Song San Xiao’s clothes are wet from walking, his face is covered in sweat and he is raising his hands to wipe it off.
Just as he put his hand down, he saw the bullock cart that was already walking in front of him and was so scared that he subconsciously turned around and wanted to run.
“Third Uncle.”
Song San Xiao took several steps back, away from the ox cart, and stared warily at his second brother, “You, you ……”
Song Wangyue had already gotten off the ox cart and smelled his body full of alcohol and frowned slightly.
“I, I, I ……”
Song Sanxiao’s mouth was incoherent with fear, his grandmother had repeatedly told him that he should not pay attention to his second aunt’s side, and if she knew that he had drunk there today, she would probably not even let him go home in the future.
“I have something for you to do.”
Song Wan Yue gave him a wink and then went to the side, Song San Xiao backed up and went over, his eyes still staring uneasily at the ox cart, “What, what is it?”
Song Wangyue turned her back and handed him two taels of silver, “Stay in the county town for a few days, I will come and look for you in a couple of days.”
Song San Xiao was overjoyed to see such a large piece of silver and reached out to take it, but when his hand reached halfway, he thought of something and retracted it.
If he helped Song Wan Yue to hide something from his elder brother, not to mention that he was hiding in the county, even if he was hiding in a rat hole, his elder brother would have pulled him out and beat him half to death.
“You help me find a good stall at the bazaar, I’ll come over tomorrow and set up my stall.”
“Set up, set up a stall?”
Song Sanxiao didn’t believe that big brother would let Yue’er set up a stall. But he didn’t have any money on him, so he didn’t have to sleep on the street, so he hurriedly reached out and took it, “Let’s agree that we can’t do anything else.”
“Don’t worry.”
Song San Xiao quickly hid the silver in his sleeve and watched as Song Wan Yue got onto the bullock cart.
Song Shu didn’t even look at him as he drove the ox cart past his eyes.
Only when the cart had gone a long way did Song Sanxiao put the silver away carefully and waddled into the city gates.
It was already late when Song Wan Yue returned home, and the families were already busy cooking.
Xu sat in the courtyard, looking out the door from time to time. When she heard the movement of the bullock cart, she immediately went out to welcome it, and when she saw that it only had white flour on it, she was even more determined to convince the family to let her take on some big embroidery jobs in the evening.
Stretching out her hand, she first touched Song Wan Yue’s head, then went to help Song Lin, “All tired, right? Go back and rest for a while first.”
Song Wan Yue and Song Lin got off the cart and walked into the courtyard, Song Shu drove the cart to the side and unloaded it, took the cows to the barn, fed them with grass, carried the noodle bags and put them in the kitchen.
When Liu Cui Lan saw that he had carried so much white flour in, she opened her mouth to say something, but eventually sighed Avray.
Song Wan Yue happened to come in and heard it, but pretended not to hear it, “Second Aunt, do me a favour and help me make some noodles.”
Liu Cui Lan thought she wanted to eat noodles or dumplings, so she immediately rolled up her sleeves and nimbly scooped up the noodles, just as she was about to make them, but Song Wan Yue put some salt in them.
Liu Cui Lan was puzzled but didn’t ask too many questions. When the noodles were ready and woke up for a while, Song Wan Yue scooped up some cold water and poured it into the basin where the dough was formed.
“Second Aunt knead it.”
Liu Cui Lan sighed in her heart and began to knead the noodles in the water. When the water became cloudy, Song Wan Yue poured the water into another large basin and added water again for her to knead. After kneading the dough four or five times, the dough in her hands turned brown before Song Wangyue told her to stop, put the dough into a pot to steam and put it aside to dry, while the dough washing water was kept aside and no one was allowed to move it.
It was only after an hour or so that Song Wangyue asked Song Shu to help her, pouring the water off the top of the dough, passing the rest over with a fine wicker, brushing a layer of oil on the steamer drawer, pouring some on top, brushing it well, putting it in the pot and asking Liu Cui Lan to heat it.
Liu Cui Lan was amazed to see how the water dried into a paste, so she hurriedly knelt down and started the fire.
Song Wan Yue leaned down and uncovered a sheet of dough, which was surprisingly bright under the faint oil lamp.
“What is this?”
Liu Cui Lan exclaimed.
“Cold skin, second aunt make a few more out the way I just did, I’m going to pick some cucumbers.”
“I’ll go and pick.”
Song Shu was impatient and vaguely excited, he had never seen such transparent food before.
Song Wangyue took this time to get the seasonings she had bought, Song Shu picked the cucumber and came back, and after asking her, nimbly cut it into julienne, and took a sheet of dough as she had told her, cut it into strips and put it into a bowl. Cooked out the rest of the dough, which was gluten.
Song Wan Yue cut quite a lot of gluten, put the shredded cucumber and seasoning in it and mixed it up, and carried it to Elder Song and Grandma Song’s house.
In just one afternoon’s work, the two seemed to have aged by more than ten years, sitting sickly on the bed.
Song Wan Yue entered the room with a bowl, “I asked Aunt Er to help make a meal, grandparents try it.”
The two of them had no desire to eat, and Grandma Song kept regretting that she hadn’t looked at the things the Gu family had given her that day.
She reluctantly pulled at the corners of her mouth, wanting to say she wouldn’t eat, when Master Song spoke, “Eat, it’s a token of our Yue’er’s appreciation.”
Both of them thought that Song Wan Yue had asked Liu Cui Lan to make the food because she saw that they hadn’t eaten a few bites in the evening, but when they got off the bed and saw the food in the bowl, they froze in their tracks.
“What, what is this?”
“Cold skin, I read about it in a book by chance.”
The two men looked at each other, picked up their chopsticks and put them in their mouths, and the cool, silky sensation went straight to their hearts.
“This ……”
Grandma Song couldn’t believe that there was such a food in the world.
“If grandparents think it’s good, we might as well make some out to sell in the county, we should be able to earn some money.”
“Sell, sell, sell, must sell.”
Grandma Song swept away her earlier malaise and was suddenly in high spirits, eager to go to the kitchen, “I’ll go and help.”
“I’ll go too.”
Master Song also got up, but Song Wangyue stopped the two, “There’s no hurry first, Second Aunt has just made a few, when our whole family has eaten and set a price, we’ll make them again.”
“Go on, go on!”
Song Wangyue mixed two more bowls, one bowl was left in the kitchen for Mr. and Mrs. Song Shu to eat, and the other bowl was sent to her parents’ house.
Xu was persuading Song Lin to agree to take on two big embroidery jobs for herself, when she saw her daughter come in with a bowl and wanted her to help persuade her to earn the silver and redeem the bracelet first, no matter what.
“Yue’er ……”
“Mother first taste this is good.”
Looking at the food in the bowl on the table in front of her, Xu’s doubts that had been suppressed at the bottom of her heart came up again, she looked at her daughter carefully by the faint light and suddenly grabbed her hand, “Yue’er, tell mother, is this food something you read from a book again?”