Chapter 13 The Puppies: She crouched down and looked at the fluffy little creatures.
Yao Ruyi stood there for a while, listening intently, but there was no further sound.
A surge of courage rose within her, and she moved stealthily toward the source of the sound: the noise came from the overgrown courtyard that had just been overgrown with weeds.
As she passed through the courtyard, she casually picked up a large blue stone used to weigh down the well cover.
Holding the heavy stones in her hands, she felt a little more at ease.
It probably wasn't a person, she thought to herself. That tiny courtyard, barely the size of a palm, couldn't even hide a single pillar; apart from the tall grass, there was nowhere to hide. If someone had been hiding there, she would definitely have seen them.
Perhaps it was some small animal, a mouse? A lizard? Could it be a weasel? She was a little afraid of weasels, but would there be weasels in a densely populated place like Bianjing? Are there weasels in Henan? Yao Ruyi's mind wandered as she cautiously and slowly approached.
She hid herself behind the door frame, peeking out with only half her face showing.
The wind blew through the tall, withered wormwood, and the waves of grass rippled before her.
Suddenly, she thought she saw two fluffy, triangular ears trembling in the dense grass. Soon, she saw two more pairs of fluffy ears in the grass nearby, not the same color. The yellow and white ears couldn't contain themselves any longer, and a round dog head popped out, its pair of dark, wet little dog eyes looking at her curiously.
Then, a dark dog's face peeked out from beside it, while a third, brown and orange one timidly shrank between the two dogs. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a kitten. The three fluffy little things were probably still nursing; they were so small that she hadn't noticed them when they were quietly hiding in the grass.
Yao Ruyi didn't dare to move or make a sound, afraid of frightening them.
Seeing that Yao Ruyi remained motionless like a statue, they gradually grew bolder and began to chase and play in the grass by themselves. However, they ran around in all directions and soon rolled into a ball, their fur covered with grass clippings. They bit and fought with each other, pouncing on each other's tails, and making soft, whimpering sounds from their throats.
Yao Ruyi, with her gentle features, lightly placed the bluestone on the brick floor.
She crouched down and looked at the fluffy little creatures.
The three kittens, though covered in dust and dirt, were all plump and chubby, their fur bristling like garlic cloves. They must have had a mother with plenty of milk to be so round and healthy. Only the orange kitten was thinner; perhaps it was born too weak and was abandoned by its mother, only to be brought back and fed by the dog mother?
This cat is very small, with short legs and a short body. It falls after running a few steps, but it has already learned to bark, wag its tail, and stick out its tongue from the other puppies.
When Yao Ruyi heard the kitten bark once while playing with its dog brother, she couldn't help but laugh.
While she was still speculating, she heard a noise from the corner of the wall. A huge yellow dog's head emerged from the soil at the base of the wall, carrying a fat, dying rat in its mouth. It was struggling to squeeze in, but froze when it suddenly smelled an unfamiliar scent. Then, two sinister eyes stared at her.
Yao Ruyi stood up abruptly.
This large dog is a typical traditional Chinese rural dog, with erect ears, a long muzzle, long legs, a yellow coat, and a white face. It has a fairly large frame, and its body is lean and sturdy. Its fur is somewhat dirty and messy, and there are two deep scars running diagonally from its left eye to its nose, probably left from a fight when it was a stray. The scars are very deep, and no dog hair grows around them, making it look particularly ferocious.
She quickly backed away, just as the devil appeared out of nowhere – Mommy Dog was back!
And she was a very fierce-looking mother dog.
"I didn't do anything," Yao Ruyi whispered to the dog's mother, shrinking her neck.
The mother dog seemed to realize that Yao Ruyi was timid and posed no threat with her thin arms and legs. With a low growl, she squeezed the whole dog inside. Yao Ruyi then realized that it hadn't crawled out of the ground, but rather that two or three loose bricks at the base of the wall had been dug into a hole by the mother dog.
The three puppies, upon seeing the big dog return, immediately ignored Yao Ruyi, the uninvited guest who only knew how to grin foolishly at them, and ran off, wagging their tails happily, heading straight for her belly.
At the same time, a puppy that looked like a four-eyed iron-clad golden dog suddenly darted out from deep in the grass in the corner. It had been hiding in the grass the whole time and hadn't shown its head. How clever!
It turned out to be a family of five.
The Lin family's house was never occupied, but the dog and his family moved in instead.
However, thanks to the dog mother and her family, there were no signs of rats gnawing on the beams and pillars of the Lin family. Yao Ruyi had just walked around and hadn't seen any lizards, frogs, or any large insects.
They were probably all caught and eaten by the mother dog.
Four little furballs of different colors clung to their mother dog's legs and struggled to climb up, whimpering anxiously for milk. But the mother dog just stared intently at Yao Ruyi, her fierce brown eyes full of vigilance, and did not expose her belly to let the puppies nurse.
"I won't bother you anymore, I'm leaving."
Yao Ruyi was still a little intimidated by the mother dog, so she greeted her quietly and tiptoed back to her own yard.
The courtyard was quiet.
Yao Ruyi called out to the house that she was going out, and heard Grandpa Yao respond from inside. Then she pushed the earthen cart.
Going out to buy meat!
By the time she returned from buying the meat, the Lin family's house should be well-ventilated. Yao Ruyi planned to go over again before going to bed to close the Lin family's doors and windows, and then go about once every two weeks until the Lin family returned, so as not to disappoint Grandpa Yao's request.
Reaching the alley entrance, she nodded to the old guards who were idly picking their feet in the duty room. She thought to herself that living in the Imperial College also had its inconveniences. Strangers couldn't come in, and even if she asked someone to deliver goods in the future, they would probably only be able to deliver them to the alley entrance.
However, this has its pros and cons. At least there aren't so many thieves and hooligans in the alley, making her feel more at ease living there. Otherwise, Ruyi and Grandpa Yao would really have to be very careful with their house, and perhaps, at least, they would have to keep a big, fierce dog like the mother dog to guard it.
Perhaps it really is possible? If the mother dog is willing, it would be great if she adopted two of her puppies, saving her the money of buying a dog! Yao Ruyi's optimism, honed through her illness, cheered her up again. Pushing her cart and humming a song, she began to imagine her future life with cats and dogs, even though the shop was still in the works.
A short while later, she found a butcher's stall and bought a piece of pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat. She hung it on the handlebars, then huffed and puffed her way to the general store on the small goods street, where she bought two hundred eggs and several jars of wine before heading home. She also wandered around the store a couple of times, secretly observing what good things were available, doing her market research in advance. She saw combs, brushes, cups, plates, bowls, brooms, dustpans, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, pickles, and so on—almost the same as in later times.
Back home, I carefully carried the eggs two or three times before finally getting them into the kitchen.
Wiping her sweat, she excitedly carried the pork belly into the kitchen, even cutting off some meat, mincing it, scalding it with boiling water, mixing it with some leftover porridge, and then excitedly taking it to the Lin family, intending to bribe the dog's mother.
But when they opened the side gate, the dog family was nowhere to be seen in the small courtyard.
The mother dog probably thought the place was no longer safe, so after she left, she quickly moved away with her puppies, leaving only the dog hole at the base of the wall with a mess of paw prints.
Yao Ruyi leaned against the door, gazing wistfully for a long time. For some reason, she bent down and swept the dust off the steps with a touch of sadness, then sat down with her legs bent. She rested her chin on her hand, looking at the small patch of sky visible behind the surrounding roof tiles.
The autumn sky was clear, and the fleeting shadows of birds were light and graceful.
Once the small side door is closed, the room is filled with only wind, grass, and dust. She no longer needs to carefully disguise herself in front of others or try hard to recognize everyone. She can now reveal a little bit of her longing and loneliness in the world of books.
Actually, she was a little uneasy. This morning, Grandpa Yao suddenly asked her to write a reply. She didn't know if she was just imagining things, but she vaguely sensed a bit of a test. But... Grandpa Yao's mind was sometimes clear and sometimes not, and she didn't know if he was sober at that time.
After sitting for a while, she patted her face and cheered herself up.
She may not have many other advantages, but she excels at finding joy even in hardship. Just like before, even when her cancer had spread throughout her body, as long as she was alive, she would live each day to the fullest. And it's the same now.
There's no use in overthinking; she'll treat anything that hasn't happened yet as if nothing's wrong.
Anyway... I've already been given this life for free. As long as I live each day happily, I've already won.
She poured the meat porridge into a chipped plate she'd found in the storeroom and placed it on a flat stone. Then she went and locked all the doors and windows of the Lin family's house back up.
She locked the door, went back to the kitchen, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to get to work: What can relieve a thousand sorrows? A big meal!
If you ask what her favorite dish was when her grandmother used to make, it would definitely be crispy, juicy, and incredibly fragrant crispy pork belly!
To make crispy pork belly, you must choose pork with a bit more fat, ideally with five distinct layers: three layers of fat and two layers of meat. Otherwise, the fried pork will be too dry and get stuck in your teeth, so you can only slice it thinly and use it to make pork cracklings as a snack.
Yao Ruyi bought some really good pork belly today. At this time, the pork was all from free-range black-skinned pigs that ate grain. The meat was firm and bright red. She brought back a very large and thick piece, slapped it on the cutting board, and spent a lot of effort to cut it in half.
Aside from a slightly meaty smell, it has no flaws.
But this seems to be the biggest drawback.
The book says that pork in the Song Dynasty was not castrated. It needed to be washed to remove the blood, soaked in scallion and ginger water, and blanched in advance to remove the gamey smell. However, my grandmother's crispy pork belly was marinated in beer and then deep-fried directly. It should not have been blanched.
Yao Ruyi had no other ideas, so let's give him a try.
Alcohol can also remove fishy smells.
After washing away the blood and soaking the meat in water infused with scallions and ginger, the meat was then immersed in a newly opened jar of barley wine.
Grandma used to soak the tea for 15 minutes, but Yao Ruyi planned to soak it a little longer to let the flavor dissipate. Since she had just opened a new jar of wine, and adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, she took the opportunity to prepare the tea eggs she would sell the next day.
Set up the earthenware jar, and in a separate pot, put the eggs into the barley wine mixed with cooled boiled water and start cooking them.
The coal fire was too strong, so she used firewood today, leaving a large piece of firewood in the stove to burn slowly to the bottom. This way, the fire was small, not easy to go out, and the bottom of the pot wouldn't burn dry.
Busy as she was, after finishing the braised eggs, she still had some time, so she went out into the yard again.
Grandpa Yao fell asleep while reading in his room, and you could hear his deafening snoring even through the door.
She planned to first categorize and tidy up the two rooms where miscellaneous items were piled up, in order to make room for her small shop in advance.
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[Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers] Doggy Mimi
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