Border Cook

Song happened to be alone and had no family to support. She usually worked at Xia Mingyue's place during the day so she wouldn't disturb her, which was just right.

As for the rent...

"You don't have to pay." Feng said.

"No." Song refused immediately. "It's not reasonable to rent someone a house without paying."

She is going to live here for a long time, and she needs to have hands and feet to do some work. She cannot just live on the kindness and charity of others.

"Listen to what I have to say." Feng said, "I am getting old and my body is not in good condition. It is hard for me to wash clothes and cook. You can help me with daily chores to pay for the rent."

Seeing this, Song nodded and agreed, "Just do as Aunt Feng said."

She had already decided to live alone in the future, so she needed to save more money. The rent was quite a bit every month, and if she could pay for it with her work, that would be great.

As for doing physical work, she is still young and has plenty of strength, so she is not afraid.

After discussing the matter with Feng, Song took some free time to go back, packed up all her clothes, bedding and daily necessities, and officially moved into Feng's house.

Life goes on in an orderly manner.

In the afternoon, after turning a page of a book, Xia Mingyue folded the corner of the page and copied the words she didn't understand onto a blank piece of paper.

During this period of time, Xia Mingyue took some time out from her busy schedule to make full use of the fragmented time and read a few pages of a book whenever she had free time.

Review and consolidate what you have learned before, and learn new things.

The book given by President Zhou was very useful, simple and clear, and very suitable for a beginner like her. However, Xia Mingyue was a self-taught person after all, and there were some things she still couldn't understand. She could only summarize them and prepare to go to the county school when she had time to seek advice.

When Mrs. Lu entered the room, she saw Xia Mingyue writing and grinned, "Sister-in-law, stop studying and go out to take a look. It's very lively outside."

"How is it so lively?"

Xia Mingyue had just put down her pen when she heard the loud sound of gongs and drums, mixed with the cheers and applause of the crowd. She smiled and said, "Could it be that there was another victory somewhere?"

The last time it was so lively was when Changzhou Prefecture won a great victory.

After the establishment of the Xin Dynasty, except for the west, there were border garrisons in the east, south and north. Whether it was to deal with foreign enemies or to expand territory, new wars could occur at any time.

"That's not the case." Mrs. Lu smiled, "It was during the autumn examination this year. A large number of students passed the county school exam. The county magistrate was very happy and ordered people to beat gongs and drums to announce the good news. He also invited lion dancers. It was very lively!"

"I heard that the county magistrate will go to the Confucian Temple and the City God Temple to burn incense tomorrow. Even the Yueran Restaurant and several teahouses in the county are giving out money and cakes outside, saying it's a celebration." Jiang Zhuguo added.

"This is indeed a happy thing." Xia Mingyue smiled.

If a county has many talented people, it means that the place is blessed with outstanding people and will be respected by others.

Moreover, if these successful candidates are able to serve as officials in the future, they will support their hometowns to the best of their ability and increase local construction.

Many people rose from humble backgrounds to become wealthy and powerful families in this way, little by little.

"During the days in the county school cafeteria, the students were very studious and studied hard until late at night. This time, the results are outstanding. In addition to the students who passed the imperial examination, Principal Zhou and the other teachers must be very pleased and happy."

Xia Mingyue sighed.

However, speaking of Principal Zhou and his group of teachers, the fact that they have many students all over the world is also something worth celebrating.

As she is a half-student, shouldn't she also be congratulated to be polite?
After thinking for a while, Xia Mingyue decided to go to the county school and solve the doubts in her recent studies. Since she was going to the school, she naturally had no reason to go empty-handed.

Xia Mingyue tied on an apron, went into the kitchen and started working.

After soaking the large bones to remove the blood and fishy smell, add water and boil for an hour until it becomes a thick white bone soup, then add oil fried with scallions, shallots, coriander, and ginger slices, rice wine, soy sauce, salt, rock sugar, etc., and boil for another half an hour.

Add the fried sugar color and the spices wrapped in gauze including cinnamon, tangerine peel, fennel, grass fruit, bay leaves, dried chili peppers, cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, and angelica.

In this way, a large pot of stew is ready.

Clean and remove the blood from the whole chicken, pork elbow, pork liver, chopped bean curd sheets, and sliced ​​lotus roots and potatoes, all of which can be stewed in the braising soup.

Xia Mingyue even boiled a lot of eggs, peeled them, cut them twice, and put them all into the stew.

When braising the food, Xia Mingyue specially covered the pot with a lid to ensure that the rich aroma of the broth would remain for a long time. Even so, the unique aroma of the broth still floated out through the gaps in the lid.

The whole yard was filled with a strong fragrance, causing everyone to sniff.

Zhao Dahu, Zhao Erhu, Wu Jin, the two men and the dog all poked their heads out of the kitchen door, took a deep breath of the aroma, and smacked their lips repeatedly.

"What did Aunt Xia make? It smells so good!"

"I braised something." Xia Mingyue opened the lid of the pot and checked everything inside.

The aroma rose with the hot steam, filling the entire kitchen with this rich smell.

Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu were very glad that they kept their mouths shut just now, otherwise, the kitchen would have been flooded with their saliva.

Wu Jin also had his mouth closed at this time, but that did not stop his saliva from hanging like threads on both sides of his mouth. His eyes were fixed on the big pot that Xia Mingyue was checking.

delicious food!

want to eat!

Seeing that the meat in the pot was almost done, Xia Mingyue put the vegetables in. After stewing for a while, she took out a piece of pork belly, cut it into small pieces and placed it on a plate.

"You try it first." Xia Mingyue brought out a plate and stuck some bamboo sticks on each piece of meat to make it easier to eat.

Xia Mingyue asked He Shunzi to help make the bamboo sticks, which are about half the length of the ones used to pierce oden. They are usually used to poke fruits and taste food, which is quite convenient.

Brothers Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu couldn't wait to take a piece of the braised meat each.

The flavor is rich, the meat is tender, the fat is not greasy, the lean meat is not dry, and the aftertaste is full...

"good to eat!"

The two brothers hadn't even swallowed the meat in their mouths yet, but they were still mumbling praises, and then they couldn't wait to pick up another piece and put it in their mouths.

Seeing that the two brothers were only concerned with their own food and had no intention of letting it have a taste, Wu Jin jumped and jumped at the door anxiously. After barking twice, he even turned around in a circle on the spot.

Seeing this, Xia Mingyue also gave Wu Jin a piece.

Wu Jin was very satisfied. He took it and chewed it carefully. (End of this chapter)