94. Chapter 94: Making Rice Dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival zongzi, Mid-Autumn mooncakes, and Lantern Festival rice dumplings were all major affairs in the eyes of farming folk. No matter how hard or easy life was, when a holiday came around, people always had to prepare something appropriate for the occasion.

The Gu family’s life could truly be called a good one, and even so, Madam Li would never buy all glutinous rice to make zongzi. Each time, she mixed in a portion of yellow millet. Yellow millet was good stuff too; in a farmyard, it was the finest food for entertaining guests. Every year the Gu family planted quite a lot of it. Besides using it for zongzi and steamed rice, they also saved some for winter, to make sticky hearth cakes and sticky bean buns.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, the Gu daughters-in-law gathered together to make zongzi. The leaves had been picked the previous summer and autumn, when reed leaves or oak leaves had grown to their fullest; they had been dried in the shade and stored away, and now was the best time to use them. Once the dry leaves were soaked in hot water, they became supple and pliant, so they would not tear when the zongzi were wrapped.

The Gu family made two kinds of zongzi. The glutinous rice ones were kept for giving as gifts on social visits, so candied dates were placed inside. Those zongzi had to be wrapped by Madam Li herself. To be fair, she truly was skilled with her hands; the zongzi she made were neat and dainty, one by one properly shaped and delicate, so lovely to look at.

There had not been much glutinous rice soaked, only about four or five jin or so. Madam Li wrapped those herself, while Gu Xiuli used leaves of the wild lilygrass to help tie the zongzi shut. Madam Li was quick with her hands, and before long, the glutinous rice zongzi were finished.

A much larger amount of yellow millet had been soaked, probably more than ten jin. No candied dates were put into the yellow millet zongzi; that sort of thing was too precious. A jin of candied dates cost several dozen coins, and Madam Li could not bear to let her family eat such a luxury. Instead, beans were placed inside. Usually these were old beans from the autumn bean stalks, shelled out, dried, and saved for winter porridge.

Soft, sticky zongzi wrapped around fragrant beans were actually quite delicious. Besides, when farm families ate zongzi, they were too thrifty to dip them in syrup or honey. The best way was to eat them with vegetables. Zongzi with beans did not clash with savory dishes. Candied dates were another matter: sweet and salty mixed together like that was something northerners truly were not used to.

Madam Wu and the other daughters-in-law were in charge of the yellow millet zongzi, while the Wen sisters and Jiao Yan also came over that afternoon to help. The children were still young and could not do much else, but they could help tie the zongzi. With stems and leaves of wild lilygrass in their hands, they would hurriedly pass them over whenever an adult finished wrapping one, helping to bind them shut.

Madam Feng was an excellent cook, so of course wrapping zongzi was no difficulty for her. The Gu family mostly used reed leaves. Though they were somewhat smaller than the bamboo leaves used in the south, they were still easy enough to handle. After a few zongzi, Madam Feng became more and more adept.

"Second sister-in-law, your zongzi are really beautiful," Madam Wu said as she kept busy with her own hands. "Ah, one look and you can tell the people in the south take great care with food. These little zongzi are so delicate, they look wonderful."

"My hands are still a bit stiff. This only gets done once a year, after all; I can never quite get it perfect," Madam Feng said with a smile and a shake of her head.

"Still, you're much better than the rest of us," Madam Wu could not help praising her.

When several daughters-in-law worked together, the differences in skill became obvious. The zongzi wrapped by Madam Wu and Madam Zhao were neat and proper. Though they were a little larger, they still looked quite good. As for Madam Feng, there was no need to say more: she wrapped them small and elegant, and could even vary their shapes. Each zongzi looked less like food and more like a piece of handiwork.

The only one who was really lacking was Madam Xu. Her zongzi were either not fully wrapped by the leaf or not tied tightly enough; in some, the rice could even be seen seeping out.

Recently, Madam Li had become rather dissatisfied with Madam Xu, and seeing this only made her angrier. "Fourth daughter-in-law, are you making zongzi, or are you ruining grain? What you wrapped there will only turn into a pot of sticky porridge once it goes into the pot. Go on, go on, we don't need you here. Hurry and gather some firewood, then scrub the pot and add water. We'll be boiling zongzi in a while."

Madam Xu was a bit unwilling. "Mother, I don't think mine are that bad. I'll keep wrapping here; let Third Sister-in-law tend the fire."

Tending the fire meant carrying firewood and hauling water, and naturally it was much harder work than sitting there wrapping zongzi. Someone as lazy as Madam Xu would of course rather not do it.

"You call that good?" Madam Li snapped. "Look at it. You've crushed the leaves to bits, and the rice is leaking out. You call that good? If that's good, even a dog could do it. Hurry up and go work. What nonsense is this? Go on!"

In her hand Madam Li held a finished zongzi. Seeing the yellow millet spilling out from underneath, she pointed at Madam Xu and cursed, "You lazy, wasteful woman. You never do a lick of work all day long, only know how to slack off. Get moving, right now. Otherwise you won't get to eat any tomorrow."

Seeing that the old woman was truly angry, Madam Xu had no choice but to stand up and go grudgingly tend the fire and haul water. As soon as she left, Madam Li sat down in her place, picked through the zongzi Madam Xu had just made one by one, then unwrapped all the bad ones. "Second daughter-in-law, wrap these over again. If they go into the pot like this, it'll be a waste of grain, and it'll stick everywhere too."

There were many hands, and everyone worked quickly. Before long, all the zongzi were finished. Madam Xu, meanwhile, was still shirking at her own pace; only one of the two stoves had been lit. Madam Li went into the house and scolded her again before the other one was finally lit too.

The Gu family had made so many zongzi that one pot would not hold them all. Besides, there were two kinds of rice, so they could not be mixed together; they had to be boiled in two separate pots. Madam Li stayed in the kitchen watching over them, while Madam Wu and Madam Feng took the zongzi and gently placed them into the pots one by one.

"Right, slower, gentler. If you're too rough, the leaves will crack, and then it'll turn into a whole pot of porridge."

When all the zongzi had been placed into the pots, Madam Li herself took the steaming rack and pressed it down over them, then found a clean stone slab to weigh it down. "All right, start the fire. Once it comes to a boil, let it go for half an hour, then stop the fire and let it sit overnight. It will be ready to eat tomorrow morning."

By then it was getting late, and Madam Li again ordered the daughters-in-law to hurry and make supper. "Oldest daughter-in-law, today it's your turn to cook. Make dinner in the east wing; both pots here are being used for the zongzi."

Zongzi were precious food, and when they were boiled, they had to be watched under Madam Li's eye. Otherwise, what if one of the daughters-in-law stole a bite? Kept in the main kitchen beside the upper house, no one would dare steal any.

Madam Wu quickly agreed and went off to cook. Madam Feng had to return home to make dinner, so after telling her mother-in-law, she left as well, leaving Madam Zhao and Madam Xu to watch the pots and tend the fire. Madam Xu was the sort of person who would even try to be lazy when there was only a little work to do. Seeing Madam Li go back inside and the kitchen left with only Madam Zhao and herself, she rubbed her waist.

"Third sister-in-law, I just hauled water and may have twisted my back. You keep an eye on the fire for a bit; I'll go back to the room and lie down for a while."

Without waiting for Madam Zhao to object, she darted away in a flash.

Madam Zhao was, after all, used to being honest and obedient. Though her temperament had changed somewhat recently, she was still basically good-natured. Seeing this, she did nothing except shake her head and sigh, then kept watch over the fire in the stove pit with full attention. Half an hour after the pot came to a boil, she no longer added any more firewood.

When Madam Feng returned to the courtyard where her family lived and stepped into the kitchen, she saw that Jiao Yan had already lit the fire. "Jiao'er, leave these chores to Mother from now on. You're still young. It won't matter if you help me with work in a few years."

Seeing the little girl bustling about in front of the stove, Madam Feng always felt guilty in her heart.

"Mother, I can do all of this. It's all right. I should learn how to handle housework too. Otherwise, if I grow clumsy and awkward later, what then? Wouldn't that be a problem, like Fourth Aunt?" As soon as Jiao Yan thought of Madam Xu's handiwork, she could not help but smile.

In those days, a woman was judged by little more than whether she was good at sewing in the inner room and good with the ladle at the stove. As long as she excelled at those two things, everything else — learning, looks, all of it — came second. Jiao Yan did not entirely agree, but she was genuinely interested in learning to cook. After all, everyone had to eat. If she did not know how to cook, would she have to starve someday? Besides, she was rather particular about food, so it was still best to do things herself.

When Jiao Yan mentioned Madam Xu, Madam Feng could not help but laugh as well. "You little thing, don't talk nonsense. Your fourth aunt was pampered in her maiden home too; she probably never learned much about running a kitchen. After she came to the Gu family, with your grandmother protecting her all those years, she likely forgot most of what she did know." Madam Feng was an honest, decent woman and did not like to gossip behind others' backs. "You can say such things to Mother, but don't go saying them outside."

Jiao Yan nodded. "Yes, I know."

With a daughter-in-law like that in the old Gu family, it was indeed rather embarrassing. Jiao Yan was not foolish, so naturally she would not go around talking about it.

Mother and daughter cooked while chatting. Just as they were laughing, they heard movement outside.

"Mother, let me go take a look. It should be Father and my brothers coming back." Gu Chengyong had taken the boys into the mountains early that morning. By this hour, they ought to be returning.

As she spoke, Jiao Yan ran out of the house. Reaching the courtyard, she indeed saw her father returning with her brothers.

"Jiao'er, look what we brought back," Wen Tao said the moment he saw her, hurrying over excitedly with something clutched in his arms.

When he reached her, Wen Tao set the thing down. Only then did Jiao Yan see that what he had been carrying was a little bear.

"Oh my, how did you even get a little bear cub?" Jiao Yan asked when she saw that the cub was only two or three months old, all soft fur and unbearably cute.

She crouched down and stroked the fur on the cub's back. "Father, how did you find it?"

"Today, when we went into the mountains, a mother bear charged us straight away and nearly injured your eldest brother. A bear with cubs is far too fierce. It took me quite a while to kill the big one, and this little thing was nearby. Wen Tao thought it was fun and insisted on bringing it back. Jiao'er, stay away from it. Even though it's small, it's still a wild animal, and wild animals are dangerous. In a few days, when we have time, we'll sell it off. We can't keep this in the house," Gu Chengyong said simply.