Chapter 22: Sesame for Sesame Oil

According to Ran Xiaomei.

Zhou Lingling is the type of person who is short-sighted and only looks at the things at hand.

This kind of people like to do things like "grasping small gains and suffering big losses" and "picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons".

"Uncle and aunt, you're back." Wang Mengde greeted them with a smile.

"Meng De is back. Your aunt and I went to the fields to check on the crops this morning, and also took a visit to her parents' home." Wang Ning said happily.

Zhou Lingling nodded and smiled without saying anything.

Wang Tian knew what the problem was at a glance. She pretended not to know and said cheerfully, "Boss, Meng De came to visit us this time and brought a pound of brown sugar and a pound of snacks for me and your father.

By the way, I also brought half a pound of food for each of you. The food is already in the west room. Meng Qi just went in. You should go and check it out quickly, so that he won’t eat it all at once.

Keep the brown sugar well, it is a good thing. When you are tired from the busy farming, drink a glass of brown sugar water and you will immediately have strength again. "

Sure enough, when Zhou Lingling heard that Wang Mengde brought something, the smile on her face suddenly became sincere, and she pretended to complain: "Mengde, you are here, why do you bring anything?

Sit down and take a rest. I'll go check on Meng Qi in the house to make sure he doesn't ruin anything."

As he said this, he rushed into the west room.

After a while, Zhou Lingling gritted her teeth and twisted Wang Mengqi's ear with her hand, and they left the west room together. This child had eaten half of the cake in just two minutes.

After scolding her son, she was about to go cook when she heard the sound of a gong outside, followed by a loud shout: "Sesame for small-milled sesame oil."

The three words "zhi, ma, huan" are pronounced one beat each, "xiao moer" is one beat, and it starts with a high tone, and the sound of the last word "you" is high and long.

"Old man, old man, there are still three pounds of old sesame seeds at home. Go to the door and exchange them for a pound of sesame oil. Then let Meng De take it away." Wang Tian was about to go to the yard to wash vegetables. When she heard the shouting, she hurriedly said to the house.

Zhou Lingling, who was about to help wash the vegetables, heard this and her expression changed again. She forced a smile and said, "Mom, there are only a few sesame seeds left at home. Why don't you give half a pound to Meng De and we can keep the other half at home."

The old lady didn't answer, but just glanced at her and then lowered her head to wash the vegetables.

Feeling disappointed, Zhou Lingling smiled awkwardly and squatted beside her to wash the vegetables together.

Carrying a cloth bag and a bottle of saline in his hands, Wang Mengde followed Wang Jinghui and arrived at the door, just in time to see a middle-aged man carrying a load and shouting as he walked.

"Oil seller, how do you exchange it for sesame oil?" Wang Jinghui asked.

"Three pounds of sesame seeds for one pound of sesame oil." The middle-aged man put down his burden and answered with a smile.

"Okay, I'll change one pound."

Generally, 50 catties of sesame can yield 18 catties of sesame oil, and three catties for one catty is a normal price. Of course, there are a few people who are good at it, and 50 catties of sesame can yield 25 catties of sesame oil, which is rare.

"Okay, please wait a moment." The middle-aged man took out the scale swiftly, took the cloth bag and started weighing it. After weighing, he put it in his cloth bag.

He then took out a funnel from the woven rattan oil basket on his shoulder pole and placed it on the mouth of the salt water bottle. He then filled the oil basket with oil using a wooden oil raft, and then held it up without moving it. He waited until the oil outside the raft had dripped out before pouring it steadily into the funnel. He did this four times in a row until the salt water bottle was almost full. He waited until the oil in the raft and the funnel stopped dripping before he put the raft and the funnel into the oil basket. The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Okay, one raft is four taels, and four rafts is one catty. I guarantee it's the full catty."

Wang Jinghui took the bottle of saline, held it to the level of his eyes, looked at it carefully, and found that the amount this time was about the same as before, so he nodded with satisfaction.

Back in the living room, Wang Mengde found that Auntie Zhou Lingling was in a bad mood again. He smiled secretly, knowing the crux of the problem, so he took out a stack of money from his pocket and said to Wang Tian: "Grandma, my dad asked me to bring you some money."

There were ten dollars in total, five of which were given by his father and the remaining five were added by him.

Before coming, he specially changed it into small change, all of which were in denominations of cents, so that it would be convenient for grandparents to use in the countryside.

"Grandma, this is new money, different from the old money. You can use the old money first. You won't be able to spend it in a month or so. You can only go to the bank to exchange it for new money." Then he told her the exchange rate and the denomination of the new money.

"Oh, you're giving me so much this time. Your grandfather and I don't spend much money here. Just keep one dollar and you can take the rest back."

With the help of Wang Mengde, it took Wang Tianshi a while to count the exact amount of money. She took out a few bills and put the rest into his pocket.

"Grandma, please keep it. We only come here once every few months. Besides, I'm already working and can earn more than 20 yuan a month." Wang Mengde said, pressing her hand gently.

After refusing several times, Wang Tian finally accepted the money.

From the moment Wang Mengde took out the money, Aunt Zhou Lingling pricked up her ears and glanced over here from time to time. When she saw her mother-in-law took the money, her mood immediately improved, and she even cooked a lot faster.

Most of this money will go into her family in the future.

At noon, as there were no outsiders, ten people, including my eldest cousin's family of four, squeezed into one dining table.

There were several dishes on the table, including pork fried with spring bamboo shoots, small salted fish stewed with tofu, steamed elm seeds, and scrambled eggs with pickles. The staple food was freshly steamed elm seed dumplings.

Wang Mengde has a special liking for steamed elm seeds. He would eat a whole bowl of them mixed with a seasoning made of mashed garlic, aged vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce before he was satisfied.

Of course, the pork of this era is also very delicious. The pork raised in China now is still local black pork, and it is not fed with feed.

The tofu is also very tender and has absorbed the flavor of the salted fish. It tastes especially fresh in the mouth.

After dinner, after chatting for a while, Wang Mengde subconsciously pulled Wang Tianshi to sit in the yard, then took out a matchstick and began to carefully clean her ears.

This was his favorite thing to do when he was a child. After he grew up and went to the capital, he would repeat this thing every time he came back.

Wang Mengqi also sat there next to the two of them at first, but after a while, he could no longer sit still and began to look around.

At this moment, the medicine box that Wang Mengde carried on his back attracted his attention. Seeing that no one was paying attention, he quietly walked into the living room and gently opened the lock.

After opening the box and reaching in to feel around for a few times, he couldn't help but exclaim: "Ah!~"

Wang Mengde was so startled that his hands almost started shaking. Fortunately, he had practiced martial arts for many years, so he was able to keep his hands steady and not hurt Wang Tianshi's ears.

"Meng Qi, what's wrong?"

(End of this chapter)