Ba Zong's rural life [farming]

Ruan Xishi held the sachet at a loss, turned around and saw Lu Ze's playful smile, suddenly felt awkward, and explained uneasily: "This, this is also one of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival in our village. It is made of spices, realgar, and cinnabar. It can drive away evil spirits—actually, it can drive away poisonous insects, and it can be sent to relatives and friends.”

Lu Ze said "Oh?" and teased in an ambiguous tone: "Friend, huh?"

Ruan Xishi heard his teasing, immediately became ashamed and annoyed, and eagerly explained: "Ah Xiang and I were very good playmates when we were young, really!"

Lu Ze saw how cute he looked when he became angry from embarrassment, and couldn't help teasing him: "Then why don't you play with her like Zhichao?"

Ruan Xishi looked at him resentfully and said: "Because Ah Xiang has grown up, the custom in the village is that girls can't play with boys all day long after they are 14 years old, and they can't even go out casually except for work." , afraid of being gossiped by the villagers, I haven't seen her for a long time."

Lu Ze suddenly realized and nodded: "I see, so what is the meaning of the sachet she gave you?"

Ruan Xishi's face was still red, hesitantly replied: "It should be a simple gift to a friend."

When Lu Ze met Ruan Xi, it wasn't that he didn't understand love between men and women, but that he was still at the stage where his face would blush when he mentioned love. He hadn't been enlightened in this aspect, like a piece of pure jade, which made people feel pity.He shook his head helplessly, feeling sorry for the girl who was almost in love with Ruan Xishi, and at the same time he was a little bit pleased, although he himself hadn't realized it yet.

Back home, in order to divert his attention, Ruan Xishi was busy cooking and feeding chickens and ducks like a spinning top. Lu Zeyu couldn't bear to help him, so he avoided him in distress.

Seeing his awkward look, Lu Ze couldn't help crying and said, "Xiao Ruan, you have to give me some work, right?"

Ruan Xishi finished cutting the loofah, gave up the cutting board and kitchen knife, and said to him, "Then help me cut the ribs and pork, and cut them into three-inch lengths."

Seeing that he finally paid attention to him, Lu Ze happily accepted the task.

In the evening, there is loofah egg soup, fried pork belly with plum vegetables, the fat of the pork belly is absorbed by the plum vegetables, it tastes fat but not greasy, moderately salty, plus the sweet loofah soup, Lu Ze feels that such days are better than those in the hotel. Fish and meat.

Ruan Xishi ate very quickly. After eating, he put the zong leaves into the pot, poured in the water that had covered the zong leaves, covered the lid, lit the fire to boil the water, and cooked the zong leaves.

Lu Ze took the initiative to clean up the bowls and chopsticks after eating. When he entered the kitchen, he saw Ruan Xishi busy in the fire and smoke. The air smelled faintly of rice dumpling leaves. I don't know if it was an illusion. Lu Ze always felt that the rice dumplings cooked by himself The leaves are more fragrant than other people's.

Ruan Xishi left the zong leaves to boil in hot water, then took out the pork ribs that Lu Ze had cut, put them in oil, salt sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce and stirred them evenly, then covered them and marinated them until tomorrow.

After the fire in the stove was finished, Ruan Xishi ignored the zong leaves in the pot. The zong leaves were soaked in the pot overnight and cooled naturally. The next morning, they took them out and washed them with a brush, and then they were ready to make zongzi.

After finishing all this work, Ruan Xishi brought hot water to the bathroom to take a shower. Maybe he was really tired after a long day of work. He said good night to Lu Ze, didn't even watch TV, and went back to his room to rest.

After taking a shower, Lu Ze sat on his bed—actually Ruan Xishi's bed. Thinking back on Ruan Xishi's performance today, he was obviously talking and laughing at the beginning, but since those girls appeared, he has become like this It's weird, is it because you were smashed by yourself, so you feel shy?

Lu Ze somewhat regretted teasing him, and wondered if it would be too late to apologize to him tomorrow.

Because he wanted to apologize to Ruan Xishi, Lu Ze deliberately got up early the next day, but he had just left the room, and Ruan Xishi, who lived across the street, had just come out of the room, and Lu Ze had a fight with Ruan Xishi before he was ready. A face to face, speechless.

Ruan Xishi called him "Brother Lu Ze" as usual, then stepped forward and handed him a triangular sachet made of flowered cloth.

Lu Ze took the sachet in surprise, and asked as if his tongue was knotted, "Is this for me?"

Ruan Xishi nodded, there was a clear blue shadow under his eyes, after he was teased by Lu Ze yesterday, he felt very awkward, he didn't even watch TV at night, he locked himself in the room, holding a needle and thread overnight Sew a sachet for Lu Ze.

Seeing Lu Ze appreciating his work carefully, he lowered his head embarrassedly and said, "This is my first time doing this, and the needlework is not good, it's ugly, but it can repel insects, hang it on the bed There will be no more mosquitoes on the head."

Lu Ze's heart suddenly seemed to be filled with something, and he was still hot. He almost lost control of his emotions with joy, grinned, and said to Ruan Xishi, "I like it very much. Thank you, Xiao Ruan. I'll go in and treat it right away." It hangs."

When Ruan Xi saw that Lu Ze liked the sachet he made, she also became happy, even working full of energy.

He picked up the zong leaves from the pot. After soaking overnight, the zong leaves turned yellow and the smell was lighter. He put the zong leaves in the vegetable sink, dug well water, and then used the melon pulp to wash the leaves. Brush both sides clean, then rinse with clean water once, and then use it to make zongzi after drying off the water drops.

The process was tiring and boring, Lu Ze also rolled up his trousers, and helped Ruan Xishi wash together by the pressurized well.

After drying the zong leaves, Ruan Xishi washed the glutinous rice and soaked them in clean water, then soaked the mung beans in boiling water, added an appropriate amount of oyster sauce and stirred for later use.

Soy sauce and oyster sauce should also be added to the glutinous rice dumplings, in order to make the glutinous rice part of the dumplings taste good, while the glutinous rice of cold rice dumplings needs to be added with alkaline water. When everything is ready, you can start making dumplings.

Ruan Xishi made the cold rice dumpling first. He held two bamboo leaves in his hand, grabbed a handful of glutinous rice with alkaline water and evenly spread a long strip on the bamboo leaves, then wrapped the glutinous rice with bamboo leaves, and held the thread tightly. Tie it up, and a cold rice dumpling is wrapped.

Lu Ze saw that Ruan Xishi had wrapped a few, and was eager to try it himself. He took two bamboo leaves to follow Ruan Xishi's example, but the cold rice dumplings he wrapped were crooked, and some leaves were crushed, and the glutinous rice leaked out.

Ruan Xishi saw it, and couldn't help laughing and said, "Brother Lu Ze, you put too much glutinous rice!"

Lu Ze tried twice more according to Ruan Xishi's amount, and finally wrapped it decently, and Ruan Xishi even praised him in a very face-saving way.

After making cold rice dumplings, making meat rice dumplings is a bit more troublesome. Ruan Xishi also folded two reed leaves in the palm of his hand, put a handful of glutinous rice on top, made a shallow line in the middle with his finger, put the ribs on top, and then Sprinkle a small handful of mung beans on top, then grab a handful of glutinous rice to bury the pork ribs and mung beans, wrap them in reed leaves, and tie them tightly with string.

Lu Ze had the experience of making cold rice dumplings just now, and he was able to make meat rice dumplings very quickly. Ruan Xishi looked at his results and couldn't help admiring: "Brother Lu Ze, you have a talent for making rice dumplings."

Lu Ze was taken aback by Ruan Xishi's sudden compliment, and almost revealed his identity as a returnee from a prestigious university.

They made ten cold rice dumplings and more than a dozen meat rice dumplings. The cold rice dumplings and the meat rice dumplings required different cooking times and different tastes, so they needed to be cooked in two pots.Ruan Xishi used the pot for boiling water to cook cold rice dumplings, the big pot for cooking vegetables was used to cook rice dumplings, and Lu Ze and others were in charge of the fire for one pot.

The bamboo sticks brought back from Zhushan are very flammable and have a lot of firepower. The only disadvantage is that they are not resistant to burning, and firewood needs to be added every few minutes.

Ruan Xishi was drowsy while sitting in front of the stove. He didn't sleep until midnight last night in order to sew a sachet for Lu Ze. When he couldn't hold on anymore, he secretly closed his eyes and narrowed his eyes for a while.

Lu Ze sat next to him, seeing him nodding from time to time, he knew that he was going to fall asleep, so he took the initiative to take over his task, and said to him: "Xiao Ruan, if you are sleepy, go back to your room and sleep for a while, Let me cook the zongzi."

How could Ruan Xishi let the inexperienced Lu Ze cook the dumplings? He shook his head and reluctantly said, "I can do it."

Lu Ze stubbornly snatched the tongs from his hand, and said half coaxingly and half threateningly: "Be good, go to sleep first, otherwise it will be bad if you plunge into the stove. If you don't worry about it, I will cook it myself, you can Leave it to me, I'll call you if anything happens."

Ruan Xishi was so sleepy that listening to Lu Ze sounded like he was listening to a lullaby. He couldn't hold it any longer, and seeing Lu Ze's concerned face, he nodded and said, "Then I'll go to sleep for about half an hour, brother Lu Ze Watch the water in the pot, if the water level goes down to the lid, add water to the pot until the rice dumplings are covered. If I oversleep, remember to wake me up, the rice dumplings will take about four hours to cook.”

Lu Ze nodded repeatedly, urging him to go to bed quickly, Ruan Xi returned to his room and fell asleep right away.

Ruan Xishi was really tired, and fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up, the sun was already in the west. He remembered that Lu Ze was still cooking rice dumplings in the kitchen, so he rushed out to help.

The kitchen was filled with the smell of zongzi, Lu Ze was still guarding in front of the stove, putting firewood into the stove belly, Ruan Xishi called out to him in embarrassment and walked over to take over his work.

But Lu Ze said to him, "Little Ruan, it's just in time for you to wake up, let's see if the rice dumplings are cooked."

Ruan Xishi responded, took the long chopsticks made of bamboo, and lifted the lid of the pot. The water in the pot was boiling, and the rice dumplings were steaming. It is soft and ripe.Meat dumplings need to be cooked for a while because of their large size.Ruan Xishi turned the heat from the small pot to the big pot, and frantically scooped up the cold rice dumplings in the pot.

"The cold rice dumplings are cooked, and the meat rice dumplings will have to wait for a while. I'll pick up the cold rice dumplings. Let's try the cold rice dumplings first."

Lu Ze looked at the long cold rice dumplings, and his index finger moved in anticipation.

Pick up the cold zongzi and put them in a bamboo basket to dry the water outside the zongzi leaves. The dried zongzi leaves can keep the zongzi in summer for three to five days.

When the cold rice dumpling felt less hot to the touch, Ruan Xi quickly unwrapped the string of a rice dumpling and handed it to Lu Ze to let him peel the rice dumpling leaves.Lu Ze peeled off the zong leaves like a banana, revealing the honey-colored glutinous rice inside. Before eating, he smelled the fragrance of bamboo. Lu Ze couldn't wait to open his mouth and took a big bite.

It has no taste and is a little bit bitter, probably because of the addition of alkaline water, but it still tastes very refreshing in summer.

When Ruan Xishi came back with the sugar jar in his arms, he saw that Lu Ze had already eaten half of the cold rice dumpling. He couldn't laugh or cry, and walked over to Lu Ze and said, "Dip the cold rice dumpling in sugar, otherwise it won't taste good."

Lu Ze stopped chewing, and touched his nose in embarrassment. He ate so fast that the glutinous rice on the zong leaves stuck to it, and said dryly, "Is it like this..."

Ruan Xishi poured half a bowl of sugar into the bowl, and peeled off a cold rice dumpling herself, dipped it in the sugar before putting it in her mouth.

Lu Ze followed suit by dipping in sugar before eating. The sweetness of white sugar neutralized the bitterness of lye, mixed with the sweetness of bamboo leaves, and it tasted much better than before.

After eating the cold rice dumplings, Ruan Xishi stuffed the stove with wood, which could burn for an hour. He clapped his hands and said, "Okay, I guess it will be cooked after this. Let's go out and pick calamus mugwort leaves first."

Lu Ze remembered that the girl he met yesterday also picked mugwort leaves and calamus, so he ate the remaining half of the cold rice dumpling in two or three mouthfuls, washed his hands and said, "Okay."

The calamus and wormwood grow at the foot of the mountain. Ruan Xishi took a sickle. The leaves of wild calamus are very sharp, so you have to be careful when picking them. Ruan Xishi bundled the calamus and wormwood into a small bundle, two bundles in total.

Lu Ze thought that this would be enough, but Ruan Xishi cut a lot more, and Lu Ze asked doubtfully, "What do you want so much for?"

Ruan Xishi replied without looking back: "In addition to hanging on the door, it is also used to boil water for bathing. Its function is similar to that of a sachet. It is used to drive away evil spirits and insects."

Lu Ze suddenly realized.

The author has something to say:

Poison QAQ in the middle of the night