Wontons

She had told him to leave everything at the door and she was planning to move the snacks in later. Unexpectedly, Jiabao insisted on moving them in for her.

At first, Xiaoguo didn’t know the reason for his actions. She only felt that he was being polite. It wasn’t until later on, when she couldn’t dissuade him and saw him moving the snacks in, that she understood why he insisted on coming in.

Jiabao looked at the big cows as he moved the snacks.

“Oh my, they’ve grown a lot!”

Jiabao looked at the two cows and stared at their stomachs.

Xiaoguo saw what he was doing and smiled helplessly. “Yes, they’ve been growing very quickly recently.”

He was looking so blatantly at the cows. Was he just looking at them or was he trying to see how much they have grown? Xiaoguo had no idea.

However, there was one thing she was very sure of. Su Changsheng would find some excuse to get Jiabao to come over again. Once breeding was done, he would probably come over personally.

The corners of Xiaoguo’s mouth curled up. Her guess was most likely right. Just wait and see.

Jiabao used other reasons to stall for time. During this time, he kept talking about the two cows. Xiaoguo had a plan in mind, so she followed suit and provided him with a lot of information. She only stopped when Jiabao appeared satisfied.

“Alright then, I’ll go back first.”

Feeling satisfied, Jiabao went back to report to his young master.

Xiaoguo watched the carriage leave before closing the door.

As soon as she entered the house, she realized that the two persons, who were taking their afternoon nap earlier, were now sitting in front of the pile of snacks, trying to guess the contents inside the bags.

“Let’s just open them and take a look.”

Xiaoguo walked forward and pushed their heads away. Since they were curious, she should open everything to take a look. What was the point of guessing?

When Zhuang Zhuang heard this, he couldn’t wait anymore. With a tiny bit of strength, he managed to open a box at the top of the pile. Some strange-looking oval objects were sitting inside the box.

“Hmmm?”

Zhuang Zhuang uttered in confusion.

When Qin Anming heard this, he came over and looked curiously at the contents of the box. He also made a sound to express his puzzlement.

These things looked so strange.

The two of them leaned over to study what it was. Xiaoguo saw them when she came out of the back room. “Yo, what are you two looking at?”

They stared at each other in silence, holding the oval object in their hands.

“Mother, what do you think this is?”

Zhuang Zhuang held it between his thumb and forefinger and held it up for Xiaoguo to see.

Xiaoguo leaned closer to take a look. “It’s a pecan fruit?”

Joy washed over her immediately. It was actually a pecan fruit! This Su Changsheng was really amazing. How did he get his hands on this?

“Pecan fruit?”

Zhuang Zhuang and Qin Anming looked at each other in confusion. They had never heard of it before.

“The Hu people call them wild walnuts.”

After saying that, Xiaoguo didn’t care if they understood or not. She took the fruit and pressed hard with her hands to reveal a small crack. She sniffed through the crack and couldn’t help but sigh. “This is the smell!”

Then, with a controlled bite, she cracked the shell with her teeth to reveal the nut inside. She peeled open a handful in the same way and placed them in her mouth. Instantly, satisfaction surged through her.

Qin Anming and Zhuang Zhuang imitated her. From the looks of it, they knew that the fruit was edible, so they each took one and tried to open it.

“Mmm, it’s so fragrant!”

Zhuang Zhuang was young. After chewing for a bit, he let out a surprised cry. Qin Anming was feeling the same, but he couldn’t behave in the same exaggerated manner as Zhuang Zhuang, so he only expressed his surprise by nodding continuously.

After unboxing the pecan fruit as a start, Xiaoguo’s interest was piqued. She really felt like she was opening a blind box.

Xiaoguo took out the pecan fruits and placed them aside before moving on to open the other boxes.

At this moment, Xiaoguo was thinking to herself. “Since there were already pecan fruits, can the next one be almonds?”

As expected, she found what she was thinking in the next box.

“Mother, what is this?”

Xiaoguo happily took out the almonds and handed one to Zhuang Zhuang and Qin Anming. “These are almonds. Try one.”

With that, she took the lead and started eating.

After eating, she eagerly opened the other boxes. Su Changsheng was really capable. He could even get his hands on nuts that could not be found in Shao Country. It seemed that Jiabao was right. Su Changsheng was really knowledgeable.

In that case, it would be much easier to carry out her plan if she worked with him. She had to think about it carefully and formulate a detailed plan.

“This is delicious.”

While Xiaoguo was deep in thought, Zhuang Zhuang and Qin Anming pointed at the contents of one box and praised it.

Xiaoguo had not seen what was inside. After hearing them, her interest was piqued.

She leaned closer and saw that it was hazelnuts.

“Do hazelnuts taste better than pecans?”

Xiaoguo pinched a hazelnut. As all the nuts were properly processed, they were easy to peel and eat.

“Hmm…” After hearing Xiaoguo’s question, the two of them remained silent for a long time. In the end, they decided that pecans were more delicious. It just had a unique fragrance.

There was a wide variety of snacks. There were five types of nuts, and there were also new flavors of melon seeds and peanuts. What surprised Xiaoguo the most was that there were lollipops.

It was really surprising that there were such products here.

Apart from the malt sugar that she usually saw, she had never seen any other type of sweets. It seemed that Jiabao was right. Su Changsheng’s favorite pastime was to travel around the world and import new dried fruits and technology from other countries. What’s more, he was doing it very successfully. He was indeed a rare business talent.

Xiaoguo packed some nuts and a few lollipops so that Zhuang Zhuang could bring them to Mrs. Yang.

After Zhuang Zhuang left, Xiaoguo began to drag Qin Anming, who was still eating nuts, to clean the courtyard.

They had been delayed for quite a while. The courtyard must be cleaned up today. After today’s work was done, more work would be waiting for them the next day.

Zhuang Zhuang knew that he had to tidy up the courtyard when he returned, so he didn’t stop for a break. After handing over the nuts, he returned with an empty package.

Seeing that his mother and uncle were cleaning the courtyard, he picked up a small broom that was custom-made for him, and joined in the cleaning.

Xiaoguo and Qin Anming were cleaning up the cow dung. They had not gone out to herd cows recently, so there was more dung piled up than usual.

Qin Anming did not let Xiaoguo clear the feces. Instead, he went in himself and shoveled them into the vegetable plot. Xiaoguo used the shovel and spread out the feces evenly across every inch of the plot. When spring arrives, they will start planting.

The three of them worked together. There was not much work to do in the courtyard. When they were almost done, Xiaoguo went out alone to wash her hands.

During noon, she had taken out a piece of pork, in preparation to make wontons for dinner.

In addition to the pork, there was also a handful of chives and prawns. This time, she was going to make wontons with three fillings.

First, she chopped the pork into a paste and placed it in a basin. She added salt, spring onions, ginger, peppercorns, and water in parts. After stirring everything, she added a few other condiments for flavor. The umami of the dish was the essence of the dish, so it was better not to add too many ingredients.

After mixing the meat filling, Xiaoguo got ready to cut the chives.

Xiaoguo only took a small handful of what she needed. After cutting the chives, she poured them in and stirred them evenly into the meat paste. The ratio of pork to chives was two to one.

Then, she began to process the prawns.

The peeled prawn heads were not thrown away. Instead, they were put aside. The peeled prawns were sliced into halves along their backs. They were then placed aside in a bowl for later use.

Next, Xiaoguo took out the dough that she had made earlier in the afternoon. She divided it into small pieces and rolled them into thin slices. In order to make the skins in standard sizes, Xiaoguo put in extra effort since there was ample time. She stacked the rolled skins on top of each other and trimmed them into squares with a knife.

All the ingredients were ready. She just had to wrap them into wontons.

The three-filling wontons were very similar to regular wontons. They were just a little different in terms of their shapes and fillings.

When Qin Anming and Zhuang Zhuang were almost done, Xiaoguo got ready to start wrapping the dumplings.