Chapter 20: What’s wrong with sacrificing Jiang Xiangxi?
"It smells so good!" Jiang Xiangbei just walked into the yard with a bucket of water and couldn't help but breathe deeply.
Jiang Xiangdong was carrying soybean stalks covered in dust, but his face was covered in dust but filled with an extremely bright smile. He grinned and said, "Fourth brother, mother bought a pig's head. Let's have pig's head meat tonight!"
My mother said that the pig's head was seen by the women in the village, so she can talk about it, but the pig's fat cannot be talked about. After all, the pig's head is worthless, but the pig's fat is very expensive. It would be bad if someone shamelessly came to take advantage of the fat.
Jiang Xiangbei screamed, and without even having time to report his achievements today, he immediately rushed into the kitchen as soon as he put down the bucket.
Shen Qing had already sorted the raw materials by type. The part that needed to be soaked in lime water had already been soaked, and the other part just needed to be soaked after the soybean stalk ash came out.
Seeing Jiang Xiangbei coming back with fish and shrimp, he immediately walked towards the bucket without saying a word.
As soon as you get close, the system emits a clear and pleasant prompt sound.
Wild small river shrimp weighed 4.625 pounds, 37 pounds per pound;
It’s hard to say where to go if you don’t leave any, but you can’t bear to leave too much, after all, small river shrimps are expensive.
She kept the change and earned one hundred and forty-eight yuan.
The wild river fish weighed 11.3 jins, or 13 liangs per jin. Shen Qing was willing to give away a lot of it, but there were too many to fry them all, so she kept most of it and sold the rest for 50 yuan.
The total amount received was 204 yuan, and the balance was more than 1,500 yuan.
Shen Qing glanced at the sky. Jiang Xiangbei would go out again later and estimated that he could earn more than 100 yuan. This daily income should be able to last until the end of the river shrimp and small river fish season.
She quickly cleaned the river shrimps and small wild fish, poured them into a large soup bowl, added coarse salt water that had been dissolved in advance for seasoning, brought them into the house, scooped half a ladle of flour, poured it in, and mixed it with her hands, making sure that every fish and shrimp was coated with batter before bringing it to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Jiang Xiangbei stared at the pig's head in the big iron pot and swallowed his saliva. Then he looked at the lard residue floating up and down in the ceramic jar on the other side, and swallowed his saliva even more frequently.
After he came in, he heard his elder brother and sister-in-law say that the neighbors thought it was the smell of stewed pig's head and they couldn't tell anyone.
He is not stupid, so of course he won't shout it out. He still understands the principle of keeping the meat in the bowl and eating it.
Seeing his mother coming in with a large soup basin, he wanted to cuddle up to her. "Mom is so kind! She's willing to buy meat for us to eat! And even lard!"
Huo Bing saw Shen Qing come in and hurriedly handed over the chopsticks and asked, "Mom, do you think the stew is done?"
It had been stewed for about half an hour, and the chopsticks could easily be inserted into the meat of the pig's head. The roasted smell of lard was already coming from the other side.
Shen Qing came forward and tried it with chopsticks, nodded in affirmation and continued to instruct: "You can fish it out now, save the lard residue, and let the lard cool down. I will use it later.
"Fry the small fish and shrimp in this big soup bowl with rapeseed oil later and give each family member a portion as a snack."
Huo Bing was fine, but Jiang Xiangbei was so happy that he almost jumped for joy. He felt his heart was pounding with joy, as if it was about to jump out.
Pig's head, lard, lard, and small fish and shrimp fried in rapeseed oil. Is his family celebrating the New Year today? No, the New Year is not this sumptuous!
He pinched his thigh hard, grimacing in pain, then his mouth curved into a wide arc as he smiled foolishly.
Hehe, it hurts so much, I’m not dreaming.
When Jiang Xiangdong came in, he saw his younger brother laughing foolishly. He understood what was going on at a glance, because he had laughed like that not long ago, and it lasted for a long time, as unreal as a dream.
I just don't feel tired when I work.
Jiang Xiangbei really wanted to wait for the fried fish and shrimp to come out of the pot, but he remembered that his mother said that everyone’s share was the same, so it didn’t matter whether he ate it early or late. If he ate it late, there would be more left for him than for other people in the family, and he envied them.
Yes, he should go and catch some more river shrimps. If he is lucky, he might catch a big fish. If he sells the big fish, he can earn money and his mother will buy him some delicious food!
Just do it when you think of it. Jiang Xiangbei looked back at the kitchen every few steps and went out reluctantly.
Shen Qing had no time to care about others. She was wetting the wood ash collected by Huo Bing with water and filtering it over and over again with the cut cloth.
After extracting the alkaline water, pour half of it into the wool to soak;
She moved the other half into the kitchen along with the basin and placed it together with the lard and sesame oil.
To make soap, you need to heat the soap while pouring in alkaline water, and pay attention to the saponification reaction at all times. Only when it is suitable can it be poured into the mold and cooled to set.
Whether it is heating or boiling containers, they can only be done in the kitchen. Now both pots are occupied, and there are always people coming and going in the kitchen, so I can't concentrate. I can only wait until after breakfast and dinner, and try to make a batch in the afterglow of the sunset.
There is no other way. The conditions are so simple that we can only create conditions wherever we can to complete it.
Thinking of the mold, Shen Qing suddenly remembered something.
She had originally planned to fail many times during the trial stage, and planned to make the smallest amount each time. After making it, she could just pour it into a bowl to cool, so there was no rush to get a regular mold.
But since we have to make the mold anyway, we might as well go and order it early and settle some other things at the same time.
She stood up and said to Huo Bing, "I'm going to go to Carpenter Guan's house. I'm sorry for the hard work you've done here."
"It's not hard, Mom, Mom, you go." Huo Bing replied stutteringly, looking worriedly at his mother's departing back.
Then she shook her head. What was she worried about? Mother was different!
She believes in her mother.
·
Shen Qing understood why Huo Bing was so nervous that he stumbled when he heard that she was going to Guan the Carpenter's house.
Carpenter Guan is the only carpenter in Qili Village. He is also a famous carpenter in the surrounding villages and even in the city. Many people come to him to ask him to make furniture.
He has only one daughter and one son. His eldest daughter, Guan Li, is eighteen years old this year, and his second son, Guan Xiaoshan, is twelve years old this year.
Guan Li and Jiang Xiangxi, the second son of the Jiang family who went to repair the river embankment, fell in love with each other. Guan the carpenter was a skilled craftsman who earned money. Jiang Xiangxi was already nineteen years old this year, which was well-deserved to be old in this dynasty. Guan Li was eighteen years old, and they were well matched in age. The original owner should be very satisfied.
But firstly, after giving birth to Guan Xiaoshan, Guan Carpenter's wife became frail and sickly. She was bedridden for many years, and died after spending all her money on medical treatment and accumulating debts. This was known to the whole village.
Secondly, Guan Xiaoshan had a serious illness when he was a child. After he recovered, one of his legs became weak and became increasingly atrophied. The children in the village would always chase after him, shouting "cripple" and "cripple". Whenever Guan Li heard this, she would stand in front of him, put her hands on her hips and curse back, and she also said that whether she got married or not, she would take care of her brother and would not let anyone bully him.
This was also the point that the original owner disliked Guan Li the most. She believed that a daughter-in-law should regard her husband's family as her heaven after marrying into the family. Wouldn't it be a burden if she had a disabled brother to take care of her?
The last point is also the most important. Due to the selfish motives of the original owner that she could not express openly, she did not want the second son to get married, because once the second son got married, the money he earned would sooner or later belong to his family.
The second son is down-to-earth and capable, like an old ox that eats little but works a lot, is tireless and never complains. He just stays at home to earn money to support her youngest son's imperial examination.
When Jiang Xiangzhong passes the imperial examination, how many women will he need? Then he can give her a lot of golden grandchildren!
They are all her grandchildren anyway, so they are all the same to her.
What's wrong with sacrificing the second one?
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