Li Min hooked a gourd from the beam of the main room and asked his elder brother who was working on the roadside to cut it in half.
Li Zhengguo and Chen Suozhu were sawing wood. Seeing that his sister wanted to help, he asked Chen Suozhu to saw the gourd.
Chen Suozhu is the only grandson of old man Chen in the village. He is twenty this year. His parents died of starvation in the 1960s. In order to support old man Chen and his son Suozhu, the couple saved a lot of money and did not dare to go into the mountains.
In this case, they starved themselves to death.
The old man Chen who survived was not in good health. He depended on the few work points he earned from easy jobs assigned to him by the team, and he was carelessly hanging on to the lives of his grandfather and grandson.
When he was in trouble, he would always cry and say that he was the one who was better off dead than he was, a useless old guy who had killed his son, daughter-in-law, and was a drag on his grandson.
The villagers couldn't stand it, so those who could help helped. It was with the help of the villagers that I managed to raise my grandson.
Now, old man Chen can no longer go to the fields to earn work points. He can only help with cooking at home, and Chen Suozhu earns work points.
After the autumn harvest in Kushanli, there is almost no work unless the commune and brigade commanders survive.
These few months without work points were the most difficult time for the Chen family. Li Zhengguo was looking for someone to help him, so he brought Chen Suozhu.
Li Min generously asked Chen Suozhu to help her saw the gourd. Chen Suozhu was a little shy, but the speed of his hands was not slow. He cut the gourd in half with two back and forth movements of the saw.
Li Min returned to the kitchen, and Chen Suozhu stared at her back in confusion.
Li Zhengguo looked up and continued to work with his head down.
In fact, he deliberately called Chen Suozhu here because Chen Suozhu liked his sister.
In his previous life, after his sister left the Tian family, she returned to Kushan, hid in her home without seeing anyone, and lived like a nun.
Chen Suozhu, who had never married a wife, came to ask for marriage, but his sister scolded him away, saying that Chen Suozhu came to marry her because he couldn't marry a wife. She didn't care, Chen Suozhu never gave up.
Later, he chased Tiantian to the capital and handed over the house to Chen Suozhu to help guard it, and then nothing happened.
Now that his sister has given up on the Tian family and no longer even thinks about marrying out of Kushanli, he plans to give her a push. Anyway, there is a lot of work at home and he needs helpers.
Although Chen Suozhu didn't have any brothers to help him, he didn't have his father-in-law and mother-in-law to pressure him. He only had to provide for Old Chen to live in his old age. He was the most popular son-in-law candidate in future generations.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Niu used twigs with sparks to scald the bottom of the gourd. After scalding twelve holes, she cleaned the gourd and left it to dry.
The water boiled, the starch was boiled, and the thick cooked starch was poured into the basin where the dry starch was already placed. He called sister-in-law Juhua, and the two stood opposite each other and began to make peace quickly.
Knead while kneading to make sure there are no dry lumps. If you feel that the dough is too thin, add some starch until the dough can be pulled and is elastic. Then put it into the gourd with a leaky bottom and try it. It can leak out in continuous strips.
, and started to plunge into the boiling water.
When the first pot of vermicelli was put into cold water to cool down, Tian Jing picked out the vermicelli, looked at it, and nodded to indicate it was done. Several women had tears in their eyes with excitement.
After running through cold water twice, place it on a sieve covered with a drawer cloth to filter out the water. When the water is almost gone, you can hang it up to dry.
Sister Niu urged those who couldn't help to go home and get sieves and drawer cloths. The Li family didn't have enough, so they did it quickly.
But Tian Jing said there was no need for it, "We'll start eating the next pot, it won't be drying for much."
Amid Mrs. Niu's doubts, Tian Jing went back to the west room to get vinegar chili noodles and vegetable oil, then opened the earthenware pot, picked up a tea vat, heated the vegetable oil on the burner, poured it into the bowl of chili noodles, and cooked it.
With a bang, a scent immediately spread in the kitchen.
I pounded the salt grains in a stone mortar, blanched some freshly washed spinach in a pot of boiling water, chopped it into pieces with a few knives, "Okay, let's continue cooking the vermicelli."
When the vermicelli was cooked, Tian Jing asked Mrs. Niu to put it into a bowl, sprinkle salt powder, vinegar, a spoonful of chili oil, and a pinch of chopped spinach.
Stirring, taking a sip, looking at the expectant eyes of Mrs. Niu and others, she shook her head, "It would be great if there were fried soybeans or fried peanuts."
Who wants to fry it? If you can fry a few soybeans in a dry pan, it will be delicious.
Li Min immediately picked up a bowl of vermicelli and added seasonings just as her sister-in-law had just done. After adding them, she stirred them a few times and started sucking them up.
Tian Jing saw Mrs. Niu looking at her. She raised her finger and pointed to the bowl on the stove, "Mix it yourself. If you don't taste it, wait for the next pot. Continue quickly. There are two workers outside and one basking in the sun."
of."
Sister-in-law Niu was not polite, picked up a bowl and started mixing it herself. The other two people also imitated her and mixed the vermicelli. The remaining two people were busy lighting the fire and continuing to cook.
"Tian Jing, what's this called? It's sour and spicy?" Mrs. Niu asked while eating.
“Hot and sour noodles.”
"Ah? Is it that simple?"
"Of course."
Tian Jing touched her stomach, and it seemed that she was feeling strong. It had only been more than an hour since she had finished the porridge, and now she had eaten half a bowl of hot and sour rice noodles.
Li Min, however, touched his belly and felt that it was satisfying and wanted to eat more.
Seeing her licking her mouth, Tian Jing sneered, "Li Min, do you still want that face? Do you dare to eat pepper?"
Ah? Li Min wanted to touch his face anxiously, but Tian Jing caught her with quick eyes and hands, "Do you want to die? Your hands are full of oil, spicy salt, and you dare to touch the wound? Just eat it. Just remember it next time.
.”
Well, Li Min broke the jar and said, "Let it go. Anyway, I've eaten it and tasted the deliciousness. It's worth it."
Seeing that she was planning to eat another bowl, Tian Jing let go of her hand and pushed her outward.
"Go and wash your hands carefully. Stop hanging around here and keep your mouth shut."
Sister-in-law Niu wanted to laugh a little when she saw the interaction between the sisters-in-law. The elder sister-in-law was unsteady and the younger sister-in-law was too mature.
The second pot came out and five bowls were divided. Tian Jing divided some of Li's mother's bowl into other bowls and only put a little bit of chili.
He took it out and put it in Mother Li's hands, and then called the two people working on it to go to the kitchen to bring food.
Chen Suozhu was too embarrassed to go, so Li Zhengguo came out with two bowls and gave him one bowl, "Eat quickly, your sister-in-law Tian likes to tinker with these foods. If you eat them, you will give her face."
Chen Suozhu could only take it and say thanks.
In the kitchen, those who have tasted it will feel more energetic about their work.
When the sweet potato vermicelli is finished, clean the pot and change the water to make the kudzu vermicelli.
When the kudzu vermicelli was cooked, Tian Jing still asked the sisters-in-law to mix half a bowl of hot and sour vermicelli according to the recipe to taste it.
The sisters-in-law were all embarrassed because this country was too generous.
Mrs. Niu was not polite, "Try it. Only after you taste it will you know whether it is worth the effort and whether your family will say we are messing around."
"Yes!" Tian Jing nodded, "That's what I mean. All the sisters-in-law are under pressure at home, but my mother-in-law lets me take the trouble. Don't worry, she won't scold me for being a prodigal."
The sisters-in-law laughed. They were from this country and truly understood their difficulties, and they were not polite enough to try it again.