Chapter 57 056. Choose Him or Me
Stone mill for threshing grain.
Hulling with earthenware.
Then use a grain blower to blow off the broken shells stuck on the rice grains, and it becomes brown rice.
Brown rice is composed of three major parts: rice bran, embryo and endosperm. It retains the full nutritional value of rice to a high degree and contains dietary fiber, oryzanol, glutathione and other functional factors that promote human health.
Many people in Sanli Village eat brown rice.
But they don't understand the nutritional value, they just keep it for their own consumption. They don't need to spend so much effort to grind it into white rice. Brown rice is larger than white rice, so more rice can be cooked and more can be eaten.
"When times are tough, if you save a little, you might be able to raise an extra child."
Liu Ye'er swept rice into the center of the millstone, watching Zhou Yi slowly turning the oxen to grind the millstone, and said, "It's hard to make money, so every penny saved is a penny earned."
"When I was a child, we were so poor that we had nothing to eat. My mother would make wild vegetable leaves mixed with a little rice bran for every meal, and then make dumplings and steam them. We could only make one for each of us, so there were two men who could do the heavy work."
"One dumpling isn't enough to fill us up, so we can only cook some more wild vegetable soup and give each person a big bowl."
Lei Dashan, who was packing ground rice nearby, also said, "My family wasn't as poor as your mother's family before. We could even eat some brown rice, but we could only eat wild vegetables and no meat."
"My dad went to the river to fish, but there were so many people there that he didn't catch anything and even fell. He then tried to catch clams in the river, but they had already been taken."
"I didn't even get to eat the last bite of meat."
But at that time, Lei Dashan's father was not so partial to his brother and treated the two brothers almost equally.
But as the saying goes, the youngest son and the eldest grandson are the lifeblood of the old man.
Lei Dashan has a "useless" little brother, but his brother has a grandson who is literate and can make money. He is also sweet-talking and can make his father stunned.
His father loved his eldest grandson and liked his eldest son as well, but he was reluctant to spend the money for his coffin, so he went to deceive Lei Dashan, saying that he was going to build a big house for his parents to live in and buy meat for them to eat, but in fact he was actually paying for the support of his eldest brother's family.
When Lei Dashan recalled those days, he couldn't understand why they treated him differently when they were all the same parents' biological sons.
Lei Dashan has a grudge.
But when he thought about his childhood, he realized that his parents were equally kind to him and his older brother, and they would even share an egg in half between the two of them, so he really couldn't hate them.
"well……"
Lei Dashan sighed.
Liu Ye'er patted his hand gently and shook her head. "Life is good now. Li Ge'er is married. Let's not talk about the past..."
"Let's not talk about it."
Lei Dashan waved his hand and touched the white and shiny rice in the wooden barrel, feeling relieved and happy.
White rice.
It exudes an indescribable sweet scent, smelling like the fresh summer, the fruitful autumn, the moist and warm spring, and the slightly cool touch of winter.
Bright white.
full.
Soft, sticky and sweet.
But Lei Dashan and Liu Ye'er haven't eaten it for a long time. The last time they ate it was last year when the new rice was just released. Lei Li ground a handful and cut some meat.
The meat was cut into fine pieces and fried until golden brown. The green vegetable hearts were crisp and sweet. I also made a wolfberry leaf and egg soup, and the house was filled with fragrance.
The old couple were even reluctant to eat it themselves and wanted to leave it all for Lei Li, who then divided it into three equal portions, and the family of three had their fill.
Rice is grown by farmers.
But for them, or for ordinary lower-class families, white rice is also a light luxury.
They always eat brown rice, and they know that brown rice does not taste as good as white rice, but white rice is sold at a high price, and good white rice can cost one or two cents per pound.
Therefore, farmers who grow a lot of rice at home want to sell rice for money. They grind it into white rice, use a grain blower to blow off the rice bran, and then transport it to the rice shop in the county town to sell it without leaving a single grain.
Then buy cheap one-year-old brown rice, mix it with sweet potatoes and potatoes and cook it into multi-grain rice, which is the source of carbohydrates this year.
This is how the Lei family used to eat.
This is the kind of rice Zhou Yi ate after being picked up by Lei Li. This is also the kind of rice sold in Lei Ji fast food restaurant now. This is also the most common kind of rice seen and eaten in this small village, small town and small county town.
It is as rough as unfinished hard labor, and after the starch is chewed and broken down, it tastes lightly sweet, just like a green cucumber gnawed after hard work.
Not much sweetness.
But it allows people to persevere.
Zhou Yi ate too much modern white rice. Although he found it unpalatable at first, it was a bit novel. Later, he felt it was choking in his throat and liked to eat the sweet potatoes in it.
Lei Li said that Zhou Yi was a picky eater, but when he asked Liu Ye'er to bring lunch, he would put more sweet potatoes and rice in Zhou Yi's bowl so that it would be sweet and filling.
As Zhou Yi ate it, he got used to this brown rice and even found it quite delicious.
and.
Zhou Yi felt that Lei Li was like this sweet potato brown rice. Although it was rough and not fancy, it could fill the stomach and resist hunger, and it could also bring sweetness to people on bitter days.
“Actually, brown rice isn’t that bad.”
Lei Li was using a grain blower to blow away the rice bran from the ground rice. The finely divided rice bran was blown up by the fan and most of it fell into a wooden barrel covered with bamboo weaving. A small amount flew out, causing Lei Li to sneez.
"For many people, brown rice is already very good. Some poor and frugal families will sell their new rice and buy brown rice that is two or three years old. They will mix it with the bran from this year's new rice and cook it with sweet potatoes and potatoes."
"Rice bran?"
In Zhou Yi's impression, rice bran is used to feed pigs and chickens. Brown rice is already very choking, and rice bran is even more...
“It tastes bad, but at least it’s edible.”
Lei Li glanced at Zhou Yi, his eyes full of the look of a young master who was ignorant of the sufferings of the world. "Because it tastes bad, people will eat less, and we can save a lot of rice."
"Families with plenty of money will grind white rice if they simply want to eat it, and eat only white rice, without even mixing it with sweet potatoes, potatoes, or corn."
"Rice bran is used to feed chickens and ducks, which we then eat at home. The chickens and ducks eat well, and their eggs are delicious, sweeter and thicker than those that only eat grass."
Zhou Yi's eyes lit up when he heard this. "We all eat white rice now, so why not feed the chickens, pigs, and ducks with rice bran? It's just right that we can feed the ducks after raising them for a while..."
"You know how to eat."
Lei Li glanced at him dimly, "Are you thinking about the ducks now? Rice bran can be sold for money, and it's not worth it to feed the ducks too much. Didn't you enjoy eating the free plums from the mountains a few days ago?"
“I like it now too.”
Zhou Yi nodded righteously, "Just because I like plums doesn't mean I don't like duck. Besides, duck meat fried with plums is also delicious. Add some pickled bamboo shoots and chili peppers, it would be even better..."
Zhou Yi's voice became smaller and smaller.
It wasn't that he suddenly became mute, it was just that Lei Li's eyes were a little scary, shooting out like a knife.
Zhou Yi felt a chill on his neck, but he didn't understand why Lei Li was suddenly unhappy... Eating a duck shouldn't be enough to wipe his neck, right?
Didn't he ask her to buy some chicken to make honey chicken a few days ago? Now her own chicken is unbearable... Do other people's husbands change their attitudes so quickly?
——It seems that the girlfriend of my comrade-in-arms’ family changes her attitude very quickly, and my comrade-in-arms has to coax her every now and then.
Zhou Yi was thinking about how to appease Lei Li when he heard him say,
"Eat if you want."
Lei Li snorted lightly, "As if I won't give you anything to eat. It's just a few ducks and a few plums. Do you want to eat ducks or plums? I don't mind if you want to eat both."
"How about I pick you some plums and kill a duck and stew it for you?"
"May I?"
Zhou Yi's eyes were full of anticipation.
Lei Li smiled, "Of course, this is your home, isn't everything in the house yours? Eat whatever you want."
"……real?"
"Forget it if you don't want to eat."
"I want to eat."
Zhou Yi felt that his expression was strange, but he didn't know what was strange. After thinking about it, he felt that he was being too sensitive and was very happy.
He sighed, "You have such a good temper now. In the past, you would beat people when you were happy or unhappy. Now you buy chickens and kill ducks without even a glare. That's great."
Is it because I have money in my hands that my mind becomes more open?
"Oh."
Lei Li laughed.
sneer.
“…???”
Zhou Yi was a little confused again.
No, why is Lei Li unhappy again? What did he say wrong?
"snort."
Lei Dashan also snorted coldly, and looked at Zhou Yi with a bad look.
Liu Ye'er looked at Zhou Yi and then at Lei Li, wanting to say something but stopping herself. Finally, she sighed, but her eyes revealed her disappointment in Zhou Yi.
Like saying he's stupid.
Zhou Yi: “???”
I clearly didn't create a small group behind his back, but why does he feel isolated?
—
New rice is put into the bag.
It was still early in the afternoon when Lei Li actually took Zhou Yi to the mountains to pick plums.
——He wanted to see whether Zhou Yi was really stupid or just pretending to be stupid, whether he really wanted to eat the plums, or whether he wanted to have an affair with the young man.
After all, it's so obvious.
She held the plum and swung in front of Zhou Yi several times, and kept hinting that she always went to the mountains to pick plums alone, and the place was remote, which was the best place for an affair.
The plum tree is indeed quite far away.
After many twists and turns and walking along a narrow path, we finally arrived at the destination.
A plum tree was covered with plums, green and red intertwined, which bent the branches and fell to the ground. Some were rotten, and some were bitten, probably by birds or squirrels or other small animals.
Sure enough, that young man was there too.
He was wearing a green suit, his black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, he was not wearing shoes, and his two white and tender feet were shaking.
Youthful vitality.
Hearing someone coming, he was alert at first, but when he saw it was Zhou Yi and Lei Li, he laughed, "Brother Lei, Brother Zhou Yi, are you here to pick plums too?"
As she spoke, she ran over, her white and tender feet trotting lightly on the green grass, and like a nimble rabbit, she jumped in front of Zhou Yi and Lei Li.
"I know which tree has the sweetest plums. I'll take you there to pick them. Come on, Brother Zhou Yi!"
"Thank you."
Zhou Yi thanked him sincerely, followed him, picked a big, red one, and took a bite -
Um.
Very sour.
This kid is really targeting him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
