Chapter 54 2/3

Sang Luo took the basket from Grandma Chen’s hand and smiled. “Yes, nothing fancy. Today, I’ll have to trouble both of you and Grandma Chen.”

The two elderly ladies smiled. “Having chicken, duck, and meat is good. What else counts as a good dish?”

They joked as they entered the kitchen. Seeing the several clay pots and large soup bowls of prepared dishes on the table, Grandma Lu exclaimed, “A Lie’s daughter-in-law has good cooking skills.”

Originally, they thought they were coming to help with the cooking, but now, seeing the dishes Sang Luo had prepared, the two elderly ladies knew they were not needed. Despite Sang Luo’s young age, her culinary skills were not necessarily inferior to theirs, and she worked systematically. Dishes that required long simmering had been prepared in advance. She could handle everything on her own.

So, the two elderly ladies quickly assessed what preparations had already been made and found their roles. They helped with washing and chopping vegetables.

They quickly divided the work. Shen An and Shen Ning’s vegetable washing tasks were taken over, and they were sent to help with other tasks. Seeing that there was no room for them to help in the kitchen, the siblings decided to go and finish building the fence they hadn’t completed yet.

Meanwhile, Sang Luo was in the kitchen, chopping meat to prepare meatballs. The main ingredient was none other than the tofu residue obtained from making tofu today. She added a little flour, chopped some greens, mixed them with the minced meat, broke four eggs, seasoned them, and then fried them in hot oil.

When Grandma Chen came in carrying washed vegetables to prepare for cutting, she saw the golden-brown meatballs and clicked her tongue. “The kids will be happy today. This is even more lavish than the Lunar New Year.”

When Sang Luo brought out a clay pot, Grandma Chen saw three pieces of white tofu and three pieces of green fairy tofu inside. She raised her eyebrows. “Are you serving these two dishes tonight?”

Sang Luo smiled and agreed, and Grandma Chen realized that her earlier intuition had been correct. She smiled sincerely.

Just then, Grandma Lu also came in with washed vegetables. When she saw the two unfamiliar dishes in the clay pot, she asked in surprise.

Sang Luo smiled and briefly introduced the dishes, not mentioning that she had made them herself. She just said, “We couldn’t afford too many fancy dishes, so I improvised with some fresh ingredients to liven up the meal. When dinner is served later, please try them and see if you like them.”

Grandma Lu naturally agreed.

Both types of tofu were not complicated to make. Since there were many children today, making the fairy tofu was the simplest—it was just soaked in sugar water and served in three dishes. As for the regular tofu, Sang Luo made two pieces with minced meat, and the third piece was divided to make chicken blood tofu and duck blood tofu.

Grandma Chen watched and then glanced at the graphite beside the kitchen stove, smiling as she said to Grandma Lu, “Sister, you’re in for a treat today.”

Grandma Lu thought Grandma Chen was referring to the delicious food and smiled in response.

However, Grandma Chen couldn’t help but feel that Sang Luo had included both fairy tofu and regular tofu in today’s menu not because she thought the dishes weren’t plentiful enough, as she had claimed, but for some other reason.

Previously, making fairy tofu would take a long time, and on top of that, she would travel more than twenty miles to the county town every day to set up a stall for half a day.

Sang Luo wasn’t a superwoman who could handle all that.

Moreover, Grandma Chen knew a bit about Sang Luo’s character. She remembered any favors others had done for her and would repay them if she could.

When the Shi family and the Lu family helped build the house, Sang Luo might have already been planning to repay them as a token of gratitude.

Grandma Chen speculated that after the busy farming season, someone in those families might follow in her daughter Fang Niang’s footsteps and start a business using Sang Luo’s culinary skills.

…

In the kitchen, the cooking was still ongoing. Today, a group of children who didn’t need to go to the fields to harvest rice arrived early.

The aroma of the meat made the children salivate, but like Shen Jin, they could only peer inside the courtyard gate and see that the tables had not yet been set up, indicating that the feast had not started yet.

Their stomachs grumbled loudly, and a few “rumble rumble” sounds were heard in succession.

Hu Zi asked, “Shen Jin, you have the keenest nose. Can you smell what dishes there are?”

Shen Jin replied, “Pork bone soup with radish added.”

The group of children nodded vigorously.

“What else?” Hu Zi sniffed, “The radish flavor is too strong, I can’t smell anything else.”

Shen Jin sniffed again. “Stewed chicken, braised pork, and…”

He couldn’t recognize the other dishes. The aroma was pleasant and overpowering, even the smell of the radish soup couldn’t compete with it. But he hadn’t tasted it before, so he didn’t recognize it.

He said, “There’s duck too.”

He hadn’t smelled that, but he had plucked the duck feathers himself today, heh heh.

The children exclaimed in admiration.

“Shen Jin, you’re amazing. You can actually smell the flavors of so many dishes.”

“Big brother, when will Uncle bring the tables? Why isn’t the feast starting yet?”

“Yeah, why hasn’t my dad come yet? Mom said he had to come back early today and be responsible for moving the tables and stools.”

“I’m hungry. I really want to eat meat.”

“I want to eat chicken.”

Shen Jin: “I want to eat everything, and I purposely only had two spoonfuls of porridge at noon, just to save my stomach for this evening’s feast.”

Hu Zi, with a face of astonishment that quickly turned into admiration, suppressed his surprise and admired, “You’re really something. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Today, with the busy farming activities, it was rare for them to have a proper meal at home. They even fried some eggs for lunch, and he ended up eating a bit too much.

Hu Zi thought to himself, if only he could learn from Shen Jin and save his appetite, he would definitely be able to eat more dishes.

Chicken, duck, braised pork!!!

He couldn’t take it anymore; just thinking about it made his mouth water uncontrollably, and he couldn’t swallow.

Shen An, who was busy tying the fence behind the house, vaguely heard some commotion and came out to see a group of children gathered near their courtyard gate.

The younger ones like Shen Tie and Shen Tian couldn’t squeeze in and could only stand at the back.

Shen An approached them and asked, “What are you doing?”

All the children who were drooling at the kitchen turned around, and their eyes lit up when they saw Shen An.

“We’re trying to smell what dishes will be served tonight. You know, right?”

Shen An smiled. “Good food? Isn’t it almost time for dinner? We’ll see it soon. Why are you in such a hurry?”

Hu Zi swallowed hard. “You don’t understand. We’ve been looking forward to this for days.”

Shen An gave them a disdainful look. “Wipe your mouths.”

Hu Zi: ????

Was his mouth really drooling?

He quickly reached up to wipe it.

Well, originally, it hadn’t been drooling, but now that he wiped it, it started…

And it wasn’t just him. When Shen An told them to wipe their mouths, except for the older children, all the children had the same reaction as Shen An.

Shen Ning, who came later, saw this scene and couldn’t help but laugh.

She said, “What’s there to ask about now? Even if you ask my second brother, he’ll only tell you what groceries my sister-in-law bought. Isn’t it better to wait and see what’s on the table in a while? Alright, go play on the side. Hu Zi and Xiao Jin, come help me and my second brother tie the fence.”

Because they were invited to Shen An and Shen Ning’s house for dinner today, the children were especially obedient to Shen Ning’s instructions. They dispersed from the courtyard gate of Shen An’s house and went to play together, whether it was by the mountain spring water pipe, on top of the chicken coop covered with banana leaves, or picking wildflowers to have some fun. After all, when two or three gathered together, they could entertain themselves.

Shen An and the other three older children went to tie the fence. Hu Zi and Shen Jin were now more than happy to help out at Shen An’s house. They weren’t afraid of having too much work; they were afraid there wouldn’t be enough.

Neither of them had tied a fence before, but with Shen An and Shen Ning teaching them, they quickly got the hang of it.

Hu Zi looked at the area outside Shen An’s house and remarked, “Your house is getting different every day, and it’s getting prettier.”