Chapter 819 - 421: New Discovery

Chapter 819: Chapter 421: New Discovery

Huai Zi quickly replied, "Yeah! I’m coming. But it’s strange. How did wood ear mushrooms suddenly grow here so well?" He continued to stare at the old tree roots as he spoke.

Hearing his words, He followed his gaze and was also quite surprised. Although these mushrooms could be found in the mountains, intentionally cultivating them was no easy task. Huai Zi tinkered with them every year, working himself to the bone, yet the harvest was always limited.

She leaned in for a closer look, muttering, "Could it be because of that basin of water I splashed the other day?"

Huai Zi hurriedly asked, "Mother, what water did you splash?"

He said in a low voice, "I don’t remember exactly which day it was. I was washing some wood ear mushrooms to stir-fry. Seeing that these tree roots were a bit dry, I conveniently poured the basin of water I used to wash the mushrooms over them. I was afraid that pouring too much would be bad, so I only poured half and dumped the rest on these two trees next to it. I wonder if that’s the trick to it."

Hearing this, Huai Zi’s mind stirred, and he fell into deep thought.

It wasn’t until He gave him another nudge that he snapped back to reality. Realizing he hadn’t rinsed his mouth yet, he quickly brushed his teeth in a few quick strokes and washed his face. Only then did he carry the hot water He had prepared into the room. Banli and Cong were already giggling non-stop on the small bed, babbling and stuffing their hands and feet into their mouths.

Juhua quickly scrubbed herself down first before tending to the two babies, listening to Huai Zi talk about the wood ear mushrooms as she worked.

"I’ll give it a try later. In the past, I always had to break up a good number of mushrooms, and they didn’t even grow evenly."

"Then you should hurry and try it," Juhua said. "It doesn’t matter if it fails; you’ve been planting them for years anyway, and the result has always been the same. But if it works out, wouldn’t you have figured out the secret? We can plant a lot more of these in the future. Quite a few of this batch of oak saplings have sprouted too. When we transplant them to the mountains next spring, our family will have its own forest."

As she spoke, she stripped the two babies bare and plopped them into the bathtub. It was still a bit chilly early in the morning, so Juhua had placed the wooden bathing tub behind the canopy bed and drawn the curtain at the head of the bed to keep the cold air out.

Huai Zi smiled and nodded, squatting to the side to help.

Initially, he hadn’t dared to touch the brother and sister—afraid that his rough, heavy hands might accidentally hurt the soft little arms and legs of the infants. But watching his son splash the water—SPLASH SPLASH—in the large wooden tub, looking so chubby and round with limbs like lotus roots, he simply couldn’t resist. He tried helping bathe them once, and since then, he had helped wash them every day.

Juhua watched him carefully holding Banli’s arm, using a piece of gauze to clean the baby’s armpit. He looked quite the part, though seeing a grown man doing such a task was somewhat comical. Unable to hold back, she laughed. "I’m afraid you’re the only man in our village who helps bathe his children. Even my brother has never done this."

Huai Zi chuckled. "Who says? Liu Sanshun has done it. He said teaching Ni Qiu to swim has to start in the bathtub, and when the boy is a bit older, he’ll take him to the river to swim. Isn’t he helping bathe his son? Your brother also bathes together with Hulu in the evenings. I just find this little guy so round, chubby, and fun to play with."

Amidst the laughter and banter, they finished cleaning up the two babies and handed them over to Pu Pao to watch. Huai Zi went to the backyard to tend to the wood ear mushrooms, while Juhua and Aunt Liu made breakfast.

After breakfast, Juhua saw that the glutinous rice flour for the tangyuan she had milled the night before had fully settled. She filtered off the top layer of clear water and asked Aunt Liu to scrub a bamboo drying tray. Once it was wiped dry, she lined it with a piece of white gauze, broke the tangyuan dough into small pieces, and spread them out evenly on the bamboo tray to dry in the sun.

"Let’s have tangyuan for lunch!" He smiled, looking at the bright white tangyuan dough in the bamboo tray.

Juhua nodded. She pinched a bit of the dough and rubbed it between her fingers; it felt incredibly smooth. She said to He, "Then I’ll prepare the fillings. Aunt Liu, go roast some sesame seeds, crush them, and mix in some sugar to make a sesame filling. I’ll chop up some pickled potherb mustard, mix in a bit of cured meat, and make a pickled vegetable filling. We’ll also roll some small tangyuan to boil with sweet fermented rice wine and Little Cabbages."

Seeing how she had assigned the tasks in just a few words, He was filled with joy. "The sun is really nice today," she said. "I’ll bring out that large bamboo tray too and air out the padded jackets and mattresses."

With that, everyone got busy. Pu Pao also came over to help as an assistant. Only Grandma Liu sat under the eaves, keeping an eye on the three little babies while doing some needlework.

Right as they were busy, someone walked in through the front door carrying a small child on their back. It turned out to be Big Mouth Zhao’s wife, Guizhi. She called out to He, "Aunt Zhang, you’re busy!"

He was just leaning several pillows against the edge of the large bamboo tray to dry them in the bright sun. Seeing Guizhi arrive, she suddenly remembered something and hurriedly shouted toward the kitchen, "Juhua, Guizhi is here. Come over and keep her company." She then turned her head and smiled, inviting Guizhi to take a seat.

Guizhi set down the dark-skinned little boy from her back and gave him a gentle push. "You don’t even know how to greet people. This is Grandma Zhang."

The dark-skinned boy flashed a wide grin at He and called out in a crisp voice, "Grandma Zhang!"

He happily responded, "Oh! This must be Liangzi. Look at this sturdy little appearance; he looks almost exactly like Big Mouth did when he was young."

She brought a stool and placed it under the plum tree for Guizhi to sit on. Then she told Pu Pao to grab some peanut brittle for Liangzi to eat and asked her to go to the backyard to pick some Yingtao.

"Aunt Zhang, there’s no need to go to all this trouble. It’s quite embarrassing," Guizhi said to He shyly.

Juhua had just finished mixing the pickled vegetable and cured meat filling. Hearing He’s call, she quickly said a word to Aunt Liu, stepped out of the kitchen, and smiled at Guizhi. "Guizhi, I was planning to find some free time to visit you, and coincidentally, here you are. Oh my, this child is really... so adorable!"

Looking at the little boy, he was about the same age as Li Jingwen. With a wide mouth and a large nose, he was a miniature version of Big Mouth Zhao. However, the child’s skin was dark and glossy, and his eyes were quite spirited. When he grinned, revealing a mouthful of small, white teeth, he somewhat resembled the foreign children from her past life.

She couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Delighted, she took his hand and asked for his name, age, and so on. Liangzi looked at her somewhat shyly and answered every question one by one.

Seeing that Pu Pao had brought over the sweets, Juhua told Liangzi to go ahead and eat, telling him not to be shy. Pu Pao then headed to the backyard to pick Yingtao.

Juhua looked at Guizhi with a smile and asked, "Guizhi, is there a reply from over there? I felt bad urging you since it’s so busy right now. Big Mouth is prepping the fields, isn’t he?"