Chapter 173: It's more spiritual than anywhere else
After the group returned home, Qiao Lan asked Mrs. Liu and Mrs. Wang to help pack some thick clothes and shoes. She rummaged through the books they wanted, put them together in a box, and asked Mo Qiming to send them over.
The next days were spent calmly waiting for the arrival of the imperial envoy from the capital.
Qiao Lan didn't know how long it would take for the imperial envoy to arrive in Tongzhou. It was already October. If he had to wait for more than a month for the imperial envoy and the case to be settled, he might have to wait until the spring of next year.
The day of returning to Beijing has been postponed. As long as the family is safe, everything else is a trivial matter.
The alternative is to wait, so it is better to be more open-minded and prepare to spend the New Year in Tongzhou.
Without Duan Mingqing and the two to supervise, the child's study work cannot stop. It is not convenient to hire an outside teacher. Qiao Lan simply leaves the task of supervising the child's study to Duan Mingjing. Duan Mingjing does not need to teach, just accompany him.
Just watch from the side.
The remaining people were not idle, they were all assigned tasks by Qiao Lan.
When it comes to celebrating the New Year, food and clothing are indispensable. Every household will prepare some new clothes and new year's goods.
You can buy ready-made clothes on the street, but you may not always be able to buy good food.
With money in her pocket and confidence, Qiao Lan boldly ordered a whole pig and asked the butcher to cut the pork into pieces according to her requirements.
Qiao Lan saved a hundred kilograms of fresh meat to make sausages. The rest of the meat was washed, salted and hung in the yard, intending to be smoked together with the sausages.
Making sausage is a delicate job. You have to chop the fresh meat into pieces, mix it with various seasonings to remove fishy smell and add flavor, and stuff it into pig casings.
There were not enough casings for one pig, so Qiao Lan went to the butcher to buy more.
The dignitaries these days don't eat pig offal, or even pork. The Duan family has cooked it several times before, such as this pork tripe chicken and braised pork sausage, which was praised by the family.
However, this is the first time for the Wang family and others to see pig casings. Can this also be made into a delicacy?
Although the sisters-in-law were curious about the delicacies they had eaten earlier, they still followed Qiao Lan's instructions and started preparing.
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The key to making sausage is the meat stuffing in the intestines.
Qiao Lan and her daughter-in-law cut the hundreds of kilograms of pork into fat and thin parts. The fat meat was cut into thin shreds, and the lean meat was cut into thin slices. It was all lean meat and tasted too bad to fill the teeth. So I just added some fat meat shreds.
Good, I don’t feel tired after eating it.
Then pour in fine salt, rice wine, brown sugar and a small amount of pepper. One hundred kilograms of meat filling is enough to fill three wooden basins.
There were no utensils for stuffing sausage casings here, so Qiao Lan asked Mo Qiming to use thin bamboo tubes to make several tools for stuffing meat.
Pour all the hundred pounds of fresh meat into the casing, tie a knot in the middle of the casing with a thin cotton thread, and divide the whole sausage into evenly sized pieces.
Pour it into boiling water and scald it lightly to tighten and shape the outer casing, and then the sausage is done.
Then hang it with the cured bacon on a pile of lit pine cones, smoke it slowly for a few days, and then hang it in a cool place under the eaves. Wait for time for fermentation to make this rare delicacy.
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After finishing the sausages and bacon, Qiao Lan and her daughters-in-law made some rice wine and fried some dried walnuts.
The stronger the New Year atmosphere, the less interested the children in the study were in studying. Qiao Lan agreed to take a few children to Tongzhou to watch the lantern festival during the Chinese New Year, but the condition was that it would depend on their circumstances.
Duanjiacun lived in the countryside for several years, but there was no lantern festival every year. Everyone was so happy when they heard that they could go out to play, so they sat down and read in the study.
The women at home were driven around by Qiao Lan. After finishing the New Year's shopping, he took them to buy fabrics and rouge jewelry, and bought things for the children at home. They were very busy.
Especially for Ms. Liu, Qiao Lan kept her busy from morning to night most of the time, mixing light and heavy work together.
It's not that Qiao Lan deliberately made things difficult for Mrs. Liu. Once this person got busy, she had no time to think too much. She naturally hoped that Mrs. Liu would be well.
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It was November. Qiao Lan got up early and heard the neighbors chatting in the alley. They said that a large group of officials on horseback had arrived in the city this morning. Qiao Lan thought about it and asked Mo Qiming to go to the government office to inquire. Sure enough, it was an investigation in the capital.
The imperial envoy for the fraud case has arrived.
Arrived so soon!
The news about people coming from the capital could not be concealed no matter what. After learning the news, Mrs. Liu immediately came to Qiao Lan.
In the past half month, Mrs. Liu has lost a lot of weight, and her eyes are full of worry, "Mom, I want to go to the temple to burn incense to the Bodhisattva, and ask the Bodhisattva to bless the third and fourth masters for their safety!"
Qiao Lan nodded and agreed, "Since we are praying for their safety, let's go together as a family." After that, Qiao Lan comforted her a few more words, "Don't think too much, our family is not a cheating family, Qing Qing
Er and Chen'er must be fine."
"Hey, my daughter-in-law knows." Mrs. Liu forced out a haggard smile, with tears in her eyes. She turned around and went into the house, preparing to pack things for going out.
In Liu's opinion, it is more pious for a family to go to the temple to offer incense. When the Bodhisattva sees their family being so sincere, he will definitely protect his sons and daughters better.
However, what Qiao Lan was thinking about was that when the family arrived in the capital, in addition to showing off her eldest granddaughter's son-in-law, she also had to find a wife for her youngest son.
Duan Mingchen is in his twenties. He has been back in the village for four years. Apart from the hens in the back mountain, Qiao Lan has never seen him be intimate with anyone of the opposite sex.
It turns out that Duan Mingchen is not anxious himself, and Qiao Lan will not be anxious for him.
Now with such a comparison, Mrs. Liu misses Duan Mingqing every day and hopes that he will be healthy and safe.
Duan Mingchen was the only one who didn't remember her. My sister-in-law Wang helped sew the clothes for the New Year.
Qiao Lan doesn't think marriage can make life instantly happy, but in comparison, her younger son shouldn't be too miserable.
As a parent, you have to worry about this.
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There are many large and small temples in Tongzhou City. Liu asked someone to inquire about them and said that the Lingtai Temple outside the city was the most efficacious.
When praying to gods and worshiping Buddha, the most important thing is a spirit, and it doesn’t matter who you pray to.
Mrs. Liu told Qiao Lan the news she had learned, and the family picked a sunny day and drove to the Lingtai to watch.
Lingtai Temple is located on a hill outside Tongzhou City.
The hill can only accommodate a small view, but it does not hinder its prosperity.
The Duan family set out early in the morning and traveled for an hour and a half before arriving at the foot of the mountain.
I saw that the area at the foot of the mountain was full of luxury carriages of all sizes. After asking the vendors at the foot of the mountain, they said that the mountain road is very steep and it is not easy for carriages to go up and down. The only way to go up the mountain is by foot.
Qiao Lan got off the car with her family and walked slowly over. Fortunately, the mountain was small, so it didn't take long.
Arriving next to the Taoist temple, Qiao Lan took a look at the plaque on the Lingtai Temple and found that the Taoist temple was much smaller than she had imagined. She could see the low walls and buildings of the Taoist temple at a glance.
Visitors to the Taoist temple include dignitaries dressed in brocade robes, as well as ordinary people wearing coarse cloths covering their bodies.
This place becomes more and more magical the more you look at it!
Qiao Lan took her family into the Taoist temple and asked the Taoist priest at the door about the price of burning incense and donating sesame oil.
The little Taoist priest looked to be no more than twelve or thirteen years old. He was not tall and had a very tender face. He had a simple wooden hairpin stuck in his head and answered questions for pilgrims coming and going to the Taoist temple.
Hearing Qiao Lan's inquiry, she said sharply, "If the donor didn't bring incense, you can go to the wing on the left to get it. If you get there late, it will be gone. As for the sesame oil money, my master said that losing money will not prevent disaster.
Those who are clean and fragrant will have unlimited blessings."
"Blessings and Immeasurable Heavenly Lord!" After the little Taoist priest finished speaking, he bowed to Qiao Lan.
Qiao Lan immediately responded and felt that this Taoist temple had a Taoist feel, it was quiet and inactive, and the Taoism was natural.