When she woke up in the morning, Lin Mai felt refreshed, as if she had taken a chicken blood injection. There was no chill in her lower abdomen at all.
She thought to herself that Siwu Decoction was quite effective, and she felt completely comfortable once she drank it.
If anyone says that Chinese medicine is useless, who should she worry about?
As soon as she moved, Fang Zhuoran woke up and asked, "You want to get up? Why are you getting up so early? Let's sleep a little longer."
After saying that, he reached out and hugged her in his arms.
"No." Lin Mai broke free from his arms and sat up from the bed, "Sister Zhu, mother and son have to catch the train. I have to get up to arrange breakfast for them and pack some gifts for her man."
When Fang Zhuoran saw Lin Mai getting up, he also got up. Lin Mai said angrily: "Why are you getting up so early? You have nothing to do, so just lie down."
When breakfast is almost ready, I'll wake you up."
Fang Zhuoran said while getting dressed: "Who said I have nothing to do? I want to cook Siwu soup for you."
Grandpa Fang and Grandma Fang are older and less sleepy. They have already gotten up and are exercising in Tai Chi in the front yard.
When Grandma Fang saw Lin Mai, she sighed: "Xiao Zhu's man is guarding the border in such a difficult place in Tibet, but his family members live in poverty. It's really heartbreaking.
Please arrange more delicious food for breakfast so that Xiao Zhu, mother and son can have a good time."
Lin Mai said: "I heard Sister Zhu say on the train yesterday that she wanted to buy fried noodles for the two children. We will eat fried noodles this morning."
Grandma Fang rolled her eyes at her: "What kind of delicious food is fried noodles? Go to your Baohaochi chain store to buy some steamed buns and dumplings."
Lin Mai nodded: "Then we'll arrange all the buns, dumplings and fried noodles."
Grandma Fang added: "Yesterday when I arranged the bedrooms for Xiao Zhu, mother and son, I saw that her big bag mainly contained a change of underwear for her mother and son.
Then there was a pack of persimmons and a pack of red dates, which must have been brought to her man.
Her family's conditions were so poor. She traveled all the way to see her man with her two children, but she didn't even have any decent food.
You give Xiao Zhu some of the cured fish and meat that the folks gave us, and ask her to take it to her man.
Then give her some brown sugar tonics and good wine to take with her."
Lin Mai also made this arrangement in her mind. She nodded and said good, and drove out to buy steamed buns, dumplings, spring rolls and noodles with soybean paste.
Because we drove there, the steamed buns, dumplings and spring rolls were packed in several small aluminum pots and brought back wrapped in old cotton bags. They were still steaming hot when they were put on the table.
The whole family warmly greeted Zhu Daling, mother and son, for breakfast.
After breakfast, Lin Mai packed a lot of cured fish, bacon and various supplements for Zhu Daling to take according to Grandma Fang's instructions.
They also brought a lot of Doudou’s bread, cakes, candies and biscuits, as well as dozens of hard-boiled eggs that the nanny had cooked early in the morning, all for Chunliu and her brother to use as dry food for her mother and daughter on the road.
Although Zhu Daling prepared dry food, it was all steamed buns, and she could only eat two meals a day, one for each person.
Wowotou is not nutritious in the first place, yet I eat it so little.
Lin Mai was really worried that her mother and son were malnourished, so she went to Tibet. Because she was feeling unwell, she had to return home without seeing her husband and father.
With these snacks and egg candies, their three wives can have full stomachs and keep up with their nutrition.
Zhu Daling refused to accept anything she said, saying that she, mother and son, were eating and taking, and she was really embarrassed.
Grandma Fang held her hand and said sincerely: "Son, your man is protecting your home and country on the border, and you are raising a family at home. It's not easy!
It's our duty as common people to take care of you, so don't refuse."
Only then did Zhu Daling wipe her tears as she accepted the gift from Grandma Fang's family.
Lin Mai drove Zhu Daling's family of three to the train station.
I bought train tickets for them, watched them get on the train, and then returned home, ready to simmer chicken soup.
In Jiangcheng, she and Grandpa Fang always drank chicken soup, but Fang Zhuoran didn't drink it. She wanted to make chicken soup and asked Fang Zhuoran to come back at noon to drink it.
Fang Zhuoran has a car, so it's very convenient to drive back for lunch.
Aunt Tu helped Lin Mai kill the chickens, while Lin Mai made the coal stove by himself.
When Lin Mai went to the kitchen to pick up the coal stove, he saw a large bundle of Guangxi black sugar cane standing next to the coal stove.
She came out with the stove and asked Aunt Tu: "Who bought so much black sugar cane because they are afraid that there is nothing for sale in the market?"
"Professor Fang bought it." Aunt Tu squatted on the ground and bled the freshly killed old hen.
Lin Mai was puzzled: "Why did he buy so much black sugar cane?"
"In order to squeeze sugar cane juice, add it to your medicinal soup."
Lin Mai was startled.
She thought the sugarcane juice in the Siwu Soup she drank was given by an old Chinese medicine doctor, but she didn't expect that Fang Zhuoran squeezed it himself.
There were no juicers in this era, so how did Fang Zhuoran squeeze sugar cane juice?
Lin Mai asked the doubts in his heart.
Aunt Tu said: "Professor Fang asked someone to make a small juicer, and he used that juicer to squeeze sugar cane juice."
Lin Mai was quite surprised when he heard this.
Is her professor so awesome? He even invented the juicer.
She followed Aunt Tu's description and found the juicer in the kitchen.
It is a manual juicer similar to a pressure pump.
Place the peeled sugar cane segments on the flat disc at the bottom, then press the flat disc on top, and squeeze out the sugar cane water and flow it into the basin.
Easier said than done, it takes a lot of strength to squeeze out sugar cane water.
Lin Mai was not weak, but she couldn't squeeze out a drop of sugar cane water even with all her strength.
Aunt Tu saw it and said: "Don't bother, I can't squeeze out a drop of sugar cane water, how can you squeeze it out?"
Seeing Lin Mai's slender appearance, she always thought she had no strength.
In fact, Lin Mai is stronger than her.
Lin Mai smiled and stopped trying to squeeze sugar cane juice with this primitive juicer.
Aunt Tu said while plucking the chicken feathers: "Even Professor Fang, a grown man, has a hard time squeezing sugar cane juice with this kind of juicer.
Every time he squeezed two bowls of sugar cane juice, he was so tired that he was sweating.
Professor Fang is so kind to you.
This is the first time I have seen a man be so kind to his wife."
Lin Mai imagined Fang Zhuoran's big hands performing difficult surgeries, squeezing the sugar cane juice hard for her, and her heart was filled with emotion.
After Aunt Tu finished processing the chicken, Lin Mai cleaned it himself, then chopped it into pieces, stir-fried it in a pot, and simmered it in a fork.
As soon as all this was done, the phone in the living room rang.
Lin Mai washed his hands, wiped them on a towel, and went to answer the phone.
The call was from Zhao Liang.
He came to tell Lin Mai that the greenhouse vegetables shipped from Hu Province arrived early this morning.
He has asked his appointed Tang Yi Tang manager to display all the greenhouse vegetables on the shelves, and the selling prices are 20% lower than those at Huimin Market.
Zhao Liang said: "I have sent people to distribute leaflets near the two Huimin markets.
If we tell the residents there that our market sells cheap greenhouse vegetables, they will definitely come to our market to buy vegetables."
Lin Mai believes this.
Even if greenhouse vegetables sell for 50 cents per catty, they are 20% cheaper, which is 40 cents per catty.
This dish is a dime cheaper, that dish is a dime cheaper, and you can save several cents in a day.
This is how ordinary people live their lives on a budget.
Lin Mai reminded: "Our vegetables are transported from a long distance and will be a little wilted. If you ask the staff to spray some water on the vegetables, the vegetables will be more energetic and they will sell better."
Zhao Liang said: "The food market employees have already done this."
After talking to Zhao Liang, Lin Mai planned to drive to two Huimin markets.
She first went to the Huimin Food Market in Chaoyang District and saw several orderers standing on the road passing by the Huimin Food Market handing out flyers.
Some people actually accepted the flyer and saw that the greenhouse vegetables on it were cheap, so they organized a group to go to Fuduoduo Market to buy vegetables.
Lin Mai found a place to park the car, put on his mask, pulled the hood of his down jacket over his head, and wrapped it in a scarf.
With only one pair of eyes exposed outside, he walked into Huimin Market.
Huimin Market completely copied her Fuduoduo business model.
It not only sells all kinds of fresh food, but also sells cooked food, cold dishes, rice, noodles and oil.
The variety of fresh food is also very complete, and all kinds of dried seafood are also on sale, and the prices are the same as Fuduoduo.
The only thing lacking is that there are no New Year products for sale such as candies, melon seeds, candied brown sugar, and white sugar.
Lin Mai guessed that Huimin Market must not have been in business for a long time, and his salesperson had not yet found a channel to purchase these New Year's goods, so there were no New Year's goods for sale.
In the 1980s, there was little information and it was not easy to purchase goods, so salespeople had to travel all over the country.
I don’t know if it’s because Zhao Liang arranged for people to hand out flyers near the Huimin market, which attracted many customers away.
There were not many customers in the huge market, which made it a bit deserted.
Lin Mai bought a few steamed buns, some braised vegetables and cold dishes, and left.
She walked towards her car and heard a noise not far away.
Lin Mai looked back and saw that something had happened at the place where the flyers had just been distributed.
What could happen there?
Lin Mailiao thought about it and thought of a possibility.
That is, Huimin Market sent people to drive away the order issuer arranged by Zhao Liang.
She immediately turned around and walked over there.