Chapter 209: Pork Crackling and Baby Cabbage Dumplings

When Song Qiao Song Qiao and Song Tan returned carrying two large baskets of baby cabbage, Seventh Cousin was holding a massive stainless steel basin, slowly adding warm water to flour inside.

That was truly a lot of flour; it looked like at least half a basin full.

The warm water in the ladle was still slowly steaming under the night lights, and Seventh Cousin's lean, withered palms were slowly mixing the flour into dough crumbles inside; his movements were incredibly practiced.

Seeing this, Song Tan couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache: "Seventh Cousin, next time you want to make dumplings, tell me in advance, and I'll go buy some ready-made dumpling wrappers."

"What do you know!" Seventh Cousin didn't appreciate the gesture at all:

"Can those machine-made wholesale dumpling wrappers do justice to our baby cabbage? Eating dumplings requires hand-rolled wrappers."

Fine, fine, the persistence of an old-school craftsman.

Song Tan shook her head: "As long as you don't feel tired, it's fine."

Who knew that Seventh Cousin would rub the dough crumbles off his hands at this moment and then instruct: "Song Qiao Song Qiao, wash your hands and come over to knead the dough."

He washed his hands, sat in front of the stove, and smiled at Song Tan: "Don't worry, I, an old man, know how to take care of myself; I won't get tired."

Song Tan:... I can see that.

She was truly worrying a bit too much.

Seventh Cousin was still feeling smug: "Our Song Qiao Song Qiao here is a natural-born chef! Look at how he kneads the dough, so full of energy! This strength is even greater than your dad's."

He turned back and raised his voice: "Song Qiao Song Qiao, after you come back from the amusement park, let's knead some steamed buns!"

As long as the amusement park was mentioned, anything was fine. Song Qiao Song Qiao agreed loudly.

This silly boy.

Aunt Lianhua laughed heartily: she could no longer count on her own son, but seeing Song Qiao Song Qiao working here every day actually made Aunt Lianhua's heart soften.

At this moment, she scooped the cabbage out of the basket, deftly trimmed off the roots, and then tossed them one by one into the water basin to rinse them gently.

It must be said that with her help during this period, the chores of cooking and washing dishes at home had become much easier.

Although when they first discussed it, the job content was washing pots, dishes, and cleaning, Aunt Lianhua always arrived early and left late. If her cooking skills weren't inferior to Seventh Cousin's, she probably would have taken over the stir-frying too; she was truly hardworking to a fault.

In reality, they had only negotiated a salary of 1,000.

Song Tan felt she had ways to deal with people who took advantage, but for someone who went out of their way to work hard, she felt increasingly soft-hearted.

She thought for a moment: "Aunt Lianhua, why don't you bring the old lady over to the courtyard later? You can keep an eye on her while you're here, so you can be more at ease."

Aunt Lianhua was quite flustered: "That... how could that be? You're all working here."

"Why not?"

Song Tan pointed to the work at hand: "If we really calculate it that way, Aunt Lianhua, you're working overtime right now, and I haven't mentioned overtime pay."

"In a few days, when we move to my grandfather's courtyard, that courtyard is quite spacious. You can push the old lady into a corner; she won't be so lonely by herself."

When people get old, their spirit is important. It's not a good thing for a paralyzed patient to be cooped up at home quietly waiting every day.

Coming here to watch everyone busy at work, firstly, Aunt Lianhua can work with more peace of mind and effort, and secondly, it's quite beneficial for the old lady herself.

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Anyway, there are so many people here every day, and a separate portion of food would have to be set aside for the old lady anyway; sitting in the courtyard wouldn't affect anything at all.

Aunt Lianhua didn't know what to say anymore.

She lowered her head and earnestly washed the jade-white cabbage stalks, and it was a long while before she made a muffled sound:

"Alright, I'll bring her over tomorrow. If you don't mind, I'll do the cleaning at your house too."

What could there be to mind about that?

Song Tan sighed: "No need, Aunt Lianhua, you know, my house is about to be torn down—how about this, when the new house is built, we'll renegotiate the salary. For now, please just bear with this pay, okay?"

"Not bearing with it at all, not at all!"

Aunt Lianhua shouted louder than anyone.

The food at Song Tan's house was so nourishing; she didn't say anything, but that didn't mean she couldn't feel it. She hurriedly pretended to be busy and refused to speak anymore.

She scooped up all the washed baby cabbage and put them into a pot of hot water to blanch, busy and bustling, determined not to give Song Tan a chance.

Seventh Cousin lifted the pork belly he had prepared earlier from the large red plastic basin in the room and reminded Song Tan:

"Tan Tan, you should hurry up and buy another large freezer; these two freezers are already full."

Indeed, everyone was a big eater; they could finish half a freezer just by eating dumplings in one meal. Not to mention two more, even five more might not be enough!

But seeing that the weather was getting hot, it really wouldn't do without them.

Song Tan still sighed: "Fine, fine, buy it first, and put it in my grandfather's courtyard later."

At that time, she mustn't forget to rewire the old man's courtyard first, otherwise, with this daily load, it might not be able to handle it.

Song Qiao Song Qiao was still kneading the dough with a huff and a puff; the stainless steel basin was smooth and gleaming, and the massive dough under his hands was equally fine and soft.

Because the cutting board wasn't big enough, he had to reluctantly pinch it into several lumps, kneading them one by one, pinching them into segments, and rolling out the wrappers.

Don't say, Song Tan leaned over to take a look and found that Song Qiao Song Qiao's talent was probably really better than hers—for example, even though she was a fairy-in-training, she really wasn't as uniform and smooth as Song Qiao Song Qiao when rolling these dumpling wrappers.

On this side, Aunt Lianhua had already scooped out the blanched baby cabbage to cool. And Seventh Cousin's knife work was smooth, as if he had sliced open the pork skin without any effort.

The elastic long strip of pork skin bounced lightly in his hands, and Seventh Cousin felt a bit regretful: "Oh my, I don't know how well this pork skin could season a pot!"

He turned his head and looked at Song Qiao Song Qiao: "Song Qiao Song Qiao, do you want to eat roasted pork skin?"

"Eat!"

Song Qiao Song Qiao said loudly, and then added: "I also want to eat pickled pepper pork skin."

"You really know how to eat!" Seventh Cousin looked at him with disdain, then suddenly smiled and added:

"But aren't you going to the amusement park? This pork skin won't taste good if left out, so Cousin will eat it for you first."

Song Qiao Song Qiao stopped kneading the dough and stared at him blankly.

Just when everyone thought he would be aggrieved, they saw him nod excitedly: "Hmm, Song Qiao Song Qiao is someone going to the amusement park, so it's okay not to eat the pork skin."

What a thing to say!

Seventh Cousin failed to tease the child, snorted, and quickly cut the pork belly into thin slices, then put them in a pot with water, simmering slowly over low heat.

Then he cut all the prepared baby cabbage into fine bits, *clack clack clack clack*, chopping up a huge basin full that was peaking!

Then he squeezed the water out of them in handfuls.

At this time, the pork belly in the pot, after being stir-fried back and forth, now had a charred yellow surface, the moisture had been absorbed, and half a pot of orange-bright oil remained.

Song Tan couldn't help but take a deep breath:

"So fragrant!" ===== CHAPTER 210 =====