Zhang Yun's ancient life

Aunt Guan was taken aback when she heard the words, and then she saw Zhang Yun looking at her son. After thinking about it, Aunt Guan understood that Zhang Yun wanted their family to go to Zhang's house for the winter because he was afraid that the child would be frozen.

Of course Aunt Guan is willing to go there. After all, Zhang Yun’s house is full of kangs, and the temperature is much higher than her own house. But if you go to Zhang Yun’s house for the winter, you have to stay there for the New Year. Can you agree with your old man’s stubborn temper? ?

Aunt Guan looked towards Uncle Guan while she was thinking. Uncle Guan looked at his wife and then at his son. After a moment of silence, he said, "Mother, go and pack your things. Let's go to Brother Yun's house."

Uncle Guan and Zhang Yun first moved the grain into the house, then reinforced and locked the doors and windows, and then Aunt Guan went to the neighbor's house and said that the family would live in the house of the son-in-law for a while, and asked the neighbor to take care of the house .

Uncle Guan set up the carriage, and Aunt Guan carried the baby with her precious clothes and a change of clothes, followed Zhang Yun into the carriage and went to their house.

Guan Jing was very happy with the arrival of her parents and younger brother, and Aunt Guan was worthy of being a senior housewife. She got busy as soon as she arrived at Zhang Yun's house. I have to eat Laba porridge, Jing'er will take out the beans at home and soak some, and I will go to the kitchen to find some miscellaneous rice and cook them together to make porridge."

Then he said to Uncle Guan: "Master, come home later and bring me the jar where I want to pickle Laba garlic."

In the evening, the family gathered together to drink Laba porridge, and then Aunt Guan and Guan Jing wrapped garlic cloves together in the kitchen. They cleaned up the wrapped garlic cloves, put them one by one into a small jar, and then filled the jar with water. I added mature vinegar, picked some prickly ash and aniseed ingredients into it, and finally sealed the mouth of the jar and put it in a cool place for storage.

Zhang Yun watched their movements curiously, and when they saw that they had finished their work, he asked, "What are you doing?"

Guan Jing said to him: "We are pickling Laba garlic, Brother Yun, haven't you eaten it?"

Hearing this, Zhang Yun shook his head. Zhang Yun didn't have the custom of eating Laba garlic in his hometown, nor did he have this habit in the army. This was the first time he saw the rumored Laba garlic.

Seeing his curiosity, Guan Jing said again: "Brother Yun, if you want to eat Laba garlic, then you have to wait another month, when the garlic will turn dark green, then you can eat it .”

Zhang Yun looked at the jar put in the corner and said, "We have to wait a month. I don't know what the Laba garlic will taste like after it's marinated."

Guan Jing snickered and said, "I can't tell you this in advance. It's meaningless to say it now. When the jar of garlic is marinated, you can taste it yourself. You can tell what it tastes like." Do you understand?"

Zhang Yun was so engrossed in that jar of garlic that he didn't notice the teasing look in Guan Jing's eyes.

When he actually ate Laba garlic, he realized that he had been fooled. This thing should not be called Laba garlic, it should be called "spicy eight garlic". The taste is too strong. Zhang Yun is a person who has eaten spicy food. Unable to stand the energy, it's no wonder why Guan Jing and the others took a small bite of garlic and a big bite of dry food when they ate.He was the only one who foolishly threw a whole clove of garlic into it, but his mouth was still numb after the meal.

After Laba, the people in the town began to get busy. Every time they returned to the market, the streets were full of people coming and going. The sounds of selling, shouting and bargaining were mixed together. It's full of flavor and lively.

Aunt Guan and Guan Jing were not idle either, they would discuss for a long time every night, how many couplets should I buy, how many feet should be stretched to make clothes, which ones have good quality dried fruits, who makes candies It’s delicious, and when the results are obtained, they will be written down on paper. When it’s time to go to the market, one person will stay at home to take care of the children, and the other person will go to the market with a paper list to buy what he needs. .

Gradually, there were more things in the house, Guan Jing sorted them out, and then took the family's size, went to the tailor shop in the county, and prepared to make a new set of clothes for the whole family.

When Guan Jing arrived at the cloth shop that made clothes on behalf of her, she picked up fabrics for the two youngest ones first. Aunt Guan made a lot of small clothes and trousers when she was pregnant, and many of them were not worn. This time I plan to pick two pieces of cotton cloth and go back to make a new set of quilts for each of them.

The quilt and mattress are all made of white soft cotton cloth, and the quilt and mattress are made of batik blue cotton cloth. The shopkeeper is asked to wrap up the selected fabrics, and then take the measured size from his arms. He took it out, handed it to the shopkeeper and said, "Shopkeeper, make me four sets of clothes according to the above measurements, and choose the material from your shop. When will it be ready?"

The shopkeeper took a look at the list and said: "The end of the year has been a lot of work recently, and the guest officer can come and pick up these clothes in ten days."

Guan Jing heard the words and calculated silently in her heart, ten days later it happened to be New Year's Eve, and there was a big market in the county, if she came out earlier in the morning, she would still have time to visit the market after picking up her clothes, and drop by the flour I bought it with mutton and used it when eating dumplings at night.

So I went back: "Okay, I will pick up the clothes in ten days, I have to ask the shopkeeper."

The shopkeeper smiled and said: "You are welcome, guest officer, please come and pick out the fabric."

Guan Jing picked out the fabric, agreed that she would pay for the handwork when she picked up the clothes, left the money for the materials, and went out the door welcomed by the shopkeeper.

When Guan Jing came back, Zhang Yun had already arrived home, and was squatting on the ground to pick soybeans with Uncle Guan. The beans had been brought over from Uncle Guan's house in the morning.

Zhang Yun and Uncle Guan held a pod in each hand, took some soybeans from the bag next to it, poured them into the pod, picked out the broken beans and threw them away, and put the good ones aside for a while. After picking all the beans, I put them back in the bag.

Guan Jing watched them busy and asked, "I'm picking beans, are you going to make tofu tomorrow?"

Uncle Guan was busy with the work in hand and returned: "Well, I have agreed with your Uncle Dong Zi, and I will go to their house to make tofu tomorrow."

"Morning and afternoon?" Zhang Yun asked as soon as he heard it.

"In the afternoon, it's Uncle Feng and Shunzi's house in the morning, and Liu Quan's house is in front of ours in the afternoon." Uncle Guan returned.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yun asked again: "Then will I be able to catch up when I come back?"

Uncle Guan thought for a while and said, "Almost, even if you can't see the beginning, you can still see the tofu."

Zhang Yun paid attention. He wanted to see how tofu is made. Although Zhang Yun’s hometown is in the countryside, the tofu workshop in the village uses electric mills. The tofu maker only needs to pay the soaked beans and wages After calling the boss, you can wait outside to pick up the tofu.

So he still doesn't know how tofu is made.

Because of his curiosity about traditional handmade tofu, Zhang Yun did not let the horse carry him for a trot home on the second afternoon as usual, but lightly whipped him a few times to make him speed up and go straight to the entrance of the village My old uncle Dong's house.

When we arrived at Old Uncle Dong’s house, Liu’s family had just finished making tofu. Uncle Guan was helping Uncle Dong’s house clean the pot. When he saw Zhang Yun walking in, he said, “It’s just in time. Help me lift the bucket of soybeans. Go to the edge of the stone mill."

Zhang Yun carried the bucket over according to his words, and saw that the mule usually used to pull the cart in Uncle Guan's house had been fixed to the wooden frame connected to the stone millstone.

The stone millstone is divided into upper and lower layers. A square hole is punched on the top and side of the upper layer of the millstone. The upper stone hole is hollowed out so that things can be inserted into it, and the side stone hole is inserted into a wooden stake. Connected to the millstone.

Below the entire stone mill is a circle carved out of stone. There is an exit on one side of the enclosure. Several buckets have been placed at the exit, which seems to be used to catch something.

The mule seemed to be very clear about his work, without the slightest panic, he ate the fodder leisurely wagging his tail, and snorted when he saw Zhang Yun approaching, as if to greet him.

It was Uncle Guan who also came over, holding a long strip of black cloth in his hand. He covered the mule's eyes with the strip of cloth, and then said to Zhang Yun, "Come and drive this animal to pull the mill. Come and add beans and water to the mill."

Zhang Yun complied, took the whip and drove the mule around the stone mill, and the wooden frame carried the stone mill and followed the mule around. Seeing this, Uncle Guan scooped out a large scoop of soaked water from the wooden barrel with a ladle. Some swelled soybeans came to the stone mill at the right time, and poured the contents of the scoop into the hole above the stone mill.

The rotating stone mill crushed the beans poured into the hole, overflowed with the water, and flowed into the stone enclosure below.

The bean-water mixture in the stone wall flowed down the outlet into the wooden barrel below. After repeating this several times, all the soaked beans in the barrel were polished off.

Uncle Guan told Zhang Yun to stop, and he went to the buckets, brought the bucket of mixture over, and left the empty buckets there.

Zhang Yun took the opportunity to ask, "Father, why are you blindfolding the mule?"

Uncle Guan heard the words and replied: "The eyes of the big animal are sharp. If you don't cover it up and let it see the soybeans, it will definitely have enough to eat. Don't let it honestly do it for you. live."

Zhang Yun nodded in understanding and asked again: "Isn't the bean already crushed? Why are you bringing it here?"

Uncle Guan stirred the mixture in the bucket with a ladle and said: "The beans are not crushed enough. They were soaked a little late this morning, and they are still too hard to grind. Judging from the current situation, at least two more beans should be ground." Only three times."

Then he raised his head and said to Zhang Yun: "Hurry up, get the animals up, finish the work early, and bring the tofu home earlier."

Hearing this, Zhang Yun drove the mule up again, and Uncle Guan continued to add the bean-water mixture to the stone mill. After repeating this two or three times, the contents of the bucket no longer looked like they were before, and became bucket after bucket. The bean dregs are settled below, and the foamy milky white liquid floats above.

Seeing this, Uncle Guan nodded in satisfaction, and said to Zhang Yun: "Boy, that's about it, you untie the animal and take it aside, come out of the kitchen with me, and help Aunt Dong make tofu.