CHAPTER 126: CHAPTER 126: DELICIOUS DRY PANCAKES AND FRUITS (1)

Li Yuzhu turned to look at him and said with a smile, "Third brother, have you tidied up your room?"

"What stuff do I have? Just two sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes! Put the clothes in the cabinet, tuck the shoes under the bed, and I’m done." Li Xing’an raised his eyebrows with pride.

That’s true, a boy tidying up his room is just casual!

"Alright, let’s go take a look around." Li Yuzhu clapped her sleeves, smiling as she walked out.

The house was being built, and she had been busy with other things, not having had a detailed look around yet. She needed to take a good look at the new home.

"Third brother, I want to go too!" the Great Princess yelled.

"Hurry up if you want to go!" Li Xing’an urged her.

"Coming!" The Great Princess ran outside happily, and at the door, she turned back to the Second Princess and said, "Second sister, help me tidy things up."

"I haven’t even finished tidying my own stuff..." the Second Princess was unwilling.

The Great Princess ran out.

The Second Princess didn’t follow out, looking at the big bag of items belonging to her and the Great Princess, she frowned.

"So hungry, let’s eat something." She opened a package containing dry biscuits and took one to eat.

This kind of dry biscuit is made from flour, and some are made from cornmeal.

After fermentation, they are shaped into small balls, filled with stuffing, sprinkled with black sesame seeds on top, and baked in a special oven.

Because they are dried, they won’t spoil even after ten days to half a month.

They taste fragrant and crisp.

Liu the bricklayer’s eldest granddaughter is very good at making this food.

One day, Liu the bricklayer and his two sons carried these dry biscuits as food, and the Second Princess saw them.

She asked for half to taste.

Finding them delicious, the Second Princess spent fifty coins to commission Liu the bricklayer’s eldest granddaughter to make fifty dry biscuits.

At this time, as the Second Princess was eating, Li Jing came over.

He lay on the half-foot high bamboo door threshold, blinking his eyes at the Second Princess, "Second aunt, what are you eating?"

The Second Princess was stunned, oh no, her snack had been discovered, too late to hide it.

"Second aunt won’t give me any?" Li Jing licked his lips and looked at her, "Big aunt said, secretly eating snacks alone will make one grow lots of fat."

The Second Princess wanted to cry, "..."

She didn’t want to grow fat; she was already quite chubby. However, she didn’t have many dry biscuits left...

Fifty eaten nine, leaving only forty-one.

After much hesitation, the Second Princess said, "Okay, I’ll give you half."

She handed a half dry biscuit to Li Jing.

Li Jing happily climbed over the threshold, took the dry biscuit, and began eating.

Because the biscuit was baked dry, biting it caused a lot of crumbs to fall.

The crumbs fell on his clothes everywhere, and Li Jing patted them with his hands, brushing the crumbs onto the ground.

The Second Princess usually ate by holding the dry biscuit with her right hand and catching the crumbs with her left hand.

After eating the biscuit, she then swept the crumbs into her mouth, ensuring not a single grain was wasted.

Seeing Li Jing eating and scattering crumbs everywhere, the Second Princess felt heartache and quickly used both hands to catch them, "Eat slowly, don’t spill them."

She caught a handful of crumbs and swept them into her mouth.

Li Jing finished the half and reached out, "I want more."

The Second Princess was so upset she was wringing her hands, "I don’t know if there are any left, let me have a look. You wait outside."

She took Li Jing outside the door, closed it, then took a biscuit from the cabinet and handed it to Li Jing, "This is the last one, no more."

Li Jing bit the biscuit, "Second aunt, where is this bought from? I will ask dad to buy it."

"It’s bought from people building the house." The Second Princess told him, "Quickly ask your dad to buy, Second Aunt doesn’t have any more."

"Okay, I’ll ask dad to buy it." Li Jing happily ran back to the South Courtyard room.

The main house in the North Courtyard is for Prince Luling and his wife, and the three rooms in the South Courtyard are for the Princely Heir’s family.

But now the children are young, and the family of four lives in one room.

In the room, there are two beds; the big bed belongs to the couple, and the small bed is placed vertically for the two children.

Li Jing ran back, handed the biscuit that he had bitten only a small part of to the Princely Heir to see, "Dad, I want to eat this, this is delicious."

The Princely Heir blinked, "Jingjing, dad doesn’t have it here, who gave it to you?"

"Second aunt, she said the people building the house have it."

The Princely Heir laughed, "I remembered, Liu the bricklayer brought these biscuits for food, I heard it’s his eldest granddaughter who made them."

Xue Family sat on the side, folding family clothes.

She glanced at the biscuit in Li Jing’s hand, snorted lightly, "Given Second sister’s nature, she always hides plenty of snacks in her hands, but now she only gives Jingjing one, so stingy! Is this how aunts should be?"

The Princely Heir said, "Second sister is only thirteen years old, she’s also a child, and children are greedy for snacks."

"She’s your sister, you just speak up for her!" Xue Family said dissatisfied.

"What a trivial matter to fuss over. Father has invited Liu the bricklayer to lunch, I’ll ask him later if his eldest granddaughter can help make some."

.

Li Yuzhu and the Great Princess, along with Li Xing’an, took a tour of the house and then went to the kitchen.

The house is actually not big; apart from a few bamboo rooms, there is nothing else, not even a single tree planted in the yard.

Everyone was strolling around, enjoying the mood, not really sightseeing.

The morning was half over, and lunch needed to be prepared.

The family was moving, and Prince Luling, who always loved to socialize and show off, invited the village chief and his sons, and Liu the bricklayer and his sons, as well as Mu Yuanxiu for lunch.

It’s time to start preparing.

The kitchen is built on the left side of the main house.

Inside, the large and small stoves are fully equipped.

In front of the large stove, there’s a pile of firewood in various sizes.

On the stove sits a brand-new iron pot and a new wooden lid.

On the side of the small stove, there’s a large clay jar meant for heating bath water.

This type of stove may appear separate, but they’re actually connected.

When cooking on the large stove, the small one has residual heat too, by the time the meal is cooked, the water in the jar is also hot.

To make the water heat quickly, just stuff more wood into the hole of the small stove.

When not heating water, remove the clay jar, replace it with a small iron pot, and it can be used for steaming rice.

Li Yuzhu, in her previous life living in the countryside, saw many farmers with such stoves.

Beside the stove, there’s a large water tank as deep as the waist.

Li Yuzhu opened the lid to find it already filled with clean water.

The Great Princess inspected the kitchen and nodded in satisfaction, "This feels like a proper place for cooking. The place on the mountain is not suitable for cooking at all. Luckily, it doesn’t rain often; otherwise, it’d be unbearable."

Besides the large and small stoves, the kitchen also has shelves for food, bowls, and miscellaneous items.

These shelves are all simple bamboo slat shelves.

On the food shelf, there’s grain, vegetables, dried meat, eggs bought by the brothers yesterday.

Li Yuzhu counted the vegetables, "Enough food, can make ten dishes."