Chapter 76 The Price of Seeking Death
Feng Shuo glanced at her and said with a smile: "You are not worried about me taking advantage of others after drinking, but you are worried about going back."
His delicate eyebrows and eyes seemed to be drawn with ink pen, and there was a little smile in his always cold eyes. Because he had just drunk, his beautiful lips were stained with water. Behind him was the winter plum blossoms with strong branches, which were very beautiful.
Jiang Yanyi said: "If you are really drunk, I will not be dangerous."
Only alcohol can make people timid. If you are really drunk, you can't do anything crazy.
This time it was Feng Shuo's turn to be stunned: "You are a girl, who taught you to say these things."
Jiang Yanyi said calmly: "I read it in a book."
Feng Shuo couldn't help but reflect on whether the travel notes he found for her really talked about these things?
Jiang Yanyi pursed her lips and smiled, and poured a glass of fruit wine from the earthenware bowl brought by the old man. The fruit wine was sweet, slightly sour, and not very alcoholic. The alcohol content was probably about the same as that of rice wine. After drinking it in one gulp, it cooled her mouth all the way to her stomach, and she felt inexplicably refreshed.
She didn't taste what fruit it was, but the taste was very refreshing, which surprised her.
"What kind of fruit is this made of? It tastes very good." Jiang Yanyi praised.
Feng Shuo took the wine bowl she had drunk very naturally, brought it to his lips and tasted it, frowned and thought for a while, and said, "I can't taste it."
He had just recovered his sense of taste, and although he had drunk a lot of wine before, he couldn't taste it.
Jiang Yanyi noticed that he was drinking from the same ceramic bowl that she had drunk from before, and wanted to say something, but swallowed it back.
They had already kissed, so isn't it a bit hypocritical to worry about these things now?
She changed the subject and said, "Do you
come here often?" Feng Shuo looked at the merlin outside the window and said, "Not often. It's only worth seeing here when it snows."
As he spoke, the old man had brought out a brazier to keep them warm.
Jiang Yanyi asked, "Old man, what kind of fruit do you use to make this fruit wine?"
The old man smiled and replied, "It's made from wild pears from the mountain. It tastes good, right?"
Although he was old, his eyes were clear and bright, without a trace of cloudiness.
Jiang Yanyi felt that he was being looked at by this old man, as if he was seen through by him. How could an old man selling wine in a mountain winery have such vision?
She nodded: "It's delicious. If there are more drinks here, I would like to buy more."
The old man laughed and looked at Feng Shuo: "It's rare that you bring people to take care of my business."
Feng Shuo said to Jiang Yanyi: "This old man is very sloppy. If you want to buy some wine sold in the store, don't buy his."
The old man's face suddenly changed to anger: "Go away, you conscienceless boy, you still want to disrupt old man Huang's business!"
When he looked at Jiang Yanyi, his face changed to a kind one: "The girl is so beautiful and has a good temper, why do you like this boy?"
Feng Shuo put down the wine bowl: "You ... If this old man talks nonsense again, forget about the wine money today. "The
old man stopped talking and said to Jiang Yanyi, "There are still many good wines in the wine cellar. Whatever wine you want, I have it here."
Jiang Yanyi said to the old man, "I want ten bottles of fruit wine and plum wine each."
The old man was so happy that all the wrinkles on his face opened up, "This is a big deal. Girl, sit for a while. I will get you some food to fill your stomach."
After the old man entered the inner room, Jiang Yanyi asked Feng Shuo, "Are you familiar with this old man?"
Feng Shuo drank the wine, but his eyes became distant, "It's an old friend."
Jiang Yanyi thought to herself that it was no wonder, the old man's demeanor was not like that of an ordinary person.
It was freezing cold, and Jiang Yanyi couldn't bear to see an old man busy in the kitchen, so she went into the kitchen to help.
The old man was humming a tune while processing a piece of bacon. When he saw Jiang Yanyi come in, he glanced at her and continued to work: "Girl, just sit outside and warm yourself by the fire."
Jiang Yanyi said: "I know some cooking skills. It's freezing cold, so I'll do it."
The old man saw that she was neatly dressed and had fair and delicate hands. She was obviously a rich lady. He thought she was kind-hearted and said with a smile: "Don't dirty your nice clothes."
Jiang Yanyi insisted . : "No."
She took the half-processed bacon from the old man. After cutting the bacon, the lean meat was reddish brown, and the fat was amber-like light yellow. She praised: "You smoked this bacon well."
The old man saw that Jiang Yanyi's knife skills were neat and sharp, and he didn't look like a show-off. He could tell the quality of the meat just by looking at the color. It was obvious that he was a good cook. He also started talking: "This bacon is made of fruit wood charcoal made from wild pear wood by the old man." It is smoked, which took a lot of effort."
Jiang Yanyi cut the washed bacon into large cubes, put it in the pot to cook, and peeled the winter bamboo shoots on the side: "I have seen a lot of good things here today. Winter bamboo shoots are hard to buy in the market."
The old man stroked his gray beard complacently: "Little girl, you know the goods. You can't buy the wild delicacies in the city with money. I eat them as a common meal here."
Probably The old man went out for a while and came back with a small basket in his hand: "Here are some bamboo fungi. It's cold, I'll kill a chicken and make soup for you."
Jiang Yanyi took a look and was surprised: "Golden bamboo fungi?"
Bamboo fungi are also known as "bamboo ginseng". As one of the "eight mountain delicacies", it is precious. In later generations, golden bamboo fungi were called "Queen of Fungi". Compared with ordinary bamboo fungi, they are many times more precious.
The old man saw that Jiang Yanyi could call out the name, and his smile became more complacent: "Little girl, you are very knowledgeable."
He raised more than a dozen chickens in his yard, and they didn't lay eggs in winter.
Catching chickens in the snow naturally caused a lot of commotion. As he was old and his legs were not very flexible, the job of catching, killing and plucking chickens fell on Feng Shuo, but it was not a big deal for Feng Shuo.
Such high-quality bamboo fungus could not be wasted, so Jiang Yanyi planned to make a "Bamboo Fungus Hibiscus". Speaking of this bamboo fungus hibiscus, in her original world, it was also one of the famous state banquet dishes, and foreign presidents praised it when they visited.
Jiang Yanyi cut off the chicken breast meat that Feng Shuo had prepared and kept it, and cut the rest of the whole chicken into small pieces to stew chicken soup.
The "hibiscus" in "bamboo fungus hibiscus" naturally refers to chicken. Jiang Yanyi chopped the chicken breast into fine meat paste with the back of a knife, beat in two egg whites, added a small amount of water and fine salt, stirred evenly, and steamed it.
The processing of ingredients in this step emphasizes the word "tender". Good "hibiscus" is more tender than tofu after steaming, melts in the mouth, and has a strong chicken aroma.
The old man's kitchen is small, and it becomes crowded when there are too many people. Seeing that Jiang Yanyi seems to be good at cooking, he explained to Jiang Yanyi where the seasonings were, and then went out to drink two glasses of wine with Feng Shuo by the brazier.
Jiang Yanyi thought that the chicken soup in the pot had to be boiled for a while, so he planned to stir-fry the bacon with winter bamboo shoots first.
The winter bamboo shoots are fragrant and tender, and the bacon has a mellow taste and firm meat. The combination of the two is simply wonderful!
The skin of the cooked bacon can be pierced through with a light poke of chopsticks.
Jiang Yanyi picked up the bacon, let it cool, and cut it into thin slices for later use. Boil water in a pot, blanch the bamboo shoots to remove the salty taste.
When the water in the pot dries up, add sesame oil and heat it to 70%, then stir-fry the bacon and bamboo shoots together. The fat in the bacon is stimulated to produce oil, which is mixed with vegetable oil to make the bamboo shoots more fragrant.
Because the bacon itself is relatively salty, Jiang Yanyi only added a little salt, fermented black beans, cooking wine, and chopped garlic sprouts, and finally poured a spoonful of fresh soup from the old hen, and the fragrance directly floated throughout the thatched cottage.
The old man who was drinking with Feng Shuo outside sniffed and stretched his neck to shout into the kitchen: "What did the little girl cook? Why does it smell so good!"
Jiang Yanyi's voice came from the inner room: "Stir-fried bamboo shoots with bacon, we can eat soon!"
The old man turned around and said to Feng Shuo: "You are in for a treat!"
Feng Shuo put a piece on the chessboard, a faint smile on his lips, and said: "You lose."
The old man looked out and saw that he had indeed won this game . It was really powerless again. He waved his hands: "No, no, no, I could beat you a few times in the early years, but now I always lose. I don't have the energy anymore!"
Feng Shuo said: "Learning is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat."
The old man drank a little wine and looked at Merlin in front of the house and said: "I'm old and don't want to struggle anymore."
Feng Shuo's eyes followed him and turned to Merlin: "When the Mu family was raided, you were willing to die in the Golden Palace to make a protest. Now the world is divided into many factions. How can you... Don't want to leave the mountain?"
The old man's eyes flashed with sorrow: "Chen Zhongbo died in the Golden Palace five years ago. Now he is just a wine seller."
Feng Shuo asked him: "What about Chi Qing? You don't want to take care of him either?"
The old man smiled and said: "I have taught him everything I can. How far he can go and where he can go depends on his luck. If it really comes to a matter of life and death, I hope you can protect him. His life."
Feng Shuo said: "Of course."
The old man said: "You have protected the two brothers for me for so many years, and I owe you a favor. If there is a suitable seedling, please send it to me. I can't teach you another Mu Xuanqing, but I won't teach you a good-for-nothing."
Feng Shuo didn't use the wine bowl again. He directly picked up the wine pot and took a sip. Looking out the window, he wiped the wine stains from his lips with his hand and said: "Let's talk about it later." "
It's time to eat!"
Jiang Yanyi shouted in the kitchen, and the two stopped talking.
The winter bamboo shoots and bacon were fried, and the chicken soup was also boiled.
The remaining steps of "Bamboo Fungus and Hibiscus" are also simple. Pour the boiled chicken soup into the pot, cut the soaked golden bamboo fungus into slices and put them into the pot to roll in the chicken soup, scoop the steamed "Hibiscus" into thin slices with a spoon, put them into the soup, and then serve.
Bamboo Fungus and Hibiscus Soup requires a rich but not greasy, light but not thin, clear and fragrant.
Jiang Yanyi took the dishes out, and the old man went to get a bowl to serve the rice.
It was very cold in winter, so Jiang Yanyi first served everyone a bowl of soup. The old man's bowls were all made of coarse pottery, but it did not affect the fragrance of the soup at all.
After drinking it in one gulp, the whole stomach warmed up. The soup had the fresh aroma of chicken and bamboo fungus, but no oil at all.
The old man kept sighing: "This soup is delicious!"
He picked up a piece of bacon with a good fat content with chopsticks, wrapped it with a big mouthful of rice and ate it, nodding repeatedly: "This meat is also fried well!"
The bacon was cooked soft in the fat part, but the lean part was still chewy. The taste of garlic sprouts, fermented bean curd, and winter bamboo shoots were all mixed in it, which was really fragrant.
Compared to the old man who ate while talking, Feng Shuo was more particular about not talking while eating or sleeping. He didn't say a word, and his eating movements were also very elegant, but he picked up his chopsticks faster than anyone else. Occasionally, he picked up a piece of lean bacon and put it into Jiang Yanyi's bowl without a word.
After finishing the meal, the bamboo shoots and bacon were eaten cleanly, and the bamboo fungus and hibiscus soup was drunk to only a basin. Only the pot of chicken soup in the kitchen was left. The old man said he would save it for soaking rice in the evening.
Jiang Yanyi was a little reluctant, so Feng Shuo took her to the plum forest for a walk to digest the food.
The old man looked at the two people's backs in the heavy snow, sitting by the stove drinking wine, with a little tipsy on his face, beating the rhythm with his hands and singing the song he often heard in the old days: "Dreaming of the orioles, the years are wasted, standing in the small courtyard. The smoke is all gone, the embroidery thread is thrown away, is your concern this spring the same as last year?"①
Perhaps because she had just eaten, Jiang Yanyi went outside to appreciate the plum blossoms again, but she didn't feel cold.
She walked briskly in front, and Feng Shuo followed her in a cloak.
Jiang Yanyi ran to a crooked plum tree and looked up for a while, then suddenly ran to the trunk of the tree, turned around and called Feng Shuo loudly: "Come quickly!"
Behind her was the white snow and red plums, but her smiling eyes seemed even brighter than the cold plums on the snow.
"What's wrong?" Feng Shuo looked at her with unprecedented tenderness, and walked over at a leisurely pace.
Seeing that he was about to reach the tree, Jiang Yanyi suddenly shook the trunk of the tree vigorously, and the snow on the plum branches fell all over Feng Shuo, and even fell into his neck, freezing him.
The prank was successful, and Jiang Yanyi laughed so hard that she fell backwards.
Feng Shuo looked at her and said, "You are doing something wrong today, aren't you?"
He started to chase her, and Jiang Yanyi ran away.
However, due to the difference in leg length and physical strength, she was caught by Feng Shuo before she could run a few steps.
Jiang Yanyi held the collar of her hood tightly with both hands. Because of the running just now, her originally white porcelain skin was flushed. She said fiercely, "Don't throw snowballs into my collar."
Feng Shuo leaned over and kissed her slightly cold lips.