Lin Xiaopu quickly wiped the corners of her mouth to prevent her saliva from actually dripping and embarrassing her.
However, she really wanted to eat the alkaline zongzi her elder sister had mentioned!
Lin Shu laughed. “I’ll ask Mother later if there’s any glutinous rice at home. For today, we’ll first use the ‘Stinking Lady’ you mentioned to make a small snack.”
“Great, great! Let’s make the tofu Big Sister talked about!” Lin Xiaopu remembered it very clearly.
By the time the two returned home, the bamboo basket and the back-basket were both filled to the brim.
“Mother, Mother, Big Sister and I are back!”
He Guixiang was currently drying hemp in the courtyard. Several ropes were strung across bamboo stands, and she was neatly hanging the hemp that had been soaking for several days over them. After these fibers dried for two days, she would strip the skin; at that time, the processed hemp would be clean, white, and translucent.
Almost every household in Tianshui Village grew hemp. After harvesting, there was a series of processes: retting, rinsing, spinning, twisting into thread, and winding into balls. Following that came combing, sizing, and finally weaving into bolts of hemp cloth. However, the villagers of Tianshui Village were poor; most only spun the hemp into thread and wound them into balls, which would eventually be collected by merchants from town. The money earned wasn’t much, but for the people of Tianshui Village, it was considered a significant source of income. He Guixiang was skilled at spinning, and she sometimes earned a few extra copper coins for it.
Seeing her two daughters return, He Guixiang looked them over to ensure neither had been bumped or bruised. Seeing that Lin Xiaopu was not short of breath or experiencing chest tightness, but was instead full of energy, she felt greatly relieved. “You’re finally back. If you hadn’t returned soon, I was going to the back mountain to find you.”
The back-basket and bamboo basket were filled with wild vegetables and weeds; she didn’t know what the two girls were so happy about.
“Mother, may I use the large bamboo sieve?”
He Guixiang gave her a doting look. “This is your own home, why be so polite? You can use any of the pots, pans, or basins in the house as you wish.”
Lin Shu had already explored the kitchen early this morning, which had been a pleasant surprise. Although the main hall was clean and empty, the kitchen was quite well-equipped. She could find steamer trays, colanders, wooden basins for kneading dough, baskets for washing vegetables and rinsing rice, and steamer cloths for steaming pastries.
As for the courtyard, several bamboo stands had been set up. Besides drying clothes, they could also be used to dry pickled vegetables. Currently, they were occupied by He Guixiang’s hemp, but the large bamboo sieve specifically used for drying things was still empty; it could hold quite a lot at once.
Lin Shu spread the chaste tree branches she had broken off onto the large bamboo sieve and then slotted the sieve onto a bamboo stand.
The sun had been strong these past two days; after drying for two or three days, they would be ready to be burned.
He Guixiang watched with an indulgent expression, not even asking what she intended to do.
“When will Father be back?” Lin Shu asked.
“Your father will be busy in town for the whole day. He can’t bear to spend those few copper coins to catch Old Man Liao’s ox-cart, so by the time he walks back, it will be dark. I’ll make the evening meal in a while; we’ll eat first and just leave some food for him.”
Lin Shu said with a smile, “Then I’ll make a small snack. By the time Father returns, it’ll be fresh and ready to eat.”
Hearing this, Lin Xiaopu immediately said, “Big Sister, I’ll help you!”
“Alright. Xiaopu, first help me pick through these Guanyinchai leaves. Discard the ones that are rotten or have insect holes; select the thick ones.” After assigning a task to Lin Xiaopu, Lin Shu went into the kitchen.
There were two vats in the kitchen, one large and one small. The large vat held water for daily use, taken from a stream a little further from the door. The small vat held mountain spring water that Zhou Ye had specifically fetched from the source in the mountains; it was for direct drinking and was very sweet.
Lin Shu took half a basin of fresh water from the large vat into the wooden basin normally used for kneading dough. She brought it to the courtyard and called Lin Xiaopu over to wash the leaves with her.
Every leaf was washed clean, primarily focusing on removing the soil and insect eggs.
After washing, Lin Shu changed to a basin of fresh water to soak the leaves, sprinkling in a small spoonful of salt.
In this era, salt was not like in the future; a small jar cost nearly twenty copper coins. He Guixiang felt a bit pained at the waste of salt, yet she still watched the two busy themselves with a smile.
Lin Shu then cleaned out the soil and ash from the small stove specifically used for brewing medicine. She placed the cypress branches she had gathered on the road inside to burn. “Xiaopu, go get me a clean bowl.”
“Right away!”
The burned cypress ash was collected in the clean bowl. Lin Shu leaned in to sniff it; it had a fragrant cypress scent. If it weren’t for the fact that fresh chaste tree branches wouldn’t burn, using chaste tree ash would have been better, but this cypress ash wasn’t bad either.
Once the bowl was brought, she mixed the cypress ash with water and filtered it through a piece of steamer gauze. This provided the “lye water” used to set the tofu.
The first major step was the physical labor of rubbing the juice. The soaked Guanyinchai leaves were moved to fresh water—this time using the mountain spring water that was safe to drink. The amount of water only just covered the leaves. Then, she used a rolling pin to forcefully pound them. Once the juice from the leaves began to flow out and the leaves began to separate from the veins, she switched to rubbing them by hand.
After rubbing for a while, Lin Shu’s waist ached and her legs felt numb, so she let Lin Xiaopu take over.
Lin Xiaopu no longer minded the “stink” of the leaves. She rubbed with great enthusiasm, and it didn’t take long for her to mash the leaves into a pulp, squeezing out all the remaining juice.
Since there was only one wooden basin in the house, Lin Shu fetched a ceramic pot. She placed a bamboo colander over the wide-mouthed ceramic pot and lined it with steamer gauze to serve as a filter. She poured the rubbed juice in, then used the gauze to wrap the leaf residue, squeezing repeatedly to ensure all the juice was filtered into the ceramic pot.
Lin Xiaopu squatted in front of the ceramic pot, watching without blinking. The filtered juice was a vibrant, deep green.
“Mother, will you be using this ceramic pot in a while?” Lin Shu turned to ask.
He Guixiang smiled and replied, “No, the iron pot is already steaming the rice. In a bit, I’ll use the iron pot to stir-fry two small dishes and stew a pot of wild vegetable soup.”
The iron-smelting technology of the Dayuan Dynasty was already quite advanced, and iron pots were basically common in the homes of ordinary people. However, in some underdeveloped areas, ceramic pots were still in use—Tianshui Village was one such place. The fact that their family had an iron pot was only because Zhou Ye had carried some scrap iron with him when he fled the famine; the iron pot was forged from that scrap iron, costing only the labor fee of the blacksmith.
With the iron pot, the family’s ceramic pot wasn’t left idle; it was used from time to time to brew soup or boil porridge.
Hearing this, Lin Shu felt at ease using the ceramic pot as the container for setting the tofu.
She poured the prepared cypress ash water into the juice in the ceramic pot, stirred it evenly with a long wooden spoon, and let it sit for a moment. Then she added the ash water once more, stirring rapidly in one direction to allow the two to fully integrate.
“Alright, let it sit for another half-hour, and this Guanyinchai juice will solidify.”
Lin Xiaopu watched intently, extremely curious about how this large basin of “Stinking Lady” juice would turn out to be tofu.
While waiting for the juice to set, He Guixiang finished cooking. All the fresh wild vegetables picked today were stewed together into a single pot of soup—several varieties had even been thrown away as pig feed or weeds by her.
Lin Shu was stuck between laughter and tears at the sight. Every type of wild vegetable had a different way of being eaten; it would be a miracle if this “stew-everything” pot tasted good. Furthermore, several of the most delicious varieties had been specifically picked out and discarded. She was busy processing the Guanyinchai today, but next time she would take charge of the kitchen and cook a feast of wild vegetables to let her mother taste her culinary skills.
For the evening meal, they had coarse rice porridge along with several flatbreads left over from breakfast. As Lin Shu ate, she could sense her mother stealing glances at her from the corner of her eye. She pretended not to notice and ate with great relish.
In the apocalypse, where soil and water quality were poor, it was already difficult to grow grain; one might not even be able to eat coarse rice like this. Although the texture wasn’t as good as refined rice, this coarse rice with its bran was far more nutritious.
Seeing that she didn’t seem to be forcing herself at all, He Guixiang quietly breathed a sigh of relief. If they had to provide white rice and white porridge every day, the family truly couldn’t afford it. She just felt bad for her daughter; she had eaten delicacies in the Marquisate before, but now that she was home, she had to eat coarse rice and coarse flour every day.
After eating, Lin Shu took the initiative to help He Guixiang clear the dishes, but she was shooed away. “What need is there for you to help with such small chores? Go to the fields and play with Xiaopu!”
Lin Shu’s gaze swept over her mother’s rough hands, which didn’t match her face. Meeting her mother’s smile, she paused for a moment before saying in a relaxed tone, “Xiaopu said there are many mudfish and snails in the fields. I’ll go with her to get some to add a dish for Father!”
“What’s good about those things? They’re so fishy. If you want to go, then go. Ah, wait, slow down, I haven’t finished—be careful of the leeches in the fields…”
“I know—” Lin Shu replied. Carrying a wooden bucket in one hand and holding Lin Xiaopu’s hand with the other, she had already left the courtyard.
Once they were further away, Lin Shu asked her sister, “Was our mother often bullied before the family split?”
Hearing this, Lin Xiaopu nodded after a moment of hesitation. “Our Grandmother didn’t like our Mother…”
Old Father Lin had passed away early, and it hadn’t been easy for the old woman to raise three sons. Lin Dashan had been sensible from a young age and was a famously filial son in Tianshui Village. However, because he had taken a liking to He Guixiang at the market and insisted on marrying her, he had disobeyed his mother for that one time. Added to the fact that He Guixiang’s family had demanded a full string of coins as a bride price, the old woman disliked He Guixiang even more.
One should know that in the countryside, taking a wife was simple. In some impoverished areas, one might bring a wife home with just a few catties of meat and some candy or pastries. Tianshui Village was already poor; every household wished they could turn one copper coin into two. That string of coins took a long time to save. Having spent such a massive fortune to bring in a daughter-in-law, how could the old woman not subject her to harsh labor?
He Guixiang’s family had essentially “sold” her over. Having lost the backing of her own family and knowing she was at a disadvantage, she did whatever her in-laws told her after marrying in. Her already rough hands became even rougher.
Later, she gave birth to two children, both of whom were disregarded “useless girls.” Furthermore, their health was poor. The eldest was slightly better, only being thin and weak at birth but becoming plump after a few months of nursing. The second, however, was frequently ill. Every time, the local remedies of the village failed to work, and she had to go to town to see a doctor; thus, she frequently had to ask her mother-in-law for money.
These were all reasons that prevented He Guixiang from holding her head high in the Lin family. Even when her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law mocked and ridiculed her, she endured it like a punching bag.
Lin Dashan also felt bad for his wife, but he was a foolishly filial man. Furthermore, because of that one string of coins used for the bride price, he couldn’t stiffen his back or dare to stand up for his wife. He only worked extremely hard on a daily basis, showing respect to his eldest brother and affection to his third brother, and was always responsive to his nephews’ requests.
Yet, throughout these years, their submissiveness only resulted in the mockery of the eldest brother’s family and the arguments of the third brother’s family during the final split. They had even argued until their faces were red over wanting an extra acre of land. If not for the firm nature of the female lead, Lin Yao, they wouldn’t have even been able to keep those five acres of land and the two strings of coins for settling down; they would have been stripped of a layer of skin as well.