Chapter 40 Tangyuan

Chen Afu went to Mingshui Town to buy food ingredients early in the morning with Dabao. Mingshui Town is six miles east of Xiangluo Village, passing Shangshui Village and the manor of the nobleman.

Wang said that the manor was called Tangyuan, and it seemed that the owner's surname was Chu. He was originally in the capital, and then went to the prefectural city. Half of the families in Shangshui Village rented his rice fields. Wang heard from Changgen's wife that Wu Changgen and his son were carpenters, and the manager of Tangyuan occasionally went to Wu's house to buy tables, chairs, buckets and basins.

The path to the town is more than 300 meters away from Tangyuan, separated by a bamboo forest and grassland. From a distance, you can see the big garden with white walls and black tiles, flying eaves and corners, hidden in a green tree and bamboo.

The big yard stood there, looking particularly abrupt. The vermilion gate was closed, as if closing a door of wealth and also blocking the labor and hardship outside.

The mansion was too far away from him, Chen Afu glanced at it a few times and didn't look at it again.

Mingshui Town is not big, with only two streets. Chen Afu went to the dry goods shop first and said she wanted to buy some marinade. The shopkeeper pointed to five kinds of seasonings such as star anise and galangal and said, "These, add some pepper, sugar, and soy sauce to marinate together, oh, the marinade will be fragrant."

Sure enough, there were very few marinade ingredients. Chen Afu remembered that many marinade ingredients were only medicinal materials in ancient times.

She bought those marinade ingredients, and also bought some pepper, brown sugar, and a small jar of soy sauce. There were too few seasonings at home.

She also bought two small bags of maltose, one for Dabao and the other for Alu.

She went to the only medicine shop in the town and bought some cloves, sweet pine, fennel, and grass fruit for making marinated food. She also bought some astragalus, codonopsis, and schisandra, and these Chinese medicines were stewed for Chen Ming to eat.

It was really expensive. She spent more than four coins of silver for these things. However, it was her own money, so there was no pressure to spend it.

After buying the marinade, she went to buy two pounds of pork belly, five pounds of lard, ten pieces of dried tofu, and five pounds of vermicelli. The money for these ingredients was given by Wang.

It was already late 9:00 p.m. when she got home, and she started cooking. Chen Afu declined Wang and Chen Ming's help. A Lu helped her light the fire, and Chen Dabao helped her pass things beside her.

Chen Afu marinated the dried tofu, but not the meat. Braised meat is a good dish to go with wine, but for those who do manual labor, four pounds is not enough. Stewed pork with vermicelli, stewed in a big pot, it can satisfy your appetite and relieve hunger.

When the smell of the marinade came out, the two little boys sniffed hard.

Chen Afu felt that the dried tofu was almost seasoned, so she took it out and cut two slices for them.

In addition, she made a cold cucumber salad, stir-fried cabbage, winter melon oil residue soup, and two-grain flour steamed buns. There were not many varieties, but the quantity was sufficient and the taste was good.

The people who worked were happy to eat, and they all said that the dried tofu was fragrant and could be eaten as meat.

In the evening, Chen Ming also praised, "Afu is really a capable child. The first time he made braised dishes, the taste was better than others." Chen Afu said proudly, "That's right, this is my unique skill." He thought to himself, when will he go to the restaurant to see if he can follow the old path of the time-traveling woman. The six people took half a month to repair the house. Although the thatched house is small and very primitive, the earthen brick wall is one person high, which finally makes Chen Afu feel safe. This small courtyard is the only wall that she is satisfied with. There are two doors in the house, one is the big door facing the outside, and the other is the small door facing the courtyard of the old house. Now the new courtyard and the old courtyard share a earthen brick wall. On the day of the house's beam raising, not only did Chen Agui's wife Gao come to help, but even Chen Alan came to help. Since Chen Afu recovered from his illness and made a unique needlework basket, Chen Alan no longer stood outside the fence door when she came to ask Wang for embroidery. She would come into the house and chat with Chen Afu.

Chen Alan showed her goodwill, and Chen Afu accepted it. Except for Hu and Chen Aju, everyone else in the first house was good. Especially Chen Ye and his son, they worked very hard and helped sincerely.

On this day, the family not only invited Chen Ye's family, but also invited several relatives of the Chen family, Gao Lizheng's family, and several families who were repairing the house. Except for Chen Ye's family, only one or two representatives from other families came, and four tables were set up.

The day before, Wang asked Chen Ming, "Do you want to invite Hu Laowu? They are all relatives... If you don't invite him, the eldest sister-in-law will definitely be unhappy." The family used to invite Hu Laowu when they occasionally entertained guests.

Chen Ming said, "If it was before, I would have invited him for my eldest brother's sake. But last time Ah Fu and Er Laizi had a fight, Hu Laowu openly helped Er Laizi to extort money from our family. He doesn't even recognize us as relatives, so why should we recognize him?"

Chen Ah Fu also said, "Mom, it's useless for you to please my aunt, she won't remember. It's better to stay away from the Hu family. No matter what happens to our family, we should not have anything to do with his family."

Unexpectedly, during the meal, Hu Laowu came with a flattering face, and there was a boy of fourteen or fifteen years old next to him. The boy looked very good, but his eyes were sticky and people didn't like him. He was Hu Laowu's only son, Hu Wei.

He was really a rogue, with a thick skin.

The reason why Hu Laowu walked sideways in the village was not only because he was a rogue, but also because his fourth brother-in-law was a constable in the county.

As soon as Hu Laowu arrived, he started to speak nicely, "We are all relatives, but you didn't even tell me that you were building a house, otherwise I would have come to help."

Although these people hated him in their hearts, they didn't want to offend him on the surface, so they just gave him a perfunctory response. Chen Ming had no choice, he couldn't just chase him away.

Three tables of men and one table of women and children were placed under the trees in two courtyards, which was quite cool. Chen Afu did not sit at the table, nor did she want to sit at the table. One reason was that she was the chef and was always busy. Another reason was that she was annoyed by Chen Aju, who ate more than anyone else and pretended to look down on this place. Another reason was that she hated Hu Wei's eyes.

Today, we braised pig intestines, pig livers and dried tofu, which were the most popular.

Hu Laowu said while eating, "This braised offal is better than what I ate in the county town. It has a special fragrance. How is it made?"

Chen Afu stayed in the kitchen and didn't want to pay attention to him, but seeing that he kept asking Chen Ming, he had to go out and say, "I bought the marinade in town and made it according to the method the shopkeeper said, and it became this taste." Then, he said what the shopkeeper said.

Hu Laowu smiled at Chen Ming again, "Afu is a blessed man. He is not only handsome, but also capable."

Chen Ming pretended not to hear.

After the dinner, it was time to prepare for the trip to the city. Wang would take A-Lu with her the day after tomorrow, and Chen A-fu and his mother would move when they came back.

The doctor said that A-Lu's leg was lame because the bone grew crooked. If it grew crooked for an adult, there would be no way to fix it. Fortunately, A-Lu was still a child, and if the bone was broken and regrown straight, he would not be lame. But ordinary doctors don't have this skill. I heard that the doctor at the Qianjin Medical Clinic in the city has this ability.

So, little A-Lu will not only suffer this time, but also live in the city for at least half a month. If he lives in the city, he can only live in Chen Shi's house.

Thinking of the little A-Lu having to endure such pain, Chen A-fu's heart tightened.

She had always wanted to meet with the golden swallow to see if she could get it to bring out some more green bird's nests to make A-Lu suffer less.

For so many days, the golden swallow had not met Chen A-fu. It didn't come back during the day, but came back four times in the middle of the night, all of which were to return to the space to put the stolen red gold jewelry back, and then left after putting them back.

The jewelry in these times is heavier and better looking than the previous ones, and the gemstone cat's eye is also bigger and more precious. The pile of golden and red and green gold jewelry is dazzling.

Even the small piece of green bird's nest for Chen Ming was placed on the small package of broken gold.

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Thanks Hera x-on:Qianlin for the purse. I don't know why I can't reply to readers' messages these days. When I upload, it shows "page not loaded". . .