Li Gengdi said, "Of course there’s an art to cooking. If you marry a wife who’s a bad cook, you’ll be eating poorly for the rest of your days."
Old Cheng swallowed the last bite of his flatbread and said, "A bad cook isn’t the worst of it. The real fear is marrying soone who’s unclean, who can’t keep a tidy house. Everything’s a ss, stuff lying around everywhere like a murder scene. It’s frustrating just to look at."
Li Changxing laughed. "Uncle Cheng is just saying that. Everyone knows Auntie Cheng is quick and capable, and her house is always neat and tidy."
Everyone laughed.
Li Changming ate his flatbread in silence, not joining in their banter.
Qingmu hadn’t invited him. He was here because Li Laoda felt he owed the Zheng Family and had sent him to help. Besides, he could earn so spending money, so what was wrong with that? Listening to the others talk, he had nothing to say. ’My mother is a bad cook, too, and she doesn’t like to clean. Isn’t our house a ss, just like a murder scene?’
’I like working in the fields. When I’m out there, just looking at the crops makes feel at ease. But every ti I go ho to my father’s perpetually indifferent face and my mother’s endless nagging, I’m filled with despair. My younger brother, Changling, gets annoyed with Mom too. The slightest disagreent and he’ll slam his bowl and chopsticks down.’
’Our ho isn’t harmonious and lively like other people’s. It doesn’t feel like a ho at all. I’ll probably be a bachelor my whole life. Who would be willing to marry their daughter into a family like this?’
Just then, they heard Li Gengdi speak from experience. "To see if a woman is clean, you don’t need to look at anything else. Just go to her kitchen and check the rag by her stove. If that rag is washed clean and fresh, she’s definitely a clean person. But if that rag is damp and sticky... aiyo, then that woman is for sure a slob. No need to look anywhere else. So people are just good at keeping up appearances."
Qingmu, Zhang Huai, and Li Changxing, all young lads, listened with great interest, looking as if they were receiving a valuable lesson. Big Mouth Zhao kept asking questions, too.
Huang Dagunzi grinned so wide you couldn’t see his eyes. "You’re just pulling their leg. Next ti they go to et a potential bride, they’ll make a beeline for the kitchen, and the family will think they’re just hungry."
Everyone burst out laughing.
Qingmu, however, smiled to himself and thought, ’Uncle Li is right. Doesn’t my sister love scrubbing rags? I always see her taking them to the well to wash. Feeding the pigs and chickens, cleaning up chicken droppings—she doesn’t mind that sort of ss at all. But she’s constantly washing things in the kitchen.’
The group ate, drank, and chatted for a while before getting back to work.
One good thing about these villagers was that they didn’t work themselves to death. They could chat and laugh while they worked. The job got done, spirits were high, and they even earned so money. Because of this, even more people showed up to help the next day without Qingmu even having to call them. So ca purely for the lively atmosphere.
Juhua and Liu Xiaoi were spinning in circles in the kitchen, using every clay pot and large bowl they had. They had even taken out so of the pork offal saved from last year to cook, and all the salted, cured fish was being put to use.
As she worked, she and Liu Xiaoi tried to calculate how many pots and bowls they needed, and how many dishes would be enough—how many at dishes, how many vegetable dishes, and so on. With so many people to feed, she felt overwheld and a bit flustered.
In this regard, however, Liu Xiaoi was much more experienced. She spoke to Juhua with a mature air, "With this many people eating, and doing hard labor at that, they could probably finish twenty catties of at if you cooked it. Who can afford that? If you ask , what you’ve got—the pork offal, fish, and braised pork—is more than enough. No one could complain. Even at a wedding banquet, the food isn’t this good! Just make so greens and acorn tofu, and that’ll be fine."
Juhua nodded repeatedly. She decided to just make those dishes and stop thinking about it before she got a headache.
She brought out a large bowl of soaked soybeans and said to Liu Xiaoi, "I soaked so soybeans. I was thinking that since they’re working hard, they’ll get hungry fast. Chewy things like this are filling, so I soaked so to make a dish."
Liu Xiaoi said regretfully, "It would have been better to save them for making tofu. How are you going to cook them?"
Juhua took a couple of dried chilies, chopped them up, and fried them in sesa oil. Then she poured in the soybeans and stir-fried them for a mont before adding a bit of soy sauce and salt. After a few more tosses, she added enough water to cover the soybeans, put the lid on the pot, and let them simr over low heat.
After a while, the soybeans were tender and ready. The sauce had reduced just right, and the beans had turned a deep yellow.
Liu Xiaoi picked one up with her chopsticks and tried it. She smacked her lips a couple of tis and said, "Delicious. These would also be good if you dried them out to eat as a snack. I usually dry-fry them, like roasted peanuts. Just add a little salt when they’re almost done. They’re delicious that way, too. My dad loves to eat them when he’s drinking."
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