Chapter 191 Sauerkraut Stew with Pork Bones
The wick of the oil lamp crackled and popped, and the flame gradually dimmed.
Xiao Qi stood up, used a wire to adjust the wick, and then took out a candle from the small table.
Lin Yuesha felt a bit hot, so she took off her cloak and warmed her hands with a teacup.
Don't you think it's a bit late for a woman to get married at eighteen?
With Lin Yuesha's help, Xiao Qi confirmed that his subordinate had completed the mission, so it seemed that the person wouldn't dare to conceal the truth.
As the master, he had no idea what was actually said. Since his subordinates wouldn't tell the truth, he could only rely on his own little sister's story.
So he started digging a pit again, trying to trick Lin Yuesha.
"It might be a bit late for a woman from the North, but with my looks, am I worried about not finding a good husband?"
Lin Yuesha touched her face, tilted her head back, and said smugly, "The old man is right. I have the destiny of a noble person, so naturally I can turn bad luck into good. Moreover, in the future, two men are destined to fight for me..."
Lin Yuesha firmly believed this.
Xiao Qi: "..."
What nonsense is this? Where did these two come from? What did Bai Ying say?
"How did the old man know there were two?"
Anger rose in Xiao Qi's heart. Lately, he had been calm and collected, which made his subordinates think that he was soft-hearted and had lost his sense of self, even daring to deceive them about these things.
"When I performed a character divination, the character I wrote was '麻' (má, meaning hemp)."
After Lin Yuesha finished speaking, she didn't dare to look up at the pockmarked face. She was clearly thinking about the man in front of her and hoped he wouldn't misunderstand.
In the middle of nowhere, if he were to throw her out and chop her up, her family wouldn't be able to find her.
“The two trees below the Guang River represent men.”
Lin Yuesha repeated the old man's words and smiled, "It's better not to get married before I'm eighteen. My parents also want me to stay a little longer."
Lin Yuesha quickly accepted the old man's words, thinking it was better than Jiang Baozhu having to give birth to five sons.
Having five children at once is terrifying to even think about.
Xiao Qi: "..."
Very well, his subordinates are excellent. Even the master didn't know his subordinates were so outstanding. In that case, let that guy continue to play the charlatan.
Somewhere, Bai Ying sneezed several times in a row, feeling that something was wrong. It wasn't that he was superstitious, but rather that it was a dangerous sign.
“My family situation is different. My stepbrother isn’t in a hurry to get married, so why should I be in a hurry to get married?”
Lin Yuesha talked to the pockmarked woman about her family. She was thirteen years old and had five years left to get married.
Five years is not a long time at all; it passes in the blink of an eye.
Before getting married, she had a grand plan to make money, at least to ensure her family's safety and wealth, so they wouldn't have to worry about a meal of meat.
Her mother, in particular, suffered a great deal.
"Brother Yun, do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Lin Yuesha had said a lot, but seeing that the pockmarked face didn't respond, she took the initiative to ask.
"No, I am an only child."
Xiao Qi fell into deep thought; the little girl seemed to have some objections to his not getting married.
"Yes, my older brother is a kind-hearted man. If we don't keep an eye on him, he'll empty the house. My mother is soft-hearted and can't manage the household, so we need to find a more capable sister-in-law."
My father once said that the eldest brother is like a father, and similarly, the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother. It would be better if the family had a capable sister-in-law to support the household.
Xiao Qi, who inexplicably became half a father: "..."
It turns out that her younger sister had always thought this way and disliked him for coming.
“Sigh, Brother Yun, you know that although my brother has a good nature, he always attracts bad romantic relationships. Xuan Yao was like that before. She was at least a bright and promising one, but now she’s turned into mud. I never thought he would have bad romantic relationships hidden in the shadows.”
Lin Yuesha thought of going to the old couple's house with her stepbrother to borrow bowls and chopsticks, when their little granddaughter suddenly appeared.
Thanks to my parents coming to explain, otherwise there would have been a lot of arguments and disputes.
Xiao Qi: "..."
Is this his fault? How could he have known he'd encounter such an oddball!
"Perhaps it's because your older brother is handsome and has a good personality that he inexplicably provoked the young girl."
Xiao Qi tried to save face, knowing that he was handsome.
"Personal opinions differ regarding appearance; it depends on who you're comparing yourself to."
Lin Yuesha, being straightforward, laughed and said, "He is better looking than Brother Yun."
Xiao Qi: "..."
Is it meaningful to compare yourself to your own alternate accounts?
The two were chatting idly when Lin Yuesha's stomach suddenly growled twice.
Zhang Qing'er and I ate quite a lot while strolling around the lantern festival, but the cold weather caused us to digest it all.
Are you hungry?
Xiao Qi spoke softly as he found several packets of cold, hard cakes in a small table.
"Brother Yun, do you have any rice or noodles? I'd like something hot to eat."
Rubbing her empty stomach, Lin Yuesha smiled awkwardly. She had a problem: she would become irritable if she wasn't full, which would cause her to panic and overthink.
"I'll go take a look."
Xiao Qi searched around and found some frozen large bones, as well as sauerkraut pickled in jars.
As for fine white flour, there's none left on the mountain; only some cornmeal remains.
"Okay, that's good enough!"
Lin Yuesha limped into the kitchen, blanched the frozen bones in hot water to remove the blood and foam.
Stewed sauerkraut is an essential dish for people in northern China before the Lunar New Year, made from pork. Right now, we have enough pork bones and sauerkraut to make a hot stew.
No problem if you don't have fine wheat flour. When the stew is almost done, stick cornbread around the sides of the big iron pot. The golden-brown potstickers smell amazing.
"Brother Yun, I'm a good cook, leave this to me!"
Lin Yuesha worked quickly and efficiently. She took out star anise and Sichuan peppercorns from her small bag and found ginger slices in the kitchen to stew the meat.
The key to stewing meat in an iron pot is to make it tender and flavorful.
After about an hour, when the meat was almost falling off the bone, she added the pickled cabbage.
Actually, adding a piece of frozen tofu makes it taste even better. Frozen tofu has many small holes that can absorb the meat broth, and it has a chewy texture.
Lin Yuesha had even more to say about food, and with her pockmarked face, she began to introduce it, eventually managing to make everyone hungry.
A pot of hot cornbread, plus a large bowl of pickled cabbage and pork bones, the two of them ate heartily.
Xiao Qi ate the last pancake before realizing how much he had eaten. He had never been a big fan of food, as long as he could fill his stomach, but now he was becoming increasingly picky about food.
When he's away from home, all he thinks about is going home as soon as possible to eat his younger sister's cooking. If it's his mother, Chen, who cooks at home, he's a little disappointed.
After eating and drinking her fill, Lin Yuesha was covered in sweat.
"It feels so good."
Lin Yuesha thanked the pockmarked man, "Brother Yun, thank you so much for saving me from this predicament. If it weren't for you, I might still be starving somewhere."
The key point is that we had to avoid the harassment of the barbarians, unlike now when we can eat and drink our fill and even warm ourselves by the fire.
"You're lucky, I just happened to be passing by."
Xiao Qi didn't seek credit for saving the girl; the little girl understood that, and there was no point in saying more.
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