated, a mouthful of cured pork in his mouth. This had nothing to do with cooking skills, right? Just the thoroughly smoked cured pork and tender matsutake mushrooms, stir-fried together, would be incredibly delicious!
Siwang didn't have time to think too much. After swallowing his food, he continued to stare longingly at the dishes, then looked at the rice simmering on the other side, wishing he could quickly shovel the rice into his mouth and eat it.
Considering that the children needed to eat some vegetables as they grew, Ye Wenxue called to Dazhuang, "Bring the vegetables to the table. Mom will stir-fry some more vegetables. Have you washed the corn? We need to make a winter melon and corn soup."
"The corn was washed and cut into pieces," Dazhuang answered in detail.
While the two weren't looking, Siwang secretly took a piece of cured meat, but was caught red-handed by Sanyuan.
Siwang quickly stuffed the cured meat he had grabbed into his mouth and gave Sanyuan a fawning smile: "Third Brother..."
Sanyuan tapped his head: "You have to save it for mealtime. Also, your little wild boar hasn't been fed today. Are you going to leave it?"
At this moment, Dazhuang carried the stir-fried cured pork with matsutake mushrooms to the table. Siwang followed reluctantly for a couple of steps, then stopped, frowned, and hesitated for a while before deciding to feed the wild boar first.
—Once they're fully grown, they'll be all meat!
After Siwang finished feeding the wild boar, Ye Wenxue had also cooked some vegetables. The winter melon and corn soup would take a while, so she called the children to eat first.
Yuanyuan still got a bowl of steamed egg custard, which she ate with great relish, even cleaning up any crumbs that got on her face.
"You mean, he knows who we are?" Ye Wenxue took a bite of cured meat and ate it with her rice. After hearing Dazhuang's words, she felt a little more certain.
Dazhuang had eaten his fill of steamed buns, but he couldn't bear to part with the stir-fried cured pork and mushrooms, so he filled a small bowl with rice to eat with it: "Hmm, at first he said he was just passing by, then he said he was an old acquaintance of yours, and then..."
Dazhuang got angrier and angrier as he talked, and ate even more voraciously, finishing half a bowl of rice in just a few bites.
Sanyuan and Siwang exchanged a glance and silently sped up their eating.
They each picked up two mouthfuls of matsutake mushrooms and put them in their bowls, then buried their heads in their food and ate without saying a word.
Ye Wenxue pondered for a moment: "Never mind, let's eat first."
The person is gone, there's nothing more to say.
However, given how much that person couldn't stand seeing them doing well, and how well he knew them, he was probably someone the people from Shanqing Village had found.
Ye Wenxue secretly resolved to be more careful in the future and not to stay out of the valley for too long, in order to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
After the meal, Sanyuan sensibly stacked the bowls and went to wash them.
Ye Wenxue lay half-reclined on the rocking chair, squinted her eyes and rested for a while before turning over and going to the charcoal hole she had dug out. Following what Grandpa Xu had said, she rebuilt the charcoal kiln and picked out a few more thick pieces of firewood to put into the kiln to burn.
When the time was almost up, the kiln was sealed.
Dazhuang squatted to one side, puzzled, and asked, "Mom, will it work?"
Ye Wenxue: "Whether it works or not, we'll definitely succeed if we try a few more times."
Dazhuang: "......"
He turned around and went back into the house to bury himself in his books. On his way back, he picked up Shuangshuang, who was practicing martial arts, and Siwang, who was playing around.
Siwang was about to cry out loud, but Dazhuang forcibly suppressed him.
Ye Wenxue carefully inspected the charcoal kiln several times, and after confirming that there were no leaks and that it was sealed up, she returned to the earthen house.
She went to the room to check on the kids who were being forced to read by Da Zhuang, then glanced at the sleeping Yuan Yuan, before turning to the cellar to retrieve chili seeds and activate her wood-type ability to sprout them.
Dried chili peppers and chili oil taste good, but they can't compare to the deliciousness of fresh chili peppers when stir-frying vegetables.
The mature chili pepper plants were all crushed to death, so she had to plant another batch to replace them, so that she wouldn't have to suffer through the winter by eating only chili oil.
Thinking of this, Ye Wenxue glanced at the several piles of mountain goods stored in the cellar, most of which were collected by Sui Ye before he left for the valley.
Mountain products like wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, which are easier to store after drying, were dried and stored together. Chestnuts, persimmons, wild kiwis, and other similar items were stored in a well-ventilated place and needed to be eaten as soon as possible, otherwise they would spoil.
The wild vegetables and edible herbs we gathered were washed, chopped, dried, and pickled in the only two jars we had. Cabbage, radishes, winter melon, yams... the other vegetables were placed on the other side, waiting...
It helps to cut through the greasiness of winter.
Ye Wenxue carefully calculated in her mind and found that there weren't many vegetables she could eat, so she still needed to stock up on more.
However, we don't have many jars and pots at home. The ones for pickling vegetables, storing hawthorn sauce, and making chili oil have all been used up. We need to buy some more jars and pots to pickle some sauerkraut to change things up.
Half an hour later, the wood-type ability was exhausted.
Exhausted, Ye Wenxue left the cellar, carrying a full basket of mugwort and other herbs, and sat down under the eaves. While cleaning the herbs of dirt and rotten leaves, she listened to the clear voices of students reading aloud inside the house, and her thoughts gradually drifted away.
"Jade that is not carved cannot become a useful object..."
After repeating the same things to his older siblings twice, exhausted, Siwang decided to give up: "I'm only four and a half years old, it's not time for me to start learning yet."
Dazhuang sternly told him, "When I was three years old, my father started my formal education. If you don't want to study, you have to write big characters, one page at a time. You're not allowed to eat until you finish."
Siwang: "......"
Shuangshuang, who was just about to find an excuse to skip school and practice martial arts like Siwang, was speechless.
Help! ! !
Is there no one who can control the eldest brother?
He really didn't want to study; all he wanted to do was eat.
Outside, Ye Wenxue had finished preparing several herbs to repel insects and relieve itching. She was staring blankly at the ginseng when she suddenly heard Si Wang's voice.
Siwang poked his head out and pointed at Ye Wenxue and Dazhuang with a righteous air, saying, "My mother didn't go to school either, but she's amazing!"
They both nodded in agreement.
When she first learned to read under Mr. Su's tutelage, she was very diligent and eager to learn more characters. However, after experiencing some events, she truly felt that it was better to practice martial arts than to study.
Anyone who dares to say she's illiterate, she'll punch them...
Looking at Dazhuang's calm and unwavering gaze, the two of them decisively admitted defeat and buried their heads in watching their older brother carefully copy the "Three Character Classic" for them.
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