Chapter 191: Public Recipe
Feng Liuniang and Gan were so excited that they wanted to stay awake until dawn. Finally, when daybreak came and they followed the hunting team to the Zhou and Zheng families, Wang Chunniang finally seized the opportunity and found a cave where only Lu Dalang was.
"Do you know what the second family is doing?"
Lu Dalang really didn't know about this.
Since Lu Erlang and Lu Sanlang, no, the hunters in the valley, suddenly rarely came back, he became a little upset because he didn't know anything. The old lady saw it and told him clearly that it was a mess outside, and in order to expose the location of the valley, the hunters could not come back often and could only stay outside.
With just this one sentence, he didn't want to know anything anymore.
Being able to stay in this valley without having to go out, isn't that better than anything else?
To put it bluntly, he lived a life that only the old, weak, women and children in the valley could live, and he clearly benefited from it. So from then on he asked nothing, cultivated the little land in the valley, raised the chickens and ducks that were allocated to him, and lived by saving food as much as possible. This way, when the children cried out in hunger and the old lady and his younger brothers and sisters-in-law got upset, the children could still get something to eat.
It's a bit cowardly, but he thinks it's good enough that he doesn't have to beg for food. This is his ability and this is the only way to raise a child.
Lu Dalang was very satisfied with the current situation. Even though he was obviously isolated, he just had to lower his head and cultivate his one-third acre of land. He had been rich and poor before, and there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Because he was satisfied with the current situation, when Wang Chunniang came to investigate the affairs of the second wife, Lu Dalang's first reaction was not dissatisfaction but vigilance.
"What do you want to do?"
Is this still unsettling?
Lu Dalang's face suddenly darkened: "What does my second brother's family do have to do with you? If you think your life is too peaceful, don't burden us."
Just as he finished speaking, he heard footsteps. He turned around and saw Shuanzhu coming in. Lu Dalang said with a gloomy face, "I don't think your mother wants to live a peaceful life. You and Da Niu should be careful. Don't ask your grandma for the key and ask her to go out recently. I still want to live a stable life for the next few years."
Wang Chunniang looked at Lu Dalang in astonishment, and her face twisted in the next moment. If she had been so confused in the past, she would have yelled at him, but Lu Dalang was frugal and only gave her two meals a day, each with only two bites. Even if she was angry, she couldn't yell. She only looked at him with resentment and said with sarcasm, "Lu Dalang, are you a man?"
Even a coward like Lu Dalang couldn't stand the words "not being a man". He was even more unwilling to pay attention to Wang Chunniang. He only looked at Shuanzhu and said, "Don't take my words lightly. The outside world is not peaceful right now. Your second uncle and third uncle only come back to the valley once every seven or eight days, and they have to come at night. Don't let your mother cause trouble again, otherwise our family will have no way to survive."
Shuanzhu looked a little numb. He wanted to correct his father. If his mother got into trouble again, not only would their family be doomed, but the entire valley would be implicated. However, he didn't even have the strength to move his lips. He just nodded slightly as a response.
Wang Chunniang saw her son nod, and her energy and spirit seemed to be drained away. After Lu Dalang left, she looked at Shuanzhu and said, "You crawled out of my intestines, and you treat me like this?"
Shuanzhu sat on his bed, resting his head on his knees to rest for a while, and then he said, "Mom, Dad is not talking nonsense. It's really not peaceful outside. Can't you just hide in this valley? Why are you staring at Second Aunt?"
"If I ask you a question, you're watching her? It's not peaceful outside. They're the ones who say it's not peaceful. What does your father know? They're just watching out for us."
Shuanzhu looked at her: "Then why are they on guard against us?"
Wang Chunniang was speechless immediately.
Lu Shuanzhu rubbed his face. He was actually tired of saying a lot of things. At this moment, he only said: "Mom, you should take a rest."
…
When Sang Luo and Shen Lie went to Zhou's house two days later, the rudiments of a settlement had already been formed there, with Zhou Laizi's house and Zheng the Butcher's house as the center.
It is called a prototype because the land reclamation and wall construction are still under construction.
The Feng family had gained experience by hiding in the periphery, and concealment was their top priority. However, when they saw the high walls of Zhou Laizi's house were full of soybeans and vegetables, they realized that even the Zheng family, who settled here later, had vegetables growing well within the walls.
It was impossible not to envy them. They had all the vegetable seeds, but they were hiding outside, so how could they dare to plant them? They had been eating wild vegetables for more than half a year.
Once the thought of farming comes up, it is difficult to suppress it.
This is not a place near the periphery. It is so deep in the mountains. The mountains in the Qiyang area are wide. Scattering people here is not much different from throwing a handful of chess pieces into the Huai River. The imperial army and the rebels who want to be kings and emperors are too busy fighting for territory and defending territory outside. They will not spend a lot of time and manpower to go deep into the mountains to search for these scattered people hiding in the mountains. What they need to guard against is people with bad intentions. And to guard against people with bad intentions, for the inner circle, they now have more than a hundred people living in settlements, which is enough.
If you can resist, resist; if you can’t, run away, but the land must be planted.
The most realistic problem is that their food supply can't last too long. Even if they are well prepared like Feng and Gan, aren't there poor people in the clan? There are also people who are as poor as Zhou Laizi. So the newcomers quickly made almost the same choice as Zhou Laizi and Zheng the Butcher's family when they arrived here.
You can cultivate land and grow vegetables. Now is the time before winter comes, and you can plant a crop of autumn vegetables that you can eat in as little as a month.
Because there were enough people, Chen Lie and his team moved around this area very frequently, and there were not many particularly threatening animals nearby, so these people who came later were cheaper than the Zhou family who lived here alone at the beginning. Whether they found a cave or built a wooden house like the Zheng family, they only needed to protect the living area. As for the planting area, they first cultivated the land and then simply built a fence.
When Sang Luo and Shen Lie arrived, the outlines of each family's residence had already taken shape, and a lot of land had been cleared. At this moment, each family, whether building a wooden house or cultivating the land, had people delivering meals and were squatting on the spot to eat.
Dong Ge'er recognized Sang Luo from a distance, and stood up excitedly and waved at Sang Luo: "Madam Sang! Brother Lie!"
When Dong Ge'er's mother heard him call "Niangzi" joyfully, she saw him getting up and preparing to go to meet her and almost pulled him back. Fortunately, she followed him and called Niangzi's husband as well.
This silly second brother seems to be about the same age as Mrs. Sang, but why is he so silly?
When Dong Ge'er's mother breathed a sigh of relief, Dong Ge'er had already rushed out: "Madam Sang, Brother Lie, have you had breakfast?"
"I've eaten." Sang Luo looked at the bowl in his hand, which contained wild vegetables, soybeans, and grass seeds.
This look was really heavy. It was rare that this boy had a good attitude and was quite cheerful. She looked at the half-turned land over there and asked Dong Ge'er: "Is this the land being dug?"
Dong Ge'er nodded repeatedly: "Yes, our shopkeeper sent some rapeseed, and our family is planting the land right now. That piece of land belongs to our family."
Sang Luo looked in the direction Dong Ge'er pointed. There were many plants that needed to be cut and dug up for land reclamation in the mountains. She saw something familiar at a glance.
Konjac, she had nothing when she first came here, and she slowly saved up some money by relying on things like fairy tofu and konjac. However, for the local people, the whole plant of this thing is poisonous. In the past, in the village, people were afraid that children would accidentally eat it, so they would dig it up if they saw it near the village.
Sang Luo couldn't help but walk over. She had to admit that she felt a little complicated.
It was time to harvest the konjac. She bent down and used the knife in her hand to cut off the long stalk of the konjac, then picked up the konjac that weighed at least twenty pounds.
Dong Ge'er's mother was a little nervous: "Madam Sang, they said this thing is poisonous and can't be touched."
Sang Luo smiled and shook her head: "The toxins can be removed. This thing can be eaten."
This sentence stunned the group of people nearby. Chen Lie, Shopkeeper Xu, and the Gan family who came with him were also stunned and looked at Sang Luo.
Sang Luo did not hide it and said, "You have all eaten it, Shopkeeper Xu. Vegetarian tripe is made from konjac, also known as konjac."
This made Manager Xu and Mrs. Gan, who had sold konjac before, dumbfounded.
Sang Luo didn't say much, and asked Dong Ge'er: "Where do you live? Lead the way, I will teach you how to remove the poison from this konjac."
There were also people from the Feng family who were cultivating the land nearby. They vaguely heard a few words and came over to ask, "Konjac grows very fast and produces a large patch every year. Not only Dongger's family has dug it up, but other families have also dug it up to some extent. Those who grew up in the village have been warned by their elders that this thing is poisonous."
Now some people say that this thing can be eaten and the toxins can be removed.
How could it not attract attention? Many people followed to watch.
Gan was a little nervous. She looked at Sang Luo and said, "A Luo?"
Although he didn't say anything, his expression made it clear that this was what Sang Luo relied on for survival.
Sang Luo glanced at Gan, then turned her gaze to Dongger's family. Thinking of the wild vegetables and grass seeds in Dongger's bowl just now, Sang Luo fell silent.
To be honest, she had never thought of selling her business at first. Just like the fairy tofu, she only picked some occasionally to cook for herself, because even the most impoverished family of Zhou Laizi, with the help of Chen Lie and Chen Dashan, slowly saved up a lot of food.
But what about these new people coming in?
How many people like Dong Ge'er's family could Chen Lie and Chen Dashan bring with them? Moreover, there was not much food left in this area that was hunted and gathered. Seeing Dong Ge'er's family eating grass seeds and the edible konjac being dug out and thrown away, Sang Luo suddenly didn't want to hide anymore.
"Just survive first. There will be other ways to make a living in the future."
In fact, Dongger's family, the family that came in with Dongger's family, were the ones with the hardest lives among the Feng clan. When Sang Luo was teaching everyone step by step how to detoxify konjac and make konjac tofu outside the cave where Dongger's family settled, countless people came after hearing the news.
After teaching everything and waiting for the final solidification, Sang Luo said, "If this thing is peeled, sliced, dried and stored well, it can be kept for a long time. It should still be edible next year."
Some people were still not reassured, "Young lady, is this thing really not poisonous?"
The idea that this stuff is poisonous is ingrained in their minds.
Before Sang Luo could speak, Shopkeeper Xu said, "No, this thing has been sold in the county for a long time, and the price is not low. It is considered Mrs. Sang's own business."
To be honest, he had never thought that something like vegetarian tripe could be made from wild taro, which was readily available in the mountains, and he had never expected that Sang Luo would come up with this method.
With this method in hand, it is truly a business with no capital required. With this method, you won't become extremely rich, but you will surely become moderately wealthy year after year.
After teaching this, Sang Luo didn't care about teaching more. She found the leaves of the Achyranthes bidentata near the cave where Dongger lived, led everyone to identify them, picked some, and asked who in the crowd had gauze.
At once, five or six people responded, and one of them said, "My home is nearby, I'll go get it right away."
Having said that, he ran back.
As he went out and came back, more and more people gathered outside the small cave where Dongger's family lived. Even Zhou Laizi's family heard the news and rushed over, followed closely by the head of the Feng family.
Many people have learned how to make vegetarian tripe and magical tofu. Sang Luo repeatedly told them some things to pay attention to and how long they would have to wait for them to solidify. She looked up at the sun and had to go hunting, so she left in a hurry.
A bunch of people were crowded together, and those who came later asked the ones who came earlier how to make these things specifically. When everyone had asked, they found that the girl who taught them how to make these things had left.
I had to ask around and found out that she was from Shili Village and her name was Ms. Sang.
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