"Manman, it’s not the time to ferment pickles," Lady Zhang said with a laugh after hearing Lian Manman mention that she wanted to make pickled vegetables right away, thinking she was just craving them. "Tonight, I’ll make you sweet and sour cabbage slices and add extra vinegar just for you."

"Mom, sweet and sour cabbage isn’t the same as pickled vegetables," Lian Manman laughed.

"Manman, even if I start pickling for you now, it will still take a month before you can eat it," Lady Zhang said.

"Mom, I’ve thought of a way to make the pickles flavorful without waiting a month," Lian Manman said. "Let me try, okay?"

"What have you come up with this time? Fine, I’ll just give you a cabbage to experiment with," replied Lady Zhang. She was usually willing to indulge her children’s requests as long as they weren’t too much.

"Just wait to taste the pickles, Mom," Lian Manman said cheerfully.

In her past life, her parents were both from Northeast China. In their era and region, it was common practice to pickle vegetables in the winter. Back then, resources were scarce, and it was difficult to get fresh vegetables during winter, so most of the time, pickles were essential for surviving the season.

Later on, when the days became more prosperous and an array of fresh vegetables was available all year round, her family still had a special fondness for pickles, not satisfied with only having them during the winter. Some vendors capitalized on this demand and figured out a way to ferment pickles in just a few days.

Her family bought pickles from these vendors a couple of times, but after seeing the utensils used for pickling, they felt it was safer and more sanitary to make their own. Lian Manman had learned from her parents how to make delicious pickles in a short amount of time.

This method of pickling was straightforward and didn’t require complex ingredients, so Lian Manman was quite confident. She called Lian Zhizhi and Xiao Qi for help.

"Let’s pickle two cabbages first," said Lian Manman. She knew two methods for quick pickling and wanted to try them both. And besides, what looked like a large fresh cabbage would at least halve in volume once pickled. For a family of six like theirs, one pickle wasn’t enough for a single meal.

Lian Manman picked two large cabbages, breaking off the slightly damaged outer leaves and chopping off the roots with a kitchen knife.

Then, taking one cabbage, she began breaking it into individual sections on the chopping board. Following the method for slicing pickled cabbage, she used the back of the knife to gently hit the bulging parts of the sections, flattening them before slicing them into thin pieces.

This required skillful knife work, so Manman simply asked Lady Zhang to help. Lady Zhang held down a cabbage section with one hand and sliced neatly into the top of it with the other. With a quick tear, she created thin, almost transparent cabbage slices. From one cabbage section, Lady Zhang was able to produce four or five thin slices that remained connected at the base of the leaves.

After slicing the cabbage into thin pieces, they stacked them and then cut them into extremely fine shreds.

Watching Lady Zhang skillfully finish a cabbage in no time, Lian Manman was both envious and full of admiration.

"Are we cutting that one, too, Manman?" asked Lady Zhang after finishing one cabbage, seemingly eager to continue.

"We’ll leave that one for now. You can go ahead with your work, Mom," Lian Manman quickly replied, then turned to ask Xiao Qi, "Xiao Qi, is the water boiling yet?"

Xiao Qi looked up from the stove, "Second sister, the water is ready."

"First, we need to blanch the cabbage shreds in the water," Lian Manman explained.

She took a large strainer, soaked the cabbage shreds in the water, counted silently to ten in her heart, then lifted the strainer out. She emptied the blanched cabbage shreds into a clean wooden basin that had been prepared earlier. After all the cabbage shreds were blanched, Lian Manman told Xiao Qi not to keep the fire going and let the water in the pot cool down on its own.

Next came squeezing the water out of the blanched cabbage shreds. The process was simple, involving just taking handfuls of cabbage shreds and squeezing tightly.

Unfortunately, there were no thick rubber gloves available to protect their hands from the still-hot cabbage shreds, making the process somewhat painful. Yet, this step had to be done while hot to ensure the pickles would taste good.

Lian Manman decided to persevere.

"I’ll do it," she said.

Lady Zhang, who had stayed close by, walked over with a smile upon seeing Lian Manman’s face twist from the heat.

"My hands have thick calluses and can tolerate the heat. You young ladies’ hands are still delicate," she said.

As she spoke, she began working. She truly seemed unfazed by the heat. Her hands were bigger than both Lian Manman and Lian Zhizhi’s and also stronger. In no time, she had efficiently formed the shredded cabbage into several balls.