Chapter 22

Sang Luo knew nothing about the Chen family’s affairs.

After gathering enough leaves with her two children, she first took a small portion, about four pieces, and washed them clean, preparing to make fairy tofu.

Shen Ning had done it a few times and already knew how. Seeing that her sister-in-law hadn’t rested much these days and hadn’t slept much last night, she stepped forward and said, “Sister-in-law, let me do it. You take a break.”

Making this wasn’t difficult, and Shen Ning could indeed do it. After some thought, Sang Luo agreed, “Alright.”

Handing the task to Shen Ning, she didn’t rest either. She fetched a bowl and scooped water from the mountain spring, then turned to rinse the hemp hanging on the bamboo rack outside the house.

After being out for half a morning, the hemp had dried too much. Sang Luo inspected it closely, estimating that the color would be slightly off when bleached. This hemp thread wouldn’t be white enough for sale, but it was suitable for home use.

Now that she had found a way to earn money, Sang Luo wasn’t so concerned. Besides weaving, there should be some thread and ropes at home that needed attention. She was patient, fetching water several times, carefully sprinkling water on each strand of hemp, and after a day’s drying, it should be ready for spinning.

Shen An had already found another old cloth bag to store the grains. Seeing that his sister and sister-in-law were busy, he went to Sang Luo and asked, “Sister-in-law, what should I do?”

Usually, at this time, he would take his sister to find wild vegetables and fruits that they could eat. But it seemed they wouldn’t need wild vegetables for the next two days. He wasn’t sure what he should do now.

“Should I go and cut some more hemp?” 

“Not for now.” Sang Luo glanced at the wild grasses growing everywhere outside. “Grab a basket. We’ll go to the stream and find something, and maybe catch some fish too.”

When she mentioned catching fish, Shen An’s eyes lit up. He went back into the house and returned with an empty basket.

After instructing Shen Ning to stay home, Sang Luo took Shen An and went out.

Catching fish traps was just a side task; her main goal was to find rocks by the mountain stream that could be used as small hoes. Iron tools were too expensive, and she couldn’t afford them in the short term. She couldn’t rely on borrowing everything from the Chen family, especially farming tools, since farmers needed them every day.

So, before she had enough money to buy farming tools, she had to make temporary substitutes.

As soon as she mentioned making stone hoes, Shen An knew what to look for. The two of them bent over by the stream, searching for a while, and found several rocks that could be used with a little polishing. They didn’t have to move them; they just polished them on the spot by the stream.

By midday, they had polished out two stone hoes and a stone axe head. They also prepared some wood suitable for hoe handles with the newly sharpened stone axe head.

“Let’s go. We’ll go back, process the wood, and then use hemp rope to fix it, and they’ll be ready for use,” Sang Luo said.

Shen Ning watched with astonishment as her sister-in-law’s capabilities increased to another level in her mind.

When they returned home, the turnip greens porridge was already cooked. After the three of them had lunch, Sang Luo finished shaping the wooden handles and used some hemp to make a few ropes. In her hands, two simple stone hoes were born.

Due to limitations in materials and craftsmanship, these hoes were more like shovels in terms of how they worked. Sang Luo tried them out in the weedy area outside the house. They were a bit more difficult to use than regular hoes, but they worked fine for weeding and turning soil.

Excited to have new farm tools, Shen An and Shen Ning carried them to the piece of mountain land where they used to grow vegetables. Sang Luo brought them back, saying, “You almost didn’t sleep last night, and you were tired this morning. Take a nap now, and you can play in the afternoon!”

A nap was good for rest and digestion. When they woke up, seeing that the two children were still sleeping soundly, Sang Luo didn’t wake them up. She just got up quietly.

The fairy tofu in the pottery basin had already formed. She cut it into four pieces, leaving two for the children as snacks and putting the other two in the pottery basin borrowed from the Chen family, covering them with a clean lotus leaf.

Putting the grains she bought this morning, along with the cloth bag, into the backpack, she placed the pottery basin on top of the bag and carried it to the Chen family.

When Sang Luo arrived, Chen’s mother was sitting under the eaves of the main room, teaching her granddaughter how to spin hemp.

Sang Luo smiled and called out, “Grandmother,” and then to the little girl.

The little girl remembered the fairy tofu and fish that Sang Luo had given them. Her eyes lit up when she saw Sang Luo, and her voice was particularly sweet when she called her “Big Sister-in-law.”

Big Sister-in-law…

Sang Luo wasn’t used to this title, but she still smiled and responded.

Seeing Qin Fangniang’s figure through the window of the pottery room, Sang Luo realized that it was the time when most families had their lunch, which was the second meal of the day.

She still thought in modern terms, ingrained with the habit of eating three meals a day. The day before, she had told the two children to eat less but more frequently, which was actually her original lifestyle.

Mrs. Chen put down her work and greeted her. “Why are you here at this time?”

Sang Luo smiled and put down the basket on her back. “I’ve come to return your hemp equipment and also to borrow your family’s mortar and pestle.”

“Sure, the things are under the eaves. Let me fetch you the wooden pestle,” said Mrs. Chen had heard from her son that Sang Luo had bought grains, so she had guessed that Sang Luo would come to borrow the mortar and pestle to pound rice. However, she didn’t expect her to come so quickly.

She took the hemp equipment and placed it aside, then glanced at the basket Sang Luo had just put down. Inside was an earthenware basin covered with a lotus leaf. Below the basin was a cloth bag containing grains. Mrs. Chen was somewhat surprised. “Did you finish the rice I brought up the mountain for you the day before yesterday?”

Two liters of it.

Well, two liters wouldn’t last long in an ordinary household, but considering Sang Luo and the two children’s situation, Mrs. Chen didn’t think they would eat white rice so extravagantly.

Sang Luo smiled. “How could that be? This is another bag.” 

Saying this, she took out the earthenware basin from the basket and handed it to Mrs. Chen with a smile. “I made this after returning home to add some greens to your family’s meal. Chen Youtian helped me carry the burden all the way today.”

Mrs. Chen immediately saw the greenish fairy tofu in the earthenware basin. She now knew that Sang Luo sold these for two wen each, which was more expensive than eggs. Shaking her head, she declined, “This was just a small favor. You don’t need to bring these things.”

Sang Luo placed the earthenware basin in Mrs. Chen’s hands. Once she took it, Sang Luo relaxed her grip and smiled, “But it was a big help to me. Otherwise, I would have been in trouble this morning. Also, I’d like to borrow this earthenware basin from your house for a few more days.”

Mrs. Chen held the heavy earthenware basin, feeling conflicted. She glanced towards the courtyard gate, then said nothing more. She accepted it and told Sang Luo to use the basin as needed. She just reminded her to come directly next time she needed something, without bringing something every time.

Then she asked Sang Luo to sit for a while and went into the kitchen with the earthenware basin.

Sang Luo smiled and lifted the cloth bag containing the grains from the basket, then went straight to the mortar and pestle under the eaves of Chen’s house.

At this time, almost every rural household had a mortar and pestle. Grains were relatively easy to store and less prone to insect infestation compared to rice. Therefore, people didn’t pound large quantities of rice at once. Families with enough manpower would pound enough rice for a few days’ use at a time, while those with insufficient manpower would pound rice almost every day for cooking.

Mrs. Chen brought the fairy tofu into the kitchen, and after a while, she brought out the empty earthenware basin. In her hand, she also held a wooden pestle as tall as a person and handed it to Sang Luo. “Here you go. Do you know how to pound rice?”

Sang Luo nodded.

In reality, she had never pounded rice herself. In modern times, rice was readily available for purchase, and finding a place to buy grains wasn’t difficult at all. Even if one lived in the mountains and bought grains from local farmers, it would be machine-husked rice. There was hardly any need to pound rice manually.

However, in the original body’s time, Mr. Li had assigned the task of pounding rice to her ever since she arrived at the Shen family. Even after moving out, the two bags of grains were both barley. Sang Luo had relied on the Shen family’s mortar and pestle to pound rice. Naturally, back then, it wasn’t just two bags of rice; about thirty percent of it was rice bran.

During times of scarcity, they would form the rice bran into balls, wrap them in wild vegetables, and swallow them forcefully. When the two children went to the Shen family to borrow grains, their family had already finished even the rice bran.

Sang Luo remembered the feeling of exhaustion when she pounded two bags of rice, her arms too tired to lift. She felt fortunate that it was only slightly more than two liters of grain this time.

She poured the grains from the cloth bag into the mortar and pestle and began working. Initially, it was somewhat easy, but as time passed, the strain on her arms became truly unbearable.

No wonder pounding rice was considered a punishment during the Qin Dynasty. Pounding rice all day without rest was no different from being punished.

Mrs. Chen returned the washed earthenware basin to her basket and watched silently. In her mind, she began to wonder about Sang Luo’s background. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Sang Luo didn’t seem like a typical countrywoman.

However, Mrs. Chen had always respected boundaries, so she merely muttered to herself without asking further questions. She continued to return to her hemp work, occasionally exchanging a few words with Sang Luo.

When she estimated that it was about time,Mrs. Chen approached and asked Sang Luo to stop. She grabbed a handful of rice bran mixture and examined it carefully in her hand before going back into the house to fetch a winnowing basket, a small broom made of reeds, and a bamboo drying mat.

She spread the drying mat in the corner of the courtyard farthest from the kitchen, placed the broom on top, and then asked Sang Luo to stop working, handing her the winnowing basket. She hesitated for a moment before looking at Sang Luo. “Can you separate the grains?”

It wasn’t that she underestimated Sang Luo, but winnowing rice was more than just about strength. It required real skill. Without proper technique, the rice in the winnowing basket would scatter all over the ground.

Sang Luo, relying on the memories of the original body, nodded. “I can.”

Only then did Mrs. Chen pass the winnowing basket to her and return to continue her hemp work, occasionally glancing at Sang Luo.

Seeing that she was initially unfamiliar but gradually became proficient, Mrs. Chen finally relaxed.

For Sang Luo, it was the first time she instinctively did something the original body knew how to do. She felt nervous, and her palms were slightly sweaty.

The first winnowing didn’t completely clean the rice; it still contained many grains mixed with rice bran. Sang Luo poured the rice back into the mortar and pestle and began another round of pounding. After repeating the process twice and winnowing the rice again, the grains on the winnowing basket were all clear rice grains, with only very few grains left. 

Sang Luo picked out the remaining grains, totaling just over a dozen, and decided it wasn’t worth pounding them again. She threw them back into the mortar and pestle. When the Chen family pounded rice again in a few days, they could take care of them as well, without any waste.

She poured the rice into her own grain bag, then borrowed a cloth from Mrs. Chen to wipe dry the water marks from the earthenware basin. She used a specialized small broom to sweep the bran on the drying mat, then lifted the drying mat and poured the bran into the earthenware basin she had brought.

The task of pounding rice was finally finished at this point.

Sang Luo cleaned up the drying mat and rolled it up neatly. Before Mrs. Chen could ask where to put these items, Sang Luo approached her. Mrs. Chen took over, seeing Sang Luo’s dusty hands. After placing the drying mat, she went to fetch a ladle of water from the kitchen to help Sang Luo wash her hands.

However, Sang Luo shook her head. “No rush, Auntie. Where’s your measuring cup? Earlier, you sent me two liters of rice. Today, I’ll return one liter to you first.”

Upon hearing this, not only Mrs. Chen but even Qin Fangniang, who was cooking in the kitchen, raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help but turn to look at Sang Luo in the yard.

Both the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had heard from Chen Youtian that Sang Luo had bought an earthenware basin today. With the remaining money, she could only afford two and a half liters of grain. After pounding it into rice, it would only amount to about one and a half liters. Now she wanted to return one liter to them?

Mrs. Chen glanced at the deflated grain bag in Sang Luo’s basket and shook her head. “If you return one liter, what will you have left? Keep it for your own use for now. It’s the thought that counts; there’s no rush.”

However, Sang Luo was someone who couldn’t owe debts. She smiled and said, “We have enough to eat at home. I won’t hide it from you. Tomorrow, I’ll have to figure out a way to sell some more fairy tofu. So, you really don’t need to worry about us running out of food again.”

Mrs. Chen was surprised. “Isn’t there no market tomorrow?”

Sang Luo replied, “Yes, but I plan to make less. I’ll carry it in my basket to Shili Village to sell. It should work out.”

Only then did Mrs. Chen nod, finally understanding why Sang Luo wanted to continue borrowing the earthenware basin. She went back inside to fetch the measuring cup and measured out one liter of rice from the cloth bag.

After Sang Luo left, Mrs. Chen turned to Qin Fangniang and remarked, “This Sang family, she’s quite an odd but likable character.”