Traveling through the mountains and farming

As soon as Li Ke went out, he said to Lin Wan, "Sister-in-law, Sister Li Mei will also go with us, and she is also planning to ask Sister Li Zhu to come along!"

Just now at Li Chongshan's house, Li Ke was pulled aside by Li Mei to talk in private after entering the house. When she heard that they were going to pick plum blossoms in the afternoon, she also suggested going together.

Li Mei was the oldest unmarried girl in the cave. She was the same age as Lin Wan and should have been at the age for marriage. However, the sudden outbreak of war disrupted the original plan and delayed her marriage.

Fang Yun had just mentioned to her that her mother-in-law, Jiang, had been worried about this matter recently. She didn't know how long it would take to end the war and was worried that the child would grow up to be an old maid.

But it seems that Li Mei doesn't care at all. It's so nice to have parents who love her and brothers and sisters-in-law to protect her at home. But she won't have such freedom after getting married.

The Li family members that Lin Wan came into contact with did not have the idea of ​​favoring boys over girls. Maybe it was because there were more boys than girls in the Li family, but she found that they loved their daughters equally.

If it weren't for the famine twenty years ago, the Li family would have developed very well.

"That's great. Little girls should like these cute flowers and plants."

"Yes, Sister Li Mei and Sister Li Zhu both like the vases and various cute ornaments in our house, and they want me to help make some more."

"Okay, help them when you have time." Lin Wan said.

As they were talking, the two returned home. Li Chongle had already prepared everything for going up the mountain, and was waiting in the main room with Lin Jing.

Knowing that they were about to set off, the two quickly grabbed their vegetable baskets and prepared to go.

Lin Wanze went into the kitchen and soaked the glutinous rice to make plum wine.

Then he took the three kids and the fox to meet up with Li Chonghai and his sister, and Li Chongshan and his sister, and went outside together.

Along the way, the children ran in front, chasing Xiaobai, while the adults were talking and laughing.

"Let's go pick red plums today. They bloom earlier. I saw green and yellow plums in other places in the mountains. I'll take you to pick them some other day." Li Chongshan said with a smile.

"Are there many plum blossoms in the mountains nearby?" Lin Wan asked.

She hadn't noticed it in the mountains before, and it seemed that it had only just started to bloom recently.

"There are currently several places with them. There may be two or three trees where we go later," Li Chongshan replied.

When they come across a suitable place on the way, Li Chongle and Li Ke will set up a trap and see if they can catch a pheasant on their way back.

When Li Chongshan brought them to where the red plums were, Lin Wan saw that there were indeed three red plum trees here. They might have just started to bloom, some of them were in full bloom, and many were still buds.

Li Chongshan said with satisfaction: "Not bad, there are more flowers blooming than when I saw them a few days ago."

When the children saw this, they ran forward, eager to pick the plum branches.

"Don't pick too many, just pick five or six branches and put them in the vase. For the rest, we can just pick the flowers that have already bloomed." Lin Wan shouted hurriedly.

After hearing this, the children each carefully broke off a few plum branches, and then picked the blooming plum blossoms with Lin Wan.

Li Chonghai and Li Chongshan were digging bamboo shoots and chopping firewood nearby, and Li Chongle followed them.

"Mrs. Li, can this plum blossom also be used to make pure dew?"

Li Mei asked curiously while helping to pick plum blossoms.

They had all received camellia pure water from Lin Wan before and found it very useful. When they saw the plum blossoms today, they thought of this.

"Sure. When the plum blossoms are in full bloom, I will prepare some plum blossom hydrosol and send it to you then."

"That's great, Mrs. Li, you just wait at home. We will ask our brothers to help pick them, and you will be responsible for making the hydrosol." Li Zhu responded happily.

"Yes, yes, with the help of the brothers, we can definitely pick a lot." Li Mei responded happily.

"Okay, then that saves me a lot of trouble." Lin Wan said with a smile.

Seeing that two baskets of vegetables had been picked, Lin Wan shouted, "That's enough. Let's not pick too much or we will pluck out all the trees."

Everyone laughed and stopped after hearing this.

Then they ran over to find Li Chonghai and others nearby and helped them bundle the firewood.

They were also working quite fast. Two of them were chopping wood while Li Chongle was responsible for bundling it. Only a small part was left to be tied up.

Li Chongshan and Li Chonghai were already digging for winter bamboo shoots nearby.

"Didn't we dig a lot before? Are there still many bamboo shoots on the mountain?" Lin Wan asked in confusion while sorting out firewood.

"There are more winter bamboo shoots in the deep mountains than in the outer mountainous areas, but few people dig them up. As soon as we see them, we want to dig them up and take them back, dry them and eat them next year," explained Li Chonghai.

"Yes, it's always good to stock up more. Maybe they will come in handy someday." Li Chongshan also agreed.

Everyone quickly bundled up the remaining firewood and put the winter bamboo shoots into backpacks.

"Let's go home!" Li Chonghai called out, and everyone set out on their way home.

Lin Wan asked Lin Jing and Li Ke to carry the baskets full of plum blossoms, while she and Li Chongle each carried a small bundle of firewood.

On the way back, I went to see the place where the traps were set up as usual, and caught a pheasant. It was good to have a harvest.

After returning home, in order to eat the new food as soon as possible, Li Ke urged Lin Wan to distribute the tasks.

She is now happily washing the plum blossoms.

Lin Jing immediately put the few branches of plum blossoms he had picked in the arrangement, held them in front of Li Ke, and said with a smile:

"Sister Xiaoke, the mission you mentioned is over."

"Not bad, not bad. Put it on the table. Be careful."

This kid is actually still thinking about helping Li Ke pick plum blossoms and putting them in the vase. He is quite thoughtful.

"Xiao Jing, go get some sandalwood from your master. I've made an agreement with him at noon." Lin Wan said.

At noon, when he heard that the new food would require sandalwood, Doctor Zhong immediately agreed and said he had some, and asked Lin Wan to go and get it.

Lin Jing responded and ran out.

"Sister-in-law, what are you doing with the sandalwood?"

Li Chongle asked curiously. He had just killed the chicken and was boiling hot water to remove the chicken feathers.

"We'll need it when we make the plum blossom soup cake later. Grind it into powder and soak it with plum blossoms for a few hours to stimulate the fragrance of the plum blossoms. But we can't wait that long, so we'll just boil the sandalwood and plum blossoms in water for a quarter of an hour." Lin Wan explained.

"Sister-in-law, these plum blossoms have been washed." Li Ke came over carrying the washed plum blossoms.

Lin Wan took the plum blossoms, filled a bowl with plum blossoms, and instructed:

"Xiao Ke, boil this bowl of plum blossoms and the sandalwood that Lin Jing brought back for a quarter of an hour, and filter out the plum blossom and sandalwood water."

"Okay, sister-in-law, I'll remember it."

After a while, Lin Jing came back with the sandalwood.

Lin Wan cut the sandalwood into pieces the size of two fingers, put them into the pot together with the plum blossoms to boil water, and told Li Ke to filter the water when the time came.

He turned around and went to process the chicken with Li Chongle.

"Sister-in-law, how do we cook this chicken?" Li Chongle asked.

"Half stew, half braised. This soup is the soul of plum blossom soup cake." Lin Wan said.

After processing the chicken, Lin Wan put half of the chicken into a ceramic pot and asked Li Chongle to take it to the small stove in the backyard to make soup.

She chopped the remaining half into pieces and prepared to make braised chicken later.

I saw that Li Ke had already filtered out the plum blossom sandalwood water and brought it over.

Lin Wan took out flour from the cupboard, scooped three bowls of flour into a wooden basin, added plum blossom sandalwood water, and kneaded it slowly. The dough gradually became smooth and delicate in her hands, and then she covered it with linen and let it relax for half an hour.