Chapter 11: Ghee and Goat Milk Soap

These past few years, everyone’s life had been difficult, but these acts of kindness still existed. It was just that Lin Yue had no one to help her, so she couldn’t hold a full-month celebration for her children. Everyone understood, and most people had already sent their full-month gifts.

Principal Xu had also sent a full-month gift a few days ago. He had bought clothes for the two children from somewhere, but they were too big. He didn’t know if they would fit by the New Year.

He had also prepared a pair of delicate silver bracelets for each child. However, Lin Yue didn’t dare to put them on. Although there were no patterns on them, these were special times. She was afraid of unnecessary trouble. Moreover, “wealth shouldn’t be shown,” and she was afraid of attracting unwanted attention. So, she put them away for the children.

Lin Yue was very fond of the rice that Luo Ershen had sent. She went inside and took out a small piece of ghee to give her as a return gift.

Seeing the ghee, Luo Ershen’s face crinkled with joy.

She also brought a message from her eldest daughter-in-law, inviting Lin Yue to go to the market together on the eleventh day of the twelfth lunar month. Receiving Lin Yue’s reply, she happily went home.

Many people came to deliver full-month gifts during this time, and Lin Yue would give them some ghee as a return gift.

This ghee was made by Lin Yue and a few familiar sisters-in-law.

After the grass in the space sprouted, Lin Yue often put the sheep in the space.

The sheep had fresh green grass to eat, and they were no longer skinny like before.

The mother sheep produced more milk, and the two little ones couldn’t finish it all. Lin Yue started thinking about what to do with the extra milk.

She couldn’t help it. The days of not daring to use oil for cooking were too difficult!

Last night, she had collected another wooden bucket of goat’s milk and left it in the yard to freeze into ice.

She carried the goat’s milk into the house, letting it slowly melt.

While she waited for it to melt, she went to ask Liu Jianhua and Wang Xiuxiang to come over and help.

Hearing that they were going to make ghee, they were also very happy and came over quickly.

Fresh, unprocessed goat’s milk is different from the skim milk we usually drink. After sitting for a while, a layer of cream will appear on top of the goat’s milk. Lin Yue had heard people say that this was cream before, but she didn’t know if it was true.

She made a large stirrer to use to separate the cream.

It was basically a wooden stick with three wooden pieces attached to it, kind of like a propeller.

It was a long process, and the three of them had to take turns stirring.

When the fat and liquid were separated, the yellow part was butter.

They then washed the butter with clean water and put it in a pot to heat.

The butter was like solidified lard. As the temperature rose, it slowly melted, and some black oil residue appeared at the bottom. They filtered out the residue, and the ghee was ready.

The three of them poured the ghee into jars. After it cooled, the ghee would solidify again.

Because it was extracted from goat’s milk, they gave it a name: goat cream.

Actually, ghee has a strong flavor when used for stir-frying, and it’s also easy to burn the pot.

But people were so lacking in oil during this time that even though this “goat cream” had many drawbacks, everyone loved it.

Moreover, although ghee couldn’t be used for stir-frying, it was good for frying and could be saved for the New Year.

One bucket of goat’s milk made about three jin of “goat cream.” Lin Yue and her two sisters-in-law divided it equally. The remaining goat’s milk in the bucket was skim milk. The nutritional content wasn’t enough for babies, so Lin Yue couldn’t give it to Little Wanli and Lingling. She let the two women take it back and share it with their families.

Lin Yue’s sheep were well-fed and produced a lot of milk. The two women were no longer surprised by this.

Knowing that the two children didn’t lack goat’s milk, they didn’t refuse.

Making this “goat cream” was too tiring. In the freezing cold weather, the two of them worked up a sweat, but they were all smiles as they went back home, carrying the freshly made oil, their steps light.

Knowing that her two little ones must be hungry, Lin Yue milked fresh goat’s milk again, heated it, and fed it to her children.

The two little ones waved their chubby hands, drinking milk and talking in baby language. Seeing them interacting, Lin Yue was overjoyed.

After drinking their milk, Lin Yue held her children on her shoulders one by one to burp them.

Her son was quieter and more obedient. He lay quietly on his mother’s shoulder, not resisting no matter how much Lin Yue moved him. Sometimes, he would even give his mother a cute toothless smile.

Her daughter was more mischievous. She liked to kick her legs and climb up. Every time she was burped, it turned into a rock-climbing adventure.

The midday sun was warm. Lin Yue wrapped her two little ones tightly and carried them out to the yard to bask in the sun.

Su Dashen’s family had a simple little bed. Her eldest son had made it for his son, but it was no longer needed. Su Dashen gave it to Lin Yue for her two children.

Lin Yue carried the bed outside and let her two little ones lie on it. She then brought a chair and sat beside them, squinting her eyes and basking in the sun with them.

After about 15 minutes, Lin Yue carried them back inside.

It was too cold outside, and she was afraid of her little ones getting cold.

Lin Yue used ghee to fried eggs and made a mushroom soup.

The mushrooms grew in the space. They were commonly found under pine trees and were called pine moth mushrooms by the locals.

There were many pine trees on Big Cang Mountain. Maybe she had brought the spores into the space when she collected soil.

These mushrooms were best for stewing with chicken, but unfortunately, she only had one chicken left, and it was diligently laying eggs for her in the space.

After finishing her meal, Lin Yue discovered that her two little ones had fallen asleep at some point.

She grabbed her tools from the kitchen and went into the space.

Lately, Lin Yue had been secretly going out to collect more soil and plants and animals.

She had collected some of the most common pine trees, cypress trees, locust trees, and low-growing wild chestnut trees on Big Cang Mountain, as well as some trees she didn’t know the names of and plants she thought were beautiful in bloom, and planted them in the space.

She had also caught a nest of rabbits and many magpies and sparrows.

Lin Yue was very self-aware. If she didn’t have the space, she wouldn’t even be able to get a single hair from these animals. But since she had this powerful cheat, she didn’t need to work hard to catch them. As long as she saw them, she could collect them into the space.

However, with more animals in the space, there were more problems. The rabbits didn’t like to eat mushrooms, they didn’t like to eat carrots, and they ate very little grass. They only picked on the vegetables she planted.

Lin Yue endured it, thinking about the meat she would be able to eat in the future.

But the magpies and sparrows were eating the grain and young corn she had worked so hard to plant. She couldn’t stand it anymore. She couldn’t find wheat seeds, and she didn’t like to eat sorghum flour. She was counting on the corn from her field. Lin Yue was so angry that she released them all.

Anyway, until she figured out a solution, there would be no birds in the space.

The nest of rabbits in the space had no natural predators and didn’t lack food, so they had become three nests.

Lin Yue wanted to implement some family planning for them, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Lin Yue had also discovered a large beehive in the mountains, hidden inside a large tree trunk. But she hadn’t harvested honey before.

She planned to try making a beehive when she had time, so she would have a steady supply of honey.

When the mother sheep was in the space, Lin Yue was afraid that the milk would decrease if she didn’t milk it for a long time, so she milked it every now and then.

The milk she collected was too much and had nowhere to go, so Lin Yue stored it in a broken jar.

Lin Yue turned all the goat’s milk in the jar into ghee.

The jar was dirty, so Lin Yue didn’t plan to eat the ghee she made.

She mixed lye and water with a brush. When the ghee cooled to a slightly warm temperature, she slowly added the lye water to the ghee, stirring constantly until the liquid became thicker and thicker. This process was long and took about four or five hours. This was the soap solution.

She poured the soap solution into bamboo tubes that she had prepared in advance. After sitting for two days, they could be cut.

Lin Yue also made shampoo bars, adding cypress leaves, ginger, and black sesame seeds, and face soap with flower petals.

A few days later, the soap was ready. Lin Yue tried washing her face with it, and the cleaning effect was good.

But the consequence of washing too clean was that her face felt tight and uncomfortable when exposed to the dry winter wind.

She missed her old cosmetics so much.

Lin Yue cast an evil eye at a tall locust tree lying not far away. The tree had long been dead, and the trunk was hollow, becoming a home for bees.

Beauty is a woman’s nature. Lin Yue couldn’t resist her urge.

Leaving the space, Lin Yue sat on the warm kang and played with her two little ones.

Every day, she would take time to sing nursery rhymes or rhymes for her children, accompanied by funny movements. She often laughed uncontrollably.

However, the two little ones didn’t seem to find it very funny. They just responded with “Ooh goo goo” sounds. Even the childish game of peek-a-boo didn’t attract them.

Every time Lin Yue covered her face and said “Boo!” in a silly voice, the two children would giggle and laugh. They loved this game and never got tired of it.

The two little ones had their own personalities.

Her son was quieter. He often stared at one spot and ate slowly, taking small bites.

Her daughter was very active. As long as she was awake, her little hands and feet would constantly wave around, never letting herself rest.

She also drank milk voraciously, the complete opposite of her brother.

Moreover, her daughter was a chatterbox. She loved to talk to people, and she would respond with “Ooh ooh ah ah” sounds, never letting anyone’s words fall to the ground.

Night slowly fell. Her son had already fallen asleep, but her daughter was still doing her radio exercises, kicking her legs and stretching her arms.

Lin Yue yawned. She was tired after a long day, and she was sleepy too.

She lay down beside her two little ones and gently patted her daughter’s back, counting frogs, “One frog, one mouth, two eyes, four legs, plop, it jumps into the water.

Two frogs, two mouths…” Before she could count to the tenth frog, her daughter had already fallen asleep.

No matter how many times she saw it, Lin Yue found it both funny and helpless. This child was definitely going to be a bad student.