Chapter 498: Making Zongzi

After finding a place to live, Liu Yinyin went out whenever she had time for the next two days.

When I come back, I always bring some dried seafood or dried fruits.

Dried abalone, dried prawns, dried razor clams, dried sea cucumbers, dried small fish, dried kelp.

Not including Jiang Cuihua's.

Liu Yinyin bought two or three bags of each kind of dried food.

Together with the four canned fruits that Zheng Qiangwei gave her, there were large and small packages filling up two packages.

With several children, they had no hands free to carry the luggage.

Liu Yinyin simply went to the post office and mailed all the things back.

Two days later, the group left in a hurry again.

Jiang Cuihua and Liu Laifu sent Liu Yinyin to the family compound and wanted to go back to their hometown.

I've seen a few children and they don't have anything else to do here.

It would be better to go back to my hometown, where I can work in the fields and earn some food.

There is also the third brother’s family, I have to go back to help them take care of the children.

Liu Yinyin knew that they were not comfortable staying at home, so she did not try to persuade them to stay. She just said, "Mom and Dad, please leave in two days. Then Gu Cheng will take half a day off to take you back."

That night, Liu Yinyin soaked twenty kilograms of glutinous rice, preparing to make some rice dumplings for the next day.

The Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon, so it’s a good opportunity to make some extra rice dumplings for Jiang Cuihua and Liu Laifu to take back home to eat.

Yinyin prepared twenty kilograms of glutinous rice, forty salted duck eggs, one kilogram of pork belly, two kilograms of bacon, two kilograms of red beans, and two kilograms of peanuts as fillings.

After breakfast the next day, Liu Yinyin prepared to make rice dumplings.

I have a lot of rice dumplings to make today, so I have to cook them in two pots.

The sooner you wrap them, the sooner you can cook them. Maybe you can even eat the first pot of rice dumplings in the evening.

With Jiang Cuihua's help, and both of them being very skillful, they quickly wrapped forty dumplings with salted egg yolk and pork belly filling, and forty dumplings with bacon filling.

Put eighty rice dumplings into the pot, throw some firewood into the stove, and cook a pot first.

Then, they made forty dumplings with red bean filling and forty dumplings with peanut filling.

Just right, twenty or so glutinous rice, a total of 160 dumplings were wrapped.

Near noon, Zhou Xiaomei brought her a basket of fresh wild mushrooms and Chinese toon.

Liu Yinyin's parents were at home these days, and she rarely visited them. One reason was that she felt embarrassed, and the other was that she had nothing to do.

Her parents are around, and the children don't need Zhou Xiaomei to take care of them.

Liu Yinyin: "Sister-in-law, I made a lot of rice dumplings today. I'll give them to you to taste when they're cooked."

Liu Yinyin was very generous with her ingredients when cooking and making snacks, so Zhou Xiaomei said without thinking: "Your dumplings will definitely taste good. By the way..."

"Will your parents help you take care of the children here in the future?"

"No." Liu Yinyin shook her head. "They just came to take a look and will go back home in two days."

Zhou Xiaomei has no other meaning: "Well, we are both in the same situation. We don't have any elders to help us, so we have to do everything by ourselves."

However... although it is hard work, it is not without benefits.

Zhou Xiaomei didn't think it was a big deal. If she lived under the same roof with her mother-in-law, she wouldn't be as free as she is now and could do whatever she wanted.

Don't worry about other people's expressions. Nowadays, there are very few families without conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Liu Yinyin changed the subject and asked, "Sister-in-law, are you going to Dongpo Mountain tomorrow?"

"What?" Zhou Xiaomei glanced at her, "What do you want to buy?"

Liu Yinyin explained, "Aren't my parents going back home? I want to buy some food for them to take back home, fruits, mountain products, etc."

This time, Jiang Cuihua and Liu Laifu distributed the packages they brought to their brothers and sisters. The only things they had were two sets of clothes.

This way, I can bring more things back.

Zhou Xiaomei understood and said, "Okay, I'll go to Dongpo Mountain with you tomorrow. I also want to buy some eggs."

There were not enough eggs at home, so Zhou Xiaomei had to go to Dongpo Mountain to buy eggs every few days.

I didn’t go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy vegetables today.

At noon, Liu Yinyin cooked spicy dried shrimps, fried eggs with Chinese toon, stir-fried Chinese cabbage with mushrooms, and kelp and radish soup on the stove.

The staple food is white rice.

After lunch, Liu Yinyin cut two pieces of cloth and made a new set of clothes for Jiang Cuihua and Liu Laifu.

I have a sewing machine at home, so I can make clothes very quickly.

After working for an entire afternoon, two sets of clothes were finished.

Liu Yinyin also packed up two pieces of floral fabric and asked Jiang Cuihua to take them to Huang Xiaoyue. She was going to make clothes for her little niece.

Not knowing the size, Liu Yinyin didn't make it herself.

After cooking for most of the day, the rice dumplings in the big pot were cooked, and a strong fragrance wafted from the kitchen.

Liu Yinyin took the rice dumplings out of the pot and let them cool down.

Wash the large pot and prepare to cook the second pot of rice dumplings.

The first pot was filled with rice dumplings with salted egg yolk, pork belly and bacon fillings. The dumplings were quite large.

After dinner, Liu Yinyin only tasted half a rice dumpling filled with salted egg yolk, which was made with pure natural ingredients without additives.

The rice dumplings taste soft, sweet, and have a faint aroma of bamboo leaves. All in all, they taste very good.

Not only Liu Yinyin, but everyone else also said that the rice dumplings were delicious after trying them.

Jiang Cuihua exclaimed: "With so many ingredients, egg yolk and meat, how can it not be delicious?"

After Liu Yinyin soaked the glutinous rice, she added various spices to marinate it. The glutinous rice itself is also very delicious.

There were eighty rice dumplings, and I ate four of them filled with salted egg yolk and pork belly.

There were seventy-six left, and Liu Yinyin was thinking about giving twelve to Zhou Xiaomei.

Five are stuffed with salted egg yolk pork belly, and five are stuffed with bacon.

Of the remaining sixty-four dumplings, forty were given to Jiang Cuihua and Liu Laifu to take back home to eat.

There are few people in the family, so twenty-four dumplings are enough.

Besides, there are still eighty in the pot, and we can divide them in half when the time comes.

Let Liu Laifu and the others take eighty rice dumplings back.

Jiang Cuihua said hurriedly, "That's too much. Your father and I can't finish eighty dumplings."

"Don't we have Third Brother and his wife at home?" Liu Yinyin said with a smile, "There are so many dumplings. If you don't bring some back, Gu Cheng and I won't be able to finish them all."

Originally, Liu Yinyin made so many rice dumplings because she wanted Jiang Cuihua to take them back to her hometown.

"Mom, you don't have to worry about us. I can make rice dumplings anytime I want. Didn't my third sister-in-law ask you to bring me some things? Just consider it as my return gift to them."

Having said that, Jiang Cuihua no longer refused.

However, he still said something extra: "You should be more frugal when spending money. Gu Cheng can make money, but he can't afford to have so many children. The pressure will increase in the future."

Liu Yinyin said shyly: "Don't worry, mother. I know my limits. We have always had savings at home."

Jiang Cuihua nodded: "That's good, save more money and help your grandchildren get married in the future."

Liu Yinyin: "...You think far ahead."