After finishing the household chores, Xiao Yu changed into dirty clothes to administer medicine to someone, and after feeding the medicine, she carried a bamboo basket on her back to chop firewood in the grove.
Her younger brother continued to chisel steps at home, and it would take about another day to reach the bottom of the stone steps.
She made four trips in total to carry firewood home, not stopping until it was dark.
When she returned home in the evening, her brother had already prepared his medicine, and it was now warming over the fire.
Their dinner was not yet cooked, and in their dirty clothes, they fed the man his medicine first. After taking his medicine, at least he knew he needed to eat and drink.
Being able to drink such bitter medicine relied solely on the will to survive. Drinking medicine on an empty stomach made the experience even more sour. Although she gave him water to drink afterward, his mouth was still especially bitter. Xiao Yu did not indulge him; he was not a girl—could she possibly sweeten his throat with sugar?
Considering that this man was cooperative and not too troublesome, Xiao Yu used fresh fish mixed with starch and seasonings in the evening to knead into fish noodles.
The accompanying vegetables were cabbage from the yard, grown from space seeds, so they wouldn’t die even in the depths of winter and looked lush and pleasing.
Without any oil, she seasoned it with light soy sauce, salt, small mill sesame oil, and oyster sauce. At the last moment before serving, she added minced pickled garlic sprouts, and if there was coriander at this time, the taste would be even better. Regrettably, her space had not reached the level where she could grow coriander. Even the garlic sprouts were old, after all, they had started to produce garlic. How could the sprouts not be old?
But adhering to the principle of not wasting, she chopped them up to eat, and unexpectedly, they tasted quite good. Thus, they ate them daily, occasionally mixing some into the chicken feed.
This was probably the benefit of feeding chickens. Having been on the island for so long, they had not wasted any food or vegetables. If they couldn’t finish it, they would feed it to the chickens, which was very convenient. The chickens also thrived by eating seafood scraps like fish internal organs, crab shells, shrimp shells, and shells, laying three eggs every day very steadily.
Without cooking oil, she still prepared their meals, which were quite different from the usual Chinese taste, but being able to drizzle some small mill sesame oil under these circumstances was already not easy.
The fish noodles were not firm and were difficult to roll, easily sticking together, so she had to painstakingly rub them thin by hand, strand by strand. She couldn’t ensure uniform thickness, but as long as the taste was right, it was fine.
This was the first time Yan Qing had eaten noodles made from fish. It was novel and though they looked plain and simple, the texture on his tongue was not as mushy as he expected. In fact, it was pleasantly chewy and springy, and the flavor was rich and delicious. Just one bite made him feel as if his long-starving stomach had come back to life.
She only served herself a small bowl. Normally, he could have slurped it down in two or three bites, but at this moment, he treasured this hard-won food, sending it into his mouth bit by bit and chewing slowly before swallowing, eating even slower than the siblings.
He was already able to sit up by himself, so he did not need the woman to feed him.
After finishing a bowl of noodles, he felt his stomach was particularly comfortable. The cabbage leaves were also very delicious, and he hadn’t expected the girl to be such a skilled cook.
"Thank you, I am very satisfied. It was very tasty."
Yan Qing sincerely thanked the siblings. At that moment, Xiao Yu was wiping the table, and Xiao Ze was cleaning up the dishes. Hearing his words, the siblings both looked over at him.
"We haven’t asked yet, what’s your name, and how old are you?" Read full story at novelꞁire.net