Chapter 295 Dragon Boat Festival

It’s enough for the entire Liu family to live in.

Brother Liu exclaimed, "If your parents knew you lived in such a big house, they would be so happy."

Brother Liu picked up Gu Yanyan and was shocked when he heard this: "Don't you care how high your brother-in-law's position is..."

Liu Yinyin glanced at them and shifted her attention, saying, "Big Brother, second brother, please help me make the dumplings."

She was worried that she couldn't handle it all by herself, as she had to make rice dumplings and prepare dinner.

I bought a lot of things today.

Brother Liu coughed and said, "...Little sister, we don't know how to make zongzi either."

Making rice dumplings is a technical job, and the two brothers really don’t know how to do it.

The Liu family used to be poor and seldom made rice dumplings.

What's more, this is a woman's job, and Brother Liu has never done this before.

Liu Yinyin taught them several times, but the two brothers couldn't wrap the dumplings properly, so she had to give up.

Fortunately, they didn't know how to make rice dumplings, but one of them worked in a canteen and the other in a state-owned hotel, so they knew a lot about kitchen work.

They didn't do anything else but wash and cut vegetables...

The weather is good today, neither cold nor hot. Liu Yinyin moved a stool and sat in the yard to make rice dumplings.

Before she finished, someone came to her at the door and called out, "Yinyin, are you making zongzi?"

The door was not closed. Liu Yinyin looked up and saw that it was Ma Guilan who came with Political Commissar Huang and Miao Yan.

She was quite confused. Today was a holiday and she didn't know why these two people came to see her.

Liu Yinyin put down the work in her hands and invited them to come into the house and sit down.

Ma Guilan was a little surprised to see someone in the kitchen: "Yinyin, is your family here?"

She had met Brother Liu and Brother Liu before.

Liu Yinyin nodded: "Today is a holiday, I asked my eldest brother and second brother to come over for dinner."

Seeing that Ma Guilan seemed to be hesitant to speak, Liu Yinyin asked in confusion: "...Auntie, is there something wrong?"

Ma Guilan opened her mouth and asked somewhat embarrassedly: "Yinyin, I heard that you can dry lychees?"

When Liu Yinyin heard this, she understood and said, "Auntie, do you want to dry lychees too?"

Because she was busy with work during this period, Liu Yinyin didn't interact much with the people in the family compound.

The only people who knew that her family dried lychees were Zheng Qiangwei and Xu Zhenzhen.

However, the family compound is so small, it's not surprising that other people would know about it.

Ma Guilan didn't beat around the bush and said directly: "Lychees are good things, but they don't last long. I heard that some of the lychees that were not eaten on the island just rotted. What a pity."

"If we can dry lychees and store them, every household can stock up more."

Anyway, lychees are cheap now, so you can dry some and store them. You can give them to your children as snacks at home, or send them back home, which is a very face-saving thing.

Miao Yan echoed, "Yes, I heard that there is a bumper harvest of lychees this year. It would be a shame if we couldn't eat them all."

Liu Yinyin didn't want to hide it and said frankly: "Making dried lychees is very simple. First, wash the lychees, then put them in a pot and cook them until the lychee skin changes color. Then you can take them out and put them in the sun to slowly dry."

"It's best to expose lychees to the sun for ten days or half a month, otherwise they will go bad easily."

Ma Guilan was surprised: "...Is it that simple?"

Drying lychees is a bit time-consuming, but it is not difficult to do.

Liu Yinyin hummed, but she was not 100% sure, and only said: "Actually, this is my first time doing this, so I wanted to give it a try first."

Ma Guilan thought for a moment and said, "I'll buy some lychees later to try. Thank you, Yinyin."

Anyway, lychees are not expensive now, so it won’t cost much to buy more.

Otherwise, when lychees are out of season, they won’t be able to buy them even if they want to.

Liu Yinyin said indifferently: "Sister-in-law, don't be polite. It's not a big deal."

"You can't say that." Miao Yan said softly, "Yinyin, there are not many people as generous as you in the courtyard. Just two days ago..."

Miao Yan gets angry when she mentions this: "My neighbor made canned lychees by himself, and my son was clamoring for some, so I went to their house to ask how they made the canned lychees, but what happened..."

"She rejected me outright, saying that this was her family's secret recipe and that outsiders couldn't know about it. Isn't that infuriating?"

Liu Yinyin: “…”

These days, supplies are scarce and many people have rarely eaten lychees, let alone fruits.

It is true that not many people can can fruit by themselves, and there is no such opportunity.

Canned lychees...sounds good.

Liu Yinyin was thinking about making a few jars herself.

Because Liu Yinyin generously taught them how to make dried lychees, Miao Yan's attitude towards her became more enthusiastic than before.

They wanted to chat for a while longer, but Liu Yinyin was busy making rice dumplings, so they didn't want to disturb her any further.

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival, and both of them have things to do at home.

Not long after sitting there, the two left.

Liu Yinyin continued to make the rice dumplings, and at about four o'clock, she finally finished making them.

She counted them and found that she had made a total of 108 dumplings.

Thirty meat dumplings, fifteen with salted duck and egg yolk, twenty with candied dates, twenty with red beans and twenty with peanuts.

There are a lot of rice dumplings, and the small pot definitely can’t hold them all.

Liu Yinyin had no choice but to cook the rice dumplings in the big pot she usually used for cooking.

I'll cook the vegetables in the small pot on the stove later.

After throwing a few pieces of firewood into the stove, Liu Yinyin went to do other things...

Big Brother Liu and Second Brother Liu had already cut all the meat and vegetables and put them on plates; all Liu Yinyin had to do was stir-fry them.

Before dark, Liu Yinyin prepared a table of food.

Chicken stewed with mushrooms, braised pork, braised prawns, garlic clams, braised tofu and stir-fried taro shreds.

The staple food is white flour steamed buns.

There were not many people, so Liu Yinyin only made six dishes.

Brother Liu sighed: "It's a pity that my brother-in-law is not here..."

Otherwise they could have a few drinks.

Brother Liu also felt a little emotional, but he was emotional because his family was not around.

Liu Yinyin picked up a piece of braised pork from Gu Yanyan's bowl and sighed, "Big brother and second brother, eat quickly. The days ahead will surely get better and better."

They only sighed for a while, and then the eldest and second brothers Liu focused on making a living.

Such a sumptuous meal is not available at any time.

Although they had free food and accommodation in the cafeteria, the food was not that good.

Especially pork, state-owned hotels also supply pork to customers.

As employees, they can only eat some scraps at best.

I know that Liu Yinyin's family has no habit of eating leftovers.

The food on the table was eaten cleanly and the two brothers were very full.

I ate a lot of vegetables, but there were still a few steamed buns left, which I could save for breakfast tomorrow.