Chapter 29

After breakfast, the father and sons began to air the chilli, because to make chilli paste, the chilli must be ground into powder first. If the chilli was not dry enough, it would be difficult to be milled into powder.

There was still a lot of bamboo left after their house was built. Xu Ran then asked Xu An and others to make bamboo mats for their future use, such as to air rice or wheat.

At the moment, Xu Ran laid out a bamboo mat and asked the two kids to spread chilli on it. He then went to carry out the soybeans himself. Yesterday, they picked up the beans together with their shells. Thus they now had to air them out before they were dry enough to beat the beans out. Soybeans were rare here, and they were known to be edible by very few people, let alone be planted.

Although there was tofu already, it was not as popular as vegetables and radishes. At present, few families owned a millwheel at home, so in order to eat tofu, they needed to pay someone to grind the beans for them. Xu Ran knew people here were really poor.

Anyway, their family were really lucky to have got some soybeans.

Xu Ran was to happy at the thought of this.

The father and sons had been working for a long time before they laid all the things out on the bamboo mat to air.

Guoguo stayed there to keep watch so that the sparrows could not get near to eat the food, though the humble food was nothing very delicious to them.

Xu Ran took Tangtang to cut bamboo tubes. After building the house, there were still many useless bamboos left in the yard.

Xu Ran picked out a few bamboos that looked in good shape, and prepared to cut them down from each joint, and made them into bamboo tubes to hold chilli paste.

There were no glass bottles here, and they didn’t have money to buy jars or things like that, so they could only make use of natural bamboo tubes.

To make a bamboo tube, first they cut a piece of bamboo from two joints and ensured that the joints at both ends were not penetrated. Then they opened a small round hole in the bamboo joint at one end, after which they plugged it in with a wooden cork so that the chilli paste wouldn’t leak out. This was the simplest method Xu Ran could think of so far, but he didn’t know whether it could work or not because he hadn’t done it before.

Tangtang helped keep the bamboo still while Xu Ran cut it off. It took them quite a long time and a lot of effort to cut one piece down with a sickle.

Xu Ran went to find a branch and cut it off. He then shaped it into a piece as big as a thumb. Next, he drew a circle on a bamboo joint. In order to prevent the opening of the bamboo from cracking, Xu Ran soaked the bamboo in the water for quite some time before he began to drill a hole in the circle he had drawn.

After the hole was chiseled, Xu Ran smoothed its edge and poured water into the bamboo tube. Then he stuffed the small hole with that branch he had just cut. At last, he stood the bamboo tube upside down. He kept watching for quite some time and found there was no water coming out. Xu Ran thus knew that he had succeeded, and his face broke into smiles.

Seeing his dad so happy,  Tangtang also laughed.

Next, Xu Ran began to focus on cutting off the bamboo tubes, while Tangtang carefully helped him to find suitable branches. He also followed Xu Ran’s ideas and found a fire-stone that had not been burned, with which he drew a circle on the bamboo joints according to the size of the branches.

The work was not heavy. Tangtang was very smart, so he enjoyed it and worked very hard

However, Xu Ran was still worried that he would be tired, so he asked him and Guoguo to to work in turn.

It was noon but Liu Tong still didn’t come back. Xu Ran figured that he would be back in the afternoon. For lunch, he made mashed potatoes for the two children. Though there was no seasoning, the taste was also good. He left a large bowl of the food for Liutong. Besides, he prepared a pot of boiled water and let it cool there. On such a hot day, Liu Tong should be very thirsty when he came back.

Xu Ran had developed such a habit in modern times that he refused to drink unboiled water. Although it was impossible for the water to be contaminated here in ancient times, there might still be bacteria in it. Anyway, he believed they could not be too careful.

After lunch, Xu Ran asked Tangtang and Guoguo to go for a nap, while he continued to work.  He believed all sufferings had their reward, and after the bitter came the sweet. At this stage, they had to live a hard life in order to get a better future for their family, so he didn’t feel tired at all.

When Liu Tong came back, it was already afternoon. He didn’t buy many things back. He only bought salt, oil, and some candy for the two kids. These things were really few and unsightly, but they could only afford these because of their present poor situation. Fortunately, Tangtang and Guoguo were sensible and considerate. They never asked for food. Of course, Liu Tong, as their daddy, would never treat them badly.

After Liu Tong drank the water and ate the mashed potato Xu Ran specially kept for him, Xu Ran took him to see what he had achieved today, just like a child asking for merit and reward.