Four Foods in the Mountains

When Brother Zhu came to see them, Lu Yunchuan was cleaning the chicken coop in the backyard, and Cen Ning picked vegetables from the vegetable garden to cook rice tofu.

Every year when there is a bumper harvest during the busy farming season, every household in the village will make rice tofu to eat, and you can smell the strong aroma of rice milk when you walk to the gate of any courtyard.

This year we were going to do it too, but when the corn in the rainy field was not growing well and the plague broke out again, few families were in the mood to do this.Compared with making rice tofu to taste fresh, it is the most practical to save the grain for the winter.

Cen Ning didn't intend to do it at all, but he went to the front room yesterday to look for Yao Chunling to embroider handkerchiefs. Brother Zhi suddenly remembered rice tofu and said he wanted to eat it when he was playing at the side. Do.

Rice tofu is troublesome to make. It takes a lot of effort to grind the rice into rice milk with a millstone. When the rice milk is poured into the pot and stir-fried, Cen Ning and Yao Chunling's arms are sore, and they called Lu Yunchuan and Lu Yunlang brothers. Two to fry.

Stir-fry the rice milk into sticky rice balls, coat the bottom of the disc with a thin layer of oil, put the rice balls in and spread them flat before steaming.

The rice balls were put into the pot, and the sky outside also darkened.Brother Zhi was happily holding onto the stove, Yao Chunling smiled and pinched his cheeks: "I really need to steam it for a while, I can't eat it today, when I get up tomorrow morning, my mother will cook rice tofu soup for you."

The steamed rice tofu can be eaten after cooling overnight. Yao Chunling cut half of it and sent it over early this morning.Cen Ning cut it into chunks with a knife, picked up a piece and tasted it, the rice tofu porcelain was really tough, chewing it filled his mouth with the aroma of rice.

After Lu Yunchuan cleaned the chicken coop, fetched water and washed his hands, he passed by Cen Ning and stuffed the remaining half into his mouth: "Taste the taste."

Lu Yunchuan chewed and nodded, "Sweet."

Cen Ning said with a smile, "Then don't eat porridge and steamed buns in the morning, and eat boiled rice and tofu."

Rice tofu is delicious in cold salad, fried and boiled soup, but the weather is cooler after autumn, and it feels comfortable to eat some warm food early in the morning.

Because of its thickness, rice tofu soup is generally boiled with chili, hot oil is sprinkled with chili, and then rice tofu is cooked until soft and rotten, which tastes the most delicious.

As soon as Cen Ning picked peppers and a handful of green leafy vegetables from the vegetable garden, Brother Zhu came, walking hurriedly, with a steamed bun in his mouth: "Ning'er, Brother Chuanzi."

Cen Ning replied, "Here, why don't you just eat steamed buns? I'm about to cook rice tofu. Let's eat some together."

"Have you guys made rice tofu? Then I have to try a bowl, but there are more important things to do now." Brother Zhu said anxiously, "Someone is here at the entrance of the village!"

Cen Ning was dragged by Brother Zhu to the entrance of the village. Lu Yunchuan followed behind them, knowing that they hadn't eaten breakfast, Brother Zhu even shared a steamed bun.

"Our family was having dinner, and I heard someone in the village looking for the village chief, yelling 'someone is here, here is someone', my parents and the others went to the entrance of the village with a bowl, I'm afraid you don't know, come to find Let's go and see together."

The three of them rushed to the entrance of the village in a hurry, and the people who had already surrounded them were noisy when they heard it from a distance.

"Auntie, what's the matter?" Brother Zhu approached and asked the aunt next to him.

My aunt was watching a play, and she was excited when she heard Brother Zhu ask: "The girl brought back by the old Zhang family came from the town with her son-in-law and wanted to join them. The two brothers came. I saw that we had dug the road. Let's just put this noise aside."

Cen Ning had just married and was not yet fully familiar with the villagers, so he looked up after hearing this.

On the other side of the pit stood a couple with two children. All four of them were dressed as townspeople, wearing clothes and shoes made of high-quality cotton.It's just that at this moment, the two children raised their heads and cried hard, and the couple's faces flushed even more.

"Two uncles, I took my wife and children and drove the mountain road all night to join you. Isn't it too much of you!"

"That's right, brother and sister-in-law, just for the sake of your two nephews, we can't just stop our family here."

Here, the Zhang family and the village head stood together. The Zhang family brothers and their daughter-in-law looked ugly and did not speak, but the village head spoke first.

"Young students, I asked them to dig this road. The plague is raging outside. People from outside the village are not allowed in. It's not just for you. In my opinion, you should take your children and go back quickly."

"Go back?!" Wang Laicai jumped up and said, "The town is so dangerous now, don't you want to kill us by driving our family back? You only know how to dig roads to save your own life, and you never want to help others. Are you still there?" conscience?

When Mrs. Zhang heard that she wanted to drive them back, she became anxious: "Brother, we are a family, how could you drive us away? If A Niang is still here, she will definitely not be willing."

"Aniang, you have to go too!" Zhang Da said with a sullen face: "The road has been dug up, I can't let you come in and harm the whole village. And, don't mention any family to me, my second child and I have long since lost you." sister."

Zhang Da looked at the little girl in front of him and his heart sank. Their family treated the little girl very well.What the younger sister and brother-in-law did a few years ago really chilled them, and it was his attitude that A Niang hadn't seen each other for so many years after her death.

Seeing that her elder brother was determined not to help her, Mrs. Zhang panicked and tugged at the corner of Wang Laicai's clothes: "This, how good is this, you should think of a way."

"Your good brother, what can I think of." Wang Laicai said viciously.

The two sides were in a stalemate, and for a while, only the crying of the two children and Zhang's low cry could be heard.

Wang Laicai breathed a sigh of relief, and changed his face with a sad face: "Brother, I know you have no other choice. The road has already been dug, so we don't want to bother you anymore. It's just that we are a family after all, and the two children rarely see uncles and aunts." How about you give us some food, chickens and ducks, and let the children come all the way to see their uncle, how about it? You can’t really make the children feel cold.”

Hearing what her husband said, Mrs. Zhang wiped her tears and pinched her sons secretly, and the two children cried even harder.

Before the Zhang family brothers could reply, the second daughter-in-law put her hands on her hips and began to scold: "Bah, why are you not chilling? I want to say that you two are asking for food here in front of the child to chill the child! My little sister Since you married into your family, you know how much food your family ate for nothing. Now you drag your family to ask for food. Those who know think you are a steward in the town, and those who don’t know think you are a beggar in the town. "

The onlookers also talked a lot after hearing Zhang's second daughter-in-law's words.

"I thought the daughter of the Zhang family married some kind of good family. It's shameful to ask the Yue family for food in vain."

"That's right, earning so much money in the town and still not being able to afford food? Is it easy for us to grow some food? My mother's family has taken advantage of it, and I won't bring them a single grain of rice."

Some people who are familiar with the Zhang family even persuaded: "I don't know how much corn can be recovered in this year's climate. It is difficult for my family to survive the winter. It is better to get rid of this relative."

Being reprimanded like this, Wang Laicai lost face when he saw that he couldn't get enough food, and he was so angry that he couldn't put on airs like a townsman.

Cen Ning stared wide-eyed: "How can it be like this?"

Lu Yunchuan said: "I'm afraid that the price of rice and noodles in the city has risen, and I can't bear the money, so I come to the village to ask for food."

Cen Ning frowned slightly: "Then, if they can't afford food in the future, won't more and more people come to the village?"

Lu Yunchuan nodded: "So the village chief is right to do this. Today, he is only a relative of the village. In the future, people he knows and don't know will come to ask for food. It doesn't matter if you buy it or ask for it. Once you open your mouth, you can't stop it." Yes. But don’t worry too much, the government should come forward to lower the price after a while.”

Knowing this, Cen Ning got impatient and waited and quarreled, and pulled Lu Yunchuan to leave.

Then he asked Brother Zhu: "Brother Zhu, do you want to come to my house to eat a bowl of rice tofu?"

Brother Zhu didn't bother to watch Wang Laicai rolling around, he nodded hurriedly after listening to Cen Ning's words, there was still a bit of chill in the wind this morning, it would be more delicious to eat a bowl of warm rice tofu.

Wang Laicai sat at the entrance of the village with his wife and children until noon. The whole family thought that they could eat something good when they came to the Zhang family. They didn’t even bring any dry food in their luggage. They were so hungry that they couldn’t take it anymore. Food would be given, so I had to go back cursing.

But just as Lu Yunchuan thought, more and more people came to the village from the town in the next few days, and they were all stunned when they saw the big pit at the entrance of the village.

Some went to other villages when they saw that they couldn't get through, and more still cried and howled to attract villagers to ask for some food.

Once, a villager saw a child who was so hungry and threw a steamed bun in the past. It didn't take long for the village entrance to be crowded with people, who would throw stones into the village to hit people if they didn't have enough food.

When the village chief found out, he found someone to scold them severely, and said to the people in the village: "In the future, if there is someone who goes out to give food, I will take people to evacuate all the food from your house and disperse it, which can be regarded as doing good for you." .”

The entrance of the village was noisy, but Lu Yunchuan and Cen Ning lived in a peaceful place near the back mountain, but they still felt uncomfortable when they heard people talk about it.

For a few days, Cen Ning didn't cook dry rice, and the kneading noodles were filled with miscellaneous noodles, and every meal was steamed porridge with steamed buns, and there were few stir-fried vegetables.

Lu Yunchuan understood his thoughts, he would eat whatever Cen Ning did, and he never said a single word about it.

Yao Chunling saw it once when she was delivering something, and asked, "What's the matter, why don't you cook something for lunch?"

Cen Ning grabbed the hem of his clothes and hesitated to speak, Lu Yunchuan said, "There's not much work in the field, I just think about dealing with a few bites."

"How could it be possible?" Yao Chunling scolded Lu Yunchuan, "It's not the poor days of previous years. You should eat a vegetable at noon. If you don't eat the vegetables in the vegetable garden, it will be a waste. Besides, you can eat well, how can you Let Ning'er eat this with you."

The two nodded to send Yao Chunling away, Cen Ning's face flushed, "I, I'm going to cook two dishes."

Lu Yunchuan held his wrist and pulled him back. He was stupid and couldn't coax others, so he tried to comfort him and said, "No, I've already eaten half of this. Besides, it's good for me. When I'm not married, I can't even drink hot porridge. Woolen cloth."

But when he said this, Cen Ning felt more and more guilty: "I shouldn't be like this, I just heard Brother Zhu talk about those people at the entrance of the village..."

"I know, don't worry, when the people can't afford to eat, the government will let people build a shed to give out porridge. And it hasn't rained much recently, so I think the epidemic should pass."

Sure enough, as the days passed, fewer and fewer people gathered around the entrance of the village. After half a month, no one came for a few days in a row.

The village head led the men in the village to refill half of the road, and asked Ping Xiaozi to go to the city to find out the news. Ping Xiaozi came back and said that the imperial doctor was sent from the capital, and the epidemic in the town was about to subside, and many shops on the street were closed. It's open for business.

After a full month, the epidemic finally subsided, Ping Xiaozi and Wu Jiada Lang returned to the town to work with their burdens, and the pit at the entrance of the village was completely filled.

Cen Ning got up early in the morning and pushed open the door, the wind was blowing in his face, full of coolness, he was already refreshed before washing up.

He went back to the house and took out two thick coats, one big and one small, from the box: "It's cold, it's time to wear thick clothes."