Four Foods in the Mountains

It was already dark when Lu Yunchuan came back.

Cen Ning was busy in the kitchen, seeing him coming back, he didn't serve food in the main room, it was cold, so he ate in front of the stove to keep warm.

Cen Ning made a few steamed buns with hot oil, fried a plate of bacon with dried bamboo shoots and dried beans, and cut two salted duck eggs.

The duck eggs that have been marinated for a while are too salty to eat, and they are just right with rice porridge.

Lu Yunchuan ate buns with bacon, and finished one in two or three bites.

He works in someone else's house, and that person takes care of the lunch.After all, the food was given out for free. There must be no meat or dry rice, just porridge and pickled vegetables to fill the stomach, and a pickled radish to chew in the middle of the afternoon.

Eating too much pickled vegetables burned his stomach, Lu Yunchuan ate three steamed buns, and drank a bowl of porridge with duck eggs to suppress the burning energy in his stomach.

Seeing this, Cen Ning asked him, "Shouldn't you quit after this job is done?"

Lu Yunchuan nodded: "After finishing this work, it will be cold, so my elder brother and I will go to the mountains to cut firewood, and before it snows, we will take the cabbage in the field and sell it in the town for some money, and prepare some for cooking at home in the winter."

After dinner, the two of them scrubbed and closed the courtyard door and went back to the back room.

"Have you changed the bedding?" Lu Yunchuan glanced at the kang and asked.

"Well, I took advantage of the sun to change and wash, and it's comfortable to cover when it's warm."

The two of them took off their coats and shoes and socks and lay down on the bed. Lu Yunchuan turned his head and blew out the oil lamp.

The room was plunged into darkness, and I could hear the wind outside the window. It was cold and I went to bed early.Cen Ning turned over, the cold wind from outside the bed came in, Lu Yunchuan patted his back with his hands, and tucked the corners of the quilt behind him in.

Cen Tranquility paused for a while, then whispered, "I didn't sleep well, it's getting colder now... I'll make another bed tomorrow."

As soon as he finished speaking, a familiar breath came over him in the darkness, Lu Yunchuan hugged him into his arms, and the breath from Lu Yunchuan's words spilled over his neck, causing Cen Ning's shoulders and neck to tremble: "No, it's warmer to sleep together. "

He said with a smile, as if teasing Cen Ning: "I will hold you in my arms, and I won't let you move around at night."

Cen Ning didn't speak, but raised the corners of his mouth, buried his head in Lu Yunchuan's arms, and soon fell asleep.

There was a long breath in the inner room, and a stray cat stepped in quietly outside the room, coiled up in a corner, and tapped its tail lightly.

One day, Cen Ning went to the vegetable garden to pick pumpkins. Pumpkins were easy to grow in the field. If he sprinkled a few seeds casually, they would grow well even if he didn't take care of them.

Moreover, this food is durable and can be eaten from tender pumpkins to old pumpkins. The pumpkin tips and pumpkin flowers can be eaten fried or steamed.

Especially pumpkin seeds, after washing and drying, put them in the pot for a while, and there will be snacks for entertaining guests at home during the Chinese New Year, which is the rarest kind for farmers.

Some time ago, when the pumpkin was still tender, Cen Ning would often saute the garlic cloves with lard and put the pumpkin in to make a topping for noodles. Lu Yunchuan could eat a pot of it when he came back from work.

Now that the pumpkin vines were dry and the pumpkins were old, Cen Ning took the baskets back and piled them up in the corner of the granary.Pumpkin is easy to preserve, it is not easy to spoil and has few insects. In winter, it can be used to braise pumpkin rice or fried pumpkin cakes, and it can be fed to pigs and cattle if it is not finished.

The old pumpkin was sweet, so Cen Ning picked one, peeled it and cut it into pieces, put it in a small pot to cook, then put a bowl of fine rice, put two spoonfuls of sugar, and planned to cook pumpkin porridge for Brother Zhi to drink.

"Ning'er, Ning'er, are you home?" Brother Zhu's voice sounded from outside the courtyard gate.

Cen Ning wiped his hands and walked out of the kitchen: "Here, come in quickly."

Brother Zhu pushed open the courtyard door and came in, with a basket on his back, and asked, "I'm going to hunt chestnuts on the back mountain, do you want to go with me?"

"Are there still chestnuts?"

"Yes, the chestnuts on the back mountain grow late, so it's a good time to harvest them now. If you don't go there, the villagers will kill them."

"Then wait for me, I'll get a basket." Cen Ning put down his sleeves and picked up the bamboo basket, then picked up the tongs, "I'll go and fetch some and come back to make some chestnut cakes."

Yesterday when he went to buy snacks for Brother Zhi, he saw that there was a chestnut cake in the peddler's basket, which was quite a piece, but it looked like it was made of mixed flour, and the cake was a little cracked, which seemed to irritate his throat.

He didn't buy it for him, and he happened to hunt some chestnuts and come back to make some chestnut cakes for himself.

The two carried bamboo baskets on their backs and walked up the mountain along the path.

It's cool now, the wind blowing through the rolling mountains is very refreshing, and walking is not tiring.

Brother Zhu played with the weeds and said, "By the way, Ning'er, Sister Ru and her mother have something to ask me to find you."

Cen Ning didn't know who Sister Ru was, only heard Brother Zhu mention it twice: "What are you looking for me for?"

Brother Zhu said: "Sister Ru and her elder brother are going to marry a wife, and the quilts are being prepared at home. Her mother heard from my mother that you do a good job in embroidery, and would like to ask you to help embroider two festive quilts."

Cen Ning said: "I've only done some simple embroidery work. Marriage quilts are not as common as sachets and handkerchiefs. I haven't embroidered before. I'm afraid it won't be good. Let Sister Ru find someone else to embroider."

"Don't tell me that. It's not like I haven't seen your embroidery before. No one in the village can embroider more delicately than you." Brother Zhu said with a smile, "The materials and colored threads are provided by their family. Not to be in the town but not too small, if you want, I will take Sister Ru and her mother to your house tomorrow to talk about it carefully."

Cen Ning thought about it for a while. Although he had never embroidered a quilt, he embroidered the wedding dress by himself stitch by stitch. .

Now that the holidays are approaching, the family has to ask for money for the winter and holidays, thinking that Lu Yunchuan would get up and rush to work every day before dawn, and his shoulders and backs would be full of marks from carrying heavy objects.

Cen Ning nodded and smiled at Brother Zhu: "Then I'll have to talk to Sister Ru and Auntie."

Brother Zhu waved his hand: "It's a small matter, just let me have a taste of your chestnut cake when the time comes."

The two laughed and walked towards the back of the mountain.

There are really many chestnut trees on the back mountain, and there is no need to punch them, they are scattered all over the ground.

Chestnut shells have the sharpest thorns, which can pierce through the soles of your shoes when you step on them.

While guarding against the thorns under their feet, the two of them took the tongs to pinch the chestnuts on the ground.

Cen Ning recalled what Lu Yunchuan had said about Brother Zhu's engagement, and asked, "When you get married in the next year, don't you have to start preparing something?"

Talking about his marriage, Brother Zhu blushed a little: "I don't care about it, let Wu Erhe and his family do the work."

Cen Ning sneered and said, "Don't worry about anything else, can you embroider your wedding dress?"

Girls and brothers have to embroider their own wedding dresses when they get married, and when they wear them on their wedding day, you can tell at a glance whether the embroidery is good or bad.

Brother Zhu is the most annoyed at doing embroidery work, and it gives me a headache when I hear the wedding dress: "Stop talking, my mother is urging me to see the sky. I have to take advantage of the comfortable weather now to go out and walk more. When winter comes, I'm afraid I have to stay in the house every day doing embroidery work."

He touched Cen Ning with his elbow again: "When I'm almost done embroidering, you can change a few stitches for me, and don't let the Wu family laugh at me."

The two talked and laughed, and one of them picked up half a basket of chestnuts and carried them down the mountain. The chestnuts were so heavy that they couldn't carry the basket full.

Seeing a persimmon tree along the way, Cen Ning touched it with his hand: "It's still hard at the moment, wait a few days for it to be ripe enough to pick some to eat, it's also good to eat persimmons."