"Sister-in-law, the weeds in the field have been mostly pulled up, so the two younger sisters don't need to come along today. I'll take the two younger brothers with me!"
"If there's any chores around the house, let your two younger sisters do them. My two younger brothers and I will finish pulling up the rest of the weeds, and we might be back a little earlier at noon!"
In the morning, Zhou Xiaocang found Lin Xue and told her about his plans.
"Alright, you guys be careful in the fields. If it gets too hot, come back early. You can continue working in the afternoon when it's cooler!"
Another meal of sweet potato porridge was served in the morning, but Lin Xue added a lot of cornmeal and also steamed a pot of mixed grain buns, so everyone was basically full.
After eating their fill, the three boys worked with great enthusiasm, especially Zhou Xiaowu, who was as capable as Zhou Xiaocang and Zhou Xiaohai combined.
Lin Xue tidied up the house with the two Zhou girls. Seeing that there wasn't much work to do, she took the two children and each carried a basket up the mountain.
"Sister-in-law, the wild vegetables here are so tender! It would be great if we could make some wild vegetable dumplings. I remember we could only eat them during the Chinese New Year!"
Zhou Xiaoting chatted with Lin Xue while picking wild vegetables.
At first, only Zhou Xiaomei would talk to Lin Xue, but gradually Zhou Xiaoting found that Lin Xue seemed easier to get along with than before, so she slowly tried to talk to Lin Xue as well.
After all, Zhou Xiaoting is only one year older than Zhou Xiaomei, and her memories of her parents have long been blurred.
Lin Xue is undoubtedly her best fantasy about her mother.
"Just make some if you want to eat them. I remember we still have some leftover flour at home, but unfortunately we don't have any fresh meat. I can just put two eggs in them later!"
With the temptation of dumplings, Zhou Xiaoting and Zhou Xiaomei worked even faster.
Soon, the two little girls' baskets were filled with wild vegetables, while Lin Xue mainly picked some wood ear mushrooms and mushrooms from the mountains.
She wouldn't tell the two girls that she looked down on the wild vegetables in the fields, but preferred the mushrooms in the mountains.
However, the two girls didn't dare to interfere with her and just picked wild vegetables on their own. After they had picked enough wild vegetables, they helped Lin Xue look for wood ear mushrooms and mushrooms.
After searching for mushrooms for a while, Lin Xue jumped onto a large rock and looked around.
This forest is too barren; apart from mushrooms and wild vegetables, we didn't see a single wild animal.
I was originally planning to go up the mountain today, and even if it wasn't great, I was going to at least catch a pheasant to have a treat.
But now, let alone pheasants, we haven't even found a single pheasant feather.
"Alright, we've picked enough wild mushrooms, let's head back!"
Since we were unlucky and didn't run into her, we can only wait until she goes into the mountains alone next time and ventures deeper into the mountains.
It's inconvenient to bring two young girls along this time, so it's better for them to go back as soon as possible.
By the time the three of them returned home, it was nearly noon. Lin Xue had the two girls pick and wash the wild vegetables.
She took out a few eggs and started frying them. After the eggs were fried, she put them in a bowl to cool.
Then she started chopping wild vegetables for filling and asked Zhou Xiaoting to help her knead the dough.
Lin Xue felt that the dumplings without meat filling were missing something, but unfortunately, she only had a few old hens left at home, and these hens were at the time of laying eggs, so she couldn't bear to kill them.
We'll just have to make do with this for now.
Zhou Xiaoting worked quite efficiently, clearly someone used to kitchen work, and quickly kneaded a piece of dough.
Lin Xue quickly prepared the filling, and the three of them sat at the table. Zhou Xiaomei rolled out the dumpling wrappers, while Lin Xue and Zhou Xiaoting filled them.
By the time the three boys returned, they had only wrapped half of the dumplings.
Wow, we're having dumplings at home today!
When Zhou Xiaowu saw the table full of dumplings, he couldn't help but drool. Afraid of being scolded by Lin Xue, he quickly turned his back and wiped the drool from his mouth with his sleeve.
"Brothers, hurry up and wash your hands, we're almost done wrapping these!"
"Okay, let's go wash our hands first, and I'll help my sister-in-law start the fire later!"
Seeing that there wasn't much dough and filling left on the table, Zhou Xiaocang took his two younger brothers to the well to wash their hands.
After washing his hands, he went back to the kitchen and helped Lin Xue start the fire.
By the time Zhou Xiaocang's water boiled, Lin Xue had finished making the dumplings.
"Let's boil the pot and cook the dumplings!"
Lin Xue called out, and Zhou Xiaocang lifted the pot lid, revealing the boiling water inside.
I poured all the dumplings into the pot, and soon they started rolling around in the boiling water.
"Xiaoting, go find some big bowls and two large wooden plates. We'll use them to serve the dumplings later!"
"Little sister, go to the backyard and pick a few scallions, and while you're at it, pick a couple of chili peppers!"
"Xiao Cang, move the large pieces of wood away. We don't need such a big fire anymore. We can serve the dumplings after simmering for a while!"
With just a few words, Lin Xue could completely control her family's children.
Some are looking for bowls and plates, some are pulling up scallions, some are moving tables, and some are tidying up benches.
In short, none of the five children in the family are idle; everyone has something to do.
"The dumplings are ready. I'll serve them. You guys help me take them to the table!"
Once they were sure the dumplings in the pot were fully cooked, Lin Xue was in charge of scooping them out, while the others took the bowls she used to serve the dumplings and carried them to the table.
"Alright, let's eat now!"
"If anyone wants dumpling soup, go and get some from the pot!"
After saying that, Lin Xue ladled half a bowl of dumpling soup for herself, took a sip, and then started eating the dumplings.
"Mmm, these wild vegetables are so tender, the dumplings made with them will be delicious!"
After taking a bite of the dumpling, Lin Xue thought it tasted pretty good, at least better than she had imagined.
I ate about 10 of them in one go before I finally felt full.
The dumplings Lin Xue and the others made were quite large, because they were all lacking in oil and fat, so they ate a lot of food.
Compared to the other children, Lin Xue ate relatively little.
Zhou Xiaocang ate 18, Zhou Xiaohai ate 20, and Zhou Xiaowu ate an unknown number.
The other two boys could count the number of dumplings they ate, but Zhou Xiaowu couldn't count; he just kept shoveling the dumplings into his mouth.
"These dumplings are so delicious! I wish I could eat dumplings this good every day!"
After everyone had finished eating all the dumplings, they put down their bowls and chopsticks.
Some of the children even had room to scoop dumpling soup from the pot.
"Yes, we will. We will farm the land well and take good care of the crops. Once we have a harvest, we will never go hungry again!"
"Maybe one day, you won't want to eat dumplings anymore!"
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