Divorced woman with child travels through time

Chen Wenfang continued frying the fish, while Wang Erniu kept an eye on the fire. The two worked together seamlessly. When Chen Wenfang put the fish in, Wang Erniu would turn the fire up slightly, and when he took the fish out of the pot, he would turn the fire down. Chen Wenfang didn't even need to say anything; Erniu would naturally turn the fire down. After Chen Wenfang finished frying the second batch, she reached out and took a piece, feeding it to Wang Erniu, saying, "Here, have a taste, is it good?"

Wang Erniu's hands were dirty, so he took a big bite directly from her hand and mumbled, "Delicious!"

Chen Wenfang laughed, "You just put it in your mouth, haven't even swallowed it yet, and you're already saying it's delicious."

Wang Erniu smiled, swallowed the fish, and then said, "It was delicious to begin with, since you made it."

Chen Wenfang laughed when she saw his silly look.

The two chatted and laughed as they fried all the fish. Seeing there was too much oil, Chen Wenfang added some garlic, and had Wang Erniu chop about ten pounds of minced meat the next day to fry two large basins of meatballs. By the time they finished frying, it was already evening. Before going to bed, they placed two old wooden stakes on the stove, smashed the lamb skeleton, added a full pot of water, and simmered it slowly after it boiled. The two extra grass carp would be used later to make soup; adding them to the lamb soup would turn it milky white.

From the 28th of the twelfth lunar month to the 29th of the new year, Chen Wenfang, who had nothing to do, spent the last two days cooking and watching the snow. She had prepared everything she needed. The weather had been very cold, with little sunshine, and the snow hadn't melted. Getting up late, Chen Wenfang opened the window and found that snowflakes were falling again. "This snow has been falling for so long," she thought, "I'm afraid some poor families are suffering."

In Wangjiazhuang, Aunt Wang lingered on the kang (a heated brick bed) for a while before getting up. It was so comfortable there! She put on her cotton-padded coat, went to the kitchen to add fuel to the fire, washed and heated the pot, poured in some rice wine, boiled it, cracked in two eggs, and drank it while it was still simmering. The rice wine flowed down her throat into her stomach, and a warm feeling instantly spread throughout her body. She felt instantly comfortable, and Aunt Wang squinted her eyes contentedly. Ah, so refreshing!

Since Wang Ximao left, Aunt Wang Er has stopped being frugal. She eats and spends as she pleases, since no one will take care of her anymore. She's come to terms with it and decided to save some money for her retirement. She doesn't need to spend much anyway. Yesterday, she killed a chicken and ate half of it over two meals. She realized how foolish she'd been. She'd never had such a good life before. Wang Erniu would eat the whole chicken she killed, and she'd only get a sip of soup. Now that Chen Niangzi was willing to buy syrup, she'd saved almost two taels of silver in the last month or two. For the first time, Aunt Wang Er felt so rich. She didn't have to worry about food or drink anymore. A bag of rice could last her a long time. If she worked harder, she could save more than ten taels of silver a year. It was all thanks to Chen Niangzi. What use was that son? She still had to support him. After finishing her egg wine, Aunt Wang Er slowly got up, swept the chicken coop, fed the chickens some rice, and hummed a little tune as she made pancakes. She made a big pot of white flour pancakes, which she could reheat later and eat for several days. Life couldn't be better. .

Many young wives in Wangjiazhuang will have a good New Year this year. As long as they are diligent, making thatch syrup is not difficult at all. Thatch grows everywhere, covering the hillsides. The stems are connected, forming patches. It's tiring to dig it up, but once washed and cleaned, it can be boiled. The boiled stems are not wasted either; they can be used to feed chickens and ducks. No effort is wasted. Diligent people can also plant something else on the land where they dug up thatch, and they can still harvest something. No matter how you do it, you won't lose out.

Originally, only a few people trained by Chen Wenfang were doing this in Wangjiazhuang. When others saw this, they thought, "Isn't this just free money? Letting others pick it up while we watch? Who can stand that?" So the whole village mobilized, and some young wives even directed their husbands to dig it up. Even if it wasn't left for Chen Wenfang to collect, it would be good for their own children to eat or for making sweet soup for guests.

With this in mind, the method of making syrup spread from Wangjiazhuang to Lijiazhen, and then from Lijiazhen to the whole of Jiangling, and even the whole of the Song Dynasty. Of course, that's a story for later. As far as we know, all the poor people in Jiangling should know how to make syrup. This is what people who returned home for the New Year said. The person who passed on the message was naturally Aunt Liu.

Of course, Wangjiazhuang was the village that received the most syrup from Chen Wenfang. So, Aunt Wang thought about visiting Chen's house during the New Year to express her gratitude. The other young wives in Wangjiazhuang had the same idea, so they made an appointment to visit Chen's house together to pay their respects during the New Year.

On New Year's Eve, Chen Wenfang got up early and dressed all the children in new clothes, bringing out peanuts, red dates, dried longan, sweet potato chunks, rice candy, melon seeds, and other prepared treats. Even Wang Erniu changed into a brand-new cotton robe, looking more refined. Chen Wenfang herself changed into the sky-blue fabric outer garment she had wanted for a long time, wearing a new cotton-padded jacket underneath. Although it was a bit bulky, Chen Wenfang was afraid of the cold and didn't care.

As usual, breakfast consisted of poached eggs, made with lamb bone broth simmered all day yesterday, sprinkled with lamb and scallions. The milky white broth paired with chewy noodles, succulent lamb, golden poached eggs, and vibrant green scallions made for a delicious and visually appealing meal.

The broth was made by Chen Wenfang after frying grass carp. It was added to the mutton soup and used to cook noodles. It was especially delicious. Wang Erniu ate three big bowls. If he didn't have so much work to do every day, he probably would have gained weight.

Today is Chinese New Year, so we're going to have a big feast. After dinner, I sent Chuyi (the first day of the Lunar New Year) and the three little ones to play with firecrackers, while I and Wang Erniu busied ourselves in the kitchen. We cut a large piece of pork belly, about five pounds, and Chen Wenfang made it into braised pork. We ate one grass carp yesterday, and the other one was naturally pan-fried and used to make soup. The leftover fish jelly can be used as broth. How can we celebrate the New Year without fish? It symbolizes abundance year after year.

All the beef was braised, and an old duck was cooked to make a duck soup. The chicken was a young one, which was braised directly. Then, wood ear mushrooms and sliced ​​meat were stir-fried, and a large cabbage from the cellar was also stir-fried. Chen Wenfang had never made donkey meat before, so she followed the old method of braising meat, soaking it for an hour and a half before putting it in a pot to remove the blood. She added the same seasonings and braised it. She also stewed a small pot of wild boar meat.

The two of them busied themselves in the kitchen all day, using two pots simultaneously. Finally, just before dinner, they had prepared a large table full of dishes. There were two plates of braised pork belly, each about two fingers thick. One plate was brought out to eat, while the other was placed in a pot with hot water and a steamer inside. They could simply heat it up when needed. The other dishes were prepared in the same way: pan-fried grass carp, braised beef, braised donkey meat, old duck soup, braised chicken pieces, wood ear mushrooms with sliced ​​meat, crispy fish pieces, fried meatballs, wild boar meat, and finally, a plate of stir-fried cabbage.

Chen Wenfang only realized after she finished cooking that it was all meat, but it was the dead of winter, so eating meat was normal. Later, Chen Wenfang bought two small stoves to boil water and two charcoal braziers. With the kang (heated brick bed) heated in the room and the charcoal braziers, it wasn't cold at all in the dead of winter.