Chapter 82 - 082 Livelihood [1]

Gu Dewang and Gu Defa call out one by one; after the call, they stare longingly at the bean dregs cakes in their hands, gulping down saliva.

Third Grandma doesn’t like Mrs. Chen, but can’t bear to let the two children just watch, so she hands each of them a bean dregs cake: "Go ahead, eat."

Gu Dewang and Gu Defa, smiling, take a big bite and mumble unclearly while chewing: "Delicious~ really delicious, so tasty."

Mrs. Chen is quick with her hands; while Third Grandma is giving the cakes to the children, she swiftly grabs two for herself, stacks them, and takes two bites. The fragrance of soy, savory oil, crispy char, and spices mix together to form an utterly delicious flavor. Mrs. Chen’s eyes widen as she speaks with crumbs flying out: "So fragrant, too fragrant!"

Third Grandma, fearing the crumbs might fall into the pottery bowl, quickly shields it with her hand, glaring at Mrs. Chen, scolding: "Mrs. Chen, are you starving to death in your past life? Get away, do you need to spew food everywhere when eating, isn’t it disgusting?"

Mrs. Chen, too engrossed in her eating, doesn’t care about Third Grandma’s scolding, but still she turns her back, not daring to eat facing Third Grandma again.

Mrs. Chen sees the wooden boxes in the courtyard, set on mud bricks, topped with heavy stones, with water seeping from the bottom of the boxes. Curious, she walks over, wanting to move the stones to see what is being pressed underneath?

Third Grandma is watching her the entire time and scolds: "Mrs. Chen, you meddler, stop it right now. That’s the tofu Xiao Yu is making; it needs the stones to press it. Only when enough time has passed can it be opened. If you dare move those stones and spoil Xiao Yu’s tofu, this old lady will tear you apart."

Mrs. Chen is still afraid of Third Grandma, and upon hearing this, she doesn’t dare to touch the stones anymore, but circles around the wooden box, asking, "Is this the tofu Xiao Yu mentioned? Is it tasty?"

She then turns to Mrs. Cui and says: "Sister-in-law Dashan, let’s go to your place for dinner tonight and try this tofu, shall we?"

Third Grandma is furious, scolding: "Mrs. Chen, you can never get enough of taking advantage, can you?"

Still expecting dinner? Just two nights ago, they had a meal with meat at Gu Dashan’s family, and now she’s still munching on bean dregs cakes from Gu Dashan’s family; she even wants to come over for dinner again, she might as well just move in with Gu Dashan’s family.

Mrs. Chen grins and says: "Isn’t it because we have been eating together for the past few months during the famine? Suddenly splitting up, it’s not easy to get used to."

Soon, Mrs. Chen finishes the two bean dregs cakes in her hand, and noticing there were no more cakes in the pottery bowl, she calls her two sons and heads to Gu Dashan’s family’s kitchen.

Unfortunately, they aren’t even at the kitchen yet when Gu Jinli slams the kitchen door shut and latches it.

Mrs. Chen’s face stiffens. Although she’s angry, knowing Gu Jinli is fierce, she doesn’t dare to provoke her. Scared of missing out on tofu, she can only lead her two sons back to the courtyard to wait for Gu Jinli’s tofu to be ready.

An hour later, Gu Jinli finally finishes frying the four catties of bean dregs cakes, filling up a large pottery basin.

After frying the bean dregs cakes, she and Luo Huiniang come out to the courtyard to check on her tofu.

"Xiao Yu, is the tofu ready?" asks Third Grandma.

Gu Jinli nods: "It should be ready." Tofu pudding can set into tofu in 30 minutes, and she’s already been pressing it for nearly an hour.

Hearing that her tofu is ready, everyone gathers around. Gu Dashan helps her to remove the stones and the wooden board covering the tofu.

Gu Jinli lifts the coarse linen cloth off the tofu, revealing a large, intact, and snow-white chunk of tofu to everyone. She presses on the tofu’s surface, finding it firm and elastic: "It’s ready."

The tofu is perfectly made, neither too firm nor too soft.

"Wow, this white thing is tofu?" Mrs. Chen exclaims upon seeing the finished tofu. She has lived half her life without ever seeing such a thing and can’t help but reach out to poke it. Third Grandma swiftly slaps her hand away, glaring at her, "Your hands have no gentle touch. If you break the tofu, can you afford to compensate for it?"

This is something they have never seen before and must not be spoiled by Mrs. Chen.

Mrs. Chen, unable to poke the tofu and feeling itchy hands, asks Gu Jinli again, "Xiao Yu, did someone on the road during the famine really tell you how to make this tofu?"

Gu Jinli nods: "Yes."

Mrs. Chen is skeptical: "How come I’ve never encountered such a talented and strange person?"

Gu Jinli didn’t even glance at her, focusing only on the tofu as she said, "There are plenty of remarkable people fleeing the famine, and since you didn’t help them, why would anyone share their ancestral culinary secrets with you?"

She didn’t want to be burned as a witch by others, so she attributed everything she knew to the disaster victims she met while fleeing the famine.

After all, there were so many people fleeing, and they had now scattered far and wide; it was impossible to investigate, which made for a perfect excuse.

Third Grandma said, "Xiao Yu is right, you selfish thing. Even if you meet someone with skills, you have no ability to make them pass their trade on to you."

Not wanting to listen to Mrs. Chen’s nagging, Third Grandma snapped at her, "If you want tofu, go back home and fetch a bowl. We don’t have spare bowls to give you."

"Eh, I’ll go fetch one right now," said Mrs. Chen, delighted to do so as that was exactly what she wanted to hear.

By the time Mrs. Chen returned, Gu Jinli had already cut the tofu into palm-sized pieces.

Third Grandma decided to give each household two pieces of tofu, plus one bean dregs cake per person.

Mrs. Chen’s family hadn’t split their household, so, thanks to the three men of Gu Dufu’s Family, she received two pieces of tofu and four bean dregs cakes.

Mrs. Chen was very happy; she could take these four bean dregs cakes back home, split each in half, and enjoy eating the halves herself.

Third Grandpa, fearing Mrs. Chen’s blabbermouth, warned her beforehand, "Keep quiet about this new treat that Xiao Yu has made. Don’t go off telling everyone about it."

Mrs. Chen was shrewd and immediately assured him, "Uncle, don’t worry, your niece-in-law understands and will definitely not spread the word." Such a rare item—it must remain a secret amongst just a few families; she’d be a fool to tell others.

Luo Huiniang brought home her family’s share including Tian Family’s, while Gu Jinli gave her two packets of ground spices to add when making tofu, and also shared several tofu recipes with her.

Gu Jin’an took a portion to Gu Damu and Gu Dalin’s Family, while Gu Jinli took another portion to the Qin family.

That evening, Gu Jinli made savory fried five-spice tofu, braised tofu in brown sauce, and spicy and sour tofu.

The savory fried five-spice tofu was fresh, fragrant, crispy on the outside; the braised tofu was flavorful; and the spicy and sour tofu was appetizing and great with rice. The family of eight enjoyed the tofu alongside soymilk and the bean dregs cake, each eating until their stomachs were full and round.

Third Grandpa, feeling nostalgic, said, "Before, eating stewed beans was like taking medicine, so unpleasant to eat. But now, these tofu and bean dregs cakes, no matter how much we have, never seem enough."

And their meal that evening was made from just a little over a pound of beans.

All of a sudden, Third Grandpa realized something and asked Gu Jinli, "Xiao Yu, how much tofu can you get from one pound of beans?" He wondered why it seemed like five pounds of beans made such an abundance of tofu and bean dregs cakes.

Gu Jinli replied, "One pound of beans yielded three and a half pounds of tofu, and five pounds of soybeans produced four pounds of bean dregs."

Third Grandpa was truly astonished, "Then didn’t these five pounds of beans turn into almost twenty pounds of tofu! Plus bean dregs. How did the soybeans increase?" After all, grain is usually less after grinding, but these soybeans somehow multiplied.

Gu Jinli laughed and said, "It’s because the soybeans soaked up water. The original five pounds of soybeans, after soaking, can swell to over twenty pounds. And the soymilk used for making tofu is essentially the water absorbed by the beans, so the soybeans increased."

"May God bless us, then we won’t have to go hungry in the future," prayed Third Grandma with clasped hands, bowing towards the door.

Third Grandpa also said, "We have no land and no way to earn money either. For the next half a year or longer, we will have to buy grain. Xiao Yu, by making this tofu and bean dregs cake, you’ve truly saved our lives."

Hearing Third Grandpa talk about earning a living, Gu Jinli took the chance to ask, "Third Grandpa, what did you think about tonight’s fried five-spice tofu?"

Third Grandpa replied, "Of course, it was excellent."

Gu Jinli asked, "How about we sell fried five-spice tofu in the market? What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Jin’an’s eyes lit up and he hurriedly said, "Third Grandpa, this is a great business idea. We’d be the only ones in the whole town, sure to earn a good amount of Silver Coin."