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墨書 Inktalez
Yezhi is not unaware of the bleak operating situation of “Earth's Rarity,” but with the arrival of the Spring Festival, the most important and grand holiday for Chinese people that has been passed down through thousands of years of civilization, she has no time to think about it. Even modern Chinese people say there is no festive atmosphere! It feels meaningless! But as the New Year approaches, who isn't both joyful and complaining?
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhoujiatun Jiajia households began preparing for the New Year. Although the villagers suffered from disasters this year, their hard work in farming rice, radishes, and cabbage yielded a bountiful harvest. Selling fish also brought in some money, and Everyone felt a sense of great turnaround, full of energy and looking forward to a big spring effort.
In the past, celebrating the New Year was like facing a trial, just like in Yang Bolao and Xier's tragic play. People feared the New Year; children eagerly awaited good food, but adults had no money in their pockets. That feeling was truly unbearable. Zhoujiatun used to face famine every year, but this year villagers finally had some spare cash to happily celebrate a prosperous New Year with rising dough, steaming buns, boiling meat, and making dumplings. Jiajia households were busy early on.
Yezhi was in the kitchen using pine branches, Pine Nut shells, Hazelnut shells, and hickory nut shells to smoke Cured Meat. She sat on a small stool eating while tossing grapefruit peels into the stove. The grapefruit was bought at the second-hand market in the universe last time; it tasted pretty good despite being a bit small. Originally, there were a few squashed ginseng fruits; Xiao Fang said ginseng fruit tastes bitter but is nourishing, so she stuffed it into Wolf Child's mouth.
Wolf Child's body was checked by Xiao Fang every day. From the images scanned by Xiao Fang, active red blood cells had grown from bean sprout size to that of a spleen. The recovering Wolf Child had an appetite good enough to eat a whole cow; even One Egg, Dogzi, and Er Zhu couldn't outrun her.
Recently, Wolf Child had taken a liking to skiing. The so-called skiing was actually just a wooden board that one sits on to slide down a slope. Little Fan and Zhou Xiaomu, two little ones bundled together, were also quite enthusiastic about this sport. Black Treasure was the most economical; she didn't even need a board and just rolled into snowballs, enjoying herself immensely. Niu Niu, covered in chalk dust, had been cleaned up; instead of buying a hairdryer, she used the method suggested by One Egg, washing with snow. After all, villagers’ fur products were usually rolled and rubbed in the snow since washing clothes in winter is an extremely painful task.
“Daughter, I'm back!” Aunt Zhou burst through the yard gate with bags in hand.
Early in the morning, Aunt Zhou went with villagers to buy New Year goods at the supply and marketing cooperative and seemed to have harvested quite a lot. “Daughter, is your Cured Meat still being smoked?” It had been over ten hours; would the meat be overcooked?
Yezhi wasn't sure how long it should be smoked either; she was just relying on memory. When she was young, every household in Jiajia would smoke Cured Meat before the Spring Festival. Back then, if any family had an old iron barrel for gasoline, everyone would line up to borrow it. Usually from morning until late at night there would be smoke swirling everywhere filled with a strong smoky flavor.
“Probably just a few more hours!”
With Xiao Fang watching over the fire, Aunt Zhou pulled her inside without refusal from Yezhi.
Aunt Zhou excitedly took out each item she bought one by one and animatedly talked about how lively it was at the Commune. “Daughter, look! I even bought red paper, brushes, and ink! Later you can write some Spring Couplets. We'll put one set on our front door and another on our house door and one more on the storage room.” Yezhi froze; her brush calligraphy was not presentable! “Auntie, how can I write Spring Couplets!”
Aunt Zhou laughed cheerfully: “No worries! Just write casually; it will be fine!” Yezhi felt her scalp tingle; her handwriting was truly unsightly. She hadn't held a brush for over twenty years—would what she wrote even be legible? Would it all just look like twisted caterpillars?
Aunt Zhou actively cut the red paper, opened the glass bottle of ink, and handed a brush dipped in ink to Yezhi. Yezhi took it, staring blankly at the red paper, feeling frustrated. Not every time-traveling girl was talented and eloquent, unlike her!
"Xiao Fang, help me!"
Xiao Fang, being capable, monitored the cooking while searching for Spring Couplets online. Fortunately, Cabrera Planet also celebrated the Spring Festival; otherwise, it would have been helpless.
"Got it, Master. 'Smooth Sailing Year After Year,' 'Everything Goes Smoothly and Progresses Step by Step,' with the horizontal inscription: 'Lucky Star Shines.'" Yezhi calmed herself, held her breath, and began to write.
After carefully finishing several sets of Spring Couplets, Yezhi felt more exhausted than after a day of labor. She didn't even want to look at her own work. Aunt Zhou smiled and made Yezhi read them aloud before happily taking them to the kang to dry and paste up.
In the evening, Wolf Child and Xiao Fan led Black Treasure and Niu Niu into the house, where they immediately complained of hunger. However, the Stove was occupied by Cured Meat, making it impossible to cook. Aunt Zhou grabbed a piece of meat and led Kid and Black Treasure to Barefoot Aunt's place for a meal. The charred Big Wolf stayed home with Yezhi to smoke meat.
After an unknown amount of time, Aunt Zhou returned with food for her. After finishing dinner, Yezhi felt it was about time. She opened the Stove covered with cowhide paper to reveal pieces of Cured Meat that were red as fire. The aroma of meat mixed with pine branches and fruit scents made her mouth water; both color and fragrance met her expectations. Her only concern was the taste; she vaguely remembered that she needed to rub the meat pieces with white wine first, then apply fried salt and pepper for marinating before drying and smoking.
Before dawn, Yezhi couldn't wait any longer and got up to cook the Cured Meat. Xiao Fang popped out wearing glasses. "Master, is this smoked meat really edible?"
"Cabrera doesn't have any records?"
"Xiao Fang checked; there were records from 50,000 years ago, but later people began to focus more on health, so it was lost!" Yezhi's eyes sparkled.
"Xiao Fang, quickly pick two nice pieces of Cured Meat; let's create a hologram and sell them at Earth's Rarity!" Xiao Fang couldn't understand her idea—how could something toxic be sold?
"Hurry up! What should we price it at? 8.88 million per piece, limited supply of six pieces!"
"Master?" It seemed Xiao Fang had many questions that needed answering. "Xiao Fang, when someone has been comfortable for too long, they always seek some excitement. I think Cabrera has records that this is a traditional Spring Festival food!" Xiao Fang nodded as Yezhi excitedly said, "That's right! Haha~ Our Cured Meat will definitely sell!" Xiao Fang didn't understand where her confidence came from but thought that since Earth's Rarity was struggling in business and Xingli was bored every day "swatting mosquitoes," they might as well give it a try. So Xiao Fang got busy.
Yezhi sliced the cooked Cured Meat into thin pieces. Thinking that it would be too greasy to eat alone in the morning, she added a few potatoes and made a Potato Cured Meat stew. The aroma was incredibly tempting, paired with the sweet Radish Soup boiled in well water; it was delicious! Even Aunt Zhou couldn't help herself and ended up eating three big bowls.
"Aunt, I want to take Xiao Fan to see his parents and deliver some Mountain Goods to Xiaobinzi and Zhang Dou. I also want to ask why Zhang Ling hasn't come to play with us," said Yezhi. Aunt Zhou agreed, and after finishing the meal, she helped pack up. Xiao Fan was thrilled to go home to see his parents. After whispering something to Wolf Child, the two of them held hands and ran out of the courtyard. Black Treasure and Niu Niu's recent task was to accompany the big one and the little one, happily following behind.
...
Xiao Fan sat in the storage basket of the folding bike, his face full of curiosity. "Sister Yezi's big iron horse is different from what the uncles and aunts ride on the road?"
"That's because Sister Yezi specially modified it for you to sit in," Yezhi replied. Xiao Fan looked at her with admiration, making Yezhi smile.
The folding bike sped along the mountain road and soon arrived at the county hospital. Holding onto the bouncing Xiao Fan, they reached the familiar ward. The room felt quite cold; Elder Brother Yu lay alone on the hospital bed with his eyes closed. Xiao Fan made a shushing gesture, lowered his voice, and said, "Mom said we can't wake up sleeping Dad! Dad needs rest!" Yezhi nodded lightly and used her mind to contact Xiao Fang to reach Bidefo.
Bidefo arrived at the ward excitedly through the new feature upgraded via Social Network, using Projection. "Yezi, where's the patient?" Yezhi pointed to Little Fan's Dad. Bidefo leaned over Elder Brother Yu for a careful examination and then began an anatomical analysis using a 3D imaging created by Xiao Fang. "This person's bodily functions are too weak; his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs are failing. Oh wow~ the cancer cells are spreading beautifully!" This sounded quite disturbing.
"How is it?" Yezhi urged.
"If I perform surgery on him, here... here I would make an incision to create a perfect cut surface...?" Yezhi felt a chill; Xiao Fang had mentioned that Cabrera's medical technology was top-notch in its star system, while Earth would take tens of thousands of years just to catch up.
"Yezi, don't be so desperate! I can prescribe some health-boosting medicine to regulate his bodily functions. If I can extract cancer cells for research, that would be perfect!" Bidefo's face was filled with excitement.
"Bidefo, you can leave now. By the way, put the medicine charges on credit for now."
"Yezi, good friend, can I take back the 3D imaging?" Bidefo pleaded. Yezhi nodded while Xiao Fang shook his head. "No way! Unless you waive the medicine charges!"
"Alright~!" Bidefo agreed readily, but Xiao Fang felt shy about proposing again. "Then I'll create another 3D imaging for you!"
"Ha~ Yezi, your system robot is so cute!" Bidefo happily hugged the two holograms and left. Xiao Fang Le said, "Master, Bidefo is really a good person!" Tch! Waiving the medical fees makes one a good person.
Little Fan's Dad opened his eyes and saw Xiao Fan smiling brightly at the edge of the bed, thinking he was dreaming. "Dad!" But this dream felt too real.
"Elder Brother Yu!"
"Yezi! It's really you guys!" Yu Jianhua exclaimed happily.
"Dad, Dad!" Xiao Fan jumped into Yu Jianhua's arms, and Yu Jianhua's eyes gradually became moist. As a parent, who wouldn't miss their child? The reason he entrusted Xiao Fan to Yezi was not only because Xiao Fan couldn't bear to part with Wolf Child and believed Yezi was a good person, but also because he was acutely aware of his illness and his wife's helplessness and confusion. His wife had gone to Zhoujiatun but didn't bring back Xiao Fan; instead, her eyes became clearer, she regained her vitality, and she told him the truth about her condition, urging him to work hard with her.
"Yezi, thank you!" Yu Jianhua said earnestly.
Yezhi felt a bit shy; she wasn't this enthusiastic with everyone, but it was mainly due to their connection. "Elder Brother Yu, where is Sister Luo?"
"She went to work at the Cardboard Factory!" Yezhi remembered that the Cardboard Factory produced items based on orders; the more they made, the more they earned.
"Ah~! Yezi, Xiao Fan!" Luo Fengjuan exclaimed at the door.
"Mom!" Xiao Fan jumped into Luo Fengjuan's arms.
Luo Fengjuan had endless things to say upon seeing Yezi, while Yezhi quietly played the role of listener. "Yezi, later, can you take Xiao Fan back?" She had originally planned to do so, but seeing the happiness on Xiao Fan's face when he saw his dad and the joyful smile on his mom's face moved her a bit. "Sister Luo, don't you want to spend the Spring Festival with Xiao Fan?"
"No, I have to work during Spring Festival! Yezi, the doctor said his cancer can't be treated anymore and told us to discharge him. I want to take him to Beijing for treatment..."
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