Quick Transmigration: The Love Rescue Plan

Even if others look down on her, Dong Ping wouldn't go out of her way to please them. So she smiled and nodded, saying, "Let's deduct this money from my dowry! It's getting late, and I need to rush back to prepare dinner, so I'll be going now."

Since they disliked each other, Dong Ping didn't bother with formalities with Master Dong and Madam Dong, and simply had the driver take her out of the city.

When Dong Ping returned to the village, smoke was already rising from the chimneys of every household.

The driver brought the oxcart to the courtyard, and Guo's mother had already come out of the house.

"Son, you're back?" Guo's mother hurriedly came to greet him.

"Mother, I'm back." Dong Ping quickly jumped off the oxcart, ran to Guo's mother, patted her hand to comfort her, and said, "Mother, don't worry, everything went smoothly. I even bought a lot of things to bring back. Mother, let's carry them back to the house together."

When Guo's mother saw the huge cartload of goods, she naturally knew that this was not something she could buy with the fifty coins she had given.

However, since there were outsiders present, he didn't ask any more questions, but simply nodded in agreement and slowly moved the things into the house with Dong Ping.

After the driver left, Dong Ping recounted what had happened.

"So, this can be considered part of your dowry?" Mother Guo shook her head disapprovingly. "You're being ridiculous, child! How can you use your dowry to buy these things?!"

“Your dowry is your own private money, how can you…” Guo’s mother said, turning to go into the inner room. Dong Ping knew what Guo’s mother was going to do, and immediately grabbed her.

"Mother, what do you want to do? Do you want to give the money back to me?" Dong Ping frowned and pulled at Guo's mother, saying, "Mother, I won't take it."

"You kid!"

“I came here willingly to help support the family. We’re all family, why can’t I use my dowry to help if the family is in trouble?” Dong Ping said, letting go of Guo’s mother’s hand.

“Mother, don’t worry about it. Ping’er has long decided to weather the storm with the Guo family. What is this dowry?” Dong Ping smiled and comforted Guo’s mother, “The most important thing is that the three of us can live peacefully and healthily until my husband comes back.”

“If our family becomes successful in the future, will we still be afraid of not having enough to make up for my dowry? If…” Dong Ping smiled and shook her head; “Ping’er will not regret it. What does it matter if I give up everything to have such a warm home? Mother, I’m going to deal with the things I bought. You sit here and rest.”

Guo's mother sighed softly, then nodded and assured Dong Ping, "Alright, given the current situation at home, there's nothing I can do. We'll do as you say, we'll owe you for now and pay you back later. If my son ever dares to betray you, I'll stand up for you."

"Mother~" Dong Ping coquettishly tugged at Guo's mother's hand and then ran out as if her eyebrows were on fire.

Mrs. Guo shook her head, both amused and exasperated, and muttered, "This girl!"

I bought a lot of things this time, but we only have one well at home. Even if we put everything in jars and put them in the well to freeze, we still can't get that much.

After thinking for a moment, Dong Ping cut up ten pounds of pork, set aside the extra pork for tonight, rubbed the rest with a thick layer of salt, hung it up with an iron hook, climbed onto the roof beam, and placed it directly on the vent to dry.

Pig offal is quite smelly and takes the most time to prepare. It's getting late, and there's simply no time to prepare it properly.

Dong Ping found a large vat, stuffed all the pig offal into it, sealed it, and placed it in a water vat in the corner of the kitchen to chill. She also put the bones and chicken feet into a vat, sealed it, and carried the vat to the yard.

Dong Ping walked to the well, placed the vat inside the suspended wooden bucket, and then slowly lowered the rope. Once the bucket was suspended at a certain height, she secured the rope. The bucket remained half-submerged in the well water, chilling.

Yes, Dong Ping doesn't plan to cook any of the things she bought from the city tonight, except for the pork.

I was exhausted after a long day of running around, and I really didn't have the energy to deal with these ingredients that required special processing.

Dong Ping first washed the rice, put it in an iron can, and then placed it in the stove.

Immediately afterwards, Dong Ping left home and went to the field to pick a cabbage and a small bunch of scallions. She thought that the well at home still had something frozen in it, so it wasn't convenient to use it.

Dong Ping went to the stream to wash the vegetables, then returned to the courtyard and put the vegetables into the basket.

Dong Ping first went to check the chicken coop, but there were no eggs. It seemed that Guo's mother had already collected them. So she took a small basket into the kitchen and took out three eggs from the bamboo basket hanging from the kitchen ceiling.

Dong Ping placed the extra piece of pork she had set aside earlier into another wooden basin filled with well water.

Guo's father was still recovering, so it wasn't suitable for him to eat anything too greasy for dinner. Dong Ping planned to make two simple steamed dishes: a steamed pork and cabbage meatloaf, and a steamed egg with scallions—not difficult at all.

If you want your steamed meatloaf to taste good, you can't skimp on the preparation work beforehand, and let me tell you, there's quite a bit of preparation involved.

First, the pork needs to be soaked in well water for a period of time.

Next, take the properly soaked pork out and massage it on a cutting board. This will make the pork more tender and delicious.

Then pick up the pork, spread half of the cabbage on the cutting board, place the pork on top, and you can start preparing to chop the filling.

After the pork, with its alternating layers of fat and lean meat, is chopped into minced meat, the process isn't over yet.

You need to find a relatively deep wooden basin, pour the minced meat into the basin, hold the basin with one hand, and scoop up the minced meat with the other hand to repeatedly slap it against the ground.

This repeated pounding will make the meat filling softer and more gelatinous.

Next, chop the other half of the cabbage or minced meat. This way, you can make more meat patties than you would with too much meat filling.

With the addition of vegetables, to make the meat patties taste good, you have to keep chopping and turning them, chopping and kneading them constantly, until the cabbage is chopped into fine pieces.

At this point, the filling, which consists of more vegetables than meat, is poured into a wooden basin. Then, it is stirred continuously, and seasonings such as salt, oil, and soy sauce are added to ensure that the meat filling and cabbage are fully mixed and flavorful. Finally, it is pounded continuously until the meat filling and cabbage are perfectly blended.

Although the meat filling made this way has less meat than vegetables, the taste is not much inferior to that with more meat and less vegetables.

Once the meat filling is rolled into small balls and placed in a steamer already lined with cabbage leaves, and then gently pressed down, the round cakes are neatly arranged in the steamer.

When it's steamed, the aroma of meat and oil will ooze out from the steamed bun, and the cabbage leaves, which have no seasoning, will have already absorbed this aroma and oil, becoming even more fragrant and tender.

As for the other dish, steamed egg with scallions, it's even simpler. First, chop the scallions, then beat the eggs in a porcelain bowl, add well water and a little salt, and continue stirring until well mixed. Finally, add a little lard and chopped scallions, and then steam until cooked.

After the steamed meatloaf and steamed eggs were ready, Dong Ping used fire tongs to take the iron pot out of the stove and set it aside to cool naturally.

Fearing there wouldn't be enough to eat, Dong Ping quickly went to the yard to wash a few sweet potatoes as soon as the fire went out. She then grabbed a banana leaf from the yard, wrapped it up, and returned to the kitchen to bury the banana leaf in the flickering ashes with fire tongs.

The roasted sweet potatoes can be eaten to fill an empty stomach or as a late-night snack.

Once the tin can had cooled to the perfect temperature, Dong Ping carefully opened it with a damp cloth wrapped around it, and the aroma of rice wafted out.

Dong Ping served the food to the living room table and called out to the inner room, "Father, Mother, come out and eat."