Chapter 19 Dinner

Chapter 19 Dinner

Chapter 19 Dinner
The next day, the rain had not stopped yet, and the stone slabs in the courtyard were shining. The two waited until noon, and finally saw two soldiers knocking on the door of Wang's house. After knocking for a long time, one of them held the other's hand and wanted to help the other climb over the wall. But the mud on the ground was slippery, and after falling twice, they barely climbed up and opened the door from the inside. After a while, the two soldiers, like mud monkeys, kicked the door open and left in a hurry.

About half an hour later, a dozen soldiers escorted another man in white to the door of Wang's house. It was not convenient to go out to see, so Li Wuxiang stuck one eye out of the door frame and looked from a distance, but he couldn't see his appearance clearly. The man in white asked the soldiers to stay outside the door, and walked into Wang's house alone. After a quarter of an hour, he came out.

He spoke a few words to the garrison soldiers, and one of them tried to come to Xue's house, but he stopped him. Then the group walked away in the rain.

Although his face was not clearly visible, Li Wuxiang could roughly see their clothes. The soldiers were wearing dark blue cloth, and many of them had patches on their elbows and knees, which were of different sizes and colors, and they were probably not original. They all held sticks that reached their eyebrows, but the two ends were covered with iron sheets, which made them different from ordinary farmers. The man surrounded by them was dressed completely differently, wearing a white shirt. Although the hem was stained with mud due to the muddy weather, it still made him look extraordinary among the soldiers.

Xue Baoping said that the master of Jinshui Town was in her fifties and had only one daughter who was about her age. So this person should be the Qi-refining master named Zhao Qi.

After the group of people walked away, Li Wuxiang retracted his eyes, turned around and said to Xue Baoping: "No one should come to ask you."

Xue Baoping shrank behind him: "Ah?"

"He must be a smart man." Li Wuxiang said as he gently closed the door. "Just as I thought, after entering the Wang family and taking a look around, I knew that they were afraid of going up the mountain to hunt tigers, so they escaped at night, so there was no need to even come over to ask. He is a smart man, a smart man who is particularly confident. This is a good thing."

Xue Baoping was stunned for a while, then he took a breath and looked at Li Wuxiang: "But you are smarter than him."

"That's not true. We are in the dark and we are acting on purpose. But it's good to deal with smart people, which means everything is controllable and predictable. Let's take care of our own business first." Li Wuxiang paced in the yard for a few steps, frowned and turned back, "But there is one thing I have always wanted to ask you - we don't have rice, flour, meat or oil, how did you open your store before?"

The word "our family" made Xue Baoping dazed for a moment. She hadn't heard anyone say that in a long time. Then she scratched her chin and said, "Yes, yes, yes..."

"Take your time, don't be in a hurry."

Xue Baoping took a deep breath and waited for a while: "There will be guests coming down from the river, bringing their own food, and I will cook for them."

Then he added sheepishly, "But it doesn't taste good. They don't really like it."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "It's not a big problem and it's easy to solve. But we have to rebuild the stove today and open the store as soon as possible to keep everything normal."

So they spent the whole afternoon rebuilding the stove, using the old bricks that Xue Baoping had picked up earlier and yellow mud mixed with straw. Li Wuxiang also put back the hollow brick that had imprisoned him. He still found it hard to imagine that Zhao Kui had such magical powers, being able to cram more than a hundred people in and feed them for more than ten years. He also wanted this kind of magical power.

The two talked as they worked, and the rain outside gradually got heavier, knocking on the door. After the stove was re-installed, Li Wuxiang told her about Zhao Qi and his future plans.

"So I think he might be Zhao Kui's disciple, friend, or enemy." He slowly washed the yellow mud from his nails in the basin. "I have to find out some things from him. I have to find a way to get close to him and know what I am like now and what to do in the future. But I have to solve my identity first, so that I can have a suitable reason to walk around in the town——"

He paused and looked at Xue Baoping. The little girl was squinting her eyes as she burned the damp firewood, trying to warm up the new stove, but she listened very carefully and hummed heavily at this time.

Li Wuxiang smiled and said, "This matter is a bit dangerous and may implicate you."

"I'm not afraid." Xue Baoping said immediately, then he looked at Li Wuxiang's face carefully, and mustered up the courage to make a little joke, "I raised you, and you were... implicated a long time ago. And Zhao Kui made me burn the fire for many years in vain."

"Okay. Then, has the Jinshui River often burst its banks and caused floods in recent years?"

Xue Baoping blinked in surprise: "Yes, how did you know?"

Because she said that the upper reaches of the Jinshui River had been diverted when the Xuanjiao was making trouble decades ago. In his world, even at the peak of the ancient dynasty's national power, floods could not be completely solved, let alone here, where there is no unified government and all are independent cities and towns. In this case, it is unlikely that there will be well-maintained riverbanks. Moreover, according to his observation, there are obvious signs of water erosion on the higher parts of the Jinshui River on both sides of the Jinshui River, which means that the Jinshui River may flood every year.

But he just smiled and said, "I calculated it. You said I was a god - what month is it now?"

"It's June. I can't remember which month it is."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Does it usually start to rain at this time?"

"Ah."

The mountain near Jinshui is called Bishan. It is not an independent mountain, but a long mountain range. The sky in Jinshui has never been clear these days. There are always dark clouds in the sky, and there is always thick fog in the mountains. This reminds him of a city called Jinguan in his world... He remembers that he lived there for a long time. So, the rainy season, the mountains, the rivers that were forcibly diverted and unlikely to have strong embankments... Another flood or water may not be far away, and this is his chance to obtain legal status in Jinshui.

When the sky was gloomy and they needed to light a fire, the rain had not stopped and was getting heavier, causing a white mist to rise on the bluestone slabs in the courtyard. Xue Baoping heated up the stove, took out the piece of venison that Wang Wen brought last night, and dug out a piece of dried meat from the corner of the wall, and put the pot on the stove to make something for the two of them.

Li Wuxiang moved a stool and sat by the wall, watching her add water to the pot, intending to throw the meat in and cook it all at once. She rolled up her sleeves while cooking, and when she walked around in the yard before, she also rolled up her trouser legs, revealing her slender hands and feet and long neck. He looked at her in the mist for a while, and suddenly felt that he was indeed hungry.

But when he had this feeling, he knew that what he was looking at was not venison or jerky, but Xue Baoping. The girl's exposed skin, which was covered with fine beads of sweat, made him feel soft and delicate. In a moment of distraction, he felt that what he was looking at was not human skin, but more like a piece of cheese, cream, or something else that would give him a strong stimulation after entering his mouth, filling his entire mouth, and at the same time, it was warm and slightly fishy blood... flesh... bone marrow...

Li Wuxiang stood up and took a deep breath: "Let me do it."

Xue Baoping was struggling to chop the hard dried meat with a kitchen knife and blinked in surprise: "Can you do it?"

"I'm a deity, I know a little bit about everything." He took the kitchen knife from her hand, "First scoop out the water from the pot, I'll use it later, and then bring me a small bowl."

Xue Baoping was skeptical and wanted to tell him that it was not okay to just throw the meat into the pot, as it would get mushy. She couldn't remember how her parents cooked, but she had the impression that they always boiled the meat in a large pot of water and then processed it slowly.

But she thought about it, smiled in her heart, picked up the ladle and scooped water obediently - no one had cooked for her for many years, so no matter what the food turned out like, she felt very happy.

While she was scooping water, Li Wuxiang began to process the deer spine meat that Wang Wen brought on the chopping board. When nutrition is lacking, people like to eat fat meat, and this piece is no exception. There is a mixture of fat, lean meat, and tendons, but there is slightly more fat. I don't know which part of the deer it is from. He sliced ​​the fat meat bit by bit, mixed with some lean meat, and put them in a pile. When the remaining water stains in the pot are cleared, he threw the fat meat in and let it simmer for a while. When the oil comes out, he will turn it over slightly.

At this time, the dried meat had been soaked in warm water for a while and the surface had softened. He used a rag to carefully wash off the stains on the surface, then cut it into thin slices with a kitchen knife, leaving them soaked in hot water, and then picked up the spatula to continue to render the fat from the fat. The aroma of the oil filled the whole room, and when he wanted to sneak out but was trapped by the downpour and came back, it smelled even better.

Xue Baoping was originally squatting and making a fire. At this moment, he could not help but stretching his head to look at the pot. Then he looked at Li Wuxiang's profile illuminated by the firelight and swallowed his saliva.

Li Wuxiang smiled at her from the side and scooped up a smaller piece with a wooden shovel. This small piece of fat was almost turned into oil residue, which was light yellow, and the lean meat attached was dark yellow. He held it and blew it to cool it down a bit, and the oil residue became more crispy.

Then he handed it to Xue Baoping: "Here, I'll give you one first."

Xue Baoping didn't reach out to take it, but took a bite. The oil residue was still slightly hot, but she only inhaled into her mouth without exhaling, fearing that the fragrance would disappear, and her eyes narrowed.

"Is it tasty?"

"Ah."

"There's still a lot. Eat half of it and leave the other half to soak in the oil. Next time you have guests, I'll teach you how to make fried dough noodles."

Xue Baoping nodded, then lowered her head to light the fire. The newly added firewood was still damp and emitted smoke, which made her wipe her eyes twice in a hurry.

There was a large pool of oil in the pot, so Li Wuxiang wrapped his hands with a rag, carried the pot to the stove, and scooped the oil into a porcelain bowl, filling up more than half of the bowl. He also scooped out the oil residue, soaked half in the oil, and placed the other half in another small bowl. Only then did he take out the meat slices soaked in hot water and put them all into the pot. With a sizzling sound, a high cloud of oil smoke rose up - he saw Xue Baoping burning the fire while inhaling the smell.

He stir-fried it several times, scraped salt from the bottom of the damp salt jar, dipped his tongue in it to taste it, then added a little more, stir-fried it several more times, removed from the pan and put it on a plate. There was still a greasy patch left in the pan, so he broke the spine meat into three pieces and threw them in, stir-frying until the surface of the cooked meat was slightly golden, then added water, and removed from the pan as soon as it started to bubble, and served it in a large wooden bowl along with the milky white soup.

Then, the two of them sat by the stove, and in the dim red light of the stove, each of them held a bowl to eat meat and drink soup. The door of the wing room was open, and the heavy rain outside was gurgling, and moist water vapor with the fragrance of new plants and trees came in. Halfway through the meal, the light from the remaining fire in the stove gradually dimmed, leaving only the warm warmth.

Li Wuxiang heard Xue Baoping sniffing a few times in the dark and taking a few deep breaths, so he nudged her with his elbow and said, "Let's go to the mountains to dig some wild onions in a few days. They will taste better."

"Ah."

"If the rain stops tomorrow, you have to go out for a walk, to the more crowded area over the bridge, so that people can see you and prepare for what I am going to do next - eat this piece, which has more lean meat and will be more crispy when refined."

Xue Baoping said with a nasal tone: "Okay."

　This chapter is nearly 4,000 words long! I was so moved! I couldn't help but give more recommendations and monthly votes! I was even moved enough to subscribe to other books to support me!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)