123, the sky is clear
123, the sky is clear
It had been raining for several days in a row, and that morning the sky finally cleared up and a little sun came out.
There were obviously more people on the street than in the past few days. Lu Mingfei was walking alone on the street. The road surface was still wet and there were occasional puddles. He had to pay attention to the road under his feet when walking.
Otherwise, he was wearing cloth shoes, and if he stepped into a puddle, his shoes and socks would get wet.
Their family has lived here for seven or eight years, and he is very familiar with the surrounding environment and people, so there is no possibility of him getting lost.
When he arrived at the first blacksmith shop he had visited last time, the old blacksmith stopped his work as soon as he saw him coming and said to him, "Your work is already done. I'll get it to you later."
"Okay." Lu Mingfei responded and followed the master into the store to get something.
"Take a look and see if it's correct." The old master handed the item to the customer and waited for the customer to inspect it.
Lu Mingfei carefully checked the parts in his hand and measured their dimensions. After confirming that they were not much different from the data he had given, he smiled and thanked the master: "That's right, thank you, master."
After getting the things, he paid the balance, put the things into his bag and left.
Later, he went to several other blacksmith shops and picked up the things he had ordered from them.
One thing that must be said is that the craftsmen of this era were very meticulous in their work. The shape and size of the things they made were not exactly the same as the data they provided, but they were not much different. Of course, the price was not cheap.
After getting the things, he remembered that he hadn't been to their stall for a long time, so he turned a corner and headed towards South Street.
Before I reached their stall, I could see his mother busy at work from afar.
Seeing his mother smiling as she saw the guests off, the confidence and enthusiasm she exuded was something his mother hadn't possessed back in the old Lu family mansion. His entire family, freed from the old Lu family mansion and its inhabitants, had found a new lease on life. Whether it was his father, his mother, or himself, they had all embarked on a completely different path and life.
"Ming Fei?" When Liu Sanniang looked up, she saw her eldest son standing in front of her. She asked in surprise, "Why are you here?" Because the eldest son had been studying at home during this period and seldom went out. The main reason was that they did not allow the eldest son to come to the stall to help, for fear of delaying the child's studies.
"The weather is nice today, so I wanted to go out for a walk." Lu Mingfei said with a smile. He did not tell his family that he went out to get something from the blacksmith shop today. Otherwise, his father and mother would definitely ask him what he was going to get from the blacksmith shop, and it would be difficult for him to explain.
"Yes, it has been raining for several days in a row, and the sun just came out today." Knowing that the child must be tired after studying at home for several months, Liu Sanniang did not force the child to go home to study.
"Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?"
"I'm not hungry. I'll go to my adoptive father's shop and pack up some clay pot rice to eat at home for lunch." Lu Mingfei was a little greedy for the clay pot rice from his adoptive father's shop. Because clay pot rice requires the rice to be soaked in advance, if their family didn't soak the rice in advance, the clay pot rice they cooked would be less than satisfactory.
It just so happened that he hadn't eaten the clay pot rice from his godfather's shop for a long time, and he wanted to eat that for lunch.
"Sure, go tell your stepmother that she is in the store. Your stepfather has gone out of town with your father recently and is not in the store." Liu Sanniang said.
"I know. I'll go see my stepmother later. I haven't been to my stepfather and stepmother's store for a long time." Lu Mingfei knew that his stepfather had gone out of town with his father to work on the land outside the city, leaving the store in the city entirely to his stepmother. He and his father were busy with their new business and no longer cared about the business in the city.
His father was the same. He used to think about his small stall and would go into the tool shed to do some small work after returning home, thinking about setting up a stall to sell some small items. But after their family bought a new house outside the city, his father threw himself into the farming outside the city and now he no longer goes into the tool shed to do small handicrafts when he comes home.
It may also be because his father worked outside all day and was too tired when he came home to have no energy to start a second career.
It was a rare opportunity for Lu Mingfei to come out, so he didn't rush to his adoptive mother's place. Instead, he stood here and talked to his mother, asking her, "How's business these days?"
"The rain was a little bad in the past few days, but it's better today." When Liu Sanniang said the latter sentence, the smile on her face was obviously more joyful.
Otherwise, the family just bought land, and they have two children to raise. They also need to build a shed to raise ducks. Yesterday they were talking about building a shed to raise more than a dozen pigs. Which one doesn’t cost money? So if the stall doesn’t make much money, they will feel very stressed.
So business was bad in the past few days, and the couple was so worried that they couldn't sleep at night.
There were other customers eating at the stall, and some things they were not comfortable saying outside, so the mother and son stopped talking about their own business and didn't go on.
Seeing that there were zongzi at the stall, Lu Mingfei asked his mother in surprise, "Have you started selling zongzi already?"
"Yes, the rice dumplings we made yesterday afternoon are now on sale this morning. Would you like to try one to see how it tastes?" Liu Sanniang peeled off the shell of a rice dumpling and handed it to her eldest son. "When you go home later, pick up a few more to eat. I was thinking of asking Ruyi to bring some back for you later, but since you're here, you can take some home."
Their zongzi are now made at his adoptive parents' sesame cake shop. They are usually made and cooked the afternoon before, and then put back in the pot to heat up before selling the next morning. Otherwise, if they start making the zongzi on the same day, they will be too late in the morning.
They start the rice dumpling business at the end of April every year and stop after they sell out on the Dragon Boat Festival. It is just a seasonal sale and they don't do it for a long term.
The main reason is that there is a lot of work involved in making zongzi. You have to cut the meat and marinate it, and prepare salted duck eggs in advance. After that, you have to soak the rice and prepare the zongzi leaves. After wrapping them, you have to cook them. Everything is a lot of work.
"Sure, I'll take it back so Ruyi doesn't have to run around at noon. We can just eat rice dumplings at noon." Lu Mingfei took the rice dumpling handed to him by his mother and took a bite. The outside was made of glutinous rice, and the inside was filled with pork belly, mung beans, salted duck eggs and sausage.
This bite is full of happiness!
"It's so delicious! The salted egg and pork dumplings we make ourselves are the best!" Lu Mingfei only recognized the dumplings made at home. Nowadays, people make dumplings with white rice porridge and at most stuff a couple of red dates inside.
When his family first started selling rice dumplings, it was because his mother followed his advice and made delicious rice dumplings. So, she tried making some salted egg rice dumplings and selling them at the stall. Unexpectedly, they became incredibly popular. So, from that year on, his stall would make and sell these rice dumplings every year before the Dragon Boat Festival.
Even if someone wants to imitate their rice dumplings, no one can imitate the texture and taste, so many old customers still choose their salted egg rice dumplings.
The guest sitting at the table eating braised pork rice looked up and couldn't help but ask, "Is it really that delicious?"
"Yes, it's delicious. We make our own salted egg and pork dumplings. There are big chunks of meat inside, and the outside is made of high-quality glutinous rice." Lu Mingfei showed the guest the dumpling he had taken a bite of. "Take a look, isn't it full of ingredients?"
"It looks delicious. Give me some... ten of them, please." When the customer saw that the filling inside the rice dumpling was indeed delicious, he wanted to buy a few more to take home for his family to taste.
Seeing that the guest had not yet finished his meal, Liu Sanniang said to him, "Okay, I'll pack it for you to take away when you're full."
The guests didn't have any objections, as the rice dumplings wouldn't run away from the pot.
"Young Master." Ruyi, who was busy in the back, heard the lady and the young master mention her, so she ran over to greet the young master.
"I just told my mother that you don't have to go back to cook at noon. I can just bring some food back from here." Lu Mingfei said to the visitor.
Ruyi glanced at their wife, smiled and said "OK". Seeing that their wife was talking to the eldest young master, she did not stand aside and went to the back to clear the table.
Although she had to do a lot of work in her new master's house, busy from morning till night, and not as leisurely as her previous life as a maid in a wealthy family, Ruyi really liked her current life. Although busy, the master treated them well, providing them with three meals a day.
Moreover, their eldest young master also said that as long as they work hard for ten years, they can redeem themselves and leave.
Although she hasn't thought about whether to leave her current home, there must be a direction to work towards, right?
Seeing that his mother was still busy, Lu Mingfei said a few words to her and prepared to leave. "Mother, I'm going to go to my stepmother and come back later."
"Go, go." Liu Sanniang waved her hand. The customer who had ordered rice dumplings had just finished his meal, so she was busy packing the dumplings for the customer to take away, and had no time to talk to her eldest son.
Lu Mingfei came over to the pancake shop.
The pancake shop was doing very well at this time of the morning. When he came over, his stepmother was also busy in the shop. Seeing that his stepmother was a little flustered, he wanted to go in and help make the clay pot rice.
But before he could do anything, he was driven away by his stepmother.
"Don't move, don't move, be careful not to burn your hands." Xu Yue Niang didn't dare let her adopted son do this job. What if his hands were burned? The child still has to take an exam next month. How can he write with a burned hand?
Although the list of the provincial examination will not be posted for a few days, no one in their family thinks that their child will fail the examination.
"Would you like some clay pot rice? Or some sesame seed cakes? I'll give you a whole large portion."
"I don't want a sesame cake. I want a clay pot rice to take back home."
"Oh, okay, wait a minute, I'll do it for you right away."
There happened to be an empty stove, so Xu Yueniang put the earthenware pot filled with rice on it, covered it with a lid and simmered it. While waiting for the rice to cook, she talked to her adopted son and asked about his situation at other people's homes.
"He, Mingrui and Xiaobao have been doing horse stance and boxing at home these days. They have company and are having a lot of fun together." Lu Mingfei knew that his stepmother was missing her children, so he told her some things about Lu Mingcong at their house.
While Xu Yue Niang was working, she listened to her adopted son talking about his son. She always had a smile on her face and would ask her adopted son a question about his son from time to time.
If the store wasn't so busy, she would have wanted to take care of the child herself. But now that the store is so busy, her husband is busy with other things at home, and she is the only one looking after the store. Although the store has hired people to come back to work, she also has to keep an eye on it.
When I get busy, I inevitably neglect my son a little.
Knowing what his stepmother was thinking, Lu Mingfei told her: "Don't think too much, stepmother. Mingcong is having a great time with Mingrui and Xiaobao at our house. If you miss him, come back to our house with my mother for dinner after you're done here, and you'll be able to see him."
"Haha, you are right. I will take a look later in the evening and go to your house for dinner with your mother." Xu Yue Niang also wanted to go and see how her son, who was having so much fun playing at someone else's house, was doing.
"Mom, I'm going back."
"Okay, go back early."
When the clay pot rice was cooked, Lu Mingfei knew that his stepmother would not accept his money, so he did not give her any money. He said goodbye to her and left with the basket. Before going back, he went to their stall to say hello to his mother and went home with a bunch of rice dumplings. Author's words: Thank you Bole 9492239 (9492239) for your support. Kisses! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading.
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