Chapter 223 Little Rice Man
Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, but didn't think much about it. She thought she was going to visit relatives somewhere, so she gave her detailed directions.
The old woman thanked Xia Juanjuan and started chatting again: "My lady, are you from Zishan Town? If so, why don't we go together? We'll have someone to accompany us on the road..."
Xia Juanjuan had no intention of going with her. After all, she was too lazy to walk, so she planned to walk for a while, find a quiet place, and teleport back directly into the space.
If she hadn't gone to send a telegram and the telegraph station hadn't wanted to introduce a letter or something, she would have gone directly from the space to the county town.
If she were to go with this old lady, wouldn't it take her several hours to walk back?
"I'm sorry, old lady, I'm not from that place."
After hearing this, the old woman was somewhat disappointed, but she still left.
Xia Juanjuan was afraid of meeting him again on the road, so she didn't set out to go back immediately.
As she happened to be in the county town, she stopped by Tonghua Lane, cleaned the house and yard, and watered the flowers, trees and plants in the yard.
It is the season when roses bloom, and the bowl-sized flowers are stunningly beautiful.
The osmanthus trees planted in spring are growing vigorously, and by September, they will be fragrant. At that time, you can pick some to make wine, rice balls, osmanthus cakes, tea, or osmanthus wine.
Thinking of this, Xia Juanjuan looked at the roses in the garden and suddenly something happened to her.
She picked out the best flowers that were about to bloom, cut them with a pair of scissors, and put them in the space first.
In addition, peaches are in season in the yard now.
The old peach tree in the courtyard of Luo's house is lush with branches and leaves, and is dotted with large pale pink peaches.
Xia Juanjuan looked up for a long time and suddenly felt like playing. She rolled up her sleeves, moved a chair out of the house, put her feet on it, and then climbed up the tree by climbing the trunk.
She carefully picked more than twenty big, red peaches and put them all in the space before she climbed down from the tree.
When I get back, I'll say I bought them from the county and pack them for the kids at home.
Suddenly I thought of Grandma Luo in Beijing. I wonder if she would remember the fruit on the peach tree in her yard.
In two days, she would go to Beijing via space and visit her, and she could give her some peaches from her hometown.
Having made up her mind, Xia Juanjuan locked the door, entered the space directly, and then returned to the vicinity of Qingshui Village.
The time spent at Luo's house just offset the time spent walking, so I returned just in time.
Lin Yuru watched her push the cart into the house and said with a smile, "Are you back? The meal will be ready soon. Have you sent the telegram to Li Zhan?"
Xia Juanjuan nodded and said with a smile: "It has been sent out."
Then, he gave the peaches that had been taken out of the space to Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei and asked them to wash and eat them.
She washed five or six more and placed them on the table in the main room so that they could be eaten as soon as Lin Yuru finished her work.
In addition, a few more should be sent to Xia Shuangshan.
She had left Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi's portions in the space and would deliver them to them in the evening.
Remembering that Zhou Qiuhe was pregnant, he asked Xiaowen to send three or four to her home for her and the kids to eat.
Xiaowen came back after a while, holding a bowl with some fermented black beans in it, which was a return gift from Zhou Qiuhe.
When Xia Juanjuan saw this, she didn't say much and let Xiaowen go back into the house.
It takes more time to make fermented black beans. You need to steam the soybeans, then dry them slightly, put them in a prepared container, put some Artemisia annua on them, then put the steamed soybeans on top, and cover them tightly with Artemisia annua. Do not turn them over during the cooking process until the beans are fermented. This process alone takes more than ten days. When the beans are fermented and can even be pulled into threads, they are ready.
Mix the fermented beans with salt, chili, oil and other seasonings, seal them in a jar, and scoop some out when you want to eat. This is a homemade, affordable dish that can be eaten with rice in the countryside.
However, Xia Juanjuan has never done it.
She planned to wait until the soybeans were harvested in the fall and then make some. Fermented black beans can be stored, and maybe she could send some to Li Zhan by then.
When the three little ones saw Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei eating peaches, they crawled over anxiously, grabbed their older brother and sister's feet with their little hands, raised their heads and shouted "Oh!" and "Ah!"
However, Xiaowen and the others had heard from Xia Juanjuan that their younger brothers were still too young to eat hard or large foods, otherwise they would get stuck and be dangerous, so they did not dare to feed them.
Xia Juanjuan walked over, picked up the three little gluttonous kittens one by one, put them back in the crib, and said with a smile: "You three little ungrateful ones, you can't even call mom, but you are very enthusiastic when you see food!"
However, she still took the trouble to prepare food for the three little freeloaders.
As she was afraid that the peaches would get stuck in her throat if she bit them directly, Xia Juanjuan picked two softer ones, got a bowl, cut the peach flesh into small pieces with a knife, and then crushed the flesh with a mortar and hammer. The delicious peach juice was also squeezed out, and soon she made a small bowl of pure natural peach juice.
After making sure there were no large chunks of pulp, Xia Juanjuan used a small spoon to feed them juice, one spoonful each, taking turns.
However, peaches are cool in nature and children should not be given too much, so each child was given three spoonfuls of peaches and then no more.
The three little cubs howled twice because they couldn't get food, but when Xia Juanjuan fed them, they were easily satisfied and stopped crying.
Anyway, whether it’s milk or juice, as long as there’s food, these three little gluttons are not picky at all!
Lin Yuru looked at the peaches in the house and said with a smile, "These peaches are really big, much better than the wild peaches picked from the mountains. Did you buy them in the county?"
Although Lin Yuru said that she no longer cared so much about spending money, she, who had always been frugal, still couldn't help but express some distress in her tone.
There are probably about 10 or 20 peaches. How much will it cost?
Xia Juanjuan also knew what Lin Yuru was thinking, so she smiled and said, "I didn't buy it. Do you remember the small courtyard I rented when I was pregnant last year? Wasn't there a peach tree in that courtyard?"
Lin Yuru's eyes widened in surprise: "Is it from that yard? No wonder it's so big and sweet! But... we won't rent someone else's house anymore, this peach..."
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "That's what's so strange. Wasn't the owner of that courtyard taken to Beijing to live in old age? When I went to visit my relatives last time, I said that I had borrowed their house, which almost saved my life and the lives of my four kids, so I bought some things and went to see the owner. The owner is a kind old lady. Seeing that I was polite and took good care of the house when I rented it, she gave me the key and asked me to help clean and check the house from time to time. If I live in the county town occasionally, I can stay there for free. The peaches in the yard are also for us to pick and eat. Didn't I pick some when I went there?"
When Lin Yuru heard that it didn't cost any money, she was happy but at the same time she couldn't help feeling bad.
"Hearing what you said, the owner of the courtyard is quite nice. When she comes back, we must find a chance to repay her."
Xia Juanjuan naturally agreed with a smile.
After dinner, Xia Juanjuan took out the honey and sugar from home, as well as the flowers she picked and a lot of roses from the space. She carefully washed the petals with clean water in the yard.
Seeing this, Lin Yuru didn't know what her daughter was going to do, so she asked with a smile: "The flowers are really beautiful. They were picked from the small yard, right? But why did you pick the flowers? And you washed them so cleanly with water..."
Xia Juanjuan blinked and smiled, "Well, you'll know in a few days."