Chapter 62 Sending Cotton Clothes
For dinner, Ye Beixiu had the egg fried rice and bone soup that Zhang Juexia made for him.
"Wife, I don't work every day, and I still eat three meals a day. Do you think I will gain weight?"
"You should take care of your legs first, then it won't be too late to lose weight."
"lose weight?"
"Um."
Ye Beixiu had already gotten used to some of Zhang Juexia's words and nodded in agreement.
"It's getting cold, and the hens are laying fewer eggs. I have to buy some eggs when I go to town."
"Um."
"I've thought about it. We've grown a lot of vegetables this year, enough for us to eat. When I drive my carriage to town, I'll take some with me. I can sell them for some money."
"It seems that you have to go to town this time."
"That's right. As long as it doesn't snow and the roads aren't blocked, it won't stop me from going to town."
"Then I won't advise you anymore. Just go slowly on the way there."
"I understand, my husband."
In the evening, Zhang Juexia closed the door early, sat on the kang, and knitted in the light of the lamp.
“It’s really cold today. I just sat on the chair and felt the wind blowing under my feet.
My husband, when are we going to light the stove?"
"If you feel cold, you can have a baby now! I have plenty of wood to chop."
"Then we'll light the stove tomorrow. If it's still cold, we'll heat the kang."
"I'll do as you say."
Ye Beixiu was worried about Zhang Juexia's eyes, so he didn't let her knit under the oil lamp for too long and pulled her to bed.
The next day, Zhang Juexia woke up early.
She placed the boiled lard next to the stove and it did not solidify.
She poured the alkaline water that had been left to stand yesterday into the lard, added a handful of fine salt, and then stirred it continuously in one direction to allow them to mix thoroughly and produce a saponification reaction.
After saponification and shaping, pour it into the bamboo tube prepared yesterday to set.
After finishing all this, Zhang Juexia came into the house with a bamboo tube and showed it to Ye Beixiu.
Ye Beixiu took the bamboo tube doubtfully, looked at the white paste inside, and really thought it was something delicious. When he was about to eat it, Zhang Juexia quickly snatched it away.
"Why do you want to eat so much?"
"You gave it to me so I could eat it, didn't you?"
Zhang Juexia was speechless. "Look carefully at what they look like."
Ye Beixiu shook his head, "I can't guess."
"This is the fragrant soap I made."
"Why don't they look alike?"
"They need to be left for a while to solidify before being saponified."
"Wife, how come you are so amazing? Not only do you cook delicious meals, you can also make delicious pancakes."
"I can do so many things! Aren't you proud?"
"That's natural."
"What do you want for breakfast? I'll make it for you. We still have a lot of leftover oil from yesterday. How about making some cabbage and oil-dregs buns?"
"Okay, okay."
Zhang Juexia smiled and said, "Are you particularly happy when you hear there's something delicious?"
“It’s very satisfying.”
"You're really good at talking."
Zhang Juexia went to the kitchen, holding the bamboo tube and humming a little tune.
She first found a place to put the bamboo tubes in the west wing.
She went to the well to wash the pots and pans she had used, and then went into the kitchen to prepare the dough.
She used white flour without cornmeal.
As her life gradually improved, she became more and more fond of eating white flour.
After the dough is kneaded, set it aside to wake up.
She picked a cabbage from the yard, washed it, chopped it up, added a little salt, filtered out the excess water with gauze, added the chopped oil residue, lard, salt, and the pepper powder she made.
After stirring it evenly, she leaned over and smelled it. It smelled so good.
When the dough was almost risen, she kneaded it repeatedly and then began to roll out the dough and make big buns.
After wrapping the buns, put them into the pot and steam them.
In another pot, she put the washed millet and added water to cook millet porridge.
Soon, the buns were steamed and the millet porridge was ready.
Ye Beixiu ate the hot, fragrant buns and drank the sticky millet porridge, looking at Zhang Juexia affectionately, "Wife, I wouldn't change my life like this even if a god came."
"Then I'll give you 10,000 taels of silver. Do you want to change it?"
"No, if you change, you won't have a wife."
"With money, I can marry many wives."
Ye Beixiu put down the bowl, his expression instantly becoming gloomy. His originally kind face became tense. "Wife, don't say that again."
Zhang Juexia saw that Ye Beixiu was angry and muttered softly, "How petty! I just said it casually."
Ye Beixiu glared at her and said, "Don't you think about what you are saying? You can't just say it casually."
Zhang Juexia said a lot of nice things and promised Ye Beixiu that he would make delicious food for him that he had never tasted before. Only then did his face feel less tense.
Zhang Juexia was clearing away the dishes. "It's a nice day today. I'll go up the mountain and cut some grass."
"The grass is turning to hay."
"Well, I see there are more wild rabbits. I'm worried that the ones we prepared won't be enough to eat. I'll cut some more."
"This kind of rough work was originally done by me. Thank you for your hard work, daughter-in-law. Do as much as you can, don't force yourself. If you really can't do it, you can sell some after a while."
"Um."
Zhang Juexia cut a lot of grass from the mountain. When he was carrying it home for the second time, he met Ye Jishun and Wang Guilan coming to their house.
Without saying a word, the old couple helped her carry the cut grass down from the mountain.
Wang Guilan was still complaining to her, "Xia'er, grandma has told you so many times not to be so reserved with us. You can just go to the old house and call anyone to help you with these chores. Why make yourself so tired?"
"Grandma, this isn't a tiring job. I can really do it myself."
"If Bei Xiu can help you, I won't bother with you."
Wang Guilan turned her head away angrily.
Zhang Juexia smiled and said a few nice words, and Wang Guilan finally smiled. "Everyone else thinks your sister-in-law is eloquent, but I think your little mouth is smeared with honey, and the words you say are so sweet."
"It's mainly because my grandmother taught me well."
"You, you."
The old couple helped Zhang Juexia finish his work and drank tea in the main room.
Wang Guilan then asked Zhang Juexia, "Your sister-in-law asked us to come. She said you had something to ask us."
Zhang Juexia took out the finished cotton-padded clothes from the house and said, "Grandpa, grandma, take it back and try it out to see if it fits you. If it doesn't fit, ask my sister-in-law to alter it for you."
Wang Guilan picked up her thick cotton coat and asked, "Is this what you're looking for us for?"
"Um."
"You just got married and built a new house. You will have plenty of other places to spend money in the future. Why spend that money on making cotton clothes for us?
We are all buried up to our necks in the earth, so we don’t need such good things.”
“Grandma, my sister-in-law and I put extra cotton in here. New cotton is warm to wear in winter.
When Beixiu and I have children in the future, we will rely on you to take care of them for us!
You and I must take good care of yourselves."
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