Chapter 8
When they heard that it was about cutting hemp, the two children's eyes lit up!
"I know where it is. I'll lead the way!"
Shen Ning was also happy: “I’ll go get the stick, I can also play mahjong!”
For children, the most exciting thing is to play.
Even though they didn't see any results, they only saw Sang Luo leading them in all kinds of things. Even though the two children felt uneasy in their hearts, their sense of security and joy had actually begun to grow.
One on the left and one on the right, they hurriedly got ready.
The wild hemp that Sang Luo mentioned is actually the ramie that people use to weave cloth these days.
Because most of the mulberry and hemp at that time were artificially cultivated, each family would have several mulberry and hemp fields. Part of the silk, cotton and linen produced would be handed over to the court, and part would be used for their own use.
Farmers were reluctant to use materials like silk and cotton for themselves, and often sent them to the county to exchange for money. Sometimes, these things were even hard currency and could be used as money. Direct barter was also common. Farmers were busy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and the only thing they were willing to wear was coarse linen clothes.
There are cultivated mulberry and hemp, but there are also wild and ownerless ones. When the Shen family split up, not to mention the mulberry and hemp fields given to the eldest branch, there was not even a field for growing rice. Naturally, Sang Luo could only focus on the ownerless hemp growing in the wild.
During the five years she lived in the mountains in her previous life, when she was not suffering from illness, Sang Luo was also good at finding fun for herself. Of course, she was also self-sufficient to a certain extent.
Thanks to mobile phones and the Internet, as well as the left-behind elderly people living in the mountains, she has learned a lot. Occasionally, when she learns a certain skill, she will record it into a video and upload it to a video website. Her small account is quite active, which means she is not completely out of touch with society. It is also another form of entertainment. Most importantly, she can still earn some income.
Among the things I learned was the old craft of weaving.
In fact, not only can she do it, but her original self can do it too.
Of course, Sang Luo took her two children to cut hemp not for weaving cloth. She had nothing at the moment and had no ability to weave cloth. Every household in the village had a loom, but every woman in the household needed to use it, so she couldn't borrow one.
After harvesting the hemp, they could only do some rough processing and then spin it into yarn. Sang Luo planned to go to the market with the spun yarn to see if she could exchange it for one or two basins of water.
After all, she wanted to earn some food by selling the tofu. The materials were all over the mountain, and there was no shortage of plant ash. But with only one clay pot and three bowls at home, how much could she make? It was not enough to fill her own stomach.
I can't do any heavy work these days, so it's just right for me to do something like this, which I can do while sitting at home. The two little ones can also help.
…
The brother and sister were indeed very familiar with the village and the relatively safe mountains around it. They talked to each other about where ramie could be found and led Sangluo to each place.
Because she was walking towards the village, she occasionally met villagers, and they all looked at Sang Luo curiously.
Every family in the village knew about the division of the Shen family, but whether before or after the division, Sang rarely moved around in the village. It was only recently that it was heard that the siblings Shen An and Shen Ning went to Shen San's house from time to time to beg for food, which obviously showed that they had run out of food.
When they saw Sang Luo coming out, those who met her on the road looked at her as a curiosity. Those who were familiar with Shen An and Shen Ning chatted with the two children, and when they heard that they were going to cut hemp, they said a few words and left.
I can't even get enough to eat, and yet I'm still cutting hemp. It's useless.
Of course, Sang Luo didn’t know these people, nor did she know what they were thinking. Even if she knew, she wouldn’t care.
The first destination was quickly reached. Playing mahjong was not a very tiring job. Before the family separated, the two little ones had done this job in the hemp field at home, so there was no need for Sang Luo to teach them. The two little ones were more skilled at this job than Sang Luo.
But Sang Luo's physical condition was too poor now. After all, her original body was so sick that she even lost her life. Although she drank salt sugar water and some rice porridge after she came here, she only had a few mouthfuls of each. She was busy for half a morning. She couldn't do physical work like playing mahjong for long. After playing for a while, she gradually felt a little weak and her hands began to tremble slightly.
Chen An was sharp-eyed, and after he noticed it, he simply stopped asking her to do it. The brother and sister fought swiftly, and Chen An cut two bundles of hemp, and the three of them carried them home first.
After they got home, the two bundles were not enough to take out much hemp, but Chen An did not ask Sang Luo to make a second trip: "These are the fields where the children in the village often play. Aning and I can go there. Sister-in-law, you can rest at home."
Chen Ning looked at her sister-in-law's face and hesitated for a moment: "Why don't we melt the other piece of maltose that Grandma Chen gave us and drink it?"
Drinking two candies a day is really a luxury that can't be more luxurious. I didn't dare to do this during the Chinese New Year. But Shen Ningke didn't forget the scary look of his sister-in-law yesterday. Candy is still not as important as sister-in-law.
Sang Luo had no concerns about the two children cutting hemp near the village, so she nodded and said, "Okay, you go cut the hemp, and I'll peel it at home."
As for eating the maltose first, she knew her situation and didn't need to wait any longer, so she shook her head and said, "There's no rush to eat the candy. It will be useful later. When you come back from cutting a few more bundles of hemp, we can eat it together."
Add some sugar water to the magical tofu, and it will be a surprise for the two children to eat it.
Shen Ning didn’t hear the hidden meaning behind the words, she only heard her sister-in-law said that the three of them would eat together.
Thinking of the taste of the salt and sugar water she drank in the early morning, she swallowed subconsciously, but was ashamed of herself for being so greedy, so she quickly shook her head: "I don't need it."
How could she snatch the sweet soup from her sister-in-law if she was not sick or in any pain?
Sang Luo smiled and asked the two children to cut the hemp. She sat on a stone outside the house and began to peel the hemp.
There is no better motivation than having food to eat after work.
The two children went down the mountain hurriedly, and after about an hour, they came back with two large bundles of hemp on their backs.
When the brother and sister ran out to find another place to cut hemp, Sang Luo put down her hemp peeling work, went into the house, picked up the clay pot and fetched some spring water from the mountainside, put it on the stove, lit a fire to boil it, and put the malt sugar given by Old Lady Chen into it to melt it.
This time, no salt was added to make salt syrup. Instead, he turned off the fire after making syrup. He placed the earthen jar on the stone platform with a few thick leaves as a cushion and waited for the syrup to cool down. Only then did he look at the solidification of the two bowls of magic leaf juice.
Very good, the ratio of wood ash and water is right and it has taken shape.
When Shen An and Shen Ning came back for the third time, Sang Luo looked at the sun and didn't let them go out again. She put down the hemp she was peeling and called them, "Go wash your hands and faces, and then come in and have a good meal."
Eat delicious food.
This sounded like dream talk to Shen An and Shen Ning.
They hadn't heard anything like that since their eldest brother left home.
However, thinking about what their sister-in-law had said before, that there was maltose water waiting for them to drink together, the two little ones quickly went to wash their hands.
When the three people entered the house again, without Sang Luo saying anything, the brother and sister's eyes naturally fell on the stone platform used as a table. When they saw the two bowls of green things on the table, the two little ones were stunned.
What is this???
The bowls are still the same two bowls, and the color is still the same color. No, this time the color is darker, emerald green and moist.
Chen An and Chen Ning stared at Sang Luo in astonishment: "Sister-in-law, this can't be the juice from the leaves just now, right?"
Sang Luo smiled: "That's it. I told you it's edible, right? Wait till I cut it and you guys can try it."
As he spoke, he took out the bamboo stick that he had previously used to hold the malt sugar, and used it to start cutting into one of the bowls of tofu and cutting it into pieces.
That's right, this piece of bamboo was shaved by Chen An with the help of someone else to make a knife, although it is actually of little use in normal times. After all, most of what they eat is wild vegetable soup, so they can just tear it with their hands.
Sang Luo skillfully cut a bowl of fairy tofu into small pieces of two centimeters square, then scooped out the dried maltose water from the earthenware jar and poured it into the bowl. It wasn't much, just two spoonfuls, stirred it a little, and scooped up one of the pieces and brought it to Shen Ning's mouth, "Aning, try it first."
It was like jade, soft, chewy and bouncy, shaking slightly in the wooden spoon.
The little brother and sister had never seen such beautiful things before. Before they even took a bite, they started swallowing their saliva just by looking at it.
Chen Ning no longer thought about whether the thing was edible or not. It was already delivered to her mouth and she could faintly smell the fragrance. She took the wooden spoon from Sang Luo's hand and put it into her mouth.
That sweetness, that fragrance, that refreshing chewiness, that taste: "!!!"
"Brother, this is even better than the meat we had during Chinese New Year!!!"
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