Food for the people

The fireworks went off for half an hour, and when Qiao Yu turned his attention away from the fireworks, the old host was no longer with them, only the little monk who brought them was still standing aside, watching them recover Come, walk up to Qiao Yu and pass on a message.

"The host said that he won't entertain more this time when he's tired. Let me tell the benefactor that if you have any difficult things in the future, you can come here to find him."

What he said was very polite, so Qiao Yu naturally didn't take it seriously, and after asking the little monk to thank him on his behalf, he and Qiao Ling left the gate of the small temple.

Many people watching Hanako outside Guanyu Tower had already left, the snow had stopped, and the air was filled with the smell of burning gunpowder. Qiao Yu yawned a lot, and said to Qiao Ling: "Is this time satisfied?" ,Go home and sleep."

Qiao Ling wanted to say something at first, but seeing Qiao Yu's sleepy look, he swallowed what he wanted to say again.

Just sleep and sleep, he will keep it together with his age.

It was much faster to go back than when we came. After all, there was no one who bumped into someone's nose in the alley. The two returned the same way and arrived home without much delay.

The yard was fairly bright with the snow reflecting on it. As soon as Qiao Ling entered the door, he took the brazier in Qiao Yu's room first, went to the kitchen to dig out the red charcoal buried in the ashes to light it up, then put the hand stove under his bed, and finally poured it out. Bring boiling water into his room to soak his feet.

Qiao Yu put her feet into the hot water comfortably, and lamented how happy it is to have a younger brother.

"You also soak up quickly and go back to sleep. Don't keep your age, no matter how you keep it, it will always grow."

What's more, he now wished that he would be several years older when he woke up.

Qiao Ling couldn't understand his urgency, so he shook his head firmly and then cut some wicks. It seemed that he would be dead until tomorrow morning.

Qiao Yu was so sleepy that his eyelids seemed to be sticking together, he really couldn't talk to Qiao Ling, so he ignored him, pushed the brazier to his feet to keep him warm, wrapped himself in the quilt, rolled over and fell asleep.

After tossing around most of the night, it was naturally a good night's sleep.

Qiao Yumeng didn't sleep until the next morning, when someone's rooster crowed several times tirelessly, and then he opened his eyes drowsily.

As soon as he turned his head, he saw Qiao Ling lying beside his bed, his sleeping face flushed.

The kerosene lamp next to him had been extinguished, and the brazier was still on. It seemed that he had done everything after dawn before falling asleep beside his bed.

Qiao Yu sighed, after getting dressed, he carried Qiao Ling into his still warm bed, covered him with a quilt, and was ready to go out to wash and make breakfast.

A thin layer of snow had fallen in the yard and had to be swept aside before the sun came out.

Qiao Yu quickly swept out a path to the kitchen. While boiling water to wash, he washed the rice and put it in a clay pot to simmer on the side of the brazier to cook porridge. Half of polished rice was mostly brown rice, which tasted better than pure brown rice. many.

I dug up another radish I bought before, and cut it into thin and uniform shreds.

The only ones that can be eaten fresh in winter in this day and age are cabbage and radishes, and they must be preserved properly, otherwise they will freeze badly.

It is said that the storage method was given to Qiao Ling by an old lady next door. Before that, the two brothers had frozen a lot of things.

Knead the shredded radish with half a teaspoon of salt and pepper powder, mix well, then crack an egg into it, and finally pour in the flour, add some water and mix well.

Heat the oil again, turn the batter around the side of the pot, spread it into uniformly sized cakes, fry on low heat for a few minutes, and the aroma of shredded radish cakes will spread along the side of the pot.

This pot is much larger than Qiao Yu's used to, and if you watch the fire well, you can cook several at a time.

This thing is not difficult, but it is very suitable for breakfast. Qiao Yu used to like to eat it very much. It is most suitable with white porridge. Of course, it would be best if there are a few salted duck eggs.

Salted duck eggs...

Qiao Yu paused and thought about it.

He remembered how to make salted duck eggs, and the ingredients were very simple. Although they didn't have duck eggs, eggs were actually perfectly fine.

It seemed that he could add something else to the family, Qiao Yu hummed a song in a good mood, and turned over the cake in the pot, revealing the golden and shiny side.

Several radish cakes came out of the pot one after another, Qiao Yu shoveled the cakes into the plate, and before he called, Qiao Ling had already poked his head in through the door frame.

"It smells so good, is brother alright?"

Qiao Yu laughed: "You have a good nose, you don't need anyone to bark."

Qiao Ling smiled a little embarrassedly, and he was also embarrassed to say that he was already hungry last night. He ate several times by the brazier and laughed, but he still couldn't stop his hunger. He was just waiting for this morning's meal.

The two of them ate up a pot of porridge and six shredded radish cakes with their index fingers. Of course, the main force was still Qiao Ling.

Ever since Qiao Yu took over the cooking, I found that Qiao Ling's appetite has increased a lot, and the effect is also very obvious. Unlike the thin face before, it is now a circle, but it looks much better than when it was thin. He started to look like a young master Bai Nen again. Qiao Yu was happy to see the success, and he never deliberately controlled his eating. He only hoped that he could grow as much meat and stature as possible, and he would stop being skinny.

After dinner, it was Qiao Ling who washed the dishes as usual, and Qiao Yu did it when he thought of it. He had already washed a few eggs and prepared to make salted eggs.

He hadn't done it in winter, and he used the simplest recipe, so he didn't dare to make more, and only picked ten bigger ones.

After washing it with clean water and drying it for a while, rolling it in the wine and rolling it in the salt is more than half done. Finally, find a clean oil paper and put it in a ventilated place in the bedroom, just waiting for it to slow down. Slowly changing.

This is the simplest and most convenient recipe. Although the oil production rate is not as high as that of the mud-covered altar recipe, he only made ten to test the water, and he ate it by himself, so it doesn't matter.

The first day of the new year passed by so calmly for a little while.

After the meal, the two changed into new clothes and sat together idly.

From the first day of the new year to the fifteenth day, it is a day to visit relatives and friends.

The Qiao family didn't have many people who needed to move around.

Those who had a normal relationship with Qiao's father had already lost contact with Qiao's family when they were down and there was only one family surnamed Zhao. Qiao Yu made up his mind that he must not go to the Zhao family in the open. Although he is not afraid of that rascal of the Zhao family Auntie, but I really don't want to deal with her too much, so I plan to wait until after the first few days, and no one in the Zhao family moves around, so I will take some time to go there.

You don't have to go to other people's homes to pay New Year's greetings, and no one comes to your own home.

Qiao Yu's life is very clean this year, he has nothing to do, so he asks Qiao Ling to prepare paper and pens, and learns and writes at home every day.

The Qiao family lacked everything, except paper and pens.

According to Qiao Ling, although his elder brother Qiao Sheng is not suitable for business, he always pays attention to his literary talent.

Not only read well, but also write well.

If Qiao's family hadn't experienced such a change, Qiao Sheng would be able to take the imperial examination in another year, maybe he would be able to take an official position, and it is unknown whether he will be able to enter the officialdom in the future.

It's just a pity that there are never so many ifs in this world.

Although many characters commonly used in this era are different from the Chinese characters that Qiao Yu is familiar with, there are also many similar in shape. After reading and learning for a while, he can even recognize many characters by guessing.

It is still difficult to write with a brush. Although his original handwriting is not very beautiful, at least it is neat and tidy. Ever since he changed the pen here, Qiao Yu felt as if he could not write. , very ugly.

Even after Qiao Ling read it, he couldn't say without conscience that his writing was good.

Qiao Yu had to practice hard, wasting a lot of paper.

On the morning of the fifth day of the lunar new year, Qiao Yu baked a charcoal basin in the room as usual, spread out paper and practiced calligraphy on the table.

Qiao Ling sat next to him, flipping through the sweet potatoes in the charcoal basin, and pointing out Qiao Yu's spelling mistakes from time to time.

The two were lazily sitting together killing time, and it was almost noon, but someone knocked on the door of the yard a few times.

Qiao Ling raised his head first and looked at Qiao Yu.

Qiao Yu is practicing the word "Qian". There are so many strokes in the word "Qian", which are crooked like symbols. He made mistakes several times, and he couldn't help being a little irritable. After looking at him, he said without raising his head: "Go and ask who it is, if you don't want to see him, you won't open."

He had already let go of Zhao Deshen's words last time, and if the Zhao family's aunt still came to find fault with her ignorance, he would not be polite.

Qiao Ling got up and went out, Qiao Yu heard him ask through the courtyard door, and heard a voice answer him vaguely, Qiao Ling opened the door.

After a while, Qiao Ling led a little girl whom he had never seen before into the door.

"She said that her grandma asked us to go to her house for dinner, which is in the alley next door."

The little girl looked a year or two younger than Qiao Ling, with her hair tied like two steamed buns, standing by the door and looking at Qiao Yu from a distance, with timid eyes.

Qiao Ling wasn't much better either, he had never seen this little girl before, and he didn't know what her grandma looked like, they had lived here for so long, they kept looking at each other, but kindness was rare, which led him to Somewhat at a loss, I don't know why this old lady who has never met asks them to eat.

Qiao Yu finally put down the pen and stopped.

"The alley next door?"

Qiao Ling nodded, and took another look at the little girl with the double ball head.

The little girl also nodded, her voice also timid.

"My grandma said, let you go to have dinner together."

Qiao Yu laughed. His face looks good now. When he doesn't smile, he still has a sense of distance. When he smiles, he looks very close. When he smiles, the little girl's expression relaxes a lot. Then he asked: " Are you calling us? Don’t make a mistake.”

The little girl hurriedly said as if to argue: "There is no mistake, grandma is talking about you."

As she spoke, she probably felt that she was too emotional, and shrank back again, muttering: "I can't make a mistake."

Qiao Yu said "ah", and said to Qiao Ling, "Go and take down the half smoked duck hanging in the kitchen."

Qiao Ling nodded in agreement and went to pick it up. Qiao Yu took out a hot baked sweet potato from the brazier and handed it to the little girl, "It's a bit hot when it's baked, so be careful when eating it."

The little girl's eyes lit up, and she held the hot baked sweet potato in her hands and blew left and right, then said in a low voice, "Thank you brother."

Qiao Yu wanted to laugh a little. According to his original age, this girl could have been called his uncle, but now she is down a generation for nothing.

Qiao Ling came in with half a smoked duck, and the two of them locked the door under the leadership of the little girl and went to eat.