Mu Shuangshuang ground the mung beans and rice into a paste, then cleaned the stone mill, and began preparing the filling for the bean rolls.
Mu Shuangshuang usually just eats a little garlic leaf, adding so chili sauce is enough.
However, the situation recently was special, nutrition had to keep up, plus it wasn’t the right season for garlic green leaves to grow.
Mu Shuangshuang decided to make the sauce herself.
Just so happens there were so dried mushrooms leftover from last ti, Mu Shuangshuang crushed a few garlics, mixed them with onions, and minced them all together.
This ti, the sauce was still mainly at-based, Mu Shuangshuang also minced the at and added salt to taste.
While waiting for the flavors to ld, Mu Shuangshuang started the fire to make the sauce, heating oil in the hot pan.
After sautéing the onions, ginger, and garlic in the pan, she added the minced at to stir fry, then added the dried mushrooms. When it was almost cooked, she added so chili sauce and white wine.
The sauce for the bean rolls was finally ready.
Mu Shuangshuang placed the large pot of sauce in the cupboard, then looked outside in the courtyard, Yu Si Niang hadn’t returned, nor had Lu Yuanfeng.
She wondered if Mu Dalang had caught up with Huang Bitao.
She hoped this matter wouldn’t affect their engagent.
Her cousin could be said to be Old Mu Family’s only sensible one, who was also very good to her.
Sighing, Mu Shuangshuang went to sit in Mu Dashan’s room for a while.
Lately, Mu Dashan had been mostly staying at ho doing so work, not going out much.
He made a lot of straw fans at ho, all prepared to sell in town next sumr.
Seeing Shuangshuang enter his room, Mu Dashan quickly put down his work to greet Shuangshuang.
"Shuangshuang, sit down, I’ll pour you a cup of water," he said.
"Dad, I’m not thirsty, and don’t keep working all the ti, there’s still plenty of ti before next sumr," Mu Shuangshuang replied.
The man thought for a mont, decided to listen to his daughter, took a break, and chatted with her.
The father and daughter hadn’t had a heart-to-heart in a long ti.
Mu Shuangshuang glanced around Mu Dashan’s room, which was once shabby and even without windows, with hardly any sunlight coming in during the day.
Later, Lu Yuanfeng helped to open a hole and made a window, making the room much brighter.
As the third branch’s family resources gradually improved, Mu Shuangshuang added so furniture, new cabinets, and two stools.
The room of Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang underwent drastic changes, it finally looked like a ho.
"Shuangshuang, I talked with your mother yesterday, she said that without you and Fengzi, this ho wouldn’t stand.
Fengzi is willing to work, and you’re diligent. With the two of you together, our third branch had such a big change."
Mu Dashan felt emotional.
The previous situation of the third branch is still vividly clear to Mu Dashan, and thinking about it now, it still feels like a miracle.
Precisely because of this, the rickety, broken wardrobe with a missing leg from the third branch was never discarded.
"Dad, a ho is not built by just two people, my mother also worked hard, she goes out with to do work, doing banquet business.
And you, dad, you’re busy at ho with so much work, when mom’s not around, you tidy up the house, make straw fans, make bamboo baskets.
Xiao Han is working hard at studying, Little Zhi and Yuanbao take care of themselves well. It takes all these people together to make a ho."
Mu Shuangshuang dared not claim credit for doing well herself.
Because she knew that no matter how well she did, it wouldn’t an anything without her family.
Listening to Shuangshuang’s words, Mu Dashan felt even more that his daughter’s generosity was sothing most n couldn’t match.
"Shuangshuang, I feel with your broad mind, you’ll sooner or later do great things with Fengzi."
Mu Dashan never confidently believed in anything, but he was unwavering in the belief that his daughter could succeed.
"Haha, then I’ll be waiting. Dad, did mom tell you about what happened at grandpa and grandma’s place at noon today?"
Mu Shuangshuang always feared Mu Dashan would get bored, so whenever there were peculiar things at Old Mu’s, she would tell him.
At first, when he heard those bizarre things, the man would get frustrated, thinking the family went too far, but gradually, he stopped getting upset, as if he got used to the family’s ways.
"Your mother said, at noon, she told how your grandma and your second aunt treated the Huang Family.
Frankly, Shuangshuang, as I grow older, I am not as angry about these matters as I used to be.
My only regret is realizing it too late. If I had realized it earlier, your mother wouldn’t have suffered so much.
Now the most pitiful is your cousin Dalang, so young, his wife hasn’t even entered the door, and who knows how much hardship he’ll have to endure, and even after marriage, passing through your grandma won’t be easy either."
Long ago, Mu Dashan had told himself, no matter how successful Old Mu Family beca, he wouldn’t return there.
Even if as Shuangshuang’s mother worried, the first branch oppressed the third branch, making life difficult, Mu Dashan wouldn’t retrace his steps.
"Cousin Dalang is indeed pitiful. My second aunt doesn’t like Sister Huang, and my fifth uncle always thinks about breaking off cousin Dalang’s engagent, pushing him into a tight spot.
But on second thought, maybe it’s a test from heaven for my cousin Dalang, once he and Sister Huang weather this storm, they can be together," Mu Shuangshuang comforted.
"Yes, good people will be rewarded, your cousin Dalang will eventually get what he wants. Shuangshuang, about Xiao Han and Yuanbao attending school, I asked so villagers who had the sa idea a few days ago.
They said they could be sent together to the Hundred Herbs Hall in town, where the teacher specializes in teaching students with no foundation, fitting Xiao Han and Yuanbao well since they hadn’t been exposed to reading and literacy before."
"Dad, you’re amazing, observing worldly affairs from ho, and I was just worrying about finding a school for Yuanbao and Xiao Han. But isn’t the town over ten miles away, isn’t that too far?"
Mu Shuangshuang and Lu Yuanfeng usually pushed a wheelbarrow or sotis took an ox cart, which took at least an hour to reach the town.
Two young kids with short arms and legs, going day after day, it’s too much in the long run.
"Then should we have soone from our family pick and drop them off?" the man suggested.
Mu Shuangshuang imdiately shook her head in refusal.
"That’s not a long-term solution, picking them up for three or four miles is fine, but over ten miles back and forth for four trips a day, it’d wear out their legs."
"Then what should we do?" the man looked worried.
"When your uncle studied, he stayed directly at your aunt’s ho in town, which was convenient for going in and out, but we don’t have reliable relatives in town, so does that an the two children won’t go to school?" Mu Dashan said.
Mu Shuangshuang was also contemplating this.
The initial plan was to have soone from the town take them, but no one from the village goes to the town daily, even those who earn a bit of cart fare from ox-driving only go during market days.
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