Although Qiao Qiqi had no objection, she could only shake her head when she saw that Xin Xin was barely tall enough to reach the seat. "You're too young to ride. You can learn when you're older."
Xin Xin looked disappointed. "Oh."
Qiao Qiqi took her hand and said, "Although you can't ride a bicycle, you can eat candy. I bought several kinds of candy from the county that are not available in town. Come on, I'll take you to get them."
Xin Xin's attention was successfully diverted, and she immediately followed Qiao Qiqi into the house happily.
While the two were getting candy, Qin Huai returned.
Chenchen immediately stepped forward and told Qiao Qiqi about asking him to teach her how to drive.
Qin Huai naturally had no objections, so he held the back and taught Chenchen to start riding.
The roads in the village are not smooth, which increases the difficulty of learning to drive.
In addition, although Chenchen is already 12 years old, he is not tall enough to sit on the seat, so he can only ride with his crotch exposed.
Although Qin Huai tried his best to support her, Chenchen still fell twice, scraping her knees and hands.
After cleaning his palms, Qiao Qiqi frowned and said, "Let's stop here for today. Let your hands rest for a bit, and we'll continue tomorrow."
Chenchen wants to continue learning...
But after hearing what Qiao Qiqi said, they had no choice but to give up.
I slept well all night.
The next morning, as soon as Qiao Qiqi got up, she heard the village loudspeaker blaring, followed by Su Shangjin's voice: "Attention, villagers! Attention, villagers! The crops in the fields on Dongshan Mountain are all ripe. Starting tomorrow..."
Qiao Qiqi turned to Qin Huai and asked, "The autumn harvest starts tomorrow? So soon?"
Qin Huai looked at her and said, "The land over Dongshan gets plenty of sunshine, and the grain there ripens the earliest every year. It's about time."
Upon hearing Qin Huai's words, Qiao Qiqi immediately decided not to go to town to sell fruit today.
After finishing breakfast, she immediately started kneading dough, planning to fry some twisted dough sticks and leavened pancakes. She would make a lot and send some to her parents so they could take them with them when they went to work in the fields and eat them when they got hungry.
These two things keep well; you can make them once and eat them for two or three days without any problem.
While frying the twisted dough sticks, Qiao Qiqi thought of glutinous rice strips again. These are a favorite snack for children. They are coated with sugar and can be eaten as a snack.
Qiao Qiqi saw it when she went to the county yesterday, but it was quite expensive. It's more economical and affordable to make it yourself, and more importantly, it's healthy.
Let's do it!
Qiao Qiqi immediately scooped out three bowls of flour, poured in some oil, and mixed the oil and flour together.
This is the most important step in making glutinous rice strips; without oil, they won't be fragrant or tasty.
After thoroughly mixing the oil and flour, add water and knead into a dough.
Then divide the dough into several equal portions. Take out one portion and roll it into a long strip about the thickness of a finger. Then cut it into pieces about the length of a thumb. Then you can put them into a pot of oil and fry them slowly over low heat.
After all the frying is done, it's time to make the syrup.
After melting the syrup, pour in the fried dough pieces and stir-fry quickly.
This process must be extremely fast, because if it's even slightly slow, the dough pieces will stick together and become inseparable.
Furthermore, special attention must be paid to the heat; it cannot be too high or too low.
If the heat is too high, the glutinous rice strips will burn, and the sugar will taste bitter.
If the heat is too low, the syrup won't reach the right consistency and won't stick tightly to the dough.
Fortunately, Qiao Qiqi was a skilled cook, and with her precise movements, a large bowl of glutinous rice strips was quickly made.
Chenchen placed the kang table on it, and Qiao Qiqi put all the fried dough twists and glutinous rice strips on the kang table, then invited the three of them to come and eat.
"What is this? It's sweet and delicious!" Xin Xin saw the sugar on the glutinous rice strips, took a bite immediately, and was immediately amazed.
Seeing that Qin Huai and Chen Chen had also eaten it and said it was crispy, sweet and delicious, Qiao Qiqi said proudly, "This is called Jiangmi Tiao, it's made of flour, isn't it delicious? If you like it, I'll make it for you again next time."
"Mmm! It's delicious!" Xin Xin was overjoyed.
Qiao Qiqi also ate a few. She didn't have much of a sweet tooth, so she got off the kang (a heated brick bed) and planned to make the remaining steamed buns.
Qin Huai followed her into the kitchen and, upon learning that Qiao Qiqi was making steamed buns, immediately took the dough from her.
"I'll do it. You've been busy all morning, come inside and rest."
Qiao Qiqi raised an eyebrow and subconsciously said, "I'm not tired..."
Meeting Qin Huai's unquestionable gaze, she could only compromise, "Alright then, if you need my help, just call me. I'll go inside and rest for a while."
"Okay." Qin Huai immediately got to work.
Soon, 20 leavened flatbreads were ready.
A bowl of fried dough twists, a bowl of glutinous rice strips, and a bowl of fermented flatbread filled the entire table.
Qiao Qiqi divided the three items into three equal parts and asked Qin Huai to send two of them to her parents on both sides.
"Tell them to take this to the fields and eat it when they are hungry. They must not be stingy with it. This is enough for two days. I will make more and send it to them the day after tomorrow."
Qin Huai listened to Qiao Qiqi's rambling, his gaze softening. "Okay, I understand."
"I make a lot of glutinous rice strips. Tianyou and Guodong can take some to school tomorrow to eat as snacks. Ask them if there's anything else they want to eat, and I'll make some for them next time."
Qin Huai's gaze softened further. "Okay."
After waiting for a while, seeing that Qiao Qiqi had no other instructions, he put two cloth bags over the basin, carried it out the door.
When she returned, she relayed Qiao Weiguo's words to Qiao Qiqi: "Dad found out that Chenchen was going to participate in the autumn harvest and assigned him to work with the women, so I can't be with Chenchen tomorrow. I told Mom to take him with her."
Qiao Qiqi thought this was fine, since Chenchen had spent the whole day at the Qin family's house yesterday and had gotten to know Wang Guihua.
She relayed her father's words to Chenchen. Although Chenchen wanted to follow Qin Huai, she knew that the two of them were doing it for her own good, so she did not refuse.
"Okay, I'll listen to my sister."
Qiao Qiqi patted his head.
Although she kept Chenchen with her temporarily, she wouldn't stop Chenchen from doing chores.
Including Xin Xin, if she stays by my side, I will do what I can to help her in a few years.
Only in this way can they understand how difficult life is.
Only then will you truly understand the difficulty of life.
After a busy morning, and now that she had eaten and drunk her fill, Qiao Qiqi suddenly felt a little sleepy.
The family lay down and began to cherish their last afternoon nap before the autumn harvest.
To be precise, it was Qin Huai and Chen Chen's last afternoon nap.
Qiao Qiqi was fast asleep when she vaguely heard the words "catching fish." She slowly opened her eyes and saw Chenchen and Xinxin standing on the ground, looking at Qin Huai expectantly, begging him to take them fishing...
Qiao Qiqi frowned and sat up. "Are you going to catch fish?"
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