Chapter 128 Chapter 128——
At this time, everyone in the house is busy.
The potatoes for the pigs have been cooked. Lin Duoer is crushing them with a bamboo pole and mixing them with chopped pig grass, preparing to let them cool down and feed them later.
Lin Chunhe and Meng Yun were steaming soybeans, and Aunt Guizhi was grinding the beans that had been dried yesterday.
In the backyard, a row of jars of soy sauce and beans are neatly arranged to dry.
Seeing Lin Chuntao coming back, everyone greeted her warmly. Lin Chuntao went to take a look, and Lin Chunhe said, "Sister, it's almost done steaming."
Lin Chuntao nodded. Mrs. Hu beside her smiled and said, "Chuntao, you burn this charcoal quite well. There's not much smoke, and the ash isn't too big. It saves a lot of trouble."
Lin Chuntao was quite pleased to be praised. She smiled and said, "Isn't it, Auntie? I think it's better to roast potatoes over a fire when it's cold." She paused and said with a smile, "My consumption is a bit large. When I fire up two more kilns, I'll make some for everyone."
Sun said, "You've been so busy, so take a break now. I'll ask your uncle and his men to dig a cave. When the time comes, you can help watch over it and let them burn it themselves."
Lin Chuntao said, "It's all right. If Second Uncle and the others want to dig and find a good spot, they can tell me and I'll draw the lines for them."
Mrs. Hu smiled and thanked her. Lin Chuntao said, "Given our relationship, please don't be so polite, aunt."
As she was talking, Lin Chuntao saw that there was nothing she could help with, so she took a small hoe and went to the charcoal cave.
She felt the temperature outside the cave and found it was still very hot. She felt that she had to wait until at least tomorrow to open the cave again.
Last time, I waited four days after sealing the smoke outlet before opening it. By then, the charcoal was already in good condition, so I wanted to see if I could open it in about three days. If I could, it would be more efficient.
They still use a lot of charcoal now, both for steaming beans and cooking soup noodles.
After looking around and finding that it was impossible to drive, Lin Chuntao looked at the small hoe and returned to the yard.
Seeing her coming back, Lin Chunhe asked, "Sister, can we open the car yet?"
"Well, let's wait and see tomorrow. If it can be opened, we'll open it a day earlier."
As she spoke, she put the hoe away and looked at the recipe she had exchanged yesterday. She needed to make a jar of fermented black beans first and keep it aside.
The steps for making fermented black beans are similar to those for the previous sauce. They all need to be soaked, steamed and fermented. After fermentation, mix in minced ginger, salt and white wine, and put back into the jar for a second fermentation. This second fermentation takes longer than the first, about fifteen or sixteen days. After the second fermentation is completed, pour out the fermented black beans and dry them in the sun or bake them until they are more than half dry.
We have to wait until the fermented black beans are made before we can proceed to the next step, which takes quite a long time.
Lin Chuntao weighed fifty kilograms of beans, washed them separately, and soaked them in a basin.
She said to Lin Chunhe, "I'm going to use this pot to make another sauce. Don't mix it with this."
Lin Chunhe stared at her with wide eyes, a little surprised, "Sister, what are you going to do?"
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "You'll know when you make it."
Lin Chunhe nodded and agreed to what she had just said.
Grandma and Aunt Guizhi were also a little shocked. After all, they all felt that Lin Chuntao had accidentally created a new flavor for this sauce, so it was a combination of skill and luck.
"Chuntao, do you have a new idea?" asked the grandmother. Lin Chuntao said, "I just have an idea. I have to try it out. I wonder if it will taste good."
Aunt Guizhi said, "There's definitely nothing wrong with your craftsmanship."
Mrs. Hu and Mrs. Deng also echoed the sentiment. Lin Chuntao said, "The sauce we're making now is delicious when dipped in potatoes, used in soups, dishes, or even roasted with meat. However, if you mix it with rice or steamed buns, the sauce is a bit too strong. It's delicious, but the flavor doesn't last long enough. I've been thinking about making something that can be mixed with rice or steamed buns."
Grandma asked, "Just mix it into the rice, without any other dishes?"
Lin Chuntao nodded. "That's about right. If someone goes out often or works outside, they can bring a jar of sauce and a few steamed buns. It will taste good and not just dry buns. I think some people will like it."
Aunt Guizhi and the others nodded. If there was such a sauce, those people who carried goods in the county town would definitely like it. It would save money, fill them up, and most importantly, it would taste good.
Hearing her words, Mrs. Hu smiled and said, "Just hearing Chuntao's words makes me a little greedy. I want to know what it tastes like."
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "I'll try it first. If it works, we'll eat it first."
Lin Chuntao had made this sauce before and served some to them. She still remembered the feeling of eating this sauce for the first time. She was actually a little excited to try the new flavor again so soon.
After soaking the beans, Lin Chuntao went back to the front yard to make a fire and cook. Just as the rice was steamed, Lin Chunxing and Pei Ying came back.
At this time, my uncle came back with his cousins, carrying a load of firewood.
As soon as they entered the house, everyone sniffed at the same time. Xu Sheng looked up at his father, and seeing that his father was also sniffing, he asked, "Dad, do you smell the mutton?"
Seeing Xu Sheng like this, the uncle's expression returned to normal and he said calmly, "I didn't smell it."
Xu Sheng: "No?" He looked at his sister beside him, "Huanhuan, do you smell it?"
Xu Huan: "I smell it, it's a bit fragrant."
Xu Sheng laughed and said, "Dad clearly smelled it, why didn't he say anything?"
The uncle sighed, "Are you all craving mutton? Didn't we just eat it on June 6th?"
Xu Sheng said, "On June 6th, each of us ate three slices and drank two bowls of soup."
There are many people in the family, so on June 6th, they symbolically bought two kilograms of meat. The meat was cut into two or three slices per person. There was a lot of soup, and each person drank a few bowls of mutton soup and felt happy.
You may have eaten it, but you haven’t had enough of it, so you definitely want to eat more.
My second uncle laughed and said, "I don't know whose family had such good fortune that they bought mutton to eat."
The third uncle looked at the children in front of him and said, "After the taxes are paid, if there is any food to sell, we can sell some and eat it."
First draw a small cake, which makes a group of children look happy.
My uncle looked at him and shook his head helplessly.
They came in through the back door and piled all the firewood neatly into the woodshed. The simple woodshed was almost full.
The uncle said, "I won't chop corn tomorrow. I'll bring it to your sister Chuntao the day after tomorrow to break the corn."
Xu Sheng and the others nodded and said with a smile, "Shall we go together?"
The second uncle laughed and said, "Why don't you want to go? You can break the corn at home, but you can't break the corn at your sister's?"
"Uncle, how could I not go? Aren't you afraid that my father will keep us at home to look after the house again?"
Xu Sheng was talking about the last time Lin Chuntao was digging clay to build a house. They wanted to go there at that time, but their uncle thought that the yellow clay was not easy to dig, and they, as half-grown kids, just wanted to play and would delay Lin Chuntao's business, so he just kept them at home.
Just now, when they were chopping wood, my uncle walked all the way over and was not far from the cornfield on the back mountain where Lin Chuntao and her friends were. He even went to take a look at Lin Chuntao and her friends' corn. The corn in the two pieces of sand on the back mountain was already ready to be picked.
The uncle listened to what Xu Sheng said and then said, "Last time when we were digging clay, even adults had a hard time digging. You guys couldn't dig for a while and you're delaying your sister's work. You can go and break the corn."
Xu Sheng smiled and said, "That's great."
As they talked, they prepared the firewood, put away the backpack and sickle, scooped water to wash their hands, and then walked towards the front yard.
But when we got to the front, we found that the smell of mutton was even stronger. Even my uncle frowned. With such a strong smell, which of the two families next door bought mutton to eat?
There was mutton today, so my eldest aunt specially steamed some rice. My second and third aunts were busy picking vegetables and peeling potatoes respectively.
"Dad, why do I feel like this smell belongs to our house?" Xu Sheng said this, and Xu Huan laughed and said, "Brother, you are really greedy. Mom and the others didn't go to the county town, so where did they get the mutton?"
The word "county town" instantly triggered Xu Sheng's brain. He ran into the house quickly and saw two earthenware jars on the table. There was mutton and mutton soup. The mutton filled most of the jars. He couldn't estimate how many pounds it was for a moment.
His eyes widened. "Mom, where did this mutton come from? Did Sister Chuntao buy it?"
When he shouted, a group of children rushed over and surrounded the table tightly.
"Wow! That's a lot of mutton!"
“It smells so good!”
“You can eat a lot of this.”
“…”
My aunt looked at the group of children and didn't say anything for a long time. My uncle looked at her and asked, "What is this mutton?"
Aunt-in-law: "Chun Tao just sent more than just mutton. She also bought a few pieces of cloth and a few pounds of cotton. She said she would make winter clothes for us."
Hearing this, my uncle's face froze slightly. "Forget about the meat, but how can I keep the cloth?"
The aunt-in-law said, "I told her to take it to Chunhe and the others to make clothes. She said theirs were already made. You know Chuntao's temper."
Seeing the children happy, my aunt and the others also had smiles on their faces. My uncle was actually happy too. Chuntao and the others made money and lived a good life.
I just occasionally think about how I, as an uncle, have no real ability, how the Lin family was vicious after my sister died, and how they didn't even know how much suffering Lin Chuntao and the others had suffered, and I feel guilty.
Seeing the look on her uncle's face, the aunt smiled and said, "By the way, Chuntao told us something this morning. Xiao Pei's parents have also come to Yizhou. That's great. Now that Chuntao and the others are doing well, that's something to be happy about. Don't think too much about it."
The three uncles were stunned when they heard this. They thought to themselves, didn't Pei Ying say he had no parents? Why...
There was a group of children there, and they didn't ask any further questions.
My aunt smiled and said, "Please clean up and light the stove, put the pot on the stove, and eat while it cooks."
As soon as she finished speaking, her second uncle smiled and said, "I'll go light the stove."
As he said that, he left. The uncle then said to the aunt and the others, "I went to the cornfield on the mountain behind Chuntao's house while chopping wood just now. The corn is ready to be picked. I will chop wood for another day tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow we will go help them pick the corn."
My aunt nodded. "Can we break it off? I just asked Chuntao, and she said there are still a lot of green ones."
My uncle said, "The sandy area has almost turned yellow. The green area is probably at the entrance of their village. She must have been busy in the past few days and didn't go to the back mountain to check it out."
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