The two stared at each other for a while before Lin Lan pushed Han Qingsong away, “Come on, chop up some stuffing for me. Let’s make some dumplings to eat.”
She arranged the Chinese cabbage, the fungi that she soaked in the morning, meat and dried shrimps. She rinsed them as she asked Han Qingsong to help chop the stuffing.
Lin Lan went to find some fine flour again and she said with a smile to Han Qingsong, “You made this along with Dawang a while back. Our main housekeeper couldn’t bear to eat it, so we have this amount left behind. If it weren’t for this, we would have to start grinding some for the dumplings and we wouldn’t be able to eat until the middle of the night.”
Erwang was appointed by her as the main housekeeper, who helped her manage the accounts and the records of the food. However, their main housekeeper was always worried about his mother’s less-than-frugal expenses and the family going hungry, so he always kept track of their records throughout the weekends.
Lin Lan thought of it as a good thing— frugality was a virtue.
After she finished kneading the dough, she placed the lid over the pot to let the dough rise. As she watched Han Qingsong chop up the stuffing, she also reminded him to be gentle.
With his strength, any wrong move and he would potentially break the chopping board.
The children came home one after another. When they saw that there were dumplings being made at home, they exclaimed happily and clamoured to help make the food.
Lin Lan was instructing Han Qingsong to stir the mix. A stuffing of cabbage, pork and dried shrimp was really rare in their era. The mix emanated the mellow aroma of pork, the sweetness of dried shrimp and the refreshing scent of the fungi and cabbage. She also cracked an egg into the stuffing and asked him to stir them all in one direction.
Even though there were more vegetables than there were meat, no one was going to complain about that.
After the dough had risen, Han Qingsong helped roll it out whereas Lin Lan started on the dumplings.
Seeing Sanwang reaching out to grab the dough, Han Qingsong turned over and used the rolling pin to block Sanwang’s hand.
Xiaowang rushed over and spread his little hands, “I washed mine already.”
Han Qingsong also pulled him away, “You can go and play the harmonica, don’t play with the dough.”
Xiaowang was very disappointed. Although he didn’t know how to make dumplings, he wanted to work hard to make dumplings for his mother and…he also really wanted to play with the dough.
It was soft, squishy and it could be made into the shape of a bunny.
…want to play…want to…play…
Lin Lan saw that the child’s beautiful eyes bore the strong desire to play. His emotions were practically about to flow out, so she couldn’t help but laugh and said to Han Qingsong, “I’ll give him a small piece to have him shape into a little bunny. After that, we can cook it later and let him eat it.”
Xiaowang nodded immediately with sparkling eyes, “Okay, okay.”
Erwang and Maisui had washed their hands before coming over to help with making the dumplings.
Xiaowang also got his wish and played with the dough.
Sanwang, too, washed his hands to join in the fun.
Dawang glanced at them for a moment but entered the east room expressionlessly to start on his homework!
Lin Lan looked at her son quietly and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong with your Eldest Brother?” It’s not normal for him to start working on his homework right after coming home, so something probably happened.
The children just giggled and laughed.