Chapter 90 Hibiscus and Lotus Leaf
Su Yun went around to the backyard.
The backyard was still full of flowers, with a beautiful cluster of red roses blooming freely, though some parts were left bare, clearly the work of someone.
Looking at the red roses that had bloomed again, Ye Feng picked the most beautiful one and presented it to Su Yun, saying, "This is for you, a red rose."
Even though she had received many flowers from Ye Feng, each one brought her joy.
Su Yun accepted the flowers, smiled back, and said, "Thank you."
Some of the roses that were previously planted survived, while the weaker ones withered. Su Yun smiled and said, "Let's plant some sturdy stems."
Night Breeze spoke first, "This one has a lot of thorns. My hands are thick, I'll handle it."
Su Yun stepped aside. "Okay."
The courtyard was overgrown with weeds and flowers. Su Yun couldn't identify some of the flowers, so she just let them grow. She only cleared away the obvious weeds and then harvested some daffodils, roses, Chinese roses, jasmine, chrysanthemums...
Behind the courtyard grows a tall magnolia tree, its fragrance even stronger. Countless pure white and elegant flower buds bloom on the branches, standing tall and graceful, noble and beautiful.
They really are a family that loves flowers.
The courtyard was filled with flowers and plants arranged in a pleasing and elegant manner, which was a pity.
The fragrance of flowers remains, but the person is no longer here.
Looking at the collapsed corner of the wall and the quiet, somewhat desolate village, Su Yun couldn't help but sigh, "It's a pity that such beautiful flowers will never be seen again..."
"Flowers are meant to bloom..." Night Breeze replied casually as she trimmed the rose branches.
Night Breeze is a typical straight man; he doesn't understand poetry or distant places, all he understands is life, a simple life. In his eyes, every life is trying its best to live, and as long as you try to survive, that's enough.
The simplest things are often the truest truths.
"That's true. It's fine to let them grow here on their own." Su Yun figured it must be because they weren't worried about food and drink lately that they had time to think about these things again. "Speaking of which, shall we go see if there are any other vegetables?"
"OK."
Su Yun and his group had never been to this area before, and many of the houses were worth searching.
I passed by a large clump of hibiscus, its branches and leaves exceptionally lush, with overlapping bright red flowers blooming on the branches. The flowers were a whole size larger than roses and Chinese roses, like small round plates, blooming grandly and profusely.
Upon seeing the blooming hibiscus, Ye Feng became excited: "Su Yun, look! What's this? It's so beautiful!"
"This is called a hibiscus flower, I haven't seen it in a long time~" Su Yun remembered that this flower used to be very common in her hometown, probably because it was easy to care for and often used as a garden flower. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, "Oh, right, look at this..."
Su Yun deftly plucked a hibiscus flower, peeled off the green calyx at the base, and gently sucked on it. She tasted a hint of sweetness on her tongue—the flavor of nectar.
When Su Yun was little, she often did this: she would pluck the flowers one by one and taste the nectar inside.
"Su Yun, what are you doing?" Ye Feng asked curiously, watching Su Yun's actions.
"Eating nectar, huh? Come on, you should try some too." With that, Su Yun plucked a blooming hibiscus flower, peeled off the calyx, and brought it to Ye Feng's lips. "Come on, try it."
Ye Feng imitated Su Yun, gently inhaling the flower, and sure enough, he tasted a slight sweetness on his tongue.
The kitten, who always loved sweets, widened its eyes in surprise: "This flower is sweet."
"It's not a flower, it's the nectar in the middle of the flower, used to attract bees and butterflies to collect pollen."
"No wonder honey is sweet."
The two picked a few more flowers before slowly walking away. In the end, Ye Feng was carrying a bamboo basket on his back and holding a bundle of flowers in his hands. Then, a large blue butterfly flew over and circled around him, which Su Yun found very intriguing.
The large phoenix wings, with their ever-changing phosphorescence, shimmered beautifully in the sunlight, making Su Yun's eyes linger.
The butterfly followed them all the way, and finally, tired from flying, it landed on the tip of Ye Feng's ear. Feeling a slight tickle, Ye Feng moved his ear slightly, and then the butterfly flapped his wings and flew away again.
The silver-blue wings reflected a constantly changing phosphorescence under the sunlight, making them exceptionally beautiful.
Su Yun gazed longingly at the butterfly that had flown away.
Seeing that she liked it, Ye Feng asked, "Shall we catch it?"
Su Yun shook her head, "No need, these can't be kept. It's better to let them fly freely."
"Um."
There are many more butterflies in the post-apocalyptic world; butterflies as beautiful as these were not common before.
They were either captured or killed by pesticides in the first place.
So, in this apocalyptic world, with the human population greatly reduced, previously uncommon small animals have become active again.
Bees, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs... and many more small creatures, make the place both more desolate and more bustling than before.
It seems pretty good.
However, because there were so many collapsed houses, they searched the kitchens and vegetable gardens.
"Su Yun, look at this, what is it?" Ye Feng parted the weeds, revealing a round thing inside.
Su Yun peeked over and saw a round, football-sized pumpkin lying in the grass. "Hey, there's a pumpkin!"
"Pumpkin?" Ye Feng had never seen a pumpkin before, but it looked interesting and somewhat like a fruit, so he called it Su Yun.
"Come on, let's take it back and eat it." Su Yun patted the round melon, looked at its yellowish shape, and felt that it was ready to eat, so she picked it directly.
After searching around, they found a few more that were still green. "These ones probably aren't ripe yet. We'll come back and harvest them later."
"good."
The two searched the mountain village again, taking away all the usable salt and liquor. In addition, Su Yun also found a small stone mortar. Although it was covered in dust and looked very old, Su Yun still carried it onto the car with great interest.
"What's this?" Ye Feng asked curiously, looking at the gray stone in the corner of the car. "This stone is all black and not pretty at all."
Su Yun held up a finger and shook it, "You don't understand, do you? This is called a stone mortar, and it's very useful!"
Su Yun washed the stone mortar she found, and after cleaning it, the mortar returned to its original light gray appearance.
The mortar and pestle has so many uses. Today, using the eggplants and green peppers she picked up, Su Yun plans to make a pounded eggplant.
Cut the eggplants and arrange them neatly on the steamer, then sprinkle with a thin layer of salt.
Place a few ears of corn in the bottom steamer.
Then roast the green peppers and garlic over a fire until the skin bursts open.
Then wash two bird's eye chilies and put them into a mortar and pestle along with the peeled green peppers and garlic.
The aroma of garlic mixed with the fragrance of chili slowly emerges with each pounding.
This little mortar and pestle is really convenient. It's quick and easy to grind garlic and chili peppers, and it also brings out the aroma more easily.
The cooking process is truly amazing. I don't know why, but food made by pounding it like this is always more fragrant and delicious than food made by simply chopping it up.
Once the eggplant is steamed, mix it with the pounded green peppers and garlic, pound it a few more times, and then pour in the prepared sauce.
The simple and delicious mashed eggplant is ready.
It's incredibly fragrant and has a rich, spicy flavor. One bite of mashed eggplant is enough to make you want to eat several mouthfuls of rice porridge.
There were also freshly picked pumpkins. After Su Yun chopped them up, she stir-fried them directly. The pumpkins were sweet and soft, and Ye Feng loved to eat them.
"This pumpkin is delicious, very sweet."
"We've saved the seeds; we'll plant some next year." Pumpkins can be kept for several months after they mature. If they mature in the fall, they should last until winter, so planting more pumpkins is a good idea.
"This is good, let's have more of these." Ye Feng likes sweets, so sweet vegetables like pumpkin are naturally to his liking. "And corn too."
"There are still many seeds, don't worry~" Su Yun had kept the pumpkin seeds and green pepper seeds from the beginning.
The pumpkin has a lot of seeds; including this one and the few that haven't ripened yet, it's enough to fill the entire backyard.
"By next year, we'll have more pumpkins than we can eat!"
“And corn,” Night Breeze added.
However, plowing the land with only two people is too slow. In fact, the village either lacks plowing machines or diesel fuel.
Let's wait until we have time to look for places where humans live; maybe there'll be places where we can trade for diesel.
However, after these few interactions with humans, Su Yun still had some concerns, but he decided to put it aside for now, as next year was still a long way off.
Let's see how things go.
Summer is the time when lotus leaves grow best. These past few days have been sunny, so after inspecting the paddy fields, Su Yun took the opportunity to check on the lotus leaf fields.
The area around the lotus pond is low-lying, yet the water is still plentiful.
You can also see a few small fish swimming happily in it.
Seeing the round, emerald-green lotus leaves, I realized how wonderful they are. They can be used to make tea, added to dishes, steamed with ribs, steamed with chicken, and more...
Su Yun suddenly remembered beggar's chicken, "Let's go, let's go roast chicken!"
Night Breeze: "Hmm?"
So the two of them picked a lot of lotus leaves. Su Yun planned to dry them, keeping some to make lotus leaf tea and some to use for steaming later. While the leaves were still fresh, they could make beggar's chicken.
After killing and gutting the chicken, marinate it, stuff its breast cavity with garlic and ginger slices, then wrap it in layers of lotus leaves, and finally wrap it in yellow mud.
Su Yun directed Ye Feng to dig a pit in the ground. Then she picked up a lot of large clods of mud and surrounded the pit, slowly piling them up into a mound-like, hollow tower.
This is the sweet potato kiln that Su Yun often built when he was a child. First, the kiln tower was built, then heated until it was hot and scalding, and then chicken wings or sweet potatoes were stuffed in directly. The earthen kiln tower was then broken up, and the chicken and sweet potatoes were roasted using the residual heat.
Roasted sweet potatoes are fragrant and sweet, and taste especially delicious...
The chicken wings were flavorful and fragrant...
Su Yun had always missed the days when she had plenty of land and time to do what she wanted. Seeing the lotus leaves suddenly made her crave beggar's chicken.
Su Yun is a man of action; if he says we'll do it, we'll do it.
After setting up the kiln tower, Su Yun directly stuffed the chicken wrapped in yellow mud into the bottom of the pit. Unlike sweet potatoes, chicken takes longer to cook, so it needs to be roasted over a fire and then simmered.
The night wind brought firewood and started a fire.
Looking at the raging fire, Su Yun had a sudden idea. "Ye Feng, you watch the fire for me. I'll go dig up some sweet potatoes."
The sweet potatoes have started to grow, and although they are not big enough yet, some of them are already edible.
Because she really missed the taste of roasted sweet potatoes, Su Yun couldn't wait to dig up a few and plan to roast them together with beggar's chicken.
Oh, corn can be roasted too.
Su Yun then ran to the cornfield and picked a few ears of corn.
Sweet potatoes and corn, still covered in mud, are washed clean by the stream, simply wrapped in lotus leaves, and ready to be put into the oven.
Su Yun carried the tied-up corn and sweet potatoes back to the edge of the field.
The night wind was still blowing, and the fire inside the kiln tower was burning fiercely, with smoke billowing around it, and the clay blocks were all glowing red.
The two of them burned the fire for another half hour, until the sun gradually became hotter and they were both covered in sweat. It was clear that acting on a whim was not a good idea.
The smell of barbecue in the sweltering summer heat was truly unbearable. Su Yun, sweating profusely, looked at the blazing campfire and thought it was about time. He stuffed all the food into the fire, went back for a nap, and figured it would be ready to eat in the afternoon.
So she simply threw the wrapped sweet potatoes and corn into the fire, saying, "That's enough, just bury them!"
Ye Feng stared wide-eyed at Su Yun's actions, surprised. "Bury it directly? Aren't you going to eat it?"
Seeing the kitten's surprised expression, Su Yun suddenly felt like teasing it. She blinked and said, "It's all burnt, we can't eat it. Now that it's buried, let's go."
Hearing that they really didn't want it anymore was like a bolt from the blue for the food-loving kitten. Sniffing the air, his face was filled with conflict. "But...but...I think there's still a chance to save it..."
Su Yun ruthlessly shoveled the soil, then stomped it firmly onto the mound, saying, "No more, look, it's all buried."
"Really?"
"Really." Su Yun continued to relentlessly press the soil down with his iron feet. Ye Feng had been listening to Su Yun say he didn't want it anymore with some skepticism.
That finally put my mind at ease.
He looked sadly at the chickens and corn covered in mud; all his efforts had been in vain...
Author's Note:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com