Reborn as the Villain's Wife, I Shine in 80s
Chapter 32 - 031 Crab Meat Soup Dumplings

Chapter 32: 031 Crab Meat Soup Dumplings

Meng Shuyan pursed his little lips and said crisply, "Uncle Li always stares at me, no matter where I go, he stares there. So I asked Great Grandma. Great Grandma said that only bad guys who kidnap children would secretly watch kids, they want to take the children out of the mountains and sell them in cities outside."

"You mean Uncle Li always watches you?" Tian Sangsang instinctively became alert, "Why does he watch you?"

Her focus wasn’t on trafficking or kidnappers; just because someone is watching doesn’t mean they’re a trafficker, maybe there’s another reason. What she was concerned about was, why Li Zhengxiong was observing her son. Thinking back along the way, whenever Li Zhengxiong mentioned her son, he looked unnaturally nervous. Could it be... he is Meng Shuyan’s dad? That’s impossible. The book says Meng Shuyan’s father is from Beijing. Besides, there’s no resemblance between her son and Li Zhengxiong. Based on Li Zhengxiong’s genes, his descendants should all be strong like little calves.

"I don’t understand." This was also what Meng Shuyan found odd all along.

"Have any other kids gone missing in the village? Or has he been watching other kids?"

"No one has gone missing... But he just watches me, I know it." Meng Shuyan nodded with certainty. In his memory, Uncle Li from the village would always look at him with bright, shining eyes every time he saw him, like he was seeing a little lamb.

"Yanyan, but if you weren’t staring at him, how do you know he’s staring at you?"

"Huh." The little guy’s mouth opened slightly, scratching his head in confusion, he got puzzled, "I..."

"Mommy is just teasing you!" Tian Sangsang gave him a kiss on the face, seeing him like this was adorably cute. "It’s okay, you see, Uncle Li even sent you pigeons today. Wait a bit, mommy will make lunch for you right away." However, she still kept an eye on the matter. After all, it concerns her son, just the thought of being followed by a voyeur is chilling.

Meng Shuyan obediently moved a stool and sat in the courtyard contemplating life, staring at the sky with his big, puzzled eyes. What Mommy said was right, if I didn’t look at Uncle Li, how would I know he was looking at me...

Did I even look at him? Was it me who looked at him first or he looked at me first? Could it be that it was just a coincidence that when I looked at him, he happened to be looking at me too?

But what’s interesting about him? Why would I be looking at him?

Tian Sangsang picked out four crabs, a crucian carp, a dozen crayfish, and the pigeons, planning to make steamed crabs, braised crucian carp, stir-fried crayfish, and pigeon soup for lunch. There was rice at home, so they could cook some to go with everything for a hearty meal.

As for the other items, two crucian carps, one grass carp, two flatfish, and counting the crabs, there were fifteen left, twenty-four crayfish, fifteen river mussels, and twenty field snails, they were all taken into the space by Tian Sangsang. She placed these items in the river inside the space, and then planted the seeds of four mulberries and a small branch of the mulberry tree in the orchard, and suddenly 840 green currency appeared mid-air, equivalent to 840 RMB!

So, Tian Sangsang immediately went into the supermarket, exchanged for a bag of Thai Fragrant Rice, a bottle of olive oil worth less than 200 yuan, mainly because she was interested in its ingredients. The label said this olive oil is rich in vitamin A and vitamin D, which can break down excess fat and have a slimming effect. She also bought a can of chicken essence, a can of Five-Spice Powder, a bottle of white vinegar, a bottle of soy sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, white sugar, cooking wine, pepper, chili, and various other seasonings. Flour, sweet potato flour, vermicelli, rice noodles of various kinds, lychees, grapes, some bread, and some snacks. Her son is growing, milk is indispensable, but unfortunately, cows are hard to find, and dairy products don’t provide much nutrition. Despite that, Tian Sangsang still picked a box of milk.

Yesterday’s peanuts were still drying outside, sweet potato chips were also drying, and with these things, life’s quality could be improved temporarily.

Tian Sangsang always knew that the space could be utilized, but shouldn’t be overly relied upon, or if one day the space found a new owner, all would be for naught. First, a new house must be acquired, money must be earned to buy it; second, there should be a stable job or business; otherwise, who would her son rely on in the future? So they still need to save money and work hard!

Moreover, as long as she is cautious enough, even if great wealth and honor can’t be achieved, a modest fortune is still attainable.

After all, who said that when you time travel, just a little effort is enough to fill the wallet.

Tian Sangsang made a dish of steamed crabs. When the fragrant crabs, each weighing about half a jin, came out of the oven, the aroma wafted ten miles far, all the way to Aunt Zhong’s home. Taking a deep breath, Tian Sangsang’s eyes lit up. To be honest, after living in modern times for so long, she yearned for the idyllic rural life. Growing her own vegetables, raising her own flowers, living freely and leisurely. So when she got here, compared to the space, she liked the things on the back mountain more. The things in the space were too modernized, as a modern person, she was almost immune to them. She wanted to turn the space into a farm stay she longed for.

She used starch to coat the well-cleaned crucian carp, added ginger, star anise, garlic cloves, cooking wine, and sugar, among other things, to make a braised crucian carp dish. The rice was quietly steamed in the courtyard house in the space, and there was a dish of stir-fried crayfish and stir-fried cabbage. After setting these dishes on the table and covering them, Tian Sangsang started making crab meat soup dumplings.

She specifically exchanged for a cookbook to read.

First, she needed to prepare the dough. Tian Sangsang took out the purchased flour, poured most of it into the iron basin, added warm water, sprinkled some salt, and kneaded it by hand. Once the flour absorbed the water evenly, she repeatedly kneaded it into a smooth dough ball and let it rest.

Next was preparing the filling. She grabbed two cooked crabs, removed the shells, took out the crab meat and crab roe, added ginger juice and stirred, then put it in a pan to stir-fry and remove the fishy smell; then, Tian Sangsang exchanged for a piece of pork belly, chopped it with salt, pepper, scallions, and ginger, put it into a bowl, added some cooking wine and sesame oil, and stirred it into a sticky paste.

Finally, Tian Sangsang skillfully pinched off a piece of dough, rolled it into a long strip, then used a knife to cut it into sections of about five or six centimeters. There was a rolling pin at home, very useful, and soon she had thin dough skins. It was similar to making buns, just that the skin had to be thinner. Plus, crab meat soup dumplings have stricter requirements for appearance, not only should they be shaped like flower buds, but the budding part also needs a touch of crab roe, inside and out filled with the fragrance of crab.

There was a steamer at home, one load could steam eight dumplings. Tian Sangsang thought it was a bit too few, so she went ahead and steamed four crabs, using the remaining two crabs for the filling. This way, she made up to three loads of crab meat soup dumplings. One load was sent to Li Zhengxiong, one load sent to Aunt Zhong’s house, considering Aunt Zhong had been quite kind to Meng Shuyan; the remaining one load was kept for their own consumption. Tian Sangsang didn’t plan to send crabs, there were too many people, not enough to go around, so they’d have to share the legs instead.

After doing all these, there were only 345 green currency points left in the space, originally those miscellaneous items added up to a whole 500 points.