Chapter 195 - 191: Junk Collecting Late at Night
Li Xianglu finished her watermelon, washed her hands, tied on an apron, and went to cook. For lunch, some cold noodles would be nice—it’s so hot that nobody has much of an appetite.
Beef cold noodle salad is the most delicious. Li Xianglu took out a piece of beef shank from the Storage Ring, cut it in half, boiled some water, and began to knead dough for the noodles.
Because Li Xianglu was mostly at home during the holidays, she only had Sister Xing come over once a week to help out with the cleaning, which was enough until school starts again and she would come regularly.
Li Xianglu blanched the beef in boiling water, then added star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel seeds, dark soy sauce, and other seasonings to stew it slowly.
In the meantime, she went outside to fill the washing machine with water and started doing laundry.
While washing, she heard the door and saw Qin Xi enter first, followed after a long while by a crew-cut Qin Zhen.
Li Xianglu chuckled and said, "Why do you even bother? Every year you come back and put on the same show. Is it really that amusing?"
Qin Zhen touched his bald head, sat down at the table, and bit fiercely into a slice of watermelon, grunting, "Hmph, I’ll keep growing it out once I’m back!"
Everyone admired Qin Zhen’s persistence; he had a haircut in winter and managed to grow it long by the end of the semester only to have it cut again and now wished to grow it out once more.
Li Xianglu washed and hung up the bed sheets, then saw Qin Xi tidying up a tricycle that he had scavenged a few weeks ago. It was old, but Qin Xi had replaced the worn-out wooden bottom with some good planks and added armrests on both sides.
Li Xianglu wiped her hands, checked on the beef—which was done—and left it soaking in the broth to marinate.
She then rolled out the dough for the noodles; she had to make extra since there were more people today. The cold noodles needed to be fine and thin, and most importantly, they had to be chilled with ice water after boiling to make them firm and refreshing.