Chapter 7: Move Out Immediately

Jiang Yiyi gave the sickle to Gu Yunyang, holding the hands of her two little daughters as they walked home. Gu Yuncan and Gu Yunyang put the harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplants into a basket and carried them home.

They took three small stools, giving one to each of the little girls to sit on. Jiang Yiyi also sat down and began to pick chives.

Gu Yunchi had bought five kilograms of meat. A little over a kilogram was used for the shredded meat stew at noon, leaving more than three kilograms. With the hot weather, even storing it in the well wouldn’t keep it for more than a few days. Even more, Jiang Yiyi didn’t want to eat leftover meat, so she planned to make dumplings with the remaining meat, and therefore chopped a lot of chives and fennel.

Gu Yunyang and Gu Yuncan also squatted down to help pick, and the two little girls imitated them, picking chives. Jiang Yiyi encouragingly patted their heads.

Gu’s mother  saw this from the window and came out of the house.

Gu Yunchi entered the gate and saw this heartwarming scene, a smile appearing on his face.

Jiang Yiyi saw her first. “You’re back. You can knead the dough, and I’ll chop the meat filling.”

“Okay.”

Gu Yunchi came over with light steps, patted the heads of her two daughters, went into the kitchen, took out a basin, scooped some flour, added water, and began to knead the dough.

Jiang Yiyi also went into the kitchen. Seeing that she had only scooped three bowls of flour, she said, “Knead more. We’ll use all the remaining meat and the chives and fennel we chopped to make dumplings.”

“That’s too much. We can’t eat that much.”

“If we can’t eat it all, we’ll have it for lunch tomorrow. Don’t let the meat spoil.”

Saying this, she put away the kneading board and brought over all the meat.

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

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

After the meat filling was chopped, she added salt and various seasonings. Jiang Yiyi started a fire to heat the oil. After the oil was hot, she added peppercorns. When the peppercorns turned black, she scooped a spoonful of hot oil and poured it over the meat filling to fully bring out the aroma of the meat. She stirred it evenly and set it aside.

The chives and fennel had already been washed. Jiang Yiyi manually drained the water and brought them into the kitchen.

“I’ll chop them.”

Gu Yunchi said.

Jiang Yiyi didn’t argue with her. After she finished chopping, she washed and wiped the kneading board clean, put the kneaded dough on the board, and rolled it into equally sized dough balls, leaving only one piece on the board and putting the rest back into the basin. Then she rolled the dough ball on the board into a long strip, and pinched off small pieces. Her hands were like a ruler, pinching off pieces of the same size, very even.

After pinching them off, she didn’t use a rolling pin. She took five pieces, dusted them with flour on the kneading board, and rolled them back and forth. In a few strokes, they became round dumpling wrappers. Before she transmigrated, she had seen this video on Douyin and practiced for over a year before mastering it.

Gu Yunchi was filled with admiration. “Sister-in-law, your dumpling wrapper making skills are even better than the chefs at the state-run restaurant.”

“It’s not just better, it’s far superior. I dare say, you won’t find a few people in the whole country who can do this.”

Jiang Yiyi praised herself without any modesty. In this era, people didn’t eat dumplings every day, even during festivals, the number of times they ate them in a year could be counted on one hand. Who would practice this skill? Even in later generations, when people could afford to eat dumplings every day, no one would spend more than a year practicing this skill like she did.

“My brother is so lucky to have married such a capable wife.”

“My brother isn’t just lucky; he burned incense for eight lifetimes to marry me.”

Gu’s mother, who had come in to help make dumplings, heard Jiang Yiyi’s words. Thinking that her eldest son hadn’t returned in two years, she decided to find someone to write him a letter and ask him to come back.

Jiang Yiyi didn’t know that her casual joke had given Gu’s mother the idea to urge Gu Yunze to return. She handed the dumpling wrappers to Gu Yunchi. “Make the filling a little bigger.”

“Okay.”

When the dumplings were finished, it was already dark. The water boiled, and one by one, the round dumplings went into the pot.

Jiang Yiyi cleaned up the kneading board, took off her apron, and the dumplings were cooked. There were more than ten bowls, a full large table.

Gu Yunyang and Gu Yuncan swallowed their saliva. Even Gu’s mother and Gu Yunchi couldn’t help but swallow a few times. Jiang Yiyi saw this and said, “There are a lot of dumplings, eat as much as you want, but don’t overeat. If you overeat, you won’t be able to eat any more later.”

They hadn’t eaten meat for a long time, and eating too much would be bad for their stomachs.

Gu Yunyang and Gu Yuncan nodded vigorously. Gu’s mother and Gu Yunchi also nodded several times. The two little girls imitated them and nodded, then they eagerly started eating. The wrappers were thin and the filling was large; one bite was full of flavor.

The whole table ate without raising their heads. Except for the two little girls, everyone ate two large bowls. They could have eaten more, but remembering Jiang Yiyi’s words about not being able to eat more if they overate, they reluctantly put down their chopsticks.

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

Jiang Yiyi pretended not to see their expressions. “I’m going to the county town tomorrow, and I may not be back for lunch. Don’t wait for me to eat.”

Gu Yunyang was touching his round little belly when he heard Jiang Yiyi’s words, and immediately sat up straight. Every time she 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, then secretly straightened up again. She could take the harvested vegetables, but she couldn’t take the flour. If she did, he would fight her.

Thinking of this, Gu Yunyang secretly stared at Jiang Yiyi until the lights in Jiang Yiyi’s room went out, then he closed his eyes. He woke up before dawn the next day, listening carefully to make sure Jiang Yiyi hadn’t moved. He quickly put on his clothes and ran to the kitchen to see if the flour they bought yesterday was missing. Confirming it wasn’t, he also checked that the eggs were still there, then tiptoed back to his room.

Breakfast was made by Gu Yunchi: white porridge, pickled vegetables, and steamed buns. After breakfast, Gu Yunyang dawdled and didn’t want to go to school, until Gu Yuncan urged him again and again before he went out. Before leaving, he looked back. Seeing that Jiang Yiyi hadn’t gotten up yet, he turned around and wanted to run back to secretly tell his older sister to keep an eye on Jiang Yiyi and not let her take the family’s flour. He then thought his older sister wouldn’t listen to him, so he gave up.

Half an hour after he left, Jiang Yiyi woke up and went out with her toiletries.

“Sister-in-law is awake. There’s some rice warmed up for you in the pot. I’ll help you serve it.”

Gu Yunchi came out carrying a bedsheet, putting it on the clothesline, and said as she was about to go to the kitchen.

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

Gu Yunchi didn’t bother her, turned around and went back into the room. After a while, she came out carrying a few clothes and put them in a washbasin, scooping water to soak them.

After washing up, Jiang Yiyi went to the kitchen, took a basin, took half a scoop of flour, added the right amount of salt, added water, and kneaded it, putting it aside. She washed her hands, lifted the lid of the pot, ignored the steamed buns, scooped a bowl of porridge and drank it. After drinking, she took back the steamed buns, washed the pot, then took a basin, added water, and put the dough in to wash it. It was hot now, the perfect time to eat Liangpi (cold skin noodles), and she planned to make Liangpi to sell.

Gu Yunchi heard the noise and put down her work to come and see. Seeing Jiang Yiyi kneading the dough, she looked puzzled. “Sister-in-law, what are you…”

“Making Liangpi.”

Gu Yunchi had never heard of Liangpi and was very curious. She stood aside and watched as the dough was gradually washed, leaving only the residue.

Jiang Yiyi put the washed noodle water aside; the noodle water needed to settle, and she could do it when she returned from the county town.

Looking up and seeing Gu Yunchi’s surprised face, she smiled. “I’ll go to the county town to buy seasonings and make some for you to eat when I get back.”

Gu Yunchi nodded. Jiang Yiyi went back to her room, took out one hundred yuan, got on her bicycle, and headed straight for the house Bai Jun rented in the county town.

The house had two rooms, one for sleeping and one for cooking. The rent was eight yuan a month.

She took out her key and opened the door, first rolling up the bedding on the bed and tying it up, then removing the bed board and leaning it against the wall, putting everything in the room in order, only leaving Bai Jun’s clothes untouched.

Then she went to the kitchen. In the middle of the room was a honeycomb coal stove, with a kettle on it, and hundreds of pieces of honeycomb coal next to it. Pots, bowls, pans, and everything else were complete.

Jiang Yiyi scooped some water, opened the stove lid, poured it in, closed the lid, and began to clean the pots and pans. Even though they had been used for almost two years, they could still be sold for a few yuan as scrap.

Bang!

The door was suddenly pushed open, and a woman entered the yard, walking quickly to the kitchen door. “I’ve been looking for you. I’m not renting this house to you anymore. You move out immediately.”