29: Chapter 29 Delicious_1 29: Chapter 29 Delicious_1 After a false alarm, the house returned to its original calm and warmth.
On the warm kang, Lady Du sat cross-legged next to a low square kang table, using a piece of pink cotton cloth to make clothes for Cai Wei.
Wen’er and Wu’er sat on either side of Lady Du, each holding a sugar figurine that Cai Wei bought for them, eating it bit by bit, savoring it carefully to make the sweetness last longer.
Fei’er sat across from Lady Du, her elbows propped up on the edge of the kang table, supporting her chin, watching her mother take the scissors and cut the beautiful cotton cloth into pieces…
“Mother, I also want to learn needlework.”
“Sure!”
Lady Du was in full agreent with Cai Fei’s thoughts.
“It is important for girls to spend more ti on needlework, otherwise they won’t be able to use the needle or thread properly, and they will be taken advantage of when they go to their husband’s house in the future.”
With that, she waved to Cai Wei, “Wei’er, co here.
I have already cut out Wu’er’s jacket.
Follow this pattern and embroider a few fish around the collar!”
What?
Hearing her mother’s requirents, Cai Wei felt a shudder deep down.
As a new woman living in a high-tech era, she was clueless about the ancient embroidery skills.
Although there were so residual mories of the original host in her mind, she was not the original master after all, and since her ti traveling was too short, she was totally unable to manage the highly technical craft like embroidery that the original master was proficient at.
Just now, her mother had already said she was different from before, as if she had beco a different person.
If her mother found out that her needlework skills had mysteriously disappeared, wouldn’t she beco more suspicious?
Then she might give herself away!
“Mother, I think I’d better go to the kitchen and make the crystal jelly first.
Otherwise, it will go bad by tomorrow.
If I cook it early, you can taste it fresh tomorrow morning.”
Cai Wei coughed and quickly thought of an excuse to slip away.
In the kitchen
Wen’er had cleaned the pot thoroughly, and Fei’er had chopped the pig skin into pieces and put them in a bowl.
Cai Wei let out a sigh.
Having her do needlework was worse than asking her to go to the mountains to hunt wild boars.
Compared to embroidering, cooking pig skin was much simpler.
She refilled the pot with water and reignited the stove.
After the water boiled, she poured the chopped pig skin into the pot to cook again.
“Gurgle…
gurgle…”
About an hour after the iron pot began to boil, she turned off the heat.
Lifting the pot lid, she scooped out the thick boiled pig skin and put it in an enal basin.
The seasoning had been added in during the cooking process.
After one night, the pig skin would solidify and turn into jelly.
With the task completed, Cai Wei tiptoed to the living room, discreetly peeking into the room from outside the curtain.
Seeing her mother still busy threading needles by the light, occasionally teaching Fei’er so needle techniques, Fei’er was learning very seriously on the side, occasionally bringing up so professional knowledge.
That ticulous attitude really showed the potential of a modern-day top student.
Cai Wei silently retracted her head and gently patted her chest, that was a close call!
She almost got caught by her mother.
If her mother noticed she has finished her chores, she would definitely be forced to learn those damn female skills.
Returning to the kitchen, Cai Wei found an empty basin and poured so flour into it.
She added water and started kneading the dough in preparation for tomorrow’s breakfast….
Now it’s December (lunar calendar), and the new year is just around a dozen days away.
Lady Du was determined that the whole family would wear new cotton-padded clothes and trousers on New Year’s Day.
So, she kept the oil lamp lit and stayed up late into the night.
Cai Wei needs to get up early and go into the town tomorrow, so she couldn’t stay up with her.
After finishing making the dough, she went back to the living room, yawning repeatedly because of the drowsiness.
Lady Du is a mother who dotes on her children.
Seeing her daughter yawning continuously, there’s no way she would let her learn those female skills.
Instead, she urged her to sleep early.
Dinner was satiating, and the Kang was ward.
Add onto that her tiredness from lack of sleep last night and the hard work over the day, so this night, Cai Wei slept so soundly that when she woke up, the sky was already lightening up.
“Damn it”
Cai Wei sat upright imdiately, looking at the light outside the window, she hurriedly put on her old earth-colored coat and rushed to the kitchen to scoop out so water to wash her face.
In the northern winter, even the drips would freeze.
The water in the jar was as cold as ice.
After her face wash, the sleepiness was completely dispelled, and washing a few more tis led to her hands and face numbing with cold.
After drying her face with a clean old scarf, without waiting for the water to dry completely, she anxiously went outside to fetch the firewood.
Stepping into the courtyard, looking far away, the faintly visible stars were gradually disappearing, the moon was hanging in the sky but seed a bit unreal, and the sun was yet to rise with only a faint red at the horizon.
The cold was intense in the morning.
The cold surrounded her as soon as she stepped outside, penetrating the thin old coat and creeping into her limbs, making her shiver from the cold.
The firewood Jiujin brought yesterday was piled up not far from the door.
Cai Wei rubbed her arms to warm them up and briskly went over to grab a big bundle of cornstalks before hurrying back into the room.
The brief few minutes made her cheeks ache from the cold, which reminded her of her skincare products.
It’s a wonder her face doesn’t crack in this condition!
However, the ti was tight, and she didn’t have ti to feel sentintal or to lant.
She quickly found the large bone she bought yesterday, washed it and put it into the pot.
She cut so ginger and added star anise, Chinese pepper, and other ingredients to the pot with the large bone to boil, then she brought out the dough from yesterday, but she found out that because her kitchen was too cold, the dough had not risen.
So, the fried dough buns had to be temporarily replaced with pulled noodles.
Her mother, having been busy sewing new clothes last night, went to bed at the third watch, now sleeping deeply.
The children were also soundly asleep.
Only Cai Wei was quietly busy in the kitchen.
She took out a big sea bowl, broke a dozen eggs into it, added half a bowl of water and a little alkali, stirred them evenly, and stead it in the pot.
After simring on low heat for more than 20 minutes, she took out the bowl from the pot.
At this mont, the eggs in the bowl are no longer yellow but a tender green.
In Cai Wei’s hotown, such eggs are called “real eggs” because of their firm texture.
Real eggs have a nice chewy texture, they are elastic and tenacious, they taste better and more eggy than ordinary eggs, hence she loves them and seeks after them.
She uses a spoon to scoop the firm real eggs one by one into a plate and then cuts so thin strips of lean at, garlic, and spring onions.
First, she fries the spring onions and garlic, after a few stirs, she pours the at into the pot.
When the color of the at deepens, she adds the real eggs, salts them, sprinkles sesa seeds and fries until the surface of the real egg turns golden, then she can turn off the heat and serve!
At this ti, the real egg is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and it tastes great.
A bite of it gives you not only the fragrance of at but also the aroma of eggs.
It’s indeed a rare delicacy in the world!
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