Transmigrated as My Aunt in the 70s
Chapter 67 - 066 Bag of Fruit

Chapter 67: 066 Bag of Fruit

Tian Sisi arrived home with her hair in disarray, puffing up her cheeks as she complained to Li Yuedi, "Second Lady, look what Brother Xin Hua did to my hair."

Li Yuedi chuckled and gently patted Tian Xinhua a few times, "Alright, Second Lady has scolded your Brother Xin Hua. Ah Nan, don’t be mad anymore, let Second Lady fix your hair."

Li Yuedi was very skillful, and quickly restored the messy hair back to its original state, "There, now you’re back to being a beautiful little Ah Nan."

Tian Xinhua mixed the blanched Qingming grass into a bowl of rice flour, which was half glutinous rice flour and half late rice flour, making the Qingming Cake chewy. After mixing the blanched Qingming grass with the rice flour evenly, he added boiling water and began kneading. It’s essential to use boiling water for the dough to become elastic. As Tian Xinhua added more water and kneaded, Tian Shouhua did the same, each with a basin, energetically kneading the dough.

This time, Granny Zhao really invested a lot, planning not only to give some to the girls from yesterday but also to Tian Family’s relatives and friends, and to reserve some for her own family. Considering this, she brought out about thirty pounds of rice flour. The old tofu had already been prepared, weighing about ten pounds, and the Old Man dug about ten pounds of winter bamboo shoots. Tian Sisi was sent to fetch about twenty pounds of pork belly. Li Yuedi was quite surprised by the amount of ingredients Granny Zhao had prepared.

"Sister-in-law, how many cakes are you planning to make?"

"Since we’re making them, might as well make plenty. I’ll send some to our family’s relatives and friends, as well as the young girls who helped find Ah Nan and our own girls. I calculated, and these ingredients might not even be enough." Granny Zhao peeled the bamboo shoots and blanched them, smiling and speaking confidently since Ah Nan had the help of Lord Bai Yuan.

Li Yuedi quickly brought out the ingredients she had brought, smiling and saying, "I have some more here. This year I’ll be a bit lazy; I won’t make the cakes myself. After you finish making them, just give us some to eat."

With the earnings from selling alcohol, Li Yuedi was more generous this time, preparing plenty of ingredients, including about four to five pounds of meat. For her, preparing so much meat at once was a first. Granny Zhao took the ingredients and set them aside, giving her a playful look.

"What are you talking about? It’s not just for your family to eat; your family’s gifts are also taken from here, I’ve already included yours in the count. However, you’ll have to help me for the day; I can’t manage on my own."

"Alright, then I won’t be polite with you, sister-in-law." Li Yuedi was very straightforward.

The two Granny’s were busy, one blanching the bamboo shoots, the other cutting the meat and bamboo shoots into dices, bustling about joyously. Meanwhile, Tian Xinhua and Tian Shouhua had already kneaded the dough in the basins into green dough balls. Tian Sisi, having nothing else to do, stood watching them knead, occasionally poking her small hand into the soft, warm dough, leaving several indentations.

"Are your paws clean?" Tian Xinhua flicked Tian Sisi’s hand away.

"Yes, I washed them with soap three times. Don’t believe me? Smell it, it’s fragrant." Tian Sisi proudly stretched her hands under Tian Xinhua’s nose, flaunting them.

Seeing her chubby little hands, pink and soft, with pretty crescents on her pink fingernails and little dimples on the back of her hands, they seemed to taunt continuously, "Come eat me! Come eat me!" Unable to resist, Tian Xinhua playfully bit down, swallowing Tian Sisi’s fleshy hand in one gulp.

"Ouch, Tian Xinhua, are you a dog?" Tian Sisi screamed, quickly pulling her hand back, now covered in saliva.

"Ew! Tian Xinhua, you’re so gross." Tian Sisi disgustingly wiped her hands on Tian Xinhua’s clothes several times and feeling that it wasn’t enough, she ran to get a ladle of hot water from the water jar to wash her hands.

Tian Xinhua was incredibly amused, humming "I love Beijing’s Tiananmen, the sun rises over Tiananmen" while Tian Shouhua glanced at his cousin and uttered "Childish." Tian Xinhua didn’t mind, he just loved teasing Ah Nan, making her jump was his joy!

After washing her hands, Tian Sisi huffed heavily as she passed by Tian Xinhua, and ran over to stand beside Tian Shouhua, waiting for Granny Zhao to finish stir-frying the fillings for the cakes. Tian Qinghua and his brothers had gathered a huge pile of firewood from the hills and rested only when they thought it was enough, taking Jianguo and others to play on the hills, hoping to find some wild chicken eggs to bring back and eat.

Li Yuedi had stir-fried the fillings and filled a large basin, setting it on the table. She then took a big piece from the well-kneaded dough, kneaded it several times on the board, continuously rolling and squeezing the dough into a long strip as thick as a toddler’s wrist. She then tore off pieces bit by bit in a similar fashion to rolling dumpling wrappers, but the skin of Qingming Cake isn’t rolled out; it’s shaped by hand.

First, she rolled the pieces into balls, then continuously pinched from the center towards both sides, gradually shaping the dough into a bowl-like shape with a thicker middle and thinner edges. The skin for the Qingming Cake thus was ready, she then added the filling into the ’bowl’, pinching out various patterns along the edges – and a beautiful and exquisite Qingming Cake was born.

Granny Zhao and Li Yuedi had prepared both sweet and savory fillings. The savory fillings filled two basins, and there was also a large basin of bean paste filling that looked like a small hill. The two old ladies were quite deft, creating a small soup bowl of casing in their hands in no time, filling it with the mixture, and twisting the edges seamlessly – an exquisite Qingming Cake was ready in less than a minute.

Tian Sisi also grabbed a piece of dough and kept kneading it. Granny Zhao, seeing that her granddaughter was just playing around, didn’t interfere. Tian Sisi had trouble shaping the bowls properly; every attempt ended up looking more like a plate, which is why she preferred making snow balls – they were simpler without any need for technique, just stuff them with filling and squeeze them into balls.

"Ah Nan, why are you adding savory filling to your snow balls? Do you know how to make cakes?" Tian Xinhua teased Tian Sisi.

"I like savory snow balls, is that a problem?" Tian Sisi rolled her eyes at him and continued making her savory snow balls. After a pause, she pressed a big dent on top of her finished snow balls. "There, now we can tell them apart. The ones with holes are mine, and those without are made by Granny and Second Lady."

Tian Xinhua shook his head with a laugh, Ah Nan was really childlike in mind. He continued mixing rice flour with Qingming grass and adding water to knead the dough, as did Tian Shouhua. After making several savory snow balls, Tian Sisi’s hands began to ache; making Qingming Cakes was laborious, constantly shaping the bowls really tested one’s hand strength, and it wasn’t long before her small hands couldn’t keep up.

"Granny, what are we having for lunch?" Tian Sisi asked.

"Of course, it’s rice. Are you hungry, Ah Nan? Granny will make lunch after wrapping a few more cakes." Granny Zhao thought her granddaughter must be hungry having eaten only a little in the morning.

"Not hungry, Granny. Let me cook the lunch, I want you to taste my cooking." Tian Sisi suddenly felt a conscience call, realizing everyone was busy while she was idly doing nothing; it was time she found something useful to do.

"The sun has risen from the west, Ah Nan, you know how to cook? I bet you can’t even chop vegetables!" Tian Xinhua laughed exaggeratedly.

"Of course, I can cook. Just wait and see, hmph, don’t underestimate me, I’m full of surprises!" Tian Sisi was quite confident, as in her past life, although she wasn’t good at many things, culinary skills were her stronger suit – at least her Aunt Zhong Juying had never complained about her food, nor had she ever praised it, but Tian Sisi took no criticism as a compliment and therefore was pretty confident in her cooking. Granny Zhao chuckled, "Ah Nan is still too young, better not let her cook, careful of the hot oil splattering. Wait till she’s older then she can cook for Granny, okay?" "Granny, please let me cook just this meal, I really can cook. Granny, please...." Tian Sisi employed her coquettish charm, twisting her body like a twist bread, Humor filled the air, Tian Xinhua couldn’t help but comment: "Great Aunt, let Ah Nan cook, and I’ll help out. You and Aunt can continue wrapping, it won’t waste time." "Sister-in-law, let Ah Nan cook. In our village, girls start cooking at the stove by age seven or eight. Ah Nan has to learn at some point, and even if it doesn’t taste good, we can always eat more Qingming Cake." Li Yuedi also joined in.

PS: Special thanks to Yaxing, Fat Girl 0915, Mimoca, I Love Myself XX, Listen 123, Pen Pal 150707080753665, and more for their support!

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