Eating melons

Wei Wei knew that she could gather all the raw materials, so she didn't say much.

She also wanted to go pick flowers with Jiang Qi. Fortunately, they found a large area of ​​red roses there, and not only red roses, but also other wild flowers.

I thought that since I bought more than ten or twenty kilograms of lard, I might as well make some more. I can use it myself or give it to others.

Since it's a gift, Liu Jiaojiao and Wu Mei will definitely not be left out.

Therefore, Wei Wei wanted to recruit labor again. It was not easy to ask Wu Mei, after all, she had to be busy. There was work to do even during the slack season. It just depended on whether you wanted to do it or not.

People like Wu Mei who are short of work points naturally have to earn them and will seize every opportunity, unlike those who just want to get by.

But Liu Jiaojiao was just as idle as the other two, so Wei Wei felt justified in pulling her in to work as a laborer.

When Liu Jiaojiao heard that Wei Wei was going to make soap, she came without saying a word and worked very hard.

She just hoped that Wei Wei would give her another piece, and even if she didn't, she would sell it to her for a few pieces.

She also hoped that Wei Wei would make more and sell her a few more pieces so that she could send some back to her family.

After all, she used the soap Wei Wei gave her, and it worked quite well.

It felt very useful for washing face, and she even shamelessly bought another one from Wei Wei to use for bathing.

But now the one for taking a shower has been used up, and only a little bit is left for washing face.

She also knew that Wei Wei didn't have much soap left, and the one she had was bought by her shamelessly. After using it up, she felt embarrassed to buy more from her.

So now when Liu Jiaojiao heard that Wei Wei was going to do it again, she was really very enthusiastic. She hoped that Wei Wei would do more and sell her more so that she could stock up more. Therefore, she worked very hard.

Liu Jiaojiao looked at the flowers in the basket and asked curiously, "Are these used to make soap?"

Wei Wei nodded. "Yes, if you want other scents, you can look at what flowers are available, pick them yourself, and add them in when the time comes."

Hearing this, Liu Jiaojiao became very interested and went to look for it immediately. However, she didn't dare to go to the mountain alone. Wu Mei wanted to work to earn money, so she asked Yu Xi to come with her to the mountain every day to look for flowers.

Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin were both very helpful. During each trip, Xiao Xuemu not only brought back more than 40 kilograms of lard, but also brought back a lot of meat.

The main reason was that Xiao Xuemu didn't stop working last night. There were too many things in the space, which gave him a headache, so he killed two more pigs.

Things like hares gave Xiao Xuemu a headache when he saw them. There were too many of them in his space, and the place was so small that he didn't dare to take out too many for fear of being targeted.

Therefore, I only dared to make it into jerky and send it to friends and family.

He didn't know how many rabbit skins he had collected in his space. He could give them to Wei Wei to make two coats in winter and send some back to his family.

As for food, I caught two and asked Li Zhibin to deal with them when I got back. He was really having a headache dealing with them and felt annoyed just by looking at them.

Li Zhibin is also very reliable. After Wei Wei said that, he immediately went to the river and fished out two large buckets of shells.

He directly used the original fishing net to fish in the river. The people from the Red Star Brigade thought he was fishing and were ready to say something to him.

After all, the fish have just passed the spawning period, and some are still in the spawning period. They are not allowed to catch fish at this time. They must be caught after the autumn harvest.

Normally, it's okay to catch one fish occasionally to satisfy your hunger, but they don't allow people to use fishing nets to scoop fish directly like Li Zhibin did.

But when they saw that Li Zhibin did not catch any fish and released all the fish he caught, and only asked for shells and other shellfish, the people from the Red Star Brigade did not say anything.

After all, this thing is not tasty and is a nuisance. There are plenty of it in the river, but they have never caught it.

Therefore, the people of the Red Star Brigade ignored him and allowed Li Zhibin to make as much money as he wanted.

When Wei Wei saw what Li Zhibin had retrieved, her eyes lit up and she immediately grabbed the laborer to clean up.

Li Zhibin said speechlessly, "What on earth do you want this for?"

Wei Wei didn't hide it, "Use it to make soap."

Li Zhibin asked doubtfully, "Soap? The thing you gave me last time?"

Wei Wei nodded, "Yes."

Hearing this, Li Zhibin was really shocked, very shocked, extremely shocked.

He also used the soap, which was indeed very useful, better than soap, but it wore out a little quickly.

But he never thought that soap was made of this thing. Isn’t the cost too low?

Wei Wei took Xiao Xuemu and Jiang Qi to wash the shells for the whole afternoon, and Xiao Xuemu also came back with some oil.

Seeing the contents of the backpack, Li Zhibin asked in confusion, "Is there no more oil at home?"

Wei Wei took a look into the backpack. The oil inside was quite good, all lard. She said to Li Zhibin:

"This is also used to make soap, but you won't need so much soap, so the rest can be eaten."

After all, the oil Xiao Xuemu brought back weighed about thirty or forty kilograms.

Li Zhibin asked in disbelief, "Are you kidding me?"

Wei Wei rolled her eyes at him and said, "Believe it or not."

Then he said to Xiao Xuemu, "Come and help me refine this oil. This oil needs to be washed, wash it twice more, wash it clean, and add some clean water when boiling the oil, so that the oil will be clearer."

Seeing so much meat below, he said, "Why did you buy so much meat? Let's just have spareribs for dinner.

The rabbit hasn't been killed yet, so we can keep it for two days. Let's eat these ribs and meat first."

Xiao Xuemu nodded. "It's all fine. Just take care of it. When you want to eat the rabbit, just ask Li Zhibin to kill it."

Li Zhibin did not refute after hearing this. He knew that Xiao Xuemu did not like to do these things.

After putting the things away, Wei Wei said to Li Zhibin, "Help me burn these shells until they are crispy and thoroughly cooked, then crush them with that mortar."

Wei Wei was not polite at all when ordering the labor around her around. Whenever she was doing something, as long as there was someone nearby, she would order them around.

Wei Wei and her mother learned this very well. Every time, her mother would be there to direct them, and she and her father would be busy all the time.

Wei Wei was not polite at all, but Li Zhibin and Xiao Xuemu were very shocked, especially Li Zhibin, who looked at Wei Wei in disbelief.

"No, you just told us the formula directly. Don't you think there's something wrong?"

Wei Wei asked doubtfully, "Is there a problem? This thing is not a secret."

In ancient times, the recipe of this thing would be quite valuable.

But now the recipe for this thing is valuable and useless because it can't be made.

To be honest, selling this would put your life at risk but you wouldn't make much money at all.

The main reason is that the oil is too expensive, and where can they get so much oil? So even if they know the formula, they can't sell it, and it's not of much use.

As for the availability of oil after the reform and opening up, the formula will no longer be valuable.

In the early days of reform and opening up, we could only engage in price wars and rely on small profits but quick turnover. Therefore, we could only use that kind of technology and hard work. This kind of purely natural product was a complete loss-making business.

In the later stages, purely natural and handmade products could be sold at a price, but by then the formula had already been made public.

In the future, if you want to do something, you can just search on the Internet and you will find a lot of information. There are no secrets at all. You can learn whatever you want.

So Wei Wei didn't care about the recipe of this thing at all. They just wanted to learn it, and it could be considered a favor.

Li Zhibin was speechless. "Isn't this a secret? You better be more careful!"

Wei Wei waved her hand, "It's of no use to me anyway. If you want to learn, then learn it. It's up to you. As long as you can remember it, you can learn as much as you want.

But there is one thing, if you make it yourself in the future, you have to give some to me."

After all, it is a purely handmade and natural product, so she likes it very much. It is good to have it without having to make it herself.

Seeing Wei Wei's indifferent look, Li Zhibin immediately said, "Learn! If I learn it, not only will I give it to you, I'll even take care of your soap from now on."

Wei Wei nodded. "Okay, then go burn these things for me. Burn them all for me. Make more at once. This is quite troublesome and time-consuming to make."

The main reason is that Xiao Xuemu bought a lot of oil, so he just made some extra at one time. He made as much as he could. After all, this thing has to be kept there for a month, which is quite time-consuming.

Xiao Xuemu was boiling lard there, Li Zhibin was roasting shells there, and Wei Wei and Jiang Qi were picking flower petals at home.

During this period of time, we picked a lot of flower petals, especially Liu Jiaojiao, who picked a lot of them, including all kinds of flowers, and they were quite fragrant.

Wei Wei also specially bought a small bag of dried osmanthus flowers and a few bamboo tubes from the system mall.

The bamboo tube was a very small dry bamboo tube. Since we didn’t see any bamboo here, we could only say that it was sent by home. After all, it would be more convenient to use a bamboo tube. We could just split it open.

Knowing that Wei Wei was going to tell them the formula for making soap, Xiao Xuemu worked very hard, and Li Zhibin also worked very hard, although they also worked very hard at other times.

Li Zhibin, while grinding and burning, shouted to Wei Wei in her room at Jiang Qi's house, "How fine does it have to be ground?"

"Powdered form will do."

By the time Xiao Xuemu's lard was refined, Li Zhibin's shells were almost ground.

After everything was done, Xiao Xuemu looked at Wei Wei and asked, "What next?"

"Then go burn some wood ash, burn more wood ash, and get some wood ash water."

After hearing this, not only Li Zhibin looked skeptical, but even Xiao Xuemu looked at Wei Wei with suspicion.

Could this stuff really work? It was made with shells, oil, and wood ash—it didn't look like soap at all, but the two of them resigned themselves to it and went for it.

After burning the ash water, Xiao Xuemu looked at Wei Wei blankly, "And then?"

Wei Wei handed Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin a piece of gauze and said, "Filter out this water. Make sure it is filtered cleanly."

After handing the things to the two of them, Wei Wei went into the house to cook with Jiang Qi.

Xiao Xuemu, who had finished outside, came in again and asked, "What next?"

Wei Wei went out and put the ground shell powder into the wood ash water.

"Stir well. The ratio of alkali to water is about 0.41:1. 41% of the alkali should be water. It doesn't need to be so precise. Between % and % is about right."

After saying that, he handed a large spoon to Xiao Xuemu, asked him to stir it evenly, then filter it twice more. After filtering it clean, he left it there to settle and would use it tomorrow.

Looking at the gray stuff mixed together, Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin became more and more skeptical. Can this thing really be turned into soap?

Compared to soap, this thing is more like the dark food in Wei Wei and Jiang Qi's mouths, and it looks a bit scary.

Wei Wei didn't care about their doubts as she had to go to work the next day.

After dinner, I put my things in the house and went to rest.

After work the next day, Wei Wei immediately called the two laborers over.

"Come on, pour out the water on top and discard the residue below. It's better to consider this clear water again. The cleaner the better."

Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin followed the instructions and filtered the things, while Wei Wei went in to heat the oil. Thirty or forty kilograms of oil can produce a lot of oil, but not so much will be needed.

After a day and a night, the oil has solidified and needs to be heated up to about 40 degrees.

When General Wei had almost heated the oil, Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin outside had also finished and brought the things in.

Li Zhibin looked at Wei Wei in confusion, "And then?"

"Then heat the oil to around 40 degrees Celsius. Our body temperature is around 37 degrees Celsius. Just heat it to a temperature slightly higher than yours."

After saying that, Wei Wei put her hand into the pot to test the temperature.

Seeing Wei Wei putting her hand into the pot, Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin were scared out of their wits. Xiao Xuemu reflexively grabbed Wei Wei's hand.

"I don't want this hand anymore. Do you want to eat fried pig's trotters?"

Wei Wei said speechlessly, "I've been touching this oil since it was heated. It was still cold just now. The temperature is not even high enough to cause burns."

Wei Wei put her hand inside and felt that the temperature was about right, so she added some water and scooped it out!

"The ratio of fat to this is about 3:1."

Then take out the coarse salt that had been ground earlier and put it in.

"It's best to add some coarse salt to this, and stir it quickly. Come on, Big Fool, stir it clockwise, stirring constantly until it becomes a paste, until a chopstick can stand up when inserted into it."

Although Li Zhibin looked skeptical, he still listened to Wei Wei and did what she said. But looking at the things in the bucket and thinking about Wei Wei's words, Xiao Xuemu and Li Zhibin began to doubt their lives.

"Are you sure this can get hard?"

Wei Wei took a look and said, "It's okay, just stir it. Keep stirring and it will slowly become thick."

Wei Wei was still picking flower petals there, cutting the petals of red roses and the like into small pieces because the petals were too big.