"Grandma, I’m whipping eggs. Look, this is white cream! See how many eggs we have at ho? Far too many to eat. There are still many spiced and salted eggs left over, and we can’t possibly sell them. If these eggs sit for too long, they’ll go bad. I’ve whipped them all for now, so later we can make egg cakes. You’re particularly fond of those, aren’t you? Not only can I make egg cakes, but also various date cakes, pumpkin cakes, red bean cakes, and shortbread cookies. They won’t go bad for months, and if necessary, we can even freeze them. Whenever you want to eat so, just take them out. It’s so convenient!"
"Obviously, cream isn’t just for cakes. I even secretly made ice cream with it before. It can also be used for pudding, cream of mushroom soup, mousse cakes, cheesecakes... In short, with so many eggs at ho, I’ll turn this entire batch into cream for storage. My priority now is to process all the raw ingredients into semi-finished products. This will reduce storage space, make them convenient to transport when we move, and save trouble when we want to eat sothing."
It seems downloading ’A Thousand and One Ways to Eat Eggs’ was a very good choice, Jing Shu thought.
Hearing that it wouldn’t go to waste, Grandma Jing exhaled in relief, her eyes lighting up. It had been a long ti since she’d had an egg cake, but she was still a bit unsure.
"Wouldn’t it be too wasteful of food?" she asked. "How much can all these eggs really make? And it can’t be eaten as a staple. But back in our day, egg cakes were rare treats... Also, what about all these egg yolks? Can’t they be whipped with the egg whites? We can’t eat that many yolks at once."
Jing Shu’s hands didn’t stop moving as she replied, "Wasteful? If it fills our stomachs, then it’s not wasteful. We won’t waste these egg yolks either. They can be used to make egg yolk pies, egg yolk pastries, or mixed with milk to make custard for tarts. If we freeze it, it won’t go bad for years. Whenever we crave a tart, we can just add the custard to a tart shell and bake it. We can have hot, freshly-baked tarts anyti!"
"Tarts? Like the ones you bought last ti? It’s a sha they’re all gone. Can we really make them ourselves?" Grandma Jing’s eyes shone even brighter.
The wholesale box of tarts had long been finished. It had been a treat enjoyed by young and old in the family a few tis before it was all gone, mainly because Grandma Jing loved them. Those soft, sweet tarts t several of Grandma Jing’s important criteria for food: sweet, soft, and easy to chew.
Don’t assu that just because she was an old lady in her seventies or eighties, she didn’t enjoy sweets. That was a fixation from her youth. Who could bla her? Back then, they had been too poor to afford sugar.
"Grandma, we’ll eat tarts this afternoon. Here, let teach you how to make tart shells. We can make plenty of extras. We can stack them so they won’t take up much space, and they won’t spoil in the fridge either."
...
"Huh, what did I co here for?" Grandma Jing rolled out the dough with practiced, familiar hands, pressing the palm-sized pieces of special pastry into foil tins. She looked puzzled. Sothing doesn’t feel right.
What could Grandma Jing do?
She couldn’t admit that her body had honestly led her here because she wanted to enjoy those soft, sweet tarts more often, could she? Nor could she say that the sll of baking egg cakes had simply made her unable to leave, right?
The discussion about conserving food and clothing from the previous day was long forgotten.
Even the tasks of setting up vegetable racks and transplanting fruit trees were forgotten. Only after they had finally worked their way through all the eggs, using up several bags of flour and countless amounts of sugar, and successfully added several new kinds of treats and a large number of semi-finished products to their household stores, did they rember.
By the ti Jing Shu belatedly went to check on the yard, it had already completely changed.
The fruit trees had been replanted properly, and the vegetable racks were newly built, offering twice as much planting space as before!
Not only that, but the double layers of soil in the shed had also been put in place, along with several cages of half-grown bok choy, looking robust and delightful.
Yet Mr. Jing sighed mournfully, "Such a pity, what a waste."
"What’s wrong, Grandpa? What’s a pity? Is everything already fixed? Where did the soil co from? And these vegetable seedlings..." Jing Shu was puzzled. She had originally planned to take so soil from her space but hadn’t dared to take much. Who knew if the soil in her space could even regenerate?
So Mr. Jing explained what had happened over the past two days. It turned out that Mrs. Jing had purchased both the soil and the vegetable seedlings at a high price from near the Artificial Sun.
The day after they discovered water seeping into the soil at their ho, Mrs. Jing had gone to the cultivated fields that had opened up near the Artificial Sun. She had been afraid their own land had also been polluted. Fortunately, the soil there seed relatively normal.
Jing Shu frowned. That doesn’t seem likely. Was the soil over there really normal?
Mr. Jing continued, saying that Mrs. Jing, still not reassured, had hired soone to dig deeper. Just two ters down, the earth was as hard as rock. When they dug so out, it was just like the gluey muck from their own field—completely solidified into cent.
After so experints, they discovered that the high temperature from the Artificial Sun had dried out the thin, muddy slurry in the surrounding ground. This had turned it into hard cent, forming a natural protective barrier that stopped more muddy water from seeping in. It was a fortunate coincidence that had saved the crops.
Mrs. Jing hadn’t dared to delay and had imdiately reported the situation to the higher-ups. For the past two days, they had been busy dealing with these matters. Although the Agricultural Departnt could now use soilless cultivation, such a significant problem with the land was still considered very serious.
Mr. Jing then said, "If we’d known high temperatures could dry it out, why would we have bothered with cent and applying putty for waterproofing? All that effort wasted."
Jing Shu comforted him, "The temperature of that Artificial Sun is consistently high. Even if our land dried out once, if the temperature dropped later, the slurry might liquefy and seep in again. This way is better; at least we have peace of mind."
Hearing this, Mr. Jing’s expression brightened considerably. He put away his dry tobacco pipe and went to tidy up the vegetable shed. He cared more about that vegetable shed than anyone else, as it would be so ti before the next batch of tobacco could be harvested to satisfy his cravings, and his own supply of tobacco was dwindling.
After frantically helping Jing Shu for several days, Grandma Jing no longer had the energy to continue. She began to focus entirely on preparing goods for the New Year. Fresh vegetables were currently scarce, a common issue between harvests, but this didn’t affect the living conditions at Jingshu’s house.
Without fresh vegetables, they would simply eat more at; there was plenty of fish and shrimp. Plus, they had dried goods like Black Fungus and Mushrooms. Oh, and various pickles and preserved vegetables. If that wasn’t enough, they could also use the Dried Vegetables from Qian Duoduo’s share.
They dared not bring ho vegetables from the Agricultural Departnt to eat, as those were treated with hormones and growth promoters and would only be eaten if there was absolutely no other choice.
Most of the produce near the Artificial Sun consisted of grain crops; vegetables were scarce. Those few cages of half-grown bok choy had cost a great deal to acquire. Over the past few days, Grandma Jing had occasionally picked so, forcing the poor, immature bok choy to be "harvested" prematurely.
Fortunately, ingredients like green onions and ginger could be stored for a long ti. Otherwise, without these seasonings, the Jing family’s als truly wouldn’t taste very good.
It seed Jingshu’s house wouldn’t be able to eat vegetables as freely as they wished for the next few months.
Jing Shu, anwhile, was completely engrossed with her oven, baking batch after batch of cookies and cakes in various flavors. She was doing her utmost to stockpile food for herself. After all, when else would she have the chance to enjoy such delicious treats again?
So much so that when it was ti for Jing Shu to drive the RV to pick people up for the New Year, she felt reluctant. At this rate, when will I ever stockpile enough cookies? she fretted. Sigh, what a dilemma.
Just as Jing Shu finished her preparations and was about to leave, a knock sounded at the door.
Could they have arrived already? Jing Shu muttered to herself. That would save a lot of trouble.
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