Spring comes to the desperate place

After the busy farming season was over, several surrounding villages began to prepare for the Cold Food Festival. The local Cold Food Festival in the capital was on February 25th, but the Cold Food Festival in the Song family's hometown was earlier, on February 17th. Song Chunlin didn't understand what the Cold Food Festival was at first, until Song A'mo and Song Qinshi started preparing sacrificial items together, and then he suddenly realized it.

Isn’t this Cold Food Festival the modern Qingming Festival?

It is not allowed to cook on the day of ancestor worship. Although the Song family moved to the capital and had no ancestors to worship, they still made preparations according to the customs of previous years.

Maybe because the Song family used to live in the northwest where there was no mugwort, the things used for sacrifice were all pasta, such as sazi and flatbreads made from chopped wild vegetables in the fields. Song Chunlin tasted the ones just out of the pot. The flatbreads were crispy and fragrant, with a slightly bitter taste of wild vegetables. They were not bad, but Song Chunlin couldn't get used to them.

On the 16th, Song A'mo had to prepare food for the next three days. Song Chunlin asked for everyone's opinions and took out some cakes and breads from the space. Song Chunlin couldn't stand not eating for three days and only eating bread, but it was not impossible to replace it with small cakes.

Song Xiaobao was probably born in the year of the dog. As soon as the cake was taken out, he ran over like a puppy, staring at the cake in his second brother's hand with saliva dripping down his chin.

Amao Song wiped his saliva with amusement and broke off a small piece of cake for him to eat.

The soft and sweet cake immediately captured the human cub's heart. Song Xiaobao ate one piece after another. When he was about to eat the third piece, Song Amma stopped giving him any more. She touched his little belly, which was already round and bulging.

"Xiaobao, you are full. You can't eat anymore." Aunt Song taught her grandson seriously. Although Song Xiaobao felt a little aggrieved, his stomach really couldn't eat any more, so he had to nestle pitifully in Aunt Song's arms.

Seeing that her youngest son liked the cake so much, Song Qin asked Song Chunlin how to make it.

Song Chunlin scratched his head. He knew the general method, but they didn't have an oven now.

Suddenly, Song Chunlin slapped his head and took out a tablet from the space. The tablet had been thrown in the corner of the space for a long time. It contained all kinds of information that Song Chunlin downloaded before the network was disconnected. There was no way to charge it in the end times, and Song Chunlin had not taken it out for a long time.

He unlocked the phone smoothly with his fingerprint, opened the folder, and searched for keywords in thousands of videos. He still remembered that he had downloaded some videos of bloggers baking things on earthen stoves. He thought it was magical at the time that small cakes could be baked without an electric oven.

He quickly found the video, clicked on it and pointed at the earthen stove in the video to find Song Dazhuang. It was the first time that Song Dazhuang saw such a magical thing as a tablet. He held it carefully and didn't dare to touch it. Song Chunlin urged him to click on it, and he gently touched the screen with trembling fingertips.

The touch screen of the tablet was very sensitive, and the video started playing almost instantly. A small and thin board suddenly moved, and there were little people busying around inside. Song Dazhuang, who was watching the video for the first time, was so scared that he threw the tablet away. Fortunately, Song Chunlin caught it with his quick eyes and hands.

"Phew, luckily I was quick. Dad, don't be afraid. This... is a specialty of that world. The video inside was shot by modern people. Look, isn't that one similar to our stove?"

After hearing his son's explanation, Song Dazhuang was not so scared anymore. He looked in the direction his son's finger was pointing. In the so-called video, there was indeed a stove. What was different from their earthen stove was that there was not a pot on the stove, but a flat iron plate. The little man inside put the food on the iron plate, covered it with an equally flat lid, and finally shoveled some red-hot charcoal on the surface. After a short while, the man removed the charcoal fire, and after opening the lid, the food inside was already cooked.

Song Dazhuang looked at the stove and thought for a while before he understood.

"Why, you want one too?"

Song Chunlin nodded repeatedly and looked at his father in a flattering manner.

Song Dazhuang couldn't stand his son's pleading eyes, so he had to agree to Song Chunlin and started to work after lunch.

Because the stove at home could not be moved, Song Dazhuang built one for Song Chunlin under the eaves outside the kitchen. Song Chunlin contributed an iron plate in the space, and Song Dazhuang built a stove according to the size of the iron plate, putting the plate in the middle, and lit a fire underneath to dry it out, so that it could be used the next day.

"But Dad, isn't tomorrow the Cold Food Festival?"

Song Dazhuang then remembered that one should not use fire during the Cold Food Festival.

"Oh, look at my memory. Forget it. I'll use it after the Cold Food Festival."

This was the only way, Song Chunlin went back to his room with his head down. When he thought about being able to bake food in the oven in a few days, Song Chunlin became excited again.

He watched several videos of the blogger baking and discovered that the oven was quite versatile. Not only could it be used to bake bread, but it could also be used to bake meat, chicken, and moon cakes. It was truly very versatile.

Song Chunlin was ready to go. He quietly prepared a bunch of ingredients and waited to start baking in three days.

On the day of Cold Food Festival, the Song family got up early in the morning to worship their ancestors. After the worship, the offerings on the table would serve as their food for three days.

It felt fresh when they ate it on the first day, but on the second day everyone felt a little sick of it. On the third day, Song Chunlin looked at the table full of pancakes and noodles and inexplicably felt his stomach bloated.

He reached out and poked Song Chunsheng, who was on vacation at home: "Brother, I want to eat hot food."

Song Chunsheng directly covered his brother's mouth: "Shh, just bear with it and it will pass."

Song Chunlin's eyes were filled with tears, but he really couldn't help it. What kind of good person wouldn't get tired of eating the same table of food for three days?

Anyway, Song Chunlin was really fed up with it. Not only was he fed up with it, he also felt a little nauseous. I looked at the other people at the table and found that everyone had a sad expression on their face, eating the biscuits with tasteless taste.

Okay, I’m not the only one suffering. Song Chunlin felt better, but his stomach couldn’t take it anymore. He hadn’t eaten any hot food for three days, and Song Chunlin felt like his internal organs were frozen.

In order to prevent everyone from getting sick from the food, Song Chunlin collected the food on the table with a wave of his hand, and then took out a table full of hot soups.

"Grandpa, we've been eating cold food for three days. That's enough. Our stomachs won't be able to take it if we eat any more." Song Chunlin pushed the food in front of Grandpa Song in a flattering manner.

"And grandpa, this is food that was prepared before, so we're not cooking it, right?"

Grandpa Song looked at the steaming rice porridge in front of him speechlessly, then looked at the faces of the others. In fact, let alone Song Chunlin, he was a little overwhelmed at his age. And what Song Chunlin said was right, they didn't really light the fire to cook.

In the end, Grandpa Song could only nod helplessly: "Eat it, it's all prepared in advance, so it's not a promise."

"Okay!" Song Chunlin cheered, and immediately picked a portion of his favorite rice noodles happily and started to eat them happily.

After eating a bowl of hot rice noodles, Song Chunlin felt that he was finally alive.

"Ah, rice noodles are better."

Song Qin knocked his head unhappily. Song Chunlin smiled and lowered his head to drink up the remaining soup.

As soon as the Cold Food Festival was over, Song Chunlin took out all the ingredients at once, including a whole fat chicken marinated with Orleans sauce, tilapia stuffed with all kinds of spices, black pepper grilled sausages, semi-finished egg tart pizzas, and more than a dozen other items, which dazzled the others.

What Song Chunlin was still thinking about was pizza. The semi-finished pizza only needed to be baked for ten minutes. It was the first time for Song A-mo to bake these things, and she didn't control the heat well. The bottom edge of the pizza was a little burnt, but others didn't mind. Instead, they thought that the pizza was delicious with a burnt aroma.

When Song A-mo baked the egg tarts for the second time, she had already mastered the heat. The edges of the baked egg tarts were crispy and the inside was as perfect as jelly. Song Xiaobao just held the egg tarts and refused to let go.

Song Dazhuang and Song Chunsheng preferred the pure meat sausages. When they found out that the sausages tasted like beef, they ate them even more happily.

The much anticipated roast chicken was the last to be put into the oven. With the food before it as a base, everyone no longer felt hungry, so they sat down with a cup of milk tea in hand and waited for their meal.

When the roast chicken was almost out of the oven, Gu Fengyue came. Song Chunlin hurriedly put away all the modern things, and finally wiped his mouth and went to open the door.

Gu Fengyue smelled the fragrance when he was at the door. He sniffed and said with a smile, "It seems that I came at the right time."

The Song family welcomed the person in. Except for that midnight day, Gu Fengyue had come alone on previous occasions. Today, for the first time ever, he brought a guard with him. The guard had a cold face and was unmoved by the fragrance that filled the yard.

Song Chunlin glanced at the man several times, but was grabbed by the head and turned back by Gu Fengyue.

"That's the guard my brother assigned to me. He said he wanted to keep an eye on me and not let me run around." Gu Fengyue looked a little sad. Ever since his brother recovered, he had been paying close attention to his studies and sent someone to pick him up to the Imperial College every day. Today was a rare day off, and Gu Fengyue remembered that he hadn't been to the Song family for a long time. He coaxed and persuaded Gu Fengyun for a long time before he agreed, on the condition that he must bring a guard with him.

For the sake of freedom, Gu Fengyue felt that some things had to be sacrificed.

Because there were suddenly two more people, Song Chunlin pretended to go into the kitchen to get something and smuggled a pickled fish from the space. He wrapped it in layers of lotus leaves and threw it into the stove. The staple food was the dumpling soup made by Song Amuo, which was sour and sweet with tomatoes added.

Gu Fengyue hadn't eaten tomato and dumpling soup for a long time. He drank two bowls by himself. Although the guards he brought with him were skeptical about the bright red dumpling soup, since their master had drunk it, how could he not drink it?

So he took a sip with the look of a hero ready to cut off his own arm, and then his eyes lit up and he also started drinking in gulps.

The master and servant took up half of the pot of the dumpling soup, which made Song Amuo tremble with fear, fearing that the two of them would overeat.

The roast chicken was also out of the oven at this time. The chicken that Song Chunlin took out was big and fat. It had been roasted for a long time, so it was just the right time to take it out. The skin was bright red, and the Song family couldn't describe the taste, a little spicy, but also a little sweet.

Aunt Song first broke off a chicken wing and gave it to Song Chunlin, as he had specifically requested it. The remaining two chicken legs were given one to Song Chunsheng and one to Gu Fengyue, and even Gu Fengyue's guard got a chicken wing.

The guard was a little surprised, but still stretched out his hands to take the chicken wings. Grandpa Song and Amma Song had bad teeth, so they did not eat the chicken, but opened the lotus leaf wrapped around the fish.

As the lotus leaf was opened, the roasted tilapia inside was revealed.

Tilapia is an invasive species and is not found in this era. Fortunately, other people don't care about this. Grandpa Song picked up a piece with chopsticks and gave it to Grandma Song. Grandma Song smiled and took a bite. The fish meat was tender and the sauce was rich and delicious.

Just as everyone gathered together and shared the delicious food, a long bell rang suddenly from the distance, followed by another one.

The Song family members didn't understand what was going on, but Gu Fengyue and the guards were all shocked.

"Four, five, six... nine!" The guard looked at Gu Fengyue with his pupils trembling: "Second Master, it's nine, the bell has been struck nine times."

Gu Fengyue had naturally heard it, and his expression became serious. He turned around and told the Song family, "Nine bells means national mourning. If you have any white cloth at home, hang it up now. The capital will be in chaos in the next two days. If it's not important, don't go out. Even if you go out, don't go back to the capital. Everything should be done after this period is over."

The Song family members were shocked when they heard about the national mourning. They naturally nodded repeatedly when they heard Gu Fengyue's words. After Gu Fengyue finished speaking, he was about to leave in a hurry with his guards. Song Chunlin ran out and handed Gu Fengyue a water bag. The two exchanged glances. Gu Fengyue nodded slightly, indicating that he understood. He put away the water bag and rode back to Beijing.

Aunt Song had already taken out a few pieces of white cloth from the house, and the whole family quickly hung them at the door.

The news of the national mourning quickly spread to several counties surrounding the capital. By nightfall, almost every household had hung white silk. The village chief also sent people to call all the able-bodied laborers from each household to the ancestral hall. Song Dazhuang also went, and when he came back he said that the village was also discussing the matter.

"The emperor passed away suddenly. It is said that the three princes who were away from home will return to Beijing to attend the funeral. We are so close to the official road, so don't go out unless necessary."

Grandpa Song sighed: "It's a mess now. Which of those princes is easy to deal with?"

Song A-mo slapped her husband hard and said, "What are you talking about? Be careful, there are ears on the other side of the wall."

"Dad, did the village chief say how long the national mourning will last?"

"One month, you can't get married within a hundred days. Oh, mother, please put away the new clothes we made. They can't be worn anymore."

During the national mourning period, the whole country had to hang white silk and wear plain clothes. Song Qinshi had just made some brightly colored clothes for her children, saying that they were for spring outings, but now they couldn't wear them anymore. When the national mourning was over and the weather got hot, these clothes would probably have to be saved for next year.