Proofread by Claire.KK
“Ma, we still have some sticky rice powder left over from the Spring Festival, which was prepared for making tang yuan (boiled rice dumpling; stuffed dumpling made partly or wholly of glutinous rice flour served in soup), right? Can you take some out for me?” asked Ye Xiaoxian again.
Li Hongmei felt a little unwilling. “The sticky rice powder is dear. Are you going to cook it with those wild herbs?”
“Ma, no. Just pass me some. I only need a pinch. I can’t use too much either.” Ye Xiaoxian was thinking to try it out first. If she succeeded, she would make more.
Though Li Hongmei was not particularly up to it, she still went to fetch some.
Baozhu murmured again beside her, “Ma, you’re really listening to everything she says?”
Li Hongmei wasn’t willing to but she felt that Ye Xiaoxian had somehow changed into another person with a powerful aura, and she couldn’t help but do as Little Ye said.
Ye Xiaoxian’s Chinese mesona and “legendary tofu” herb had been rubbed and squeezed. She had filtered the leaves and left the green juice in the basin. She then made the sticky rice powder into rice paste and stirred it in with the green juice.
Miraculously within a quarter of an hour, these two basins of green juice had become solid. Ye Xiaoxian became cheerful – she had succeeded! She firstly carried the “legendary tofu” and placed it somewhere beside the stove and then asked Baozhu to make a fire.
The stove had also been rigged up temporarily. After having moved apart out of the big family, they were not allowed to use the kitchen that belonged to Old Mr. Xiao. Luckily there was a stove left in this row of houses from the past, so now they could make use of it.
Baozhu reluctantly made a fire and she was just going to see what on earth was up Ye Xiaoxian’s sleeve. When Baozhu had lit the fire and then raised her head, she found that the green thing in the basin had been cut into cubes by Ye Xiaoxian.
The wok had already been heated and Ye Xiaoxian poured a little oil in it, putting the green tofu into the wok and, after a few moments of stir-frying, the fragrance of the green tofu was released. They looked more inviting than those herbal soups.
Baozhu then gulped.…
While Ye Xiaoxian was cooking, she heard a coarse voice echoing outside. “Ma, I’m back!”
“Baoshan, you come back. Huh, what’s this?”
“Pig’s offal. Someone gave it to me,” said Xiao Baoshan.
Baozhu heard that Baoshan had come with something, she ran outside excitedly but once she glanced at the pig’s guts, livers and hearts in Xiao Baoshan’s hands, she became disappointed.
Those were the most disgusting things which smelt like manure. None of the villagers ate that stuff when they slaughtered pigs, unless they were starving.
Ye Xiaoxian also came out from the kitchen. She firstly saw the tall and broad Xiao Baoshan, because of whom the humble village house had developed an old picturesque charm.
“Let me handle these,” said Ye Xiaoxian.
She then came to take the pig’s offal from Xiao Baoshan’s hands. Xiao Baoshan hesitated and did not hand the stuff to Ye Xiaoxian right away as he was afraid it might stain her.
But Ye Xiaoxian insisted that she cook it herself. Between the pushing and shoving, the bodies of the two people inevitably touched each other. Ye Xiaoxian felt that his body was like a cloud of fire. As they had physical contact, Xiao Baoshan suddenly let go, and Ye Xiaoxian grabbed the pig’s offal in her hand.
“You’re afraid of me so?” asked by Ye Xiaoxian with her head raised.
Xiao Baoshan didn’t answer, looking somewhat uneasy.
“Rash fellow!” taunted Ye Xiaoxian, meanwhile feeling that Xiao Baoshan was really cute.
She just remembered that the “legendary tofu” was in the wok. She suddenly shoved the pig’s offal back to Xiao Baoshan’s hands again. “Wash it up for me and I’ll cook it later!”