SFS Chapter 381 The Joy of Children
Chapter 381 The Joy of Children
The one who had just finished the inspection was Niu Songjia. He was about to leave with an empty sack when he suddenly heard this shout. He was so frightened for no reason that his legs went limp.
"Sir, sir, the grain my family has delivered is all new grain this year, and this official has just checked it." Niu Song thought there was something wrong with his own grain, and he was so anxious that he stuttered while making excuses.
The villagers are all well-known men in the village, but when they come in front of the officials, they instantly become mice seeing a cat.
It's not fatal, but it's a fear deep in my bones.
What are you afraid of? I don’t know!
The grain officer looked up at him seriously and asked, "Your name is Wen Wuyan?"
"Ah? No, no, I'm Niu Song." Niu Song breathed a sigh of relief after saying this when he saw that the person was not looking for him.
He was originally going to Wen Wuyan's house, but he didn't know who the grain officer was talking about when he said "wait", so he stopped there and didn't move.
Hearing that they were looking for him, he pulled the cart forward and said to the grain officer, "Sir, I am Wen Wuyan."
The grain official looked down at the booklet, then looked up at him. He just felt that he was a little different from the honest villagers around him who looked at him with fear and trepidation. What was the difference? The grain official couldn't tell for a moment.
"How much grain does your five acres of land produce?" asked the grain officer.
Wen Wuyan glanced at the grain officer and answered honestly, "Eighteen stones."
"Eighteen shi? Every household in other villages can produce at most ten shi of grain per five acres. Even the few households in your village can only produce around nine shi. Why is your family special?" the grain officer asked in a serious tone.
But his gaze was looking between Wen Wuyan and Wu Shan, and finally fell on Wu Shan. Did you, the village chief, make a mistake?
Wu Shan hurried forward to explain, "Sir, yes, his family is 18 stones, we all saw it."
Seeing that the grain official didn't believe him, Wen Wuyan bowed to him again and then said that he had added more fertilizer, "So the yield is high this year."
"Why does this sound so familiar?" The grain officer muttered to himself, but his face remained serious.
He looked at Wen Wuyan again and was very interested in the "fertilizer" he mentioned. When he was about to ask him to tell him the method, the grain official seemed to have thought of something and blurted out, "Do you know the Shen Mansion in town?"
"Shen Mansion? But it's the residence of Master Shen Lin? Of course I recognize it." Wen Wuyan continued to answer sincerely.
hiss!
The grain officer wanted to find out from Wen Wuyan what the "fertilizer" he mentioned was, but when he heard that he dared to mention the name of the master of the Shen family, the thought was instantly suppressed.
After staring at Wen Wuyan for a while with narrowed eyes, he had an idea in his mind. The person in front of him must have some relationship with the Shen family, so the Shen family gave him the method of fermenting manure.
No wonder I felt so familiar when I heard him say it just now.
Well, it seems that the matter of fermenting manure or fertilizer is indeed useful. Niutoushan Village is the last village in Taohua Town. He can go back to the county tomorrow. He must have a good talk with Shangguan about this matter.
The grain officer had a plan in mind, and accepted Wen Wuyan's grain contribution without making a fuss. Wen Wuyan naturally didn't know that because the Shen Mansion had started construction earlier than his own family, his family's high yield was attributed to the Shen Mansion.
......
Days passed one by one, and Wen Wuyan had cleaned up the wheat stubble fields these days. He built high ridges on four acres of the land, intending to use it to plant some rice.
Qingqing said she wanted to plant sweet potatoes and peanuts on the remaining acre, so Wen Wuyan turned the land several times while he was still at home until it was loose and soft.
Home.
Gu Qingqing poured the wheat grains that had been soaked in water two days ago onto the bamboo strips that were usually used for drying things, to maintain moisture during the germination process.
The children watched the wheat sprouts turn from tender yellow to emerald green, and asked anxiously again, "Aunt, will they really not turn into wheat in the field and produce wheat ears?"
"will not."
Seeing that they didn't believe her, Gu Qingqing smiled at them and said, "Because I don't give them a chance. Okay, let's get to work."
As she spoke, she had already started to peel the wheat husks from the bamboo strips, which looked like lawn in the park. The process was accompanied by the rustling sound of roots being torn off, which was very relaxing to listen to.
At Gu Qingqing's instruction, she took the basin, ladle, chopping board and knife, and carried the sprouted wheat grains herself.
When she lived in the wooden house, she used bamboo tubes to bring water down from the hillside and into the vat. The original big vat is still there, because the water her family drinks now is still carried from this big vat into the vat in the yard.
At this time, Gu Qingqing brought the children to wash the malt here.
She cleaned the malt and started to chop it into pieces, then put it into the stone mortar at home and used a pestle to pound the malt until it was slightly broken.
"Mom, why do we have to mix the freshly steamed glutinous rice with this malt?" Erhua asked confusedly while watching from the side.
Gu Qingqing paused, and after thinking for a moment, she really didn't know how to explain it, so she could only evade the main point and say, "I don't know why, but I know that this is the only way to make candy."
Making sugar is definitely a complicated process. From morning to afternoon when Luo Meihua and Wen Shengxi came back, Gu Qingqing was already boiling the final sugar juice.
"Wow, the house smells so sweet." Luo Meihua walked into the yard and smelled the green wheat and sweetness in the air and exclaimed.
"Yeah, I smelled it too, it's so sweet." Wen Shengxi showed his little canine teeth when he smiled.
"Aunt, auntie, mom is making candy for us." Erhua, who was squeezed in the kitchen, heard the noise coming from the yard. He hurried to the door and said happily.
"You're squeezed in the kitchen with sweat all over your head. Don't you feel hot?" Luo Meihua, holding something in her hand, glanced at Erhua, whose little face was flushed and forehead was covered with sweat, and asked.
"Auntie, we're not hot." Erhua said and squeezed back into the kitchen.
It was really crowded. There were about five or six children gathered in the small kitchen. Even though their faces were flushed from the heat, they were reluctant to leave.
All eyes were fixed on the sweet-smelling water in the pot.
Gu Qingqing looked at the amber syrup in the pot with a strong smile on her face. She turned her head and asked, "Are your bamboo sticks ready?"
"Okay!" Then the children in the room raised the bamboo sticks that Grandpa Yang made for them, which were thinner and shorter than chopsticks, and showed them to Gu Qingqing.
"Okay." Gu Qingqing then looked at Dahua who was in charge of the fire, "You can stop the fire now."
"Daxin, give me the bamboo sticks. I'll teach you how to twist the candy."
Twisted sugar is made by twisting, turning and rotating two bamboo sticks continuously. After Gu Qingqing used Daxin's bamboo stick to twist some maltose syrup and showed it in the air, she saw the children were eager to try it, so she handed the bamboo stick to Li Xin and twisted a ball of syrup the size of a red date for each child. Then she drove them out of the kitchen and let them play in the yard.
Twisting sugar is a job that requires practice to become proficient. Several children had not learned what Gu Qingqing had just demonstrated at all, and were all busy trying to prevent the syrup on the bamboo sticks from falling to the ground.
Daxin, Dahua, Zhao Jianghe, Danju and Sijiao are older and can still be dealt with, but the remaining Erhua, Qiceng and Lulin are not so easy to deal with.
Randomly roll the syrup onto a bamboo stick and form two balls, one large and one small.
"Mom, how long will it take us to get here?" Erhua actually had time to ask questions.
Gu Qingqing saw that they were busy but no one dropped the candy on the ground, so she said, "Just wait until it turns white."
Later, a phenomenon appeared in the village. A few naughty children always wrapped candies on bamboo sticks and deliberately went to the villagers to show off. The other children in the village were so greedy that their eyes widened and they drooled a lot.
He cried and begged his parents, and used half a bowl of wheat to exchange for a small ball of syrup, and then followed the people who had syrup around.