The clueless apprentices readily agreed, saying they would do anything as long as they could eat delicious food every day; they were just foodies.
Every day, an enticing aroma wafts from the school's small kitchen, drawing in many villagers who aren't busy, eager to see what delicious food Song Tantan and the others are making.
Most people are busy. For example, the ceramic firing section requires a lot of manpower. Many strong and healthy women go to help because they have to make the bowls, plates, and pottery jars for their own use. These days, everyone is also studying how to fire water tanks.
The water vat was too big, making it difficult to mold the clay. Besides, no one knew how to make it. All they could do was make ugly bowls and plates, yet they were so ambitious about making a large water vat. They thought it could not only store water but also store fertilizer in the latrine. The fertilizer and water would not leak out and would all be stored in the large water vat, so the fields would never have to worry about not having fertilizer.
Upon hearing this, Song Zhuiyan was speechless. Apart from being dirtier and smellier, it was indeed much more convenient than her biogas digester. After all, building a biogas digester required cement, which was not available in this era and could not be produced in the short term.
Tantan and Moxun studied a lot of books every day, wanting to do this and that. However, one cannot become fat in one bite; one can only take it one step at a time and achieve it slowly.
The fields are planted with sweet potatoes and corn, both of which are drought-resistant plants and easy to grow. Apart from fertilizing and watering when necessary, they don't need much care. Besides, at this time, we're just waiting for the harvest.
However, the women and the elderly carried hoes to clear the wasteland every day, not in a hurry to clear how much wasteland they could. They believed that little by little, they could accumulate enough seeds for next year. After the autumn harvest, they would continue to clear the wasteland, covering it with decaying leaves and mud so that the land would be more fertile next year.
The boys, even those only a few years old, were completely absorbed in things like collecting herbs and learning carving. In short, everyone was very busy.
The only ones not busy were Zhang Qingyu and her sister. They stayed home to take care of their younger brother and did some embroidery on the side. Among the drab villagers, the Zhang sisters' clothes were the most bright and beautiful.
Previously, the Zhang family distributed a lot of good-quality clothes to others, but they were all dark-colored. All the clothes that Song Tantan took out from her space were black. She didn't dare to take out any other colors, so everyone in the village wore either gray or black.
During the busy farming season, Zhang Qingyu and her sister also came out to help. They felt bad for letting Zhao Zhongnian clear the land and plant crops all by himself. But after helping for two days, the two sisters had backaches and were almost unable to get out of bed, so Zhao Zhongnian wouldn't let them go to the fields anymore.
Before the sweet potato leaves grew lush, they went with the women in the village to pick wild vegetables and mushrooms. Later, when the sweet potato leaves could be stir-fried and eaten, they stopped going out and rarely went out, staying at home all the time.
Even though they smelled the delicious aroma wafting from the school, they only discussed it amongst themselves and didn't run over to see what the other person was cooking.
The two idlers who ran to the school to freeload were Zhuyu and Liumei. When the meat was distributed, they received the least amount because no one in their family helped. They were also not diligent in picking wild vegetables, and their family had the least amount of food stored.
They had a dozen or so taels of silver left when they fled, but in this godforsaken place, money couldn't buy anything. They could only rely on farming or hunting in the mountains and picking wild vegetables. These jobs were too hard and tiring. They tried to do them, but they were willing but unable.
They struggled to clear only five acres of land, and following Song Zhuiyan's advice, they planted sweet potatoes and corn. The plants survived, but because they didn't know how to manage them, the sweet potato vines didn't grow as well as others, the corn stalks were shorter, and the corn that grew out looked smaller than others'.
This topic has gone a bit off track. Let's talk about what's been going on lately. Although there's meat at home, their cooking skills are terrible. They make all sorts of culinary disasters that make them want to throw up. But when they smelled the delicious aroma coming from the school, they couldn't resist coming over.
Seeing a group of children sharing two plates of freshly cooked food, Zhuyu and Liumei swallowed hard; they wanted to eat too.
"Tantan, could you teach us how to cook? Liu Mei and I will definitely learn diligently." Zhu Yu said, her eyes fixed on the food on the plate.
These kids are too fierce! The two plates of food disappeared at a visible speed. They smelled so good that she couldn't resist reaching out her paw to snatch a piece of green vegetable and stuffing it into her mouth.
"It smells so good, Tantan, I definitely want to learn cooking from you." Zhuyu turned around and grabbed Song Tantan's arm.
"You've rubbed oil all over my clothes, take it off!" Song Tantan frowned and used her chubby little hands to pry the other person's hands off. She used a lot of strength and quickly shook off Zhu Yu's hands.
"Ouch!" Zhu Yu cried out in pain. She glanced at Song Tantan's chubby little hand in surprise. The back of the chubby hand had five little dimples. It looked cute and plump. But this seemingly cute little chubby hand was surprisingly strong and almost broke Zhu Yu's fingers.
"What are you looking at? Don't come near me if you have nothing to do. I'm not someone to be trifled with." She was a trained fighter, and a delicate woman like Zhuyu was no match for her.
"I... I didn't mean it. I just want to learn cooking. Liu Mei and I are free right now, so please take us as your apprentices," Zhu Yu said shamelessly.
“I only accept those under fifteen. You are too old.” Song Tantan refused without changing her expression. Although she was actually twenty-three years old, her body was only six years old.
Zhu Yu and Liu Mei were taken aback. Zhu Yu was already nineteen years old, and Liu Mei was twenty. In ancient times, these were indeed quite old.
Actually, Song Tantan didn't really dislike their age. She just couldn't stand the two of them. No matter what they did, they always tried to shirk their responsibilities. They could even be lazy when doing their own chores, let alone doing collective work with everyone.
These two women didn't genuinely want to learn to cook; they just wanted to freeload. Song Tantan glanced at the two empty plates that had been completely eaten and wiped clean, and pursed her lips.
To be honest, yesterday she made a dish for the kids to learn, which was actually just stir-fried sweet potato leaves with meat. The meat was marinated at home. It's a very ordinary dish, just with more oil, an extra piece of meat, and salt.
Even so, Ye Mo didn't bother to smell it. What was so special about this dish? But for others, it was an excellent dish. Yesterday, they almost ate the whole plate.
Today, Song Tantan was teaching from the side, and Xiaomei was cooking. Xiaomei is very capable. She could learn how to make stir-fried sweet potato leaves with meat just by watching her, but she didn't dare to put in too much oil and she was also sparing with the salt, so the dish didn't taste very good. But it was still eaten up. Everyone agreed that it was delicious and their mouths were full of oil.
"Go back, I won't take you in." Song Tan waved his hand, telling Zhu Yu and Liu Mei to leave quickly.
"Tantan, listen to me, we really want to learn cooking, please take us in..." Zhuyu refused to give up, clinging to the door frame and repeatedly expressing her determination to prove that she and Liumei absolutely had to learn cooking.
Ye Moxun had already heard the noise coming from the small kitchen. He tried to hold back but couldn't, so he threw the book in his hand on the table and strode towards the small kitchen.
A gentle breeze blew by, and Zhu Yu rolled her eyes and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Song Tantan glanced speechlessly at Ye Moxun, who had rushed over. "Can't you use the powder on the right thing? Don't just throw it around like that." What a waste of resources.
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