Xinyan did not come back on the day of Shengnan's wedding. Her master took a big order in the provincial capital, which made him very busy during this period. After Xinyan completed this big order, she could be transferred to a formal employee.
Mingzheng came back with two burlap bags of bicycle parts for Han Chen to assemble. Han Chen took a look and found that a few parts were missing, so he asked Mingzheng to remember to bring them back when he comes back next time on vacation.
The day after Shengnan's wedding, Liujia Village entered into the busy spring plowing. After plowing the land, the villagers planted what needed to be planted. Now they have just cleared the canals and plowed the paddy fields. When they were preparing to plant rice, it started to rain. It was not so bad in the past few days, with only light rain and it stopped for a while, but today the rain was getting heavier and heavier, the sky was gloomy and black, and it seemed that the heavy rain would not stop for the time being.
It wasn't raining when Xuemei went to work that morning, and since it had been drizzling for the past few days, she didn't even wear a cloak. Unexpectedly, when she was almost done with get off work, the rain came down heavily. She was afraid that if anyone dared to leave the room, she would definitely compete with them.
Xuemei waited for a while, but the rain showed no sign of abating. Xuemei knew that her family members were busy planting rice these days and definitely had no time to bring her a raincoat. In the end, she could only take a clean fertilizer bag from the supply and marketing cooperative, put it on her head, and rode her bicycle home.
When Xuemei returned home, just as she had expected, Liu's parents and Han Chen were still in the fields. After parking her bicycle, Xuemei went back into the house to get a bucket of hot water from the thermos, planning to take a quick shower and change her clothes.
Now, except for her hair, all other parts of Xuemei's body were wet. After changing her clothes, Xuemei simply wiped her hair with a dry towel, put the changed clothes in a wooden barrel and went to the kitchen.
Xuemei first took a piece of old ginger and cut it into slices, then lit the fire and began to boil old ginger and brown sugar water for Liu's father and others to drink later.
After boiling the ginger soup, Xuemei quickly washed and chopped the pigweed, put it in a large iron pot to cook, and then went to the back of the house to feed the chickens.
Next, Xuemei started to wash the rice. During this period, except for Xuemei, everyone in the family was busy. Xuemei planned to make a casserole rice, which she had read from the incomplete cookbook that Han Chen bought in Beijing a few nights ago.
After Xuemei washed the rice, she soaked it in warm water. She then cut a couple of ounces of bacon, alternating between fat and lean, and washed it in the large iron pot. After washing it, she poured the ginger soup from the small iron pot into the thermos, adding brown sugar. She then washed the pots and pans, filled them with water, and placed the washed bacon in them to cook.
Then, Xuemei scooped the boiled pig feed from the big iron pot and put it into a wooden barrel filled with pig feed to dry. Then she rinsed the big iron pot and filled it with water for hot water bathing.
With all this sorted out, Xuemei began preparing the food. She had only soaked a pound of rice, which was definitely not enough for the four of them. She prepared to wash some peas, lettuce, and potatoes. After washing them, she peeled the lettuce and cut it into pieces, and diced the potatoes. She then removed the bacon from the small iron pot and cut it into eight pieces of similar size.
Xuemei prepared the food, looked at her watch and found it was six forty. She walked out of the kitchen and found that it was already dark outside. Father Liu and the others still had not returned. The good thing was that it was raining a lot now.
Xuemei sighed, then divided the cooled pig feed into two halves, sprinkled dried earthworms and powder made from eaten pig bones on one half of the pig feed, then carried this half of the pig feed to the pigpen behind the house and poured the pig feed into the pig trough.
This year, Liu's mother only caught one pig, and it was only brought back a month ago, so the pig's appetite was not big, and half a wooden basin was enough to feed it.
After Xuemei fed the pigs, she went back to the kitchen to prepare the steamed rice in a casserole. The Liu family had two casseroles, both of which were quite large, so Xuemei only needed to use one casserole this time.
After cleaning the casserole, Xuemei poured in pre-soaked rice. A pound of rice made up a bowlful. Then, she filled a bowl with the water from cooking the bacon and poured it into the casserole. Then, she added another bowl of water. She then added peas, potatoes, and lettuce slices, and topped them with the bacon.
After covering the casserole, keep the heat low and cook for another fifteen minutes after it boils.
Xuemei had just covered the casserole when she heard a noise coming from the yard. Coming out of the kitchen, she saw Liu's father and mother and Han Chen taking off their straw raincoats and cloaks.
"Dad, Mom, Han Chen, you're back. It's raining so hard and you're all soaked." Xuemei said with concern as she looked at the three people whose hair and bodies were all wet.
"It's okay, it's not cold today. The old people in the village said it will rain heavily tomorrow, so we gathered our strength this afternoon and planted all the remaining fields in the village!" Liu's mother explained.
"The bath water is already hot, why don't you take a bath now?" Xuemei said.
Father Liu and the other two nodded, and Xuemei returned to the kitchen to continue watching the fire.
When Xuemei saw that the time was almost up, she opened the lid of the casserole, poured some soy sauce into it, added three spoons of chopped chili peppers, then covered the pot, sprinkled with chopped green onions that had been chopped in advance, and prepared to simmer for another minute.
After the clay pot rice was finished, Xuemei covered it with a towel and brought it to the table in the main hall. When Han Chen and the other two came over, she picked up the thermos and poured ginger soup and brown sugar water into the four bowls on the table. Then she said, "Let's drink a bowl of ginger soup and brown sugar water first!"
Father Liu was already hungry. Looking at the clay pot on the table, he asked curiously, "Xuemei, what are we having for dinner tonight? Porridge? It doesn't sound good, does it?"
"Dad, this is my first time making casserole rice. Do you think it tastes good?" Xuemei boasted.
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