Chapter 533 [Monkey dumplings]
There was nothing to do anyway, Fang Chang put the long sword and package on his back on the bed, opened the curtains, and stood quietly by the window to watch the scenery outside.
After a while, Fang Chang heard the chef in the kitchen say: "The meal is ready, you two, follow me to serve these meals to the hall, Bao'er, go and call the guests to have dinner. Shout out to the Tianzihao room on the second floor, then go to the first floor and shout.”
"Okay." Accompanied by the light banging of pots and pans, a young voice echoed.
Following the sound of footsteps extending from the kitchen at the back to the corridor on the second floor, the voice of the shop clerk sounded upstairs: "Dinner is ready, guests, please come to the front hall for dinner!"
There was an immediate reaction in each house, and Fang Chang waited for the waiter to shout twice in the corridor on the first floor before getting up and walking outside.
Walking to the front hall, I saw a dozen square tables in the front hall, each with a pot of vegetables, a pot of rice, and a pot of soup.
The dish is stewed tofu with cabbage in a thick sauce, with some thin pork slices mixed in; the rice is not ordinary corn rice or sorghum rice, but a salty rice mixed with vegetables and diced bacon steamed; the soup is ordinary The egg drop soup, but depending on the portion, it is estimated that there is only one egg per table.
There is a large spoon in the food bowl and soup bowl, and there is a stack of bowls next to it. Anyone who needs it can take it by himself.
The people who came down to eat all arrived one after another, each found a place to sit down, and each took a bowl to hold the meal. Everyone seems to have gotten used to the style here, eat as much as you want, and start talking.
The sky outside quickly darkened, the sun should have set.
The second brother Lin, the owner of the shop, waited until the sky was very dark, and then lit a few oil lamps. When the lights were lit up, the people in the front hall were already half full. The speed of eating slowed down, and the atmosphere of chatting became lively.
A passenger took out his carry-on bag: "I have some homemade salted fried beans here, please try it." He got up and put a small handful of bowls on each table. The fried beans are crunchy, fragrant, and have a salty taste. After eating the beans, everyone praised them.
Fang Chang also joined in the fun. He picked up the wine gourd and said, "I brought some sorghum wine brewed at home. It's extremely strong. Everyone should try it too."
Everyone applauded for this.
At this time, wine is considered a valuable thing, especially high-grade wine, which can only be brewed from grain. It is naturally a good thing that someone is willing to share wine.
So when Fang Chang got up and poured a bowl of wine for each table, the passengers thanked each other.
Seeing that there was wine, everyone quickly ate up the rice in the bowl, and drank up the egg soup, and then used the rice bowl to share the wine, with the remaining cabbage tofu and the fried beans given by the passenger just now, They all took two sips from their bowls, and chatted more passionately through the wine.
They first praised the mellow aroma of this sorghum wine, saying that they had never drunk such a delicious wine. These people didn't know that they were lucky enough to drink the spiritual wine brewed on the cliff of Xianqi, which is far from being comparable to ordinary village wine. However, Fang Chang didn't explain at all, but just nodded to those who praised him.
After chatting for a while, someone took a sip of wine happily and said loudly:
"I can be regarded as a veteran of this official road for many years. From Long'an Mansion to Huaifeng Mansion, it is most cost-effective to live in Huqiao Town. From Huaifeng Mansion to Long'an Mansion, it is most cost-effective to live in Linxi Village. My first When I walked this road once, this Linxi Village was still an ordinary mountain village, and Second Brother Lin had already started a lodging business, but I didn’t know it at the time, and when he couldn’t get to Huqiao Town, he lived in the wilderness.”
"Later, I met a porter with me, the father of Xiao Xie in Huaifeng Mansion. He was still alive at that time, and everyone called him Lao Xie. This old Xie told me that Linxi Village can stay at night, which is cheaper and more affordable than Huqiao Town. .I just came here, and then I took a look, okay, it’s just an empty room, everyone huddled together, and used some grass to make the floor by myself.”
"But it's really cheap. You can just pay two fen per head, and you don't care about the rice. Here, it's this kind of steamed corn rice, but there are few grains of bacon, and there is also egg drop soup. What is the concept of two fen? , everyone knows that in Huqiao Town, you can buy only half a tiger cake, which is really affordable. But now that Brother Lin has this inn, the price has risen a lot. Bridge Town is almost the same, of course, it should be more affordable."
Second Brother Lin, who was on the counter next to him, was very familiar with this guest. Hearing the other party narrowing himself, he argued:
"At that time, all the corn and vegetables were grown by myself, and I could earn money if I could exchange them. After all, it is not easy to sell some food, and the yard is just an old yard."
"It's not like today, although the vegetables are all grown by ourselves, but the fields at home are planted with medicinal materials, and there are many customers who come every day. The bacon, chicken and corn are all bought from outside, so we can't sell them at the same price as before. Otherwise, I would have lost money long ago. The same is true for accommodation, this building has put all the money I have saved for half my life into it, and I still hope to get back the money before kicking my legs."
Everyone laughed and raised their bowls one after another and said, "Then we wish Second Brother Lin to return to his book soon, and remember to treat us when the time comes."
Second Brother Lin laughed and said, "Definitely, definitely." Everyone laughed.
It was suggested that everyone take turns telling stories to get through the long night, which was agreed by everyone. However, while everyone agrees, they also ask the person who made this proposal to tell a story to everyone first.
"Then I'll start off by throwing bricks and stones at it. Let me tell you the story about monkey-made dumplings that I heard before going to bed when I was a child."
"Once upon a time, a family was very poor. There were four children in this family. But one year there was a severe drought, the harvest was not good, and they couldn't survive. They had no choice but to throw away the three children. After the children's parents got up early, they cried for a while. Fan, and then boiled the last egg in the family, cut it with a strand of hair, and shared it with the three children."
"For poor families, eggs are used to exchange groceries, and they are usually willing to eat them. The three children are very happy to eat. Then the father carried the basket on his back, led the three children and said: 'Let's go out.' The children were very curious and asked where father would take us? The father was sad and did not speak."
"The eldest sister among the children was the oldest, and she saw that something was wrong, so she secretly picked up a handful of pebbles, and dropped one secretly every once in a while. The four of them walked, walked, until deep in the mountains, as the father Said, close your eyes and count, count to one hundred and then open your eyes."
“The children counted, and when they opened their eyes again, their father had disappeared. The eldest sister was already sensible, and cried and said, ‘We don’t want us anymore.’ The children cried together, and then told each other to find a way to go home.”
(end of this chapter)