Chapter 60: Stone Rice, Dried Ginger Tea, and Pickled Vegetable Rice

After listening to Huang Dalian, Ming Dai opened a burlap sack and sifted through it. As expected, she found plenty of small stones mixed in with the rice.

She frowned. How was anyone supposed to eat this? She had no intention of becoming one of the unlucky ones with broken teeth.

Thinking for a moment, she poured out the portion meant for today’s lunch and handed it to Huang Dalian.

“Sister Dalian, don’t do anything else for now. Can you pick out the stones from today’s rice first?”

Before coming here, Aunt Huang had already instructed her to follow the orders of Xiao Ming when it came to kitchen matters.

So, she nodded cheerfully, took the bowl, and pulled over Liu Guoqiang, who had been busy calculating accounts nearby. She took over his table, and the two of them started picking out the stones.

Meanwhile, Ming Dai checked the pot that Zhou Sinian was tending to. The water was already boiling.

She walked over to her basket, took out a package wrapped in oil paper, and brought it to the pot. She unwrapped it, dumped the contents into the boiling water, and covered it with the lid.

“Zhou Sinian, add another piece of firewood, then come wash the vegetables with me.”

Zhou Sinian obediently did as he was told, but his expression was unhappy. He kept glancing at the covered pot with a frown, clearly dissatisfied with whatever Ming Dai had just put in.

Each of them grabbed a basket and picked two full loads of Chinese cabbage before heading toward the river.

On the way, they saw another shed where people were also cooking. Like them, they were making stewed Chinese cabbage.

But when Ming Dai saw how they were preparing it—throwing whole cabbages into the pot without even removing the yellowed leaves, with mud still clinging to the roots—she was immediately disgusted.

The other person noticed them, paused for a moment, then guessed they were heading to the river to wash vegetables. He let out a cold snort and mocked them for being overly particular.

He must not have met Zhou Sinian before; otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to run his mouth. Fortunately, Zhou Sinian didn’t understand what he had said.

Before long, the two returned with the washed vegetables. Ming Dai began chopping, slicing all the cabbage into fine pieces and placing them in a large basin for later use.

Meanwhile, Huang Dalian had finished picking out the stones from the grain.

Ming Dai handed the grains to her for washing while she scooped out the boiled dried ginger water from the large pot and poured it into a clay jar to keep warm.

Then, she quickly scrubbed the pot and started cooking.

Zhou Sinian, seeing that the dried ginger water had been set aside, sat back down by the stove to tend the fire. He grabbed a handful of chestnuts and placed them on the stove to roast, munching happily as he worked. Before long, his face was covered in a ring of black soot, but he didn’t seem to care.

Ming Dai ignored him and focused on her cooking.

She heated the pot and scooped in a large chunk of pork fat. The moment it melted, the rich aroma spread far and wide.

Huang Dalian watched with distress, wanting to remind Ming Dai that this oil was supposed to last until the end of the month.

But recalling her mother-in-law’s instructions, she held her tongue.

Ming Dai retrieved the dried ginger from the clay jar, repurposing it by tossing it into the rendered fat for extra fragrance. She then added chopped cabbage stems, poured in water, and mixed in the washed grains before letting everything simmer together.

Huang Dalian hadn’t expected such a method of cooking. She was surprised but also pleased—this way, they could skip an extra step of washing the pot and stir-frying the vegetables.

Ming Dai took out her and Zhou Sinian’s rice bowls, then borrowed two more from Huang Dalian and Liu Guoqiang. She placed a small pinch of brown sugar at the bottom of each bowl, then poured in the warm ginger tea from the clay jar, offering it to the two of them first.

In Zhou Sinian’s tea mug, she added a large spoonful of sugar. Only then did he look satisfied, no longer complaining. He happily alternated between sips of sweet ginger tea and bites of roasted chestnuts.

Liu Guoqiang, squatting beside Huang Dalian near the stove, also took small sips of the warm ginger tea, enjoying its comforting warmth.

This stuff was precious—normally, only young women who had just given birth got to drink a few sips. As a grown man, this was Liu Guoqiang’s first time tasting it.

Before long, a unique aroma filled the air—the rich scent of mixed grains blended with rendered fat. Ming Dai lifted the heavy wooden lid of the pot, picked up the spatula, and stirred the contents before dumping in all the chopped cabbage stems from the large iron basin.

She mixed everything thoroughly and let it simmer once more.

Ten minutes later, the work bell rang, signaling the end of the shift.

Ming Dai lifted the pot lid again, tossed in the cabbage leaves, sprinkled in a handful of salt, stirred everything evenly, and covered it once more.

“Zhou Sinian, no need to add more firewood!”

Zhou Sinian nodded, tidied up the leftover firewood at the stove’s entrance, and stacked it neatly on the woodpile behind him.

Soon, the villagers from Liujiawan arrived. More than sixty of them had come this time. After traveling through the night and working all morning, they were starving.

Ming Dai called out to Huang Dalian, “Sister Dalian, find two people to help you carry the ginger tea outside. Give everyone in line a bowl to warm them up. I’ll serve the food right away.”

Huang Dalian nodded and immediately called over her husband and third brother-in-law. The three of them carried the clay jar outside and began distributing the tea.

No one had expected to get ginger tea, and the moment they drank it, their faces lit up with joy. The spicy, scalding tea warmed their stomachs, and their exhausted, shivering bodies finally felt a bit of relief.

This kind of treatment hadn’t existed in previous years. It was clear now—choosing Xiao Ming, the educated youth, to handle the cooking had been the best decision the brigade leader had ever made!

Inside the shed, Ming Dai scooped the food into large iron basins. Zhou Sinian carried them to the table by the entrance. The crowd craned their necks, eagerly eyeing the meal, but no one dared to rush forward.

In the deep, dented iron basins, the sight was mouthwatering—tender green cabbage leaves, soft, stewed cabbage stems, all mixed into glistening, fragrant multigrain rice. It was incredibly appetizing.

“Alright, once you finish your ginger tea, come and get your food!”

Ming Dai stood at the front with a large serving spatula in hand, while Zhou Sinian followed behind, casually munching on chestnuts. The people in line came forward one by one to receive their meal, and not a single person dared to complain about their portion being too much or too little.

After all, standing behind her was Zhou Sinian, watching everyone like a hawk.

Looking down at their bowls—half filled with steaming hot rice, vegetables, and even a glistening sheen of oil—many couldn’t believe their luck. This was even better than what they ate at home!

When the first person took a bite, they cautiously chewed, expecting the unpleasant crunch of a hidden stone. But after a few careful bites, they realized something—there wasn’t a single stone in the rice.

“My goodness! Is this still stone rice? How come there ain’t a single pebble?!”

The others who had already started eating nodded in agreement, their voices full of surprise. Those still waiting in line stretched their necks to listen, growing more and more curious.

Huang Dalian, just returning from distributing the ginger tea, proudly lifted her chin. “That’s because Xiao Ming, the educated youth, had us pick out the stones beforehand! Otherwise, a few of you would be losing teeth right now!”

Laughter erupted from the crowd, but beneath it was a genuine sense of gratitude toward Huang Dalian and Xiao Ming.

The job of cooking for the workers at the reservoir had always been a position with certain perks. In previous years, it was always assigned to relatives of the village leaders, who never put in this kind of effort.

Whether they were villagers or fellow educated youths, everyone was satisfied with this meal. Even Song Lanlan, who had been making sour remarks earlier, fell silent after taking a few bites.

Only Liu Yan, eating while quietly crying, cursed Ming Dai in her heart—calling her a bootlicker who had clung to the brigade leader’s favor just to get the cooking job.

If she had been the one cooking, Liu Yan was convinced the food would have tasted even better. With oil and salt, how could it not be delicious?

Once everyone had received their meal, Ming Dai called over Huang Dalian and the Liu brothers to serve themselves. She had made sure to leave enough food in the pot for them.

Noticing that her husband and his younger brother had been given noticeably larger portions, Huang Dalian’s smile became even more genuine.

“Alright, you go eat too. Once you’re done, just rest—I’ll take care of washing the pots and dishes!”

Ming Dai didn’t argue and carried her meal to the shed, sitting down with Zhou Sinian.

Although Zhou Sinian still looked unimpressed by the simple vegetable rice, he wasn’t one to waste food. That said, he ate rather aggressively.

Ming Dai rummaged through his backpack and pulled out five vegetable buns, slipping them into his rice bowl and covering them with rice.

“Let these warm up for a bit. Eat this first.”

She also handed him a piece of brown sugar sponge cake.

Immediately, Zhou Sinian put down his tea mug and happily started eating the cake.

Ming Dai had deliberately begun controlling the portions she gave him—because she had noticed something. No matter how much food he received, he would eat every last bite. He never left anything behind.

She opened her pickled vegetable jar, took out a few pieces, and dropped them into their tea mugs before finally starting her own meal.

Compared to white rice, multigrain rice was rough and scratchy on the throat. But the grains in this era carried a rich, natural fragrance, and when paired with the rendered fat, the flavors came alive. It wasn’t hard to eat—in fact, it was quite enjoyable.