It was a huge bundle, probably requiring two people to hug it. Ma Shaohua was shocked; this whole bundle of herbs was meant for him to eat.
You guessed right, but this isn't much. It shrinks a lot after drying, so it'll probably only weigh less than 20 jin (10 kg) by then. But if you go to a pharmacy, you probably won't be able to buy this much for less than 100 taels of silver.
Many of the herbs here are mainly for conditioning and are extremely difficult to find. If it weren't for the fact that Chiyin Peak happens to have a lot of them, it would have been impossible to send him so many.
Song Tantan had planted quite a few herbs in her space. This trip to Chiyin Peak was purely a matter of luck, but she was unexpectedly lucky and found a lot of mountain products.
So Song Tantan went out again, and this time she brought back five wild rabbits, three pheasants, a dozen bird eggs, and a large bamboo basket full of trumpet mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and wood ear mushrooms. The bamboo basket was full of the three kinds of mushrooms. She had asked Aunt Ma for the basket, originally saying that it was for storing herbs.
"This stuff is enough for us to eat for several days, hehe." After putting the things down, Song Tantan went to fix the roof.
Ye Moxun was not very happy. He shouldn't have suddenly become so compassionate and wanted to cure Ma Shaohua. One wrong step led to another. Not only did he have to help him with acupuncture, but he also had to travel over mountains and valleys to help collect herbs. After collecting the herbs, he had to bring back a bunch of mountain products.
Now he has to help repair the roof, and he feels like a long-term laborer, constantly doing chores for the Ma family mother and son without receiving any payment.
Now they still need to gather bamboo poles, thatch, hemp rope, and rattan. Luckily, the walls are made of adobe bricks, otherwise he seriously doubts that Song Tantan would help build a thatched hut.
Song Tantan: No, I don't know how to build thatched huts. I only know how to repair roofs. After all, when I first transmigrated, the first village I settled in was washed away by heavy rain, and I saw how Zhong Qingyi repaired the roofs.
That was the first and last time I saw someone repair a roof, because later in Songlin Village, they made their own tiles and no longer needed thatched roofs.
When Aunt Ma returned, she indeed couldn't find the person who had helped her repair the roof, but she saw someone standing on her roof from afar. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't mistaken, and then quickened her pace and ran back.
She ran to the courtyard gate and recognized the people on the roof. She immediately burst into tears, slapping her thighs with both hands, "It's Miss Song, you're back! I thought, I thought it was you, waaaaaah!"
The rest of the words were drowned out by the sobs.
Ye Moxun frowned impatiently. Crying is the most useless thing to do under any circumstances. Instead of standing there crying, he would rather come and help deliver materials to repair the roof.
I hope it doesn't suddenly rain again tonight, then there won't be anywhere to take shelter from the rain.
Song Tantan clearly thought so too. She called out, "Aunt Ma, don't cry. We're all fine. Come and help us fix the roof quickly. Look at the dark clouds in the sky; it might rain again any minute now."
"Oh, right, look at this useless old woman of mine, all she does is cry and whine. Getting things done is more important." Now that the roof is repaired, the important person can finally rest and have a place to sleep at night.
The three of them worked all morning, had lunch and then got back to work. By evening they had finally finished repairing the roofs of all four rooms. Just as Song Tantan came down from the roof, a light rain began to fall, and the three of them hurried inside.
"You all sit and rest, I'll go cook." For lunch, we had pheasant stewed porridge, but we only used half of it. Aunt Ma plans to use the other half to stew mushrooms for dinner. She says we can add more fresh mushrooms; the soup will be especially sweet.
"Aunt Ma forgot to tell you, we also hunted a wild boar on our way back. It wasn't very big. Yesterday, Ah Xun and I ate half of it, and we put the other half at the bottom of the bamboo basket. You can cut out the fat and render the oil, and then stir-fry a plate of trumpet mushrooms to eat."
This is indeed a small wild boar, caught in the mountains a couple of days ago. It weighs about 60 pounds. Song Tantan prepared it right away, stewing and eating the pig's heart, liver, and stomach. He didn't want the pig's intestines and lungs because he was too lazy to clean them.
The lean meat was all cut off and roasted, but half of it was still fatty. I just took it out and put it at the bottom of the bamboo basket to save for Aunt Ma to render oil.
Aunt Ma emptied the mushrooms from the bamboo basket and, sure enough, found a large piece of fatty meat wrapped in banana leaves at the bottom. She picked it up and weighed it, estimating it to be at least twenty pounds. It wasn't all fat; there was some lean meat in it too.
"I'll start rendering the oil right away, it'll be quick." Aunt Ma was overjoyed; her previous sadness had long since vanished, and she was now busily working away.
After Ye Moxun administered another acupuncture treatment to Ma Shaohua, his energy and spirits were noticeably restored, and his cough temporarily stopped. He even went to the kitchen to help start a fire.
In less than half an hour, the lard was rendered. Aunt Ma scooped out the cracklings, then ladled out the lard and put it into a jar, leaving some to stir-fry with bell mushrooms and pork belly.
Soon she and Ma Shaohua each brought out a plate. One plate contained fried pork cracklings mixed with sugar, and the other plate contained stir-fried pork with trumpet mushrooms. They placed the two dishes on the octagonal table in the main room.
"Wait here while I go get the soup. I've been simmering it in a clay pot on a small stove. There's no time to cook rice, so I'll just make some noodles instead." Aunt Ma grinned and nimbly turned to go back to the kitchen.
"Pork cracklings mixed with sugar are quite delicious, Ah Xun, you should try some." Ye Mo Xun usually didn't care much for pork cracklings, and he didn't really want to eat them now either.
“This candy was brought back by my mother from my uncle’s house last time. My uncle is very good to us.” Ma Shaohua’s face softened as she mentioned her three uncles.
Soon Aunt Ma finished making the noodles, a large bowlful, with pork and vegetables. It smelled delicious.
"Eat more. You've worked so hard these past few days. I don't even know what to say to you that you're still fixing the roof after I just got back today."
Aunt Ma's eyes reddened as she spoke. Over the years, apart from her own brothers, no one had ever helped her and her son so selflessly as these two benefactors. She really didn't know how to thank them.
She got the noodles from the village chief's house. During her afternoon break, she took four catties of shiitake mushrooms to exchange for three catties of noodles, which she then cooked.
"This is way too much food. We can't possibly finish it all." Song Tantan thought that if she didn't finish it, she would have to eat leftovers tomorrow, and she didn't want to eat the leftovers.
"I can finish it all. Actually, I have a big appetite. I'm just happy today and want to eat as much as I want. You can eat as much as you want too. It's okay. If we run out of white flour, we'll eat black flour tomorrow." Aunt Ma chuckled. She was so happy that she excitedly put all the noodles into the pot.
Actually, she regretted it a little after cooking it. She should have saved some to cook for the important person tomorrow. Alas, she took the mushrooms that the important person had picked and traded them for noodles with others. All the food was brought back by the important person. Her family was so poor that they only had some black flour left.
"That's alright, let's all eat more. We've been busy all day, we should be able to finish." Song Tantan smiled, said nothing more, and started eating.
Ma Shaohua has always had a poor appetite. He ate half a bowl of noodles, a few pieces of fried pork cracklings, and a bowl of chicken soup, but he couldn't eat anymore.
These days, there's no taboo against avoiding greasy food. People don't see much oily food all year round, and they wish they could eat more meat to replenish their energy, so there's no such thing as avoiding greasy food.
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