si-mexico Chapter 41 The Group is Established
Chapter 41 The Group is Established
After finishing making the Zu'an Tofu, Aunt Xia prepared a few more simple dishes and called Granny Chun and Aunt Qiuju to eat.
Aunt Qiuju has been mysteriously busy lately, she left in a hurry after finishing her meal, and didn't even have time to properly savor Aunt Xia's special Zu'an tofu.
Oh! She probably tasted them; Yufei remembers Aunt Qiu ate two extra.
Yufei originally wanted to discuss with Aunt Xia about taking the remaining tofu out for her family to try.
Aunt Xia directly refused her request, telling her that if she wanted to take it out, she should cook it herself; it would be more meaningful to take home food she had made herself to her family.
Yufei thought about it and agreed! Full of fighting spirit, she prepared to go all out.
At this moment, Aunt Qiuju popped out and said, "Wait a minute, you can take some time to practice your cooking skills. From now on, Yufei's time in the space belongs to her."
Then he led Yufei to the front gate of her processing plant.
Yufei saw the place had changed drastically and wondered what was going to happen.
A small stream and a square pool have been added to the front gate. The pool isn't very big, only slightly more than twice the size of a washbasin.
"Xiaoyufei, you can rest a bit today. Tomorrow, you'll learn how to make Xuan paper with me. Your Aunt Xia said that to cook a good meal, you first need to choose the right ingredients. Similarly, to write beautiful calligraphy, you first need to use the right tools."
From now on, please follow Aunt Qiu and learn from me!
Qiu Ju smiled and nodded at Yu Fei.
"Okay, okay! Aunt Qiu, teach me!" Yufei looked at Qiuju with sparkling eyes. Although there was no shortage of paper in modern times, she was still excited about the short video era when she grew up.
She'll wear the Hanfu from her virtual boudoir, rent a beautiful, serene spot, and film them learning these skills—it'll be absolutely awesome!
They shouldn't idolize her too much then, hahaha~
During the following days, Yufei followed Aunt Qiu step by step in making Xuan paper in the space, and practiced making Zu'an tofu at night.
Yufei also learned that the main material for making Xuan paper is sandalwood bark.
After steaming sandalwood branches for a day, soaking them in cold water for 6 hours, peeling off the bark, drying them in the sun, soaking them in lime water for three days, steaming them in wood ash for 2 days, and then washing them...
After several steps, Aunt Qiuju went to Yufei to continue making her Zu'an Tofu.
Of course, one must not become rusty in practicing the basics of calligraphy.
This processed sandalwood bark needs to be soaked in water for a year.
Now that she has nothing left, Yufei couldn't help but sigh. Making paper in ancient times was no small undertaking; it was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Back then, books described how paper was expensive in Luoyang.
Yufei thought it was an exaggerated description by a poet, but now she thinks it must be realistic.
Even in ancient times, she would have been expensive to buy, since there were no machines to help, it was all done by hand, and the cost was quite high.
Yufei used her nighttime sleep to practice making Zu'an Tofu in her spatial dimension, while also waiting for the sandalwood strips to be soaked.
This day is still a long way off, even if it takes a year in space, which is only 365 hours in reality.
In just over half a month, Yufei's Zu'an tofu also showed promise.
After eating it, Aunt Xia said that she had mastered the art of making Zu'an tofu.
Therefore, in mid-April, on her birthday, a Wednesday, she invited her two good friends, Lin Tiantian and Zhao Jing.
Zhao Jing was also Yufei's best friend in her past life, but they gradually drifted apart due to differences in school and work.
What touched Yufei was that Zhao Jing remembered her birthday every year and sent her birthday wishes. Sometimes her mother would forget her birthday, but as a friend, Zhao Jing always remembered.
Yufei didn't do a good job in this regard; she always said she would remember Zhao Jing's birthday, but she would forget it soon afterward.
She will definitely help Zhao Jing improve together in this life and be her best friend for life.
On the first day of school, I only saw Lin Tiantian, not Zhao Jing. I thought she hadn't come to preschool this semester.
It turned out that she was late for registration because of family matters. Later, Yufei won Zhao Jing over with her all-powerful milk tea.
The three of them have been inseparable lately, so I definitely have to invite them to Yufei's birthday party today!
Their preschool ended at 4 pm. As soon as get out of class ended, Yufei rushed up to them and told them she would treat them to something to eat that day.
Her two cousins are coming to her house.
The two said it was no problem, but Lin Tiantian asked if her brother could come along.
For Yufei, there's definitely no problem. The six friends from her past life reappeared, except that her older cousin wasn't part of their group; he was another older brother. Later, with the addition of two other people, the group of eight was formed.
Sometimes Yufei wonders why she neglected her friends in her past life when she tried to fit in with the group at school.
In their past lives, Lin Tiantian's brother, Lin Biao, was in both the group of six and the later group of eight.
He was a chubby-cheeked boy.
In her past life, Yufei remembered him as a loyal, strong young man who was easily manipulated by his sister. Later, as they grew up, Yufei's falling out with Lin Tiantian created a distance between her and Lin Biao, and they eventually drifted apart.
Now is so good...
The six of them arrived at Yufei's house, but Yufei's mother hadn't returned home yet; lately, Yufei's mother had been coming home around 6 or 8.9 pm.
I heard she was tutoring students, and there was food at home. Yufei's mother told Yufei today that she should heat up her own food and apologized to her.
If it were her past life, she'd probably be sitting at home crying right now.
But as someone who is already mature, she said, "What's the big deal?"
Adults always face too many helpless situations, she understands.
Yufei turned on the TV and told the others to watch TV while she went to the kitchen to prepare.
Then, I took out the Zu'an tofu and milk tea that I had prepared in the kitchen.
I made a stir-fried pork with chili peppers in the kitchen and brought it to the living room to serve them dinner.
It means today is her birthday, let's celebrate!
Children are innocent and pure, without the worries and anxieties of adults.
So when she heard Yufei say it was her birthday, she didn't feel uneasy about not having prepared a birthday gift for her, and simply wished Yufei a happy birthday.
Then the group happily ate and drank, but later they almost got into a fight over a piece of Zu'an tofu.
They were chatting and eating about funny things that happened in class when Lin Tiantian's older brother, Lin Biao, was the first to get a taste of the fun.
He was trying to liven things up and be silly, but suddenly he fell silent, his mouth still stuffed with tofu.
Before she had even finished eating her piece, she had already put another one into her own bowl.
They initially thought the dish smelled delicious, but their interest waned after seeing it was tofu, especially Lin Tiantian, who disliked the beany smell of tofu.
Now, seeing Lin Biao thinking differently, the group exchanged glances, sensing something fishy was going on!
So everyone reached for the Zu'an Tofu with their chopsticks.
You don't know until you try it, and once you do, you regret not having eaten it sooner! I curse Lin Biao under my breath for being so dishonest.
The group then began a bloody and violent struggle.
"Brother~ I only ate two pieces, give me this one!" Lin Tiantian said to her brother, trying to suppress her nausea.
"You only ate two pieces, what's it to me?" Lin Biao, who showed no mercy to his sister, said as he prepared to put the last piece he had snatched into his mouth.
"Lin Biao! If you dare eat this piece, I'll tell Mom when I get home! You bullied me! You can expect a meal of stir-fried bamboo shoots with chili peppers when you get home!" Seeing that her coaxing wasn't working, Lin Tiantian decisively used her ultimate weapon.
Normally, Lin Biao would have given in after hearing Lin Tiantian's threat.
But this time! Let him take the beating! Making him give up this piece of land would make life utterly meaningless.
He had made up his mind; it was the tofu he wanted. He ate the last piece of tofu in one bite.