The light in the study is lit.
“Come in!”
The butler entered with his head bowed and, seeing the clutter in the study, bent down and began to tidy it up.
Master Zhang joined him in tidying up, and when it was all done, he sat back in his chair, “From today onwards, have men patrol twelve hours a day. If you find any miscreants, there is no need to show mercy.”
The butler answered.
“You send another man ten miles outside the city and wait to fetch the young master back.”
Again the steward answered yes.
At the same time, in the other courtyards of the Zhang family, several aunts were overjoyed.
Madame Zhang had a strong personality and had been oppressing them ever since they had been brought into the house, so that even the children they had given birth to were almost like slaves.
Now that Madam Zhang had died, how could they not be happy?
But Zhang Zhuan’s face was grave, Zhang Huai was a pervert and there was no telling what crazy things he would do when he returned.
……
The story of the Zhang family and the Yuan family spread so much that even the people of the Song family’s village heard about it, but no one cared.
Two days later, the foundations were completely tamped and the bricks and timber were delivered.
Song Shu and Liu Cui Lan came back early today and Song Wan Yue gave them the word to go to Liu Cui Lan’s mother’s house today.
The ox cart was parked at the entrance and the two of them unloaded everything, leaving two wooden buckets on top. Inside were fresh sheep intestines, slightly diluted sheep blood, melted sheep oil, a wooden funnel and two packets of seasoning that Song Wangyue had asked them to get from the restaurant.
Song Wangyue came out of the courtyard and got on the ox cart, “Let’s go.”
Liu Cui Lan’s mother’s house was not far away, it was eight miles from Song’s village, and it didn’t take long to get there with the ox cart.
Ever since Cui Lan’s mother came back and said that Song Wan Yue would come to teach them how to cook food in a couple of days, the Liu family had been looking forward to it and had sent Dazhu and Erzhu to take turns to guard the gate.
When they saw the bullock cart coming, Erzhu excitedly shouted towards the family, “My little aunt is here!”
The Liu family all came out of the house to greet them, and Cui Lan’s mother was even happier, holding Song Wan Yue’s hand and leading her into the house, bringing out the peanuts and melon seeds she had fried specially for her, “There’s nothing to eat at home, so you can make do with what you have.”
Song Wan Yue grabbed a handful of melon seeds without ceremony, “I love fried melon seeds the most.”
“Take them all when you leave, and this peanut, I fried it myself, it’s fragrant and crispy, you can take it too, keep it for later.”
Song Wangyue narrowed her eyes with joy, “Then I’ll be polite.”
Outside in the courtyard, Liu Fu and Liu Yun saw that the wooden bucket Song Shu had brought down from the ox cart was filled with sheep intestines, they looked at each other and greeted the two of them, “Sister, brother-in-law, sit inside first.”
“No, big brother go fetch water, and second brother scoop me some noodles while I clean out this sheep intestine.”
Liu Cui Lan said.
Yue’er had told her that cleaning sheep intestines was the same as cleaning pig intestines.
Liu Fu went to fetch water and Liu Yun scooped a bit of noodles over.
“This is not enough, second brother will go and scoop some more over.”
Liu Fu couldn’t move his legs, the family had many people and little land, although they didn’t pay taxes this year, they were not rich in fine grains, except for New Year’s Eve, the family rarely had white noodles, these were still because they knew Liu Cui Lan was coming, they ground them now, there wasn’t much, just enough to entertain guests for a meal of noodles, if they used more, it wouldn’t be enough.
“What are you standing there for, why don’t you go and scoop it up.”
Liu Yun glanced at his elder brother, turned back to the kitchen and scooped out more than half a scoop of white noodles.
Liu Cui Lan asked Liu Fu to bring over a basin that had a mouthful missing and was not being used, took out one of the sheep intestines from the wooden bucket and slowly began to turn it over, “Sister-in-law, watch carefully, the sheep intestines should be cleaned up like this.”
A foul smell rushed straight to the noses of several people, Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law and Liu Yun’s daughter-in-law almost raised their hands to cover their noses, but Liu Cui Lan did not change her face, turning one intestine over, removing the dirt inside, rinsing it several times with water, and rubbing it slowly with white flour.
Inside the house, Cui Lan’s mother was talking to Song Wan Yue while keeping an eye on the movement, but her two sons, two daughters-in-law and several children were blocking Liu Cui Lan so tightly that she could not see anything.
“Yue’er, it’s ready.”
Liu Cui Lan shouted from outside.
Song Wan Yue put the melon seeds in her hand back into the plate and came out of the house, “Please trouble the in-laws’ aunt to get me some cornmeal and chopsticks in a basin, and boiling water to come over.”
Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law went to the kitchen and brought out cornmeal and chopsticks in a basin, while Liu Yun’s daughter-in-law brought boiling water.
“The two in-laws’ aunts are watching.”
Song Wan Yue scalded the cornmeal into a paste, grabbed some of each of the two packets of seasonings she had brought with her, put mutton oil and mutton blood in it and mixed it well, poured it into the washed mutton intestines, tied the ends with thin string and handed it to Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law, “Put it into the pot, boil the water over high heat and then boil it for a short while.”
Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law carried it in with both hands, put it in the pot as she said, added water and started to boil it.
The rest of the group followed suit and gathered around the pot.
The water soon boiled.
The crowd tensed up and Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law’s hands were shaking as she added the wood.
After a short while, she was hesitating whether it was ready or not when Song Wangyue’s voice came, “It’s ready.”
Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law hurriedly removed the fire, lifted the lid of the pot, fished out the sheep intestines, put them into a pot and was just about to carry them outside when Song Wan Yue’s voice came in again, “Cut them into small pieces, put them into a bowl, add some soup, put on your favourite seasoning and you can eat.”
At home, Song Wangyue always did all the cooking herself.
The way things were now, one, the Liu family’s kitchen house was small, two, the Liu family was all around, and three, she could only teach it once.
The only way to get them to remember was to let them do it themselves.
Liu Fu’s daughter-in-law took a bowl, carefully cut a few pieces of sheep intestine and put them in it, added the soup from the cooked sheep intestine earlier, added the only seasoning salt the family had, took a pair of chopsticks and put them on top, handing them to Liu Fu, “You try it.”
Liu Fu picked up the chopsticks and put a piece into his mouth, and only chewed a mouthful before he stopped.
“How, how is it?”
Liu Fu sped up his chewing speed and quickly swallowed it, “It’s delicious.”
Liu Yun couldn’t wait to grab his chopsticks over, “I’ll try it too.”
Liu Fu went out, excitement all over his dark face, “Song family girl, thanks, thanks.”
“You’re welcome, in-laws’ great uncle. It’s called sheep soup and can be sold for different amounts of money depending on the number of pieces, three, five or eight wen, and with corn cakes, it’s sure to attract many people, although you can’t earn more than one tael of silver a day, a few hundred wen is still possible. If you don’t mind working hard, you can also go to the county fair and set up a stall. My second uncle and second aunt will be at the west end, and you will be at the east end. You don’t have to worry about the sheep’s intestines, sheep’s oil and sheep’s blood, I’ll give you an address and you can go there and get them without being charged.”
Liu Fu simply didn’t know what to say, he just kept saying thank you.
