Traveling through the mountains and farming

Lin Wan walked to the front yard first. After washing her hands, she was about to go into the house when she shouted to the two siblings who were still carrying another basket of ice powder seeds in the back:

"After you two put the ice powder seeds away, go to the spring and wash your hands and faces, then come into the house and try the new food!"

When they heard that the new food was ready to eat, they quickly washed their hands and ran into the house.

As soon as they ran into the kitchen, they saw their eldest sister-in-law holding a large bamboo spoon, scooping a spoonful of crystal clear stuff from the wooden barrel and putting it into the wooden bowl. After filling three bowls, she poured the sugar water in the earthenware jar on top and stirred it a few times with a spoon.

Lin Wan smiled and said, "Come, try this new food, crystal jelly." She held a bowl in one hand and handed it to the two siblings.

The two siblings were attracted by the appearance of the ice jelly before they even started eating. It looked like a piece of crystal clear ice, and it trembled when scooped in the spoon. They had never seen such good-looking food before.

The two men smiled and took the wooden bowl handed to them by their sister-in-law with both hands. They picked up a piece with a spoon and put it into their mouths. They were quite confident in their sister-in-law's cooking skills. After all, their sister-in-law had brought them many surprises yesterday.

After taking a bite, Li Ke said excitedly, "It's delicious. This ice jelly is soft, smooth, cool and sweet in my mouth. It's so delicious!"

This little foodie accurately expressed the characteristics of ice jelly.

After eating it, Li Chongle's eyes lit up and he said, "Sister-in-law, it's so appropriate to call this crystal ice jelly. I think it will be very popular if we sell it. The weather is so hot now, it's just right." He immediately realized the commercial value of ice jelly.

"Yeah, let's try it when we go to the market the day after tomorrow." Lin Wan nodded in agreement.

At this moment, Li Chongle was thinking about secretly picking all the ficus carica fruits in and outside the nearby villages, making them all into ice jelly and exchanging them for money, so that they would not go hungry in the future and would have some food stored.

~

"Wan Niang, are you at home?"

When the three were eating with gusto, they suddenly heard a voice calling someone outside, as if someone was coming.

Lin Wan put down the bowl in her hand and walked out quickly to see who was coming.

Li Chongle quickly put down the bowl, pulled his sister together, and hurriedly put the ice jelly seeds that were still in the dustpan and had not been collected in time into the empty wooden barrel as quickly as possible.

When Lin Wan reached the door, she saw Aunt Li walking slowly into the yard with two bunches of green vegetables in her hands. Lin Wan hurried over to greet her, "Grandma, why are you here?"

Aunt Li walked towards the house and replied with a smile:

"I came to see how you guys are doing with the cleanup here, so you can come and help." She had already looked around the yard.

She saw that the yard had been completely renovated today. It no longer looked dilapidated and desolate as it did yesterday. It had become clean and tidy. The spring water on the right was brought out through bamboo, there was a clothesline, and there were dried fish drying on the stone slabs.

She became more and more convinced that Lin Wan was a successful and reliable person.

Lin Wan hurriedly said, "It's almost done. Only half of the weeds in the backyard have not been cleared up, and the rest have been tidied up. Please come in and drink some water. It must be very hot to walk here in such a hot day." Then she led Aunt Li into the house.

As soon as the two siblings hid the ice jelly seeds, they walked out of the house together, calling out to their great-aunt in unison. Then Li Chongle immediately ran to the yard, laboriously moved in a stone he had picked up on the roadside that morning, placed it in front of Aunt Li, and then helped her sit down.

Li Ke poured a glass of water into a bamboo cup and handed it to Aunt Li. After Aunt Li took it, she stood beside her obediently.

Lin Wan came over from the kitchen with a bowl in her hand. She walked to Aunt Li, squatted down and handed it to her, and said with a smile, "Grandma, come and try the crystal ice jelly we made today."

Aunt Li looked at the bowl that Lin Wan handed over to her, and saw something translucent and slightly shiny in it.

She asked in surprise: "Crystal ice jelly?" She was stunned. Another new food?

Li Ke next to her said quickly: "Yes, this is crystal ice jelly, my sister-in-law just made it, you should try it, it's delicious." She strongly recommended it to Aunt Li.

"It's icy and cool, delicious and refreshing." Li Chongle also agreed.

At the urging of the two siblings, Aunt Li scooped a spoonful and put it into her mouth. She felt that it melted in her mouth, and was cool, refreshing and slightly sweet.

She couldn't help but admire Lin's excellent cooking skills, and the things he made were things she had never eaten before.

After eating, she praised the ice jelly repeatedly. When she heard Lin Wan mention taking it to sell at the market, she thought it would definitely be very popular, and she specifically asked Lin Wan if they needed any help.

Lin Wan took the opportunity to ask Aunt Li if she could borrow her machete and saw for half a day, and explained that she wanted to make some tools such as bamboo tubes, wooden bowls, and shoulder poles for setting up a stall.

Seeing that Aunt Li agreed readily, she agreed to go to Aunt Li's house early the next morning to pick it up.

When Aunt Li learned that Lin Wan and the others were going to pull weeds in the backyard in the afternoon, she insisted on staying to help. No matter how Lin Wan refused, it was useless. She didn't even wait for Lin Wan and the others to join her. She ran to the backyard first, rolled up her sleeves and started working.

Lin Wan looked at the old man pulling weeds in the bushes, and a strange feeling surged in her heart. The scene seemed as if she and her grandmother were pulling peanuts in a peanut field.

With an extra worker, they completed the weeding work very quickly and all the weeds on the west side were pulled out before the sun set.

In the end, they did not ask Aunt Li to help plant the wild flowers and weeds left over from the previous weeding.

Li Chongle and Li Ke stayed in the backyard and planted the plants according to the location specified by Lin Wan.

While Aunt Li was washing her hands outside the yard, Lin Wan went into the kitchen, took out the wooden barrel that Li Chongle had borrowed yesterday, washed it, filled half a bucket with ice jelly mixed with sugar water and brought it out.

Then, after several rounds of pushing and shoving with Aunt Li in the yard, Aunt Li went home with half a bucket of ice jelly.

~

When Aunt Lin returned home, all her family members who were working on the farm outside had just returned.

The three children who were playing in the yard were the first to notice her coming back with the bucket.

They all gathered around curiously, and they saw what looked like a huge block of ice shaking in the barrel, but it seemed softer than ice.

"Grandma, what is this?" Aunt Li's grandson Li Chongping stared at the wooden barrel and asked curiously.

Aunt Li smiled and said, "This is the crystal jelly made by your cousin Lin Wan. Go get a spoon and a bowl and ask everyone to come and have a taste."

"Brother, third brother, come to the yard and have some delicious food." The little girl Li Tao next to them heard this and ran towards the house shouting.

When Aunt Li heard her granddaughter calling her brother to eat, she showed a look of surprise: "Your brother is back?"

Only then did Aunt Li recall that tomorrow was the day of holiday at Xiaoshan Academy in the county town, and her eldest grandson Li Chonghao (eighteen years old) should have returned home today. How could she have forgotten such an important thing?

"I'm back. I just got home not long ago." Aunt Li's fourth grandson Li Chong'an replied.

At this time, two young men came out of the house. They were Aunt Li's eldest grandson Li Chonghao and third grandson Li Chongzheng (16 years old). As soon as Li Chonghao saw Aunt Li, he quickly stepped forward to greet her and said respectfully: "Grandma~~Hello, your grandson is back."

Following behind was Li Tao, who had just entered to call people. She was holding many bowls and spoons. Li Chongzheng, who was standing next to her, stopped and naturally took the bowl from the little sister's hand.

Aunt Li smiled happily and said, "You're back just in time. Come, try this new food, crystal ice jelly." She affectionately took her eldest grandson's hand and walked to the table in the yard together.

She took the spoon from her granddaughter and began to divide the ice jelly in the wooden basin into small bowls. By the time she finished, family members had arrived one after another. The three youngest grandchildren, Li Chong'an, Li Tao and Li Chongping, worked together to serve the prepared ice jelly in order of age.

The whole family praised the ice jelly for its appearance and taste.

When they heard Aunt Li say that Lin Wan was going to sell it at the market, they all agreed that many people would definitely like it.

When he learned that ice jelly was the way Lin Wan and her family made money, Uncle Li asked his family not to spread the news of Lin Wan's crystal ice jelly.

Aunt Li also told Uncle Li in detail about the changes she saw in Lin Wan's home. After hearing this, Uncle Li felt even more reassured about Li Chongle and his sister.