Chapter 64: Let’s Eat Hot Pot!

Leng Tian stood inside the kiln opening, arranging the wood segments vertically from inside to outside. He placed the not-yet-fully-dried pieces in the innermost area, dry ones around the perimeter, and at the kiln opening, he selected pine wood segments containing resin that would burn easily and placed them at the ignition point. Hearing his sister-in-law’s question, he replied loudly: “What’s tiring about this! Isn’t it a very simple task? Sister-in-law, look, such a simple kiln of firewood is all loaded up. Later I’ll take some thatch to ignite and stuff it into the kiln opening, use fire to roast the wood segments inside, from wet to dry, gradually burning them up. Simple, right?”

Wen Nuan Nuan wanted to say it wasn’t simple at all. Chopping firewood, trimming it, hauling it to this place, then arranging each piece properly – this was just the preliminary preparation work, and the actual charcoal-making hadn’t even officially begun yet!

No matter how she thought about it, this wasn’t a simple job.

Eldest Brother, this iron-headed fool, took on the heaviest and most exhausting work without a single complaint and still thought it was simple.

She suddenly felt that in this family, each person had their responsible part, and each person was indispensable.

Seeing his sister-in-law’s extremely distressed expression, Leng Tian advised: “Sister-in-law, you and Eldest Brother should go back first. This firewood smoke needs to burn until it changes from white to yellow then to blue, almost until there’s no smoke left, before we can seal the kiln. I estimate it’ll take until midnight or tomorrow morning. You don’t need to worry about my food either – I brought meat buns and sweet potato and potato. I can roast them at the opening and eat them hot!”

“That long?” Wen Nuan Nuan had originally thought it would take three to five hours to burn through completely. She was still thinking whether they could come back for lunch, or at worst dinner. She hadn’t expected it would take until midnight or even tomorrow morning. Worried, she asked: “Can’t you go home to eat and then come back?”

“No way, someone has to stay here. The fire control for charcoal-making is most important. When we first started making charcoal, we didn’t know how to judge the fire. Either we’d burn it too much and end up with only ash, no charcoal at all.

Or we wouldn’t burn it thoroughly enough, sealing the kiln too early, leaving the inside and ends of the charcoal still as wood, completely unusable indoors because the smoke would be too thick and choking.

But sister-in-law, don’t worry. I’m really good at this now, absolutely no smoke! And I’m also very good at selecting wood. Look at this kind of reddish wood – it makes the best charcoal, can keep a fire going all night without going out, and the key is there’s not a bit of smoke. It’s so useful.

For these three kilns, besides the pine wood needed at the opening for easy ignition, I specifically selected all this red wood for the inside. When winter comes and you use it, sister-in-law, you’ll know how big the difference is compared to other charcoal.”

When talking about charcoal-making, Leng Tian’s dark face glowed with brightness as he shared his experience.

Wen Nuan Nuan hadn’t expected charcoal-making to have so many intricacies. No wonder the person she saw doing it in her childhood wasn’t good at it.

“Eldest Brother, you’ve really shattered my perception of you! I originally thought you were only suited for straightforward work. I never imagined you’d be so capable at this kind of work that requires experience and skill!” Wen Nuan Nuan praised sincerely.

No matter what one does, being willing to use one’s brain is indeed the key.

She hadn’t expected that Eldest Brother, who was strong and hardworking, would also be good at thinking. This was truly beyond her expectations.

She had misjudged him the first time.

The praised Leng Tian almost cried: “The experience was all summarized by Eldest Brother.”

The tragic thing was, his sister-in-law’s original thoughts were correct – he really was only suited for straightforward work.

Wen Nuan Nuan was dumbstruck: She had flattered the wrong person. What to do? Waiting online, quite urgent.

Leng Xiao, who had been standing silently to the side, spoke at the right moment: “Seen enough, shall we go back?”

Wen Nuan Nuan nodded frantically, shooting Leng Xiao a grateful glance.

If they stayed any longer, seeing Eldest Brother’s about-to-cry expression, she wouldn’t feel very embarrassed either.

She just wanted to change locations to live.

“Eldest Brother, work hard. Sister-in-law will go home and make delicious food. At noon I’ll have Little Brother bring you a meal!” Wen Nuan Nuan waved her hand, turned around and nimbly climbed onto the cart in a few moves, sitting properly.

Yesterday when Eldest Brother said it was very simple and he could handle it alone, indeed he could handle it alone, but he was doing the work of three people by himself.

Maybe even more than that.

She had thought it was really simple. Sure enough, she was still too inexperienced.

Although they earned quite a bit of silver from this mountain trip, given their two people’s abilities, with Leng Xiao suffering such serious injuries, they had exchanged these injuries for this silver.

If it were someone else, they might have paid with their lives and still not necessarily earned this much silver.

No wonder even in such harsh and difficult circumstances, they still insisted on saving money for tuition to let Leng Xiao attend school.

Only through education could this family completely change their living environment.

In this dynasty, wanting to survive peacefully really wasn’t very easy.

Let alone living comfortably.

Fortunately, the Leng Family members had plans and ideas. When they wanted something, they would fearlessly work for it.

Rather than always staying in the thinking stage.

By the time they could use the freshly made charcoal, it was already six days later.

Wen Nuan Nuan had originally thought they could take it out in a day or two after sealing the kiln.

She hadn’t expected that after sealing the kiln, they still needed two days to open it for ventilation, then another two to three days for cooling before they could enter the kiln to move the charcoal out.

Watching basket after basket of segments of black and shiny charcoal being continuously hauled back to the courtyard, she could almost feel this cold winter becoming warm and cozy.

“We’re having hot pot tonight!” Wen Nuan Nuan announced to the three little ones in the courtyard.

This was also because Leng Xiao would return to the Academy tomorrow morning.

While all five of them were present, she had to quickly arrange for hot pot!

“Great!” Among the three little ones, Leng Yun’s voice was particularly loud.

Then they asked in unison: “Sister-in-law, what is hot pot?”

“It’s a kind of boiled dish. When it’s cold, eating it makes you warm,” Wen Nuan Nuan explained simply.

She didn’t know how to give a professional explanation either.

“Is there anything I can help with?” Leng Xiao approached and asked.

“You start the fire, burn some charcoal and put it in the red clay small stove. We’ll use it for the hot pot later,” Wen Nuan Nuan naturally instructed.

These past few days, the wound on Leng Xiao’s back had already scabbed over and was healing well. As long as he didn’t do heavy work, it would be fine, and she wouldn’t let him do heavy work either.

He had been helping her these past few days, and the two had already developed good coordination.

After giving instructions, Wen Nuan Nuan still decided to ask the opinion of the only diners present: “How about making one clear soup base and one spicy soup base? The clear soup base using a whole old hen to stew, and the spicy soup base using beef with some pork belly stir-fried. What do you think?”

“Good.” Very definite approval.

Heat oil and sauté scallions, ginger, and garlic until fragrant, then add blanched old hen pieces, stir-fry until fragrant, then add boiling water. The chicken soup stewed this way would be milky white, with rich broth when drunk, more suitable for hot pot than clear-stewed clear soup.

Without lard or beef tallow, and since spicy hot pot needed lots of oil to make the vegetables taste good, she could use rendered pork belly as a substitute. The beef was braised, barely substituting for the spice portion. Render oil from the pork belly, then add beef slices, bean paste, chili sauce, scallions, ginger, garlic, small chili peppers, salt, sugar, and soy sauce. A simple version of spicy soup base was ready!

When the ingredient-rich old hen and beef soup bases were bubbling and rolling on the red clay small stove, emitting warm and fragrant food aromas.

Around the two soup bases, the table was set with poached eggs, large shrimp, squid, abalone, bean sprouts, tofu, kelp, spinach, Chinese cabbage hearts, lettuce, hazel mushrooms, and rice cake.

Everyone who entered was instantly stunned.