Chapter 124: Sugar Snowballs for All Ages
She vaguely remembered the description in the Classic of Mountains and Seas: There was a bird, shaped like a snake, with four wings, six eyes, and three legs. It was called Suanyu. It called by itself, and when it was seen, the town was in fear.
This thing is called Sour and its cry sounds very similar to its name. Wherever it appears, terrible things will happen.
Dreaming about acid is not a good sign.
Yun Chenglu kept talking along the way, but Baoya kept thinking about her dream.
It was not until the two of them entered the yard that they heard He Chunxiu's excited voice coming from the east wing.
"Mom, business has been booming these days. The multi-flavored soy milk that Baoya taught us to make, and the fried dough sticks that go with the soy milk, are selling like hotcakes."
"I was wondering why you and Sanlang came back an hour later than usual," Zhao Zhilan said. "Selling fire is a good thing, but you're still taking the medicine prescribed by Doctor Sun, so it's best not to get too tired."
"Mom, I know. Sanlang is considerate and I am not tired." He Chunxiu said.
"That's good, you two can help anyway."
As he was speaking, Yun Chenglu walked in pulling Baoya.
"Grandma, Auntie San, we're back!"
"Hey, you're finally back," Zhao Zhilan pulled Baoya to her side. "How was your study today? Did you make your master angry?"
Baoya shook her head and didn't say much.
He Chunxiu and Zhao Zhilan both noticed that something was wrong with her.
"What's wrong?" He Chunxiu reached out and touched Baoya's forehead, but found nothing unusual.
No matter how slow he was, Yun Chenglu noticed at this moment. Why did Baoya seem a little listless today?
He frowned and said, "Is there some skill you haven't learned yet? Just let Brother Nan teach you tomorrow."
Baoya pouted and shook her head.
She came out of Zhao Zhilan's arms, and with her chubby little hands she supported herself on the edge of the kang, which was almost as high as herself, and climbed up using her hands and feet.
Seeing this, He Chunxiu lifted her little butt and helped her successfully climb onto the kang.
Baoya sat solemnly between He Chunxiu and Zhao Zhilan, her chin supported by her two short hands. She looked at Yun Chenglu and said, "Second brother, please close the door."
Yun Chenglu knew that she was like this, and was afraid that she had something important to say, so without saying a word, he turned around and closed the door of the east wing tightly.
Baoya then said, "Grandma, Mom, Second Brother, I had a dream today. I dreamed of sourness."
"What is acid?"
Zhao Zhilan, He Chunxiu and Yun Chenglu were all confused.
Baoya explained: "Suanyu is a strange beast in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. If you dream of it, bad things will happen."
"Then...what should we do?" He Chunxiu looked anxious.
Zhao Zhilan remained calm: "Don't panic, Baoya, do you know what's going on?"
The little girl frowned: "I don't know."
It is because she doesn't know that she is worried.
Sour is different from the previous Yingyu. Yingyu foretells floods, but Sour has nothing to indicate except disasters.
Seeing her miserable face, Zhao Zhilan pinched the little tuft on her head and comforted her, "It's just a dream. Maybe it's not about our family."
Baoya thought about it and it seemed so. The previous incident with the ear mouse was Aunt Wu's business; Yingyu even involved the whole village. This time, the sourness might have nothing to do with their family?
"Then we have to ask uncle, aunt and the others to be careful tomorrow." Baoya said cautiously.
"Yes," Zhao Zhilan agreed, "Grandma, listen to Baoya. I'll tell them one by one later."
"Okay!" Baoya nodded, and the stone in her heart finally fell.
Anyway, usually when she dreams, things happen the next day. Maybe there will be new clues tomorrow morning.
The shop was doing a booming business, and He Chunxiu and Yun Sanlang were both very happy.
The bacon and sausages that we promised to Ke Laixiang are now ready and are drying in the yard. They will be delivered in half a day.
A lot of food was also made for her family. He Chunxiu planned to stew bacon with tofu, stir-fry sausage and vegetables, and steam rice with bacon in the evening.
Wang Cailian also showed off her cooking skills and made candied sweet potatoes for the four children.
The family was busy in the kitchen, which alleviated Baoya's worries.
Because Yun Chenglu picked a lot of hawthorn fruits these two days, Nan Xuan made hawthorn-related food almost every day, and Bao Ya naturally learned a lot from him.
There are all kinds of candied haws, hawthorn cakes, hawthorn rolls, hawthorn cans, and hawthorn jams. It is simply a hawthorn feast.
However, among all the snacks made from hawthorn, Baoya’s favorite is sugar snowballs.
Seeing her mother and aunt busy making delicious food, her little hands started to itch, and she planned to make some sugar snowballs for her brothers and sisters to try.
Baoya wanted to make sugar snowballs, and Yun Chenglu, Yunhua and Yunyue all surrounded her to help her.
Yunhua and Yunyue helped Baoya wash the hawthorns, dig out the stems, shave off the cores, and set the processed hawthorns aside for later use.
Yunhua was deft and did these things quickly and skillfully. In comparison, Yunyue was a little worse. The hawthorns with the cores dug out were missing some pieces, and Yunhua laughed at her.
Yun Chenglu helped Baoya light the stove, while Baoya stood on a small stool and used rock sugar to boil syrup.
The four children divided the work in an orderly manner and quickly boiled the syrup. Baoya took out the white vinegar juice prepared in advance and poured it into the syrup little by little, stirred it evenly, then poured the cleaned hawthorn fruits into the pot and asked Yun Chenglu to turn off the fire.
All that’s left is to use a shovel to turn the hawthorn fruits over so that their surfaces are coated with sugar juice. As the sugar juice slowly cools down, the sugar juice on the surface of the hawthorn fruits will condense into something like white frost, and the sugar snowballs are ready.
Put the prepared sugar snowballs on a plate. There were still some sugar crystals in the pot. Baoya added two scoops of cold water, threw in a few hawthorn fruits, and boiled it into a pot of hawthorn sugar water. She could drink it while eating later.
The sugar snowballs are sour and sweet, and the white frosting on the outside becomes crispy when you bite it. It is mixed with the hawthorn fruit and is especially delicious.
The four children couldn't stop eating one at a time, and the adults, while working, would go to the stove and reach out to grab one to eat.
But Baoya and the others made a lot, enough for the whole family.
Soon dinner was ready, including fragrant bacon rice, salty and tender bacon stewed with tofu, and sweet and crispy candied sweet potatoes.
The whole family had sugar snowballs to whet their appetite before dinner, and no one ate less for dinner. The food was eaten up without any leftovers. After the meal, each person had a bowl of hawthorn sugar water to drink, which was very satisfying.
That night, Baoya ate and drank her fill and slept soundly without having any dreams.
The next day, she climbed up from the kang, looked at Yunyue who was sleeping soundly beside her, and then glanced at the warm sun outside. It seemed that yesterday's dream was really just a dream.
There was no bad omen for the new day. She stretched, jumped up from the kang, and planned to do whatever she had to do.
This time, maybe it really isn't their family's business.
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