Chapter 26: Making a Good Plan p1
The next day, when Lin Shuang woke up, the space beside her was already empty.
She reached out and felt the quilt next to her. It was cold. It seemed Jiang Huaizhen had woken up very early.
She looked around the house but couldn’t find her. When she asked Old Madam Jiang, she was told that Jiang Huaizhen had gone up the mountain just as it was getting light.
In the kitchen, two logs in the stove were almost burnt out, and the water in the pot was steaming.
She even knew to boil water before she left. Lin Shuang’s heart felt as warm as the steam rising from the pot.
After getting herself ready, she brought water for the old woman to wash up, then simply made some dough drop soup for them to eat.
Jiang Huaizhen had gone up the mountain so early, clearly not wanting her to follow. Lin Shuang didn’t insist and just busied herself with some light chores around the house.
She cleaned the house, fed the chickens and rabbits. The several large, fat rabbits they had caught yesterday seemed to have reached their full size. If they were kept any longer, they would just get old. There were three males and four females. They would keep one male and one female for breeding, and the others would be killed when they were craving meat.
After cleaning, she found Jiang Huaizhen’s clothes and mended a few torn spots.
Old Madam Jiang was old now, and her eyesight was poor. She couldn’t even thread a needle, so you couldn’t count on her for these things. Jiang Huaizhen could mend her own clothes, but since Lin Shuang had arrived, she had been constantly busy. The first few days, she was busy with executions, and the next few days, she was busy gathering herbs on the mountain. Any free time she had was spent on those winnowing baskets and the bamboo mat.
So, Lin Shuang had taken over the needlework.
At noon, thinking of the spices she had bought the day before, she decided to make sauce flatbreads for lunch.
So, she kneaded the dough in advance and began to fry the sauce.
There was never just one flavor of sauce in the world. A hundred cooks would have a hundred different ways of making sauce. There was no standard answer, it just depended on which flavor was more suitable for the public’s taste.
In her past life, Lin Shuang had seen the cook make several kinds of sauce, and they all tasted good.
Considering the ingredients they had at home, she chose one with a slightly lighter flavor.
The first step in making the sauce was to render the oil. She melted the lard in a pot, added the spices, and fried them over low heat until the spices turned brown, then removed them.
She then added the prepared minced ginger, minced garlic, and chopped scallions to the pot and stir-fried them until fragrant.
Next, she added two different kinds of soybean paste and two bowls of water, brought it to a boil, then turned it down to a low heat and simmered until it was moderately thick. Finally, she added an appropriate amount of salt and soy sauce to season it. At this point, the sauce for the crispy flatbread was ready.
Just then, she heard someone outside calling Jiang Huaizhen’s name. Seeing that the sauce was still bubbling in the pot, she quickly took the iron pot off the stove and hurried out of the main hall.
She saw a young woman with an oval face, about her age, dismounting from a horse with one foot hooked in the stirrup.
As Lin Shuang got closer, she saw the crisscrossing arrow wounds on the horse’s body. Its right ear was also missing a piece. It looked like a retired warhorse.
The young woman was stunned to see Lin Shuang and scratched her head. “I didn’t hear Huaizhen say she had a sister.”
Only then did Lin Shuang smile. “My name is Lin Shuang. Huaizhen saved me before, so I’m staying here. Are you looking for Huaizhen? She’s gone up the mountain.”
Hu Guiying said “oh” a few times. So that was it.
“I’m Huaizhen’s colleague at the yamen.” Hu Guiying introduced herself, patted the horse’s neck, and tied it to the large tree in front of the door.
“She should be back by now. Come in and rest for a while,” Lin Shuang said, inviting her in.
Hearing this, Hu Guiying casually stuck the sword she was carrying into a crack in the bricks behind the door and then followed her inside.
As soon as she entered the house, she couldn’t help but sniff. “What are you cooking? It smells so good.”
Old Madam Jiang also came out of her room with her cane at this time. She quickly bowed. “Hello, Great-grandmother.”
Although she had never seen Old Madam Jiang, she knew that Jiang Huaizhen had taken on the job of an executioner a while back to pay for this old woman’s medical treatment.
Old Madam Jiang had just heard that she was a bailiff from the yamen and couldn’t help but be reminded of her granddaughter’s unpleasant job. She was not happy and her attitude toward Hu Guiying was also unfriendly.
“Haven’t all the prisoners been executed? Why are you still looking for Huaizhen?”
Hu Guiying was a constable herself. Although she was young, she had seen many people—cunning, arrogant, kind, and snobbish… she had seen them all. She encountered a dozen people with Old Madam Jiang’s personality every year.
It was obvious that this little old lady was taking her anger out on her.
She smiled. “Hehe, it’s a private matter.”
Hearing that it was a private matter, the old woman’s face finally softened. “That stubborn girl went up the mountain before dawn. I don’t know what she’s doing. She’s been gone for so long and still isn’t back.”
“Should I go up the mountain to find her?”
Lin Shuang quickly advised, “There are several directions on the back mountain. You’re not familiar with the roads. It’s better to wait at home, in case she comes back and you miss each other.”
Hu Guiying thought for a moment and found it reasonable, so she nodded. “Alright then, I’ll wait for her here.”
Lin Shuang brought her some tea.
The tea was made from the hawthorn she had picked on the mountain earlier. It was warm and nourishing for the spleen and stomach, with a slightly sour taste.
Hu Guiying was not a quiet person and couldn’t sit still for long.
Lin Shuang was thinking about the sauce that was still simmering in the kitchen, so she asked tentatively, “Are you hungry, Miss Hu? I’ve just rested the dough. If you like pasta, we can make a few flatbreads to eat.”
Hu Guiying had smelled the fragrance of the sauce just now and had been unable to sit still. Hearing her say this, she was so hungry she couldn’t stand it, but she still said, “That’s so embarrassing. Let’s wait until Huaizhen gets back.”
Lin Shuang, a nearly thirty-year-old woman, how could she not know what this little kid was thinking? She just smiled. “What if she doesn’t come back? Are we not going to eat? It’s alright. But the kitchen is full of smoke. You can stay here and talk to Great-grandmother. I’ll bring it out when it’s ready.”
Hu Guiying didn’t want to be with Old Madam Jiang at all and smiled. “How could I mind? I’ll go and watch the fire for you.”
With that, she followed Lin Shuang into the kitchen.
Lin Shuang didn’t stand on ceremony with her. She took out a piece of dough, rolled it out, spread it with oil pastry, folded it, and rolled it out again. Seeing that the pot was hot, she added some lard and then slid the flatbread in to fry.
The dough sizzled in the hot oil, and the fragrance came in waves.
Before anything had even happened, Hu Guiying was already swallowing.
It wasn’t until Lin Shuang spread the sauce on the flatbread that the fragrance she had smelled when she first entered the house came back, even stronger.
Hu Guiying stood up, her eyes fixed on the pot.
After spreading the sauce, Lin Shuang scooped the large sauce flatbread onto the cutting board next to it.
With a few quick chops of the kitchen knife, the large flatbread was divided into six small pieces.
“Alright, let’s eat,” Lin Shuang said, turning to get the bowls and chopsticks.
Hu Guiying was already impatient and quickly said, “That… I don’t need a bowl. This flatbread should be eaten with your hands.”
Lin Shuang laughed. “It’s fresh out of the pot and hot.”
With that, she still took a large, washed vegetable leaf from the basket, wrapped a piece of the flatbread in it, and handed it to her. “If you don’t like to use chopsticks, then wrap it in the vegetable.”
Hu Guiying quickly thanked her, took it, and eagerly stuffed it into her mouth.
The moment it entered her mouth, she was stunned. She took another large bite and, unable to swallow, said indistinctly, “Delicious… so delicious…”
Seeing her reaction, Lin Shuang smiled, put a piece in a bowl, and took it to the old woman.
The old woman had eaten this flatbread once before, so she wasn’t as unworldly as Hu Guiying.
But last time, it was only seasoned with salt, so the flavor was relatively simple. This time, with the sauce, the flavor was much richer. Her teeth weren’t good, but she still ate with relish.
Lin Shuang poured her half a bowl of tea, then returned to the kitchen, only to find that the flatbread on the cutting board had been devoured by the young girl before her, with only one piece left.
The flatbread in Hu Guiying’s mouth wasn’t fully swallowed, and her cheeks were bulging. There were still crumbs at the corner of her mouth. Seeing her enter, her face flushed red, and she stammered, “I’m… I’m sorry. I was just so hungry. I’ve never eaten such a delicious flatbread. Please don’t scold me. I’ll do anything you ask…”
Lin Shuang couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s just a flatbread. Is it worth scolding someone over? I was the one who specially invited you to eat it. If we finish it, we can just make more. There’s one piece left. You eat it.”
The pot was concave in the middle, so it wasn’t easy to make a very large one. One flatbread wasn’t that big.
Hu Guiying shook her head, her face red. “I’ve already eaten a lot. I’m too embarrassed to eat any more. You haven’t eaten yet. You eat it.”
Lin Shuang had just made the sauce. Although she had tasted it, she hadn’t eaten it mixed with the flatbread. So she said, “This is a new sauce. I haven’t tried it yet. But from the way you were eating just now, it should be pretty good. I’ll try it first. When we’re done, we can continue to make more.”
Hu Guiying quickly nodded. “I’ll watch the fire for you. Is there anything else I need to do?”
“No, it’s alright. Don’t think too much. Huaizhen also likes to eat it. Last time, without the sauce, she could eat a whole one by herself. You must have been starving on your way here.”
Seeing her gentle words, Hu Guiying felt comfortable and was willing to get close to her. She asked, “How old are you? You look about our age, but you feel like an older sister.”
Lin Shuang was stunned for a moment. She usually interacted with Jiang Huaizhen like this. She didn’t know if the other had noticed anything.
But Jiang Huaizhen had always been a loner, and the only person she interacted with was Old Madam Jiang. She probably didn’t know what it was like to be with a slightly older woman.
“I was born in the year of the Ox. What about you?”
“I was also born in the year of the Ox. I was born in July. What about you?”
“I was born in March.”
“Then can I call you Sister Shuang?” Hu Guiying said eagerly, having eaten her fill. “I’m the third in my family. Everyone calls me Third Aunt.”
“Then I’ll take advantage of my age and accept you as my younger sister,” Lin Shuang said with a smile, taking a bite of her own sauce flatbread.
Hmm, it was just the right amount of salty. The surface was crispy, and mixed with the sauce, the taste was indeed very good. No wonder Hu Guiying had lost her composure over a flatbread.
“Isn’t it delicious?” Hu Guiying looked at her with eager eyes.
“It’s alright,” Lin Shuang said.
“It’s so delicious, and you say it’s alright?” Hu Guiying’s eyes widened.
Lin Shuang smiled. “When you make it yourself, it loses some of its flavor.”
…
