Chapter 45
45
"People over there usually propose with rings, diamond rings, not earrings..." The more Cheng Yeran explained, the more he stuttered. He felt anxious and regretful. He wanted to tell him that he had no intention of proposing to him, but he regretted why he had to explain it in particular.
"I know you don't like me. I've known this for a long time." Shen Yuntang lowered his head and looked at the earring. Although he had known it for a long time, his heart was still moved for a moment when he heard Cheng Yeran propose to him just now.
"I'll put them on for you." Cheng Yeran had never helped anyone put on earrings before, so he was very careful, fearing that he would hurt his ears. "I've always had a question, are ear piercings something that you're born with?"
Shen Yuntang gave him an idiotic look and asked, "What do you think?"
"How did they do that? Was it pierced through a needle? They just forced it into the flesh?" Cheng Yeran found it unbelievable. This was too cruel. Just to wear an earring, he could actually go to the extent of piercing a hole in his own body.
"It was pierced out with a needle, but I was young at that time and don't have any memory of it. Some boys have their ears pierced when they are born, while others don't have it until they are two or three years old." Shen Yuntang treated this as a very normal thing. His attention was all on Cheng Yeran's fingers.
Cheng Yeran pinched Shen Yuntang's ear with one hand, and carefully put the earring in with the other hand.
Shen Yuntang has small ears, and her earlobes are round, pink, thick and fleshy. I can't imagine who could be so cruel as to do that to such beautiful ears.
"You're getting your ears pierced at such a young age, aren't you afraid of infection?" Cheng Yeran thought the villagers were horrible. They actually dared to give injections to a baby. What if the baby died?
"Adults think that the younger the child is, the less likely they are to remember the pain, so when they grow up, they dare not pierce their ears," said Shen Yuntang.
"If you don't dare, just don't get the shot." As a man, Cheng Yeran has never experienced his buddies' life and was unable to fully empathize with them.
"But you have to wear earrings when you get married. If you don't, people will laugh at you." Shen Yuntang said.
"Why do the villagers love to laugh at others? They are so mean." Cheng Yeran thought for a moment, looked at Shen Yuntang's expression and asked, "Do you like wearing earrings? Or are you afraid of being laughed at by the villagers, so you have to wear them? If you don't like them, then don't wear them."
"It's okay, it doesn't matter whether I wear it or not." Shen Yuntang actually quite likes the feeling of wearing these pretty little accessories, but it feels too embarrassing to say it out loud.
He felt Cheng Yeran stop and became anxious: "Why stop? You've already bought it."
"I'm afraid you don't like it, and I don't want to force you." Cheng Yeran felt that Shen Yuntang was too pitiful. Such a small thing was about to be pricked with a needle. If he was there, no matter who it was, he would beat that person up.
However, thinking that the person who pierced Cheng Yeran's ears might be Shen's mother, he retracted his previous idea. He could not beat his mother-in-law. Instead, he rescued little Shen Yuntang and hugged her tightly in his arms, not letting anyone touch her.
"No, I don't feel forced." Shen Yuntang grabbed the earrings in his hand and said, "I'll wear them myself!"
He walked into the house angrily, cursing Cheng Yeran in his heart, saying it was so annoying! Why did he have to say it out loud! He was already embarrassed to say it, yet you still forced him. You really don't know how to read people's expressions!
They don't have a mirror at home, so every day they go to the water tank to look at their reflection on the water.
He put on the earring himself. It was sparkling and not too big. It was just right in the middle of his earlobe, making it hard to look away.
He was secretly admiring it when something was stretched out in front of him. It was a very clear mirror. He seemed to see another world and an identical self.
In the past, their family had a bronze mirror, which was polished very brightly, but the people reflected in the mirror were still distorted and the colors were yellowish.
But the mirror that Cheng Yeran handed over was as clear as a photo taken with a mobile phone.
He couldn't help but stretched out his finger and touched the mirror surface. "What is this? Can it take a picture, too?"
"This is an ordinary mirror." Cheng Yeran stuffed the mirror into his hand, "Use this in the future. It's foldable and can be put away after use."
Shen Yuntang took the mirror, which reflected his entire face clearly. He had never seen himself so clearly before. The last time Cheng Yeran took a picture of him, he didn't dare to look at himself and turned away his eyes shyly. It was better now to use the mirror.
"How is it? Do you like it?" Seeing him so happy, Cheng Yeran was also happy.
"Yeah." This time Shen Yuntang didn't like it in his heart but said he didn't like it. "It's not ordinary at all. It must be very expensive, right?"
"You think this mirror is unusual, maybe because the person in the mirror is unusual." Cheng Yeran raised his hand and pointed at Shen Yuntang in the mirror.
Shen Yuntang blushed and dodged, turning the mirror over and pressing it against her chest, "Can everyone in your place use this kind of mirror?"
"Of course, mirrors are a must for every household. People in the future won't be as miserable as you are. It's a new era." Cheng Yeran really wanted to take him to the future to live a good life. In ancient times, everything was really inconvenient. To go out, you either had to walk or take a donkey cart. The roads were not flat, and riding a donkey cart could break a person's butt into pieces.
He also wanted to buy a bicycle. He had heard from his cousin before that she had read a time-travel novel in which a time traveler built a bicycle. Why not try it himself?
But what about the tires? His brain simply didn't have the IQ of a time traveler, so he gave up on the idea as soon as it came to his mind.
…
When Shen Yuntang heard Cheng Yeran say that the mirror was easily broken, he carefully took it into the room and put it away. He also took off his earrings. The diamond looked very valuable, and he was afraid that he would forget to take it off, and if someone saw him and asked him where the thing came from, it would be troublesome.
There used to be a cabinet in the room, which only contained the money they earned from selling tofu, and was always empty. Now it is filled with silver hairpins, earrings, and several silver bars bought by Cheng Yeran.
This cabinet is full of valuable things. He always feels uneasy when closing the cabinet and has to lock it up.
When he came out, Cheng Yeran was already carrying firewood to boil water.
The only thing Cheng Yeran could do well in the kitchen was to boil water. When he first came, he would burn the pot when boiling water. Shen Yuntang told him not to go into the kitchen anymore, but he still insisted and tried several times, and finally he was able to boil some hot water.
"We should buy a kettle and put it on the stove." Cheng Yeran looked at the big iron pot in their house. There was only this one pot in the house, and they usually used it to cook soup, cook rice, and stir-fry vegetables. It was big and heavy, and it was not easy to pour out the boiled water.
"We can go to the village and make one." Shen Yuntang felt that the kitchen faced the yard. If he wanted to do business at home in the future, it would be better not to have new things in the kitchen.
"I'm also planning to buy some dishes. The ones we use now are too rough. It's hard for me to clean them." Cheng Yeran looked inside the kitchen and said, "Why not build a cabinet and lock things in it, or make a cellar?"
"Is this what you are talking about?" Shen Yuntang lifted up a wooden board from the ground, and underneath was a vegetable cellar.
Their vegetable cellar was empty and very small, only big enough for two adults to stand face to face.
"Every household has a vegetable cellar, but it's too troublesome. You have to climb up and down the ladder..." As Shen Yuntang was speaking, he saw a few gray-black bugs crawling out from underneath. He was so scared that he jumped up with a scream and lay on the back of Cheng Yeran beside him.
Cheng Yeran was not afraid of insects, but when Shen Yuntang hugged his neck like this, he suddenly felt nervous.
Talk about
Zhang got up, stood up hurriedly with Shen Yuntang on his back, and stomped on the ground for a long time, squashing the bugs.
He closed the door of the vegetable cellar and said, "Okay, okay, there are no more bugs. Don't be afraid."
When Shen Yuntang heard his coaxing tone like that of a child, she shyly lay on his back and pretended to be dead. It was so embarrassing. They were just a few bugs, but she was so scared that she jumped directly on his back. Would he think that she was sticking to him on purpose?
He was coaxed by Cheng Yeran for a while before he slowly got off his back and went to fill the kettle. "Is this how you fill it? You have to be quick, or the water will get cold."
Cheng Yeran was also embarrassed. He squatted on the ground and scratched his head. He had no idea what he was saying. "Yes, that's it."
Neither of them dared to look at each other. After a while, Cheng Yeran remembered to dispose of the insect's corpse, otherwise Shen Yuntang would be scared again.
As he was cleaning, he stared at the bugs. They were a type of bug he had never seen in real life, but they looked familiar to him. "Ah, I've seen this type of bug in a textbook. It's called a woodlice, right?"
"We call these woodlice," Shen Yuntang didn't dare to look, "there are many of these insects in humid places."
"The cellar isn't even covered with cement. It's just an earth pit. It would be strange if there weren't bugs." Cheng Yeran said as he looked at their kitchen. It was made of adobe. The woodshed was even worse. It was made of wooden boards nailed together. Over the years, the wood had weathered and rotted. Sometimes he was afraid that the woodshed would collapse and crush him to death.
The best room in the house is their bedroom. It is made of bricks, but no cement is used. It is painted with white lime, which makes your hands covered with dust when you touch it. It is not the latex paint used in the future.
"When are we going to renovate the house? It's almost unsafe and it will be very cold in winter." Cheng Yeran felt that they had to act quickly. "Otherwise, we should pretend to go to the city to sell dried tofu every day, and then find a place not far from the village to rest and come back after dark."
Shen Yuntang: "...You know how to be lazy."
"We need to dig a well, buy a donkey cart, and repair the house. Oh, and we also said we would raise pigs. Can we still do that this year?" Cheng Yeran slapped his forehead. "It's really hard to launder money."
…
At night, Cheng Yeran placed the thermos in the room so that he could drink a sip of hot water as soon as he opened his eyes in the morning.
Shen Yuntang didn't believe that the water in this thermos would not get cold all night. It just looked like a delicate bottle with a wooden stopper on it. How could it not get cold all night?
He kept thinking about this matter all night and couldn't sleep. As soon as it was dawn, he sat up quickly and took a bowl to pour water.
As soon as he pulled the plug of the thermos, a puff of hot steam rose up, which scared him so much that he almost dropped his grip.
His heart was pounding with excitement. It turned out that Cheng Yeran was not bragging, it was really hot!
The water was poured into the bowl and it was very hot, almost boiling, so it was impossible to drink it directly.
Cheng Yeran took out two bowls of instant noodles from under the bed. "Look, last time I bought a kettle, I remembered instant noodles and bought some."
"How do I eat this?" Shen Yuntang saw the colorful packaging box in his hand. After opening it, there was a pancake inside. But didn't Cheng Yeran just say instant noodles? Well, pancakes are also made of noodles, so they're almost the same.
"Put the seasoning in, then pour in water." Cheng Yeran previously went to a relatively poor village to film a movie. The transportation was not well developed and the food on the crew was not good, so he ate instant noodles every day. After eating instant noodles for two months, he vomited. Later, whenever he heard the word instant noodles, he would feel nauseous in his stomach. However, after traveling through time, he missed this taste instead.
After adding the seasonings and pouring in hot water, the aroma will immediately waft out.
"Put the lid on first and wait for three minutes before eating." Cheng Yeran took out his mobile phone and looked at the time. When he looked at the time, he saw the photo on the mobile phone desktop. He felt as sweet as if he was soaked in a honey jar and his teeth were about to get cavities.
"Why don't I teach you how to tell time in these three minutes?" Cheng Yeran opened the clock and showed it to him, "This is the clock we have over there. From here to here..."
Shen Yuntang stretched his little head and listened carefully, but the aroma of the instant noodles was so tempting that it was difficult for him to concentrate. As he listened, his stomach actually made a series of rumbling sounds.
He covered his stomach, blushed, and explained for a long time, "It smells so good."
Cheng Yeran smiled helplessly, "Learn it later, I'll see if you're familiar with it."
Cheng Yeran opened the lid and took a look. It was almost ready. He broke open the fork and handed it to Shen Yuntang, "Eat it with this."
Shen Yuntang looked down at the noodles in the cup and said, "It turned into noodles? It was clearly a pancake just now."
"It's boiled." Cheng Yeran felt that he looked like an elementary school student.
Shen Yuntang was too hungry. Although he still had many questions, he decided to wait a while before answering them.
He learned to use a fork like Cheng Yeran, but it was his first time and he wasn't very good at it because he didn't have chopsticks.
Although their family grows wheat, they rarely eat noodles. Generally, after harvesting the wheat, they pay taxes on a portion of it and sell most of the rest to exchange for some miscellaneous grains. They only keep a small portion for making dumplings during the New Year and other festivals.
He only ate white flour once a year, but he remembered the taste very well. The feeling of this flour was quite different from the flour he ate during Chinese New Year. It was very smooth, elastic, and chewy. The taste was so fragrant that he almost bit his tongue.
Cheng Yeran saw him eating instant noodles as if he were eating delicacies from land and sea, and felt very sorry for him. He wanted to take him to eat more and more delicious food. "Is it delicious? Otherwise, let's open a noodle shop in the future, and then buy instant noodles and make them directly. I can do it."
Shen Yuntang nodded desperately, "It's delicious, but the portion is too small. I finished it in two bites."
Although Shen Yuntang is a boy, he has a big appetite. He also has a lot to do every day and consumes a lot of energy.
"This is a small cup of noodles. You should buy the extra large one next time." Cheng Yeran saw that there was only soup left in his cup, so he gave him another flavor. "I bought a box last time and ate as much as I wanted. It's enough to keep you full."
…
The dried tofu arrived. There were five boxes in total. I bought one box of each brand, and also bought different flavors, spicy, five-spice, cumin, black pepper...
When Shen Yuntang received the goods, he thought he would sell them directly, but Cheng Yeran told him that they were just for sampling.
Shen Yuntang frowned as he looked at the five boxes of dried tofu. "You can buy a piece from each store to try."
"One piece? You're not selling it. Didn't you say before that you like to eat beans? I bought some extra for you as a snack." Cheng Yeran opened the box. "Take out two bags first. Give one to Shen Yuntang and open the other one yourself."
He tried it and found that he still didn't like tofu. He didn't like any of them.
Shen Yuntang liked it very much. He opened the package just like Cheng Yeran did. The one he opened was the five-spice flavor. It smelled even better than the dried tofu he had eaten as a child. It was not dry at all, but chewy, and tasted even better than meat.
He couldn't help but take a bite of it. After he finished eating, he wondered if he had been too rude just now, and not like a brother at all.
He turned his head to look at Cheng Yeran, afraid that Cheng Yeran would discover what he had just done, and then he saw Cheng Yeran holding a bowl and pouring the dried tofu into the bowl.
"What are you doing?" Shen Yuntang just thought that he was too rude to eat a whole piece of dried tofu in one bite, but Cheng Yeran was even more wild, eating a bowl in one bite?
"Since you like it so much, it's too much trouble to open the small packages. I'll just pour it into the bowl for you and you can eat it with chopsticks. It's convenient." Cheng Yeran thought for a moment and took out a whole big piece of dried tofu from the box beside him. "Those were small packages of snacks just now. This should be cut into pieces for stir-frying or mixing with cold dishes. Try it later. The seasoning has just arrived."
Shen Yuntang had eaten instant noodles with him several times these days and had become accustomed to the colorful plastic packaging, but when he saw the glass bottles of seasonings, his eyes widened again.
"What kind of bottle is this? It's so transparent, is it made of diamond?" Shen Yuntang remembered that Cheng Yeran said that day that diamond is a kind of stone cut into many facets, so these bottles must be polished diamonds!
Although Cheng Yeran said that diamonds are just ordinary stones, the fact that the man in the future only bought such a small one when proposing to her shows that diamonds are not cheap. It’s just that Cheng Yeran is too rich that he thinks they are cheap.
"This is glass. It will be a very common utensil in the future, similar to the bowls in our house, and very cheap." Seeing that he liked those bottles so much, Cheng Yeran rummaged through the express boxes on the ground and found the toothbrush cup he bought for Shen Yuntang.
He handed a glass cup with a kitten printed on it to Shen Yuntang, "This is for you."
Shen Yuntang didn't even dare to take it. This cup looked much more upscale than those seasoning bottles. It looked like the cup that nobles usually used to drink water.
"Don't worry about using it. It's not expensive at all. It's only one or two taels of silver." Cheng Yeran calculated it according to the future price of silver.
"One tael of silver for a cup is also very expensive." Before Shen Yuntang got married, the family only spent three or four taels of silver a year.
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Woolen cloth!
Cheng Yeran forced the cup into his hand and said, "Use it. You've already bought it and you can't return it."
Shen Yuntang held the cup in his hand and saw that his fingers had left a few fingerprints on the cup. He quickly wiped it clean with his sleeve, taking great care of it.
Shen Yuntang tasted all the tofu one by one and ate until he was full. When he was a child, he had fantasized about how great it would be if he could have tofu freedom one day. He didn't expect that it would really come true today.
In the evening, Shen Yuntang cut the large piece of dried tofu into strips and stir-fried it with shredded bamboo shoots, still using the lard he had refined earlier and the seasonings he had just bought.
He stuffed all the express boxes and packaging bags into the stove and burned them. Cheng Yeran bought so many express packages, and there were so many express boxes that he didn't need to burn firewood to cook these days.
The rice he bought arrived, and he also cooked a pot of dry rice.
In his life, Shen Yuntang had never eaten dry rice, and he ate very little noodles. The most he ate was coarse grains.
He made the dry rice using the same method as he had done with mixed-grain rice. He was afraid of failure at first, so he was very careful. The result was quite good, with a strong rice aroma that almost made the two of them dizzy.
Cheng Yeran took the small dining table to the yard and ran around serving dishes and food. The two of them sat down at the table and were about to eat when they heard a knock on the door. It was Aunt Li from next door.
Aunt Li had a loud voice and shouted at the door: "Cheng family, what did you cook tonight? The fragrance has drifted to my house."
Cheng Yeran was speechless. "She really affects our appetite. Fortunately, we have locked the door, otherwise she would come in and give us instructions on our meals."
Although he said this, he still carried some dried tofu and walked to the door. The last time they made tofu, it was Aunt Li who helped them promote it. Although Aunt Li did not have good intentions at first, the effect was still good.
Cheng Yeran opened the door and saw Aunt Li trying to look inside, so he quickly blocked the doorway and said, "Aunt, have you cooked yet? Do you want to come to my house and buy some food?"
He pushed the dried tofu toward Aunt Li and said, "It's not expensive. The small ones are one cent each, and the big ones are ten cents each."
"Ten cents? What could be so expensive?" Aunt Li's eyes instantly turned to the bowl in his hand, in which were two pieces of dried tofu, one large and one small.
The big pieces are as big as tofu, and the small ones are just enough for one bite.
"Selling such a small piece for one penny? Why don't you go and rob people?" Aunt Li shouted at the top of her voice, "Usually, a piece of tofu this big is only one penny. It's all tofu, why do you sell such a small piece for one penny?"
"I didn't charge you more on purpose. I'm not like you. I'm a kind person." After Cheng Yeran teased her, he picked up the piece of dried tofu and shook it in front of her, letting the fragrance drift over. Hearing Aunt Li swallowing her saliva at the fragrance, he continued slowly, "This is the braised dried tofu that my husband developed. It uses more ingredients, so it can't be priced the same as tofu. And we sell it so cheaply because we are from the same village. At the market, this piece would cost at least three cents."
Aunt Li was so attracted by the aroma that she drooled. She said it was too expensive, but she started to bargain with Cheng Yeran, "Make it cheaper, three yuan for one cent, I'll buy it for three yuan. You see, I don't know what it tastes like, and you're asking for such a high price all of a sudden, how can I dare to buy it? If it tastes good, I'll buy it again next time."
"Three dollars and three cents. If you don't want to buy anything, just leave. We still have to eat." Cheng Yeran said and closed the door.
He returned to the dining table and took a bite of the fried tofu with the rice. The aroma made him close his eyes. "It really tastes better when fried. Great! You are a top chef! How can I live without you!"
"Stop talking like that." Shen Yuntang felt shy when he was praised. In his previous life, he was often belittled by Xia Xiaowu. In this life, he was praised by others. Although he was very happy, he was not used to it.
He also ate a few bites of rice. No wonder rice was so expensive and so fragrant. It was indeed worth the price.
"You just spoke to Aunt Li like that. Will she go to the village and say bad things about us and tell people not to buy dried tofu?" Shen Yuntang asked worriedly.
"That's the effect we want. If she spreads good things about us everywhere, saying that our dried tofu is delicious, and gets others to buy it, then others will think she's our hired agent. The harder she scolds, the more curious people will be and want to come and take a look." Cheng Yeran was reluctant to stop eating. He had never talked while chewing before, but today he made an exception. He ate while talking, "Do you remember the last time when we first started selling tofu? It was she who spread bad things about us everywhere, getting everyone in the village to come and watch the fun. We built up our tofu business without any publicity. It's the same this time."
"It seems to be the case." Shen Yuntang remembered that time when they had a misunderstanding. He deliberately ignored Cheng Yeran for a long time. Thinking of this, his face felt hot with guilt. He picked up several bites of food for Cheng Yeran, thinking that he should do more to make it up to Cheng Yeran in the future.
Seeing him pick up food for himself, Cheng Yeran also picked up food for him, "Eat more, you are the pillar of our family."
"Don't say such weird things." Shen Yuntang felt that he was completely different from the men in the village. The men in the village were afraid that others would say that they were not a man, but Cheng Yeran always acted like a spoiled child and pretended to be weak in front of him. However, when something happened to other people's women or husbands, those men might just become cowards, or they might think their own women or husbands were troublesome and always cause trouble. But Cheng Yeran would really stand up for him and act more manly than any other man in the village.
…
Aunt Li gritted her teeth for a long time, but finally couldn't make up her mind to buy the dried tofu. She even spat after Cheng Yeran closed the door. She didn't dare to curse at Cheng Yeran in front of him, for fear that he would go crazy, so she could only curse him secretly behind his back.
In the evening, she went to find some of her old sisters and scolded Cheng Yeran with them: "Does he think that anyone can make dried tofu? People in this town have inherited the business from their ancestors, and the craftsmanship has been passed down for generations. Their family is nothing. No matter how they cook it, it won't taste good. How dare they sell it for a penny? I think he just dried the tofu that couldn't be sold and sold it as dried tofu to cheat people!"
"That's right. Last time we went to town, we passed by that tofu shop and could smell the aroma from a long distance away. The marinade is made from an old soup base that has been cooked for decades. Theirs is nothing compared to the others."
"It's better not to buy it. You will definitely get a stomachache if you eat it."
Within one night, news spread in the village that Cheng Yeran's family was selling dried tofu, and it was Shen Yuntang who figured it out himself.
After hearing this, everyone couldn't help but laugh, "What can a guy like him come up with? This is just nonsense."
"My brother is good at cooking. Who knows, maybe he has figured it out."
"Even if I'm good at cooking, I'm only cooking for my family. The chefs in big restaurants are all men. Which guy is qualified to be a chef? Dried tofu is not something that ordinary people can make. If you want to eat it, go buy it. I don't want to waste money on it."
…
The next day when they opened their shop to sell tofu, indeed, many people came to ask them about the dried tofu.
These people pretended that they wanted to buy dried tofu and said they wanted to see the dried tofu made by their family. In fact, their expressions looked like they were waiting for a show and wanted to see the joke on Cheng Yeran's family.
Cheng Yeran took out a bag of dried tofu and said, "I only made this little bit. I can't sell it yet. I'll just show it to you guys."
"Is such a big bag not enough?" They stretched their necks to take a look. The color looked pretty similar, but they had no idea how it would taste. Even if it looked similar, it would definitely not taste good. They weren't specialized in making tofu, so how delicious could it be?
"I'm going to visit my father-in-law soon, and I'm also going to give some to my cousin, so how can I sell it to you?" Cheng Yeran said as he quickly rewrapped the paper bag. "If you want to buy it, wait until next month. I have two kinds, big and small. One can be used for cooking or mixing with cold dishes, and the other can be eaten as a side dish. If you want to buy it, you can tell me in advance, and I'll sell it to you after it's made, so that some people won't be able to buy it if I don't make enough."
The more mysterious he was, the more curious everyone became, especially those who were close enough to smell the scent, who were even more curious about the taste.
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