The smile in Liu Muli’s eyes faded slightly. She nodded and replied perfunctorily, “He’s always been this serious.”
Seeing her expression, Huang Shi always felt that she was no longer as warm toward her younger son as she used to be, as though some barrier had formed between them.
She wanted to ask what had happened, but she was afraid of meddling and making their relationship even more complicated, so she decided to pretend she knew nothing.
The pot of water soon came to a boil. Huang Shi carried out a bucket of hot water and brought along a kitchen knife.
“Muli, hold the chicken’s feet. I’ll cut its neck.”
“Okay.” Liu Muli answered and grabbed both chicken feet.
Huang Shi slit the chicken’s neck with the knife, and blood gushed out, dripping into a large bowl filled with salt water.
An old hen was an old hen. Even on the verge of death, it struggled fiercely, its strength so great that Liu Muli nearly lost her grip on its feet.
After cutting the neck of the second hen, Huang Shi tossed the completely lifeless chicken into a wooden bucket filled more than halfway with hot water. She soaked it for a while before taking it out. She did the same with the second old hen.
Working together, the two women quickly plucked all the feathers from both hens.
Huang Shi chopped off two chicken legs, added some ginger slices, and boiled them into chicken soup. Then she added two handfuls of noodles. That became their breakfast for the day.
Liu Muli divided the noodles into three large bowls. She gave Wei Linyě’s bowl a little more, but she did not add any sauce.
The chicken soup was delicious on its own. Adding sauce would only ruin its flavor.
During summer, they usually moved the table and chairs into the courtyard to eat because it was too hot inside the house.
Huang Shi brought out the last bowl of noodles and a bowl of pickled sour beans, placing them on the table. As usual, she said, “Muli, go call Linyě out to eat his noodles.”
Liu Muli suddenly froze and sighed inwardly. Although she was unwilling to call Wei Linyě, she still walked into his room.
She saw him sitting at the desk near the window, copying books. His posture was upright and proper, his slender fingers holding a calligraphy brush. The characters he wrote were in neat regular script, orderly and beautiful. She also remembered that he could write elegant running script.
Liu Muli could never write such beautiful characters.
Sigh. Same people, different fates.
She had admired him greatly before, but she had long since gotten over it.
In an indifferent voice, she said, “Mother told you to come out and eat your noodles.”
She turned around to leave as soon as she finished speaking, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed.
In the next instant, she was forcibly pulled around, and a kiss landed on her lips.
Liu Muli was speechless. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand and snapped, “Are you sick?”
Wei Linyě found her wiping her lips irritating. He cupped the back of her head, lowered his head, and kissed her lips again before finally letting her go and walking out into the courtyard.
Liu Muli angrily wiped her lips again and glared at his retreating figure, cursing him inwardly as a damn bastard and good-for-nothing tortoise.
It was only while eating at the table that Huang Shi noticed the strip of cloth wrapped around Wei Linyě’s left palm. Thinking that he had injured his hand, she immediately became worried.
“Linyě, what happened to your hand?”
Wei Linyě lowered his eyes to look at his left hand and answered casually, “It’s nothing. I accidentally bumped it while looking for something. It’ll be fine in a couple of days.”
Since the bite mark was too obvious and would be difficult to explain, he had simply cut a strip of cloth and wrapped it around his hand.
Liu Muli inexplicably felt a little guilty and remained silent.
Huang Shi asked worriedly once more. Wei Linyě patiently assured her that it was nothing serious, and only then did she relax. She then asked whether there was anything else he wanted to eat.
After a moment of silence, Wei Linyě said calmly, “Pickled green olives. Do we still have any at home?”
Huang Shi glanced at Liu Muli, who had been burying her head in her noodles, and said cheerfully, “Of course we do. Muli made plenty last year, and there’s still quite a lot left. I knew you liked the pickled green olives she makes, so I’ll prepare some extra for you later.”
Pickled green olives were one of Liu Muli’s specialties. The ones she made had a distinctive flavor and were different from the usual green olives simply pickled in salt water.
When pickling them, she added various seasonings, such as Sichuan peppercorns and ginger juice, as well as the sauce she made herself.
She pickled the green olives much like she would pickle meat. Once they had absorbed all the flavors, she took them out to dry in the sun, wrapped them in oil paper, and sealed them in jars. They could be kept for a year or even longer.
Of course, the Wei family had enough money to afford the seasonings needed to make the sauce. They could even buy large quantities of Sichuan peppercorns for her to pickle the green olives. Ordinary families in the village would never be willing to spend such precious seasonings on something like this.
Liu Muli silently ate her noodles without saying a word.
Huang Shi continued, “It’ll be August soon. By September, the green olives on the mountain should be ripe. Then Muli can pick some more and make another large batch. Whenever we get a craving, we can take a few out and satisfy ourselves.”
Liu Muli knew that Huang Shi also liked the pickled green olives she made. A little smugness began to bloom in her heart, and her brows and eyes were tinged with a bright, charming smile.
She curved her lips into a smile. “Sure. When the time comes, I’ll pick every single green olive off the trees and pickle them all for you, Mother.”
“Hahaha…” Huang Shi was delighted by her words, and her heart felt warm and content. She quickly replied, “Good, good, good. When the time comes, Mother will go up the mountain with you to pick the green olives, and we’ll pickle them together.”
After breakfast, Wei Linyě returned to his room to continue copying books.
He had originally wanted to stay and help process the two old hens, but Huang Shi refused and sent him back to his room to study, scolding him for neglecting more important matters.
Liu Muli said nothing, but she actually had no problem with it.
After all, Wei Linyě could earn money by copying books, and by studying, he could take the imperial examination and become the top scholar. In the future, he would rise steadily through the ranks, and there would be plenty of servants and maids in his household to do the work and attend to him. There was no need for him to lift a finger himself.
Liu Muli and Huang Shi stayed in the courtyard, busy skinning and cutting up the two old hens.
Unfortunately, an old hen was still an old hen. Its bones were extremely hard, and the meat was difficult to remove.
After exhausting herself, Liu Muli finally managed to strip the meat from the chicken carcasses and cut it into strips about the length of a finger.
Huang Shi took out a large earthen basin, put all the strips of chicken into it, then added ground Sichuan pepper, coarse salt, their homemade sauce, finely chopped scallions, and minced ginger. Finally, she poured in some soybean oil and mixed everything thoroughly with her hands.
Once the meat had absorbed the flavors, they would take it outside in the afternoon to dry in the sun. Fortunately, the weather was sunny that day, and the summer sun was still scorching. After two days of drying, the meat should be nearly ready. Then they only needed to steam it and dry out the remaining moisture.
Huang Shi had made it several times before, and Liu Muli thought it was absolutely delicious. She had never eaten much meat growing up, let alone meat that tasted so good.
The remaining chicken necks, heads, blood, and feet would be saved to make soup for lunch. There were also several winter melons at home, which could be used to make soup as well.
As for the internal organs of the two hens, they would stir-fry them for dinner.
If they had a dog at home, these two hens truly would have been reduced to nothing—not even their bones would have remained.
Skinning, cutting up, and removing the meat from two old hens was exhausting work. After finishing, Liu Muli and Huang Shi sat in the courtyard to rest for a while.
“Later, I also want to make some tofu and dry some tofu strips for Linyě to take with him on the road,” Huang Shi said as she took a sip of water.
Liu Muli hummed in agreement. “That’s fine too. I saw a bucket of beans soaking in the kitchen. You soaked them last night, didn’t you?”