Chapter 38: The Secret of Lan Di

  Yun Zheng held a hoe and dug the ground, preparing to plant some wheat this year. As a Northwesterner, he really couldn't get used to eating rice and wanted to change to flour, but there was none here at all.

  My own land is on the mountain waist, no pond, wanting to plant rice is not realistic, before heard that people raise fish in the rice field, the raised fish also have a name called rice flower fish, delicious taste, looking at other people's rice fields there is nothing, and gave up this idea.

  Rapeseed must be planted. It was planted at the beginning of winter and is now over a foot tall. The leaves are dark green and plump, indicating that the soil fertility is very good.

  Yun Zheng was digging in the front, and Larou followed behind to pick out the dug-up grass roots. As for Yun Er, he was chasing after butterflies non-stop, his movements very skilled. The bamboo tube was probably already filled with white butterflies, but it was unknown what he wanted so many butterflies for.

  A piece of mountain land, three meters wide and twenty meters long, was dug up quickly. It seemed fast, but when Yun Zheng raised his head, he found that the whole morning had quietly slipped away.

  Larou handed the bamboo tube filled with water to Yun Zheng, and himself took a small shovel to dig wild vegetables in the rape field. Both brothers liked eating wild vegetables, which made Larou very puzzled. They didn't like good Chinese cabbage, celery, or burdock, but instead liked those worthless wild vegetables. She attributed all these strange habits to the elegant tastes of scholars.

  The mountain is too high, the old cow can't climb up. In order to till the land, Yun Zheng and Xiang Rou are carrying ropes and pulling a plow in front with great effort. Yun Er is sitting on the plow holding a thin willow branch and constantly shouting at the two people to hurry up, but he himself is not working hard enough.

  Passersby from the countryside can't help but smile at this scene. The wife of the crippled family passes by the cloud family's field, takes out a small bunch of scallions from her basket and puts it on the edge of the bamboo tube. Their eldest child has already learned to count from one to twenty, which is considered a thank you gift.

  The land has been plowed, and now it's just waiting for the seeds to be sown tomorrow. The mountain mist will bring plenty of water to this land overnight. Like others, Yun Zheng is carrying a rake and hoe, walking barefoot in front, with a blue cloth handkerchief on his head, a basket slung over his arm, and a bamboo basket on his back containing Yun Er. He walks behind with his head down, not daring to look up, as there are always some gossiping women pointing and snickering.

  "Let's have leek-filled dumplings for lunch today." Yun Er saw the basket with leeks and licked his lips, suggesting to Yun Zheng.

  "No face, you're eating ghost dumplings." Yun Zheng refused in a bad tone, earlier those women said that the three of them looked like a young couple carrying a fat baby to work in the fields.

  Cured meat lifted his head, the red glow on his face had not faded away, and he whispered to Yun Zheng: "Young master, I don't know if rice noodles are okay?"

  "Let's try," Yun Zheng replied casually and continued to lead the way forward.

  Just past the patriarch's pond, Yun Zheng let out a light hum and stopped in his tracks. He didn't expect to find blue indigo grass here, which was a great thing, perfect for making dye. Yun Zheng threw down his rake and hoe, pulling up all of the wild blue indigo grass. Although the leaves hadn't grown to their largest size yet, they should still be usable now.

  "Master, we don't dye fabrics at home. What do you want these indigo plants for?" The cured meat looked at Yun Zheng as he continued to carry the farm tools and the bundle of indigo towards home, asking curiously.

  "Make something as a gift for someone, bacon, will you tie-dye or not?"

  "No, I heard that ten years ago the imperial family decreed that farmers were no longer allowed to privately print and dye cotton cloth. They said such things are a waste of time and labor, not allowed for us to use, only can be offered as tribute to the imperial palace."

  Yun Zheng was taken aback for a moment, he didn't expect the cured meat to say something like that. Why can't good dye be used? Only royal families can use it, what's the reason?

  "Is the rule of curing meat strictly enforced?"

  "Not strict, originally only a few people would do it, but the tie-dye is troublesome. A piece of cloth just needs five days to tie the flowers, and sometimes the tied-out colors are not good-looking, messy, and not as good as dyeing them all blue. I heard that the people from the Dali Kingdom on the mountain are experts in tie-dye."

  After hearing the words of Yan Rou, Yun Zheng smiled slightly. It turned out that the crux of the matter lay here. Batik was indeed a very good craft, most suitable for women to learn. Since the imperial family had prohibited this craft because it was time-consuming and labor-intensive, couldn't they just improve it a bit to eliminate this worry? Besides, the emperor might be guarding against the economic invasion of Dali Kingdom, not these small people under his rule.

  Back home, the cured meat helped Yun Zheng wash and clean the indigo, stuffed it into a jar to soak, then carried a small bamboo basket of glutinous rice to the mill. She planned to grind more rice flour, spread some rice paste, and didn't know if such things would meet the young master's taste.

  Yun Zheng then went straight to his new house, the new house was thoroughly built up, under his strong suggestion, the old patriarch did not open a skylight on the roof, but added windows to the house, as long as the window paper was pasted, it could be occupied.

  The ground was covered with one-foot square stone bricks, Cang Er was a master at laying them out to form various beautiful patterns. The stones were of different colors and the patterns they formed were all unique. Yun Zheng liked the large, free-spirited tiger in the main hall the most, its majestic aura was extraordinary, whenever he had time, he would come over to take a look.

  All doors and windows are open, standing in the doorway and looking up is a faint green mountain, the beautiful scenery of clouds and mist is all in sight. Having such a carefree day, I still have to worry about those external things, it's really inexplicable.

  Cured meat returned with a bowl of rice paste, spreading out sheets of white powder on the bamboo steamer. Hanging outside on the bamboo pole, it was soon blown by the wind to become soft and elastic. Watching Cured Meat busily adjusting the leek and egg filling, Yun Zhen took over with a smile, putting some filling in his mouth to taste, stopping Cured Meat from adding Sichuan pepper inside.

  "The filling of Sanxian dumplings is best with just salt, and it's also good if there's sugar on top. Adding other seasonings would ruin this bowl of filling."

  The cured meat stared at the young master as he poured a lot of vegetable oil into the large iron pot, which made her heart ache. The young master put a lot of filling in a rice flour wrapper the size of a face basin, then folded it in half and sealed the edges with raw rice paste. After the oil was hot, he put this huge dumpling into the pot.

  As the dumpling wrappers turned golden yellow, the aroma wafted out. Cloud Two, who was playing with Cloud Three, immediately ran over and took a look in the pot, shouting "Scallion pancakes!" and refused to leave the big pot again.

  The first leek box was shared among three people, and then they eagerly awaited the second one. Although Yun San also wanted to eat, this time no one was willing to give up their share, not even Yun Er, who liked Yun San the most. It could only stick out its tongue and lie at the bamboo building entrance, watching the outside with a "out of sight, out of mind" attitude.

  A stranger came, and Yun San immediately vented his anger at not having eaten on him. He didn't dare go downstairs, so he stood on the platform and barked wildly at the stranger.