Steamed Buns: Of Course It’s Because There’s Too Little Flour.
“This guy does have good looks,” Su Xiaoman exclaimed inwardly as she assessed Xie Mingtu’s complexion. She used to think that Xie Mingtu deliberately hid his true appearance to some extent, but now she thought…
This guy was just a straight male aesthetic, rough and handsome. No matter what, it couldn’t salvage his appearance.
Su Xiaoman then asked a soul-searching question, “Xie Mingtu, do you rarely take baths?”
Xie Mingtu shook his head.
“I take one every day.”
He raised his head slightly to glance at Su Xiaoman, then lowered his eyes again. His eyelashes fanned out like a fan, the newly trimmed hair soft and sticking to his head, looking a bit fluffy.
Still as obedient as a big dog.
Su Xiaoman didn’t know if she should believe his answer. He kept insisting that he took a bath every day, but he didn’t look like someone who did. Dirty as he was, she wondered where he managed to find all that dirt.
However… there wasn’t any unpleasant odour coming from him.
Upon careful consideration, even if he bathed every day, ending up in such a mess was a problem often encountered by many contemporary parents of elementary school students.
“Well, go take a shower now, wash your hair, and clean up all those loose hairs on your body. Otherwise, it’s uncomfortable.”
Xie Mingtu went to take a shower, changed into clean clothes, and without that messy lion’s mane on his head, he looked like a different person altogether.
His black hair, gleaming with moisture, looked especially glossy under the dim light. Su Xiaoman glanced at his head several times, completely avoiding looking at the lower half of his face.
Su Xiaoman sighed. If Xie Mingtu wore a mask covering the lower half of his face, revealing only his forehead, eyebrows, and eyes, he would give off a handsome youth vibe. But once the mask came off, revealing that unsightly uneven stubble, he immediately turned into a “flower-faced” dog.
She had heard of something called a “back view killer” before. What was Xie Mingtu then? A “top half face killer”?
Su Xiaoman couldn’t help stealing a glance at Xie Mingtu’s chin, then quickly turned away, her shoulders slightly shaking as she forcibly held back her laughter.
She just wanted to know when this guy would be unable to resist shaving off that scruffy beard himself.
Didn’t he feel uncomfortable?
Confused.
As Su Xiaoman pondered over Xie Mingtu’s perplexing aesthetic behaviour, she picked up her needle and thread, embroidering and sewing clothes for her sister-in-law.
A yellow halo illuminated her beautiful face, with a long black braid hanging down her right shoulder. She half-lowered her head, giving her initially flamboyant and glamorous face a gentle and approachable look.
Meanwhile, Xie Mingtu sat on a small bamboo stool, holding a rusty knife and tracing patterns on wood. His mind was completely preoccupied because he noticed occasional glances from Su Xiaoman directed towards him.
An uncontrollable surge of joy and restlessness surged through his body, making him unable to calm down.
He touched his chin.
—Did she like it that much?
Despite the quietness of the night, Xie Mingtu’s ears were still filled with various sounds: the chirping of insects and birds day after day, people’s whispering. He paid no attention to these sounds but instead listened carefully to the faint sound between the needle and thread.
The next day, Xie Mingtu went to work with his family.
Although he was still the same person, Old man Xie and Third Brother Xie almost didn’t recognize him when they saw him.
“Old Five? Is it really Old Five?”
“How did his hair change?”
Third Brother Xie stared curiously at Xie Mingtu’s hair, which was clean and neat, refreshing and good-looking. It was completely different from the usual messy bird’s nest hair of Old Five.
“Wasn’t your hair like this yesterday? Where did you get it cut?”
Xie Mingtu’s morning voice was a bit hoarse, with a hint of suppressed excitement in his tone. “Xiaoman cut it.”
Old man Xie and Third Brother Xie were about to drop their eyeballs in disbelief. Su Xiaoman actually helped someone cut their hair?!
They couldn’t believe it! Su Xiaoman actually paid attention to Xie Gouzi?!
Old man Xie and Third Brother Xie, carrying their tools on their shoulders, looked incredulous, while Fifth Brother Xie remained calm and continued to work as usual.
Rare events in the village always attracted attention. Seeing the transformed Xie Mingtu, everyone was shocked and discussing it.
“Is this Fifth Brother Xie? Xie Gouzi?”
“Xie Mingtu!?”
“If it weren’t for that messy beard, I wouldn’t recognize him.”
The members of the production team were left with their jaws on the floor once again. When Su Xiaoman married Xie Mingtu, it had already caused their jaws to drop once. However, this peculiar couple seemed capable of making their jaws drop multiple times.
In the eyes of the onlookers, when Su Xiaoman married Xie Mingtu, it was like a flower blooming in cow dung. But now that Xie Gouzi had cut his hair, the onlookers found that this pile of cow dung seemed to have…
They glanced down at his stubble…
Many people felt relieved. This was still a pile of cow dung, but suddenly it seemed a lot fresher.
Someone approached Xie Mingtu and suggested, “Old Five, why don’t you shave your beard?”
Xie Mingtu, working with his head down, silently refused.
He wouldn’t shave it.
He wanted to show it to Xiaoman.
The busybodies surrounding him felt reassured seeing his reaction.
“Let’s just stick to knowing him as Old Five!”
“Alright, enough of this.”
“Let’s get back to work!”
Xie Mingtu put down his hoe and couldn’t help but run his hand through his hair a few more times. Suddenly, he remembered last night, the hand holding the scissors, inadvertently brushing against his cheek. At that moment, that spot suddenly felt like it was burning.
Xie Mingtu’s transformation was one piece of news, but there was another piece of news as well.
Some curious members of the community went to ask the Xie family, “We heard that Su Xiaoman had a fight with her mother-in-law last night?”
“What happened in your house last night?”
Old man Xie waved his hand. “Nothing happened.”
“Nothing happened? Su Xiaoman married into your family reluctantly. Could she not cause trouble? Did Su Xiaoman cut Xie Gouzi’s hair in anger?”
Third Brother Xie questioned the person, “Could you really make his hair look like that just by cutting it randomly?”
The person was caught off guard.
“What happened in your house last night?”
“Something good happened. Last night, Su Xiaoman cooked a delicious dish, and the whole family enjoyed it. There was no argument.”
Someone exclaimed, “Oh my, Su Xiaoman can cook?”
“Yes, she’s quite skilled.”
“Could it be that she really intends to live happily with Xie Gouzi in the Xie family?”
Su Xiaoman had already received the keys to the old house. She planned to go and take a look at the old house in the morning. When she stepped out, she bumped into Eldest Sister Xie, whose two children were playing on the stone path.
Upon seeing Su Xiaoman, the children stopped and enthusiastically greeted her, “Hello, Auntie!”
“Hello, Auntie!”
Su Xiaoman greeted them with a smile. These little rascals were quite mischievous, showering Su Xiaoman with compliments, “Auntie, you’re so pretty.” “Auntie is the prettiest in the village.” “Auntie is like a fairy.”
—This was probably the power of the dumplings from yesterday.
Children were easily influenced, just like everyone else.
Eldest Sister Xie smiled and exchanged a few words with Su Xiaoman, then handed her a small bag of red dates, about twenty or so. She didn’t have much to offer, so she used the bag of red dates to thank Su Xiaoman for the dumplings she gave the children yesterday.
“Take it, it’s sweet, but not much.”
“Thank you, sister-in-law.”
Su Xiaoman felt much better when she went out today. Yesterday, everyone in the Xie family seemed to want something from her. Today, she finally received something, a change in treatment.
When she left in the morning, perhaps knowing that she liked honey, Xie Mingtu somehow managed to get a bottle of golden honey for her and left it on the table.
Perhaps it was a token of gratitude for Su Xiaoman helping him cut his hair yesterday.
Su Xiaoman didn’t know where Xie Mingtu got the wild fruits, honey, and the dried wild rabbit from. Nowadays, everyone was struggling to get enough to eat. The wild fruits on the mountain had been picked clean, leaving no chance for latecomers. However, Xie Mingtu seemed to have no trouble finding them.
…She could guess where he got his dirty appearance from.
Su Xiaoman speculated that he had a hiding place in the mountains, but she didn’t know where it was.
Maybe he dug a hole and buried what he wanted to hide.
“He really acts like a little rascal.”
Thinking of this possibility, Su Xiaoman shook her head with a smile.
Arriving at the old house at the foot of the mountain, Su Xiaoman took out the keys and opened the door. The house hadn’t been visited for some time and was covered in dust. Su Xiaoman waved her hand, picked up a broom, and casually swept for a while.
“Cough, cough.”
Su Xiaoman found some old belongings she had left behind in the old house. There was a small bag of flour, as well as some oil, salt, vinegar, and other seasonings, but only a little. There was also a rusty broken pot.
She fetched water and washed the iron pot repeatedly. It seemed like it hadn’t been used for a while, as there was still a layer of rust floating in the water.
…Perhaps this could replenish iron?
She washed the pot again, filled it with water, and placed it on the steamer rack. Su Xiaoman planned to use the available ingredients to make some small-sized sugar blossom steamed buns.
Why make them “small-sized”?
—Of course, because there wasn’t much flour.
After a while, Su Xiaoman planned to visit her uncle’s house, so naturally, she had to bring something over to maintain good relations with them.
Using the available honey, brown sugar, red dates, and flour, Su Xiaoman first mixed water and sugar into the flour to knead the dough. After waiting for the dough to ferment, she washed and dried the red dates. She tasted one herself, finding it sweet and delicious.
When the dough was ready, she added the chopped red dates and divided the dough into three portions. She stacked the three long strips of dough on top of each other, kneaded them together, and decorated the top with some crushed red dates.
After waiting for about ten minutes for fermentation, she placed each dough ball into the steamer. After steaming over high heat for about ten minutes, she had made small sugar blossom steamed buns one by one.
The reddish-brown small steamed buns naturally split open at the top, resembling a blooming flower. The buns had tiny pores, soft and fragrant, emanating waves of date aroma.
Unable to resist, Su Xiaoman directly ate one herself. With her fair hand, she tore off a small piece of the bun. The scent of dates became even stronger as she brought it closer to her nose. When she tasted it, it was slightly hot, and the sweetness of the brown sugar immediately spread in her mouth.
Such a fragrant steamed bun.
In total, Su Xiaoman made eight steamed buns. She brought four to her uncle’s house, ate one herself, gave two to her family, and saved one to feed her Samoyed in the evening.
**Nomad: She thinks of him like a pet (ᵔ́∀ᵔ̀)л̵ hahahahaha**
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