Chapter 90: Chapter 54: The Rotating Stone Mill (2)

She chattered and laughed as she bustled about, pushing forward and pulling back, but after just a few turns, she was panting and couldn’t move anymore.

Yang Family came over, took one look, and laughed. “That won’t do! You and Huai Zi aren’t in sync. Huai Zi, shorten your steps—yes! Just like that! See? Now it’s moving!”

As Juhua pushed the stone mill, a distant memory from her past life surfaced. She was a little girl again, helping her mother grind sweet rice flour with a similar mill, though that one had been smaller.

For a moment, she was lost in a daze, transported back to the past, excitedly pushing the mill in anticipation of eating sweet dumplings. The image of her mother from that memory was hazy, and as she tried to recall it more clearly, it seemed to merge with the figure of Yang Family. In her trance, she couldn’t distinguish her past life from her present one.

She shook her head. ’Why am I thinking about this? A mother in my past life, a mother in this one—it’s all the same tender maternal love!’

Juhua composed herself and focused on pushing the mill.

Gradually, a fresh sense of excitement took hold of her. She pushed gleefully, watching Zhang Huai. To match her pace, he had to uncomfortably hunch over and take small steps, his arms bent. He looked less like he was grinding and more like he was playing a game with her. It was quite amusing!

She couldn’t help but let out a crisp peal of laughter. Her laughter mingled with Yang Family’s constant pointers and corrections, and for a moment, the kitchen was so lively that even Zheng Changhe was drawn inside.

Although Zhang Huai found pushing the mill in this manner stifling, he was incredibly happy. He frequently glanced down at Juhua with a gentle look, and seeing her having so much fun made him smile too.

After struggling for a while, she had indeed warmed up. Juhua felt she couldn’t go on and said to Zheng Changhe, “Dad, you take over. I’m done for.”

After she handed the millstone handle to her father, the work went much faster with two strong men like Zheng Changhe and Zhang Huai pushing.

Once all the acorns were ground, Juhua had the two of them hold up a fine cloth and repeatedly knead and rub the acorn mash inside it while constantly rinsing it with water. Filtered through the cloth, the fine, smooth acorn flour flowed with the water into a basin below, leaving only a large lump of pulp behind.

Seeing her plan had succeeded, Juhua said joyfully to Qingmu, “It’s done! We’ll just change the water and let it soak for another day. I refuse to believe it’ll still have any bitter taste after that.”

She said this deliberately, to make it seem like it was her first time doing this.

Qingmu was deeply impressed. He was now convinced that the acorn flour produced this way would certainly be edible. After all that soaking, grinding, washing, and leaching, any bitterness would have been worked right out of it.

He narrowed his eyes and jerked his chin at Zhang Huai, as if to say, ’See that? How clever is Juhua!’

Zhang Huai’s feelings for her were already deeply rooted, and seeing how resourceful Juhua was made his heart melt even more. However, amidst his joy, he couldn’t help but feel that she had grown a little more distant from him.

Yang Family and Zheng Changhe also praised her profusely.

Yang Family took a pinch of the flour between her fingers, rubbing it. A wide smile spread across her face as she said, “I bet Juhua’s right. If what we make from this is tasty, who would bear to feed it to the pigs? Even our corn grits aren’t this fine and smooth.”

Zheng Changhe quickly added, “Didn’t we get a lot of pulp from the washing? That’ll be great for feeding the pigs. Huai Zi, when you get home, tell your father to go pick some on the mountain once the snow melts. We didn’t say anything before because we weren’t sure how the pigs would take to it. Now that we’ve figured it out, you can just do what we did. Tell Zhao San tomorrow, too.”

Zhang Huai quickly agreed. He said, “Qingmu already told me. There are plenty of oak trees on Little Qing Mountain, so there will be lots to gather.”

Zheng Changhe chuckled. “The back of this mountain is likely picked clean; you’ll have to go farther out. We’ve already gathered everything here.”

Zhang Huai smiled. “Well, it’s all on Little Qing Mountain, isn’t it?”

After dinner, Yang Family packed a large jar of pig’s head meat for Zhang Huai to take home for his father to enjoy with his wine.

Zhang Huai didn’t stand on ceremony. He accepted it with both hands and said gratefully to Yang Family, “Then I must thank you, Auntie.”

’He was eager to get closer to Yang Family. Isn’t there a saying, “The more a mother-in-law sees of her son-in-law, the more she likes him”? Once Juhua’s whole family approved of him, maybe Juhua herself would see him in a better light.’

Yang Family smiled. “What’s there to thank me for? It’s nothing special. We sell less in the winter, so we have some to spare. We won’t have this much leftover next year.”

’She looked at the young man, a bittersweet feeling in her heart. If Juhua’s face hadn’t been ruined, wouldn’t he be the perfect, ready-made son-in-law?’

’When the malicious gossip first started, she had been angry, but after thinking it over, she let it go. It was only natural for a young man to want to marry a pretty wife. Wasn’t this boy just like her own Qingmu? If Qingmu wanted to marry someone who looked like Juhua, she’d probably have to think twice herself.’

’Thinking this way, she found Huai Zi more and more agreeable. So what if he couldn’t be her son-in-law? He and Qingmu were good friends, and his father was good friends with Qingmu’s father. The two families were close; there was no need to ruin that relationship over this matter.’

When Zhang Huai was leaving, Juhua was in the kitchen, fussing with a stewpot. In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to kill a chicken, so she decided to stew pig stomach with ginseng instead, adding five or six slices of the ginseng Qin Feng had given her.

’She didn’t dare add too much. Ginseng was a powerful restorative, and while it would certainly be good for her health, she couldn’t be sure if it might also “nourish” the blemish on her face and make it flare up. For instance, eating shrimp always caused a reaction. So, she wanted to test it first.’

She was preoccupied with thoughts of how to manage her health, so Zhang Huai was both vexed and hurt when he didn’t see her come out to send him off. ’This girl is nothing like she used to be,’ he thought bitterly. ’Back then, she would find any excuse to circle around me, steal a quick glance, and then timidly and obediently busy herself nearby, never daring to disturb me and Qingmu.’

’Now, things were reversed. He was the one finding excuses to circle around her and steal glances—and he was afraid she didn’t even notice!’

Wallowing in self-pity, he started for home. The frozen ground went CRUNCH CRUNCH under his feet, and on the quiet village path in the dead of night, he felt exceptionally lonely as he trudged along by himself. His heart, too, felt just as lost and unmoored.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep