The cracked pottery bowl on the stove was still steaming. Qiu Sui'er looked at the drafty thatched roof and touched her brother's withered and yellow braid. The modern little accountant became the youngest daughter of an ancient peasant family. There were ten people crowded into three leaky houses, but the roasted chestnuts in my grandmother's pocket were always warm, and the pheasants my grandpa shot always had the fattest legs.
"Uncle! This pickle fruit mixed with honey is worth twenty coins!" Sui'er ran all over the mountain holding the muddy wild fruits. Cousin Chun Xing's bamboo basket was filled with candied haws and live fish. My brother's old schoolbag became a hot commodity in the academy. When Mr. Qi in an indigo gown "dropped in" for the third time to deliver river mud and fertile fields, Sui'er stared at the sword cocoons on his fingertips and narrowed her eyes - which merchant could carry a basket more steadily than a sword?
From pecans to brown sugar frosting, drafty huts become blue-brick sugar houses. Grandma's pickle jar attracts feral cats, my cousin's abacus scares away roosters, and my sister toddles after the sugar bowl. Until one day, red silk was spread all over the grain-drying field. Sui'er pinched the translucent rock candy and chuckled: "The prince's carriage has been loaded with sugar residue and duck eggs, but now it is going to carry the bride?"
Qi Zhao plucked the sugar dregs from her hair, and followed ten carriages carrying royal betrothal gifts, followed by twenty fragrant candy carriages. Tiedan sprinkled wedding candies all over the village and shouted, "The candy made by my sister is sweeter than the one at Wangye's house!"
Story highlights
★ The heart-warming farming without the best relatives, the real record of the whole family rolling up their sleeves to make money
★ The prince's journey to pursue his wife: from carrying mud to delivering cotton, his vest has long since fallen off
★ Hard-core technology flow: saving fuel with bamboo tubes, planting rice in tung oil pants, and teaching naughty children with abacus
★ Daily life of foodies: candied haws scalds your mouth, hot sauce makes your baby cry, and tofu makes your baby happy.
