Poor family farming: the sick and weak scholar's wife is very sturdy

Chapter 5 Sister Xiangmei who brought food
Lin Xiaogang wanted to ask who it was, but Li Yuyan glanced at the woman and said calmly.

"She is the sister next door to my natal family. It's good to have a small relationship. Before she got married, she always liked to follow behind me and let me protect her."

Seeing a familiar person, a faint smile flashed across Li Yuyan's face.

Only then did Lin Xiao realize that her "little daughter-in-law" didn't seem to like to laugh by nature.

When Li Xiangmei heard Li Yuyan say that about her, her face was instantly flushed with blush, and shyly beat Li Yuyan's arm with her small powder fist, complaining:

"It's all about childhood, why are you mentioning it?!"

Li Xiangmei smiled at Lin Xiao, took Li Yuyan's arm naturally, and led him into the back room.

"Why do I feel that she smiled at me perfunctorily?"

Lin Xiao touched his nose, but he didn't care.

Anyway, she is now preoccupied with thinking about how to make rock salt blocks into non-toxic edible salt.

Generally speaking, the procedure is not too complicated, that is, rock salt is ground into small pieces and dissolved in pure water, heated with fire until the salt solution boils.

Then continue heating with a slow fire until a large amount of white crystals appear in the container and stop heating.

The table salt is then scraped off the container with a spoon, dissolved in purified water, and poured into a container containing activated charcoal.

Pay attention at this time, the top and bottom of the activated carbon must be sealed with clean cotton gauze, so that it can be used to filter out the salt solution.

Finally, these edible salt solutions are reheated to precipitate salt.

In fact, the principle is very simple, but it is time-consuming and laborious to make.

I have the rock salt block, now I just need charcoal.

"You can use wood as fuel in the first step, and the calcination time is just right when charcoal is needed!"

With an idea, Lin Xiao took the machete in the yard and was about to go up the mountain to cut some suitable trees. Just as he was walking outside, the door of the inner room opened.

Li Xiangmei nodded to Lin Xiao, then handed the basket on her arm to Li Yuyan, and then left quickly.

Seeing Lin Xiao holding the machete, Li Yuyan asked in confusion:

"What are you doing with the machete?"

"Go up the mountain and cut down trees!"

"The firewood at home is enough."

"Those woods are not dense enough, I have to choose some denser wood."

Obviously Li Yuyan didn't understand what Lin Xiao meant by "density", he scratched his head in embarrassment:

"Then you have to eat before you go, don't you?"

After finishing speaking, he lifted the cloth from the basket that Li Xiangmei gave him just now, took out a bag of multigrain cakes and handed it to Lin Xiao.

Seeing the multigrain cake, Lin Xiao's stomach growled uncontrollably.

She picked up a piece of cake and gnawed:

"Well, it tastes good. Thank you, Miss Xiangmei, for me when you're free."

"You...are you not angry?"

Li Yuyan knew that scholars were very noble, especially caring about face, and would rather die of starvation than eat the cheap food.

This Lin Xiao is really different from ordinary scholars!

"Your sister Xiangmei was worried that you would suffer with me, so she specially brought some food. It's too late for me to thank her. Why are you angry?"

Lin Xiao continued to laugh as he ate, "Aside from these cakes, what else is in the basket that Miss Xiangmei sent you?"

"And some of this."

Lin Xiao looked at the black thing in Li Yuyan's hand, and smiled brighter.

I really want to come here, isn't the charcoal delivered to my door by myself!

From Li Yuyan's mouth, Lin Xiao got a general idea of ​​the basic situation of Li Xiangmei's family.

In the early years, she married Zhoujia Village, which is downstream of Linjiacun. Her husband, Zhou Dajun, joined the army a few years ago and broke a leg in order to save an officer.

Although the legs were reattached later, they have become long and short legs since then, and I can't do many jobs, so I can only chop firewood and burn charcoal at home for a living.

Charcoal is expensive, and it is not the first choice of many people. Therefore, the couple's life is very tight.

Under such circumstances, Li Xiangmei was able to send Li Yuyan a basket of charcoal and grain cakes, which shows that the relationship between the two sisters is unusual.

The two ate some miscellaneous grain cakes. Li Yuyan was about to pick up the machete and go out when Lin Xiao called to stop him.

"Let's go, don't you want to cut down trees?"

Li Yuyan looked at Lin Xiao in confusion.

Lin Xiao pointed to the charcoal in the basket and said:
"Your elder sister Xiangmei sent charcoal in a timely manner, which just solved my urgent need."

"Then now..."

"Raise the fire, fill the pot with water, and I will refine the salt!"

Li Yuyan looked at Lin Xiao, who was full of confidence, and then at the salt rocks piled up in the corner of the courtyard, opened his mouth, and swallowed the words that came to his mouth.

Forcibly dragging a person who doesn't hit the south wall and doesn't look back, this will shorten his life!
The Great Xia Dynasty used seawater salt production, and the core method of salt production was in the hands of the royal family.

Ordinary people want to use salt stones to extract edible refined salt, but it is difficult to reach the sky!
If you can simply boil some water to dissolve the salt rocks to make edible salt water, it won't poison so many people who can't afford salt!
Li Yuyan muttered while boiling the water, but he finally gave Lin Xiao a high look. After all, she is just a whimsical ordinary person!

Not long after, Lin Xiao came over with a dustpan, which was full of salt stones she had smashed.

The salt stone is put into the high-temperature water, and it quickly disappears into the water.

"Yu Yan, continue heating gently, don't stop."

About an hour later, the water in the pot was almost bottomed out, and the iron pot was covered with yellow-white salt grains.

Lin Xiao kept stirring with a spatula by candlelight, and Li Yuyan looked at the salt in the pot, his eyes shone in shock.

"Have you made the salt?"

"It's only half done."

Lin Xiao took out a piece of fabric from the bottom of the original owner's box. This piece of fabric was originally intended to be used by the original owner to make a dress after recovering his daughter one day.

She cut out a piece, wrapped some charcoal that Li Xiangmei had brought into it, and tied it tightly, which became a simple filter element.

Immediately afterwards, she pried open a small hole at the bottom of the chopstick holder and stuffed the charcoal bag into it.

"Yuyan, bring two basins!"

Li Yuyan didn't dare to neglect the capable person who could make table salt, and hurriedly brought over the only two wooden basins at home.

Lin Xiao shoveled the yellow-white salt grains in the pot into a wooden basin, then added water to melt it, and then scooped the salt water into a chopstick tube filled with charcoal to purify clean salt water.

The iron pot left a lot of impurities in the salt stone.

Half an hour later, Lin Xiao poured the purified salt water into the washed iron pot, and Li Yuyan continued to heat it up.

After about half an hour, the white and flawless edible salt was made!
Lin Xiao couldn't wait to take a sip. It was the salt eaten by later generations, and it still had a slight umami taste.

"Yuyan, try it."

While speaking, Lin Xiao twisted a little salt with his fingers and wiped it on Li Yuyan's mouth, so fast that he didn't even have a chance to refuse.

Li Yuyan hesitated for a moment, and licked it with his tongue with the determination to die, his eyes lit up instantly:

"This is... table salt?!"

　Everyone should have lived in a hotel outside, right?
　　In fact, staying in a hotel is also taboo!

　　Do you know what they are?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)