Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 468 467 Cover
Tang Zhitong has never eaten yellow sheep. In another 30 years, this thing will become a second-class protected animal. It is very punishable if eaten, and it will be a serious punishment. Basically, the minimum punishment is five years.

Although I have never eaten it, it looks similar to sheep after all, so it should be right if I cook it the same way as sheep.

Nowadays, Chinese medicine stores usually keep a pot of unknown medicine on a small stove at the door, which can be smelled from far away.

Following the smell of medicine, Tang Zhitong and Gu Yong looked for a shop along the street.

Although many stores have been merged, many still retain the old traditions, with plaques on the doors and signs at the entrances.

"Pretend" has two meanings. One is a metaphor for the name used to carry out a certain activity; the other is the sign outside a store indicating the goods sold.

There are two types of signs outside store doors. One is made like a flag with words written on it, but because the illiteracy rate was high in the past, many people did not know how to read, so the second type of sign appeared.

The second type is physical items, which allow people to know at a glance what the store does.

Those who sell shoes hang their boots, those who sell weapons hang their swords, and those who sell tobacco pipes hang their pipes.

Some of them have become a scenic spot as they are being made.

Everyone in the old city knows the Xitiancheng Tobacco Pipe Shop on the south side of Xidamuchang Road outside Qianmen, because their tobacco pipes are so big.

This big pipe is the largest pipe in the city. It is four inches and five inches thick and two feet and seven feet long, and has a large white copper mouthpiece and a large white copper pipe bowl at both ends.

Before liberation, many tobacco shops expanded their business categories and added small general merchandise such as needles, thread, and so on. People from the outer city and outside the city would say "let's go to the big tobacco shop to buy something" when they went to the market or did shopping on weekdays, and everyone around them would know where they were going.

Many people have heard of "healing the world with medicine" and may guess that a Chinese medicine shop must have a gourd hanging on its back?
There really are places with hanging gourds, but they are not in pharmacies, but in wine shops, taverns, and wine stalls. It is said that this originated from the vessels for holding wine, like Lin Chong's wine gourd, Lu Dongbin's wine gourd, and so on.

This is easy to understand. Although leather bags can also hold water and wine, how expensive are leather bags? Gourds are much cheaper. Even if you plant one in your yard, you can probably harvest two in the fall.

The sign of a drug store is usually made of two pieces of wood with gold-painted black centers, divided into two triangles. The middle piece is plastic, connected to a lower iron hook, and a pair of golden wooden carved fish are hung at the bottom of the lower triangle, with the lower end tied to the ground.

There is one hung on each side outside the door, which is very eye-catching.

After entering the store, the first thing that catches your eye is a row of Chinese medicine cabinets that are as high as the roof. There are two young men using small scales to grab medicine from the cabinets. After weighing, they divide the medicine evenly onto the packaging papers in front of them one by one.

There were not many patients in the pharmacy. The doctor on duty was reading an old vertically-written book, which at first glance looked like an old medical book.

Since ancient times, Chinese medicine stores have first diagnosed the patient and prescribed medicine, and then the clerk would dispense the medicine according to the prescription, so Tang Zhitong and Gu Yong first came to the doctor.

"What's wrong?" The doctor on duty was a little old man wearing reading glasses. He lowered his head, rolled his eyes, and looked at the two of them from above the glasses.

"Hello, doctor. I'm not feeling unwell anywhere. I just want to get some medicine. Can you prescribe it for me?" Tang Zhitong asked in a friendly manner, sitting on the examination stool in front of the table.

"Tell me about it." The doctor on duty did not agree directly. He put down the book and looked like he was listening attentively.

"Six cents of white pepper, three cents of angelica dahurica, two cents each of galangal, astragalus, and rhizoma cyrtonema, and one cent each of cardamom, fennel, bay leaf, and angelica." Tang Zhitong said out the recipe from his memory.

This amount is a bit high for a plate of yellow sheep offal, but considering the strong smell, it will never go a wrong to use more seasoning.

Tang Zhitong knew that when stewing ordinary goat meat and offal at home, one could just add peppercorns and scallions, and the resulting soup would taste pretty good, but it was still a little short of the commercial recipe, otherwise there would be no need for goat soup restaurants to use spices to remove the mutton smell.

What's more, this is a yellow sheep with a strong smell, so Tang Zhitong felt that it would be more reliable to use a commercial formula.

"Wow, a foodie." The old man was delighted when he heard it.

Tang Zhitong smiled and bowed to the old man without saying anything.

The old man also said nothing, then put the book down, picked up the brush, moistened it on the inkstone, grabbed the prescription paper, and prepared to write the prescription.

Tang Zhitong glanced at the book the old man put down:

Brocade curtains with mandarin ducks, embroidered quilts with phoenixes. One kind of romanticism has thousands of forms: looking at the fragrant skin, secretly tasting the jade flute, and secretly tasting the parrot tongue.

Wow, a thread-bound edition of "Jin Ping Mei". The old man is so elegant. He is so old, and he reads this kind of book while slacking off at work?
"Tell me your name. You have to leave a name if you want to open this." The old man looked very easy to talk to.

"Don't wait for the friendship to come true, the friendship of friends should be remembered in your heart." Tang Zhitong said nonsense.

After hearing this, the old man smiled and said nothing. He wrote down his name and then wrote the type and weight that Tang Zhitong had just reported on the prescription.

There weren't many things, so he just paid the money, got the medicine and left. Gu Yong paid the money and Tang Zhitong didn't argue.

"Who is this Mo Youming? Your friend?" Gu Yong asked after he got out of the door.

"Mo Youming, Mo Youming, can you read it ten times in a row?" Tang Zhitong rode his bicycle and smiled at Gu Yong.

Gu Yong followed behind Tang Zhitong and muttered several times before he realized that Mo Youming = no name.

"Aren't you being too cautious?" Gu Yong asked, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"It's better to be safe than sorry. We stew mutton in this weather because I'm afraid of causing trouble for Brother Yong outside." Tang Zhitong laughed.

"Okay, thanks brother." Gu Yong usually goes between the workplace and home. The workplace is a little worse, but the living standard at home is higher, so he didn't think about it for a while.

When he arrived at Gu Yong's house, only the nanny was at home listening to the radio. Gu Yong called her "Sun Ma".

Sun's mother wanted to help, but Tang Zhitong declined: "This thing has a strong mutton smell and is difficult to wash. I'd better do it myself."

"Why don't you take a break before doing it?" Gu Yong took off his coat as soon as he entered the house. The heater was too hot here and he couldn't stay in it.

"It takes about three hours to make the soup. If I rest for a while, you won't be able to eat it tonight." Tang Zhitong also took off his coat and hung it on the hanger. He only put on a sweater, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to work hard.

"Okay, then I'll accompany you." Gu Yong had troubled Tang Zhitong once, so of course he felt embarrassed to do the work alone.

"Brother Yong, do you think I look like I'm three years old?"

"Huh?" Gu Yong was confused by Tang Zhitong's question.

"I'm not a three-year-old child. Do I need someone to accompany me when I work?" Tang Zhitong winked at Gu Yong mischievously, then went into the kitchen.

Find a bowl, soak the seasoning in boiling water, and then start preparing to process the yellow sheep offal. Gu Yong's set is pure offal, which has been soaked in a large basin. The water is light dark red, and it is obvious that it has been soaked for some time.

The internal organs of yellow sheep are prepared in the same way as those of goats.

The lungs need to be filled with water and then squeezed out, over and over again, until all the blood and water are squeezed out. You can stop when the lungs turn white.

Sheep tripe and sheep intestines are a little more troublesome to handle, as the tripe has many wrinkles and a lot of undigested grass pulp, and the same is true in the intestines.

First, these must be picked out or squeezed out, and then rubbed with salt, flour, or wood ash to completely remove the mucus and belly fat impurities before it is qualified.

The heart also needs to be processed and the remaining blood clots inside must be picked out, otherwise it will taste strong and bloody.

Fortunately, Tang Zhitong had a cheat, and after tinkering with it for a while, the food reached edible standards.

Cut the sheep lungs into pieces and put them into water together with other internal organs. After boiling, cook them for two or three minutes, then take them out and cut them into slices or sections.

Then change to a larger pot, pour the mutton offal in, add water and seasonings, put it on the stove and turn on the fire.

"Brother Yong, do you want more or less soup?" Tang Zhitong asked while boiling water.

"It's cold now, so it should be able to keep its original shape. Add more soup." Gu Yong came over upon hearing the voice, took out a cigarette, but did not smoke it, intending to wait for Tang Zhitong to finish his work.

"Okay, then add some more." Tang Zhitong filled the kettle with water from the faucet and poured it into the steamer.

This set of drainpipes weighed about five pounds. Tang Zhitong looked around the kitchen and found a steamer that was suitable, so he just used it.

"You're quite skillful." Seeing Tang Zhitong put the lid on the pot, Gu Yong handed him the cigarette.

"Let me wash my hands first. The smell is a bit unpleasant." Tang Zhitong used the soap next to him to wash his hands twice, but the smell was still not completely washed away. He had no choice but to put up with it.

"Thank you for your hard work." Gu Yong handed the cigarette to Tang Zhitong and looked at the spittoon on the ground. It had a pungent smell and was filled with grass paste picked out from sheep offal and sheep intestines.

Tang Zhitong deliberately pulled the grass gruel out of the space and put it into the spittoon. If there was no grass gruel at all, it would look too fake, and the sink drain could not bear this and would easily get clogged.

"Auntie Sun, please clean the spittoon." Gu Yong shouted outside, and soon Auntie Sun came over and carried it to the toilet.

"Are you going to pick up your sister-in-law later?" After Sun's mother left, Tang Zhitong chatted with Gu Yong in a casual manner.

"Your sister-in-law didn't let me pick her up, saying that she was still pregnant, so she bought her a 26-inch bicycle and she rides it to get off work."

"It's getting dark early now. Can sister-in-law do it alone?" Tang Zhitong reminded indirectly.

"She will be back soon. She won't wait until five o'clock." Gu Yong replied happily, as if he didn't hear the implication of Tang Zhitong's words.

"Wow, the dance academy takes good care of my sister-in-law. I recently noticed that there are quite a few people on the city gate tower, like vagrants. You and my sister-in-law should pay more attention to your safety when going to and from get off work." Seeing that Gu Yong didn't hear it, Tang Zhitong made it clear directly.

"Really? I haven't really noticed it." Gu Yong's eyes widened, he looked at his watch, and a worried look appeared on his face: "Now that you mention it, I'm a little worried."

"Go quickly, while it's still early." Tang Zhitong waved his hand to drive him away.

"Then wait for me, let's have a drink tonight." Gu Yong threw the cigarette butt into the sink and said.

"Okay, okay, go ahead." Tang Zhitong said perfunctorily.

If it were someone else, they might really stay to improve their lives, but Tang Zhitong would not do that.

Twenty minutes later, the water in the pot boiled. Tang Zhitong skimmed off the foam, covered the pot, turned down the heat, walked out of the kitchen and said to the nanny, "Sun Ma, please check the pot. It will take about two more hours to simmer and then you can stop the heat. Just add some salt when you drink it."

"Comrade Tang, I can't explain to you if you leave like this." Mother Sun looked conflicted, hesitating whether to step forward and stop him.

"It's okay, I'll tell Brother Yong later." Tang Zhitong smiled, took his clothes from the hanger, put them on, said goodbye to Sun's mother and left.

When I got downstairs, I ran into Gu Yong and Liu Yue who had just returned.

"Hey~ Anzi, didn't we agree to have a drink together? Why are you leaving now?" As soon as Gu Yong saw Tang Zhitong's attitude, he immediately stood up his bicycle and wanted to go forward and hold Tang Zhitong.

"Hello, sister-in-law. Brother Yong, I just remembered that I have something to do at the company, so I have to go over there." Tang Zhitong greeted Liu Yue first, and then made up an excuse.

"Then you should at least bring something back. Wait a minute, come with me to get it." Gu Yong said, and was about to walk around the bicycle and pull Tang Zhitong.

"What are you taking? See you later!" Tang Zhitong didn't wait for Gu Yong to come forward, he stepped on the bicycle and jumped.

The whole process was smooth and Liu Yue did not interrupt. He watched Tang Zhitong walk away before saying to Gu Yong, "Don't chase him. Eucalyptus didn't plan to eat here."

"Oh, this is what happened." Gu Yong said in annoyance.

"It's okay, let's wait for next time." Although she has been pregnant for a short time, Liu Yue's temper towards her man has become much gentler.

Tang Zhitong left the compound, entered the west gate, turned east, and rode slowly towards home. He didn't dare to ride fast because he was tired.

After dinner, the couple returned to the wing room. Xiao Wang happily took out a stack of white cloth from his bag and said to Tang Zhitong, "We distributed a gown today. Do you want me to take it and have it altered for you?"

"You should wear it. What's going on in your unit these days? There are one welfare benefit after another." Tang Zhitong shook his head. Nowadays, people who wear white coats are not necessarily doctors or nurses, but may also be salespersons, chefs, engineers, workers and other professions. White coats do not represent identity, but mainly play a certain role in health protection.

"The leader fought for it. I heard it took a lot of effort. I guess it will only be available this year." Tang Zhitong didn't want it. Xiao Wang thought about it and decided that the one he got last year was quite messy, so he decided to put this one in the closet for future use.

"Then you'd better keep it." Tang Zhitong certainly knew the situation in the next two years. By then, it would be difficult to get cloth, and patches on top of patches would become the norm. If you can't use it, you can keep it and replace the old one when you have children in the future, and cut it up to make paper towels.

"Well, let's keep it for now. What are you doing? Writing a letter?" Student Xiao Wang put away his white coat, turned around and saw that Tang Zhitong had already taken out the letter paper and spread it out.

"Yes, write a letter. The unit applied for a phone number, but no one has installed it. I went to see Gu Yong yesterday, and he brought people to install it today. The phone number is 6789. You can call my office directly if you have any problems in the future. I wrote a letter to tell my uncle so that he doesn't have to call Director Fang later, which is not good." Tang Zhitong unscrewed the pen cap and explained to Xiao Wang.

In fact, Tang Zhitong not only wanted to tell Tang Wenbang about his phone call, he also wanted to ask his uncle when the river would freeze solid.

In addition, Tang Zhitong also planned to write a letter to Shao Jianlin and others under the guise of informing them of the phone call. It was impossible to help them tamper with the data, but he could reveal some of the problems found in the current promotion assessment so that they could make targeted improvements.

(End of this chapter)