Chapter 87: Noodles Tastier Than Meat?

Yun Zhen wanted to hurry up and experience what it felt like inside the tent house, but she hadn’t forgotten the pile of supplies she brought that needed sorting. She began to make arrangements one by one.

“Dad, Village Chief, I bought a lot of things today. Later, find a few people to move them inside.

“Send the eggs to the kitchen first, otherwise they’ll freeze and go bad.

“Move the rice, flour, and sweet potatoes to the kitchen too. I also brought a new type of food this time. It’s round and pale yellow. It looks like a vegetable called a potato. I don’t know if it’s tasty or not.

“The village’s pork suet should be almost gone by now, so I bought thirty more catties of fresh pork suet. Tomorrow, we can render it and store it in jars to add to our porridge.

“Lately, everyone has been moving stones to build the high wall, so I also bought two iron wheelbarrows.

“I also bought a hundred catties of cotton. Dad, you and the Village Chief can oversee distributing it to everyone. Have the people in the village who know how to sew stuff it into their clothes.

“Set up these two large cauldrons in the kitchen. If the kitchen can’t fit them, they can be placed in the storage room. I’ll buy another medium-sized tent later to build a second kitchen. Oh, right, I also bought two large soup ladles and two large spatulas. The ones in the village are too small and inconvenient for cooking large communal meals. Not only are the big ones handier to use, but they also save a bit of effort.”

As Yun Zhen spoke, Yun Xiu and the Village Chief directed the nimble young men of the village to move the goods indoors.

First, they moved the eggs inside; it would be heartbreaking if they froze and spoiled. Following the Goddess’s arrangements, the food items like rice, flour, pork suet, sweet potatoes, and potatoes were placed in the kitchen.

Originally, the kitchen had one large iron wok and one small one. The large iron wok was a family heirloom of the Village Chief, while the small one was something Yun Zhen had scavenged from a garbage heap. Since the kitchen didn’t have enough space for the two large iron cauldrons she brought this time, they planned to build a stone stove tomorrow to hold one of them. The other large cauldron was stored in the storage room, just as Yun Zhen suggested.

“Zhen Niang, why do the small bags on this box look a little familiar?” Yun Duo circled the box of instant noodles, feeling that the pattern on it looked more and more familiar the longer she stared at it.

Yun Zhen told her mother, “Mom, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. These are the fragrant noodles we ate before.”

Fragrant noodles! Yun Duo’s memory traced back to their most difficult moment.

With no firewood or food at home and a raging blizzard outside, their family had nearly starved and frozen to death. Her daughter had brought back a type of wonderfully aromatic fragrant noodles from the Immortal Realm. The noodles had been firm, smooth, and chewy, and the broth had been covered in large glistening spots of oil with the rich aroma of meat. A single sip filled the mouth with an incredible fragrance. She still thought about it even now.

Yun Xiu was equally delighted. “Zhen Niang, you bought fragrant noodles!”

Clearly, he had been craving a bite of them, too.

“What are fragrant noodles?” Zhou Dashan, Li Cuilan, Tian Ergou, and the others gathered around and asked curiously.

Yun Zhen explained, “Do you all remember the aroma of meat and oil in the village back in the very beginning? You all guessed that my family was boiling meat, but aside from pork cracklings, we truly hadn’t eaten any other meat. We were eating a type of noodle! My parents and I call them fragrant noodles, and that’s exactly what’s inside these odd boxes I brought. However, the people in the Immortal Realm call them instant noodles.”

Everyone’s thoughts were pulled back to their most desperate moments of starving and freezing. Heavy snow had sealed off the mountain, and the entire village had run out of food. They had been so hungry that they didn’t even have the strength to leave their doors. Everyone had huddled in their ice-cave-like houses, enduring the relentless torment of the blizzard. They could only go up the mountain to strip tree bark for food when the snow lessened a bit. Yet, during such a difficult time, the entire village had a “beautiful dream” in the middle of the night about eating meat.

That rich, oily aroma had aggressively bombarded everyone’s empty stomachs. Refusing to believe it was real, they chalked it all up to a dream. But the villagers living near the Yun Family slowly realized it wasn’t a dream. Their imaginations ran wild, and they even thought Yun Xiu’s family had boiled their child to eat!

And the result?

The Yun Family hadn’t eaten a child; they truly had food to eat. White rice porridge and fresh, tender vegetable leaves. After Yun Zhen became the Goddess, they started living the good life, having white rice porridge with vegetable leaves and pork lard for every meal. They had even eaten braised pork once. No one ever brought up where that rich oily aroma—which had been even stronger and more aggressive than the smell of braised pork—had originally come from. But now, the Goddess and her family were saying that what they smelled back then wasn’t meat, but a type of noodle.

Zhou Dashan found it unbelievable. “Is there really a noodle more fragrant than meat?”

Yun Zhen shook her head and replied, “Of course, instant noodles aren’t as delicious as actual meat, but they are very convenient to make. The noodle block can even be eaten raw. More importantly, when the oil and sauce packets inside are added to hot water, the broth is just as filling as white rice porridge or dough drop soup. It tastes oily, savory, and spicy, and the smell is much punchier than meat.”

Everyone couldn’t wait to give it a try.

“I originally planned to buy some meat,” Yun Zhen added. “But when I remembered that the village still has dozens of catties of meat left unfinished, I held off. Anyway, we can buy meat at any time. As long as we earn more money, not only will we be able to eat pork, but we’ll also be able to eat chicken, beef, and mutton.”

Beef! Everyone opened their mouths wide and took a sharp breath.

“They can eat beef in the Immortal Realm?”

“We wouldn’t dare casually slaughter an ox here to sell its beef, otherwise we’d be hauled off by the authorities and thrown into prison. Of course, families who own an ox can’t bear to kill it anyway. An ox is far more useful than the strongest laborer in the house.”

“Before, Grandpa Zhang’s family was the only one in the village with an ox. It was all because Dazhuang was so lucky. He found a ginseng root, sold it, and used the money to build a mud house for his family and buy an ox. During the busy farming season, they used it to work the fields, and during the off-season, they used it to pull people to the city to earn money. It really did Grandpa Zhang proud.”

“Sigh! I heard the ox ran off and got lost just a few days after the snowstorm hit. The Zhang family nearly cried themselves to death over it.”

“Tell me about it! My family’s ox ran off, and my two sons and I searched the mountain for days without finding it,” Grandpa Zhang’s disappointed voice rang out from the crowd.

Everyone looked tense, realizing they had just brought up Grandpa Zhang’s heartbreaking loss.

Yun Zhen consoled him at the perfect moment. “Don’t be sad, Grandpa Zhang. Every cloud has a silver lining. Once our village earns some money in the future, I’ll buy an ox for every household. No, wait! I’ll buy two! A male and a female, so they can birth little calves.”

Expressions of pleasant surprise appeared on everyone’s faces.

Grandpa Zhang also cast aside his earlier disappointment, an expectant smile spreading across his face. “Goddess, when the immortals in the Immortal Realm eat beef, does no one police them?”

“I saw quite a few stalls selling beef in the Immortal Realm,” Yun Zhen told them. “They skin the entire cow, remove its head and limbs, and hang it upside down with iron hooks to sell. They don’t hide it in the slightest, so there’s definitely no one policing them.”

“Whoa!” everyone exclaimed in astonishment.

“Goddess, everything has been moved indoors. Let’s not stand outside anymore. It’s cold out here. Head inside the house; there’s a stove.” The Village Chief walked back and forth, finishing up the move with the young men. He then called out to the crowd, “A few of you, come help Yun Xiu and me start a fire and cook a meal.”

“Village Chief, has everyone not eaten yet?” Yun Zhen asked.

Every day, she would go to the cafeteria for dinner before heading to the market to buy the supplies the village needed. Every time she returned to the village, everyone had already eaten.

The Village Chief nodded. “Today, we’ve been busy pitching tents, moving in, and carrying stones to build the high wall. No one had a moment of rest. We only stopped working when we realized you were arriving soon. We were just about to head to Grandpa Zhang’s house to welcome you, but who knew we’d see you standing in the snow the moment we left the threshing floor?”

“I brought a lot of things today, and Grandpa Zhang’s house wouldn’t have enough space for them,” Yun Zhen said. “Plus, I knew everyone was busy working on the threshing floor, so I just materialized here with the supplies.

“Village Chief, since everyone is moving into their new homes today, we ought to hold a housewarming banquet according to tradition. I brought fragrant noodles today, and since their aroma wafted through the whole village last time, I’m sure everyone has been dying for a taste. Let’s boil two massive cauldrons of fragrant noodles tonight and throw a housewarming banquet for everyone.”

The Village Chief clapped his hands together. “That sounds wonderful! The village still has dozens of catties of bones with plenty of meat on them. I couldn’t bear to use them before, but tonight, let’s use a meat broth to boil those fragrant noodles you mentioned.”