Chapter 10 Mixed Mushroom Soup
These past few days, Zhao Xuan and Lu An have been separated more often than together.
They see each other every day, and even eat three meals together, but they are both extremely busy. After eating quickly, they go out to work separately.
Setting up electrical lines is physically demanding work, and Lu An handled all the materials and installation himself. He was very meticulous in these matters, hoping that both the wires and the generator would last for many years, so the preliminary work had to be done thoroughly. After all the lines were in place, he pushed a few planks to the rice mill shed, preparing to reinforce this dilapidated building.
As for Zhao Xuan, she was like a squirrel frantically storing food for winter. Apart from occasionally going to the fields to check on the crops, she spent all her time in the mountains and fields collecting various bamboo shoots and mushrooms.
Besides the plump bamboo shoots, there are also slender bamboo shoots growing on both sides of the road. These shoots grow from the roots of other slender bamboo stalks. Zhao Xuan doesn't know their names, but he often eats them. The small bamboo stalks grow in clumps, but because they are too small to form a forest, the shoots they produce are only as thick as a thumb. Peeling the outer skin of these shoots is troublesome. With bamboo shoots, you only need to split them with a knife, make a slit, and then twist the end of the knife left and right to tear open the thick outer skin. But with these small bamboo shoots, you have to peel them with your fingernails. Zhao Xuan picked and peeled them at the same time, and soon his fingernails ached, and his fingernails were full of black bamboo shoot skin fragments.
She lost patience with these small bamboo shoots, stopping to pick a few whenever she felt like it. After picking for three or four days, she only managed to fill a bag, just enough to peel off the skin, boil them thoroughly, and make pickled bamboo shoots.
Although pickled bamboo shoots are troublesome to prepare, they are especially delicious once cooked.
The bamboo shoots were just a byproduct; her main goal was to collect more mushrooms. Mushrooms aren't suitable for long-term storage, so she planned to pick more and dry them together. With no sun for days, there was no chance to dry them, and besides, she had a lot of bamboo shoots stored at home that also needed drying, so she decided to do it all at once.
Various mushrooms have been growing vigorously due to the damp weather in recent days, and they are everywhere in sight. Zhao Xuan is already quite skilled at picking mushrooms, and when he returned home in the evening, his basket was full again.
She left the mushrooms she had picked over the past few days to dry in the living room. Since Lu An hadn't returned home yet, she picked a few mushrooms to use for cooking.
A few pine mushrooms, a few red mushrooms, a few shiitake mushrooms, and a handful of scallions.
First, she poured half a pot of water into the earthenware pot. While waiting for the water to boil, she sat down to process the mushrooms, removing the grass residue from them, washing them with clean water, and then tearing them into small pieces by hand.
Place two slices of ginger in the earthenware pot to neutralize the cooling properties of the mushrooms. Once the water starts bubbling, put all the mushrooms in. The mushrooms cook very quickly, softening in the water in the blink of an eye. The overflowing broth will thicken the soup, and the unique red juice of the red mushrooms will also turn the soup red.
Sprinkle a pinch of salt, toss in some chopped green onions, and a pot of delicious mixed mushroom soup is ready.
Mix the remaining scallions into two eggs, scramble the eggs with chopsticks, and quickly stir-fry with oil for a few seconds. That's a simple plate of scallion scrambled eggs.
Two dishes were already a luxury for them.
Zhao Xuan remembered that in the camp, they mostly ate a kind of mixed grain porridge. All kinds of beans and coarse grains were thrown into a pot, cooked, and a handful of salt was added. That was their daily ration. But even so, the cooked food was still watery with more grains than grains. Eating this kind of food for several months would cause swollen and painful gums and constant peeling of skin.
So whether it's pheasant, eggs, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, or sweet potato leaves that can be picked anywhere in spring, they are all delicious to Zhao Xuan.
As the dishes were being served, Lu Anzheng pushed open the door and came back. Zhao Xuan saw that he was carrying a square object in his arms.
Lu An brought back a perpetual calendar. It had a dim electronic screen and was decorated with some mercenary patterns such as cranes bringing good fortune. To be honest, it didn't look very good.
This thing is still quite common. Although young people think it's ugly to hang such a big thing on the wall, many elderly people like it. It can be used by simply plugging it in. The text is large and includes both the lunar and solar calendars, as well as information on the solar terms and auspicious and inauspicious days. More advanced models can even announce the time electronically.
Lu An found a piece of white wall, nailed it in, hung the board on it, and then plugged in the power. As expected, the electronic screen remained completely unresponsive.
He snapped out of his daze, ran outside, and turned on the air switch in the house.
With a "click," the perpetual calendar lit up, followed by another click as the lights in the hall came on.
The phone rang.
Zhao Xuan was a little stunned. She had gotten used to days without electricity, and this sudden sense of happiness made her feel somewhat dazed.
The moment she saw the lights, it felt as if she had returned to civilized society.
After a week of continuous work, the project was finally completed perfectly on this day.
Lu An originally wanted to give Zhao Xuan a surprise, but the search for a intact perpetual calendar in the village took a while, so he let Zhao Xuan go home first.
While they were searching the village, he had already prepared for the need for electricity. He compared the appliances in each household and brought back three refrigerators and two washing machines, placing them in the storage room. He didn't just pick one of each type, based on the principle of having backups. He planned to bring all the appliances down tomorrow, put them in the living room, and connect the electricity; then they should be ready to use.
The three refrigerators consist of two upright and one cabinet type, all energy-efficient models. The washing machine is an old-fashioned turbine model, requiring manual water filling—although it's electrified, the water still comes from a well at the foot of the village, not tap water, making laundry a bit more inconvenient. These appliances were salvaged from various houses in the village; some have been used for many years, and it's uncertain how much longer they can be reused. If he has some free time, he should probably make another trip to Taiping Town; the markets there should still have some brand-new, abandoned appliances.
Seeing Zhao Xuan looking somewhat dazed, Lu An smoothed down her messy hair and kissed her forehead.
Zhao Xuan then came to his senses, his bright eyes blinking. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he exclaimed in a low voice, "Turn off the lights! Turn off the lights! Our place is the only one lit up in the whole village, like a target!"
Lu An thought it made sense, so he turned off the light as instructed.
The two prepared to eat by the dim light from the window. The soup was still steaming hot. Zhao Xuan served Lu An a bowl: "This is the last bowl of mushroom soup this spring. Tomorrow I'll take the bamboo shoots and mushrooms to dry."
Lu An nodded: "I'll go with you tomorrow, we can make some charcoal." He scooped a spoonful of mushrooms into his mouth, and after a moment exclaimed: "So sweet."
He often referred to the "very fresh" flavor as sweet.
Different types of mushrooms have different textures after being cooked, and each has its own unique aroma. A pot of thick soup contains several wonderful flavors. Compared with summer and autumn, the foods produced in spring seem to have the characteristics of freshness and lightness.
It seems that the plants Zhao Xuan has been eating for the past two months have all been like this.
Summer is sweet, autumn is fragrant, winter is salty, and spring is mild.
Suddenly, as if she had just thought of something, she said, "I heard that cultivated ones are called mushrooms, and wild ones are called fungi. This soup should be fungi soup, and the ones we're going to dry tomorrow should be called dried fungi."
Lu An found Zhao Xuan's remarks quite cute and smiled: "Now that there's no one else around, you can call them whatever you want. You can even call those mushrooms bamboo shoots."
Zhao Xuan rolled her eyes, just in time to notice the rather unattractive perpetual calendar on the opposite wall. The dim electronic screen was currently displaying several lines of striking text, showing detailed numbers such as the date and time. She scanned through the lines of auspicious and inauspicious events: "Peaceful journey, so today is Grain Rain..."
The recent abundant rainfall is due to the arrival of the Grain Rain solar term. She remembered that at this time, her grandmother had already begun planting vegetable seedlings, as the weather would no longer be cold, making it the perfect time to plant those tender seedlings.
Springtime farm work is relentless, one task after another, leaving no time for rest. There's a mix of frustration and anticipation.
It seems that not long after Grain Rain comes the Beginning of Summer, right?
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