0p0 Chapter 141 Is there a thief in the house?
Chapter 141 Is there a thief in the house?
"Of course it is useful. Wood ash is a treasure."
Lin Xiaoman planned to wait until the preserved eggs were successfully made before telling his family about it in detail. The wood ash was still hot at the moment, so he would tell them later when it was no longer hot.
For farmers, everything is a treasure!
Lin Jingzhe usually saw Li Taohua keeping a close eye on the wood ash in the stove.
Not to mention wood ash, even the rice husks left over from rice milling have to be put into rag bags and kept as firewood. In addition to being burned as firewood, they can also be scattered on the ground.
There was also feces and urine in the house. If they were not afraid of burning the seedlings, they would have sprinkled it all on the fields.
After entering September, Lin Jingzhe also became busy. The female rabbits in the house were about to give birth. Once the rabbits were born, there would not be enough rabbit nests at home.
Now there are only four or five male rabbits over five months old left in the rabbit hive. The rest have been sold. Only immature rabbits and female rabbits that can give birth are left.
Lin Jingzhe was so worried that he couldn't even enjoy his meal.
He can't occupy the vegetable land at home to raise rabbits. If his mother knew what he was thinking, she would probably stir-fry bamboo shoots with meat.
Besides, rabbits tend to get smelly easily, so Xiaoman would definitely be the first one to jump out and object.
"Hey."
Lin Jingzhe sighed softly, feeling unhappy.
When he sighed for the third time, Lin Xiaoman turned and stared at him.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Jingzhe thought about it seriously and asked, "Xiaoman, the rabbit nest is not big enough. If I tell my parents that I want to expand it, will they agree?"
Lin Xiaoman did not answer his question directly, but only asked: "You and your eldest cousin are both raising rabbits. When there are too many rabbits next year, what are you going to do if Ruyi Tower cannot collect them all?"
"Shopkeeper Tong said that the young master also has a restaurant in Lin'an Prefecture."
Lin Jingzhe had also thought about this problem, so he asked Manager Tong as early as when he discovered that these female rabbits were pregnant.
Shopkeeper Tong said that as long as he had rabbits, Ruyi Restaurant would accept them.
But why did people want to accept his rabbit? It was simply because of Xiaoman’s vegetable recipe, not because his rabbits were so good.
Over time, if a rift develops because of the rabbit, it would be more trouble than gain.
What if one day he stops cooperating, to whom will he sell his rabbits?
Over the past year, he has learned from Xiaoman that it is better to rely on oneself than on others, and he should find more restaurants to cooperate with.
At least if one day I get strangled in Ruyi Restaurant, I will have a gap to breathe and will not be strangled to death.
He looked at Lin Xiaoman and whispered, "Do you think I can go to Jialin County to find a restaurant by myself?"
Lin Xiaoman narrowed his eyes and encouraged: "Why not? Everything is difficult at the beginning. You have to give it a try to know if it can succeed!"
My brother is thirteen years old. Here, boys aged fifteen or sixteen can get married.
A married man has to shoulder responsibilities, and my brother should go out and gain some experience and make a living on his own.
Besides, if their family wants to become rich, it’s not enough to rely on her golden finger alone; everyone must grow up.
And my brother is the best candidate here.
Being young, smart, and motivated, the key is literacy.
"Brother, I support you!"
After hearing Xiaoman's words, Lin Jingzhe's original hesitation disappeared.
"Our home is close to the back mountain. I plan to ask the village head if I can buy the vacant land at the foot of the mountain."
Lin Xiaoman got interested when he heard about buying land. "You said you were going to buy land to build a rabbit hive, so why don't we build a big brick and tile house?"
The house left by Li Dali was one of the best in the village, but it was still made of bricks, stones and mud. The ground in the yard became wet, slippery and muddy when it rained.
As a modern person, she has had enough.
Fortunately, she had the space golden finger, and she fell asleep on the big bed in the space villa half of the night.
"Brother, how about we talk to Mom and Dad? I remember Mom also wanted to build a house, but she heard that a large number of refugees from the north were pouring into Lin'an Prefecture, so she didn't build it because she was worried about natural disasters and man-made disasters. However, after a few months, the refugees have been separated and resettled in different villages, and the problems Mom was worried about will basically not occur again."
Out of selfishness, Lin Xiaoman really envied Xie Ci'an's large blue brick and tile house, where she didn't have to worry about rubbing her clothes against the wall and getting a layer of mud.
The most important thing is the toilet, it is really unbearable.
Lin Xiaoman didn't want to talk about the two boards, the underground vat and the small straw house.
She tried her best to avoid going to the toilet during the day and go to the toilet at night.
But it's impossible to just say no to such things.
"Okay, I'll go and talk to my father and mother about this." Lin Jingzhe already had a plan in mind. He would use the money that Lin'an Tabloid gave him to build a house and a rabbit hive, and he would let Xiaoman keep the money she earned.
My parents will use the money they earn from the shop to buy a house in town or Jialin County when they have the chance.
As the two talked, the ash slowly cooled down.
Lin Xiaoman gently swept the wood ash into a dustpan, poured the dustpan into the basin, then added clean water and stirred it with a stick.
After the water and ash were mixed together, Lin Xiaoman put down the stick, patted the ash in his hand, and said with a smile, "It's done!"
"Is this good?"
Li Taohua looked at the water mixed with wood ash on the ground and thought Xiaoman was going to do something big.
"We'll talk about the rest tomorrow." Lin Xiaoman kept it a secret.
She couldn't say that she would use water soaked in wood ash to make baking soda tomorrow, right?
Why do we have to make baking soda for no reason and then bring up preserved eggs? I guess it will take an entire night to explain it.
Let's wait until she finishes making the preserved eggs before telling my parents.
The next morning, Lin Xiaoman came out of the house and Li Taohua and Lin Dajiang were already loading the goods.
Li Taohua saw Xiaoman and asked, "Why don't you sleep a little longer?"
Lin Xiaoman felt that her mother might have forgotten that she used to get up and prepare as soon as the rooster crowed. Compared with the past, getting up now was already considered sleeping in.
"Mom, other girls have already gotten up to wash clothes and cook." Lin Xiaoman laughed as she walked and found that the wood ash water in the basin had already separated into layers.
"Xiaoman, go with Jingzhe to look after your younger brothers and sisters." Li Taohua shouted, and she and Lin Dajiang went out before dawn.
As soon as Li Taohua and the others left, Lin Xiaoman took a clean bucket and gauze, and carefully scooped out the top water with a ladle.
The remaining wood ash is also useful. Pour it into the soil to increase soil activity.
After that, Lin Xiaoman sifted the water over and over again without getting tired of it, poured the sifted water into the pot, and lit a fire to boil the water.
Lin Xiaoman filled two large pots with alkaline noodles and water, stuffed both stoves with firewood and mixed it with hay, and they burned brightly in no time.
Two hours later, the water gradually boiled dry. Lin Xiaoman put out the firewood and used a shovel in each hand to scoop up the soda ash at the bottom of the pot.
The residual heat of the firewood was still there, and as the spatula continued to stir, the yeast in the pot became drier and drier. After dozens of rounds, the grayish-white yeast that was originally clumped together turned into fine and dense powder.
Lin Xiaoman then knew that the baking soda was ready.
Things went much more smoothly after that.
She boiled half a pot of water, added the tea leaves given by Boss Gu, and boiled it for fifteen minutes. Then she took out the tea leaves, poured the tea into the prepared quicklime, added soda ash, and scooped four or five handfuls of wood ash from under the stove, added salt and yellow mud, and stirred it into a mud.
The most critical step in making preserved eggs is now complete.
The chicken eggs and duck eggs at home were sold and exchanged, and there were still about a hundred left.
Lin Xiaoman decided to go all out and took out fifty chicken eggs and fifty duck eggs. He rolled them in the mud and water, covering the eggs with thick mud. He then rolled them in rice husks.
It took half an hour to cook one hundred eggs.
Then he took out the small jar that Li Taohua had hidden at home and had never used, and put all the eggs in it.
The one hundred eggs filled the small jar exactly nine-tenths full.
Lin Xiaoman stuffed a bunch of hay into the jar, sealed the mouth of the jar with yellow mud, and placed the jar in the utility room.
There was still some mud left, so Lin Xiaoman wrapped about twenty duck eggs, just enough to use up the mud water she had prepared for wrapping preserved eggs.
After wrapping twenty duck eggs in rice husks, she put them into the space.
She wanted to try and see if there was any difference between the preserved eggs in the space and those sealed outside after a dozen days.
After finishing everything, Lin Xiaoman started to prepare lunch. She made pickled beans and minced meat, smashed cucumbers, stir-fried long-bearded worms, and cooked a pot of multi-grain porridge.
Because there were cucumbers in the yard and the space, Lin Xiaoman made a big pot of smashed cucumbers.
Serve it out first to satisfy Guyu and Lidong’s cravings.
Finally, Lin Xiaoman steamed six white buns. As soon as the buns came out of the pot, Lin Dajiang and Li Taohua came back.
"Father, mother."
Li Taohua came in and saw meat, vegetables, buns and porridge. She smiled and praised Xiaoman for his ability.
"There are still a few shaomai left to sell today, let's have a full lunch."
When Li Taohua went out to call Jingzhe and the head of the household to come in for dinner, she caught sight of the jar containing chicken and duck eggs and immediately gasped and shouted, "Oh, Xiaoman, there's a thief in our house!"