Chapter 9
Ways to Make Money
The morning of the next day, Du Xiao Li got up from bed, and after a quick wash of her face, she went outside, preparing to make breakfast.
Because Du Xiu Heng was too tired from yesterday, he still hasn’t gotten up yet.
She had the sweet potatoes they brought back yesterday peeled with a knife, and then cut into small pieces. Afterwards, using a bamboo steamer, she placed it onto the pot to cook. Soon after, Du Xiu Heng woke up.
“Younger sister, why didn’t you wake me?” Du Xiu Heng rubbed his eyes and said.
“I saw that big brother was too tired yesterday and the day before, and wanted to let you sleep some more. The face washing water is in the basin, why don’t you go wash your face first.” Du Xiao Li said while she added firewood into the temporary fire.
After Du Xiu Heng came back from washing his face, he saw Du Xiao Li still not done and asked, “What are you making to eat?”
“I saw the sweet potatoes we got back yesterday, and wanted to make some sweet potato cake to eat.” When Du Xiao Li felt it was about done, she removed it from the fire, and afterwards, opened the bamboo steamer lid. The sweet aroma of the sweet potatoes a.s.saulted their nose.
Du Xiu Heng watched Du Xiao Li use chopsticks to pick up the sweet potato and placed it into a bowl, afterwards slowly pressing it into mashed sweet potatoes. Then, she added in glutinous rice flour, and used chopsticks to mix it evenly.
“Younger sister, when did you learn to cook?” Du Xiu Heng skeptically looked to Du Xiao Li. Yesterday’s wild hare stew was also good, and today’s sweet potato cake, he’d never heard her mention before.
“I just randomly thought about it and felt it can be made like this.” Du Xiao Li replied, and then ran to go wash her hands. When she came back, she had the sweet potatoes kneaded into palm size, and finger thick, flat cakes. She then took down the pot, and replaced it with the pot for stir-frying, letting Du Xiu Heng light the fire for her.
After waiting for the pot to heat up, she poured the vegetable oil into the pot. Then after the oil heated up, she had the pieces of flat cakes placed into the pot to pan-fry. And when the two sides became a golden color, she found a plate to put them onto.
Very soon, a plate of sweet potato cakes were made.
Du Xiao Li used chopsticks to separate a little piece for Du Xiu Heng, and watched him eat it, asking: “How’s the taste?”
“Very delicious! Didn’t know that sweet potatoes could be made like this to eat too.” After Du Xiu Heng swallowed it down, he successively exclaimed in admiration.
“Then quickly go wash your hands and come back to eat.” Du Xiao Li, seeing Du Xiu Heng liking it, happily smiled. After she plated all the cakes, she had the pot washed, then poured in the remaining wild hare stew from yesterday.
“En, how pleasant smelling. Xiao Li, what are you making here? Smelling this good!” Niu Jing, who was pa.s.sing by Du Xiao Li’s courtyard, smelled the sweet potato cakes, and couldn’t help stopping to ask.
As soon as Du Xiu Li saw it was Niu Jing, she replied with a smile, “I made some sweet potato cakes for big brother. Grandpa Niu, do you want to come in and try some?”
“Okay!” Niu Jing pushed opened the very worn-out wooden fence and walked in, behind him, also followed Han Ming Yi and those two men in black.
“Grandpa Niu, he is?” Since it was their second time meeting, and even in her own home, Du Xiao Li couldn’t continue to pretend to not see him, thus asked.
Niu Jing picked up a piece of sweet potato cake with chopsticks and took a bite. A sweet but not greasy taste dispersed in his mouth, delicious to the point where his entire face even smoothed out. Hearing Du Xiao Li ask about Han Ming Yi, he swallowed the sweet potato cake in his mouth, and said, “This is the grandson of a friend of mine. Because he’s sick, he came to my place to recuperate for a period of time. You can just call him big brother Xiao Yi[1].”
“Oh. Big brother Xiao Yi, do you want to eat?” Du Xiao Li went and had one of the plates cleaned. Afterwards, she picked up a piece and placed it onto the plate, placing it in front of Han Ming Yi.
Since he’s come to her home, no matter what, she should at least make a friendly gesture. However, based on her experience with his type in her past life, he won’t eat it, so she was only just going through the motions.
Sure enough, Han Ming Yi looked to the the golden brown sweet potato cake on the plate, then shifted his gaze towards the mountains in the back. Not even making a peep.
“Mensao[2]!” Du Xiao Li couldn’t help mouthing. Afterwards, she also gave some to those two men in black, but as expected, they both refused.
Niu Jing had two great loves in his life, one was medicine, and the other was delicious food. He also liked drinking wine, but because after drinking wine, he can’t see patients, he usually very rarely drank. He saw that Han Ming Yi didn’t eat, so he took the piece from his plate and said, “He doesn’t want to eat, I’ll eat! Xiao Li ah, how did you make this? So delicious!”
“It’s very simple.” Du Xiao Li, although didn’t like Han Ming Yi that much, she liked Niu Jing a lot, thus she told him the method for making sweet potato cakes. When she finished, she even poured a bowl of wild hare stew for him to drink.
Niu Jing drank a mouthful of wild hare stew and said, “We also used the wild hare for stew last night, how come it wasn’t as good as yours? What did you put in it?”
“Just put a bit of salt, and also mushrooms picked from the mountains.” Du Xiao Li answered. She waited for him to finish drinking and took back the bowl, asking: “Grandpa Niu, what are you doing coming up the mountain this early?”
“I’m going into the mountains to find some medical herbs, and also bring Xiao Yi around to look, climb some mountains, and exercise a bit.” Niu Jing answered.
Du Xiao Li looked to Han Ming Yi’s pale white face, and also the gown on his body, silently sitting there. With him like this, it was useless now matter how much he exercised. However, Niu Jing’s words pointed out a money making path for her. “Grandpa Niu, do you think if I dig up medical herbs from the mountains to sell, will the medicine shop accept them?”
“The medicinal herb shop naturally will accept them, but the medical herbs you dig up, probably no one will dare to accept.” Niu Jing said with a smile.
“Why?” Du Xiao Li instinctively asked. In her past life, she was called the exotic flower of the medical world. There weren’t many medical ingredients that she didn’t recognize. To actually dare disdain her?!
But she forgot that she herself right now was just a seven year old little girl, who would believe that a seven year old little girl could distinguish between medical ingredients?
“You’ve never studied medicine before, nor have learned how to handle medicinal ingredients, who do you think would dare to want yours?” Niu Jing looked to Du Xiao Li’s little face and said.
“What if I can dig up some useful medical herbs?” Du Xiao Li, unwilling to give up, asked.
Niu Jing looked to the worn-out house, and knew that Du Xiao Li and her brother, without fields, could only think of other ways to earn money. “If you dig up any medical herbs, you can sell them to me. When the time comes, I’ll sell them together to the medicine shop in the county seat[3].”
“Really?!” Du Xiao Li looked up to Niu Jing, somewhat in disbelief.
“Of course it’s real. But you need to learn how to distinguish medical herbs first. Else, poisonous or not, useful or not, you’ll dig them all up. I don’t have that time to sort through them.” Niu Jing saw Du Xiao Li’s joyous appearance and felt happy inside too.
“Thank you, grandpa Niu!” Du Xiao Li wished she could run up and Niu Jing and give him a kiss on his face.
“Haha, then later come by my house to learn some medical ingredient knowledge. Now then, I’ll take him for a stroll in the mountains first. Quickly eat your breakfast alright.” Niu Jing patted Du Xiao Li’s head and got up, taking Han Ming Yi and the others towards the mountain top.
Du Xiu Heng finally came to Du Xiao Li’s side after Niu Jing left, asking: “Younger sister, do you really plan on learning medicine?”
Du Xiao Li nodded. It’s not that she wanted to learn medicine, but that she originally already knew how. If she doesn’t learn anything now, in the future, if she were to accidentally expose her medical knowledge, then that would be troublesome.
“Since you want to learn, then just go. Whether or not you can make money, all that is secondary. Big brother will support you.” Du Xiu Heng firmly said.
Perhaps Du Xiu Heng’s words weren’t for her to hear, but in that moment, Du Xiao Li felt a never before warmth in her own heart.
[1] Xiao Yi – ‘Little Yi’; since his full name is Han Ming Yi
[2] Mensao – used to describe someone who’s outwardly cold, but deep and pa.s.sionate inside.
[3] Country Seat – the town that is the governmental center of a county
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