Seeing this, the group quickly went inside. Xu Han handed some fruit to Lu Chuan, who, being very perceptive, went to the pond in the backyard to wash the fruit.
"After eating the fruit, I instantly felt alive again," Xu Han said, stretching comfortably.
"The weather is getting hotter and hotter. It should be about time to transplant the seedlings in the backyard," Lu Chuan asked.
"Yes, it's time to transplant. This afternoon, let's remove the bamboo thorns outside the yard wall. Starting tomorrow, let's put aside the flower beds and such in the yard for now and start planting. Otherwise, we won't have any vegetables to eat this year."
"Okay, there's a lot to do, every day is full of work."
"Hahaha, this year is much more leisurely than in previous years," Grandpa Zhao laughed.
"Being busy is better than being idle. When you're idle, you feel like you're covered in thorns." Lu Chuan said, while twisting his body as if he really had thorns growing on him.
"Let's have garlic noodles for lunch. It's hot today, so it's perfect for that," Grandpa Zhao suggested, changing the subject.
"Okay, then I'll go and get the soup ready to cool."
"I'll help you." Lu Chuan also stood up.
Actually, now is not the best time to eat garlic noodles. It will taste better when cucumbers and wild vegetables are in season at the end of April.
However, Xu Han has all of these things in her space, so she can make them now if she wants to eat them.
Xu Han first took out the necessary side dishes and washed them clean, then kneaded a dough and set it aside to rest.
Cut the cleaned tomatoes into small pieces, the cucumber into thin strips, and some green beans into pieces and set aside.
Heat oil in a wok. Once the oil is hot, add the tomatoes and stir-fry until they release their juices. Then add the green beans and water, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Crack a few eggs into a bowl, whisk them, and then pour the eggs into the pan.
Finally, put the cleaned wild amaranth into a pot, bring it to a boil, and then serve it to cool.
Wild amaranth is the soul of garlic noodles. If you replace it with other vegetables, Xu Han always feels that something is missing, and it doesn't taste like her mother's cooking.
Every year around April or May, Xu Han's mother would make these garlic sprouts whenever she came home.
After arriving here, Xu Han would habitually add extra wild amaranth when making garlic sprouts, but she always felt that it wasn't as delicious as her mother's.
After the soup has cooled down, add the cucumber strips, water chestnuts, and garlic juice to it.
Then rinse the boiled noodles several times with cold water and put them into the soup. A delicious bowl of garlic noodles is ready.
"Come and eat!" Lu Chuan shouted. Then he carried the bowl into the main room, where everyone could add as much as they wanted.
"Haha, it's been so long since I've had garlic noodles, almost half a year, I've been craving this for ages," Grandpa Zhao said as he served the noodles.
"The weather is getting hotter and hotter, so we can eat more garlic noodles in the future."
"And we can eat cold noodles now too. It's perfect to eat at noon when it's hot."
"When I have time another day, I'll make more and put them in my space. I can just mix them whenever I want to eat them."
“Okay, we usually have work to do, let’s do it together next time it rains.”
"That's a good suggestion. At least we'll have something to do when it rains."
"After lunch, take a nap, and then we'll go pull out the bamboo thorns," Xu Han suggested.
"Sure, the days are too long now anyway. I can take a nap to avoid the sun, and then continue working after I wake up."
"Hmm, it's been a long time since I've had an afternoon nap, and I'm really not used to it anymore," Lu Chuan said.
"Hahaha, you're just destined to be a workaholic. You're not even used to taking a lunch break," Xu Han joked with a laugh.
"You'll get used to it after a couple of days of sleep. Summer days are long, and if you don't take a nap at noon, you really can't stand it," Grandpa Zhao joked.
"Okay, I'll go wash the dishes first. You guys go to sleep first."
When Xu Han woke up, Mu'er was already up, and Ze'er was also awake. So Xu Han put Ze'er in the stroller, and the two of them went out of the courtyard together.
Sure enough, Lu Chuan and Grandpa Zhao were pulling out bamboo splinters.
Seeing this, Xu Han put Ze'er aside and asked Mu'er to play with him, while she herself joined the group pulling out bamboo thorns.
The three of them worked much faster, and they removed all the bamboo splinters in just one afternoon.
"So many bamboo thorns, enough to burn for a long time," Lu Chuan said while holding the bamboo thorns.
"Pile these together first, so they'll be easy to carry when you're burning them."
After the three of them had piled up all the bamboo splinters, the sun went down.
Xu Han handed the child over to Grandpa Zhao, and the two walked together toward the hillside next to them.
The two hadn't been here since they planted the fruit tree saplings. They had originally planned to come and water the trees, but it rained and they hadn't been able to come.
After looking around, Lu Chuan said, "It's pretty good. It wasn't blown over even in the rain."
"These fruit trees have been planted for four or five days now, and I don't know if they've taken root yet."
"It should be soon. This rain came just in time and will help the saplings take root better."
"We can't tell anything yet. We'll know the survival rate after a few more days when they sprout."
"Currently, these fruit tree branches all appear to be alive, so there shouldn't be any major problems."
"The weeds in this field grow really fast. They sprouted right after it rained. Once they get a little bigger, we'll have to pull them out in time."
“Yes, with so much land, just weeding will be a huge undertaking,” Lu Chuan said with a smile.
"Isn't that good? It'll give you a job and save you from growing thorns all over your body," Xu Han retorted with a smile.
The two chatted and laughed as they walked back home. When they arrived, they saw Grandpa Zhao helping Mu'er review her lessons, while Ze'er lay in her stroller nearby, babbling and playing by herself.
Upon seeing this, Lu Chuan and Xu Han simultaneously withdrew the foot they had just stepped in.
If Ze'er discovers the two of them, she will inevitably cry and demand to be taken out to play.
This child really can't sit still at all. Whenever someone is free, he wants to be carried out and wandered around the yard, looking at this and that.
When Xu Han was busy, she would put him in the yard by himself, and he would not cry or make a fuss; he would play happily by himself.
But if you leave him alone in the room, he'll definitely cry and fuss.
He can play by himself for a while if he doesn't see Xu Han, but as soon as he sees Xu Han, he immediately wants to be picked up and refuses to lie down no matter what.
"Go to the backyard and see if the chickens and ducks have been fed. I'll go to the kitchen to boil some water; there's no hot water left," Xu Han instructed.
"Okay, I'll clean the chicken coop later. Do we still have any quicklime in the house? I'll sprinkle some on the coop to disinfect it."
"Yes, it's in the storeroom. Go get it yourself."
Then the two of them went back to their own tasks.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
