Chapter 112: Eyes Curved into a Waxing Moon
If Sang Luo said something was useful, Chen Lie would not ask any more questions and would just agree to it.
I went into the mountains with Chen Dashan in the morning, and when we came back we brought back four pheasants and a wild rabbit.
Although these things will inevitably end up in the stomach, there is no child who doesn't like rabbits. Shen An, Shen Ning, and Shen Jin, who sneaked out, squatted beside the simple rabbit cage that Shen Lie had made and couldn't get enough of looking at them.
Chen Lie and Chen Dashan went to the county town quietly in the afternoon and returned home after dark. They helped to move the food back and then went down the mountain to pull carts home. The food that Sang Luo's family bought last time was now all transported back from the warehouse of Dongfulou.
Naturally, I also bought the jar of fermented glutinous rice that Sang Luo wanted.
After moving the grain, the three brothers and sisters gathered together to look at the jar of fermented glutinous rice wine, not for any other reason, but because it had a particularly pleasant sweet aroma, hmm, the aroma of wine?
Sang Luo saw it and asked with a smile: "Have you ever eaten this?"
This time, not to mention Shen An and Shen Ning, even Shen Lie shook his head and said he had never eaten it.
Sang Luo: ...
Yes, alcohol was a luxury at that time, and rice wine was also alcohol. These three were not available in the past.
She raised her eyebrows and decided to be generous. While the food left for Chen Lie was still steaming in the steamer, she took a bowl and a spoonful and scooped out three large spoonfuls of fermented glutinous rice. Considering that Chen An and Chen Ning were still children, she added a lot of warm water to dilute the fermented glutinous rice. Since there was no rock sugar, she dissolved some maltose in it, and then took out two eggs from the small jar and cracked them in.
The food was just ready, so the lid was opened and the bowl of fermented glutinous rice with cracked eggs was put into the steamer.
"Lao Zao Eggs, also known as Fermented Rice and Eggs, I'll make you a bowl to try."
Well, she couldn't admit that she was craving for rice wine.
Eating a bowl of fermented rice wine and eggs in winter can warm your whole body, not to mention that the fermented rice wine and eggs themselves are delicious.
So, when Chen Lie had dinner, in addition to the food left for him, there was also a bowl of steaming and fragrant fermented glutinous rice wine and eggs on the small square table.
Sang Luo gave two eggs to Shen An and Shen Ning, one each. As for the sweet wine, well, each person only had a small spoonful: "Children, don't drink, just taste it."
He scooped a third of the remaining water to taste, and gave the other half to Chen Lie, saying with a smile, “The chickens don’t lay eggs very often in winter, so the eggs are given to Xiao An and Aning. You can try this wine, it’s sweet and delicious.”
Shen Lie didn't know whether this fermented glutinous rice wine tasted good or not, but he could tell that Sang Luo must like it very much. He smiled and switched the two bowls: "It's my first time tasting it, so I'll just drink this bowl. You can drink the extra bowl."
Sang Luo looked at the half bowl of sweet wine placed in front of her and said, "Okay."
I picked up the bowl and blew away the hot steam. Because I was afraid of being burned, I took a sip and my eyes curved with satisfaction.
Shen An and Shen Ning also tasted their first sip of the sweet wine. The two children experienced such a good taste for the first time, and their eyes lit up!
Shen Ning: "Sister-in-law, the wine is so delicious!"
Shen An also nodded vigorously, and urged Shen Lie: “Brother, you try it too, it’s delicious!”
Sang Luo smiled: "It's just that sweet wine tastes good. Well, some fruit wines are also delicious. Other wines don't taste like this. And this sweet wine is also diluted with water. You are still young and can't drink alcohol."
She must not mislead the children.
Seeing Shen An and Shen Ning's eyes sparkling, Sang Luo quickly added, "It is said that if you drink too much, your brain won't be as smart."
Well, it is said.
She doesn't know whether it's true or not, and she's not responsible.
Shen An's hand holding the spoon froze.
Sang Luo burst into laughter: "It doesn't matter if you mix the stewed sweet rice wine with boiling water."
Shen An then breathed a sigh of relief and happily took a second bite.
Chen Lie watched the three of them chatting with each other, a smile forming in his eyes. He picked up the bowl and took a sip. Hmm, it was really sweet.
When he put down the bowl, he found Sang Luo looking at him: "What's up?"
She nodded quickly, but remained reserved: "It tastes good."
A dinner that should have been a solemn one eaten alone, because of a bowl of fermented glutinous rice and eggs, it seemed as if even the flickering light of the oil lamp had shone with warmth in the cold winter.
…
After dinner, they talked about the county. Chen Lie said, "The news of the war in the county has spread everywhere this afternoon. Now the price of everything has increased. I heard that the price of coarse grains has increased by more than four times compared to this morning. Dashan and I went to the East and West Markets and saw that the prices of meat, vegetables, fruits and other foods sold at the stalls have also increased. Several of the original steamed cake stalls and Hu cake stalls are no longer open."
He paused here and said, "Do you think you should discuss with Aunt Arita and the others about not selling tofu and other things for the time being? If you want to sell them, see if you can also exchange them for food?"
The raw material for making tofu is soybeans, which are hard to buy nowadays. If the market gets more chaotic outside, the county might even limit the sale of coarse grains.
Sang Luo was also saddened when she heard that the price of coarse grains had quadrupled overnight. Fortunately, they bought them quickly enough.
She nodded. "Okay, today's beans have been soaked, but there are other ways to deal with them. It mainly depends on how the suppliers in Dongfulou deal with them later. I'll go down the mountain and ask them later."
Without waiting for Sang Luo to come down the mountain, Qin Fangniang, Feng Liuniang and Gan came together after hearing the news brought back by their husbands.
They were also worried when seeing the food prices rising so much. Sang Luo's dried tofu paste didn't appear out of thin air. If the raw materials were used up now, they didn't know whether they could buy more later.
Finally, the four people got together and discussed and decided to only supply a few restaurants the next day and raise the price, or the restaurants would give them corresponding grain in exchange. Otherwise, the business would be temporarily suspended.
Qin Fangniang said, "That's great. I'll practice with you guys, too."
The children now started to run with loads in a backpack. When we say loads, they just put one or two bags of sand in the backpack to help them adapt to the long journey with food and other things on their backs.
People like Qin Fangniang go to the county every day, so they don't need to practice this anymore. Even though they are women, they have endured just as much hardship and their endurance is not much worse than that of men. They have heard that Sang Luo is practicing slingshot at home. If they really don't set up the stall, they can learn it too. This way, they can help their men and sons share the burden at critical moments, and maybe save their own lives.
It was agreed that Sang Luo only needed to make half the amount of tofu and dried bean curd that night, and the deposits given by several families were also returned in full.
Qin Fangniang and the others had originally planned to share the extra beans among the families and take them back to cook. Sang Luo smiled and asked, "I'm going to keep some for cooking and make bean sprouts. Aunts can take them back to stew. If you want to try something new, I can send them to you in a few days after the bean sprouts are ready."
Every family knows how to grow bean sprouts. It is the way to add some fresh vegetables in winter. However, it takes several days to grow bean sprouts. It would be best if you can grow mulberry leaves at the same time.
The Gan family members laughed and said, "Okay, let's make the bean sprouts grow, and we can just wait and eat them."
After seeing off a few people, the evening work became less heavy. After preparing the dried bean curd and vegetarian tripe, the family washed up and went to bed.
The next morning, Chen Lie got up at the crowing of the cock as usual, got out of bed quietly and went to the kitchen to grind beans. However, he had just turned on the light in the kitchen and hadn't started grinding yet when he heard Sang Luo's footsteps. He followed the sound to the kitchen door and saw it was indeed Sang Luo.
"Why are you up so early? Don't you want to sleep in a little?"
In the past eight or nine days since Chen Lie returned home, Sang Luo rarely had to get up so early, which is why Chen Lie was so surprised.
Sang Luo smiled and rolled up her sleeves as she said, "Aren't you going into the mountains today? I'll get up and get you some food."
Chen Lie was stunned for a moment, remembering that every time he went into the mountains, if he couldn't come back in time for dinner, Sang Luo would prepare some food for him to take with him, and he felt a little warm in his heart.
But he still advised: "Actually, there is no need to go through so much trouble. I'm afraid we won't be able to come back for more than half a month. We can find food in the forest."
Sang Luo glanced at him and said, "Barbecue? I know you can find food. You'll get tired of eating the same thing after a while. My family also wants to make breakfast, so I made it for you. Don't take it too seriously."
He said it was just a side job, but when he actually used the fermented glutinous rice, Chen Lie couldn't help laughing.
By the way.
He chewed over these words in his mind, his eyes curved with smile. Afraid of being seen by Sang Luo, he quickly turned around and went to grind the beans.
Sang Luo didn't notice the person grinning behind her, and was busy scooping out flour and using fermented glutinous rice to make dough.
Making dough with fermented glutinous rice can be considered an ancient method. At least in later times when yeast powder can be bought everywhere, most people don’t know about it. Sang Luo knew about it because she lived in the mountains. When she first moved in, her family didn’t have yeast powder, so when she wanted to eat steamed buns, she could only look for a way online.
I found several methods after searching, and one of them was a method of fermenting sweet rice wine. I became interested and ordered yeast powder and wine yeast online. After receiving the goods, I made steamed buns with the yeast powder and also made a pot of sweet rice wine.
The reason why you make your own sweet rice wine instead of buying packaged ones is that the packaged ones have been sterilized and cannot ferment.
After that, I tried using sweet rice wine to make the dough. I tried it twice and it worked.
Yesterday, when she heard that Chen Lielin was about to go out and was thinking of hunting some pheasants for them to raise at home so that they could eat a few from time to time, she was touched and remembered that she had flour at home, so she asked Chen Lie to go to the county to buy a jar of fermented glutinous rice wine. That's why she got up early this morning to make dough for him to take on the road.
…
Shen An and Shen Ning got up at the end of the Yin hour, and left home with their eldest brother, Qin Fangniang and others who came to pick tofu, carrying baskets on their backs and running away.
When I came back, as soon as I entered the yard, I was attracted by the sweet fragrance that filled the yard.
The brother and sister looked at each other and smelled the scent.
Shen An: “Does it look like the steamed buns in the county?”
Shen Ning: “Like the buns given by Shopkeeper Xu.”
Then they all ran into the house, followed by an exclamation of "Wow".
The breakfast at the Shen family's main house today was particularly sumptuous, with sweet soy milk and several kinds of white, soft, fragrant and fluffy noodles, round steamed cakes, and buns with various fillings. Upon asking, I learned that there were buns with mushroom and chicken filling, leek and egg filling, shredded radish filling, and scallion omelette!!!
"Sister-in-law, what day is today?"
It’s definitely not the Chinese New Year, it hasn’t arrived yet.
Sang Luo: “…”
You have food but still ask about the day?
"The first day of the twelfth lunar month." She casually reported today's date.
Shen An and Shen Ning looked at each other, and Shen Ning tilted his head and asked, "Isn't Laba the festival?"
And this is not what we do on Laba Festival, it’s about cooking porridge?
Sang Luo: “…”
Shen Lie laughed silently.
Sang Luo stopped talking when she saw this and patted the two little ones: "Your eldest brother is going into the mountains today. He might not be back for more than half a month. I made some extra food for him to take with him on the road. Come on, go wash your hands and have breakfast."
Chen Lie listened to the word "shunshou" again, his eyes curved into a crescent moon.
"Brother is going into the mountains?"
Shen An and Shen Ning had always known that their elder brother was going to go into the mountains for a while. When they heard this, they were stunned for a moment, but it was okay. They just told him, "Brother, you must be careful in the mountains."
They have also taken a jungle survival class recently and know that there are many dangers in the mountains.
Chen Lie rubbed the two little heads and said, "Yes, just listen to your sister-in-law at home."
The two little ones nodded repeatedly.
Sang Luo: “…”
Where does this strange feeling of an old married couple come from???
…
It sounded like they were going to bring dry food for their eldest brother, so the brother and sister washed their hands and came in, looked at the buns, and finally reached out to the steamed buns in unison.
This is really painful.
Sang Luo looked at it and shook her head: "Take whatever you want to eat. I have left some food for your eldest brother in the kitchen. This stuff won't last too long. It's useless to bring too much."
In the middle of winter, the best it can be kept is six or seven days without going bad. The taste will get worse as time goes by. It’s just about enough for three or four days. After that, it’s better to eat roasted chicken or roasted rabbit.
When they heard that there was more in the kitchen, the brother and sister smiled happily. They picked out their favorite buns and shared them, just to try different flavors.
After breakfast, Chen Lie packed up his things and came out.
His things were simple, just a backpack containing some things he needed to take into the mountains, wrapped in an animal skin, and nothing else except the weapons.
He did change his clothes, but he still wore the jacket, and replaced his outer garment with his old clothes.
When Chen Lie saw Sang Luo looking at his clothes, he said, "The roads in the forest are not easy to walk on. I'm afraid my new clothes will get scratched."
Sang Luo smiled, took out the things she had prepared for him, and put them in the backpack. Chen An and Chen Ning also helped pass things to him.
As Sang Luo put the things in, she explained to Chen Lie: "I didn't bring you anything, just buns and steamed cakes. The steamed cakes are more durable, so eat the buns first. This bamboo tube and jar are for you to drink and boil water. When you find a place to stay at night, boil some hot water or hot soup to warm yourself up. The oil paper is wrapped with salt, and the lotus leaf is wrapped with some dried mushrooms. Add some to the soup to enhance the flavor."
After putting everything in, she looked at the boy who was much taller than her and said, "Be careful. The world is going to be in chaos. Xiao An and Aning are counting on you to protect us."
She never treats someone well for no reason, and her purpose is always clear and explicit.
Shen Lie smiled and nodded: "Okay, I will be back as soon as possible."
He then whispered, "Da Shan and I are away, so we've left Uncle Shi and Uncle Lu to take care of things in the village. It looks like things won't get chaotic for a while, but it's better for you and Xiao An Aning to stay closer to Uncle Shi or Uncle Lu so that they can respond as quickly as possible if something happens."
Sang Luo nodded: "I know, don't worry."
Chen Lie then looked at his brother and sister, rubbed their heads, and before he could say anything, the voice of Mrs. Chen came from outside the yard. Sang Luo hurried out, and Chen Lie also picked up the backpack, and the three siblings followed her out.
It was Mrs. Chen who personally brought Chen Dashan here.
The old lady's ancestors were hunters, so she was not worried about her grandson going into the mountains. She was smiling and only told the two to be more alert and that safety was the first priority. She did not nag about anything else.
Influenced by Old Lady Chen and Sang Luo, Shen An and Shen Ning were not as scared this time compared to the last time their brother was captured as a soldier, because they knew that their eldest brother had some abilities and that he would only be out for a short time and would be back soon.
Following Grandma Chen and her sister-in-law, she waved to Chen Lie and Chen Dashan.
Chen Lie and Chen Dashan had already gone down the mountain. They turned around to look back at the courtyard and their family, waved their hands, and then turned around the ridge and left with Chen Dashan.
Chen Dashan looked at him with a smile: "You must feel much more at ease now that you are out here."
Shen Lie's eyebrows were full of smiles.
Chen Dashan clicked his tongue twice and peered into the backpack behind Chen Lie: "What did your sister-in-law prepare for you? I just smelled the fragrance outside your yard."
As he spoke, he had already followed the scent and accurately found the cloth bag on the backpack. He lifted it up and took a look. Just one look and he felt sour.
It was noodles, noodles that he had never eaten before, and he had only seen them in the kitchen of Dongfulou!!!
"Give me two at noon."
"one."
"Two, I'll trade mine with yours!"
“No!”
"Are we still brothers who share weal and woe?"
"Not now."
Chen Dashan: "...Tsk, this brother can't get along. I've decided that from now on, when I look for a wife, I must look for one who can cook. There must be a day when you are greedy!"
Chen Lie curved his eyes and smiled even more happily: "Well, that's right, wait for your wife to do it for you later."
Chen Dashan turned his head to look at Chen Lie, and couldn't help but give him an elbow: "Alright, you know your sister-in-law is good, put away that smile on your face."
Chen Lie couldn't hold it back, but he really straightened his expression: "Dashan, I think God has compensated us for all the sufferings we have endured in the past by putting them here with A'Luo."
The two looked at each other, and Chen Lie said, "Let's explore the direction we haven't gone before. It's a seven-day period. Whether we find a satisfactory place or not, we will leave first and find an alternative place to hide the food first. If there is anything, we can leave immediately. I don't want to take any more risks."
Whether it's Chen An, Chen Ning, or A'Luo, he wants to protect them thoroughly.
Chen Dashan nodded and said, "Okay, seven days."
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