Chapter 40: Chapter 38: Delicious Bean Rolls

’People always go on about how Liu San can carry on the Liu family line, while a son-in-law who marries in is just helping another family.’

’As long as she was alive, she’d get to see whether that good-for-nothing would actually take care of Liu Guozhi in his old age.’

Xu Chunyan fumed silently. She quickened her pace, finished gluing the last piece of cloth, and headed toward the bamboo grove in the backyard.

Sun Xiuhua reached the backyard bamboo grove and walked up with a smile. “Busy, Big Brother?”

“Yeah.” Liu Guozhi tossed away his cigarette butt and glanced at her. “Do you need something?”

Sun Xiuhua glanced at the neighbor’s back door. Seeing it was closed, she stepped forward smugly and said, “Big Brother, Zhang Yazhen came to see me this morning…”

“Did she see it with her own eyes?” Liu Guozhi asked, looking at her.

Sun Xiuhua shook her head, then nodded emphatically. “She said she heard it from two people passing by, but I think she saw it herself. She can’t stand that little widow, says she’s a shameless flirt who seduces men.”

Liu Guozhi shot her a look. “Your husband works at the distillery, after all. You’re a worker’s family member, so don’t act like one of those busybodies.”

“I know!” Sun Xiuhua ignored the ’busybody’ comment and puffed out her chest smugly. “Big Brother, are you going to take some people to arrest her?”

Liu Guozhi nodded. “I know what to do. Stay out of it.”

“Alright!” Sun Xiuhua replied cheerfully. “I’ll be heading back, then!”

Liu Guozhi nodded and looked down, resuming his work on the bamboo strips in his hands. He finished trimming all of them and bundled them together. Then he stood, patted the bamboo shavings off his clothes, and carried the strips to a small, nearby pond. He tossed them into the water to soak.

Liu Guozhi went back to grab the worn cloth he used to pad his knees, the small stool, and his machete. When he returned to the courtyard, he saw the stiffened cloth drying on the Eight Immortals table, but the person was gone.

He called out twice, but no one answered. He searched the kitchen and the rooms but couldn’t find Xu Chunyan.

“Where’d that old woman run off to now?”

He muttered as he entered the main hall and leaned back in a chair. ’The policies this year seem more lenient than last year,’ he thought. ’I haven’t seen any street vendors getting arrested since the New Year. I hear the ones who do get caught just get fined and have their goods confiscated.’

’Some daring members of the Second Team have been taking vegetables to sell, and they aren’t being hounded like they were in the past few years. And those people from several production teams who were living in thatched huts have also started to return one by one. It seems the political winds are really changing.’

’Yesterday, when he was seeing Old Chen off, he even mentioned to the town mayor that the brigade should take better care of the widowed and lonely in the village, letting them also enjoy the warmth of the great socialist family.’

’They even mentioned the little widow during their conversation, and he was praised for handling the situation well.’

After thinking it over, Liu Guozhi decided to first have Sun Xiuhua go to the Eucalyptus Forest to check things out.

If she confirmed that Lin Lan was doing business there, he would then go to town to make some inquiries before deciding how to handle it.

****

Xu Chunyan went to the brigade’s threshing ground for a look but didn’t find Lin Lan. She then went to Niu Bei Mountain and ran into Lin Lan in front of the fishpond, carrying a back basket filled to the brim with cattle fodder.

“Little Lin, cutting fodder!”

’Making small talk. Looks like she wants something.’

Lin Lan glanced at her. “Mhm.”

Xu Chunyan stopped about two steps away from her and, lowering her voice, said, “Little Lin, I have something to tell you. Can you give the job back to me?”

Lin Lan noted the frustrated look on her face and chuckled. “Aunt Xu, if someone in my family were the brigade leader, I’d be sitting in the supply room cracking melon seeds all day.”

The original Lin Lan had heard plenty about the years of grievances between the two Liu family sisters-in-law.

’What else could Xu Chunyan be here for,’ Lin Lan thought, ’other than to tell me that Zhang Yazhen told Sun Xiuhua about my little business in the Eucalyptus Forest, and that Liu Guozhi now knows about it too?’

Xu Chunyan looked at Lin Lan. “Fine, if you don’t want to know, then don’t. What’s the point of all this useless talk?” With that, she turned to leave.

Lin Lan called out to her retreating back, “Aunt Xu, thank you!”

Hearing her cheerful voice, Xu Chunyan’s foot slipped, and she almost fell into a rice paddy. After steadying herself, she hurried away as if fleeing.

Lin Lan watched her go, then thought about finding Zhou Xiaohong to discuss paying her a wage to help sell orchid beans and today’s new item, kidney bean rolls.

Her mind made up, she returned to the foot of the mountain, quickly cut another pile of fodder, and left it there before packing up and heading home.

Just as she reached her courtyard gate, Dahuang started barking from inside. The moment she opened the gate, Dahuang ran up to greet her, tail wagging.

Lin Lan gave a gentle nudge with her foot to Dahuang, who was running back and forth in front of her. “You little thing, you haven’t been making messes, have you? You’ll get a spanking if you do!”

“WOOF WOOF!” Dahuang barked twice, then ran to the gate and looked around. Not finding his little master, he trotted back into the courtyard and lay down, watching the world outside the gate.

Lin Lan went into the kitchen and lifted the pot lid to check on the stewing red beans. They were already soft and mushy.

Then she went to the backyard, opened the gate, and checked on the chickens in the bamboo grove before returning to change the water for the soaking fava beans.

She also took down the dried urea sacks and sewed a new bag.

After heating up some leftover rice and vegetables for herself and giving a bowl to Dahuang, she started making red bean paste.

She scooped the boiled red beans into a small wooden basin, added a suitable amount of white sugar, and took out a rolling pin to mash the beans into a fine paste.

She poured the paste into a wok, added a scoop of lard, and stir-fried it slowly over low heat. Once the paste no longer stuck to the spatula, she transferred the red bean paste into an earthenware bowl.

Next, she rinsed the large white beans, which were now plump and shiny from soaking, and put them in an earthenware bowl with a ladleful of water. She placed a wooden steamer into the wok and set the bowl of beans inside to steam.

Large white beans, also known as kidney beans, are believed to clear heat and detoxify, regulate qi and invigorate blood, benefit the kidneys and replenish vitality, and warm the core while directing qi downward. They are also considered suitable for those with heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and more…

Lin Lan waited until steam began to rise from the wooden steamer, then added two more pieces of firewood to the stove to let the beans steam slowly.

She closed the door, slung the back basket over her shoulders, and went to the foot of the mountain. After several trips, she had carried all the fodder she’d cut that morning to the threshing ground.

When she got home, she lifted the lid to check. The large white beans were already steamed, and the water in the earthenware bowl had almost completely evaporated.

She picked one up and squeezed it gently, and the skin slipped right off.

She took the earthenware bowl out and peeled the skin off all the beans.

Lin Lan checked to make sure all the skins were removed. Then, she went inside and brought out a flour sieve. It was rather old. She’d heard the old lady say that the elders of the Yang family had woven it for her back when they helped her mill flour.

’The old lady’s kindness toward her and Little Douzi was likely due to that old bond,’ she thought. ’After all, such things are mutual.’

’People in this era might be poor, but they remembered kindness. They always thought of repaying even the smallest favor. Ungrateful wretches were a rarity.’

While thinking, she poured the large white beans into the flour sieve. Using a rice paddle, she pressed and mashed the beans into a fine paste, which slowly passed through the mesh of the sieve and into the earthenware bowl below.

She didn’t stop until both her hands were aching and all the beans had been turned into a paste.

Lin Lan shook her sore, stiff hands until they felt a little better. She then added white sugar to the bean paste and began to knead it like dough to increase its stickiness.

Once the bean paste was ready, Lin Lan went under the eaves to retrieve a white cloth. She scalded it with boiling water, squeezed it dry, and set it aside.

She scrubbed the small square table clean. Then, she took out a portion of the red bean paste, about two liang, placed it on the table, and used a rolling pin to flatten it into a rectangular sheet a few millimeters thick. She set it aside.

Next, she placed a portion of the white bean paste, also about two liang, in the center of the damp cloth and rolled it into a rectangular sheet. Then, she laid the red bean paste sheet on top of the white bean paste and pressed down gently.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep