Chen Kai slowly walked outside the courtyard and saw a large crowd gathered in front of his house, carrying soil and clothes, lined up in front of the Chen family's house. Almost everyone in the village had come.
The Chen family's front yard was already piled with frost, which meant they had a lot of salt, saltpeter, and brine.
Chen Kai spotted the group of kids who were gathered around and called out, "Chen Shi, Da Ya, come here for a second!"
Chen Shi ran over and asked, "Uncle, is something the matter?"
Chen Kai said with a smile, "Chen Shi, go and get some more jelly grass from Da Ya."
Chen Shi asked in confusion, "What is 'liangfen grass'?"
Chen Kai said, "Liangfen grass is the common grass that grows by the roadside in our village. You usually use it to boil water to drink."
At this moment, Er Ya also came over and said excitedly, "I also made a lot of jelly using grass jelly following my uncle's instructions. It's cool and delicious."
Chen Kai laughed and said, "Chen Shi, you and Da Ya can go to the kitchen and have a bowl of jelly first, and then go cut the jelly grass!"
Chen Shi said happily, "Okay! Uncle, after we finish eating, we'll go cut some grass jelly."
Chen Shi and Da Ya ran happily to the kitchen, and soon they finished eating. Then they came out with sickles and bamboo baskets.
Daya said excitedly, "Uncle, jelly is so delicious! I'm going to cut lots of jelly grass to make jelly to eat later."
Chen Shi nodded in agreement.
On the way, Chen Kai saw a grassy area and said, "Chen Shi, Da Ya, you two go cut some grass! I'll play on that grass over there, I won't run around."
Chen Shi looked at the patch of grass, which wasn't far from where they were going to cut grass for jelly later, and said, "Okay, Uncle, you can play there. Just call us if you need anything."
Chen Kai nodded happily. So Chen Shi carried Chen Kai to the grassy area to play, while he and Da Ya went to cut grass for making jelly.
Chen Kai lay on the grass, basking in the sun, a gentle breeze blowing, feeling quite content. After lying there for a while, he couldn't resist rolling over, looking at the ever-changing white clouds in the blue sky, marveling at how good the air quality was in ancient times!
After a while, the wind suddenly picked up, and the sun was covered by clouds. Chen Kai saw a dark cloud not far away and immediately ran and called out to Chen Nong and Daya.
Just as Chen Nong was about to speak, a torrential downpour began. Seeing that they still wanted to take the bamboo baskets, Chen Kai quickly said, "Let them put the baskets down first, and we'll come back for them when the rain stops."
The rain was getting quite heavy, and Chen Kai's voice became muffled.
Chen Nong vaguely heard what his uncle said, immediately threw the bamboo basket aside, called out to Daya, and then ran over, picked up Chen Kai, and ran home.
After they ran home, Chen Kai saw Zhou pacing anxiously back and forth at the door.
As soon as Zhou saw them enter the courtyard, she immediately took Chen Kai from Chen Nong's arms and said, "Go and take a bath and change your clothes. The kitchen has already prepared some herbs to dispel the cold. You can each have a bowl later."
After Zhou finished speaking, she put Chen Kai down and went to prepare bathwater for them.
Two large tubs were placed in the kitchen for them to bathe in. Daya took the hot water and went back to her room to take a bath.
While Chen Kai and the others were taking a shower, they noticed that the rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. His brother and sister-in-law also ran back, and they were soaked as well.
Chen Kai saw Chen Laoda walk into the kitchen and asked, "Brother, is everyone back home?"
Old Chen said, "Don't worry, everyone in the family is back."
Old Chen scooped out a large bucket of hot water and said, "Wife, take this hot water. You women can go to your rooms to wash!"
Their bathroom had a thatched roof, which leaked when it rained, so they could only shower inside the room.
After Chen Kai and the others finished showering, Zhou brought clean clothes for Chen Kai to change into.
Zhou said, "The herbs to dispel the cold have been brewed and served. Drink a bowl when they cool down, so you don't catch a cold and get sick."
After the herbs cooled down, Chen Kai drank them all in one go.
Chen Kai smacked his lips, thinking it tasted like perilla water.
Some time ago, they harvested a lot of perilla leaves to use as dye, but purple dye was hard to come by. They ate some of it, but still had a lot of perilla leaves left.
Besides being edible, perilla is also a common Chinese medicine. Perilla leaves have the effects of dispelling cold, clearing the lungs, regulating qi, harmonizing the stomach and detoxifying.
Perilla leaves have excellent effects in dispelling cold and relieving exterior symptoms, as well as regulating qi and harmonizing the middle jiao. They are especially suitable for colds and fevers caused by food stagnation, or for patients with wind-cold external pathogens. Perilla leaves are most effective in these cases.
In addition, perilla leaves have the effect of clearing the lungs and resolving phlegm, and can be used for qi stagnation and phlegm accumulation syndrome. Furthermore, perilla leaves also have the effect of regulating qi and harmonizing the middle jiao, and can be used for symptoms such as chest and abdominal distension and indigestion. Especially after eating fish, shrimp, crab, or other high-protein foods, drinking some perilla tea can greatly help with digestion.
In addition, perilla leaves also have a detoxifying effect, but this detoxification is specifically used to detoxify fish poisoning, crab poisoning, and shrimp poisoning, which are all seafood toxins. Perilla leaves are the most effective in these cases.
The members of the Chen family who were supposed to have showered and changed their clothes were already ready, and they were all sitting in the hall.
Looking at the heavy rain, Old Man Chen frowned and said, "The rain is getting heavier and heavier. I wonder how the crops in the fields are doing. Will they be flooded? We need to go and clear the fields after the rain stops."
As night fell and darkness approached, the rain finally subsided a little, and Old Man Chen and the others went to the fields wearing raincoats.
The rain stopped not long after Old Man Chen and the others left the hospital.
Chen Kai suddenly remembered that they hadn't brought back the grass jelly they had just cut, so he called out, "Chen Nong, go and bring back the grass jelly!"
Chen Nong said, "Okay, Uncle."
Chen Kai ran to the kitchen and saw his mother pouring the boiled plum juice into a basin to cool. He asked in confusion, "Mom, do we have enough saltpeter to cool this much plum juice?"
Pointing to several wooden buckets by the wall, Zhou said happily, "My good son, go and see what's in those buckets?"
Chen Kai wondered if they had boiled all the saltpeter they received that morning into saltpeter solution. Chen Kai went over and took a closer look, and sure enough, several buckets were filled with processed saltpeter.
Zhou said with a smile, "This morning, the villagers dug up a lot of ground frost, and we have already processed it."
Chen Kai said, "We can't use all that brine, so let's keep a little and sell the rest tomorrow!"
“Okay!” Zhou said happily.
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