loyal dog becomes cat

A few days later, the weather finally cleared up. Hua Jian went out after lunch that day, and came back in the afternoon and said to Ma Ke, "Brother, I asked Brother Deng Liang from the east of the village to help us take the books to the city tomorrow."

"Oh, that's a good relationship." Ma Ke was relieved, and then asked, "But who is Deng Liang?"

"Deng Liang used to be an employee of our family. When the master was here, he was always very kind. He went to the city to do some work in the first half of the year. He happened to work for the owner of the bookstore, so he was very familiar with it." Huajian said, "I know I made a deal with him, and he said that if the price offered by the boss is fair, the book will be sold in the morning, and the stone mill will be bought in the afternoon, and it will be delivered home in the evening.”

"Well, that would be the best... By the way," Ma Ke said again, "Hana, do you know how much a donkey costs?"

"Donkey?" Huajian thought for a while and said, "It's not expensive, it's much cheaper than cows, but it's not usually sold, and we'll have to wait until the fairs to find out."

"Oh, that's it." Ma Ke nodded, "Let's talk about it when we meet."

The hired worker Deng Liang was very reliable, and a trolley was pulled over early the next morning. Ma Ke helped move all the books to be sold onto the trolley, and said, "Brother Deng, thank you so much."

Deng Liang was an honest rural man, and he never dared to look at Ma Ke. He blushed when he thanked him, scratched his scalp and said, "Miss, you are polite."

Ma Ke asked Hua Jian to give Deng Liang a bottle of shochu, and said, "Brother Deng, you take this bottle of wine, drink it on the way to relieve boredom."

Deng Liang waved his hands again and again, and said with a blushing face: "Miss spent a lot of money, master is a good person, my mother was ill last year, master paid half a year's monthly payment in advance without saying a word, if it wasn't for him, my mother would be afraid to Buried in the ground."

It seems that Mr. Ma is a man who can walk a long way, but it is a pity that his life and death are still uncertain.Ma Ke sighed inwardly, sent Huajian and Deng Liang out the door, watched their backs fade away, and then returned to the house.

After polishing the tofu mold for a while, Ma Ke felt that his neck was a little sore, so he took Liu Xiaodong wandering in the courtyard.

The kitten looked left and right, and suddenly jumped into Hanami's room.

"Hey...why are you going?" Ma Ke hurriedly followed, only to see Liu Xiaodong circling around a soybean bag, and "meow meow" at the same time.

"What do you want?" Marco asked.

Liu Xiaodong continued to yell, but Ma Ke had no choice but to untie the knot, took out a handful of soybeans and put it in front of it, saying: "Well, it's all soybeans, I can't eat them, I can eat them after I make tofu, it's delicious, before Ah, Liu Xiaodong likes to eat my mapo tofu and bean curd fish the most.”

Perhaps because of the name "Liu Xiaodong", when facing this kitten, Ma Ke often thinks of the real Liu Xiaodong, and the scene when they went fishing in the mountains and cooked for him.

Damn it, if only he didn't confess his love to me, Marco thought about it and got angry, what a good buddy he was.

Ma Ke was distracted, and suddenly his hands felt cold, and saw that the kitten Liu Xiaodong had already put all the soybeans in his hand into his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Ma Ke was angry and funny, and taught him a lesson, "You can't eat this stuff indiscriminately, and be careful to make you sick."

Liu Xiaodong's mouth was full of soybeans, and he yelled "Woooooo" a few times, but he didn't spit it out. Ma Ke was afraid that he would really swallow the soybeans, so he said with a straight face, "Spit it out quickly."

Liu Xiaodong shook his head, took a step back with a soybean in his mouth, took a step back, and suddenly turned around and ran away. Ma Ke hurriedly followed and shouted: "Liu Xiaodong, stop for me, it's not fun to be choked by a soybean!"

Liu Xiaodong turned a deaf ear and ran into the kitchen. When Ma Ke followed him, he found that it was standing on the dining table and had already spit out the soybeans on the plate.

"What are you doing?" Ma Ke was panting, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Liu Xiaodong jumped off the table, circled the water tank twice, and yelled, as if reminding him of something.

What does it mean?Marco was puzzled, looked at the plates on the table, and then at the water tank, and suddenly had an idea—bean sprouts?

Ma Ke found a large plate, scooped up some water, soaked some soybeans in it, and placed it next to the stove.

Although he has never grown bean sprouts before, he also knows that a certain temperature is required to grow bean sprouts. Now that the weather is cold, no other place can do it. The temperature on the side of the stove is probably enough because there is residual heat from cooking every day.

"You're really smart." Ma Ke patted Liu Xiaodong's head fondly, and said, "You really came here through time travel, right? You used to like to eat bean sprouts?"

With a dazed expression on his face, Liu Xiaodong stretched out his small paws to pull the soybeans in the water, as if he had no idea of ​​making bean sprouts at all, he just thought it was fun to soak the beans.

"How do you know that bean sprouts need to be grown with water?" Ma Ke pinched Liu Xiaodong's face and asked, "How do you know that there are soybeans at home?"

Still bewildered, Liu Xiaodong licked his wet paws, gave a "meow", then struggled to break free from Ma Ke's restraint, and continued to play with the beans in the water.

Just a coincidence, right?Ma Ke laughed dumbly. It just wanted to play with beans. Besides, it had been catching mice a while ago, and it may not be possible to find soybeans in Huajian's house during patrolling.

No matter how smart a cat is, it is impossible for it to sprout bean sprouts, and it is not a monster.

Ma Ke figured it out, let Liu Xiaodong continue to plan soybeans, and went back to the house to make tofu molds.

At dusk, Huajian came back happily, and ran to Ma Ke's room as soon as she entered the door, saying, "Brother, I'm back."

Ma Ke put down his work and asked, "Have all the books been sold?"

"It's all sold." Huajian said with a smile, "Thanks to Brother Deng Liang, I sold it for a lot of money, and the stone mill was bought back."

"Really?" Ma Ke was also very happy, followed Hua Jian out of the room, and saw Deng Liang sitting on the well platform drinking cold water, the cart was parked outside the gate, and a brand-new stone mill was placed under the eaves.

"Brother Deng, thank you for your hard work." Ma Ke hurriedly asked Hua Jian to make hot tea, Deng Liang glanced at Ma Ke, rubbed his hands with his face flushed, and said, "You don't need to trouble, Miss, you are too polite." After being stunned for a long time, he remembered the business, took out a cloth bag from his arms, and said, "In addition to the stone mill money, there are 13 taels of silver left, take a look."

Those books were originally intended to be sold as scraps. Ma Ke did not expect to sell so much money. Although he knew that some lonely books were very precious and the prices were very high at auctions, but it was modern after all. Deng Liang also sold it for a good price.

"So much?" Ma Ke weighed the purse in his hand and said, "Thank you so much."

Deng Liang chuckled and said, "I used to work in a bookstore, so I know a little bit about the market, not to mention that I'm an acquaintance with the boss, so the price I gave was quite good. Miss, please put the money away quickly, and be careful not to be seen by others." Not safe."

Ma Keyiyan put the money bag into the room, and when he came out again, he saw Huajian directing Deng Liang to put the newly bought stone mill in the woodshed.

"Why are you in such a hurry." Ma Ke complained to Hua Jian, "I told you to make hot tea, but why did someone install a stone mill instead, and I didn't know to let Brother Deng rest."

"It's okay, it's okay." Deng Liang installed the stone mill in twos and twos. Hearing Ma Ke scolding Huajian, he hurriedly waved his hands and said, "I want to pretend it myself. Huajian's sister is boiling water."

Hua Jian stuck out her tongue, and Ma Ke gave her a look and said, "Hurry up!"

After a while Hua Jian brought out hot tea, Deng Liang happily took it, blew on the tea leaves and sipped slowly.

"Brother Deng, stay for dinner tonight." Huanzhou is quite far from Dengzhuang, and it takes several hours to come and go, not to mention pulling a cart full of books, Ma Ke feels that it is quite troublesome for Deng Liang.

"It's nothing, it's a trivial matter, it's not worth it." Deng Liang was an honest person, after drinking tea, he wiped off his sweat, and said, "I have to hurry home, my mother is cooking dinner and waiting for me. "

Ma Ke and Huajian couldn't stay, so they had to send Deng Liang out of the gate. Deng Liang took the cart and walked two steps, then turned back and said, "Miss, sister Huajian, you go back, if there is any heavy work in the future, don't worry about it." Come and call me, if I'm not here, just leave a message for my mother."

Hua Jian nodded, Deng Liang hesitated, and said again: "Miss, there are some things I shouldn't have said, but...you are a family, you have no backbone, you should pay more attention to everything."

Ma Ke felt that there was something in his words, so he stepped forward and said, "Brother Deng, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Deng Liang thought for a while, then Fang said: "You have to be careful of Brother Deng Youcai, and the patriarch Seventh Lord."

Deng Liang left, Huajian went to the kitchen to cook with Nanny Wu, Mrs. Ma was in the room chanting sutras to Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Ma Ke sat alone in the room thinking about Deng Liang's words. After thinking for a long time, he couldn't think of a reason. He said to himself: "People don't offend me, I don't offend others, if people offend me... I am not a vegetarian!"

"Meow." Liu Xiaodong didn't know when he came back from playing with soybeans, and he echoed Ma Ke's muttering very dog-leggedly.

Donkeys for milling and gypsum powder for ordering tofu can only be bought during the market. The market in Dengzhuang only opens on March [-]th. The water was changed for soybeans, because the temperature in the kitchen was high, but half a pot of bean sprouts sprouted in three days.

Because there is no fattening, the sprouts of these bean sprouts are not long, but they are crystal clear and lovely. This evening, the flowers were fried with soybean oil mixed with meat oil, and the whole family was full of praise after eating them.

Mrs. Ma said: "It turns out that there is such a way to eat soybeans. I have never heard of it before. A Ke, how did you know that?"

Marco hesitated, "I read it in a miscellaneous book."

Madam Ma tasted it again, and said: "That's right, I went to Hexiangji with the master to have a banquet, and I didn't see that they had this dish."

Ma Ke asked curiously: "He Xiang Ji? Where is that place?"

Huajian interjected, "It's the most famous restaurant in Huanzhou City."

It’s not bad to think about opening a restaurant, Ma Ke chewed the rice and thought, his cooking skills are not bad, it’s not good in modern times, but it’s still possible to coax the ancients, but there’s no capital, so let’s talk about it later.

After dinner, Hua Jian was cleaning up the kitchen, and Ma Ke walked around the yard, and suddenly remembered the stone mill in Xin'an. Although the gypsum powder has not been bought yet, soy milk can still be ground.

On a whim, Ma Ke went to the woodshed with a pot of soaked soybeans. Fortunately, the stone mill was not too big, and it didn’t take much effort to push it with his hands.

Ma Ke asked Hua Jian to clean the bean dregs with gauze, boiled them carefully over a fire, added some sugar, and brought them to Mrs. Ma himself.

There was no chemical pollution in ancient times. Although the soybeans were of different sizes and did not look good, the soy milk was extremely fragrant. Mrs. Ma drank a couple of sips and said with a smack of her tongue, "Ah Ke, where did you learn to be so sweet?" It is handcrafted, and it is even sweeter than the soy milk from Hexiangji in the city."

Ma Ke hesitated again: "I read it from a miscellaneous book, tried it, and it turned out to be done, mother, I will grind soy milk for you every day from now on." Then he asked Hua Jian to pour a bowl for Mammy Wu, Said: "Nurse Wu, you should try it too."

Seeing that Ma Ke was filial and capable, the two old ladies were very relieved and praised him again and again.

Back in the room, Ma Ke asked Hua Jian: "How famous is this Lotus Fragrance? Why do you compare it when you mention anything delicious?"

"Although Hexiangji is a restaurant in Huanzhou City, most of the cooks are invited from Chongzhou, the imperial capital. I heard that the chef was an imperial cook before." Huajian explained, "not to mention that its boss is a senior official from Ximen."

"A senior official from Ximen?" Ma Ke was very interested. Could it be Ximen Qing?Or Ximen Wuhen?