Chapter 43
"Did I say something wrong?"
Isn't a life-saving grace like that of a second parent?
Shu Shouyi was heavy in her arms, so Shu Wanxiu lifted him up a little and walked with difficulty to the front of her uncle's house.
Even though she knew her uncle wouldn't refuse her request to stay overnight, Shu Wanxiu still took a deep breath when she raised her hand to knock on the door.
Xu Zhen came out to open the door.
Shu Wanxiu held Shu Shouyi tightly, her toes together, standing properly in place.
"Aunt..."
His movements were restrained, and his expression suggested he wanted to say something but hesitated.
But the villagers of Wupai Village were not the only ones who were kept up all night by Liu Yinxue and his son; the villagers of Wuli Village were too.
The Shu family was in a state of panic last night. They didn't go to sleep until very late after searching for someone, and they had no time to inquire about other news. They also got up late today, so Xu Zhen didn't even notice Shu Wanxiu's unusual hesitation.
"Oh! Wanxiu is here?!" Xu Zhen responded with a smile, her tone and demeanor as usual, and came out to greet her.
Upon noticing that she was carrying a child, groceries, and several doses of medicine, her expression changed slightly, but she quickly took the basket from her and, supporting her back, called out, "Come inside quickly!"
Shu Wanxiu took a step forward and nodded slightly.
Before the ten-day deadline had passed, the county government posted a notice announcing the capture of all eight perpetrators in the grain robbery case.
The seven perpetrators mentioned earlier were only the number seen by Lin Wenda's family. During the actual interrogation, the perpetrators confessed that another person was responsible for keeping watch.
Along with the notice, their verdict was also posted: the three main culprits, the Liu family, were beheaded, and the five accomplices were exiled.
The Liu family burst into tears upon hearing the verdict.
But for Shu Wanxiu, this is great news.
She immediately packed her bags, took Shu Shouyi to say goodbye to her uncle's family, and moved back to their home halfway up the mountain.
The wooden door has been completed and securely installed onto the door frame.
Carpenter Pang wasn't exaggerating; he truly used his excellent skills to make this door.
The dried cedar wood, cut into uniform thicknesses, is perfectly matched to the length and width of the door frame, creating a near-seamless design while ensuring smooth opening and closing of the door.
Shu Wanxiu pushed and pulled several times, and was extremely satisfied.
But to her surprise, someone added something to her—an iron ring was installed on the door and the door frame.
The two iron rings were polished to a high shine. Looking vertically down, some wood chips that hadn't been cleaned up were visible on the ground, undoubtedly left over from when the door rings were installed.
Shu Wanxiu pushed open the door and entered the house, where she discovered a square iron lock tied with straw rope and hanging behind the door.
It's obvious who left it there.
Last time, Shu Wanxiu mustered up the courage to say that she regarded Xun Yi as her second parents, but was hastily rejected. She has been troubled by this matter for the past few days.
Having once again received a benefit from Xun Yi for free, Shu Wanxiu really didn't know what to do.
The door knocker was too difficult to remove, so she stared at the lock for two days before finally figuring things out and taking it down the mountain.
Unfortunately, the blacksmith shop was deserted.
The same thing happened when I went again the next day.
After being turned away twice, she went to Aunt Chen's house to inquire. It turned out that Xun Yi's master had sent a message from the county town that a rich man had ordered a large batch of ironware to be made and asked Xun Yi to help.
Calculating the time, Xun Yi's departure date was exactly the same day Shu Wanxiu returned from Wuli Village. The two left the village in the morning and returned in the afternoon.
No one knows when Xun Yi will return.
No one knows exactly how much of the large quantity of ironware there was.
The days passed peacefully and uneventfully. On the day before the end of the year, Shu Wanxiu went down the mountain and found that the Xun family's door was still closed. When she got closer, she saw that the lock on the door was covered with a layer of dust.
"They can't even come back for the New Year?" Shu Wanxiu felt a little worried.
However, Xun Yi was a capable person in her heart, and after worrying for a while, she let it go.
Today is Lunar New Year's Eve, and tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Day. Even though we can't afford to buy many New Year's goods, celebrating the New Year is always different from usual.
How can you tell the difference? Besides cleaning the house inside and out exceptionally well, you can only focus on the food.
Shu Wanxiu carried a hoe and followed her little tail into the bamboo grove near her home.
After settling in the south, Shu Wanxiu learned about bamboo and bamboo shoots. She discovered that there are two types of bamboo shoots: spring bamboo shoots, which grow in spring and can grow into bamboo, and winter bamboo shoots, which grow in winter and have no chance to break through the soil and become bamboo.
After winter sets in, people occasionally go into the bamboo grove near her home to dig for bamboo shoots. She has seen the appearance of winter bamboo shoots a few times, but has never had the chance to taste them.
Aunt Chen is a well-known expert in finding winter bamboo shoots in the entire Wupai Village. Every winter, she goes into the bamboo mountain to dig for winter bamboo shoots and never comes back empty-handed.
Once, while chatting with Chen Sanhe on a whim, he learned that Shu Wanxiu and Shu Shouyi had never eaten bamboo shoots in their lives. Chen Sanhe then patted his chest and promised that he would definitely let them taste bamboo shoots this year.
Not long after he said that, the heavy snow that followed the winter solstice fell.
Digging bamboo shoots is really difficult when the ground is covered by snow.
Chen Sanhe waited and waited, and finally a while ago the snow melted completely, revealing the original appearance of the mountains and forests. Chen Sanhe immediately picked up his hoe and went into the mountains to fulfill his promise.
She spent half an afternoon digging up a whole basket of winter bamboo shoots.
The winter bamboo shoots, wrapped in several layers of golden-yellow sheaths, had almost reached their limit when they were about the size of a palm. Chen Sanhe didn't feel bad at all and picked out six palm-sized ones from his basket and gave them to Shu Wanxiu.
The girl, born and raised in the north, really got to try something new.
I couldn't resist and ate six bamboo shoots in two meals.
When she wanted to improve her meals for the New Year, the first thing that came to her mind was the winter bamboo shoots that she hadn't had enough of last time!
But these winter bamboo shoots are buried deep in the soil and don't sprout, making them quite difficult to find.
For this reason, she specifically consulted Chen Sanhe and learned some 'special skills'.
Today was her first time digging bamboo shoots; the aunt and niece had discussed it before going into the mountains.
If all goes well, we'll have braised bamboo shoots with salted fish tonight; if not, we'll just have salted fish.
She went into the mountains with a positive attitude, but she still broke down while digging.
Aunt Chen said that there might be winter bamboo shoots in the tiny cracks.
Shu Wanxiu dug with great confidence, but found nothing.
Aunt Chen said that if there are slight bulges or minor protrusions, there may be winter bamboo shoots.
Shu Wanxiu dug with great confidence, but found nothing.
Aunt Chen said that there is a very high probability that winter bamboo shoots will grow next to the newly grown bamboo this year.
Shu Wanxiu dug it up, but found nothing.
The scariest thing was that as she dug, she felt that there might be winter bamboo shoots all over the mountain, so she dug and dug and dug... until she was digging up the soil.
Shu Shouyi carried a basket and followed Shu Wanxiu wherever she dug, but after wandering around here and there, the daylilies had all cooled down and the basket was still empty.
Shu Wanxiu dug out another large and deep hole. Shu Shouyi, who hadn't really participated, asked dejectedly, "Auntie, are there no bamboo shoots here?"
"..."
Speechless, Shu Wanxiu realized at that moment that she had absolutely no talent for digging bamboo shoots.
But having already put in so much effort, it's really frustrating to get nothing in return.
"Put down your basket and try digging up bamboo shoots by picking up a dead twig."
After appeasing Shu Shouyi, Shu Wanxiu had no choice but to resort to her last resort.
In half an hour, she dug more than twenty holes of various sizes.
Excluding the pit she dug herself, Shu Wanxiu went to the pit dug by someone else.
Aunt Chen said: Winter bamboo shoots usually grow along with bamboo roots. If a winter bamboo shoot grows on a bamboo root, a second or third winter bamboo shoot may grow. If you really can't find one, you can follow the trail by looking at the bamboo shoot holes that others have dug.
This is a clumsy method used when all else fails, but it really works for people who know nothing about digging bamboo shoots.
Shu Wanxiu followed the bamboo roots for a while and found the first winter bamboo shoot of the day.
Although it looked only slightly longer than a thumb and about the thickness of two fingers put together, it gave Shu Wanxiu a lot of encouragement.
After clearing away all the soil around the bamboo shoot, she raised the hoe, aimed at the bottom of the shoot, and swung it down.
"Bang!" A very clear and crisp sound.
But... the hoe didn't land where she expected.
The bamboo shoot I finally found was chopped in half with a hoe.
Another hour passed, and Shu Wanxiu painstakingly dug out some less-than-perfect bamboo shoots.
Some bamboo shoots were scratched while digging, and soil fell onto the bamboo shoot flesh.
Some bamboo shoots are dug up entirely, and the last shovel strike cuts the shoot in half.
I was so tired that my back ached, but I managed to eat enough for one meal.
"Shouyi! We're home."
After listening to Shu Wanxiu's words, Shu Shouyi picked up some small branches and started digging with great effort. At first, he remembered that his goal was to dig bamboo shoots, but as he dug, he forgot about his goal and just started playing with mud.
Hearing Shu Wanxiu's call, he threw off the branch and ran over from the side. When he saw the bamboo shoots that had appeared in the previously empty basket, he was first dumbfounded, and then jumped up and cheered.
"Auntie is amazing!"
Receiving such a heartfelt compliment from a child filled Shu Wanxiu with satisfaction, and all her fatigue vanished.
She picked up the basket, strutted confidently, and declared, "Let's go home and eat bamboo shoots!"
Shu Shouyi was so happy he danced with joy, his eyebrows curving into crescents. Hearing this, he loudly echoed, "Great! Great! Let's eat bamboo shoots! Let's eat bamboo shoots!"
The main appeal of winter bamboo shoots is their freshness and tenderness.
If you leave the bamboo shoots for even a short while after peeling off the outer skin, they will lose more of their freshness.
So, carrying the bamboo basket back into the house, Shu Wanxiu first prepared all the side dishes for the evening, except for the main dish of braised bamboo shoots with salted fish.
With everything ready, before picking up the winter bamboo shoots, Shu Wanxiu carefully reviewed the cooking process of braised winter bamboo shoots with salted fish in her mind.
That's right, Shu Wanxiu had eaten winter bamboo shoots twice, but the first two times she blanched them and then stir-fried them.
Today is both an opportunity to try a new way to eat winter bamboo shoots and for her to cook this year's New Year's Eve dinner.
She was not only curious about the taste of bamboo shoots and salted fish cooked together, but also worried about making a bad dish.
After mentally preparing herself, she picked up a thin bamboo strip and peeled away the beautiful, layered outer layers of the winter bamboo shoot.
The winter bamboo shoots she dug up were mostly broken, with few intact ones. Fortunately, the outer skin was thick enough that even those that looked terrible weren't covered in too much mud when peeled back.
It's a real shame that those projects were 'cut in half'.
Not only are both ends covered in mud, but there is also a severe polarization.
The bamboo strips near the root are so hard to cut that they can't be shaved at all, while the tender tip near the tip is so delicate that it breaks apart with the slightest touch when peeling the bamboo shoot.
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Author's note: It's gotten colder recently, everyone please keep warm and avoid catching a cold [shrug]
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