Chapter 31 Brother, brother!

After the two children had eaten the morning meal, Ye Annian moved two small stools and placed them in a sunny place in the courtyard for Ding Qiu and Fu Zai to sit and play with the coins.

　　The copper coin was ready to eat. Ye Anian broke off half a bun and half an egg white for it. The little thing was not picky about food and ate very deliciously.

　　After settling down the two children and the dog, Ye Annian took some wolfberries from the medicine jar where they were stored, wrapped them in paper, locked the courtyard door, and went to Aunt Li's house.

　　Aunt Li's family has a simple population. Her husband died of illness a few years ago, leaving only Aunt Li and her son. The younger brother married in another village, and the son works in the town and only comes back every month.

　　She was usually the only one at home, but fortunately she was next to Zhao Lizheng, and the two families had a good relationship. Zhao Lizheng often asked Zhao Le and Shitou to bring some food to the elderly, or go over to talk to the elderly.

　　When Ye Anyian arrived, the door of Aunt Li's house was open. He did not go in directly, but knocked on the door first.

　　"Who is it?" came the response from inside the house.

　　After a while, Aunt Li walked out of the main room, pulling on her shoes. She was still holding needlework and a stretcher in her hands, and she was obviously doing needlework.

　　Seeing that it was Ye Anyian, Aunt Li immediately became enthusiastic: "Brother Nian, why are you here? Come on, come in and sit down!"

　　Aunt Li is a straightforward person and dislikes cowardly people. The slap Ye Annian gave Ye Ansong yesterday was really satisfying, and she immediately developed a liking for this skinny guy.

　　"I was just thinking that you had an apricot tree planted at home, and I wanted to trade some apricot kernels with you." Ye Anian said while being pulled into the house by her.

　　"I have thrown away all the apricot kernels, but I do have apricots. The three apricot trees in my yard bear a lot of apricots. My two sons don't come back often. I can't eat much by myself, so I give it to Li Zheng and the others. It's better at home, but I can't even eat the leftovers."

　　As soon as Ye Anian asked for apricot pits, Aunt Li put down her sewing, turned around and went out to bring him a large pot of freshly picked apricots.

　　"Here, take a look, they're all ripe. My teeth are sore from eating this, and I haven't even eaten much of this bowl. If you want it, take it away, so I don't have to worry."

　　The apricots in the basin are all yellow-orange, and some are yellow with a hint of red. They are indeed ripe.

　　But Ye Anyian couldn't ask for so much, so he said: "I just want some almonds to make snacks for the two children. If I don't want this much, just pretend to be a little for me."

　　"Then take it back and eat it slowly. You have a large family and your children are big-mouthed, so these apricots are not too many." Aunt Li said and pushed a large pot of apricots into Ye Anyian's arms.

　　"Hurry up and take it, otherwise I won't be able to eat it myself and I'll waste it. There are a lot of them on the trees in the yard that are about to ripen!"

　　Ye Anyian couldn't resist her enthusiasm, so he had no choice but to accept it. When he left, he didn't forget to give the bag of wolfberries to Aunt Li.

　　"You can keep this pack of wolfberry and soak it in water to drink. It will moisten your lungs and improve your eyesight. It is good for your health."

　　"You kid, at my age, why are you still drinking this? This thing is a medicinal material, so it must cost a lot of money." Aunt Li declined.

　　Ye Annian said: "Jiangzhu has also planted a lot of wolfberry trees. There are still many wolfberry trees at home. You should share the burden with us."

　　"Okay, I'll keep it then." Aunt Li was very happy, she just thought that Ye Anyian could talk.

　　Things like wolfberry are easy to preserve when dried and will not go bad. You can save as much as you want, so there is no need for her to share it.

　　When he came, he only carried a bag of wolfberries, and when he returned, he carried a large and heavy pot of sweet apricots. Ye Anyian slowed down a lot, mainly because the pot of apricots was quite heavy.

When they got home, Fu Zai and Ding Qiu, two people with limited mobility, hadn't gotten up yet, but Tong Qian spread out his legs and ran very fast.

　　The little thing, which was only one head longer than an adult's feet, circled around Ye Anian, its tail almost turning into a propeller.

　　"Come on the copper coins." Ye Anian held the wooden basin of apricots in his arms and could only close the fence door with his feet. He walked into the courtyard while calling for the copper coins.

　　Copper Coin shook his head and followed him.

　　Fu Zai, who was sitting on a small stool, saw him coming back with such a large bowl of apricots and started to sip: "Brother, apricots! So many?"

　　"Yes, I exchanged it with Aunt Li." Ye Annian put down the wooden basin as he said it, went to the main room to get a small basin, and separated some apricots for washing.

　　"Brother will wash some for you to eat, but you have to save the apricot kernels after you finish them."

　　"Okay!" Fu Zai nodded happily when he heard that there were apricots to eat.

　　Ding Qiu asked, "What does Brother Ye do with apricot kernels?"

　　"I'll make delicious food for you." Ye Anian gave it up.

　　"How do you make delicious apricot kernels?" Fu Zai had already finished one and couldn't figure out the hard apricot kernel in his hand.

　　Ding Qiu fumbled for the apricot kernel in his hand and told him: "Give the outer hard shell into pieces. There are almonds inside and you can eat them. But the almonds are bitter."

　　When Fu Zai heard this, his fair little face wrinkled up: "Ah, Brother Qiu, I don't want to suffer hardship!"

　　Seeing his appearance, Ye Anyian couldn't help but curl his lips: "It's not bitter, brother will make something sweet for you to eat."

　　"That's good!" Fu Zai didn't know how Ye Anyian turned bitter into sweet.

　　But since it is what his brother plans to make, he must eat it, even if it is bitter!

　　Ye Annian didn't know Xiaotuanzi's inner activities. He was concentrating on peeling apricot kernels. The apricot kernels eaten by the two children alone would definitely not be enough, and more would have to be peeled.

　　As for the peeled apricot flesh, he planned to cook it into canned sugar water at night.

　　The three of them worked hard together, and soon two large bowls were filled with apricot kernels.

　　Ye Annian found a brick and smashed it open one by one, picked out the unbroken almonds inside, boiled water, soaked them and peeled them.

　　There were two large bowls full of apricot kernels. After processing, there was only one bowl left, but it was almost enough.

　　After peeling, it was time to grind the pulp. Ye Annian took out the medicine grinder from Jiangzhu Medicine House and washed it several times with water.

　　However, this medicine grinder was probably used by Jiang Zhu to grind medicine all year round. Even though he washed it several times with cold and hot water, it still had a faint medicinal smell. Fortunately, it was not unpleasant and had little impact.

　　After cleaning the medicine grinder, he poured the soaked almonds in and ground them into a pulp, filtered out the residue with cotton gauze, and carefully poured the milky white almond juice into a large bowl.

　　Fu Zai had never seen this done before, so he lay aside curiously and watched, asking questions at every step he took.

　　"Brother, why do you have to grind almonds into juice?"

　　"Brother, do you still want these scum?"

　　"Brother, Brother Qiu said almonds are bitter, so is almond juice sweet?"

　　"Brother, brother..."

For the first time, Ye Anyian discovered that the cute and cute Fu Zai was actually a talkative person.

　　But he wasn't bothered and patiently explained to Fu Zai one by one.

　　After putting the ground almond juice aside, Ye Annian went to Jiangzhu's medicine shelf and dug out a piece of agar.

　　This thing is a kind of vegetable gum, which has the effects of lowering fat and blood pressure, clearing away heat and relieving heat. It is soluble in hot water and has a certain coagulation effect.

　　In modern times, it is used to make jelly, gummy candies, canned food, etc.

　　Dissolve the agar with hot water and add it to the almond juice. Ye Anian adds some sugar, puts it into the pot and brings it to a boil, stir well, and after a while, take it out of the pot and put it into a large bowl.

　　He put the big bowl on the stove to dry, and Fu Zai, leaning on Ding Qiu's blind cane, jumped in on one foot and performed the golden rooster independence next to him.

　　Xiaotuanzi stared curiously at the milky white juice in the bowl.

　　"Brother, can you drink it after it's cooked?"