"Brother Xiaoyu, how much pig manure did you use to fertilize your vegetable garden? These vegetables are so lush!" Jiang Xiaoman couldn't help but exclaim.
They grow better potatoes than they do, let alone vegetables.
These red-skinned potatoes are generally not as big as the yellow-skinned ones, but the potatoes that Qingshan's mother planted for Jiang Yu's family were all as big as a bowl!
Anyone who didn't know better would think this was a new species that had been gilded and brought back from the Tiangong-2 space station.
It's a pity that these red-fleshed potatoes can't be saved for seed, otherwise Jiang Xiaoman would be asking Jiang Yu for some to use as seedlings.
In the evening, Jiang Xiaoman made a big pot of stewed tofu and fish, and also cut potatoes into thick slices and put them in to stew together. The stewed potatoes were soft, juicy and delicious, even better than the fish.
There was also a pot of braised loach with tender tofu, with only a little dark soy sauce for color, and the flavor was lighter. Shan Guo soaked rice in the loach soup and ate it until half of his face was covered with rice grains.
Shanhua also likes to eat rice soaked in loach soup, but she is still too young and has just started eating meat. Jiangyu specially consulted the women in the village who had raised children before, and dared not give her too much. He only took a small bowl, soaked half a bowl of rice for her, and added two pieces of tofu.
In addition to these, Jiang Xiaoman also made a plate of stir-fried eggs with chives and a plate of stir-fried bok choy. The three adults and two children were just enough to finish all the dishes.
As usual, Shan Yan was the one who cleaned up the leftovers in the house. After everyone had finished eating, he put the remaining fish, loach, tofu, and other dishes together, heated them up over the charcoal fire, and then served himself a bowl of rice. He slurped it all down.
That evening, fans who saw this scene angrily criticized Jiang Xiaoman, saying that doing a food broadcast in the middle of the night was simply making them fail to lose weight!
He cursed and cursed as he opened the food delivery app.
Damn it! Is that guy named Shanyan a professional mukbang streamer?
How come even leftovers taste so good?
In fact, it wasn't that Shan Yan was unsophisticated; it was because neither he nor Jiang Yu were particularly good cooks. After they got together, they would take the opportunity to eat at a restaurant almost every time they went down the mountain to the market. What kind of fancy dishes hadn't they tried?
However, the fish soup that Jiang Xiaoman made became more and more fragrant the longer it simmered. The tofu was also delicious. When it was first put in to cook, it had a bean product smell, but after simmering for a long time, the tofu completely tasted like fish soup. It was absolutely amazing to mix with rice!
After finishing his meal, Shan Yan thought that perhaps, once he was done with this busy period, he should really get a boat. After all, Jiang Yu was usually bored at the foot of the mountain, so he could go fishing on the river and earn some pocket money. His family didn't lack fish and shrimp to eat, so it would be great.
Silently keeping this in mind, Shanyan tidied up the dishes and chopsticks, washed them in the sink outside, and put them in a bamboo basket. In the countryside, no one buys plastic drain baskets; they all use homemade bamboo baskets to hold the dishes and chopsticks, which are then hung on hooks in the kitchen to prevent mice from crawling on them.
After washing the dishes and chopsticks, I swept the floor of the main room clean, wiped the table clean and moved it to the side, shoveled some ash out of the charcoal brazier and added a basket of new charcoal...
While Shan Yan was busy doing housework, he had no idea that all of this had been completely recorded by the camera that Jiang Xiaoman had placed in the corner.
Fans, especially Jiang Xiaoman's female fans, felt an overwhelming urge to rip Shan Yan out of the video and forcibly attach him to their family registers after seeing this scene!
Who says girls these days are afraid of marriage?
They're not afraid of marriage at all; they're afraid of meeting a heartless scumbag, okay?
If life after marriage is less comfortable than before marriage, and you have to deal with a scumbag husband and his awful relatives, and if you have a child, you might be forced to give up your job and become a full-time mom who has to ask people for money, even though you're doing the work of a live-in nanny with a monthly salary of tens of thousands, you'll still be criticized for being supported by your husband... then what's the point of marriage?
Is this the real reason why they are afraid of marriage?
If you don't believe me, try asking the government to give each of them a husband like Shan Yan and see what happens.
Good-looking, with a great figure, good at making money, and also willing to do housework with her partner?
Good heavens! Are there really girls who don't like this kind of high-quality human being?
Forget about bride price! They're willing to give each other a bride price!
Get the marriage certificate right away! Don't let him get away...
Jiang Xiaoman never expected that when he posted this video to announce his mushroom-picking trip to the mountains the next day, he would find a bunch of girls in the comments section begging him to put Shan Yan on their shared bikes, saying they would definitely buy them all...
What are you thinking about?
If he could find another good partner like Shanyan, wouldn't he keep one for himself?
Still hanging up shared bikes? Dream on!
Shan Yan had no idea he had almost been hooked up with a shared bicycle. After finishing his chores, he went to the tool shed and found the rope, machete, snake and insect repellent kit he needed to take into the mountains the next day. He carefully checked them and put them in his basket so he could set off right after breakfast the next morning.
Jiang Yu will have to stay home to take care of her two children tomorrow, so she definitely can't go into the mountains with them.
However, Jiang Xiaoman still prepared rice balls for him and the two children.
I stir-fried diced cured pork with diced carrots, fried a bowl of peanuts, chopped a bowl of pickled chili peppers and pickled bamboo shoots, and stir-fried shredded potatoes. The side dishes for the rice balls were ready.
Next, cut the plastic wrap to the appropriate size. Jiang Yu helped by scooping out the warm rice and spreading it evenly on the plastic wrap.
Jiang Xiaoman took a spoon and chopsticks and placed the stir-fried cured pork with diced carrots, shredded potatoes, peanuts, pickled chili peppers, and pickled bamboo shoots on the rice. Finally, she rolled it up with the plastic wrap into a rice ball.
"Oh dear! I was so focused on cooking that I forgot to bring my phone in!"
Jiang Xiaoman quickly ran to the main room to bring in the phone she was using to film, and re-filmed a video of her making rice balls.
Following Shan Yan's passionate mukbang, fans were once again attacked by delicious rice balls, leaving them heartbroken.
No! We just wanted to see you go mushroom picking in the mountains. There was no need to film such a detailed process of making your own food; they're practically drooling with envy! o(╥﹏╥)o
It's okay! As long as we pretend we didn't see it, we can manage to avoid eating a late-night snack!
...
However, just when everyone thought the rice ball was already extremely poisonous late at night, Jiang Xiaoman started to unleash her ultimate move.
Chapter 118
How can you eat rice balls without chili peppers?
However, considering that some of the people going with her tomorrow might not eat spicy food, Jiang Xiaoman made plain rice balls, adding only a little chopped pickled chili peppers for seasoning.
As for those who can't live without spicy food, he has a second option—
There were still a lot of dried chilies from last year hanging under the eaves of Jiang Yu's kitchen. With the autumn chilies coming to harvest soon, it would be a waste if last year's chilies weren't eaten. So Jiang Xiaoman and Jiang Yu simply took down all the chilies hanging there.
Unlike in Northeast China, where people can string chilies together with needle and thread when harvesting, the air in the mountains is very humid. To prevent the dried chilies from rotting, they pull up the whole chilies, remove the green ones, and hang the rest upside down, along with the chili plant, under the eaves to air dry naturally.
Then pick only as much as you want to eat, and after you've finished picking, throw the dried chili peppers into the stove as firewood, without wasting a single bit.
Unfortunately, Jiang Yu and Shan Yan weren't very good at growing vegetables, and their chili peppers didn't produce many fruits. The two of them picked them all in less than an hour.
After picking the dried chilies, shaking off the dust, and grinding them into coarse chili powder in a stone mill, Jiang Xiaoman made a whole jar of chili oil overnight!
The rest were all packed up by Jiang Yu, who can take them down the mountain to eat at his leisure.
After all, winter is just around the corner. Once winter arrives, whether you're making hot pot or stew, chili peppers are indispensable. They also like to roast glutinous rice cakes in winter. Roast the rice cakes until they are golden brown on both sides, split them in half, spread a spoonful of chili oil on them, and if you like sweet food, you can spread a spoonful of brown sugar on them. The taste is absolutely amazing!
"No wonder I always felt that the dipping sauce you made was better than mine when I ate at your house. It turns out it was the chili oil that was better..." Jiang Yu propped her chin up, drooling as she stared at the chili oil in the big bowl.
Even though she had eaten a very full meal that night, Jiang Xiaoman felt hungry again after frying chili oil.
It's a pity that it's not the season for making glutinous rice cakes yet, and Jiang Yu's family doesn't have any steamed buns or anything like that, but Jiang Xiaoman herself is craving them too.
Jiang Yu was asked to take a basin and fill it halfway with cornmeal. He also took two bowls of wheat flour. It didn't matter that there wasn't time to let the dough rise; he simply added water and stirred it into a batter. He then used an iron pan to make about ten pancakes.
This kind of flatbread is chewier than steamed buns. You cut it horizontally in the middle with a cleaver, spread chili oil on it, put it back together, and take a bite. The strong aroma of chili oil makes even the bland flatbread wonderful.
The fans who witnessed this scene had very interesting expressions.
At this moment, everyone really wanted to unfollow Jiang Xiaoman, that wicked food blogger, but they were also afraid that they wouldn't be able to see so many delicious foods after unfollowing her. After hesitating for a while, they finally couldn't resist and quietly got out of bed to make midnight snacks or order takeout...
Forget it, how can I have the energy to lose weight if I don't eat my fill?
After dinner, it was getting late, so the three of them quickly washed up and went to bed. The next day, before dawn, Shan Yan got up first, boiled a large pot of water, filled all the empty thermos flasks in the house, and cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge. Jiang Xiaoman couldn't help but feel envious and jealous of Jiang Yu...
Did I save the Bodhisattva in my past life?
She was actually blessed by the Bodhisattva with such an exceptionally good man as Shan Yan.
Actually, he wasn't too picky about the gender of his partner. If God could assign him a good man like Shan Yan, he wouldn't mind finding a sworn brother.
The sweet potato porridge was ready, and Shan Yan's apprentices came over with torches.
For the next month or so, they had to scour every mountain in the vicinity, racing against time to collect as many wild mushrooms as possible to dry.
This stuff is quite valuable when dried. For example, there's a local specialty called red mushroom, which can sell for up to 500 yuan per kilogram before the Lunar New Year!
Harvest more now, and sell them at the market during the Lunar New Year. That way, we can have a prosperous year.
Once everyone was assembled, Jiang Xiaoman adjusted his handheld gimbal and began filming his video.
In the video, the handsome young men's current appearances are somewhat comical.
Picking mushrooms is not like digging for wild vegetables. Wild mushrooms are very delicate and cannot be rubbed in a woven bag. So when they go into the mountains to pick mushrooms, they usually carry a large basket on their back and a small basket on their front. Once the large basket is full, they pour it into the large basket on the back. Only when both baskets are full will their hard work for the day be over.
If you're lucky, you might stumble upon a mushroom patch, and you might have to make two or three trips a day.
After all, everyone goes up the mountain to pick mushrooms this season. The mushrooms are all unclaimed, and whoever finds them keeps them. If you don't pick them, they might be picked by someone else the next day.
"We're going to the northwest slope of that mountain to look for red mushrooms now." Jiang Xiaoman said as she walked, pointing her camera at a mountain peak that was faintly visible in the thick fog.
"Red mushrooms generally grow on the shady side of hillsides. If you don't know which side is shady, here's a little trick: look at the places on the mountain where moss and ferns grow well. Wild mushrooms usually grow in these places."
“There were many oak trees in the place we went to this morning. Red mushrooms tend to grow under these trees.”
"When the acorns are ripe in a while, I'll bring you here to pick them. Oh, acorns are just that—oaks. We usually pick them to feed the pigs here; the pigs especially love to eat them."
"I can also make acorn tofu. I'll show you when I make it. Actually, there are so many delicious things to eat in the mountains in autumn. Right now, we mainly pick mushrooms and autumn tea. After we finish picking the autumn tea, we'll go into the mountains to hunt wild chestnuts, acorns, and pick wild fruits."
After crossing this hill, we soon came to see a grove of tall wild oak trees.
Beneath the oak tree grew a dense thicket of various miscellaneous trees and ferns, with a thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground. There were no pine trees on this hill, and no one came to rake pine needles to use for cooking. Year after year, the withered branches and fallen leaves piled up, leaving deep footprints underfoot.
Soon, they discovered a small patch of red mushrooms and a type of wild mushroom called "white-headed mushroom," and everyone quickly split up to pick them up.
The rain in the mountains this year has been good, and the wild mushrooms have sprouted early. It's fortunate that they came early. In previous years, only a few wild mushrooms would have appeared by this time. However, things are valued for their scarcity. If you go into the mountains early to pick the first batch, you can make a small profit, even if you have to take a bus to the county town to sell them.
I didn't expect that at this time of year, there would already be so many mushrooms sprouting up in the mountains!
Everyone was both surprised and delighted, and quickly sped up the picking.
In less than half a day, Jiang Xiaoman's basket was already half full.
Just then, Shanyan called.
"Xiaoman, how many did you collect over there?"
"I've picked half a basketful. Brother Shanyan, do you have a lot of mushrooms over there? If not, come pick some here."
“We have quite a lot here too. Here’s what we’ll do: don’t pick any more mushrooms yet. Take them to the meeting point first, and we’ll sell a batch of them!”
What? In this desolate wilderness, who would buy it?
Jiang Xiaoman soon found out.
Shan Yan has a group of high-end customers who regularly buy authentic rock honey from him. These people are not short of money and just like to eat nutritious and rare foods. Shan Yan and Jiang Yu can still make a lot of money every year by staying in this deep mountain forest because they have their own sales channels.