CH 67

Jun 14 2022

“People can’t even afford to eat now. How could it be that easy to earn money, just giving him something to eat and a place to sleep is already enough these days,” Li Changfeng didn’t want to talk to the Li family how much Li Xiao’er makes. His words caused the people in the courtyard feeling empty. If there is no salary, he can’t help support his family, then it makes no difference if he has a job or not.

Li Ama’s face also sank, “You go and make him come back quickly! It’s not appropriate for an unmarried ger to take care of others!”

Li Changfeng shook his head, “How can this work, and this is also a good thing, isn’t it?”

“What’s so good! Will a serious ger take care of a stranger when they don’t even know each other?! Call him back quickly!” Old man Li said angrily.

“Yes, if this matter spreads out, it will cause the villagers to gossip,” eldest Li’s wife said in a low voice, but he was pulled by eldest Li to the side.

Li Changfeng smiled calmly, “Why is it not a good thing, my younger brother was afraid that him staying at home would trouble the family, and he also knows that he eats a lot. His job is not far from here. He can comeback whenever he wants. The family also doesn’t have to prepare his share of food, why is it not a good thing?”

This is also true. The faces of old man Li and Li Ama eased, but Li Ama still insisted, “Then let him figure it out!”

“That’s alright. I’ll go back then.” Li Changfeng stood up after speaking and got into the donkey cart. Translated on hololonovels dot com. Li Ama looked at the sturdy donkey and couldn’t help saying: “This donkey grows faster than our piglets. Seriously, it must be fed a lot. Wouldn’t it cause you trouble?”

“It isn’t much trouble, our whole family’s life depends on it. If we can transport a few people on the road, we can earn some extra income. Alright, I’m leaving!” Li Changfeng didn’t follow Li Ama’s routine and went on his own. Li Ama’s plan of execution was poor, and he was annoyed that he couldn’t tell his second son directly that he wants to eat meat!

***

“So, that’s what happened. Since it’s like this, we’ll just go and visit Xiao’er every so often.” Xu Qing finally felt relieved after hearing Li Changfeng’s story about Li Xiao’er.

“Okay, I know, you can rest assured.” Li Changfeng thought about what he said in the yard of Li’s house and decided to tell Li Xiao’er not to stupidly hand over all the wages back home. Li Xiao’er is also at the age to prepare for marriage, so he needs to save more private money.

***

Time passed by minute by minute, and the seasons changed. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing’s belly grew from five months to eight months, and in two months, the baby will arrive. Now, it was November. It’s been a month that the weather has started to get cold.

The good news is that just last month, it finally started to rain. Although the crops in the fields are all dead, the rain has come, which brought along the hope of the peasants.

Li Changfeng has already turned over the fields again in that month, and he has also irrigated the soils with water. The new crops should have no problem. It can be said that the situation looks bright for the field!

The water level of the river outside the village has also risen, and the smiles of the villagers have also returned. These days, Li Changfeng has been planting vegetables and grains that can still be planted in the ground, so that his family can eat some warm dishes in winter.

What surprised Xu Qing in particular was that there were potatoes here in this world! He didn’t care whether they could survive or not, anyway, he had the spiritual spring, so he let Li Changfeng free up one mu of land to plant potatoes and one mu of land to plant sweet potatoes!

During this period, when Xu Qing was free, he secretly wandered the fields and drop the spiritual spring water on the ground. Now the sweet potato seedlings and potato seedlings have grown a lot, which makes the villagers who see this even more hopeful. At this time, these root crops could still be planted. Their winter will not be so difficult anymore.

So the village began to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes like Xu Qing’s family. In desperation, Xu Qing had to secretly drop some spiritual spring water into the main source of irrigation water in the village. In this way, potatoes and sweet potatoes planted by every household all sprouted.

Xu Qing’s belly is now huge, but his body is still slim everywhere except his belly. From a distance, you can only see the belly. It looks a little scary. Although Xu Qing eats a lot, except for the stomach that absorbs all the food intake getting bigger and bigger, his overall appearance didn’t change much.

But what surprised Li Changfeng and Xu Qing even more was that the child in his belly is very active at every turn, “stretching his fists and feet,” all the time reminding the new parents how strong and lively the child is.

As soon as Li Changfeng came home, he saw Xu Qing rubbing his waist and his stomach.

“Kicked you again?”

Xu Qing nodded, “That’s not it, it’s amazing that he doesn’t kick me more than ten times today!” When the movements are light, it doesn’t hurt, but occasionally a big one comes, and it hurts so bad!

Li Changfeng just put his hand on Xu Qing’s stomach when he felt the little guy kicked again, Li Changfeng smiled silly, Xu Qing patted his hand away, “Stop laughing, give me a hand, I’ll go inside to stay warm.”

Although there is a kang bed, it has only just begun to get cold today, and Xu Qing is unwilling to start using it. Otherwise, he will not want to go out when it is cold later.

“Today Xie Ama talked about Brother Xiaoyu.” Xu Qing was lying on the warm bed and just wanted to hum, but remembering what Xie Ama said today, he still talked to Li Changfeng.

“He was worried about the child again?” Li Changfeng didn’t have to guess what Xie Ama was worried about. This brother Xie has been married to the Lin family for more than half a year, and there is still no movement in his stomach, making Xie Ama worry!

Xie Yu’s body was under the care of old doctor Lin, and Xu Qing also gave him spring water before. Combined with Lin Fangliang being so kind to him, it can be said that Xie Yu lived comfortably and was healthy, but he still couldn’t conceive. Brother Xie’s pressure began to increase. Even if Lin Fangliang said it was okay to have no children, he still couldn’t let go.

“I think Brother Xiaoyu’s mind is too heavy!” Xu Qing heard a case before, that is, the more one wants to get pregnant, the less they can get pregnant, the more they can’t conceive, the more they overthink, and the more they are worried. It is a negative cycle, and the stress will not let the body works its natural wonder, how can they get pregnant!

“That’s right, by the way, what do you want to eat at night?” The most important thing on Li Changfeng’s mind was Xu Qing.

“What are we eating.”

Xu Qing really didn’t know that his appetite had suddenly declined these days, “By the way, where are the soybeans we bought!” Xu Qing suddenly thought of tofu!

“In the warehouse, do you want to eat it? I’ll cook it!” They eat soybeans directly by boiling them.

“No need to cook, I’ll teach you a new dish to make! Go and scoop up three bowls of soybeans, we just need to pick out the unwanted beans and soak the rest in water, let it rest overnight and we’ll make them tomorrow. We’ll just eat fried eggs tonight. Let’s have a cake too.” These days, Li Changfeng’s cooking skills are getting better and better under Xu Qing’s guidance.

The selection of beans to make tofu is also very important. After letting Li Changfeng remove impurities such as sundries, inferior beans, vegetation, and sandy soil through a sieve, he starts soaking the beans, that is, soaking the soybeans in water to remove the impurities which will be floating on the surface of the water. The amount of water should be enough to submerged soybeans.

“During the soaking process, the water can prevent the soaked beans from becoming sour and rancid, which will affect the taste later. The soaking time varies according to the temperature. Generally, soaking beans in summer takes two to three hours; in winter, it is four to six hours.” When Xu Qing watched Li Changfeng add water to the beans, he talked about the process and pointed at the water level.

In the afternoon of the second day, Xu Qing asked Li Changfeng to use a stone mill to grind the soaked soybeans. According to Xu Qing’s instructions, Li Changfeng added soybeans and water to grind them into a soy bean paste, “You have to remember that when grinding, add beans and water evenly, in harmony with the speed you grind, so that you can grind out a fine and tender soy milk.”

Li Changfeng worked seriously, for fear that he would miss a little bit of the steps. Translated on hololonovels dot com. Xu Qing found a piece of cloth with a relatively sparse thread count, and let Li Changfeng use it to filter, add the grounded soy milk to warm water and mix it well, put it in a cloth bag, lift the cloth bag, shake it by hand, wait for the slurry to flow out, repeat the operation several times, until all the slurry is drained.

Looking at the white water in the pot and smelling the unique bean scent emanating from the soy milk in the air, Xu Qing was very satisfied. Now they can have great tasting tofu.

The last step is to cook the soy milk. Xu Qing asked Li Changfeng to take the filtered raw soy milk and put it into the pot, heat it up and boil it until the soy milk foam on the surface.

Xu Qing deliberately scooped out two large bowls of hot soy milk, added sugar to the bowl, stirred it until it melted, and handed a bowl to Li Changfeng, “Come, have a taste.”

Beautiful Picture of a Cup of Soy milk

(credit: eatthis.com)

Li Changfeng took the bowl, blew the hot air off, and a special fragrance came to the tip of his nose. He took a small sip first, his eyes brightened, and he didn’t care about burning his tongue, he drank the bowl clean after a few gulps!

“How is it?”

Xu Qing asked Li Changfeng, who nodded, directly scooped another bowl from the pot and put sugar. He looked like he wanted to scoop out all the soy milk in the pot.

“Stop, stop, stop!”

Xu Qing hurriedly stopped Li Changfeng’s movements, “What’s wrong?” Li Changfeng stopped and asked in confusion. “This is just a small snack. The rest is not just for drinking. Listen to me.”

This soy milk is so delicious, but it could still become other things? Li Changfeng is full of expectations. He obeys Xu Qing and pours the soy milk that he just scooped back inside the pot, leaving only the bowl he just put sugar in.

To make tofu, you need some pulp. Scoop the boiled soy milk out of the pot and let it cool slightly. When the temperature drops, you can begin to prepare the paste. Stir the soymilk with a small spoon, and slowly add the salt and brine. When the soymilk sticks to the spoon, slow down the stirring and the speed of adding the salt and brine, until the soymilk becomes nail-sized tofu chunks, stop stirring, cover the pot and let it sit for about a quarter of an hour.

Taking advantage of this time, Xu Qing asked Li Changfeng to wash the wooden grid specially made this morning and put it aside. Squeeze out the liquid from the mixture set aside earlier with a heavy object. Generally, it should not be pressed too dry, otherwise it will not be tofu, but dry tofu.

After a while, Li Changfeng opened the cotton cloth, and what was in front of him was tender and white tofu. Xu Qing broke a piece and put it in his mouth, “Well, this is the taste!” And it tasted better than modern ones!

“You try it too, it’s done.” Xu Qing asked Li Changfeng to try the tofu as well. Li Changfeng carefully took a small piece and tried it, frowning a little.

“You don’t like it?”

Xu Qing remembered that Li Changfeng’s taste buds were relatively heavy, so the tofu that came out a little light in flavor was normal for him not to like it.

Li Changfeng couldn’t tell whether he liked it or not, “I just think the taste is a little weird, so I can’t tell.”

“It’s okay, we can make the taste you like.” Xu Qing broke another piece and stuffed it into his mouth, um, delicious.

Because he was afraid that Li Changfeng would be inexperienced in doing it for the first time, Xu Qing did it himself, and Li Changfeng helped form the side. He was going to make spicy tofu!

Thinking about giving some to Xie Ama and the others to try, Xu Qing took a few larger pieces of tofu, cut the tofu into pieces, blanched them in water for later use, and cut a type of peppers similar to chili peppers and garlic into small pieces. After the sweet potato flour was prepared, he cut a small piece of meat that Li Changfeng brought into minced meat, then added a spoonful of wine and a spoonful of salt, marinate for a quarter of an hour, and then let Li Changfeng start the fire.

After the pot was hot, Xu Qing put the oil in the pot, when it gets hot, put the prepared spices and garlic in the pot to fry until fragrant, and then put the marinated minced meat into the pot to stir-fry until the fragrance come out, Xu Qing poured the prepared sweet potato powder into the pot, stir-fry, pour in appropriate water, bring it to a boil, then put the sliced tofu into the pot, stir-fry it a few times, and then scoop it into two bowls, sprinkle the chopped green onion, and two big bowls of beautiful and fragrant spicy tofu are ready.

Spicy Tofu

(credit: 橘子香味; douguo)

“You bring this bowl to Xie Ama’s house, I’ll make a cup of soup meanwhile. Should be ready when you come back.” Xu Qing put the bowl of spicy tofu for Xie Ama and Uncle Xie in a basket, covered it with a clean cloth, and let Li Changfeng send it over.

Li Changfeng swiftly cleaned the pot, and then set the fire to low. After he helped Xu Qing prepared the eggs for the soup, he carried the basket and walked towards the village.

Xie Ama was cooking with uncle Xie, and at this moment, his eyes were full of sadness, “What are you talking about! If it wasn’t for the Ma family back then, our son wouldn’t be like this!”