In the past few days, Yu Ge'er has not come to the kitchen to learn how to cook from Lin Yan. He always hides in the room by himself, and no one knows what he is doing.
Lin Yan asked Li Yuemei, but Li Yuemei didn't know either. She just thought that her brother had his own little secret.
When Lin Yan bought cumin today, he also bought some malt sugar to sweeten Yu Ge'er's mouth. When he came back and saw him hiding in the room again, he went to knock on the door.
"Brother Yu, what are you doing?"
Yu Ge'er hurried over to open the door: "Brother, what's wrong?"
Lin Yan took out some candy and handed it to him: "I bought some candy for you."
Yu Ge'er smiled in surprise: "Thank you, Gefu."
"What are you doing? You've been hiding in your room lately." Lin Yan asked curiously, not expecting him to really tell him.
Yu Ge'er stuck his head out and looked into the yard. Li Yuemei was not there. She might have gone to the backyard to feed the chickens. So he pulled Lin Yan into the room, asked him to sit on the bed, and took out a few handkerchiefs from the quilt.
"Brother, I've been embroidering handkerchiefs recently." Yu Ge'er was a little shy.
"An embroidered handkerchief? Who are you giving it to?" Lin Yan took it and looked at it. The embroidery was just average, but it was obvious that she had put a lot of effort into it. She had taken it apart and re-embroidered the wrong places, and there were several mistakes there.
"I'm not giving it to anyone, brother-in-law. I just want to learn embroidery and earn money for my family." Yu Ge'er clenched his little fists.
"Yu Ge'er, we are the ones making money at home, you don't have to worry about it." Lin Yan touched Yu Ge'er's hair and smiled slightly.
Yu Ge'er also sat on the bed, swinging his legs. "Brother, this isn't a whim. I actually love embroidery, but I haven't had the chance to learn. My mom can make clothes, but she's not very good at embroidery, so I never had the chance to learn it since I was a child. The other day when I went to He Ge'er's house, there was a particularly beautiful lotus on his new clothes. Brother, I want to learn! I want to embroider a lotus too!"
Yu Ge'er's eyes sparkled when he looked at him. Lin Yan felt that he really liked embroidery. He smiled knowingly and said, "Then talk to Ah Mo and ask her to send you to learn from an embroiderer."
Yu Ge'er instantly wilted: "Amo won't agree."
"How do you know if you haven't asked?"
"I'm already twelve years old. I'm going to get married in two years. How can I be asked to learn embroidery?" The family didn't have extra money before, so he wouldn't ask for it even if he wanted to. Now that he's old, there's even less chance. Yu Ge'er feels very distressed.
Lin Yan didn't know how to persuade him, so he could only say, "You have to discuss this with Ah Mo yourself. The sooner the better. If it doesn't work out, it's fine. If it does, you can start learning sooner."
Yu Ge'er thought about it and suddenly thought of Lin Yan's wedding dress: "Brother, did you embroider your wedding dress yourself? The embroidery on it is really beautiful."
Lin Yan nodded. "My mom can do a little embroidery. She taught me when I was a child. I can only do a few simple flower and plant designs."
Yu Ge'er's eyes sparkled: "That's pretty impressive. If my mom disagrees, can you teach me, Gefu?"
Lin Yan was stunned for a moment, having never considered that he could teach others embroidery. However, he quickly realized what was happening and agreed.
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After Yu Ge'er figured it out, he stopped worrying about it. He put away the handkerchief and came out to help cook dinner.
As soon as he came out, he saw the sugarcane in the corner. His eyes lit up and he ran over in surprise and picked up a piece of black sugarcane. He liked eating black sugarcane the most.
He went to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife. He cut off a section from the tail, cut off the dirty part, and began to peel the skin with the knife tilted downwards. When he had peeled almost everything, he took a big bite and the juice overflowed.
"Sweet! Brother, come and eat some sugarcane." Yu Ge'er called out to Lin Yan. Then he neatly cut the remaining sugarcane into sections and placed them on the table.
Lin Yan walked over with a smile and took the piece of sugar cane handed to him by Yu Ge'er. The two of them sat on a small stool and chewed the sugar cane. At this time, Li Yuemei came in after feeding the chickens. Seeing that the two of them were eating with gusto, she joked, "You two are like little greedy cats."
Yu Ge'er spit out the sugarcane residue in his mouth, mustered up the courage to say to Li Yuemei: "Ah, I have something to tell you."
Li Yuemei looked at him suspiciously: "What's going on? You look so serious."
"Mom, I want to learn embroidery and learn from an embroiderer. I know I'm not young anymore, but I really want to learn." Yu Ge'er nervously tugged at the corner of his clothes.
Li Yuemei frowned slightly, and after thinking for a moment, she said, "Brother Yu, our family is better off now. If you really like it, I don't want to stop you."
Yu Ge'er couldn't believe his ears and hugged Li Yuemei excitedly: "Really? Ah!"
Li Yuemei raised her hands to hold Yu Ge'er's body, which was about to fall, and said with a smile: "Of course, I wouldn't lie to you, but you must study hard and not give up halfway."
Yu Ge'er raised his hand and promised: "Got it, ah, I will."
Lin Yan also smiled with relief. He quickly finished chewing the sugarcane and prepared to make dinner.
I'm going to make a cabbage and tofu stew tonight. Since we have plenty of tofu at home, Lin Yan brought in two pieces, cut them into triangles diagonally, and soaked some vermicelli, black fungus, and shiitake mushrooms. He also washed the cabbage and didn't need to cut it.
Fry the tofu until golden brown on both sides, then set aside. Lin Yan dug out the family's clay pot and brought in his own clay oven, then began cooking at the stove. He placed a spoonful of lard in the pot, heated the oil, and added the scallions, ginger, and garlic. He then placed a few leaves of bok choy on top and added the tofu, wood ear mushrooms, and vermicelli noodles.
It was the first time that Yu Ge'er saw this dish. He was craning his neck to watch it. He saw that after Gefu put the side dishes in, he added seasonings, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, a spoonful of hot sauce, and finally a spoonful of water and covered the lid.
"Goff, how long will this simmer?"
"It will only take half a minute." While the tofu was simmering, Lin Yan chopped green onions and red peppers.
Half a minute passed quickly. Lin Yan opened the lid and steam rose up. Lin Yan grabbed the chili peppers and chopped green onions and sprinkled them in, then asked Yu Ge'er to start serving the rice.
Lin Yan put out the fire in the clay stove, found two rags, and was about to move the stove and pot to the courtyard when she saw her husband washing his hands in the courtyard. She called out, "Brother Shi Yun, come and help me carry the stove."
"I'm here." Zhao Shiyun quickly washed his hands, took the rag from Lin Yan's hand, and easily carried the stove and casserole to the table in the yard.
Lin Yan was extremely envious. This guy was really strong.
Yu Ge'er couldn't wait any longer. After everyone was seated, he picked up a piece of tofu, blew on it, and slowly took a bite. "Brother, this tofu is really flavorful and delicious," Yu Ge'er praised.
Li Yuemei also praised it highly: "It turns out there are so many ways to eat this tofu."
The remaining two men said nothing and just focused on eating.
Lin Yan was very happy that everyone liked the dishes he cooked.
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