In the book, I was fed by my sister

Just after noon, Rongrong and Yu'e came to Song Li's house early to wait, and called out Li Zi, who had finished work in the morning and was taking a nap at home in the afternoon.

Song Ran brought out a bucket of soaked beans and a bucket of water, and seeing the little beans sitting in a row, he said, "It takes a lot of work to grind the beans, go and have some fun."

Several people shook their heads in unison, "We want to lead the donkey for fun!"

Song Ran put the donkey on the rack and patted its butt gently, and the donkey started pulling the mill.

"I'll hold the rope." Rongrong said first.

"I want to hold your hand too!" Li Zi followed closely.

"Me!" Da Mai also looked at Song Ran eagerly.

Song Ran held his forehead with his hand. There were five "kids" and one donkey was not enough to share.

"Anyone want to come and plant the beans?"

"I!"

"I!"

……

Song Ran didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he grabbed the job and dismantled it in an orderly manner.

Damai was tall, so he was responsible for adding beans and water. Rongrong led the donkey, and Lizi led the way with a handful of grass. Yu'e held a pig-hair brush and pushed the ground soy milk into the mill. Song Li, on the other hand, was sleeping soundly in a chair.

The wind blew gently, shaking the new green buds on the locust tree.

Song Li sneezed, and when she woke up, the soy milk had been filtered.

Song Ran poked his head out of the kitchen and shouted at the top of his voice, "Xiaoguai, take Rongrong and the others to the pond to collect today's duck eggs."

The ducks that were originally planned to be slaughtered and eaten during the Chinese New Year all survived because of this unstable year. Now is the egg-laying season for them, and a nest of eggs can be found every one or two days.

Perhaps because of the leadership of the two wild ducks, these ducks like to build nests and lay eggs by the pond.

Song Li walked along the edge of the pond. "There is a nest in the deep grass. If you can't reach it, call me."

“There are two here!”

"I noticed that too!"

Today's harvest was pretty good, we found a total of seven duck eggs.

After returning to the kitchen, Song Li asked her sister, "Sister, where should I put these duck eggs?"

Song Ran was busy preparing ingredients. She replied without turning her head, "Give them all to me. I plan to use them to make bean curd cakes. Go and pick some chives."

Song Li ran to the small vegetable garden again. She brought back a bunch of fresh and juicy leeks. She picked and washed them together with Li Zi and the others and gave them to her elder sister.

At this time, the soy milk in the big pot was already boiling, and the rich aroma of soy filled the air. Song Ran took three basins with large pieces of rock sugar in them, and then slowly poured the steaming soy milk into them. She deliberately left a bowl of soy milk and placed it separately in the cupboard.

Then, she placed the remaining soy milk neatly on the small table and gently reminded the children: "Remember to stir it more frequently and wait until the sugar is completely dissolved before drinking. Don't be impatient or you may burn your mouth."

The little ones happily picked up the spoons and began to taste the delicious soy milk eagerly, making satisfying sizzling sounds while drinking.

Yu'e drank two bowls of soy milk in one breath. This was a treatment she had never enjoyed at home, because her cousins ​​were always quarreling and no one was willing to let the other eat an extra bite of meat or drink an extra sip of soup, and they would even fight over it.

Song Li obediently brought a bowl of soy milk to her sister, and then sat quietly beside her. "Why don't you drink it? Don't you like soy milk?"

Song Li shook her head gently and replied in a low voice: "I'm worried that if I drink too much soy milk, I won't have an appetite for other things."

"You have your own ideas."

Song Ran put the bean dregs into the cornmeal and stirred it carefully to make sure they were fully blended together.

Now their family has a donkey, and there are dried corns hanging under the beams, so whenever they want to eat cornmeal, they can take the corn to the mill to grind it into flour.

There was only one mill in the village, with a millstone inside. The mill was located in a thatched pavilion near the entrance of the hall. Before it collapsed under the weight of snow, it was a house. As it was a collective property, the villagers were unwilling to spend so much money to repair it, so they could only demolish the wall and rebuild a simple pavilion with wood and thatch as a cover.

However, this millstone is different from the small stone mill at home. It is much larger in size and in the past it had to be borrowed from families in the village with large livestock to pull it.

Song Ran then beat all the duck eggs into the bean dregs cornmeal and mixed them evenly. Then she poured the chopped chives into the noodles and added appropriate amounts of salt and sesame oil for seasoning. Then, she turned on the stove, heated the small iron pot, and used a brush to apply rapeseed oil evenly to the bottom of the pot.

Then, she took out some dough, rolled it into a round shape, slightly flattened it into a small pancake, carefully put it into the pan and started frying it. When one side was golden brown, she skillfully turned it over and fried the other side until golden brown as well.

After drinking the soy milk, Li Zi and the others excitedly sat around the small stove, staring at the pancakes in the pot.

One pan can bake four small pancakes. After each batch is finished, the person who gets the pancake will be reluctant to put it down even though his hands will hurt, and will quickly put it into his mouth. Those who don’t get the pancake can only swallow their saliva while anxiously waiting for the next batch.

Fortunately, there was a big bowl of bean dregs, so even if I ate until my stomach turned red, I couldn’t finish it.

Rongrong said, "Sister Ranran, your cooking is really delicious. If you sell bean curd cakes, I will buy them with my pocket money every day."

Li Zi also nodded: "I will give my New Year's money to Sister Ranran as well."

Yu'e's eyes lit up when she heard this. "Sister Ranran, if you can't finish the cakes, can you give them to me? I'll take my grandfather's ox cart to the city to help you sell them tomorrow. When you've sold them all, you can give me some of the hard work fee."

"You little money-grubber, this cake won't taste good if it's left overnight."

Barley suddenly said, "Bean dregs... Sister, sister makes them and sister sells them."

Song Ran: She doesn’t understand…

"Oh, Damai, bring grandma a bowl of soy milk and two pancakes."

Barley felt a little aggrieved, and she repeated: "Bean dregs...sister, sister makes it, sister sells it!"

"Okay, sister knows."

Barley shook his head in grievance.

Li Zi licked his fingers and stuttered as he translated Barley's words: "Barley... wants to take... to the city to sell."

Barley nodded repeatedly, "Yes!"

Song Ran looked at her and explained again seriously: "Da Mai, this cake will not taste good if it is left overnight."

Da Mai shook his head firmly, his eyes full of expectation, "You teach, and I will teach my sister."

Song Ran was stunned for a moment and thought about who the "sister" that Damai was referring to was. Damai was in prison and met three older sisters in jail.

Xiaoxiao once knew something about this matter. The reason these three people went to jail was because they beat their husbands.

Originally, they were just doing some small business in the city to make money, but their families spent their hard-earned money on gambling and prostitution.

In the past, when Magistrate Yang tried a case, if the injuries were minor, he would release the inmate immediately; if a knife was used, he would have no say and could only try to reduce the sentence and sentence the inmate to fewer years.

But if you go to jail, your reputation will really be bad.

Song Ran understood this logic. Although everyone in the village knew the specific reason why she was imprisoned, and the county magistrate did not issue any relevant documents, she could not stop people from gossiping behind her back.

The three elder sisters had no land, could not return to their husband's family, and were despised by their parents. They shared the same plight and lived together.

Even so, they still had great difficulty getting work in the shops in the city. If their ex-husbands knew they were working there, they would definitely go and make a scene.

Da Mai helped Grandma Gu deliver bamboo baskets to Boss Jia, and he ran into them several times.

Grandma Gu originally sold this bamboo basket to Mr. Jia for five cents each, but Mr. Jia sold it for fifteen cents.

The three of them helped Damai sell bamboo baskets from door to door.

Su Xiaoxiao asked someone to clarify all these things. Seeing that Da Mai got along well with the three of them, she did not interfere too much. When she came back, she also told Song Ran and Grandma Gu about this.

"Is it okay? Is it okay?"

Song Ran knew that not many people were kind to Damai, so she would remember whoever was kind to her. She made up her mind and would always think about it. "That night, let's discuss it together. You can bring a bowl of soybean milk and two cakes to grandma."