newbobooks Chapter 268 Chicken Noodle Soup
Chapter 268 Chicken Noodle Soup
Somehow, Zhou Guo remembered what the young man who bought the pine mushrooms from them said. She had only been gone for a few days, but they had been gone for several months or even half a year. You can imagine how uncomfortable they must have been. No wonder he bought a whole truckload of pine mushrooms so readily. If she saw it, she might buy it too.
Although she didn't find anyone on this trip to the city, it wasn't completely a waste of time. She gained a lot.
With those few bags of silver, apart from those I spent, those I gave to Lao Tang, and the bag I took with me when I left the city, I had nearly two hundred and sixty taels of silver in total, one hundred and fifty taels of silver notes alone, not to mention the several high-quality jade pendants I collected, which should be able to sell for quite a bit of money. If I run out of money someday, I can just sell them.
Thinking about the extra money in her hands, she felt happy and ate even more happily.
She was choking because she was eating the biscuit dry, so she tore it into pieces, threw them into the bowl, pressed them down with chopsticks, and watched the chicken soup submerge the biscuit little by little, just like eating steamed buns with soup.
The pancake that has absorbed so much soup is soft and doughy. It melts in your mouth and falls apart with a sip. It also tastes like chicken and wild mushrooms. It tastes much better than eating it dry. The only downside is that it uses too much soup. Half a bowl of soup is gone with one pancake.
Seeing how happily she was eating, Zhou Dacang tore off a piece of the cake and threw it in.
The two of them ate the meal as if they were eating noodles, slurping it up, and in no time they finished the meal.
It was dark by then.
There was no other light source around except this faint fire. I looked up at the night sky and saw only a few scattered stars. I didn't know if it would rain tonight.
Since I can’t sleep right now, I might as well meditate.
Zhou Dacang cleared the dishes and saw that his little niece had crossed her legs and closed her eyes. He added some firewood to the fire and fanned the fire again, and a pile of fire burned in front of the straw shed.
Now that I'm fine, I've started practicing martial arts. I almost got into a fight when I was away from home these past two days. I had no skills, so I could only get beaten.
In the middle of the night, when Zhou Guo was half asleep, she was awakened by the sound of raindrops outside. She wanted to get up and take a look, but Zhou Da Cang, who was lying outside, held her down and said, "Don't move. The rain is not heavy and the roof is thick. It's okay. Go back to sleep. We have to travel tomorrow."
She lay down obediently again, turned over and fell asleep again with the sound of raindrops hitting the fallen leaves as her pillow.
When I got up to practice, the drizzle had not stopped, so I had to meditate in the straw hut. When the sky was bright, the drizzle stopped.
Zhou Dacang went to fetch water early in the morning carrying a water bag and a bamboo tube.
Zhou Guosheng was getting angry, so she opened the clay pot from yesterday and took a look. There was still half a pot of soup left, with some chicken and mushrooms in it. She put the pot on the stove, planning to make a pot of noodles with this little chicken soup.
The dried noodles I bought haven’t been touched yet, so it’s better to eat them now.
Not long after the pot was put on the stove, steam began to come out. After a while, the remaining soup began to bubble up. I stirred it with chopsticks and it seemed that there was less soup.
Zhou Da Cang came back with a pile of bamboo tubes and two water bags. He sat down and said, "These two water bags are really good buys. They can hold five or six bamboo tubes of water at a time, and they won't leak. But they are too expensive."
Zhou Guo reached out and took a bamboo tube, opened the lid and poured water into it. After several bamboo tubes were emptied, half of the pot was full. This was almost enough. While pouring water, he replied: "Expensive things have their merits. These two bags can be used for ten years. If you take good care of them, they may be used for twenty years."
Zhou Dacang looked at the two water bags. Although they cost a lot of money, they would last a long time, and the money was given by others. So he smiled and went to fetch water with a few empty bamboo tubes.
These days the two of them traveled on horseback, and sometimes they couldn't find any water after walking more than ten miles. They had to rely on the water they brought with them. If they still hadn't found any water by mealtime, they wouldn't be able to have a good lunch.
Therefore, whenever they came across water, they would fill all their bamboo water bags with water in case of emergency.
Zhou Guo waited for the water in the pot to boil, and then cooked it for a while longer before taking out the noodles and putting a few handfuls in. The clay pot was only so big, so if it wasn't enough, he could just have a few more cakes.
Zhou Guo took his own big bowl and filled it up, poured some soup in it, and added two pieces of the remaining chicken and mushrooms. "Uncle, the rest is yours. I think you don't need to use the bowl, just hold the pot and eat."
Zhou Da Cang looked at the huge pot and didn't know where to start. "Who eats with a pot in their hands? And this pot is so deep, how can I eat? Can I even get my head in there?"
Zhou Guo laughed, "Then you should just eat with the bowl. I don't want to wash an extra bowl."
Zhou Dacang said unhappily, "I only asked you to wash the dishes once, but why do you seem to wash them every meal?"
Such a big bowl of noodles was enough for Zhou Dacang, but it was obviously not enough for Zhou Guo, so he took out a few more pieces of bread, tore them up and threw them into the bowl of noodles, and ate them all. After eating, he didn't feel full, so he took out some candied fruits and ate a lot of them. He felt choking after eating too much because they were so sweet.
He took out the bag of dried meat and started eating it happily.
Now the rain stopped, and the sun broke through the clouds, dyeing the forest with golden light. The sunlight shone through the gaps in the woods, and beams of light could be seen. Birds were chirping happily in the woods and on the tree trunks.
She squinted her eyes and chewed the jerky, and for a moment she felt that the world was still a beautiful place.
When Zhou Dacang came back with the washed dishes, he saw food bags scattered all over the floor. Zhou Guo was leaning against a tree trunk with her feet up, munching on dried meat and eating happily with her eyes squinting. He smiled knowingly. It was rare to see her looking so content. The child finally behaved like a child, being greedy, being lazy, and turning over things and putting them everywhere.
After packing up everything, the two set off again to visit the remaining counties.
It took the two men four days on horseback to escape the remaining counties. There were refugees in every county, but not many. Most of them went to the provincial capital. After all, the provincial capital was bigger and had more wealthy people.
Four days later, the two went to the next place.
The next place was a bit far away, and the two of them had been on the road for two days but still hadn’t found anyone.
The dry food they brought with them had been almost eaten up. If they could not get more dry food, they would have to hunt.
That day, seeing that it was getting dark again, Zhou Guo said, "Uncle, let's find a suitable place to set up a tent in front. We should have a place to live before dark, otherwise we will have to sleep on the grass again tonight."
Zhou Dacang nodded, straightened up and looked ahead, raised his whip and pointed ahead, saying, "I think we should just climb over this beam. We should be able to find the place after we climb over it. This side is just a pile of rocks, and there's not even a long worm at a glance."
The two men rode their horses quickly forward.