The road to wealth of a peasant widow

There are not many places suitable for growing rice locally, and the yield is low, so rice is expensive. Most people are more accustomed to eating pasta, and the little white rice at home is saved for making porridge every year. They drink porridge made with corn or sorghum.

Chen Cui nodded when she heard this, but she didn't stop grabbing the rice. She said, "Just this once. You've all worked hard these past few days. Everyone should have white rice porridge today."

After adding water to the clay pot and placing it on the stove, she scooped flour from the jar and prepared to make pancakes with the batter.

Nowadays, the bran is sifted out of flour, and some people only eat white flour, but that is the way rich people eat it.

Ordinary farmers grind the wheat and mix them together to eat. Those who are a little more particular will sift it roughly to remove some of the bran and make the flour as fine as possible.

But the Liu family obviously can't afford to be so particular nowadays, so all the flour they use is whole wheat flour without any bran removed.

In order to make the coarse noodles more palatable, Liu Eryong ground them many times, and the final powder was relatively fine and not too bad.

Chen Cui scooped a few scoops of flour into the basin, added an appropriate amount of water and a little salt, and made a batter of suitable consistency.

She followed her original body's memory, went to the vegetable garden in the backyard, picked a few green onions, chopped them into fine pieces and put them in.

Everything was ready, and Changping, who received the order, lit the stove under the iron pot.

After the pot was hot, Chen Cui scooped a small half spoonful of white lard from the oil can and put it into the pot to melt it and lubricate the pot first.

Changping smelled the aroma of hot oil and couldn't help but sniff.

After Chen Cui put the batter into the pan and started to make pancakes, the aroma of the pancakes mixed with chopped green onions and lard became even more tempting.

Chang'an and Changfu were both attracted by the smell and kept drooling as they gathered around the stove.

Normally at this time, the brothers would have been up, either working in the fields, collecting firewood, or helping with other housework.

Because they had been busy with their father's funeral in recent days, they slept too soundly last night and got up late today. So when they woke up and saw their mother and eldest brother busy in the kitchen, they both felt a little embarrassed and scrambled to find things to do.

Changan said, "Brother, I will help you light the fire."

Chang Fu said, "Brother, you take a rest, I'll do it."

Changping stood up and gave them his seat, asking them to light a stove each, while he picked up the broom and went to sweep the floor.

Yesterday I just cleaned up the area in the yard where the tables and chairs were placed. When I wanted to clean up the main room, it got dark and I couldn't do anything else.

Now that it's bright outside, it's easier to clean.

After Changping wiped the tables and chairs in the main room and swept the floor carefully, Changfu came in with a basket of cakes and put them on the table. Then, Changan also came in with two bowls of porridge.

"Brother, it's time to eat. The cakes mom made today are so delicious!"

As he said this, Changfu couldn't help swallowing his saliva again.

He didn't feel very hungry when he got up, but after sitting in the kitchen and lighting the fire for a while, his nose was filled with the aroma of rice porridge and pancakes, and Changfu felt as if his stomach was growling.

When everyone was present and it was time to eat, Chen Cui took Sui Sui from Zhang so that she would not have trouble eating while holding the child.

The three children were very well-behaved and no one tried to grab the pancake first.

Zhang is the elder and the guest, so she should be served first.

Seeing that Zhang was not very proactive, Chen Cui gave way and handed a pancake to her: "Mother, how about you try the pancake I made?"

Zhang looked at the greasy pancakes, smelled the fragrant aroma, and said with a smile: "It smells good, it must be delicious."

After Zhang took the first bite of the pancake, Chen Cui reached out to pick up some with her chopsticks, and then the three Changping brothers also started to pick up chopsticks.

Although Chen Cui did not dare to use too much oil and only added a little oil to the pan after making a few pancakes to prevent them from sticking, in the eyes of Zhang and the children, the pancakes were already greasy.

Served with homemade pickles, several people couldn't stop eating.

Changping and Changan each ate five pancakes, which were almost as big as the diameter of the basket. Zhang and Changfu each ate four pancakes. They also drank a bowl of thick rice porridge.

Chen Cui had eaten two bowls of porridge yesterday, so her stomach was empty now. Seeing them like this, her appetite was also whetted. She ate four pancakes and drank a bowl of porridge.

After she finished eating, she started to feed Sui Sui. The temperature of the rice porridge was just right at this time. The little guy took one mouthful after another, opening his little mouth and waiting to be fed.

After Changping finished eating and drinking, he rubbed his stomach a little embarrassedly. The pancakes made by his mother were so delicious that he ate too much without realizing it.

Changan and Changfu also had bulging stomachs, both of them were very full.

These boys were at the age when they were old enough to eat. Although Chen Cui had used as little oil as possible, she still used more oil than Chen used to cook, so the food naturally tasted delicious, and they ate a lot more unconsciously.

Even Zhang felt that she had eaten a little too much.

Although she was a guest, she had been helping with housework and looking after the children at her daughter's house these past few days. She had been very considerate of the family and only managed to eat a few bites when she had time.

Finally, her son-in-law was buried yesterday and her daughter cheered up. She felt relieved from her worries and was in the mood to eat and drink.

After breakfast, Chen Cui put the full Sui Sui on the bed and handed her to Chang Fu to take care of her, while she went to the kitchen to clean up the pots and dishes.

Zhang went into the kitchen together. Seeing her daughter cleaning and working efficiently, she said, "Cui, now that you are well, I will go back. There is still a lot of work to do at home. Although your sister-in-law and the others can do it, there are still some things that I have to go back to take care of."

In fact, Zhang could have gone back with her son yesterday, but she was worried about her daughter, so she stayed one more day.

Chen Cui has two older brothers and a younger brother. They have all started their own families and have many children. Her eldest brother now even has grandchildren.

Chen Shangen was an open-minded man. After his three sons got married, he divided the family property into several parts. Although they all worked together, each family had its own income, so there was no need for people from several families to eat from the same pot.

However, although they separated, that was only privately; the household registration was still together and they did not live separately.

It’s not that they can’t build houses, but they have to be on guard against inspections by higher authorities. The strange village is hiding the number of households and under-reporting taxes.

Whenever there was a need for corvée labor, the brothers would take turns doing it. This way everyone would be more motivated to work without damaging the harmony.

Even if the old couple managed the household well, with such a large family living together, four generations and dozens of people, there would always be some trouble every day, so Zhang was worried and had to go home to keep an eye on it.

Chen Cui was very grateful to the two elders of the Chen family.

Although Chen was born in a peasant family and had to do housework like other girls, she was the only daughter in the family, and her parents and brothers loved her very much. She had never done any heavy work, and until she got married, her life was the envy of the girls in the village.

Although she had suffered some hardships over the years since she got married, she had a man to support her and had never suffered any hardship.

With these people around, she had never taken on any serious responsibility over the years, so when the man died, it was like the sky had fallen.