Traveling through 70's wine

It was just daybreak and people were hurrying along the road.

Wen Qing observed that these people were poorly dressed. Some were coming off the night shift, some were working the morning shift, and some were carrying loads to the city to sell vegetables. They were all ordinary people working hard to make a living.

Wen Qing followed the man carrying the load for two streets and found a vegetable market. There were vendors selling vegetables and grains, breakfast, meat, chicken, duck and fish. Wen Qing only took a few glances and went home.

Su Mei was making breakfast and asked, "Where have you been?"

"Going to the bathroom."

"Go cut some pickles."

Wen Qing cut the pickles aside into shreds, drizzled a little sesame oil on them, and brought them into the house. They could eat them once Su Mei's porridge was ready.

After dinner, Wen Dayong, Su Mei and Wen Yu all went to work. Before leaving, Su Mei told Wen Qing that they would have dumplings in the evening. She would buy the vegetables and meat for lunch and asked her to make them in the afternoon. Wen Qing nodded in agreement.

In the morning, Wen Qing did not go out. She was washing her dirty clothes in the yard. An old woman in her sixties saw her and asked, "Wen Qing, you are back?"

Wen Qing looked carefully and recognized that it was Mrs. Peng who lived in the backyard. She nodded and greeted her, "Hello, Mrs. Peng. I'm back to visit you."

Mrs. Peng asked, "Are you still in the countryside?"

Wen Qing remembered that she had a granddaughter who also went to the countryside, so she asked, "Well, has your Xuemei returned to the city?"

Mrs. Peng said, "He came back at the end of last year and is now working in the factory." She looked a little proud.

It is now July 79, and we returned at the end of 7.

Mrs. Peng added, "You should find a way to return to the city as soon as possible. The countryside is still not as good as the city."

Wen Qing didn't say anything, but nodded perfunctorily. She washed the clothes, took them to the yard and hung them on the clothesline, then said to Mrs. Peng, "Mrs. Peng, I'm leaving now."

At noon, Su Mei went home and brought steamed buns and a roasted eggplant bought from the cafeteria. The rest were leftovers from last night. Wen Qing ate a little and put down the bowl, waiting for everyone to finish their meal before washing the bowls.

Su Mei also brought back a bunch of leeks and a piece of pork rib weighing about one pound. There was also flour and cornmeal at home. Su Mei scooped some flour and added half of the cornmeal. She said to Wen Qing, "You mix the dough and stuffing first in the afternoon. I'll get off work at five o'clock and we'll wrap it together when I get back."

Su Mei hurried back to work, Wen Qing walked out of the yard and went for a walk on the street by herself.

She went to the vegetable market and saw someone selling lotus roots. Wen Qing picked some cheap ones and prepared to dig a fish pond in the space and plant them in it.

In a corner of the market, Wen Qing saw a row of stalls with some herbs, stones, some copper coins, and bottles and jars on the ground.

Wen Qing was not in a hurry and squatted down to look at the stones. Wuhan people have a tradition of collecting Yangtze River stones, and some people also take them out for trading. The Yangtze River stones on the stalls are all good, with large stones and beautiful patterns.

Wen Qing thought that these stones were good for viewing and had no collection value. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly saw a strangely shaped object on the herbal medicine stall next to her.

Wen Qing walked over and picked it up. It felt heavy and looked like a stone. Wen Qing touched it and asked, "How much is this stone?" The old man selling herbs looked over and saw a young woman in rustic clothes. He said nonchalantly, "5 yuan."

Wen Qing bargained, "2 yuan." Finally, the deal was settled at 3 yuan.

Wen Qing put her things into her bag and continued to walk. She found a shop selling wine. Wen Qing asked, "What kind of wine do you sell here?"

A middle-aged woman came out and said, "We have rice wine and white wine."

Wen Qing asked her to take out the white wine. Seeing that she did not seem a novice, the woman took out a bowl, poured some wine into the bowl, and handed it to Wen Qing.

Wen Qing picked it up and smelled it. The wine was rich in aroma. He asked the woman if he could taste it. After getting her consent, he took a sip. It was quite strong at first and had a bitter aftertaste. He couldn't help but shake his head.

Seeing this, the woman said, "Comrade, this wine is the cheapest, and these jars are better."

The woman poured wine for Wen Qing. After tasting it, she thought it was okay, so she bought two cans of the better kind of wine and two cans of rice wine and prepared to take them back.

Seeing that it was getting late, she went home and kneaded the dough first, then sat down to pick leeks. By the time she had prepared the dumpling filling, Su Mei had also arrived home. Together with Grandma Wen, the three of them made more than 150 dumplings and started eating after everyone arrived.

Tomorrow is the weekend, and Wen Dayong said he had invited Wen Lei's family to come home for dinner.

At night, Wen Qing stayed in the kitchen as usual, and entered the space after everyone fell asleep.

She went to the koji room first. The surface temperature of the koji was already 50 degrees, so it was time to turn the koji over. She put on a vest, but still felt the room was hot and stuffy.

White hair began to grow on the koji blocks. This was normal, knowing that it was mold fermentation. 5000 blocks of koji filled four shelves, and Wen Qing turned them over one by one. She not only turned the koji blocks over, but also swapped their positions so that all the koji blocks could ferment evenly.

Afterwards, Wen Qing dug a pond of one acre in size by the lake and planted lotus roots. She also cut the embankment on the side facing the lake and made a hole to let the lake water flow in so that she could come in to see the lotus flowers and dig lotus roots.

Back at the bamboo house, I thought about the stone I bought. The surface of the stone was like the sandstone commonly seen by the river.

There are many sandstones along the Yangtze River, which are washed into various shapes by the river water. Some people will pick up stones with beautiful shapes and take them home to make bonsai.

The shape of Wen Qing's piece is a bit like a millstone with a hole on it, and it looks quite strange.

Wen Qing picked up the hammer and smashed the stone with all her might. After breaking it open, she found a hard core inside that could not be broken. She weighed it and it was about a little over one pound.

Wen Qing picked it up and washed it. It was denser than sand and gravel, so it should be a piece of metal. She felt very strange. Why is there metal in the stone? What kind of metal is it?

She scraped it with a knife. It was not very hard, and there was a golden glow. She was moved. Could it be gold? She would test it later when she had a chance, she thought, and put the thing aside.

I continued to inspect the fields and found that this season's crops were about to mature. Alas, there are so many things going on in this space.

Wen Qing returned to the bamboo building and began to practice. She had already practiced four meridians. She didn't know when the jade piece would produce new meridians, but it meant that her practice was not yet complete.

In the morning, Wen Qing came back from exercise, and Su Mei said, "Your brother and his family will be back for lunch today. I'll go out to buy groceries later."

Wen Qing nodded. Wen Yu liked to sleep in on weekends and would not get up before noon.

Wen Qing chuckled. This sister lived her life so heartlessly.

An hour later, Su Mei came home with some food, including a piece of pork belly, a bighead carp, tomatoes, beans, tofu, and water spinach. Wen Qing asked, "Mom, what are you going to cook with these?"

Su Mei: "A braised pork, tofu fish head soup, pickled fish, tomato and beans, and stir-fried water spinach."

Wen Qing started to kill and fillet the fish skillfully, while Su Mei picked up some sauerkraut from the kimchi jar.

Su Mei: "Wen Qing, you can cook braised pork, right?"

"I can cook it, but it's just average. We don't even eat meat twice a year in the country."

"It's okay. Go and roast the meat. We have potatoes at home. Add some potatoes to the braised pork."

Wen Qing washed the pork belly, roasted the skin over fire, cut it into pieces, heated up oil in a pan, fried sugar color first, put the meat pieces in and stir-fried slightly, scooped them out, then put in the fermented black beans and stir-fried until fragrant, added onion, ginger and garlic and stir-fried until fragrant, poured the pork belly in, added soy sauce and boiling water to cook the meat.

Then peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. When the pork belly is cooked, pour the potatoes in and continue cooking for more than ten minutes. The kitchen will be filled with the aroma of meat.

Su Mei opened the lid of the pot, looked at the braised pork in the pot, and said, "Xiao Qing, your cooking skills are pretty good."

At noon, Su Mei prepared the dishes and went back to her room to wait for Wen Lei's family to arrive home before serving them out.