Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 175 - 174: A Sumptuous New Year’s Eve Feast
New Year’s Eve has arrived.
This year there were no bandits, and those serving labor duties have returned home. The autumn harvest was a bumper crop, and the village has added a water mill factory, allowing many people to earn wages.
In the twelfth month, everyone collectively bought pigs to slaughter, stored them until New Year’s Eve, no longer needing to hold back. They brought out the good meat and vegetables, and every household was filled with the aroma of meat, making the children salivate.
Early in the morning, Jinbao and Jinhua came to deliver tofu to Qin Yao’s family. He and Mrs. Zhang made it, using soybeans harvested from the fields this year, with an especially rich bean fragrance.
The tofu that Liu Ji previously had Da Lang buy was far inferior to that made at the family compound.
Early this morning, Mrs. Zhang and her daughter-in-law got up to make the tofu. Now Jinbao covered it with a bowl and wrapped it in a layer of gauze to bring over. Liu Ji opened the bowl, and it was still steaming.
"Da Lang, Second Lang, Sanlang, Si Niang, come with me to eat douhua!" Jinbao shouted at the courtyard with his voice raised.
Jinhua glanced at him disdainfully, thinking he was just like Grandma said, noisy!
The little girl slipped into the main room. Qin Yao had just gotten up and was washing up, with a bowl of meat wontons Liu Ji brought set on the table. She leaned in to smell them, her eyes lighting up instantly.
"Third Aunt, are you having wontons for breakfast?" The little girl stood behind Qin Yao, curiously asked, trying her best to act uninterested, but her eyes couldn’t help glancing at the table.
How could Qin Yao not know her?
She set aside the face cloth, turned and tapped the little girl’s forehead. "If you want to eat, then eat."
Jinhua immediately beamed, "Thank you, Third Aunt. But I’ve already had breakfast. I’ll just taste one, I’ll try just one."
She stretched out a single finger earnestly to indicate she indeed just wanted to taste.
Seeing Qin Yao nod, she happily sat at the table, scooped one with a spoon, blew on it to cool, and gulped it down in one bite, eyes squinting with delight, "It’s so delicious!"
She ate one as promised, set down the spoon, and offered the seat back to Qin Yao. "I’ll call Si Niang over to my house to eat douhua, Third Aunt, do you want some?"
Qin Yao gestured with her hand, "No need, you all eat. I don’t like it."
"I love it!" Liu Ji said, while rolling out dough and stuffing it with meat filling. The filling had chopped braised beef, and once cooked in the pot, the scent was unbeatable.
The share for the mother and children had already been consumed, and the cook was left for last.
But being last has its perks; he can put all the remaining meat into his own bowl and even add an extra handful of vegetables.
Qin Yao’s portion was also enhanced. After eating one piece, she immediately reached for the second piece, finding it so delicious she couldn’t spare time for words.
"Jinhua, your uncle loves douhua, the sweet one. Da Lang, bring a bowl back for Dad!" Saying this, he pointed to the cabinet, instructing Da Lang to fetch a bowl to serve.
Jinbao’s delighted face immediately went tense. Grandma had saved just a small basin of douhua for them, meant for the kids, Mr. Third Uncle taking such a big bowl, they’d have none left to eat!
Therefore, on the way to the old home, Jinbao kept reminding Second Lang, "It’s not enough for us, don’t serve any to Third Uncle, just say there’s none left."
Second Lang chuckled, "Alright!"
"We’ll eat more ourselves." Sanlang added, recalling the smoothness of the douhua, couldn’t help but lick his lips.
Seeing his greedy look, Jinbao said sourly, "Why didn’t you call me when you had wontons this morning?"
Sanlang opened his clear eyes, innocently said, "Brother Jinbao, I forgot."
Jinbao was so angry he wanted to knock his head, but Da Lang blocked with a stretch of the hand, dodging the hit.
"You’re just protecting the cubs!" Jinbao glared angrily at Da Lang but couldn’t win in a fight, so he turned to seek Second Lang.
Da Lang advised them to watch their step, not to trip and dirty their new clothes.
They all responded with oh, Si Niang and Jinhua gingerly moved forward, giggling at the identical embroidery on their shoes.
Liu Ji finished his breakfast at home, looking forward to the douhua as a dessert afterward. Then Da Lang and the other four returned, bringing him half a bowl of soybeans.
"Where’s the douhua? Where’s my sweet douhua?" Liu Ji asked in shock.
Da Lang stuffed the beans into his arms, Second Lang wiped the douhua crumbs from the corner of his mouth, uttering solemn nonsense, "It’s not enough. Grandma just gave half a bowl of soybeans, said if you want to eat, make it yourself."
"Oh, by the way, using bone broth as the soup base is fragrant too, we’re having hot pot tonight, Dad might as well add it to the soup base, it would surely be aromatic." Second Lang hurriedly supplemented.
Liu Ji looked at the bowl of beans, then at the four ’filial sons’ in front of him, barely holding back from giving Da Lang and Second Lang a spank.
But with Qin Yao lying behind him to digest, he refrained from an outburst, pulling the two older ones into the kitchen, assigning them chores in preparation for tonight’s New Year’s Eve dinner.
The meatballs had already been fried earlier, and tofu was available, but needed to be cut into pieces and lightly fried in oil first, so it wouldn’t fall apart when cooked and tasted even better.
Liu Ji brought over the wild goat tied to the stable, holding a knife, fumbling and at a loss.
Seeing the pitiful plea for help, Qin Yao showed compassion, got up and approached, waving her hand, "Go get a basin, boil water to scald the hair off."
She also advised the Dragon and Phoenix Twins who were peering over from the main room door, "Get inside, close the door, kids shouldn’t watch such violent scenes, you’ll have nightmares."
Sanlang and Si Niang replied with an oh and obediently hid in the room.
Previously, when the village slaughtered pigs, a group of children were curious and went over to watch. As a result, when Qin Yao didn’t pay attention, three out of four kids had nightmares afterward.
After hearing about this, Mrs. Zhang dragged Qin Yao, without a word, to the neighboring village, found a blind woman who burned three eggs, saying feeding the kids them would stop the nightmares.
Qin Yao didn’t believe it, yet after eating the eggs the next day, Second Lang and the Dragon and Phoenix Twins slept soundly and never had another nightmare.
Mrs. Zhang was very pleased, "See, I told you that blind woman was the best, you just wouldn’t believe me, arguing with me."
Qin Yao: "Ah this..." When in doubt, believe in mysticism; the ancients indeed don’t deceive me!
Da Lang and Liu Ji stayed in the courtyard, watching Qin Yao skillfully slaughter the goat with swift cuts.
With boiling water ready, father and son were responsible for scalding off the hair, and after cleaning, Qin Yao was in charge of gutting.
She had a sudden idea, wanting to eat lamb slices, but alas, the heavens didn’t cooperate, there was no snow, no natural freezer for freezing, making slicing soft meat paper-thin quite difficult.
Driven by cravings, Qin Yao still drew out her steel dagger, slowly slicing the meat on the cutting board.
Though she couldn’t achieve the thinness of modern paper, cutting it to the thickness of the commonly-used yellow paper here was feasible.
The candle-lit small kitchen sparkled with flashes of silver as she sliced, dazzling Liu Ji and Da Lang’s eyes to blindness.
The goriest stage had ended, Second Lang, Sanlang, and Si Niang got permission to enter the kitchen.
Every so often checking on Dad as he brewed the lamb bone broth, periodically coming over to Mom’s side to see those piles of paper-thin lamb slices, their mouths salivating countless times.
Finally, Qin Yao lit a string of firecrackers, casually tossed it in the courtyard, amidst a whirlwind of chickens and horses, the New Year’s Eve feast was served on the table.
The family of six enjoyed the most sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner they had ever had.
