Jiang Yuwei quickly pushed the cart to Aunt Zhou's house. Seeing that Aunt Zhou's gate was unlocked, she knocked a few times and pushed the door open to go inside.
"Aunt Zhou, what are you busy with at home?"
Hearing the shouts from the yard, Aunt Zhou hurried out of the house and greeted Jiang Yuwei warmly.
"Yuwei, come and sit down."
Jiang Yuwei smiled and waved her hand:
"I won't sit down today. I came this morning and neither you nor Uncle Youcai were home. I came today to ask if you've saved up any eggs at home?"
Before Jiang Yuwei could finish speaking, Aunt Zhou quickly nodded and said:
"Yes, yes, yes, we have plenty of eggs at home. How many do you want? I'll go get them for you."
Jiang Yuwei smiled and said:
"Aunt Zhou, I want to buy your eggs. I need to keep them to make preserved eggs. Bring out all the eggs you have, I'll buy them all."
Aunt Zhou also laughed and said:
"Look at me, I thought you were going to eat them all yourself. Perfect, I have a lot at home, but I've been saving them up without having time to go to town to sell them. I'll give them all to you, so we don't have to make the trip to town."
After saying that, Aunt Zhou went back to the inner room to get the eggs. She quickly came out with a basket full of eggs. Jiang Yuwei took out a scale, weighed them, and said:
"That's exactly twenty catties of eggs. How about I pay you fifteen coins per catty?"
Aunt Zhou nodded hurriedly and said:
"Alright, alright, you're charging the same price as in town, saving us the trouble of taking the oxcart all the way. From now on, we'll save all our eggs for you."
Jiang Yuwei smiled as she placed the eggs on the cart, then took some money and handed it to Aunt Zhou, saying:
"Okay, I'll head back now, Aunt Zhou. You go ahead with your work."
When Jiang Yuwei arrived home, she saw Ning Huaizhi clearing the dishes. Ning Wan, seeing her mother return, quickly went up to her, took her hand, and said:
"Mother, have you had lunch yet? Father specially saved some food for you."
Jiang Yuwei, led by Ning Wan, walked to the stone table and smiled:
"Not yet, let me see what good food your dad saved for me?"
Jiang Yuwei looked at the fried soybean pulp balls, soybean pulp cakes, and stir-fried soybean pulp with chili peppers on the stone table and smiled:
"Huaizhi, you've even learned to cook these dishes? It seems like you'll really be in charge of cooking at home from now on."
Ning Huaizhi scratched his head sheepishly and said:
“I learned by watching you do it. I didn’t wait for you to eat today because I was afraid that Tiezhu and Ningwu would work on an empty stomach, so I prepared the food first and ate with them.”
Jiang Yuwei sat down, picked up her chopsticks, and started eating. She didn't pay any attention to what Ning Huaizhi had just said. She had walked all morning and had fought with Granny Sun at her house. She was indeed tired and hungry. All she wanted to do now was have a good meal.
Seeing Jiang Yuwei eating so quickly and with such relish, Ning Huaizhi couldn't help but smile. When he was with Jiang Yuwei, he didn't need to pretend, nor did he feel like a useless person. Seeing how much Jiang Yuwei enjoyed the food he cooked, Ning Huaizhi felt a surge of happiness.
Jiang Yuwei finished all the food left on the table, patted her round belly, and let out a satisfied burp. Sure enough, you need to be full to have the energy to work.
Ning Huaizhi smiled and handed her a cup of soy milk, saying:
"Honey, are you full? Have some soy milk to soothe your stomach. I'll go check on the tofu I made later."
Jiang Yuwei then remembered that she had left early this morning, leaving the task of making tofu to Ning Huaizhi. So she hurriedly got up to check on the tofu and saw that the tofu in the mold had been drained and was ready to be cut into pieces and coated with wood ash.
Seeing Ning Huai's expectant look, Jiang Yuwei quickly smiled and said:
"Yes, yes, you did a great job! You've already graduated! You did much better than me!"
Ning Huaizhi's face lit up with joy upon hearing Jiang Yuwei's words:
"Really? Then I'll make the tofu, you go back to your room and rest."
Seeing Ning Huaizhi's energetic expression, Jiang Yuwei was secretly pleased. This man really needed more praise. Thinking this, Jiang Yuwei patted Ning Huaizhi's shoulder and smiled:
"Then I'll leave this place to you."
After saying that, Jiang Yuwei went to the paper mill in the backyard to see how Ning Wu and Tie Zhu were making paper. Unexpectedly, as soon as she entered, she saw Ning Wu excitedly grabbing Tie Zhu's arm and shouting:
"Brother, we did it! We made it!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuwei quickly stepped forward, took the paper from Ning Wu's hand, and smiled:
"That's right, that's the kind of paper! You guys are amazing! From now on, you'll be the master craftsmen of our paper mill!"
Seeing this, Tie Zhu was also very excited. He picked up Ning Wu and spun him around on the spot, saying happily:
"Sister Yuwei, Ningwu and I aren't going back tonight. We'll make all the paper tonight!"
Jiang Yuwei calculated the days. Tomorrow was Ning Zhao's ten-day holiday. When she went to town to pick up Ning Zhao, she could take the paper she made there to set up a stall and sell it. She could price it slightly lower than Ge's Paper Shop, and she wouldn't have to worry about selling it.
So Jiang Yuwei spoke up:
"You two shouldn't work too hard. You can finish making some paper tonight, however much you can. I'll take it to town to sell tomorrow. There are no beds here, so don't sleep in the paper mill. It's not far from home anyway, so go home and sleep."
Ning Wu nodded and said:
"Don't worry, Sister Yuwei, my brother and I will try our best to make as much as possible."
Jiang Yuwei nodded and returned to the front yard. It seemed that the papermaking business could now be entirely entrusted to Tiezhu and Ningwu. Jiang Yuwei needed to quickly sign a contract with them to establish long-term employment and save herself future trouble.
When Jiang Yuwei arrived at the front yard, Ning Wan and Ning Huaizhi were busy making gray tofu. Jiang Yuwei took all the eggs off the cart, washed them, and then began preparing the ingredients for making preserved eggs. After cooking a full pot of preserved egg marinade, she put the cleaned eggs in and stirred them evenly so that each egg was coated with mud. Then she took them out one by one and let them cool and be stored away from the light.
Jiang Yuwei thought that Ning Huaizhi had made so many dishes with soybean residue at noon, so it was time to change things up for dinner. It would also be a good time to celebrate Tiezhu and Ningwu's successful papermaking, so she took out some meat.
Jiang Yuwei first selected a good piece of pork belly and cut it into equal-sized cubes. She put the pork belly in a pot of cold water and brought it to a boil. Then she added a little oil to the pot and stir-fried the pork belly. Next, she added cooking wine and soy sauce and stir-fried until fragrant. Then she added hot water, scallions, ginger, garlic, and honey and simmered it over low heat for half an hour. The resulting braised pork belly was tender, sweet, and not greasy.
Jiang Yuwei cut another long strip of pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, marinated it with Sichuan peppercorn powder, chili powder, soy sauce, scallion, ginger, and garlic water, along with honey and vinegar, preparing to use it to make honey-glazed roasted pork belly.
Jiang Yuwei first lit a fire in the yard, set up a grill for roasting pork belly, and then asked Ning Wan to help her roast the pork belly on it.
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