Chapter 7

After giving the sickle to Gu Yunyang, Jiang Yiyi walked back holding the two little people in each hand. Gu Yuncan and Gu Yunyang put the picked cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants into the basket and carried them home.

He took three small stools and gave one to each of the two little people to sit on. Jiang Yiyi also sat down and started picking leeks.

Gu Yunchi bought five pounds of meat. He used a little over one pound for the braised shredded pork at noon, and there were more than three pounds left. It was hot now, and even if it was stored in the well, it would not be able to be stored for a few days. What’s more, Jiang Yiyi didn’t want to eat overnight meat, so she planned to make dumplings with the remaining meat, so she cut a lot of leeks and fennel.

Gu Yunyang and Gu Yuncan also squatted down to pick them together. The two little ones followed suit and picked up the leeks. Jiang Yiyi touched their heads encouragingly.

Gu’s mother saw what was happening through the window and also came out of the house.

As soon as Gu Yunchi entered the door, he saw this warm scene and a smile appeared on his face.

Jiang Yiyi saw her first, “You’re back. It’s just right for you to knead the dough while I chop the meat.”

“good.”

Gu Yunchi walked over briskly, touched his two daughters’ heads, walked into the kitchen, took out a basin, scooped out the noodles, poured in water, and started kneading the noodles.

Jiang Yiyi also entered the kitchen and saw that she had only scooped three bowls of noodles. She said, “Mix more and make dumplings with the remaining meat and the leeks and fennel you cut.”

“It’s too much for us to eat.”

“If you can’t finish it, save it for lunch tomorrow. Don’t let the meat go bad.”

As he spoke, he put the panel away and took all the meat.

Gu Yunchi opened her mouth to say something, but swallowed it back in the end. She had already made plans. She would let her mother take care of the two children while she went to the county to find a job, which would earn her some money. If her sister-in-law wanted to eat it all, she could eat it all. She would buy more for the family after she earned more money.

Jiang Yiyi cut the meat into small pieces and began to chop it, adding soy sauce, chopped green onions, chopped garlic and chopped ginger while chopping to make the meat filling fully flavored.

After the minced meat is chopped, it is added with salt and various seasonings. Jiang Yiyi lights a fire and heats oil. After the oil is hot, she puts in peppercorns. When the peppercorns turn black, she scoops a spoonful of hot oil and pours it on the minced meat to fully bring out the aroma of the meat. She stirs it evenly and sets it aside for later use.

The leeks and fennel had been washed. Jiang Yiyi squeezed out the water and took them into the kitchen.

“Let me cut it.”

Gu Yunchi said.

Jiang Yiyi didn’t argue with her. After she finished cutting, she washed and wiped the working surface, put the kneaded dough on the working surface, and kneaded it into dough of similar size. She left only one piece on the working surface and put the rest back into the basin. Then she kneaded the dough on the working surface into long strips and pinched it into small pieces with her hands. Her hands were like a ruler, and the pieces she pinched were of the same size and very even.

After pinching the dough, she didn’t need a rolling pin. She took five pieces of dough, dipped them in flour and rubbed them back and forth on the panel. After just a few strokes, they became round dumpling skins. Before she entered the book, she saw this video on TikTok, and it took her more than a year of practice to master it.

Gu Yunchi was full of admiration, “Sister-in-law, your skill in making dumpling wrappers is better than that of the chefs in state-owned restaurants.”

“It’s not just high, it’s very high. I dare say there are only a few like it in the whole country.”

Jiang Yiyi boasted about herself without any modesty. People of this era only eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year and other festivals, and the number of times they eat dumplings in a year can be counted. Who would practice this skill? Even if people in later generations could eat dumplings every day, no one would spend more than a year practicing it like her.

“My brother is so lucky to marry such a capable wife like my eldest sister-in-law.”

“Your brother is not lucky, he must have burned incense for eight lifetimes to marry me.”

Gu’s mother, who came in to make dumplings, heard Jiang Yiyi’s words and thought that her eldest son had not returned for two years. She planned to find someone to write a letter to him one day and ask him to come back.

Jiang Yiyi didn’t know that her joke had made Gu’s mother want to urge Gu Yunze to come back. She handed the dumpling wrapper to Gu Yunchi and said, “Make the filling bigger.”

“good.”

After the dumplings were wrapped, it was dark. The water boiled and the round dumplings were put into the pot one by one.

Jiang Yiyi cleaned the working surface and took off her apron. The dumplings were out of the pot. There were more than ten bowls filling the entire table.

Gu Yunyang and Gu Yuncan were drooling, and even Gu’s mother and Gu Yunchi couldn’t help but secretly swallow a few times. Jiang Yiyi saw it and said, “We made a lot, so you can eat as much as you want, but don’t eat too much. If you are too full, don’t even think about eating anymore.”

Several of them haven’t had meat for a long time, and eating too much is bad for their stomachs.

Gu Yunyang and Gu Yuncan nodded wildly, and Gu’s mother and Gu Yunchi also nodded several times. The two little guys followed suit and ordered as well. Then they couldn’t wait to start eating. The skin was thin and the filling was big, and it filled your mouth with fragrance when you took a bite.

Everyone at the table ate without raising their heads, except for the two little ones, who each ate two large bowls. They could have eaten more, but when they remembered that Jiang Yiyi said she would not let them eat anymore if they were too full, they reluctantly put down their chopsticks.

Seeing that Jiang Yiyi only ate one bowl, they realized that they had eaten a little too much, and they suddenly felt a little uneasy.

Jiang Yiyi pretended not to notice their expressions and said, “I’m going to the county town tomorrow and may not be back at noon. You don’t have to wait for me to eat.”

Gu Yunyang was touching his round belly. When he heard Jiang Yiyi’s words, he sat up straight. Every time he went to the county town, this woman would take a lot of things from home.

Jiang Yiyi glanced at him.

Gu Yunyang’s straight little body softened again, and then straightened up secretly. She could take the picked vegetables, but she couldn’t take the noodles. If she took them, he would fight her to the death.

Thinking of this, Gu Yunyang kept staring at Jiang Yiyi secretly until the lights in Jiang Yiyi’s room went out, then he closed his eyes. He woke up before dawn the next day, listened carefully and heard no movement in Jiang Yiyi’s room. He quickly put on his clothes and ran to the kitchen to see if the noodles he bought yesterday were missing. After making sure that there were no missing eggs, he checked and found that they were not missing either. Then he tiptoed back into the house.

Gu Yunchi made breakfast, which consisted of white porridge, pickled vegetables and steamed buns. After breakfast, Gu Yunyang was reluctant to go to school until Gu Yuncan urged him again and again. Before leaving, he looked back and saw that Jiang Yiyi had not gotten up yet. He turned around and wanted to run back and secretly tell his eldest sister to keep an eye on Jiang Yiyi and not let her take the noodles from home. However, he thought that his eldest sister would definitely not listen to him, so he gave up.

Jiang Yiyi woke up half an hour after he left and went out of the house with toiletries.

“Sister-in-law is awake. There is rice in the pot for you to heat up. I will go and serve it to you.”

Gu Yunchi came out holding a quilt, hung it on the clothesline, and walked towards the kitchen while talking.

“No, just do your thing, I’ll serve it myself later.”

Gu Yunchi ignored it and went back into the house. After a while, he came out with a few clothes, put them in the washing basin, and scooped some water to soak them.

After washing up, Jiang Yiyi went to the kitchen, took a basin and asked for half a scoop of noodles, put in an appropriate amount of salt, added water and put it aside, washed her hands, opened the pot, ignored the steamed corn bread, scooped a bowl of porridge to drink, took the corn bread back, scrubbed the pot clean, then took a basin, added water, put the noodles in it and started washing them. It was hot now, and it was time to eat cold noodles, so she planned to make cold noodles to sell.

Gu Yunchi heard the noise and put down his work to come over. Seeing Jiang Yiyi kneading the dough, he looked puzzled and said, “Sister-in-law, what are you doing…”

“Make cold noodles.”

Gu Yunchi had never heard of cold noodles and was very curious. He stood aside and watched, seeing the dough being washed away bit by bit, until only residue was left.

Jiang Yiyi put the washed noodles water aside. The noodles water needed to settle, and she was just in time to do it when she came back from the county town.

Looking up, he saw Gu Yunchi’s face full of surprise, and said with a smile, “I’ll go to the county to buy some seasonings and come back to cook for you.”

Gu Yunchi nodded, and Jiang Yiyi went back to the house, got a hundred yuan, rode her bicycle straight to the county town to rent a house for Bai Jun.

The house has two rooms, one for living and one for cooking. The rent is eight dollars per month.

She took out the key to open the door, first rolled up and tied up the bedding on the bed, removed the bed board and stood it aside, and put all the things in the room in place, except for Bai Jun’s spare clothes.

Then we went to the kitchen. There was a honeycomb coal stove in the middle of the room, with a kettle on the stove and hundreds of pieces of honeycomb coal next to it, as well as all kinds of pots, pans, and utensils.

Jiang Yiyi scooped up some water, opened the stove lid and poured it in, then closed the stove lid and started to clean up the pots and pans. Although these had been used for almost two years, they could still be sold for a few dollars if they were sold as junk.

Bang!

The door was suddenly pushed open, and a woman entered the yard. She walked to the kitchen door in two or three steps and said, “I was looking for you. I won’t rent this house to you anymore. You have to move out immediately.”