Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Xia Yu didn't care about the rich-eyed waiter. A woman's revenge is never too late. If it weren't for the owner of Hongbinlou coming to buy shrimp, they would have just kept the humiliation her father suffered in their hearts. Now that this incident had become the trigger, of course they had to take revenge for what happened that day.

The family happily made dumplings for a meal. In fact, Xia Yu's family already had meat and wheat flour for every meal, but they still wanted to improve their diet by eating dumplings.

As the sun rises and sets, and the clouds drift and gather, the corn in the fields will soon be ready to be harvested. Aside from delivering shrimp to restaurants in town and county every morning, Zhang Youtie has plenty of free time. Liu Shi and Xia Yu keep a close eye on the watermelons in the fields, and after only seven or eight days, Zhang Youtie sent a message to Steward Qin, informing him that the watermelons are ripe.

The next day, Manager Qin arrived with his men and oxcarts. This time, due to the small production volume, only eight oxcarts and about ten servants came. However, to Xia Yu's family's surprise, one of the oxcarts even had a cleaned pig on it.

"Brother Zhang, Steward Ding said you went to too much trouble last time he came to get watermelons, so he asked me to bring some meat this time. I guess I'll have to bother you again at lunchtime today," Steward Qin explained, noticing Zhang Youtie's somewhat hesitant expression upon seeing the pig.

"Oh dear, Steward Ding and Steward Qin are too kind. This simple meal I prepared is hardly enough to eat a whole pig. I'm so sorry."

"Brother Zhang, we've known each other for a long time, so let's skip the formalities. May I ask where you grow your watermelons?"

“In the cornfield, we drive the oxcart directly to the edge of the field, pick the corn, and load it onto the cart right away.”

“So good”

So, Zhang Youtie, along with Steward Qin and the people from the Shen family, went to the cornfield where watermelons were grown. Master Zhang, along with his two sons and Changsheng, also went to help entertain the guests. Liu Shi and Xia Yu stayed home to cook. Because Li Shi, the second sister-in-law from the old house, wasn't doing well with her pregnancy—she was already over five months along and still vomiting everything she ate—Liu Shi didn't dare ask her mother-in-law, Liu Shi, to help with the cooking. She only asked Li Xiaomiao and Tian Guihua to come and help. However, Chunyu was still ordered around by Liu Shi to do chores. Chunyu brought several kinds of braised dishes made by Wang Shi, which Zhang Youtie had ordered from Wang Shi the day before, specifically for today's guests.

Several women helped Uncle Ma carry the pig to the table set up in the yard. Uncle Ma skillfully used a knife to cut the pig into pieces according to different parts.

After discussing it with her daughter, Liu decided that the main dish would still be fried pancakes, and the side dishes would be two meat dishes: a stew and braised pork.

After dividing up the tasks, Xia Yu and Chun Yu took the meat and tofu to the shrimp pond to make braised pork and fried tofu, while Liu Shi, Li Xiaomiao, and Tian Guihua stayed here to knead dough, make pancakes, and prepare other side dishes.

Uncle Ma followed behind, carrying a small basin of raw eggs, and a large winter melon in a basket on his back. These were all needed for making braised pork.

When they arrived, Aunt Ma had already cooked a large pot of mung bean soup, just waiting for Uncle Ma to deliver it to the field.

"Aunt Ma, I'll be using these two stoves to cook, could you help me light the fire?" Xia Yu said to Aunt Ma with a smile.

"Good, of course. I may not be good at other things, but I can still manage to start a fire." Aunt Ma was happy to hear Xia Yu's voice, which reminded her of the days when she served the young lady.

Xia Yu waited for Uncle Ma to scrape the mung bean water from the pot into a bucket, then scooped out two ladles of water to clean the pot. She added more water, put in the chopped pork belly pieces, and then added scallions, ginger, and rice wine to blanch it. Chun Yu, who was never one for words, greeted Aunt Ma and then got to work. She rinsed the small wok with water, heated it, poured in rapeseed oil, and then washed and cut the tofu into cubes. Once the oil was hot, she could fry them.

The two sisters worked quickly. After blanching the pork, Xia Yu even made caramelized sugar, which she then poured out and set aside. Once the pan was heated again, without adding oil, she directly poured in large chunks of pork belly. Seeing the oil sizzling at the bottom of the pan, Xia Yu used a spatula to stir the meat, trying to sear each piece until it was golden brown. As the oil in the pan increased, Xia Yu used a strainer in one hand and a spoon in the other to skim off the excess lard into a lard container for later use. Then she added the prepared scallions, ginger, and dried chili peppers to the pan and stir-fried with the pork belly, drizzling in Shaoxing wine to remove any gamey smell and enhance the aroma. Finally, she added the caramelized sugar and enough boiling water to cover the pot before slowly simmering it.

Meanwhile, Chunyu had started frying tofu, and the small kitchen was soon filled with the aroma of oil. Seeing Chunyu frying thick tofu, Xia Yu suddenly thought of the fried meatballs and crispy pork she had eaten in her previous life—she hadn't had those dishes since arriving here. Xia Yu watched the pork belly bobbing up and down in the boiling water in the large pot. She told Chunyu to watch the pot and then ran off.

"Hey, slow down, be careful not to scrape your leg!" Chunyu called out loudly from the doorway, watching Xiayu's hurried departure.

"Okay, big sister." Xia Yu answered Chun Yu loudly, but ran away like a rabbit without turning her head.

The people who were kneading dough and making pancakes were startled when Xia Yu suddenly ran back. Looking at her daughter, who was covered in sweat, Liu asked, "Xiaxia, why are you running so fast?"

"Mom, I want to eat crispy pork and fried meatballs. My older sister is frying tofu. I want to hurry back and chop some minced meat and cut some pieces of meat to fry together. Also, I can put them in when I make the stew later."

Xia Yu's words caused the women in the room to burst into laughter.

Li Xiaomiao smiled

"He's still just a child! Sister-in-law, I'll flip the dough, you go help the kid chop the minced meat, the oil pan over there is waiting!"

Hearing Li Xiaomiao's words, Liu Shi didn't stand on ceremony with them; they were all skilled cooks. She immediately handed the spatula to Li Xiaomiao, led Xia Yu to the storage room next door, and picked out a few pieces of pork. Xia Yu stored the rest of the meat in her spatial storage, and then the mother and daughter locked the door and came out.

The kitchen was too hot, so the mother and daughter each carried a chopping block to the yard to chop the meat. Once chopped, they would bring it back to the kitchen to season. One person chopped the meat into chunks, while the other minced it. Xia Yu cut all the meat into finger-thick strips and placed them in a bowl. She added pepper, Sichuan peppercorn powder, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and salt, then mixed it well to marinate. The light soy sauce was from Zui Xiao Lou; they said it was their restaurant's secret seasoning, but Xia Yu thought it was just light soy sauce. After becoming familiar with Chef Zhao, Xia Yu bought it from there. Of course, it was only for their own consumption and never sold to outsiders. Therefore, the food at Xia Yu's home now tasted even better.

While waiting, Xia Yu took out a small bowl, cracked in a few eggs, a spoonful of rapeseed oil, and a large spoonful of cornstarch, and stirred it into a batter. This batter would be poured into the meat bowl and mixed well by hand just before cooking. By the time Xia Yu finished, Liu Shi had already chopped the minced meat, adding a generous amount of minced ginger and scallions for flavor. However, Liu Shi didn't add any seasoning to the minced meat; the family now unanimously agreed that Xia Yu was the best cook, so Xia Yu did all the chores.

Xia Yu took out a few steamed buns from the kitchen cupboard. These were leftovers from the morning, and although they weren't very dry now, they weren't soft either. She peeled off the skins and stuffed them into her mouth. Holding one bun in each hand, she began to vigorously rub them together.

Liu couldn't understand her actions and asked...

What are you going to do with the crumbled bread in the minced meat?

"Mom, when you fry meatballs, adding some dry bread crumbs will make them softer, but our bread isn't dry enough. It would be better if it were drier."

Hearing her daughter's words, Liu didn't say anything more, but silently memorized the little trick for frying meatballs. After putting the steamed buns inside, Xia Yu added an appropriate amount of pepper, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and salt to the meat filling, and finally cracked in a few eggs.

Although they knew that Zhang Youtie's family was wealthy, Li Xiaomiao and Tian Guihua were still secretly astonished by Xia Yu's use of nearly twenty eggs in such a short time, feeling that it was too extravagant. At the same time, they also felt that Liu Shi was spoiling her daughter too much, watching her daughter squander the eggs without saying a word.