If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

"Master, His Highness the Crown Prince has sent over some more green vegetables."

In winter at this time of year, getting fresh vegetables is incredibly difficult; only royalty and some powerful families have access to a small amount of cultivation in hot spring resorts.

Radishes, Chinese cabbage, chives, and some spinach—these vegetables wouldn't be much on ordinary days, but this was winter. Even the vegetables grown in the royal hot spring fields couldn't satisfy every member of the royal family. First, the emperor and empress had to be served, followed by the crown prince, princes, concubines, and princesses.

Even though Li Junren was the crown prince, his share wasn't particularly large. But even so, he still thought of sending some to Zhou Wu, which really touched Zhou Wu.

Back in his hometown, Zhou Wu could buy some vegetables from the Moon Kingdom in winter. It was summer all year round there, so there was no such thing as winter. However, since Zhou Wu came to the capital, it's only the beginning of winter, and there are no vendors selling vegetables on the streets. Occasionally, an old farmer might pick out a few cabbages he had hidden in his cellar, but they would be bought up before he could even call out to sell them.

"Chun'er, Chun'er."

Seeing the long-awaited vegetables today, Zhou Wu was in a great mood and quickly called Yang Chun.

"Yes, sir, what is it?"

"The Crown Prince sent some vegetables, and I was thinking of making some pickles to return the favor to him later."

"Sir, I'm speechless. People usually give gifts of real gold and silver, who gives pickled vegetables?"

Although Yang Chun said that, his hands did not stop moving at all. In this era, Dalong also had pickled vegetables, but they were simply dried vegetables.

The Zhou family got chili peppers from Hu Sai last year, and then they couldn't stop. They had all sorts of side dishes, like spicy cabbage (Korean, we're on the same side, don't get me wrong), dried radish, and so on. Now, the Zhou family has to have breakfast every morning.

"Where's the tofu I asked you to dry a few days ago?"

"Oh dear, sir, I was just about to say something to you. The tofu has grown mold. If you hadn't told me, I was going to throw it away today."

Speaking of the tofu, Yang Chun got angry. A few days ago, Zhou Wu asked Yang Chun to prepare some tofu, cut it into two-finger-sized cubes, and put it in a cool place. But when Yang Chun went to check on it today, it had all grown mold. Yang Chun was heartbroken.

"No, please don't! I want it to be moldy. Today I'm going to teach you how to make something delicious."

"Sir, can you eat tofu that's covered in mold?"

"Just you wait and see, we'll make pickled vegetables first."

Seeing Zhou Wu and Yang Chun busy at work, Li Baiwei and Hongdou joined in to help. Although Zhou Wu's family was now wealthy and had no shortage of servants, they still preferred to do things themselves most of the time. Zhou Wu wanted to live a life of farming and weaving, and his status and power were merely for a little security in this feudal society. Li Baiwei and the others simply couldn't stand being idle.

While they were busy, a servant came to report that Zhu Zhiyong had arrived again.

"My goodness, this old Zhu really doesn't consider himself an outsider."

Zhou Wu and his family were busy with their work, and they now knew Old Zhu very well, so Li Baiwei and the others did not avoid them.

"This is Lao Zhu, Zhu Zhiyong, this is my wife Li Baiwei, and my sister Yang Chun and Liu Hongdou."

"Greetings, sister-in-law and two younger sisters."

"Greetings, Brother Zhu."

That meant they were acquainted; they were all familiar faces. Zhou Wu continued with his work.

"Brother Zhou, what's going on?"

Zhu Zhiyong became interested as he watched Zhou Wu fiddling with the cabbage.

"What are you doing here making some pickled vegetables?"

"I've brought you some nice things."

Having come several times before, this time Zhu Zhiyong finally came with something; he was carrying two geese, which he waved in front of Zhou Wu.

"A goose?"

“Brother Zhou, these are wild geese. I was lucky today. I just went out and ran into a hunter selling them. There were only two in total, so I bought them from him. These are really good stuff.”

In the Great Dragon Empire, cattle are a source of labor, and slaughtering them is illegal. Due to lifestyle habits and the cooking methods of the era, pigs were once considered food for the lower classes. Therefore, mutton was the favorite of the powerful and wealthy of the time.

It's nice to occasionally change things up and eat some wild game, but such opportunities are generally rare, especially for prey like geese, which are even rarer.

"Wild geese? In winter, you have to stew goose in an iron pot. Stay for lunch."

"Okay, sure."

When it came to eating, Zhu Zhiyong didn't stand on ceremony. However, seeing that the host was doing the work, he felt it wasn't quite right for him to do it, so he offered to help.

"Then you should wash that big vat."

Zhu Zhiyong felt a little scared looking at the large vat that was half his height, but seeing the women watching from the side, he could only grit his teeth and go for it.

Zhou Wu, along with the women, peeled off the outer leaves of the Chinese cabbage, washed it, sprinkled salt evenly inside and out, and marinated it. After a while, they rinsed it with clean water to remove the salt, squeezed out the water, chopped ginger, garlic, apple, and pear into small pieces, added chili powder (chili sent by Hu Sai), and then added an appropriate amount of cold boiled water to mix the chili powder, salt, and other seasonings well. Then they poured the chopped ginger, garlic, apple, and pear into the chili powder to make a chili paste and began to marinate the cabbage. Starting from the innermost layer, they spread the chili paste they had prepared inside and outside the cabbage. After the whole cabbage was coated, they waited for Zhu Zhiyong's large vat.

"Are you done washing yet? Why are you taking so long?"

"Oh my, brother, this is hard work."

Zhu Zhiyong was exhausted after washing one tub of water. He plopped down on the ground, panting heavily.

Zhou Wu ignored him, put the seasoned cabbage into the jar, and then started making the next spicy radish.

Compared to kimchi, spicy pickled radish is much simpler. Just cut the radish into slightly thicker shreds, drain the water, let it dry slightly, then add seasonings, mix well, and pack it up to marinate.

"Brother, these radishes and cabbages are so red and pretty."

"It will be at its best in two or three days."

Finally, all that was left was to make the fermented tofu. When Yang Chun brought out the moldy tofu, Zhu Zhiyong could hardly believe his eyes.

"Brother, it's all moldy. Your health is more important. We don't need this. No, I'll go buy you some fresh ones."

Zhu Zhiyong suspected that Zhou Wu was used to a hard life. Although his thrifty spirit was commendable, the food was moldy and eating it might kill people. So he quickly stopped Zhou Wu.

"It's not broken, it's just like this, what do you know, this is a good thing."

No matter how much Zhou Wu explained, Zhu Zhiyong still didn't believe him. In the end, it was only with the help of his family members that Zhu Zhiyong finally let go.

"Sister-in-law, have you all eaten this?"

"No, it's my first time making this, but you do have some ideas about food."

You all have such a big heart. Zhu Zhiyong has already made up his mind. He will be a little more diligent these next few days and come to check on things every day. If his brother and sister-in-law are really in trouble, he will take them to see a doctor as soon as possible.