Since cooking zongzi is not a heavy job, Jiang Feng did not change his work clothes and went directly into the back kitchen wearing his own casual clothes.

After entering the back kitchen, he found that Wu Minqi and Ji Xue, who had been missing before, were actually sitting on a small stool in the back kitchen to process beans.

At a cursory glance, Wu Minqi and Ji Xue have 9 small bags beside them, which don't look like much, but they add up to a lot, and each bag should contain different beans. Wu Minqi was peeling soybeans, Ji Xue was peeling broad beans, peeling beans was a delicate job, the two of them sat there quietly, not making a sound or moving, their eyes staring at the beans in their hands, only their fingers were dancing flexibly.

"What are you doing peeling beans here?" Jiang Feng asked curiously.

"Ah Xue said that she wanted to make birthday soup for Grandpa Jiang, she was too slow to peel beans by herself, so I will help her. Wu Minqi said.

"Birthday soup?"

"Actually, it's bean soup, and it's a soup that my mother's family has to drink on their birthdays when they are over 90 years old. There are 9 different kinds of beans to be used in the birthday soup, and the old people will put as many beans as they want on their birthdays this year. Ji Xue explained.

"Nothing else but beans?" Jiang Feng asked.

"Just beans, just put some salt. "Monsoon slopes.

9 kinds of beans with only salt......

Jiang Feng thought for a while, and his soul asked, "The soup that comes out of this...... Is it delicious?"

Ji Xue was silent: "It's hard to drink." ”

Jiang Feng & Wu Minqi: ......

Wu Minqi's hand peeling broad beans paused, she now regretted getting on Ji Xue's thief ship to help her peel beans.

"If it's hard to drink, why has it become a custom now?" Wu Minqi was a little puzzled.

As we all know, there are various stories and snacks that have always been passed down to the present day and are always famous with a certain emperor who likes to go down to the south of the Yangtze River, and they have been passed down to this day because they are delicious.

Food is the simplest thing in the world, and it only competes for taste.

"Maybe it's because of the origin of this soup, I also listened to my grandmother. She said that many years ago, there was a family in their village whose grandmother liked to eat beans very much, but it was very difficult for the family to eat beans. Later, when the grandmother was old and lost her teeth and couldn't chew the beans, her children and grandchildren cooked bean soup for her. "Ji Xue is not a very good storyteller, when she talks, she always has to stop talking, think about it, and then continue to talk after sorting out her thoughts.

On that grandmother's 91st birthday, her grandson cooked her a small bowl of bean soup made from nine different kinds of beans, and because the family was poor, only one of each bean was put in. Later, on Grandma's 92nd birthday, her grandson cooked her a bowl of bean soup with two of each type of bean. ”

It wasn't until after Grandma's 99th birthday that their family suddenly became famous. So on Grandma's 100th birthday, her grandson used 10 different kinds of beans to cook 10 different kinds of beans with 100 grains each, and invited the whole village to drink it. People in the village thought that the grandmother could live so long because she drank the bean soup that her grandson cooked for her, so later, whenever there were elderly people over 90 years old in the family, in order to please him, they would cook bean soup for him on his birthday. ”

"And because everyone's living conditions are better now, they don't have to count the number of beans they eat as before, so when cooking bean soup, they put as many beans as the old people are. Everyone thinks the name of bean offal soup is not good, and now they call it birthday soup. "Monsoon slopes.

"And then?" Jiang Feng asked, feeling that the story was not finished.

"What then?" Ji Xue was a little confused.

"On Grandma's 100th birthday, her grandson cooked her bean soup with 10 different kinds of beans, so what about her 101st birthday, what about the story after that?" Jiang Feng asked.

"I don't know, it's just a statement, and I don't know when that grandma is. This story was told to me by my grandmother when I was a child, and that's what everyone said, and that's what they did, and no one knew if it was true or not. Ji Xue said, "And the tradition in our family is that the elderly can't celebrate their birthdays after they are 100 years old, and they need to hide their age so that they can live for a long time." Maybe that grandma won't be a birthday until she is 100 years old, so her grandson won't make bean soup for her. ”

Jiang Feng was immediately relieved, legends are always full of people's various wonderful fantasies and yearnings that don't need logic, just need to place their own wishes.

The origin of this birthday soup in Ji Xue's mouth is already a variety of strange legends, which is very reasonable and convincing.

Jiang Feng vaguely remembered that when he was a child, Grandma Jiang told him about all kinds of customs and legends in the village, which were basically related to ghosts and gods. It is said that a long time ago a child of a family was infected with evil, a long time ago the daughter-in-law of a family was infected with evil, and a long time ago an old man of a family was infected with evil and so on. Or even earlier, there was a young lady from a big family in the city who eloped, and there was an insatiable landlord who was retaliated by a goblin and other chat-like legends, which scared Jiang Feng when he was a child.

As if there is no evil, no elopement, and no monster to repay the favor, there is no way to constitute a legend.

Jiang Feng took a look at the zongzi in the pot, and there was still a period of time before they were boiled out of the pot. Cooking zongzi without letting others watch it, Jiang Feng went to help Ji Xue peel beans, and sat in a row with Wu Minqi to peel broad beans.

The skin of broad beans is hard, so it is much easier to add salt to the broad beans and boil them in hot water until they have cooled. But Ji Xue told Jiang Feng that since the longevity soup was originally a manifestation of the filial piety of children and grandchildren to their elders, the more difficult it is to peel beans, the better, and it is said that the more effort you work when peeling beans, the longer the elderly will live.

Strange customs, but good starting points.

When Wu Minqi finished processing all the red beans, mung beans, and soybeans, Jiang Feng and Ji Xue were able to finish processing 99 broad beans.

Jiang Feng hadn't had such a high intensity for a long time, he was motionless for a long time, staring at a small thing, and when he looked up after peeling the broad beans, he felt that the whole sky was bright, although it was the lamp on the ceiling that was shining.

"By the way, Ji Xue, have you ever drunk this kind of birthday soup?" Jiang Feng asked, twisting his neck.

He felt that he was not far from cervical spondylosis.

"I drank it, I drank it at a grandma's centenary banquet when I was very young. Ji Xue showed an indescribable expression, "Although the taste is not very good, my grandmother said that it is a blessing." Everyone has to drink a bowl to rub the blessings of the elderly. ”

"However, it is said that the bean offal soup at the original grandma's 100th birthday banquet was very delicious, but now I don't know why it has become so unpalatable. Ji Xue added.

Jiang Feng nodded and said that he understood, in the era of scarcity of materials, boiled meat slices were all delicious in the world, not to mention that the longevity soup was still mixed with people's good wishes and blessings for the elders, and it was normal to say that it was delicious at all.

When I peeled the beans, I didn't notice the passage of time, but I felt that it was extraordinarily long, similar to the feeling of taking physics class in high school.

Jiang Feng glanced at the zongzi in the pot and said, "Ji Xue, Qiqi, don't peel it, the zongzi is almost ready, let's peel the zongzi and eat first." ”

"Good. Wu Minqi got up and walked to Jiang Feng's side to help him peel the zongzi.

"Go out and tell them. Ji Xue put all the freshly peeled beans into a large bowl, cleaned up the household garbage they had just made, returned everything to its place, got up and walked out of the back kitchen to inform everyone that they were going to eat zongzi.

Jiang Feng carried a rope to hang the zongzi out of the pot, and did not forget to tell Wu Minqi: "Qiqi, you wait for it to cool down before peeling it, it's too hot now, hiss." ”

Jiang Feng accidentally touched the dumpling leaf and was so scalded that he retracted his hand.

"Good. Wu Minqi smiled.

Her boyfriend is so cute.

。