Chen Afu went to Mingshui Town to buy food early in the morning accompanied by Dabao. Mingshui Town is six miles east of Xiangluo Village, passing Shangshui Village and the nobleman's farm.
Wang heard that the farm was called Tangyuan, and the owner's surname seemed to be Chu. He originally lived in the capital, and later moved to the prefectural capital. Half of the families in Shangshui Village rented his rice fields. Wang heard this from Changgen's wife. Wu Changgen and his son were carpenters, and the manager of Tangyuan would occasionally go to the Wu family to buy tables, chairs, buckets and basins.
The path to the town is more than 300 meters away from Tangyuan, with a bamboo forest and grassland in between. From afar, you can see the large garden with white walls, black tiles, flying eaves and pointed corners, hidden among green trees and bamboos.
The large courtyard stood there, looking particularly abrupt. The vermilion gate was tightly closed, as if closing off a door to wealth and prosperity, and also blocking out the labor and hardship outside.
The mansion was too far away from him, so Chen Afu glanced at it a few times and then stopped looking.
Mingshui Town is not big, with only two streets. Chen Ahfu went to the sundry shop first and said he wanted to buy some marinade ingredients. The shopkeeper pointed to five kinds of seasonings, including star anise and galangal, and said, "Add some pepper, sugar, and soy sauce to these ingredients and marinate them together. Oh, the marinade will be very fragrant."
As expected, there were very few ingredients for the marinade. Chen Afu remembered that many of them were just medicinal ingredients in ancient times.
She bought the marinade ingredients, some peppercorns, brown sugar, and a small jar of soy sauce. There were too few seasonings at home.
I also bought two small bags of maltose, one for Dabao and the other to take back for A-Lu.
She went to the only medicine store in the town and bought some cloves, sweet pine, fennel, and grass fruit for making stewed food. She also bought some astragalus, codonopsis, and schisandra, and stewed these Chinese medicines for Chen Ming to eat.
It was really expensive. She spent more than four taels of silver on all these things. However, it was her own money, so she had no pressure to spend it.
After buying the marinade ingredients, he also bought two pounds of pork belly, five pounds of lard, ten pieces of dried tofu, and five pounds of vermicelli. The money for these ingredients was given by Wang.
It was already late in the morning when they got home, and they started cooking. Chen Ah-fu declined Wang and Chen Ming's help, and Ah-lu helped her light the fire, while Chen Dabao helped her pass things around.
Chen Ahfu braised the dried tofu but not the meat. Braised meat is a good dish to go with wine, but for those who do manual labor, four pounds is not enough. A big pot of pork stewed with vermicelli can satisfy your appetite and relieve hunger.
As soon as the smell of braised food came out, the two little boys sniffed hard.
Chen Afu felt that the dried tofu was almost seasoned, so he took it out and cut two slices for them.
In addition, she also prepared a cold cucumber salad, stir-fried cabbage, winter melon oil residue soup, and two-grain flour steamed buns. There were not many varieties, but the quantity was sufficient and the taste was good.
The workers enjoyed the meal very much and said that the dried tofu was fragrant and could be eaten as meat.
In the evening, Chen Ming also praised, "Ahfu is such a capable kid. This is his first time making braised food, but the taste is better than others."
Chen Ahfu said proudly, "That's right, this is my unique skill."
I was thinking, someday I'll go to the restaurant and see if I can follow the old path of the time-traveling girl.
The six people spent half a month to repair the house. Although the thatched house was small and very primitive, the adobe wall was one person tall, which finally made Chen Afu feel safe. This was the only wall in this small courtyard that she was satisfied with. There were two doors in the house, one for the outside and one for the inside of the old house. Now the new courtyard and the old courtyard share the same adobe wall.
On the day of raising the roof beam of the house, a party was held. Not only did Chen Agui's wife Gao come to help, but even Chen Alan came to help.
Ever since Chen Ah-fu recovered from her illness and made a unique needlework basket, Chen Ah-lan no longer stood outside the fence gate when she came to ask Wang for embroidery advice. She would come into the house and chat with Chen Ah-fu.
Chen Alan showed her goodwill, and Chen Afu accepted it. Except for Mrs. Hu and Chen Aju, everyone else in the first house was good. Especially Chen Ye and his son, they worked very hard and really helped.
On this day, the family not only invited Chen Ye's family, but also invited several relatives of Chen's family, Gao Lizheng's family, and several families who were repairing the house. Except for Chen Ye's family, only one or two representatives from other families came, and four tables were set up.
The day before, Wang asked Chen Ming, "Should we invite Hu Laowu? We are all relatives... If we don't, your sister-in-law will definitely be unhappy." In the past, when the family occasionally entertained guests, they would invite Hu Laowu.
Chen Ming said, "If it was in the past, I would have invited him for my eldest brother's sake. But last time Ah Fu and Er Laizi had a fight, Hu Laowu openly helped Er Laizi to extort money from our family. He doesn't even acknowledge us as a relative, so why should we acknowledge him?"
Chen Ahfu also said, "Mom, it's useless for you to please my aunt. She won't remember the favor. It's better to stay away from the Hu family. No matter what happens to our family, we should not have anything to do with his family."
Unexpectedly, during the meal, Hu Laowu came with a flattering face, and next to him was a boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old. The boy looked very good, but his eyes looked slimy, which made people dislike him. He was Hu Laowu's only son, Hu Wei.
What a scoundrel, so shameless.
The reason why Hu Laowu is so arrogant in the village is not only because he is a scoundrel, but also because his fourth brother-in-law is a constable in the county.
As soon as Hu Laowu arrived, he started to speak nicely, "We are all relatives, but you didn't even tell me that you were building a house, otherwise I would have come to help."
Although these people hated him in their hearts, they didn't want to offend him and just kept dealing with him perfunctorily. Chen Ming had no choice but to chase him away.
Three tables of men and one table of women and children were placed under the trees in the two courtyards. It was quite cool. Chen Ahfu did not sit at the table, nor did she want to. One reason was that she was the head chef and was always busy. Another reason was that she was annoyed by Chen Ahju, who ate more than anyone else and pretended to look down on this place. Another reason was that she hated Hu Wei's eyes.
Today we braised pig intestines, pig liver and dried tofu, these three are the most popular.
Hu Laowu said as he ate, "This marinated offal tastes better than what I had in the county town. It has a special aroma. How is it made?"
Chen Afu stayed in the kitchen and didn't want to pay attention to him, but seeing that he kept asking about Chen's name, he had to go out and said, "I bought the marinade in town and cooked it according to the shopkeeper's instructions, and it tasted like this." Then he repeated what the shopkeeper said.
Hu Laowu smiled at Chen Ming again and said, "Ahfu is a blessed man. He is not only handsome, but also capable."
Chen Ming pretended not to hear.
After entertaining the guests, it’s time to prepare to go to the provincial capital. Wang will take A Lu with her and Chen Afu and his mother will move when they come back.
The doctor said that the reason why A-Lu's leg is lame is because the bone grows crooked. If it grows crooked in an adult, there is no way to fix it. Fortunately, A-Lu is still a child. If the bone is broken and made to grow straight again, he will not be lame. But ordinary doctors don't have this technology. I heard that the doctor of the Qianjin Medical Clinic in the capital city has this ability.
Therefore, Xiao A Lu not only had to suffer this time, but also had to live in the city for at least half a month. Living in the city, he could only live in Chen Shi's house.
Chen Afu's heart tightened when he thought about the little A-Lu having to endure such pain.
She had always wanted to meet with the Golden Swallow to see if she could get it to bring out some more green bird's nests to save A-Lu's suffering.
For so many days, Golden Swallow had not seen Chen Afu. It did not come back during the day, but came back four times in the middle of the night, each time to return to the space to put the stolen red gold jewelry back, and then left.
The jewelry in these cases was heavier and better looking than the previous ones, and the gemstones inlaid in them were also bigger and more valuable. The pile of gold jewelry inlaid with red and green was dazzling.
Even the small piece of green bird's nest given to Chen Ming was placed on the small package containing the broken gold.
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