Chapter 21 - 021 Suddenly improved
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Li Xianglu had attended classes with her third brother for two consecutive days. Initially, Ge Sanmei tried to stop them, citing either too much housework or the clichéd argument that a young girl shouldn't bother studying. However, for reasons unknown, she stopped objecting in the subsequent days and even reminded them to come back early from literacy class every day. This gave Li Xianglu goosebumps - such a reaction from a person like Ge Sanmei was terrifying.
Li Xianglu would never believe that she suddenly had an epiphany to treat her daughter kindly.
By mid-November, heavy snow fell, blanketing the entire Northern Guanzhong in snow. Li Xianglu, a northerner from her previous life, was accustomed to snow, but she had never witnessed snow this intense or white. She joyfully played outside with Li Jianqing for quite a while, almost missing the time to start cooking. Surprisingly, Ge Sanmei wasn't angry but instead fired up the stove and boiled a large pot of water, brought out some flour, and fetched a piece of cured meat hanging outside to make meat Saozi Noodles for lunch.
Li Jianqing was thrilled about eating Saozi Noodles. Li Xianglu felt uneasy thinking something was off recently. Ge Sanmei had started being unusually friendly from the second day after returning from the commune. Having meat dishes at home was already the third time in a row; during her half-year here, they only had meat twice during the busy farming seasons. It had been three times in just this half month alone, which was highly suspicious!
However puzzled she was internally, she didn't show it on her face but became even more alert.
Li Xianglu originally didn't know how to roll dough, but after observing a few times, she learned it. Yet, with her limited strength, rolling needed someone with more force; the dough was harder, blended with some alkaline, then rolled extremely thin using a rolling pin, finely sliced with a sharp knife, bestowed upon it potato and cabbage dices with cured meat Saozi, allowing Li Xianglu to enjoy a big delicious bowl.
During these times, rural meals tasted wonderfully sweet, free from preservatives, with pigs grown for a whole year having a firm quality of meat, not comparable to the feed-grown pigs from her past life.
The Li family had a dedicated cutting board, especially made by a carpenter for rolling out dough. In Guanzhong, hosting guests often involved serving noodle dishes as a highly valued gesture of hospitality, hence almost every household had a rolling board.