With five people, the work went very fast. The basin of chive and egg filling, and the other basin of cabbage and pork filling were soon empty.
Gu Jinlin was delighted when he looked at the plump, white dumplings. He was dreaming of dumplings for dinner.
But before he could finish gloating, Gu Qingyao took another two basins of filling from the cabinet.
Gu Jinlin: “…”
Gu Qingyao said, “Hurry up. When we’re done, we’ll send some to Third Uncle tomorrow. They’ll be frozen, so we don’t have to worry that they’ll spoil!”
Gu Jinlin paused as he thought of his two younger brothers. He did not say anything, but simply hurried to make more dumplings.
They worked until it was dark and were delighted with the results. Gu Jinlin had never seen so many dumplings before.
They had wrapped over a thousand dumplings.
Gu Jinlin gulped as he looked at the soft, white dumplings. Their skins were all made from fine white flour!
Too extravagant! This was just too extravagant!
Gu Jinlin could barely speak properly. “Younger… Younger sister, can we have dumplings for dinner?”
After a few days at home, he somehow felt that his younger cousin was in charge of the household.
Gu Qingyao turned and glanced at him. “Would you like some?”
Gu Jinlin immediately nodded so hard he looked like a chick pecking at rice. He would like some! Of course, he would!
Gu Qingyao said, “Sure, then we’ll have dumplings for dinner tonight. That will save us trouble!”
So they had dumplings for dinner. Gu Jinlin alone ate two big bowls of them.
These were not the small bowls of later years, but the big bowls with a blue rim. Gu Jinlin ate so much that he could not stop burping. His grandparents and uncle all looked at him disdainfully.
He was like an incarnation of a hungry ghost!
Gu Jinlin: “…”
Gu Jinlin felt injured. He had no choice.
They were just too delicious!
In his family, his father, his fifth younger brother, and himself all earned a wage. So their standard of living was pretty high. Even so, his mother could not bear to use so much oil when cooking, and they did not have so many nice things to eat.
But here, at his younger cousin’s home, even the chive and egg filling had been made with plenty of oil. They were well flavored and absolutely heavenly!
The dipping sauce had vinegar, and even a little sesame oil!
Sesame oil!
That stuff cost an arm and a leg!
When they had tidied up, they placed the dumplings on a chopping board and left them outside to freeze. At night, while the rest were asleep, Gu Qingyao entered her interspace and continued to make wontons. When she was done, she also placed them outside to freeze.
They were further north and up on the mountain, so it was extremely cold at night. On an icy night like that, the temperatures outside dipped to ten or almost twenty degrees below zero. Anything placed outside would freeze quickly.
When they got up the next day, the dumplings were already frozen. As for the wontons, Gu Qingyao had packed them away earlier.
She had just finished washing up when Mo Beihan arrived. They had agreed the day before to go to town that day. That was why Gu Qingyao had made so many dumplings.
There was a basket at the back of Mo Beihan’s bicycle, which was almost filled with a large sack.
Gu Qingyao packed her things and followed him.
Today, Gu Jinlin would remain behind with Gu Yunshen to help his grandparents clean the cowshed.
Gu Qingyao and Mo Beihan set out with all their things.
The snowy roads were slippery. Mo Beihan put everything on his bicycle and pushed it along. Gu Qingyao followed him down the mountain.
Whenever they reached a steep spot, she would subconsciously reach out to grab his arm. After a few times, she just continued to hold him without letting go.