When seven bowls of fragrant fish ball thick noodles were served to the table, Zhao Dashan and the six government officials were dumbfounded and couldn't help but spit.
Mrs. Xu uses fish bone soup to cook noodles.
Although her noodles were mixed with elm bark noodles, she knew they were multigrain noodles when she saw the noodles were brown.
But this time she was really not stingy, and only put in a quarter of the elm noodles. The rest was made with white flour, sorghum flour, sweet potato flour, and some soybean flour.
This kind of noodles doesn't taste bitter or sweet at all, it just feels smooth and chewy, which is just right.
There are also six homemade fish balls in each bowl, plus spinach, cabbage shreds and carrot shreds. The seasoning is salt, soy sauce and vinegar. I am cruel and give each person a spoonful of squeezed chili oil. It is red and bright. Pour mashed garlic juice and chopped green onions on top. She didn't put the coriander leaves, she cut them separately and served them. Those who wanted to eat were put some on top and those who didn't wanted to eat were removed. It was up to everyone's taste.
This bowl of noodles tastes spicy, sour and fragrant. There are no bean sprouts. It would be better if I put some bean sprouts and cucumber shreds.
"Da Shan, let these little brothers eat quickly. Are they all hungry? There are also mustard shredded pickles, pickled at home, you can try them."
The six government officials looked at the bowls of soup in front of them. They felt it was better than the most expensive noodles sold in noodle shops, and none of them had the nerve to use their chopsticks.
Zhao Dashan hurriedly followed out: "Auntie, stop being so busy. This is no longer a good thing."
"Don't worry about it. Come in and eat quickly. I'll just pick up some vegetables. By the way, help me carry this brazier over. It'll come in handy later."
In front of Mrs. Xu, she picked out the small fish bubbles sent by various stores this morning and marinated them. These small fish bubbles are not suitable for drying and making isinglass. It is better to soak them in green onion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell and eat them directly.
At this time, the fish dumplings had been marinated. She went to the warehouse and took out some long wooden skewers that her second son had cut before, boiled them in boiling water to sterilize them, and then skewered the fish dumplings one by one like mutton skewers.
Why do you think there are so many long wooden sticks in her house? This is not to live on the east side of the house. I am afraid that there will be a thief or something. If I can't pull up the barbed wire and stick an iron nail, I use this long wooden stick with a sharp point to stick it into the mud wall, so that the thief wants to jump over the wall and get stuck in. butt.
But when it rained, the wooden sticks became less useful as time went by, so the second son cut out a lot and kept them in the warehouse for later use, and replaced them every few days.
Now it is convenient for her to use it to make fish balls.
"Auntie, what are you doing?"
Mrs. Xu put the fish pickles on the brazier, which were just long enough.
What's burning in the brazier is not charcoal. It's a waste of money for them to buy charcoal to burn.
What do you think is the best thing to use for grilling? Pine Tower.
The pine tree tower is equivalent to fruit charcoal, and the grilled food is stained with the aroma of pine oil. Not only is it not as fragrant as the charcoal made from fruit trees, but it is also not as good as those spices that add agarwood and musk to the charcoal and I don’t know how to smell it, so we can’t afford it.
In fact, if you can afford it, don't use it. It will cause the tire to slide as soon as you smell it. That's how Gong Dou is played in the TV series. She is in the semi-menopausal age, so don't let her know about it. In the eyes of the common people, burning any charcoal is worse than burning a pine tree tower.
Isn't that right? As the pine tree tower burned and made a crackling sound, the fish bubbles on it began to sizzle and emit oil. Mrs. Xu sprinkled homemade barbecue ingredients mixed with salt on the fish bubbles, and the aroma immediately spread throughout the room.
"Da Shan, do you think it's okay? Just spread some ingredients evenly like this. Just watch here. When it's done baking, you can eat."
This time, even the government officials couldn't sit still: "Madam, stop being busy, this is enough to eat, we will let you spend the money."
"What's the point of spending money? If you come with Dashan, it's as if you're at your own home. My steamed buns will be ready soon. If you don't have a full meal and just carry the rice bowl, who will you become?"
Mrs. Xu thought to herself: She still plans to have a good relationship with these boys.
After all, Zhao Dashan travels everywhere. Who knows if he can find someone immediately when there is an emergency. It will be easier if he knows these people.
Something really happened, Zhao Dashan couldn't be found, and one of the government officials couldn't be seen. It's easier to find seven people than to catch one.
Especially if she wants to do business in the future, it will be useful if she encounters any trouble.
So when she arranged the meal, Mrs. Xu said it sincerely: she was more sincere than when she met Zhao Dashan before. At that time, she could only cook a bowl of fish ball noodles, but not the rest.
But that's not human nature. When there are benefits, you should think about good relationships. She also has that indescribable little thought.
Mrs. Xu prepared the sauce to make a simple marinade. She put the deodorized fish into the marinade pot and cooked it. She said it was more like braised fish so that the salty flavor could be soaked in. Then she fished out all the fish. Chop finely. Then open the lid of the big pot, pick out a few steamed buns, cut the white buns in the middle like making modern meat buns, put braised gravy and minced fish inside, put it on a wooden plate and serve it Serve.
Others call it Roujiamo, but our family calls it Fish Roujiamo.
This was what her granddaughter said. She said that she had eaten it when she traveled to Xi'an before. Fish-roat steamed buns are more nutritious than meat steamed buns, which is equivalent to drinking several glasses of milk and has more protein. She hasn't eaten.
I wasn't willing to cook it for my granddaughter yet, so I cooked it for Zhao Dashan and the others first.
However, she made more seasonings for a fee and left them in the pot until her granddaughter and Yu Qinniang came back after the live broadcast. It is estimated that soaking the fish in marinade will make the fish taste better.
"How's it going?"
One of the yamen servants was nicknamed Youbian. As soon as he heard the name, he knew that his family was in good condition.
Youbing had to endure it again and again before he took out the broken silver from his sleeves.
He really wanted to ask auntie, can you make a few more? He wanted to buy it and take it home for my wife to try. It was so delicious.
The other people were very surprised. They thought they were not exaggerating at all. Instead of talking about the delicious food, how could this dry food not have any sour taste? It feels like I can eat several if I only eat dry food.
Zhao Dashan blushed because he accidentally drooled when he opened his mouth to talk to Mrs. Xu.
If it weren't for these subordinates around him, he would have really wanted to say: Auntie, just sell this on the roadside later. The fragrance can trip your legs.
…
When Zhao Dashan and the others left, there was not even a single chopped green onion in the noodle bowl. The servants used the last mouthful of steamed buns to scratch the entire bowl, soaking away all the salty flavor.
"Auntie, where is the well?"
"Yes, aunt, fill up the big vat with water before we leave."
Mrs. Xu waved her hand: "What kind of water are you carrying? If you don't hurry back, it will be midnight, so there is no need to carry water."
Mrs. Xu opened the door as she spoke. She was startled when she opened the door. She was so convinced that Liu Laozhu fell into the yard and knelt in front of her again.
Do you think this old thing was sneaking around and eavesdropping at her door? How could you hear something across such a big yard?
"Li Zheng, is this a coincidence? I opened the door and you came just in time. Do you have a sprained foot?"
Mrs. Xu walked down the steps to Liu Laozhu.
Liu Laozhu hurriedly got up, looked at Zhao Dashan and the others and said with a smile: "Well, I accidentally sprained my foot, what a coincidence."
Mrs. Xu introduced: "Da Shan, this is the center of our village. Have you seen it before?"
Zhao Dashan's impression of Liu Laozhu has always been that he is sneaky.
If he met someone who gave him such a feeling on the road, he would definitely scold him: "Stop, what are you doing?"
But he already knew that it was Erdaohe Village Zheng, and his aunt lived in this village, so he relaxed his expression and smiled, not used to smiling: "We know each other, Liu Lizheng and I talked in town. When we meet in the future, then I also want to say hello.”
Liu Laozhu relaxed half of his body: "Yes, we have talked and we have gradually become familiar with each other. So what? Bring the little brothers and come to my house for a drink."
"No, I have to leave now. I just finished eating at my aunt's place. If I don't go back, it will be late at night when I get home."
Liu Laozhu didn't stop him, and followed Old Mrs. Xu quietly, laughing together as he sent Zhao Dashan and the others out of the village.
Mrs. Xu had wondered before how Dashan and the others entered the village, and where were her sentry soldiers Zhang Ga. It stands to reason that if a stranger enters the village, he should report it immediately.
We only found out when we arrived at the village entrance. Everyone was shocked when they saw the official uniforms. Children were stacking firewood on both sides of the village entrance and playing pretending to be passers-by.
After sending Zhao Dashan and his party away, Mrs. Xu waved to the Bu Dai Nao Hai and the others: "This is not possible. We are too vigilant. No matter who enters the village in the future, we must inform them. In case they are wearing official uniforms. Where is the thief?"
Bu Dai sniffed and glanced at Liu Laozhu, feeling that there was no need to admit his mistake to him. Grandma Xu looked more powerful: "Yes, Grandma Xu, we were wrong. It's not my fault, please punish me."
Mrs. Xu held back her smile with a straight face and said, "Since you are playing and helping the village to stack firewood, let's forget it this time."
He also asked Liu Laozhu if the meeting was over?
Liu Laozhu said it was time, and he pressed his fingerprints in line to agree to the village committee's method of distributing money, and that the thirteen taels of silver his eldest brother bought for the village fish would not be distributed and would be confiscated. In short, throughout the second half of the meeting, it was the fourth uncle who was explaining the details.
After hearing this, Mrs. Xu told the half-grown children to go home and go to bed in a while. As she walked home, she asked Liu Laozhu, "Do you guys have any ideas?"
"No, Scepter, you incited them so much that they wanted to run around and shout. They also said that this was a good sign. The first few nets of fish they caught using the boat shared by the whole village were the best sellers. I handed a sum of money to the village committee, so I thought it would go smoothly. I understand that it is a good thing that our village was burned with firewood by the opposite village this time. We are sincere and we have been beaten together. It will be different. As long as we don’t let them. Just take cash out of your hand and do whatever you want."
Approaching the front door of the Xu family, Liu Laozhu couldn't hold himself back and asked, "Why is Capt. Zhao here?"
He didn't believe that he just came to eat, he must have something to say.
Mrs. Xu stopped and turned to look at Liu Laozhu.
Now it's just the two of them, let's talk...
"I never asked you why you didn't let me see Zhao Dashan.
Well, I don’t want to explain why Dashan came here right now, so you shouldn’t ask any more.
I think there should be a tacit understanding between us, what do you think, brother?
This way we can have peace of mind when working together in the future. "
What if I followed her every day and asked, why did you do this and where did you buy this thing? That would annoy her to death.
Liu Laozhu looked at Mrs. Xu who was raising her eyebrows slightly, waiting for his answer, and thought to himself: This little chatterbox is really tough.
The energy radiating from his body makes him look more free and easy than their men.
Liu Laozhu nodded, "...it makes sense. It's cheaper to see through it than tell it."
Mrs. Xu immediately smiled and nodded: "It's easy to handle if you think so too. So, at 4 o'clock tomorrow morning, please leave me some time, brother, and let's meet at the stage. There's something I want to discuss with you. "
Just as Liu Laozhu was about to show off his cool spirit that was not inferior to that of Mrs. Xu, his waist slumped when he heard this: "What's the matter? You can tell me now."
"Wait for tomorrow morning."
"No, don't do it tomorrow morning. I shouldn't be able to sleep well."
Old Mrs. Xu said helplessly: "You have to allow me to think about my own affairs tonight. Let's talk about my old Xu family's affairs. Why can't you sleep well?"
Liu Laozhu has a saying that he doesn't know whether to say or not. Every time Mrs. Xu calls him brother, his back feels cold and he always feels that nothing good will come of asking him.
——
After Mrs. Xu entered the house, she was not in a hurry to clean up the dishes.
Instead, before Yu Qinniang and her granddaughter who were live broadcasting came back, she poured all the money on the kang to check the money.
After checking, I was grateful that there was only twenty-five coppers left, so the family members in the live broadcast room lit up the lantern signs and rewarded them with nearly sixteen coppers, but they were also worried that the money was not enough.
Because she wanted to buy some wild land. It was Zhao Dashan who said that there was a large piece of empty land on the roadside in front of Fenghuang Mountain in their village. She wanted to buy a piece of land on the roadside to build a house and sell goods. Isn't that the only way for caravans to pass?
Yes, the caravan came, and the man who stayed there said that he was from Erdaohe Village, and maybe he could deal with the sellers without spending a penny.
But who knows how many days it will last?
Without a title deed, who knows when something fishy will come up and we won’t be allowed to sell it.
What's more, when the news about the mutual market becomes known to everyone, this only road they must pass will become a place of contention.
No matter how long it takes, the local gentry, officials and their families will never give us a chance. You say that we ordinary people can't get a good job no matter what we do. That's a good place with easy business. Even if we have brains, we can't defeat them.
By then, the locations where caravans pass through will no longer have the current cheap land prices. I'm afraid I might as well just withhold it, saying that the wasteland won't belong to your Erdaohe Village. They were not even allowed to set up stalls and led the caravans to those profitable shops.
People have money and have built houses, and now they have time to build houses and sheds and do business.
So she had to plan carefully how to distribute the money, which is why she didn't want her family to see it in the live broadcast room.
In fact, she really wants to start a live broadcast to chat with some old fans about this matter and help provide advice. But when it came to not having enough money, she was afraid that the family would reward her again.
You can't live by rewards all the time, and other people's money doesn't come from strong winds. Even if you have enough rewards, it's not as good as eating as much as you can.
Mrs. Xu opened another wooden box, which contained a separate five taels of silver. This was given to the villagers by the family members in the live broadcast room. She could not touch this money. But she had to find a source for the money.
Thinking of this, Mrs. Xu got off the kang, put on her shoes, and went to the backyard with two small boxes in her arms.
She first made all the copper plates and silver old with clay. The God of Wealth hated it. Even the money she exchanged for her looked new. Then he looked at the jujube tree planted by Xu Youtian himself.
When she bought wasteland to build a house, she planned to write her granddaughter's name on the title deed, so under this tree... It wouldn't work if she didn't say this. Her house was newly built, and only a few trees in the yard remained unchanged over the years.
Mrs. Xu began to dig the soil on the shady side of the jujube tree. After digging very deep, she quickly filled it back with soil. It still couldn't make it look new, just a little bit so that people could see that it had been dug loose.
She didn't want to bother Yu Qiniang, but her sons. Digging now, when those sons come back, the traces of this fraud will no longer be visible.
Old Mrs. Xu had just wiped off the old coins and copper plates, and the sound of Yu Qiniang and her granddaughter chatting and laughing could be heard from the gate, and families outside were calling their children to go home and sleep.
"Qin Niang, please lock the door and come to the main room. I've prepared some delicious food."
Xu Tianxin and Yu Qiniang eat fish and meat buns.
Xu Tianxin: "It smells so good, milk."
Yu Qiniang even licked the marinade on her fingers, then couldn't help but take a bite of the steamed bun and said, "It's so late, but I eat so well, is it really okay?"
"Mother Qin, your eldest brother buried twenty taels of dowry money for Tian Xin under the jujube tree."
"Cough cough cough..." Xu Tianxin choked immediately.
Yu Qiniang was choked severely and her eyes were as wide as bells.
Everyone please vote.
Thanks to Qidian Book Friends: Shuangxiao for the reward of 500 Starting Points coins; thank you to Battlefield Niuniu for the reward of 200 Starting Points coins; thank you to book friend 20210330213231940 for the reward of 100 Starting Points coins; thank you Chenchen Chenchenyo for the reward of 100 Starting Points coins.
Thanks to Bookstore Book Friends: Blue Ocean_ca for the reward of 200 book coins, and thanks to Sleepy Again for the reward of 100 book coins.
