Chapter 113 Dragon Boat Festival

The next day was the Dragon Boat Festival, but there was no holiday at that time. Li Shengli got up at four o'clock because he had to work an early shift. The first thing he did was to soak the glutinous rice.

After soaking the glutinous rice, Li Shengli went to work. When he came back from get off work, Li Shengli first boiled the rice dumplings leaves in boiling water for a while. After cooking, he took them out and soaked them in cold water.

After the rice dumplings leaves were prepared, Li Shengli took out the glutinous rice and prepared to drain it. After taking out the glutinous rice, Li Shengli walked to the backyard with the rice dumplings leaves.

"Shengli, where are you going with these rice dumplings?" An old lady who was also making rice dumplings asked curiously when she saw Li Shengli walking towards the backyard with these rice dumplings leaves.

Li Shengli comes to the middle courtyard only when he holds a meeting of the whole courtyard or washes clothes. He never goes to the backyard at other times.

"Oh, Lou Xiao'e asked me to bring her some rice dumplings leaves." Li Shengli explained.

"You rude boy, why don't you send something to my family?" Jia Zhang was teasing Sophora japonica in front of her house and said indignantly when she saw Li Shengli weighing something.

Li Shengli ignored her, said something to the aunt and walked to the backyard, leaving Jia Zhang behind and mumbling.

"Lou Xiao'e, are you home?" Li Shengli came to Xu Damao's house and knocked on the door.

"coming."

"Have you got everything ready?" Li Shengli asked.

"done."

"Okay then. Just take the things out and I'll pack them for you at the door." Li Shengli didn't plan to go in, in case someone in the yard gossiped about him.

"Aren't you coming in?" Lou Xiao'e didn't think too much about it.

"Let's not go in. This thing is very simple." Glutinous rice is hard to buy at the moment, and Li Shengli doesn't think Lou Xiao'e will make too many dumplings.

"How many kinds of rice dumplings do you want to make?" Li Shengli was a little overwhelmed when he saw the candied dates, red bean paste, lotus seeds, longans, etc. that Lou Xiaoe took out.

"There are only two kinds, one with red dates and one with eight treasures."

"Okay, I'll teach you. First, take two or three reed leaves and fold them staggered, like this, and press down half of them." Li Shengli demonstrated to Lou Xiao'e, and Lou Xiao'e watched and followed suit.

The second aunt next door heard the noise and came out.

"Hey, Li Shengli, why are you making rice dumplings with Lou Xiaoe?" Second Aunt was a little surprised. Are these two people related?

"Xu Damao is not at home, and Lou Xiao'e doesn't know how to make it, so she asked me to help her pick the leaves for the rice dumplings. I'll teach her while I'm at it." Li Shengli said, raising the leaves in his hand.

"Fold the rice dumplings leaves into a funnel shape, put a small half of the glutinous rice in the funnel, then put a few red dates, and then put some more glutinous rice to cover the red dates. If you have other preserved fruits, you can put them in too. You can wrap whatever flavor you want in the rice dumpling." Li Shengli continued to teach Lou Xiao'e.

"Like this, and then like this, right?" Lou Xiao'e was wrapping the rice dumplings clumsily.

"Yes, you must hold it tightly with your hands, otherwise it will leak out from the funnel. The glutinous rice just needs to be in front of the mouth of the funnel, and then fold it like this to seal the mouth." Li Shengli said as he skillfully wrapped the glutinous rice with rice leaves.

"Finally, wrap it with thin thread." Li Shengli wrapped the rice dumpling with four or five circles of cotton thread and tied a noose.

Lou Xiao'e continued to learn clumsily, and finally tied the zongzi with cotton thread. Li Shengli looked at it and thought it was quite ugly. "That's how you wrap it." Li Shengli said as he wrapped it quickly.

After Li Shengli had wrapped most of the dumplings for Lou Xiao'e, Lou Xiao'e was still wrapping them slowly.

"Okay, I'll wrap this much for you, you can take your time wrapping the rest, just practice more." Seeing that Lou Xiao'e had already gotten the hang of it, Li Shengli handed the rest to her. He also had to wrap them quickly as he had to deliver them to the Han family.

"Thank you, Li Shengli." Lou Xiao'e had work to do so she didn't stand up to see him off.

The second aunt was quite energetic standing aside. I didn't know whether she was watching Lou Xiao'e making rice dumplings or seeing all the delicious things that Lou Xiao'e took out.

"It's okay, I'm leaving." Li Shengli waved his hand and walked towards the front yard. When he passed the middle yard, he still ignored the Jia family and just nodded to the aunt and that was it.

"You rude boy." Jia Zhang only dared to curse Li Shengli secretly. Li Shengli's curses were harsh and without using any dirty words.

After returning to his home, Li Shengli started to make his own rice dumplings. Li Shengli did not use red dates but candied dates that he got through connections, which are much sweeter than red dates.

Li Shengli's hands were very fast, and the glutinous rice tickets from both families were not enough to make a few dumplings, so he finished them in a short while.

Li Shengli put a pot on the stove, added a lot of water, then put the rice dumplings in and started to cook them. The rice dumplings need to be boiled for a long time and not enough water.

When Li Shengli was cooking rice dumplings, the third aunt came and knocked on the door.

"Victory, open the door."

"Third Auntie, what's up?"

"Shengli, does your family have any extra rice dumplings leaves?" the third aunt asked while standing at the door.

"Oh, yes, wait a moment." Li Shengli remembered what Yan Bugui said yesterday. He didn't expect that the Yan family really ate rice dumplings. Shouldn't they sell the tickets?
Li Shengli returned to the house and handed the remaining reed leaves to Auntie San. Seeing Auntie San was about to leave, Li Shengli couldn't help but ask curiously, "Auntie San, are you making zongzi at home too?"

"No, I want to use these reed leaves as cage cloth." Aunt Three said embarrassedly.

Li Shengli was speechless. What a little calculation he had. However, Li Shengli didn't say anything. It was something he didn't want anyway.

Cook it on high heat for about half an hour, then on low heat for half an hour, and finally cover it with a lid and simmer for another half an hour. When the people in the yard got off work, Li Shengli's rice dumplings were already cooked. Li Shengli took out the rice dumplings and put them in a lunch box. These rice dumplings had to be eaten while they were hot.

"Wow, what a nice smell." Yan Bugui had already returned home. Smelling the fragrance coming from Li Shengli's house, Yan Bugui regretted a little bit that he didn't make rice dumplings at home.

At this time, Li Shengli came out of the house with a lunch box. Yan Bugui's eyes lit up when he saw him. Could it be that Li Shengli knew how to respect himself, the third uncle in the courtyard?
"Uncle, is there something wrong?" Li Shengli was a little confused as he looked at Yan Bugui who was approaching him.

"Shengli, your rice dumplings are so delicious. Where are you going to take them?" As he said this, Yan Bugui wanted to reach out to take the lunch box from Li Shengli's hand.

"Uncle, you think too much. This is not for you." Looking at Yan Bugui's expression, Li Shengli felt a little amused. He thought this was just wishful thinking. Li Shengli dodged the hand holding the lunch box and teased.

"Haha, you're going to give it to someone." Yan Bugui was a little embarrassed.

"I'm leaving now, you continue with your work." Li Shengli hung the lunch box on the handlebars and rode out the door. When he met people in the yard on the way, he nodded as a greeting.

(End of this chapter)