Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

After Xia Yu finished preparing everything, Liu Shi and her daughter each carried a basin of meat towards the shrimp pond. To make it easier to carry, Xia Yu had already poured the batter into the basin of meat pieces beforehand. Finding that the batter was a little too little, she mixed some more following the previous steps, and then cracked in a few eggs. Li Xiaomiao and Tian Guihua could only grin at the sight. Fortunately, neither of them were talkative, and although they felt sorry for the meat, they didn't say anything, just focused on their work. By this time, the basket on the stove had already baked more than a dozen pancakes, pure white flour, golden brown on both sides, and the smell alone was enough to make one's mouth water.

Liu Shi naturally noticed their expressions and was very satisfied with their reactions.

Before they even reached the kitchen, Chunyu came out to greet them, took the basin from Liu's hands, and said with a smile.

"Aunt Ma is amazing! I didn't hear a sound at all, and she told me you were here and asked me to come out and meet you."

Aunt Ma was still sitting in front of the stove tending the fire. When she heard Chunyu's words, she smiled and said as they entered the room, "Since I lost my sight, my hearing has become more sensitive than that of ordinary people." After saying that, she looked in the direction where Madam Liu was standing and said, "Madam, I was thinking that we should also plant some vegetables next to the pond. After all, Old Ma doesn't have anything else to do except feed the shrimp."

“That works too. I’ll go to the county town another day to find some more vegetable seeds. We can grow a little of everything so that we can have a variety of dishes on the table. That should be enough for the few of us.”

Xia Yu was watching her mother and Aunt Ma's conversation in front of the stove when she felt something was off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It just felt strange.

"Then you all go ahead with your work, I'll head back now." Liu Shi said, walking out. Aunt Ma stood up and gave a curtsy in Liu Shi's direction. Seeing Aunt Ma's gesture, that strange feeling returned, but she couldn't pinpoint what was odd about it. Shaking her head to clear the strange feeling from her mind, Xia Yu focused on frying the crispy pork. Chun Yu, following Xia Yu's instructions, squeezed out round meatballs using her thumb and forefinger, then fried them in the oil along with the pork.

After frying all the food that needed frying, both of their clothes were completely soaked with sweat. During this time, Xia Yu would occasionally open the lid of the braised pork pot next to them and stir it with a spatula. Once the crispy pork and meatballs were fried, Xia Yu first picked out a bowl and pulled Chun Yu to sit on the small stool next to Aunt Ma to eat together. Chun Yu and Xia Yu were close, so when Xia Yu offered her some, she didn't pretend to wash her hands and sat on the small stool, picking at the fried food in the bowl and eating. Aunt Ma was initially reluctant to eat, remembering the difference in status between mistress and servant, but Xia Yu ignored her refusals and stuffed meatballs or crispy pork into her mouth. So, Aunt Ma chose to eat by herself rather than have her young mistress feed her.

The group shared a bowl of crispy pork and fried meatballs. Chunyu washed the eggs one by one with water and put them into an earthenware pot for cooking porridge that Aunt Ma had found. Then she placed the pot over a stove hole that Uncle Ma had dug in the ground. After boiling the eggs, she peeled them, made a few cuts on the egg whites, and stewed them with braised pork. It was also very delicious.

While Chunyu was boiling eggs, Xia Yu cut the winter melon into chunks about the same size as the braised pork. Once the pork was cooked through, she added the winter melon and eggs to the pot.

After waiting for another twenty minutes, Xia Yu took out a few pieces of braised pork and shared them with Aunt Ma and Chun Yu to taste. Then, she added some light soy sauce, poured in the winter melon and peeled eggs, carefully stirred them, told Chun Yu the remaining precautions, and then took the fried food back to help Liu Shi and the others prepare the other dishes. Before leaving, however, she also caught several pounds of large shrimp from the pond. Luckily, there was a basket here, otherwise she would have had to make another trip.

As soon as Xia Yu entered the courtyard, she saw a large winnowing basket covered with a steaming cloth on the stone table. Knowing it contained fried dough cakes, she didn't lift it to look. She went straight into the kitchen. Liu was cutting the braised meat that Chunyu had brought. There was braised pig's head, boiled large intestine, pig's stomach, pig's liver, and pig's ears. She sliced, shredded, and chopped the meat as needed, then mixed it with coriander, scallions, and garlic juice, and five meat dishes were ready.

Tian Guihua was preparing a cold dish with a bowl. Xia Yu noticed a plate of seasoned cucumber, a plate of halved salted duck eggs, and eggplant being mixed in a bowl on the stove. Li Xiaomiao was frying peanuts in front of the stove, another good snack to have with drinks. Seeing everyone busy, Xia Yu grabbed a bowl and went to remove the shrimp veins from the ground.

After processing the prawns, Xia Yu and the others first brought the cold dishes from the kitchen to the table, then covered them to prevent flies from getting in. Having already prepared nine cold dishes, Xia Yu returned to the kitchen and made a salted shrimp dish as the tenth.

Looking at the rising sun, Xia Yu figured the person should be back soon, and it was time to start preparing the stew. Xia Yu washed and drained the meat slices that Li Xiaomiao had already cut. Once the pot was hot, she added the meat slices and stir-fried them until the fat was rendered. Then she added a generous amount of scallions, ginger, and a few star anise, stir-frying them together with the meat. Next, she poured in Shaoxing wine, added dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, and salt, stir-frying it evenly before adding bean sprouts and stir-frying until just cooked. Finally, she added boiling water. Once the water boiled again, Xia Yu poured half a bowl of the fried pork into the pot. Tian Guihua, standing nearby watching, felt a pang of heartache and couldn't help but urge her on.

"Xiaxia, isn't this too much? We've already added a lot of sliced ​​meat. Isn't it a bit too much to add so much fried meat?"

"Aunt Tian, ​​the meat was brought by them. If we put too little in, it would seem stingy. Besides, we'll eat this pot of food ourselves! It's not like we're giving it all away." Xia Yu explained to Tian Guihua with a smile. She knew they were used to being frugal, and her reminder was well-intentioned.

Hearing that Xia Yu's words seemed to make some sense, Tian Guihua stopped talking, but she couldn't bear to see Xia Yu cooking so extravagantly, so she simply slipped away. Although it wasn't her family's food being used, she still felt bad seeing it being wasted.

When the stew was finally ready, Li Xiaomiao and Tian Guihua went to help serve it and discovered that it contained not only crispy pork but also plenty of meatballs, fried tofu, and black fungus picked from the mountains. Except for the black fungus, which was free and picked from the mountains, everything else was high-quality food.

After setting out two bowls of stew in the yard, Xia Yu took advantage of the time when the stove wasn't needed to cook any more sugary mung bean soup in a large pot. It was delicious and refreshing, and they were just waiting for the people working in the fields to come back.

The hot dishes have already been prepared. Except for the two steaming bowls, which are already steaming in the steamer, the other hot dishes can be prepared later when we've finished drinking.

Stir-fried cucumber with shrimp, stir-fried bell peppers with eggs, stir-fried dried shrimp with winter melon, steamed small crispy pork, steamed meatballs, stir-fried green beans, a stew, and braised pork. Ten cold dishes and eight hot dishes—this would be a decent feast even at a landlord's house.