Sui Sui hurriedly grabbed the hem of his clothes and said softly, "No, no."
Yu Jinnian frowned at her.
Sui Sui cried softly: "I dreamed of a terrible ghost messenger, it was holding a very long chain, it said that the time has come, and it is going to hook my mother's soul... Woo... Brother Xiaonian, my mother It's going to be all right, isn't it? She won't be seduced by a ghost, won't she..."
Hearing that it wasn't Er Niang's illness, Yu Jinnian was relieved, reached out and touched the little girl's head, then pulled the sleeves and gently wiped away the tears on her face, coaxing: "Brother Xiaonian is here, Sui Sui is not afraid, Erniang will definitely get better."
Sui Sui was dubious and still refused to go to sleep. Yu Jin couldn't persuade him for a long time, and said "wait for me a moment", then went to the kitchen and put half a bowl of glutinous rice in a small porcelain bowl and gave it to Sui Sui: "Look, this glutinous rice is the best for exorcising evil spirits. If you put it on Erniang's bedside, the ghost messenger will be scared when he sees it, and he will not dare to come."
"Really?" Sui Sui asked with big eyes blinking.
Yu Jinnian nodded: "Of course, when did Brother Xiaonian lie to you?"
Seeing that Yu Jinnian was so determined, Sui Sui lowered his head and thought for a while, then took the glutinous rice bowl, ran to Er Niang's room, carefully placed the porcelain bowl on the bedside, kowtowed a few times respectfully, and read After a few words of "Bodhisattva bless", she climbed into bed, curled up next to Er Niang and fell asleep.
Yu Jinnian saw from the crack of the door that she was fast asleep, and said with a low smile, "You're still a little girl, so easy to lie." After saying that, he closed the crack of the door tightly, and couldn't help feeling depressed again. Sui Sui is easy to deceive, but Yu Jinnian can't deceive himself. Even though he studied under the famous Qihuang doctor in his previous life, he was still helpless against Xu Erniang's illness.
According to Sui Sui, at first Er Niang just had abdominal pain and bloating, because it only happened once in a while, so she didn't take it seriously, and when she was in pain, she just cooked some porridge that was soft and easy to digest. Later, the abdominal pain became more and more frequent, and the body lost weight rapidly, so I called a doctor. After seeing it, the doctor said it was epigastric pain, and some said it was fullness, and even I didn’t know where to call. The witch doctor said that Erniang was given a gut-piercing Gu by a villain... In short, there are different opinions, and she ate a lot of soup and pills.
By the time of Yu Jinnian, it was said that he had vomited blood several times, and he was so emaciated that he lost his shape.
He is not the kind of person with a heart of stone, Erniang took him in and treated him well, he naturally didn't want to see her in such pain, but... Yu Jinnian walked back to his room and couldn't help sighing—in modern terms, Erniang Xu's illness is probably It is advanced gastric cancer, even modern medicine is powerless to deal with it, let alone the poor conditions in ancient times? Therefore, no matter how effective the decoction is, it is just a tactic to delay the attack for a while.
— Er Niang is afraid that she will not get better.
Yu Jinnian lay on his back on the couch, looking at the tassels of the bed curtain shaking faintly above his head in the dark night, thinking of Xu Erniang's sick appearance for a while, and thinking of what happened to him for a while, he tossed and turned all night until dawn Then he closed his eyes vaguely.
This time I closed my eyes, I fell into a dream, very messy.
This dream made Yu Jinnian exhausted all over. As soon as the sky turned white, he woke up with a tired face. He opened his eyes and heard the rooster crowing outside the window three times. Then he managed to pull himself together. After washing with cold water, he hurried into the kitchen and Boil the water and prepare pasta for a day alone to make a living. Ever since Erniang Xu fell ill, the store's income was gradually not enough to pay for the medicine, and the former waiter had no choice but to resign, so there was only Jinnian left as a laborer inside and out.
While waiting for the water to boil, Yu Jinnian lay on the stove, thinking about what snacks to make today. As the hot water in the pot boiled, he glanced at the glutinous rice that Sui Sui coaxed to exorcise evil spirits yesterday, and suddenly came plan.
He cleaned up the kitchen, soaked a scoop of glutinous rice in clear water, and ran to the front of the store to open the store. After a while, diners came in one after another. Some regular customers saw that the food stalls outside the store had not been set up today, and laughed at him jokingly: "Brother Xiaonian, are you lazy in bed again?"
Yu Jinnian pursed his lips and smiled, not arguing with others.
Fortunately, people in Xin'an County prefer to eat porridge soup dumplings, so there are not many customers who come to "One Bowl Noodle Restaurant" to order noodles early in the morning. Make a snack and sell it.
The food he came up with this morning is called "Snowflake Cake".
As the end of summer is turning into autumn, the weather is getting colder in the morning and evening, and it is not advisable to eat those cold things anymore, so I wanted to make a snack that nourishes the spleen and stomach. At this moment, I thought of this snow cake .
He cleaned the glutinous rice first, scooped it up in a sea bowl, added a little water and steamed it. He added a firewood under the stove to heat up the stove, and then he turned to make the filling for the cake. The filling was simple, just black sesame and white sugar, but there were several troublesome processes in making it.
Yu Jinnian heated up another pot, poured a small bag of black sesame seeds into it, and stir-fried. After a while, the moisture in the sesame seeds dried up, and the black and small sesame seeds scrambled at the bottom of the pot, exuding a strong aroma. He stood by the pot and took a deep breath of the fragrance, feeling that it is no wonder that he said "fairies make rice bait, and he will live forever without breaking the valley". Just smelling this fragrance makes him feel graceful, not to mention eating it every day. It might be possible to live forever.
He transferred the fried fragrant sesame seeds into the garlic mortar, added a handful of white sugar, and pounded vigorously until the black sesame seeds and sugar were smashed into slag. At this time, the glutinous rice on the drawer is also steamed. The hot glutinous rice has to be hammered repeatedly to make it soft and delicate before it can be used to make snowflake cakes. He kneaded until his arms were sore, but he couldn't rest. He hurriedly brushed a thin layer of oil on the table, and spread the hammered glutinous rice on the table while it was hot, with a thick layer of crushed sugar and sesame seeds in the middle. Then spread a layer of soft glutinous rice on top, and finally, sprinkle the roasted sesame seeds on top for a nice look.
Looking at the cake, Yu Jinnian always felt that something was missing, he frowned for a while, then walked out suddenly.
The diners in the front hall saw the young man running out of the store quickly, and they didn't respond to his screams, but they saw him walking back with the corner of his mouth curled up in doubt, with a rose in his hand, which was so delicate and charming. It happened that Sui Sui also woke up, followed the scent to find the back kitchen, and saw Brother Xiaonian washing the petals.
Yu Jinnian went back and forth, and the hot cake had cooled down a bit. He washed the rose petals in his hand, cut them into small pieces with scissors, and decorated them sporadically on the cake. After admiring them for a while, he took the knife After passing through the cold water, quickly cut down with a few horizontal and vertical knives.
The neat, square, sweet and fluffy snow cake is ready.
Sui Sui lay on her usual place on the window and said wow: "It's so beautiful! Are the flowers on it edible?"
Yu Jinnian laughed: "Why did you want to eat flower petals just after waking up?" He picked off a delicate pink petal and handed it to the greedy Sui Sui's mouth, "Do you want to try it?"
Sui Sui "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Seeing how cute she was, Yu Jinnian forgot all the busy work in the morning, reached out and picked up the ear from the window sill, and asked her with a small smile if the petals were good, and if she wanted another piece. Only then did Sui Sui realize that she had been deceived, and she stretched her two chubby hands on Yu Jinnian's shoulders, pushing him and yelling, "Sui Sui doesn't like Brother Xiaonian anymore!"
"Haha," Yu Jinnian pinched her face, and coaxed her with a piece of ice cream on a small plate, "Don't like brother Xiaonian? Then I won't give you ice cream."
"Don't eat!" Sui Sui snorted, and after a while she opened one eye and secretly looked at the snow-white sweet cake, her expression became tangled, as if she was engaged in a very serious psychological struggle, after a long while, she reached out and patted Yu Jinnian on the shoulder , reluctantly said, "Then I still like you a little bit..." After finishing speaking, I went to eat the cake, and finally looked at the surface of the ice cream cake, and said emphatically while eating: "Just a little bit! "
Yu Jinnian patted her head, expressing his magnanimity, and didn't care about her "a little bit" little girl, turned around and took the prepared ice cream, and put it in the front hall to sell. Many of the diners who come and go to the "One Bowl Noodle Shop" go for the daily novelty snacks. Seeing that what was brought out today is a sandwich soft cake, each piece of cake is the size of a palm, half black and half white, dotted with pink petals, really It is as beautiful as red plums and falling snow, and it has a mouth-watering sesame aroma, which makes your index finger move. In a short time, the drawer full of ice cakes sold out a lot.
Someone asked with a smile: "Brother Xiaonian, tell me, what is the name of this cake today?"
Yu Jin nodded like a pedantic old man, and said, "Of course there are. This sesame is a sacred product that nourishes the liver and kidney, and nourishes the essence and blood. Glutinous rice can also strengthen the spleen and stomach. You see, it is getting colder this day. Eat it." Isn't it famous for these two things to nourish righteousness?"
The man asked again: "Then what is the name of the petal?"
"This..." Yu Jinnian frowned and thought about it. He was surprised for a moment and suddenly said, "Naturally for the sake of looking good! Why, isn't it good looking?"
The neighbors who came to buy ice cream laughed happily and nodded one after another: "It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Not only is Xiaonian's craftsmanship beautiful, but the people are also beautiful!"
Yu Jinnian also laughed: "Thank you, thank you. Since it looks good, why don't you buy more?"
Neighbors, you talk to each other, and this bustling half morning has passed. It was almost noon, and Yu Jinnian prepared a large pot of miscellaneous sauce toppings for noon, washed a small basket of cucumbers, and made a simple dish of patted cucumbers as a side dish. In the shade of the front hall, there are also small dishes, saying that there is no limit to a penny, telling diners to eat more and get more, and eat less and get less.
Everyone looked up and looked down, although they had never seen such a way of selling it, and they all wondered for a while, but no one had the cheek to take advantage of this small plate of cucumbers.
It's getting dark now, Yu Jinnian was holding a cup of cold bamboo tea, sitting behind the counter to settle accounts, when he saw two carriages parked in front of his shop.
He squinted his eyes and looked out, and saw the wreath tassels hung on the four corners of the carriage, and the magpies and plum blossoms were carved on the flower windows, which were very delicate, and there were several strong servants accompanying the carriage. team.
Sure enough, a girl got out of the car in front of her, with a small silver hairpin stuck in her hair. Just by looking at the dress, one could tell that it was not a material that ordinary people could afford. Yu Jinnian just put down his pen when he heard the girl walk in haughtily and opened her mouth to ask, "Where is the owner?"