345 Born to Write
Xue Yan’s ears turned red.
It was so embarrassing.
Xue Yifu, who was grinding rice flour at the stone mill, was also quite happy. However, he had never cooked before, nor had he ever used a knife to cut vegetables before. If he were to be the one cutting, he probably wouldn’t be any better off.
Seeing that Xue Yan really wanted to dig a hole and hide himself, Jiang Yue walked to Liu Guixia’s side and pulled her. She looked up and said, “Can you help Xue Yan and I?”
Liu Guixia and the others could have done it for them earlier, but they were just waiting for the children to ask for help first.
“Of course I can.” Liu Guixia was happy as she walked over without missing any rice noodles. As she deftly took over the vegetable knife and started to slice, she laughed and said, “Xue Yan, don’t blame me for saying that your hands were born to write. If I were to hold a brush, I would probably hold it like a chopstick. This is what Hongyan and I were made to do instead.”
She didn’t stop speaking as she sliced the cucumbers. The threads she cut were of the same thickness.
Jiang Yue looked at her and admired her cutting skills.
For the first time, Xue Yan was in awe of his mother.
Seeing that Liu Guixia had finished cutting one in a short time, Jiang Yue said, “Just two will do. Thank you.” They did not make a lot of liangpi today, so they didn’t need that much shredded cucumber.
“Alright,” Liu Guixia agreed and cut another one. After she was done, she placed them all on an empty plate and asked, “Do you need help cutting anything else?”
“There’s no need. Xue Yan can handle the rest.” Jiang Yue said.
“Then, Xue Yan… You do it!” Liu Guixia passed the knife to Xue Yan. Then, she went to make the rice noodles.
Xue Yan stood in front of the chopping board with the kitchen knife, unconsciously looking at the evenly cut and thin cucumber slices on the plate next to him.
Jiang Yue’s lips curled up when she saw this, but she immediately suppressed it.
Xue Yan didn’t notice it either. He started to smash the garlic with the back of the knife and cut it into pieces. The requirements for the next step were low. Even if it was randomly cut, it would become minced garlic after a few more cuts.
After that, he scooped the minced garlic into a large bowl at the side.
That was all he knew how to do. He did not know anything else, so he naturally turned to Jiang Yue.
“It’s to make garlic paste,” Jiang Yue said. As she spoke, she added more than half a bowl of water into the bowl and cut a lot of garlic. “It’s best to add more water and even some salt. We can let it soak for a while, otherwise, it won’t smell like garlic in the water.”
“And then?”
“Do you still have any crushed sesame and peanuts at home?” Xue Sifu needed these two ingredients to make cold rice noodles, so she didn’t know if he had any at home.
“I’ll go take a look.” The things were placed in the central room, so Xue Yan put down the kitchen knife and went to the central room. After a while, he walked out with two paper bags. As he walked out, he said, “There’s no more sesame and peanut crumbs left. Sifu brought them all to town, but there are still some stir-fried white sesame seeds and peanuts.
“Then we’ll just crush it ourselves,” Jiang Yue said.
“Okay.”
Jiang Yue took a paper bag and opened it. Inside were stir-fried peanuts. There weren’t many peanuts in the paper bag, only enough for today’s use. She opened the paper bag on the table and used a rolling pin to crush the peanuts into pieces.
Xue Yan crushed the sesame.
After that, Jiang Yue looked at the seasonings and saw that there was nothing else to prepare.
It was estimated that by the time Sifu came back, the garlic would have been soaked in the water well enough, and it would be just right to mix the liangpi.