Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Li recalled the tender and fragrant pork shreds in the noodle soup and said in surprise, "Pork can be made to taste this good. I thought you bought pork because it was cheap."

"The butcher shop in Linxi Town also sells pork. The cheapest price is less than 10% of the price of fine mutton, but no one knows how to cook it, and the meat doesn't taste good. No matter how cheap it is, it is despised and no one buys it. Only those country families who are really greedy and want to eat meat buy it and cook it to please their children. I bought it once because of the low price. It cost me 30 yuan. I also asked the butcher's clerk how to cook the pork. But I blanched it and fried it according to the clerk's instructions, but the meat was still fishy and hard when it was cooked. It was really unpalatable. In the end, I secretly threw it away."

After Li finished speaking, she seemed to remember something and smiled secretly with her head down.

The three children looked at her with her head lowered and shoulders shrugged, laughing strangely. Yu Cheng asked Li curiously, "Mom, you should be sad about throwing it away, why are you still laughing?"

At first, Li was reluctant to say anything, but Yucheng was a simple and honest man, and he kept pestering Li until he got the answer.

Li was pestered so much that she could only laugh and say, "It was a long time ago. I ate a piece of it myself, but I couldn't chew it and it had a fishy smell. It was really unpalatable. I couldn't bear to spend the thirty dollars to throw it away."

"Yucheng was playing nearby at that time. I thought that children eat everything. Although pork tastes bad, it is still meat after all. So I cut a small piece for Yucheng. However, Yucheng chewed it for a long time but couldn't swallow it. I forced him to swallow it, and he vomited it. He even vomited out the water he drank, and kept saying that it tasted bad and wanted to tell Dad. Yucheng was still young at that time. I coaxed him for a long time and stuffed him with a piece of sugar cake to coax him. Only then did he forget about it. Since then, I have never bought pork again."

Thinking about the scene at that time, Shen Yu and Yu Tao couldn't help but laugh too.

Only Yu Cheng listened carefully at first. Later he realized that he had been cheated by his own mother in the same way in the past, but the key point was that he still didn't remember it.

The pork he was fed was so unpalatable that he vomited. After suffering such a bitter experience, he suddenly felt that the bowl of noodles he had just eaten was not tasty anymore. He just stared at his mother with his mouth wide open.

Li wiped away the tears from her laughter, looked at Yucheng's silly face with his mouth wide open, raised her hand and patted his head: "Silly son, it's been so long, you must have forgotten the taste. Mother didn't feed you much, just a small piece, and you spit it out. It's okay. Just remember the aroma of the shredded pork noodles made by your eldest sister."

After saying this, several people started laughing again, and the little house was filled with joy and happiness.

After dinner, Yutao asked Li and her sister to rest for a while while she took the bowls to wash. She scooped some water from a large wooden barrel that was half filled with water with a ladle and put it in a small basin on the ground. She squatted beside the basin and washed the bowls one by one.

Looking at the pitiful amount of water at the bottom of the basin, Shen Yu suddenly realized the inconvenience of having no water source at home.

She discussed with Li that they would try to steam the buns tomorrow. By then, more water would be used, so the family would need a water tank to store water. This wooden barrel was too small, and they had to go to the next door and knock on the door every time they needed water, which was too inconvenient.

Li nodded, and thought about spending money again, and said with some pain: "Who would have thought that drinking water in the county town would be so inconvenient. Tomorrow morning, we will go buy a water jar. Alas, drinking water really costs money."

Shen Yu washed his hands and prepared to soak the dough he bought from the bakery.

The local people rarely make leavened food at home. Most of the food sold on the street sells pancakes. There are shops that make steamed buns, but they only keep a piece of the old dough for themselves and don't sell it to others, as if they are trying to keep their secret skills to themselves.

After looking around for a while and failing to buy any old dough starter, Shen Yu was in a hurry and remembered the bakery that made honey flower cake.

Because flower cakes are used to offer to Buddha, some wives of wealthy families would make them by hand during festivals to show off their dexterity and sincerity in their offerings. Therefore, flower cake shops would sell the old dough starter used to make flower cakes.

This old dough starter is rarely used on weekdays and is only sold during festivals. Fortunately, it is almost July 15th, the Ghost Festival, and the cake shop has started to order vegetarian cakes. I spent 20 cents to buy a small piece of old dough starter.

Li looked at Shen Yu's instant noodle starter, smacked her lips, and said with a bit of pain: "This old noodle starter is really expensive. This small piece is not even as big as a cake, but it costs more than two large pieces of flower cake. Even so, I don't want to sell it to you."

Shen Yu smiled and said, "Mom, you don't know that a small piece of this old dough starter is enough. When the dough is fermented, you can dry it and store it yourself. Next time you make noodles, you can take it out and soak it and use it again. You don't need to buy it a second time."

Li understood a little and said, "No wonder you asked the clerk again and again before he was willing to sell it, and the price was so high. It turns out that this is a one-time deal, and there are no repeat customers."

Shen Yu smiled and said, "Mom is really insightful. I understood it as soon as I said it. That's the reason."

Everything was cleaned up. Several people cleaned the house and bought utensils. They did not stop for the whole day and were really tired. So they closed the gate and prepared to wash up and go to bed.

Perhaps it was because he had been in a tense mood while shopping during the day. When he lay on the bed, although his whole body ached, Shen Yu could not fall asleep. Listening to the soft snoring of Li and Yutao beside him, he thought about what kind of filling to make for the buns tomorrow. After he sorted out the ideas in his mind, he fell asleep in a daze.

It was just as the sky was getting light when a rooster from someone's household started to crow. After a while, the sound of monks knocking on a wooden fish to herald the dawn came from afar. It was already the fifth watch.

Shen Yu listened to the sound of the wooden fish and climbed up.

He quickly put on his clothes, rinsed his mouth, took his small purse, closed the gate, and went to set up his stall at the market entrance.

She had looked at it yesterday and had a general idea in her mind. She thought it would be safer to observe again to see what kind of food and soup the customers at the market entrance liked, so she came here again early in the morning.

The porridge stall was still at the same location, but there were still not many customers. I guess it was because it was July and the weather was a little cool in the morning. It was not very comfortable to eat a bowl of hot porridge and then set off again in a sweat.

Most of the caravans that were rushing to leave the city as soon as the city gates opened still packed some Hu cakes and oil cakes, and carried water bags and gourds filled with clean water, and hurried towards the city gates.

Shen Yu stood there for a while and felt that it was similar to what he saw yesterday. He had a rough idea in his mind, so he bought some vegetarian cakes from the cake stall and carried them home.