Chapter 50

What looked like a simple task proved far from easy. For a full half-hour, Shen An's arms grew sore, yet less than a third of the chopping board had been sawed through.

The little man was dumbfounded.

Sang Luo smiled and took over the saw. "Come, let me take a turn."

Taking turns every quarter of an hour, even little Shen Ning tried her hand at it. After spending more than an hour, the board was finally sawed off. The one adult and two children gathered around to inspect it, running their hands over the surface—it actually turned out quite nice!

Shen An and Shen Ning were thrilled. Having personally participated in sawing the board, the sense of achievement and satisfaction was indescribable. Since it was already evening, the two little ones looked at Sang Luo with bright, shining eyes and urged her, "Eldest Sister-in-law, let's make dinner."

Sang Luo looked at the sky; it was doable. She put away the sour jujube cakes that had been drying outside, packed them into the jars that had been emptied out today, and set about making the evening meal.

The advantage of having a double stove was immense: one stove could be used for steaming rice while the other boiled soup and cooked dishes, saving a great deal of time. However, when it came to cutting vegetables, although the chopping board was a fine one, using a bamboo knife on eggplants required a clever application of strength—it sounded contradictory, didn't it? It wasn't.

One had to use the sharp tip to pierce the eggplant skin first to break through; that required a deft trick, but piercing the skin still demanded a certain amount of muscle.

"The main household items our family is still missing are a water vat and a kitchen knife."

Neither of these was cheap, especially the kitchen knife. Ironware was quite expensive in these times.

Sang Luo felt the money pouch hanging at her waist. There was practically nothing left inside, probably fewer than ten copper coins. Tomorrow's sale of fairy tofu and sour jujube cakes combined would bring in around four hundred copper coins, so buying both items was out of the question. Without a water vat, they could make do with wooden buckets for now, but buying just the kitchen knife would likely wipe out all her remaining cash and tomorrow's earnings.

They still had to host guests the day after tomorrow, so money for grocery shopping had to be saved.

Involuntarily, Sang Luo's gaze drifted toward the stone mill in the kitchen.

Shen An had been wanting to ask about that. What was the stone mill bought for?

It was just that from the moment their eldest sister-in-law had returned, she had not stopped for a moment, arranging one thing after another: buying chickens and ducks, installing a new bed, gathering straw and rush mats, and right after that, weaving duck pens, building chicken coops, and making a chopping board. Truly, she was so busy she was practically spinning. The brother and sister had completely cast the stone mill, which was the first thing brought into the house, to the back of their minds.

Now, hearing their eldest sister-in-law mention buying a kitchen knife, feeling her money pouch, and casting her gaze toward the stone mill, Shen An finally remembered.

"Eldest Sister-in-law, what did we buy that stone mill for?"

Sang Luo smiled. "To make money."

She patted Shen An's shoulder. "Eldest Sister-in-law will make you another delicious treat today. Well, I suppose we won't get to eat it until the middle of the night."

Then, amidst the skeptical and expectant gazes of the two little ones, she took down the bag of soybeans hanging from the kitchen beam.

Shen An had long known that their sister-in-law had a separate purpose for those soybeans. Having waited for so long without seeing any movement, he finally saw her pull them out today. The brother and sister exchanged glances and crowded closer together.

"Eldest Sister-in-law, do we use the stone mill to make food out of these soybeans?"

Sang Luo smiled and nodded. "Yes."

Both Shen An and Shen Ning were somewhat stunned. Everyone had eaten soybeans; when there was no grain, these served as meals, but soybean rice wasn't all that tasty—far inferior to white rice. When there was grain, they were used as a vegetable dish or for making paste. Aside from that, what else could be done with them?

Sang Luo didn't explain. Recently, she mostly set up stalls in the county town where bartering was rare, and people mostly paid directly with copper coins. Therefore, these soybeans were the ones she had obtained earlier at the market and by trading with the carrying-pole vendors who sold fairy tofu in various villages—five liters in total.

If she were just selling them at the stall, this amount of soybeans wasn't much, so Sang Luo poured all of them into a bucket. She carried the bucket outside, fetched water from the mountain spring, washed the beans twice, and then refilled the bucket with water before carrying it back into the kitchen.

Shen An and Shen Ning followed her every step. That was it?

Their reactions were written all over their faces, causing Sang Luo to laugh. "Let them soak for two hours first. Let's make dinner."

Having made up her mind to keep mum, the brother and sister had to suppress their curiosity and help prepare the meal.

When preparing food, Sang Luo possessed the utmost patience. Even though the knife wasn't sharp enough, she still meticulously sliced the eggplants into thick rounds, then cut those rounds into strips about the thickness of a little finger. Once they were all cut, she pulled the pottery basin closer, tossed the eggplant strips inside, sprinkled them with salt, and massaged them to draw out the moisture.

For home-cooked eggplant, this step was crucial. Eggplants from which moisture had been extracted did not require excessive oil and would still taste tender and fresh when taken out of the pan. Of course, Sang Luo believed that the variety of eggplant and the growing conditions were equally important. The taste of the eggplants she bought at a supermarket during her first year of working in her past life versus the ones she later grew herself in the mountains were worlds apart.

To put it simply, too many things in the city were forced to grow rapidly and truly couldn't compare to what one grew in the countryside oneself.

Once the eggplants and salt were thoroughly mixed, she called out to the two little ones, "Let's go. Let's pick some wild scallions and cut some wild chives."

Living in the mountains, wild vegetables were truly in abundance, especially since they no longer relied on wild greens to stave off hunger as they used to. The ones that had been previously harvested had grown back. There was no need to venture to other hills; they could simply continue harvesting around their own homestead.

After a short stroll outside, each of the three returned with a handful.

Naturally, very few scallions were needed, so most of what they gathered were chives. Behind the house, they also picked a large handful of mint leaves, where Shen An and Shen Ning had transplanted six or seven mint and perilla plants.

They washed them by the mountain spring right outside their door and brought them back to the kitchen. Sang Luo retrieved a clove of garlic from beneath the wooden chopping board, peeled a few cloves, chopped them, and set them aside.

By this time, the eggplants were well-marinated. Sang Luo took the filtering cloth normally used for making fairy tofu, placed it inside an empty pottery basin, put all the eggplants into the cloth, wrapped them up, and squeezed out as much moisture as possible before having Shen Ning light the cooking stove.

Shen Ning watched attentively, stoking the fire while asking about the steps she didn't quite understand. Through the concerted efforts of the sister-in-law and sister-in-law-to-be, a dish of mint-braised eggplant and another of stir-fried eggs with wild chives were cooked and removed from the pan. They also tossed together a plate of dandelions—yes, those were the extra ones picked while foraging for chicken feed—and the three dishes were served on the small square table Chen Youtian had helped build.

After dinner, Sang Luo led the two little ones to sort out the extra thick bamboo branches from the previous day and that afternoon, carrying them all to the vegetable garden behind the house. Since they were raising chickens now, they had to build a bamboo fence, otherwise, some of the vegetable seeds would be scratched up and eaten by the chickens before they even sprouted.

Compared to building a chicken coop, this was much simpler. Both Shen An and Shen Ning could pitch in; it only cost time.

By the time the sky had completely darkened, only half of it was finished.

It was too dark to see anymore, so Sang Luo stopped fussing. Thinking of the chickens and ducks raised in the backyard and fearing they might attract snakes, rats, or similar pests, she rummaged out the bag of snake-repellent powder given by Old Mrs. Chen and sprinkled it in a circle along the perimeter of their fence.

There, now even they could sleep in peace.

The old woman had said this stuff was made from certain herbs and posed no harm to humans, chickens, or ducks. Seeing how quickly she used it, the old woman had prepared a large bag for her.

As usual, fairy tofu had to be made at night. The only difference was that while waiting for the second batch of fairy tofu to set, Sang Luo saw that the beans were sufficiently soaked and brought Shen An and Shen Ning along to make tofu.

The brother and sister followed the entire process closely, not only tasting the soybean milk but also watching as their eldest sister-in-law, much like when she made fairy tofu, magically caused the soybean milk in the pot to gradually solidify.

After working late into the night, each of them had a bowl of sweet tofu pudding.

Thinking this was the final state, they discovered it wasn't; the pudding still had to be scooped into a wooden mold lined with a filter cloth, pressed down with a matching wooden board, and weighted with a large stone on top. After about half an hour, Shen An and Shen Ning watched as their eldest sister-in-law removed the heavy stone, lifted the board, and peeled back the tofu cloth. The hearts of the brother and sister began to beat faster.

Just like the fairy tofu, it had solidified into blocks.

They were both amazed by what they saw and felt they shouldn't be surprised, since their eldest sister-in-law had already created fairy tofu and sour jujube cakes.

"It's done. I didn't make much today, so I'll carry all of it to sell in the county town early tomorrow morning. When we host the banquet the day after tomorrow, Eldest Sister-in-law will make a few more tofu dishes for you to eat."

Shen An and Shen Ning nodded like pounding pestles. They had eaten fairy tofu before, but what would tofu made from soybeans taste like?

The day of the banquet hadn't arrived yet, but they were already looking forward to it.

Sang Luo inspected all three trays of tofu. The quality was excellent, looking no worse than what was sold in supermarkets, and she felt quite satisfied.

She took a bamboo knife and cut them: sixteen pieces per tray, making forty-eight pieces across three trays.

She covered the tofu cloth back up and began mentally calculating how to price this tofu: two copper coins or three copper coins a piece?

The cost was truly low—five liters of beans cost only twenty copper coins. Selling them for two copper coins a piece would still yield a handsome profit. Forty-eight pieces of tofu would bring in ninety-six copper coins, leaving a profit of seventy-six copper coins after deducting costs.

As for the negligible cost of the gypsum, it could be ignored.

In fact, once she did this for a longer time and her skills improved, one liter of beans would yield even more tofu. But that was a matter for later. Calculated for now, the cost was roughly around that amount.

Since she made little today, she would sell all the tofu herself tomorrow, and those ninety-six copper coins would be entirely hers. Sang Luo calculated in her mind, figuring the money should be enough to buy one chicken and one duck tomorrow. As for the meat and eggs, meat couldn't be kept for long and had to be bought fresh on the morning of the twenty-fifth. Since everyone would be busy with farming that day, there probably wouldn't many people at the market. Carrying some tofu and fairy tofu to sell from village to village wasn't an unviable option.

She could still earn enough money to buy some meat and trade for eggs, and by keeping some tofu for themselves along with the vegetarian dishes the three families would send over, the banquet could be put together decently.

With this calculation, her mind finally settled.

There was a bathing tub at home. After finishing her work while drenched in sweat, she waited for the perspiration to subside slightly before taking a comfortable bath. She checked on the chickens and ducks to ensure everything was fine, and then returned to her room to get ready for bed.

Shen An and Shen Ning were a bit overly excited today, unusually staying up as late as Sang Luo.

There was one new bed and one old bed. Shen An had admired the new bed enough during the day, and now he headed off to the old bed by himself, leaving the new bed for his eldest sister-in-law and younger sister.

Sang Luo waved her hand in refusal. "Ah Ning can sleep in the new bed if she wants, but I won't."

She preferred the inner side, so she pulled a curtain across—privacy was secured. As for the two little ones sleeping in the same bed, given their age in the countryside, it was still acceptable. Next year, when they leveled the sloping land on the side to make it flush with the house foundation and added two west rooms, the brother and sister could each have their own room.

Seeing that she truly refused to sleep in the new bed, the brother and sister didn't need any further urging and both scrambled onto the new bed.

Shen Ning was quite fond of clinging to Sang Luo. Even after rushing to the new bed, she didn't forget to promise Sang Luo, "Eldest Sister-in-law, I'll only sleep in the new bed tonight. Tomorrow I'll come back and sleep with you again."

Sang Luo laughed heartily. "I don't need company; sleeping alone is quite spacious. You go ahead and sleep in the new bed."

Hearing this, Shen Ning felt a tinge of disappointment, but for the moment, the new bed was much more appealing. Tomorrow's matters could wait until tomorrow; she happily bounded onto the new bed.

Shen An, knowing he was a boy and that it wasn't proper to squeeze onto the same bed with his sister-in-law and sister, said nothing. However, his usual calm demeanor from the afternoon—where he had claimed to be a little man—completely vanished. Right then, he was rolling around in sheer delight on the new bed and new rush mat.

Having had his fill of joy, the brother and sister each pulled out an old piece of clothing to cover their bellies, which counted as having a blanket.

Sang Luo watched and made a mental note. Their family still lacked two sets of pillows and quilts. Perhaps she should also buy an oil lamp. Relying on moonlight and stove fire—or lighting a pile of firewood on a stone slab when the moonlight wasn't bright enough—wasn't entirely out of the question, but it was inconvenient.

She lay down as well.

Since time-traveling, this was the first time Sang Luo could sleep in a bed all by herself. Embracing that cozy feeling, she stretched out her arms and legs for a moment, then happily rolled over with a laugh, instantly understanding why the two children had rolled around in cartwheels on the bed.

Seeing their eldest sister-in-law also rolling around on her bed, Shen An and Shen Ning giggled gleefully from the other bed.