Goldfield
Chapter 68: The Better Step

The thick, flavorful pork bone soup is made by gently boiling the pig bones throughout the night. The staple food for the banquet was a steamed bun made from a mixture of wheat and millet flour.

Each table has eight vegetarian dishes, four meat dishes, and one bowl of flavor-rich soup. Of all the banquets that take place in the village, this party is considered one of the best. Moreover, some dishes had never been tasted by the villagers before. Although the raw materials are simple, they are prepared in a very refreshing and delicious way. Everyone who ate at the banquet praised the food endlessly.

A few married women who had a good relationship with Madam Liu secretly asked how she could make so many different and delicious kinds of dishes using only radishes and cabbage. Madam Liu looked lovingly at her daughter and replied proudly, “Most of these dishes are made by Cao’er. He told me and Oldest Brother-in-law what to do. ”

All the villagers knew the story of Madam Liu's second daughter, Yu Xiaocao. After fainting last summer, he had forgotten a lot of things. However, none of them thought that he would become smarter and live on despite losing most of his memories. In addition, she has a natural talent and talent in cooking. They couldn't help but praise him repeatedly.

Madam Li had appeared just when the food was ready to be served. Jealousy surged into her as she inspected the completely new old residence and she commented in a sour tone, “We are not as lucky as second sister-in-law. Your whole family occupies an entire courtyard and lives in a giant mansion. ”

The kitchen is busy with activities. Some of Mrs Liu's friends from the village came early to help. Although Madam Zhang disagreed, Yu Caidie also came to help wash the vegetables and arrange the table, and was busy cheerfully.

Madam Li, on the contrary, did not even help them bring out food. Instead, he pulled his son to the table and sat down heavily. As they ate, they devoured the food as if they had been starving for a long time. Madam Li's chopsticks flew at light speed and quickly snatched the mouthful of meat and vegetables into the bowl of her and her son. Their friends could only look at it with dislike and shake their heads.

A total of ten tables were at the banquet. Madam Liu had prepared more than enough food for it and there were plenty of leftovers for each dish. After Madam Li ate and drank until she was full, she did not immediately leave and laze in the courtyard under the sunlight. In general, leftovers are given to people who have helped prepare food and everyone will get a share to go home.

Ms. Li rejected the tradition and did not help prepare or clean the food. Instead, when it came time to hand out the leftovers, he boldly squeezed out and said, “Ah, Second Sister-in-law, you guys are unlikely to spend all this leftover food. Give me a little to take home so that Mother and Third Sister-in-law can try your culinary talents. ”.

“Dashan's wife, it's not that you haven't tried her food before you split up. Did you miss her cooking so much after just a few days? ”

The next-door neighbor of the Yu Family, Hai Xing's wife, was a shrewd woman and had a relatively good relationship with Madam Liu. Both often collect firewood and cut fish moss. From time to time, he also asked Lady Liu for advice on embroidery. At this moment, he was clearly insinuating Madam Li.

Madam Li pretended not to hear it and took the cleaned basin and started filling it with food. He specifically chose dishes that had meat, such as rabbit meat and chicken pieces. In the end, nearly half of the dishes containing meat had fallen into his hands. The amount of food in the basin was stacked into a small mountain. He greedily looked at the soup pot and reluctantly left, his fleshy waist swaying as he walked.

When Heizi heard his mother call him, he rushed out of the backyard. In his hand was a small pheasant whose wings were tied together. He shamelessly said, “Second Aunt, your backyard still has two rabbits and a pheasant, give me one to take home, okay. I haven't tasted meat for over a month! ”

Yu Xiaocao almost wanted to laugh in anger, ‘Who's the one who took almost half of the chicken dish? Also, do rabbits and chicken meat disappear in the stomachs of others? ‘

Madam Liu was very familiar with the temperament of this mother-daughter couple and did not want to bother with the two. He only wanted these two demons to leave faster. All the other women who helped could only shake their heads in disbelief. Yu Hai's legs were injured, Madam Liu could not do any heavy work, and their children were still small. As the eldest brother-in-law, Madam Li did not even help them and only came to take something from them. Madam Liu is so unlucky to have a relative like her.

After sending some people who had helped, Madam Yao knew that the day was already late from the color of the sky. She also went with her eldest daughter-in-law. That night, Yu Xiaocao and his two siblings crammed into their parents' beds. The five of them counted their expenses together.

“Although the construction of the house does not require us to spend a lot of money on labor, but if you add the materials and furniture we buy, we spend about five taels. Building a house is exhausting. Although everyone brought their own food, Xiaocao proposed that we give them steamed bread and a bowl of porridge for lunch. Steamed bread is made with a combination of wheat flour and millet flour or sweet potato flour. Buying all those grains takes one more tael. ” When the house was built, Yu Hai's feet were still injured, so he spent his days recuperating in the main residence. Madam Liu was telling him about their spending right now.

Yu Hai ruffled Xiaocao's hair and smiled, “Cao’er did the right thing. Even though we don't have much money, we can't let others starve when they help us. Most villagers cannot eat much. In the morning they will probably have mixed seed flatbreads that are not enough to last until noon, so we need to add food to them. I heard Brother Li praise our family for being sincere and honest because our steamed buns all contain half a wheat flour. She said she always brought an extra flat cake made from peanut flour because she couldn't bear to eat our steamed bun. Instead, he would bring home the steamed bread for his children to eat at will! ”

Dongshan Village is a small fishing village next to the sea. Most villages rely on fishermen for a living. The surrounding soil is mostly sandy and only a few types of plants can be grown there. The majority of families only consume peanut flour, sweet potato flour, and millet flour as a source of carbohydrates. Only during the New Year celebration are they willing to buy wheat flour to eat. Thus, even a steamed bun consisting of half a wheat flour was considered something delicious to eat in the eyes of the villagers.

Madam Liu looked at her second daughter who was becoming increasingly smart and intelligent every day. He smiled and continued, “Most of the ingredients for today's banquet were given to us by Big Brother Zhao. As for pork, we spent about three hundred copper coins, if we added the amount we spent on grains and vegetables, a total of about one tael was spent. Originally we had twelve taels in hand and now we have about five taels left. ”

This is what it means to be a family. When one is in need, the other will go to great lengths to help. Everyone works together and cares about each other…

Xiaocao could feel the warmth of having a family. Despite living in poverty, he was not alone in the struggle. He still has his father, mother, and all his siblings. He smiled brilliantly and shifted to his father's side to lift the blanket covering his legs and said, “It's time to massage your feet. Father, please accept your loving daughter, child care! ”

The wound on his leg healed very quickly, and most of the formed scabs had already come off. A few days ago, Yu Xiaocao went with him to the city to Tongren Medicine Hall for a health check to see Doctor Sun who had previously told them that there was nothing he could do. An amazed expression was on the doctor's reddish face, and the old man was excited and exclaimed continuously over this phenomenon.

Even if they were in modern times, this would also be considered a medical miracle. His calf had been crushed, and there was not a single piece of flesh on his leg that was not torn to shreds. A huge hole had been made in his back so one could almost see his internal organs peering out. Yu Hai fell unconscious from a serious wound on his leg. The fact that he is still standing and living without the help of modern medical equipment and medicine is incredible. If this isn't a miracle, then what?

At this moment, Physician Sun was amazed and could only say that his innate constitution was excellent and he definitely had a very strong desire to live. He must have had a god take care of him.

After examining the wounds on his legs and back, he felt Yu Hai's pulse again. After making sure he didn't have any problems, Doctor Sun said, “You don't need to take medicine anymore. Injuries to tendons and veins in your feet are very serious. Feet should be massaged frequently. I can't confirm it but he might be able to walk without a cane in the future. ”

At that time, Yu Xiaocao had asked Doctor Sun for guidance on massage techniques and made sure to take careful notes. Since then, he used massage time as an opportunity to use a small sacred stone to rub his father's leg wounds. He made the stone using his spiritual energy to slowly heal the fractured and injured veins and veins.

The multi-colored stone on his wrist seemed to have accidentally slid across the dense scar criss-crossing his leg as he massaged his arm. Only Xiaocao could see streams of faint golden light flowing slowly into the arteries and veins of the legs.

All Yu Hai could feel was that wherever his daughter's little hands were massaging her feet, a comfortable warm feeling would follow. The aches and pains in his legs slowly disappeared and he sleepily closed his eyes. Under her daughter's massage, she fell asleep comfortably …

“Cao’er, you must be tired. Teach mom how to massage and in the future I will do it. ” Lady Liu saw her daughter shake her aching hand afterwards and feel bad.

Xiaocao shook his head and said, “Mother, this is my chance to show respect and filiality to Father. Don't stop me. Xiaolian also asked me many times to teach her, but I refused! My father and mother treated me very well and bore a lot of burdens for me. Right and I deserve to help Dad massage his legs. ”

After working hard all day, the whole family fell asleep early. Yu Xiaocao lay quietly on the bed. Beneath it was a layer of rice straw and the blanket that covered it had clumps of hard cotton with patches that were all interconnected with each other. Nonetheless, it is still warmer and more comfortable than the shabby old bed that the entire family had to fit in their old home.

After he was sure Xiaolian, who was next to him, had fallen into a deep sleep, Xiaocao raised his left wrist and calmly spoke to the small holy stone, “Little Ketan Dumplings, Little Ketan Dumplings…

[If you keep calling me by that name, I'll stop responding to you!] A golden light appeared and slowly formed a small golden kitten with a large head and pointed ears.The little cat stared angrily at Xiaocao with its large, round eyes.

Yu Xiaocao used his fingertips to poke the little boy's slippery and delicate head and grinned, “OK, okay! Then I won't call you Little Ketan Dumpling, but what should I call you? Then how about I give it a new name, hmmm... like Little Baldy, how? ”

The golden little ball flapped its wings onto Doge Xiaocao's fingers and went berserk, [In the future when I manifest myself, I will become a woman. ‘Little Baldy’ is really a bad name. This god stone already has the name given to me by Goddess Nuwa. His name is ‘Circle’, doesn't that sound good?]

“Pffft —— circle? Then I'm square! I still don't think it's as good as Little Glutinous Dumpling. The name describes your round figure very well and sounds funny to boot! So we've decided, in the future, I'll call you Little Ketan Dumpling. Complaining about it will have no effect! ” Yu Xiaocao forcefully gave the name to the small holy stone.

“Little Ketan dumplings, how much longer do you think until my father's legs heal? Do you think he can walk as usual? ” Yu Xiaocao asked in a slightly worried tone. For these past few days, although his father had always stuck a smile on his face while in front of them, but he could see there was a faint line of loneliness in that smile.

His father was previously an upbeat and optimistic man. He was good at fishing, hunting, and could even make some simple bamboo tools. If he was destined to use crutches for the rest of his life, he would bet it would make him very depressed …