Chapter 139 Qinqiang
The moment her body touched the kang, a warmth spread through her legs and throughout her body, and Fan's second wife shivered uncontrollably.
She reached out her hand curiously and touched the small quilt on the kang, and said with emotion: "This kang is really a good thing, but it requires charcoal." Although their family lived a good life, they had to support several children to go to school, so they had to save money.
Cui Qingyi and Konjac had just gone to the kitchen to fetch some dried fruit for the guests. As they came in from the kitchen, they heard Fan Er's wife say, "You don't have to use only charcoal. Firewood, cow dung, sheep dung, and tree leaves can all be used to heat the kang. Just use whatever you have at home."
It's just a kang, so who says what must be used?
When Fan Er's wife heard that there were other options besides charcoal, her eyes immediately brightened up, "What about cow dung, sheep dung, and tree leaves?" There was no shortage of these things at home.
Cui Qingyi smiled and nodded, "Sure, if I could find these in the city, I would also like to save some money."
Fan's second wife knew that Cui Qingyi was being polite. After all, even if she was ignorant, she knew that the Cui family lived a good life. Just look at the three dogs roaming in the yard, each with shiny fur. If life was tight, who would be willing to feed their dogs so fat?
But she wouldn't say this in front of the host family. "That's great! I'll go back and talk to my second son about building a kang for our family so we can enjoy the winter too."
Fan Hui also agreed with a smile, "That's how it should be. You can't just focus on the children." Otherwise, the children will grow up and your own body will be ruined. What's the point?
When the Cui family hibernates during the winter, they have no shortage of dried fruits and snacks. The main reason is that they have too much free time. When they lie on the kang and read storybooks, they feel like something is missing if they don't chew something.
Konjac bought a variety of preserved fruits at the dried fruit shop in the city. Among them, Cui Qingyi's favorite was apricot preserved fruits. The sour and sweet taste was perfect for killing time.
It would be great to serve it to guests right now. Konjac has prepared food, and Cui Qingyi has also prepared hot tea.
The four of them sat around the kang table, eating dried fruits and drinking hot tea, chatting about all sorts of things. When they were waiting for Fan Er's wife's brother to come and pick them up, Fan Er's wife was still a little reluctant to leave.
As she was waiting to walk out of the room, she was blown by the cold wind carrying snowflakes. Fan's second wife couldn't help but sigh in her heart that the Cui family's life was really comfortable.
She and the second brother also have to work hard to live a life similar to the Cui family as soon as possible.
The long-awaited butter has arrived. Although it is cold, this thing cannot be stored for long.
But to make delicious beef hotpot base, Cui Qingyi had to first make doubanjiang (fermented broad bean paste). Luckily, Dongping County has a long tradition of using soybeans to make sauces, so the couple bought ready-made fermented broad bean paste, which significantly accelerated the doubanjiang production process.
The reason why sauce is called sauce is that it takes time to ferment. Doubanjiang has the best flavor after fermenting for half a year.
But Cui Qingyi couldn't wait any longer, and a few days later she couldn't help but stir-fry a pot of hot pot base, which directly used up half of the chili reserves at home.
This time, Cui Qingyi didn't feel sad at all. This was the moment she had been looking forward to most when growing peppers.
Konjac, with paper stuffed in his nose, asked Cui Qingyi in a skeptical tone while putting the hot pot base into the pot, "Miss, are you sure you can still eat this pot with so many chilies in it?"
She felt like her tongue was going to fall off when she ate dishes with even a little bit of chili. Wouldn't it kill her to take a bite of this red thing?
Although Cui Qingyi's eyes and nose were red from the overbearing spicy smell of the fried chili peppers, she felt so happy when she saw the red color in the jar.
"Girl, I promise you'll want more of this after you eat it. Don't cry when you run out of it."
Konjac shook her head and said that although she also liked eating chili peppers, they still had to cherish their lives since they lived such a good life now.
That night, under the cool winter moonlight and the unmelted snow in the yard, Cui Qingyi finally tasted the flavor she had not experienced for almost twenty years.
After taking a bite of the mutton slice covered with sauce, Cui Qingyi almost cried.
Who would understand? She had been craving this taste for twenty years. Eating hot pot was like returning home.
Konjac held up his chopsticks, watching the red oil and chili peppers bubbling in the casserole, but was hesitant to pick up his chopsticks. Cui Qingyi didn't urge him, and just kept dipping the meat in broth one piece at a time.
After eating a few slices of meat and taking a sip of warm wine, Cui Qingyi felt that her entire life had been sublimated at this moment.
Konjac finally couldn't resist the temptation and followed Cui Qingyi's example to taste the meat slices covered with sauce. After chewing it carefully, he silently quickened the speed of waving his chopsticks.
The result of indulgence was that Cui Qingyi and Konjac both developed several mouth ulcers the next morning, and it hurt whenever they opened their mouths.
Konjac was originally thinking about what the girl said about using the hot pot base to cook rice noodles today, but now he can only drink porridge.
Cui Qingyi, whose appetite was restricted by mouth ulcers, finally turned her attention to business and started drawing again.
However, this time, what Cui Qing presented was not an embroidery pattern, nor the appearance of a teahouse, but a piece of clothing with exaggerated bright colors.
Konjac sat aside, looking at the pattern on the paper. Although she was curious, she did not ask any questions. The two grew up together, and she knew that her daughter hated being interrupted when she was doing things.
Cui Qingyi was thinking about the Qinqiang opera she had watched before. In her previous life, the major she studied in college was related to folklore. In order to complete her college studies, Cui Qingyi had studied in depth the art forms originating in the northwest region - Qinqiang and shadow puppetry.
She is particularly interested in the costumes used in Qinqiang performances. These costumes are divided into three categories: the main costume, the headgear (headgear), and the footgear (footgear). The main costume, headgear, and footgear each have their own categories and series, both in terms of style and name.
Finally, the costumes must be matched according to the roles in the drama, such as Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou. In short, everything inside is complicated and exquisite.
Once Cui Qingyi calms down to do something, she will concentrate on it. Just to prepare the descriptions and drawings of the Qinqiang costumes, Cui Qingyi spent more than ten days. By the time she finished binding the thick stack of materials, it was already the twelfth lunar month.
The female shopkeeper of Jinxiufang never imagined that the first big client she received after opening her embroidery shop would be Cui Qingyi.
It’s not that the orders she had received in her embroidery shop before were all small, but Cui Qingyi’s order was really too big. The female shopkeeper flipped through the booklet Cui Qingyi handed over, and her hands were shaking after she read it carefully.
She looked up at Cui Qingyi and asked, "Are you sure you want me to take on such a big order?"
The batch of clothes that Cui Qingyi wanted would not be cheap even if the lowest quality materials were used. Moreover, when she read the booklet Cui Qingyi gave her, it was specifically marked that some clothes must be made of silk, which was a huge expense.
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