Pei Han looked at Min Yueqing with a smile in his eyes. He didn't really care for a small fried egg; he just wanted to share the joy of the day with his wife.
After breakfast, Pei Han was about to go to the front yard when Min Yueqing hurriedly asked, "Around when will you be back from the village?"
"I estimate I'll be back in the afternoon. I need to go to the fields to check on their rice planting."
Min Yueqing nodded and said, "Be careful on your journey, and come back soon. We'll be waiting for you to have dinner together."
Pei Han stood up and straightened his clothes while smiling and agreeing.
At this moment, Amei came over carrying a bundle and handed it to Amo. "Inside are vegetarian pies and honey milk steamed buns, all fresh out of the oven. You can heat them up anywhere when you're hungry."
Over the past month, Pei Han has been going out every few days, and each trip lasts at least half a day. Under Min Yueqing's instructions, the kitchen has become quite adept at preparing these portable meals.
After Pei Han left, Min Yueqing asked, "What dishes were delivered today?"
Amei, who had just come out of the kitchen, knew the details well and immediately replied, "Miss, today we've delivered two chickens and a duck. The vegetables are purslane picked from the mountain, and oh yes, there are also cabbages and peppers harvested from our field."
After hearing this, A-Zhu secretly pursed her lips.
Since they started buying chickens, ducks, and other poultry from the mountain people, the servants have rarely gone into the mountains to catch wild animals.
The main problem was that the servants' skills were really not very good. The wild animals in the mountains were very agile, and they often spent a lot of effort but couldn't catch anything. So Min Yueqing didn't want to make things difficult for them.
However, this does mean that the variety of ingredients available to the kitchen is indeed very limited.
Generally, the meat dishes only consist of chicken and duck, and the portions are small. If Min Yueqing hadn't secretly taken Xiao Wei into the mountains on weekdays, Xiao Wei wouldn't have gotten much fresh meat and wouldn't have grown so strong.
As for vegetarian dishes, it depends entirely on what wild vegetables grow on the mountain in that season.
Min Yueqing was glad that she had someone sow some vegetable seeds in the spring, otherwise she would have had to eat wild vegetables every day.
According to Pei Han, all the potatoes had been harvested and stored in the cellar, amounting to dozens of truckloads. After distributing them to various villages and using the seeds for further planting, they still had some left over, enough for an occasional meal.
Min Yueqing silently pondered the recipe.
I'll make some ginseng chicken soup, braised duck with potatoes, and pan-fried baby potatoes—Pei Han came back late last time and we didn't get to eat any, so this is a good opportunity to make up for it; the hot and sour shredded potatoes were a hit before, so I can make them again.
If we calculate it this way, there are only two vegetarian dishes left. Should we just stir-fry them as vegetarian dishes?
No matter how Min Yueqing thought about it, she felt it was still a bit too simple.
After all, today is a special day for Pei Han, so he should naturally be made to have a happy time. The servants and waiters have suffered a lot on this trip, so they should take this opportunity to have a good meal.
Min Yueqing pondered for a moment, and couldn't help but have the idea of going out hunting herself to bring back a special meal. Moreover, once this idea arose, it became stronger and stronger.
Min Yueqing figured there was still plenty of time, so she waved to Amei and the other woman to go about their business and prepared to slip away.
Amei and Azhu have indeed been very busy lately. Whenever they have free time, they use it to make clothes and shoes for Min Yueqing, Pei Han, and Pei Ji.
Although Min Yueqing and Pei Ji are not lacking in these things for the time being, Amei and the other two have long been used to making new ones every year. Even if there are no dedicated embroiderers in the mansion now, they are unwilling to see their young lady and young master suffer.
As for Pei Han, since the two of them had already done what they were planning, they couldn't very well leave their son-in-law behind.
As soon as Amei and the other woman stepped out of the house, Min Yueqing slipped out of the courtyard without anyone noticing, carrying Xiao Wei, who weighed fifty or sixty pounds, under her arms.
With Xiao Wei's current size, Min Yueqing can no longer hold it with one hand as easily as before; she usually needs to use both hands to steadily support its body.
It's not impossible to clamp it down with one hand, but Serena Williams is unwilling to do so.
Min Yueqing couldn't help but laugh when she thought of the scene she and Xiao Wei had encountered in the mountains the other day. They had unfortunately run into a group of clumsy black bears. As soon as she saw the full appearance of the black bears, she immediately chose to run away.
The situation was critical, and she didn't have time to think. She quickly grabbed Xiao Wei's two front legs with her right hand, used her lightness skill to carry it through the forest at lightning speed, and landed on the trunk of a large tree in the distance.
When she finally landed, she realized that her hand was stuck right under Wei's neck, and Wei's about one-meter-long body was hanging in the air looking wronged, with a very shameful and indignant expression on his tiger-like face.
It's no exaggeration to say that Min Yueqing burst into laughter for at least several minutes when she saw Xiao Wei's expression, almost attracting a group of huge black bears that had suddenly lost their target in the distance.
Min Yueqing laughed so hard she couldn't stand up straight, so she had to sit down on the tree trunk with Xiao Wei in her arms.
She leaned against a big tree, took a few deep breaths to suppress her laughter, and lowered her head to stroke the fur on Little Tiger's back.
"Look, those big black bears weighed about three or four hundred pounds each. One swipe of their paw would have flattened us, so we had to run away quickly, right?"
Xiao Wei still buried his head in Min Yueqing's lap, refusing to lift it.
Min Yueqing slipped her hand under Xiao Wei's neck, scratched its exposed chin, and continued to coax it gently, "It was just an emergency, you won't do it again next time, okay?"
Whether it was because he was tickled or because he understood what she meant, Wei finally raised his big head and stared intently at her with his bright black-gold eyes.
Min Yueqing, of course, remained sincere and calmly dealt with the scrutiny.
Just as Min Yueqing's thoughts were wandering, she once again entered this familiar mountain.
Once they reached the mountains, she put Xiao Wei down from her arms. As soon as Xiao Wei's feet touched the ground, he excitedly started running around, frolicking among the trees, his tail wagging so fast it almost left a blur.
Min Yueqing watched Xiao Wei frolicking with great interest, deeply feeling that the nature of every living thing is truly the most amazing thing. Even if their living environment is changed, this nature seems to be deeply ingrained in their bones, and no one can easily change it.
Take Xiao Wei for example. Since birth, it has spent most of its time in the patrol station's courtyard, where it has never had to worry about food or shelter. However, it is not necessarily happy in the courtyard. It often looks lazy and lacks energy.
Min Yueqing still clearly remembers the first time she took it out of the yard after arriving in Sanping County, because she was going to check on the potato field halfway up the mountain.
It was less than a month old then, its whole little body lying on her arm, but its expression on the horse was so comfortable and at ease, as if it knew that this vast mountain was its true home.
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