After an hour, when the sky was about to get dark, the guy came in with a man in his thirties wearing a straw hat and a red face, and the man, carrying a bamboo basket in one hand and a pig iron pot with two ears in the other, entered the lobby and shouted to the shopkeeper sitting at the counter, "Cousin, who is going to eat sugar gourd, isn't this a bad day, how does the hot syrup solidify." ”

The shopkeeper also accosted, pointed to the place where I was sitting and said: "Cousin is this guest officer, the eldest lady wants to eat sugar gourds, you will stick a few, the price is easy to say, Xiao San quickly prepare household goods for Sixth Brother Wang." ”

The black-faced man named Wang Liu came to my seat and said, "Dao Chief, now make sugar gourds, hawthorn is a little raw, maybe a little sour, and syrup is not as delicious as winter in such a hot day, if there is ice, the ice will be delicious, sweet and sour, but we have nowhere to find ice this day." ”

As soon as Wang Liu's words fell, he heard a deafening voice coming from the door of the lobby, "Isn't it ice, see if I get you some." I followed the sound and looked, only to see the *** old man nicknamed Iron Hand Guanyin enter the lobby.

I quickly got up and said, "Old man, you are up, why don't you sleep anymore." ”

That *** said: "Still sleeping, if you sleep again, you will delay eating your rock sugar gourd, just now the junior was in the yard, looking for firewood, saying that you want to eat rock sugar gourd, I will come over to take a look, you kid, in order to fool the little girl, this hot day to make rock sugar gourd, thanks to meeting the old man, or you really can't eat delicious rock sugar gourd." ”

I said, "Old man, you go there to get ice." ”

"Do you still need to go out, the old man has a stunt, the cold ice palm, it's no problem to make a basin of ice, you can see it in a while."

When Wang Liu heard that the old man could make ice, he also became excited: "Old man, just wait, as long as you have ice, I will definitely make you the best rock sugar gourd, is my cousin ready?" ”

The shopkeeper over there let Xiao San be in the yard, set up the pot stove, and the firewood bellows were ready, and a group of people also followed Wang Liu to the courtyard to watch Wang Liu make rock sugar gourds.

The old man, also let people prepare a clean vegetable basin, filled with freshly beaten well water, put the basin on the stone bench, the old man squatted a horse, angry dantian, both hands luck pressed on the water surface, but saw a trace of cold air, emerging from the basin, after a while, the old man gathered up and got up, and then looked at the water in the basin, it has become crystal clear ice, and the ice surface is also printed with the old man's two huge palm prints. The old man's luck was successful, and his face was also sweaty.

A large number of people here were shouting, and Wei Zihan and Xiaoyu in the house couldn't sit still, and they also came out to see Wang Liu making rock sugar gourds here. In the entire courtyard, except for Wang Jinhuai, who was still drunk into a puddle of mud, they all came out.

But seeing Wang Liu from the bamboo basket, took out an oily paper bag, opened it, there was a piece of rock sugar inside, put it in a pot with water, and then use a clean bamboo stick, stir in it, until the rock sugar completely melted, until the rock sugar boiled in the pot, then slowly boiled over low heat, here boiled syrup, over there Wang Liu skewered hawthorn again, a bamboo skewer on top of five, hawthorn is still a little green, not the kind of ripe red, are all washed, go to the root to the stem, remove the core of the hawthorn. Wang Liu finished stringing the hawthorns in the basket, and there were more than thirty of them.

At this time, there was a crackling sound in the pot, and when I looked at the sound, I saw bubbles coming out of the syrup one by one, and the sound was the sound of the bubbles bursting. Wang Liu put a bamboo skewer without a string of hawthorn into the pot, stuck the syrup, took it out and put it on the ice made by the old man, and after a few minutes, Wang Liu put the bamboo skewer in his mouth and bit it, and said, "It's okay, stop the fire." Xiao San stopped the fire, Wang Liu found a large piece of oil paper and spread it on the stone bench, poured out the ice cubes in the basin, smashed them and spread them on the oil paper, and then put the stringed hawthorns in the pot one by one, and after the hawthorn was full of sugar syrup, he took it out and put it on the ice cubes, and after a while, more than 30 rock sugar gourds were ready.

Looking at the round big hawthorn skewered on the bamboo skewers on the ice cubes with golden brown sugar coating, and exuding a trace of heat, the red and cyan plus the yellowish sugar coating looks so festive, like a small red lantern that is hung up, there is a little red light under the sunset, it looks good, and it must be delicious to eat.

Wang Liu made the sugar gourd, Xiao San and he cleaned up their things, and the rock sugar gourd placed on the ice here had no heat coming out. Wang Liu said: "The guest officer can eat it, you can taste it." ”

I picked up a sugar gourd and handed it to Wei Zihan, Wei Zihan took the rock sugar gourd, took a small bite carefully, and then said, "It's delicious, big brother Xiaoyu, you can also taste it." I handed her another one.

Asked Wang Liu: "Master Wang, how much is this?" ”

"Money, you also know that it's more troublesome to get this now, there are thirty in total, Dao Chief, you can give me two taels of silver."

I was just about to pay for it, but the lively Shunzi over there was unwilling, "You slaughter people, two copper coins in a string, thirty strings are not 6 or sixty copper coins, you want so much, this is obviously killing people." No, Daoist, you can give him a tael of silver. A few of the family members who were with Junzi also coaxed.

This Wang Liu also shouted, "I don't want to do this, it's the Taoist who insists on me to do it, don't look at it as less, it's not worrying at all, and the work is not less, two taels of silver is more." Let others not do it for you. ”

As soon as I saw that Wei Zihan was in a bad mood eating sugar gourd, he hurriedly pulled a handful of straights and said, "The rock sugar gourd made by Master Wang is really good, I gave two taels of silver." A few of you can try it too. After speaking, I took out the silver, counted two taels of silver and gave it to Wang Liu, Wang Liu packed up the house, bowed to me, and said: "Thank you, Daoist, if you want to eat, when winter comes, I will make you the best, delicious with filling, but unfortunately it is not good now." After speaking, he followed Xiao San to the outside of the inn.

I picked up a few sugar gourds and gave them to Junzi and a few family members, of course, the *** old man can't be missing, I looked at the tongue licking over there.

After a busy afternoon, it was already dark at this time, a bright moon gradually rose in the east, and the courtyard was like day, Wei Zihan and Xiaoyu finished eating a rock sugar gourd, and picked up another one to eat.

"Don't eat too much, you don't eat at night, leave your stomach empty." After saying that, I went to the shopkeeper to ask for two plates, and put the rest of the sugar gourds on the plates. I pretended to be on the side, and Wei Zihan and Xiaoyu also grabbed another one, holding one in one hand. The mouth is red and the food is full of syrup, and looking at the happy appearance of the two girls, I will smile heartily.