Riding the wind of rebirth

Under Zhou Zhi's influence, Mai Xiaomiao gradually learned to appreciate Liu Ma's many virtues and eventually discovered that, apart from lacking formal education, Liu Ma was capable of serving as a mentor to the Mai family in life.

If we consider this as a form of knowledge or wisdom, then Liu Ma and Lao Mai are actually equal.

“We’ll come back often,” Mai Xiaomiao said. “Now that our equipment is good, we can do business anywhere.”

"That's great! Can Old Mai use this equipment too? If so, can he work from home?"

“Grandpa is different from us.” Zhou Zhi thought for a moment about how to explain this to Aunt Liu: “Xiao Miao and I are self-employed. We decide what we do and how we do it. Grandpa is like a manager in a state-owned enterprise. There are a series of systems and management constraints on how he does things and what he does. Moreover, Grandpa also has to obey the leadership and management of his superiors and set an example for his subordinates. The requirements are much higher than ours. It’s impossible for him not to go to work.”

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it then," Aunt Liu said with a smile. "He can't escape his fate of being a workaholic."

After finishing the noodles, Zhouzhi started preparing to make steamed pork with rice flour, and he and Aunt Liu took out the stored ingredients to use up.

Place vegetables on the bottom layer, dividing it into six compartments, and place taro, potatoes, sweet potatoes, glutinous rice, fresh peas, and green beans respectively.

The upper layer is divided into three sections: steamed pork intestines, steamed pork ribs, and steamed pork belly.

Zhou Zhi would definitely volunteer to clean the large intestines himself. In fact, butcher shops in big cities have already cleaned them quite thoroughly; the main task is to do the final cleaning and remove excess fat.

Old Mai is greedy, but the fatty intestines are high in cholesterol, which is bad for his health. Zhou Zhi has no choice but to clean the oil off as thoroughly as possible. In fact, the cholesterol is still just as much, but this is just a way to appease Liu Ma's supervision.

The rice noodles are homemade. I stir-fry rice, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, and bay leaves in a pot to remove moisture and bring out the aroma. Then I grind them into coarse powder using a grinder.

Next, we need to make fermented soybean paste. We fry cooked vegetable oil with scallions, ginger, and onions, then stir-fry the fermented soybean paste with the fried scallion oil over low heat. Then we add the cooked fermented soybean paste to the ingredients, mix well, and marinate. Finally, we add salt and sugar to control the saltiness and sweetness. Finally, we add a little white wine, mix it with rice flour, and arrange it loosely in a steamer before steaming.

The most traditional way to eat steamed pork in Sichuan is with minced garlic dipping sauce and white porridge. The porridge shouldn't be too thick. Aunt Liu made these dishes on the spot.

Aunt Liu also praised the potatoes and taro sent from Liangshan by Zhouzhi, saying they tasted good, and added that she had already sent the small taro to her hometown, but she didn't know if they would grow successfully.

Now, Mai Xiaomiao knows how difficult it is to promote an agricultural technology achievement in China. The main problem is that the leaders at the township level are relatively incompetent and lack vision. The peasant class is inherently conservative and limited. Without proper guidance, it is difficult to get them to abandon their existing planting methods and choose better varieties, new crops, and better planting methods.

Zhou Zhi felt this matter very deeply. For example, the ridging of potatoes and sweet potatoes is a very simple technique. It involves dividing the farmland into ridges and furrows, and planting potatoes and sweet potatoes on the ridges. There are many advantages to this method. For example, the furrows can be used for drainage, and the ridges are relatively high, so there is no risk of waterlogging.

The second advantage is that potatoes and sweet potatoes can be obtained simply by pushing aside the soil ridges during harvest, without having to spend a lot of effort digging them up.

The third advantage is that intercropping crops can be planted in the furrows. These crops need a certain amount of time to grow taller than the soil ridges, so they won't compete with the potatoes and sweet potatoes during their expansion stage for sunlight. By the time the potatoes and sweet potatoes are harvested, the roots and stems of these intercropped crops have become strong and developed, just in time for the next crop.

In short, there are many benefits. However, this technology, which was already widely implemented in Fujian and Guangdong during the Qing Dynasty, only spread to some areas of Sichuan a few years ago, and it has not yet been fully promoted. Promoting entirely new varieties is even more difficult. For example, the large cherries and pomegranates that the villagers of Lianhe Township talked about at the time, no township with better conditions came to compete for the project. Even Lao Chiri and Tu Liangzhi were worried. It was only after Zhou Zhi promised that the seedlings could be sold for money and that there would be subsidies from the national project, plus Zhou Zhi's good character, that they decided to give it a try.

So when we talked about Liu Ma sending the crops back to her hometown, although we praised Liu Ma's actions, we didn't have much hope for the outcome. On the contrary, Mai Xiaomiao was quite enthusiastic.

Zhou Zhi and Aunt Liu are both quick and efficient. Although the process of making steamed pork with rice flour seems complicated, the steaming process was completed in a very orderly manner by the two of them. Then, Aunt Liu knitted a sweater, Mai Xiaomiao operated her laptop, and Zhou Zhi made tea. Everyone played, worked, and chatted at the same time.

Before starting work, Mai Xiaomiao took out a beautiful gift box containing a necklace of Southern Red Agate beads. The red color was of such high quality that it resembled ox blood. This was a new variety of Southern Red Agate that was recently discovered in a township called "Wasi." Its color was comparable to that of Aka coral. Although little girls might not particularly like it, it was very suitable for older women to wear.

"This is a gift for you. I originally wanted to bring you a bracelet, but Zhouzi said you work a lot and are prone to bumping into things, so I changed it to this sweater chain."

"Oh dear, it's no wonder you've gone to so much trouble, thank you so much." This was the first time Liu Ma had received a formal gift from Mai Xiaomiao, and more importantly, the gift represented the younger generation's approval of her. She was happy and a little excited: "I never wore anything like this when I was young..."

"Let me put it on you. Zhouzi said that at your age you should wear some brightly colored jewelry." Mai Xiaomiao put the chain on Liu Ma: "Hmm, it looks pretty."

“It’s really nice. Add a wool coat and you’ll be a stylish old lady,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile.

"Thank you so much." Aunt Liu was a little touched. "You gave me such a beautiful gift. By the way, there are pomelos in the storage room. Old Mai said they seem to have come from your hometown. Your company gave them out as employee benefits."

"Oh, a real dragon pomelo." Zhou Zhi immediately stood up: "It's time to pick them from the tree. I'll go peel a couple and try them."

Zhenlong pomelo is an excellent variety of pomelo. It has no sour taste, only the sweetness of pomelo. It is a plant that was separated from the mother tree and cultivated into a tree by using the high-branch layering technique after the branch mutation.

Because it was discovered not long ago and has some special requirements for the soil and climate in which it grows, it is currently in a difficult propagation stage and is only well-known in Jiachuan County and Manzhou City. Even in the other neighboring counties of Manzhou City, it is difficult to find it.

Feng Xueshan somehow managed to bring them to Chengdu, which can be considered as her doing her part for the excellent fruit varieties of her hometown.

This was the kind of topic that Aunt Liu liked to hear, and the conversation quickly expanded to the local specialties of their respective hometowns.

Then Aunt Liu started talking about her hometown: "We produce salt and oranges there. Oh, and our tofu skin is quite famous too."

"Judging from your accent, you're from Suining, right?" Zhou Zhi realized what was going on when he heard the words "salt" and "tofu skin."

"Oh right, you know where we are, Elbow?" (End of Chapter)