Chapter 44: Dragon Boat Festival

The rice dumplings smell good, the kitchen smells good, and the Dragon Boat Festival is everywhere.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Wen Jiajia woke up early in the morning and smelled the fragrance of rice dumplings wafting from outside the house.

The weather had been good in the past two years, and everyone wanted to make some delicious food to reward themselves.

“It must be the Xu family making zongzi.” Wen Jiajia stood at the door of the living room and sniffed hard. “The smell is so strong, it must be almost cooked. They must have gotten up in the dark to make the zongzi.”

She looked at her watch. It was just after seven o’clock.

The sun hadn’t even risen over the lake yet and reached their side of the north mountain, which showed how early this family got up to make zongzi.

Wei Dai was hanging mugwort leaves, and Wen Yan looked down at her curiously and asked, “How can you smell that the Xu family is cooking the rice dumplings?”

In fact, it was the Xu family. When he got up early in the morning to pick mugwort leaves, he passed by the gate of the Xu family and saw several children of the Xu family sitting in the yard making rice dumplings.

Jia Jia always says that Wen Xuan has a dog’s nose, but in fact, her own nose is also quite sensitive.

Wen Jiajia touched the mugwort, smelled it again, and said, “The Xie family next door didn’t make rice dumplings. When I delivered the fish yesterday, I didn’t see the Xie family soaking glutinous rice. The Xie family is next door to the Xu family. It could also be Sister Bao’s family. But Sister Bao said her eldest daughter will be back next week, so she will most likely leave the rice dumplings for next week.

As for other places, they are too far away. Even if they make zongzi, we can’t smell such a strong fragrance here.”

Wei Dai chuckled, “You are right.”

He pointed at the dining table and said, “Hurry up and eat. The noodles are getting soggy.”

Wen Jiajia took a closer look and found that it was indeed chicken noodle soup.

There were several pieces of chicken in the noodles. Fortunately, it was mixed with vegetables and noodles. Otherwise, she would have no appetite.

Next to it was some mung bean paste that had been rolled into balls. Wen Jiajia thought to herself that it was no wonder that she felt someone was shoveling the pot while she was sleeping. It seemed that someone really was shoveling.

To make mung bean paste, you have to scoop it hard.

“When did you get up today?” Wen Jiajia asked him, “Chun’er and Xuanxuan must have eaten a lot of the mung bean paste.”

“Of course not! They both ate and took the food. They waited in the kitchen while I was cooking.” Wei Dai smiled and did not say what time he got up.

Wen Jiajia didn’t ask any more questions.

If you want to make green bean paste, you have to cook it first and then fry it dry. The whole process takes at least an hour. If you do the math, you have to get up after five o’clock.

After Wei Dai finished hanging the mugwort leaves, he took care of the yard and vegetable garden.

Wen Jiajia’s vegetable growing skills were really not that good. She didn’t even know how to pull out the weeds growing around the vegetables. Wei Dai cleared out a basket of weeds.

The mist in the distant mountains gradually dissipated, and the temperature gradually rose.

The thick quilts at home had to be replaced. The two of them worked together to take off the quilt covers and sheets of three beds and soak them in soapy water at about 40 degrees.

When the bath was almost done, he supported Wen Jiajia and let her go in barefoot.

“Try harder,” Wei Dai said.

Wen Jiajia pulled her pants and stepped hard, “I’m already pushing hard enough, turn over.” If she pushed any harder, her pants would fall off.

In her previous life, Wen Jiajia had to change her bedding every week, but in this life, conditions are not convenient, so she doesn’t change her quilt covers and sheets as often.

Therefore, it takes extra effort to wash, and this is the only way to wash when the laundry sink is too small.

Wen Jiajia kept jumping and stepping in the large wooden tub. It took her nearly half an hour to finish exercising. When she came out of the tub, the soles of her feet were slightly wrinkled.

“I’m almost exhausted. You take care of the rest.” She collapsed on the bamboo chair and watched the sunlight slowly move into the yard.

The sun was exceptionally hot today. It was not even nine o’clock yet, but she could already feel the heat from being exposed to the sun.

Wei Dai moved quickly, using a bucket to collect the water and pouring it into the wooden basin.

The result was that the whole yard was wet, and water dripped from the soles of your shoes when you stepped on them.

Fortunately, the sun was strong, and it would dry quickly.

The two of them tried their best to wring out the quilt cover and sheets. Wei Dai thought Wen Jiajia was not strong enough, so he went next door to ask Xie Yang for help.

“Look, it has to be twisted to this degree.” Wei Dai pointed at the sheets and quilts that had been hung out to dry, “Isn’t it less dripping? If so, it can be dried by 2 o’clock in the afternoon.”

Wen Jiajia was speechless. She kept turning around the quilt cover, wondering how Wei Dai could be so strong that he could twist the quilt cover as if it had been spun in a washing machine.

Quilt covers and bed sheets were hung all over one side of the yard. When the breeze blew gently, the quilt covers and bed sheets swayed in the wind.

Under the combined effect of the sun and the summer breeze, the moisture in the quilt and sheets gradually evaporated, and they felt somewhat dry.

At this time, the aroma of rice dumplings wafted out from the kitchen.

Wen Jiajia was faster at making rice dumplings than Wei Dai. She could make two while Wei Dai could only make one.

Soon, the couple finished wrapping the sweet rice dumplings and put them in the pot to cook.

The fragrance of the rice dumpling leaves was so overbearing that it could be smelled from far away. Wen Jiajia even heard someone shouting and asking who was cooking rice dumplings.

Wen Jiajia ran to the door and sniffed hard. It was indeed very fragrant.

She covered her mouth and chuckled, “It’s over, we’re going to be scolded again.” Every time her family cooked something delicious, they would be scolded by their family members when they went out the next day.

There was no malicious intent; they were just annoyed by their own children and wanted to complain to the “culprit” when they met them.

The steam in the pot kept coming out, prompting Wen Jiajia to open the windows of the kitchen and living room so that the steam would not be trapped in the room.

To avoid the smell of the dumplings mixing, they cooked one pot of sweet dumplings and another pot of salty dumplings.

The sweet rice dumplings were red bean paste rice dumplings, and the salty rice dumplings were mushroom and salted egg yolk rice dumplings. As for the extra soaked peanuts, Wen Jiajia didn’t put them in, because putting too many ingredients would make the taste mixed.

She planned to cook peanut soup in the evening, which was perfect with rice dumplings.

Zongzi must be cooked for at least four hours to make the glutinous rice soft and sticky.

So after the two pots of rice dumplings were cooked, the sun went down, and the transparent moon was already hanging in the blue sky.

“Cicada——”

Cicadas were chirping as Wen Jiajia was fumigating the yard with burning mugwort.

In June, the sound of cicadas and mosquitoes makes people feel quite irritated.

She was afraid that there might be mosquitoes in the two rooms, so she closed the windows and doors and burned mugwort in the rooms, hoping to stun the mosquitoes hiding in the rooms.

“I think we need to buy a mosquito net.” Wen Jiajia stopped fumigating twice, threw the wormwood outside the kitchen window, and said to Wei Dai in the window, “But I haven’t seen a mosquito net in the department store. Where can I buy this thing? I can’t do this every day. When the weather gets hotter, there will be more mosquitoes.”

The most important thing is that the troops rely on water, that lake, that river… tsk tsk, they are the mosquitoes’ base camp.

Wei Dai took the rice dumplings out of the pot and placed them on a dustpan to drip water. He thought for a moment and said, “If the department store doesn’t have them, then other places definitely don’t have them. But you can go and have a look. Mosquito nets are only needed in summer. Who knows, they might be available now.”

That makes sense.

The two children came back, and the first thing they did was to eat rice dumplings.

They ate sweet rice dumplings first.

Children still like sweets.

Wen Jiajia is a generous person, so she puts a lot of filling and plenty of red bean paste, so the sweet rice dumplings are very delicious.

Because the rice dumplings are soaked long enough, no alkali is added.

Sweet rice dumplings without alkali are white, which is the original color of steamed glutinous rice.

Take a bite, and the brown and black bean paste inside is revealed. The white and black look like works of art.

And the rice dumplings were cooked to perfection.

A properly cooked rice dumpling cannot have individual grains distinct from each other but must be integrated into one, sticky enough to stick to your mouth.

Wei Dai put the drained rice dumplings on the table and used scissors to cut a few sweet and salty dumplings into six portions. He delivered the dumplings while everyone was having dinner at home.

Wen Jiajia asked, “Do you want to deliver it to the neighbors, or should I?”

Wei Dai said, “Let me take you there, you sit down and eat.”

Wen Jiajia sat back down, scooped herself a bowl of thick white peanut soup that had been simmered for two hours, and cut a salty rice dumpling.

The aroma of the salty rice dumplings is really strong. Once you open it, the aroma of meat and mushrooms comes out.

Especially since she put pork belly in it, the pork belly was almost melted, and now the whole zongzi looked shiny and greasy.

Wen Jiajia opened her mouth wide and took a bite, and got the meat and mushrooms in the first bite.

The meat was marinated, salty, and fragrant, with the flavor of mushrooms and a little salted egg yolk. The taste was just right, the fat part was not greasy, and the lean part was not dry. Mixed with sticky glutinous rice… tsk tsk, if she hadn’t eaten too much and had trouble digesting it, she could have eaten four in one go. This combination of carbohydrates and fats was simply irresistible.

Wen Jiajia was relatively restrained, but the two children were not. After eating the sweet rice dumplings, they ate meat rice dumplings. After eating the meat rice dumplings, they wanted another meat rice dumpling. Wen Jiajia refused to give them any, and finally she clapped her hands and they calmed down.

“Be careful, you’ll have a stomachache again!” she said with a stern face, truly forgetting the pain now that the wound has healed.

Wei Dai came back and was stopped by Wen Jiajia after he also ate two rice dumplings.

Fortunately, there were some leftovers from lunch, including braised fish and fried eggplant on the table. After heating them up, Wei Dai ate them with great relish.

As dusk fell and the sky darkened, the moon became brighter and the stars began to appear. You could see several of them just by looking up.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan lay on bamboo chairs in the yard with their aunt and uncle, with burning mugwort beside them.

Their impression of the Dragon Boat Festival began from this day. There were delicious rice dumplings, the lingering scent of wormwood, their uncle who taught them to identify the North Star under the starry sky, and their aunt’s slaps…

The Dragon Boat Festival suddenly became a reality in their lives.

—

The Dragon Boat Festival is not over, and the straw mats will not be put away.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, I wish I could lie on the floor every day.

Life without air conditioning is simply too unbearable. Wen Jiajia is afraid of heat but not cold, and she wishes she could take off all the quilts when she goes to bed at night.

Wei Dai comforted her, “When you are calm, you will feel cooler.”

Everyone here is complaining about how hot it is. What about those who live in buildings? It will only get even hotter for them.

Wen Jiajia pouted, “Fortunately, I live in a bungalow. If I lived in a building at this time, I would definitely sleep on the floor.”

She secretly calculated that it would take another 15 years for her to have air conditioning. She remembered her mother saying that their family had their first air conditioner in 1988.

And it was imported, so it was very expensive.

Wen Jiajia decided to save enough money to install air conditioners in every house in her family before 1988.

She refused to listen to anyone who said she should save the money to buy a house or start a business. Now she was not born in the millennium but in the fifties. Millennium people are old, so of course, they should enjoy life as soon as possible.

As Wen Jiajia thought about it, she felt very depressed. She turned over and faced Wei Dai, “Fan me faster.”

Wei Dai was speechless and fanned her faster. Why was she angry again? Who had made her angry for no reason?

He could only be angry with himself. Anyway, he had just said one sentence and did not provoke her.

Although this period is hot, it is also the peak season for bayberry.

It drizzles in the middle of the month, but after the middle of the month, the sun is like a furnace, eager to dry up all the moisture on the ground.

With plenty of rain and sunshine, the bayberry finally ripened.

In fact, Wen Jiajia had been thinking about picking them some time ago, as there was a bayberry tree growing on the north mountain.