PCJ – Chapter 86 No tofu, only dregs

“Uncle Ji, what’s the deal with this Chen Dianzi?” Zhang Jiaohua pushed Zhang Jiwang sitting beside him, watching Chen Dianzi’s gradually fading figure. Today, Zhang Jiaohua was the master, naturally occupying the head seat. Zhang Jiwang was of higher seniority, so naturally, he sat on the same long bench as Zhang Jiaohua.

“Chen Dianzi. Back then, who dared to call him Chen Dianzi? Everyone called him Master Chen. He was talented in both literary and martial arts. Back then, among the young people, Chen Dianzi was definitely outstanding. It’s a pity. If he hadn’t pursued a relationship with someone from the city, how could he have ended up like this now… Oh, why am I telling you, a little kid, all this? Do you think sitting at the head seat makes you an adult?” Zhang Jiwang took a sip of wine, smiling as he glanced at Zhang Jiaohua.

“Who cares!” Zhang Jiaohua said disdainfully, grabbing a chicken leg from the bowl and gnawing on it.

Zhang Jiwang chuckled, spitting out the sip of wine he had just drunk. Luckily, he reacted quickly and intentionally sprayed it towards the empty space so that the people nearby wouldn’t be affected.

The accompanying guests from the Zhang family looked at Zhang Jiwang in astonishment, while Zhang Jiaohua gave Zhang Jiwang a disdainful look. He figured Zhang Jiwang’s laughter was probably not a good sign. It probably had something to do with him.

Zhang Jiwang suppressed his laughter and said, “It’s the first time I’ve seen a Daoist sitting at the head seat and gnawing on a chicken leg.”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Rolling his eyes, Zhang Jiaohua knew there was trouble. He didn’t bother arguing with the old rascal Zhang Jiwang; instead, he responded with even more force, biting down with his teeth as if he were gnawing on Zhang Jiwang himself. Zhang Jiwang felt his scalp go numb.

“Uncle Ji, if you keep laughing at me, don’t blame me for…” Zhang Jiaohua was about to threaten Zhang Jiwang.

Zhang Jiwang knew what Zhang Jiaohua was about to say and quickly put another chicken leg in Zhang Jiaohua’s bowl. “Jiaohua, don’t argue with your Uncle Ji. You’re the bigger person here. Consider this chicken leg as a compensation from Uncle Ji.”

Others didn’t know, but Zhang Jiwang did. Once the words were spoken, if Zhang Jiaohua said that in the future, he couldn’t get along with Zhang Jiwang as a woodworker, it might really come true. This was quite mysterious; even if everything was measured accurately, when all the parts were put together, they simply wouldn’t match. This was called “sha.” If you offended it, it would seriously affect a carpenter’s career. Zhang Jiwang was still thinking about when Zhang Enzhong joked with Zhang Jiaohua carelessly during today’s bridge building. After that, Zhang Jiaohua’s retort left Zhang Enzhong speechless.

So, Zhang Jiwang quickly apologized to Zhang Jiaohua to prevent him from saying anything.

After dinner, Chen Meijuan gave Zhang Jiaohua and Zhang Jiwang separate red envelopes. When Zhang Jiaohua took the red envelope, he carefully compared the difference between the two. Unfortunately, they were both tightly sealed with red paper. It seemed like his was slightly thicker.

“See anything you like? If so, I can exchange with you.” Zhang Jiwang chuckled.

“Forget it.” Zhang Jiaohua quickly stuffed the red envelope into his pocket. Who knew, just a step away, the red envelope popped out of his pants. He realized he had stuffed it into the torn pocket. He quickly picked up the fallen red envelope.

Zhang Jiwang smirked, “Ah, what a pity. If I had reacted a bit faster, I would’ve found a big red envelope.”

Zhang Jiaohua simply held the red envelope in his hand, not daring to put it back into his pocket.

The Zhang family expressed their gratitude, although they hadn’t achieved any results yet, going through this ceremony seemed to have boosted their confidence as a family.

Xie Chune put a piece of chicken into her husband’s bowl, “Qigao, eat a bit more.”

“You silly woman, I’ve already eaten all the good parts by myself, what will everyone else eat?” Zhang Qigao looked a bit unhappy.

Chen Meijuan quickly said, “Your wife is concerned about you. Why don’t you understand? The most important thing for the family now is for you two to have a child soon. Chun’e, don’t just feed Qigao, you should eat too. During this time, I’ll go to the market more often to buy some meat and improve our lives.”

That night, there was a lot of commotion in Zhang Qigao’s house, audible throughout the village, making people think there was a fox seducing someone.

Before dawn the next day, Zhang Enzhong’s family had been busy for half the day already.

The Zhang family had been making tofu for generations, and they didn’t know how many generations had passed. They knew exactly how long to soak the beans, how long to let them soak to swell optimally, how much water to add when grinding the soybeans, how fine to grind them… Every detail had been precise to the last millimeter. So, every time they made tofu, it was evenly thick, and each batch of tofu didn’t differ much in thickness.

But this morning, something went wrong. When filtering, Zhang Enzhong found it particularly difficult today. The cloth bag used for filtering seemed to have turned into a plastic bag, as if all the gaps had been completely blocked. No matter how hard Zhang Enzhong tried, the soy milk just wouldn’t come out. A bag of warm coarse soy milk rolled back and forth on the shelf, while the fine soy milk only dripped slowly into the wooden barrel like a thread that could break at any moment.

“Wife, did the soy milk boil today?” Zhang Enzhong could only attribute the reason to the soy milk not being fully cooked.

Wang Fang was also very surprised by this result. “Why didn’t it boil? You saw it boil several times. It’s completely the same as usual. How could the filter cloth come out?”

Indeed, Zhang Enzhong had seen it himself. But since it was the same, usually filtering was as easy as filtering water, and it all came out at once. Why did the filter cloth come out today?

Zhang Enzhong forgot about Zhang Jiaohua’s words during the day. He didn’t take Zhang Jiaohua’s words seriously at all, thinking it was just a joke.

After struggling for a long time, Zhang Enzhong finally managed to filter out the fine soy milk. Today’s tofu residue was almost twice as much as usual.

“If every day is like today, we’ll be losing our pants.” Zhang Enzhong grumbled.

When the fine soy milk boiled again, one boil was enough, unlike usual where it needed to boil twice. Seeing this, Zhang Enzhong uncovered the pot as soon as the soy milk started boiling. Not a drop spilled out. The fragrant aroma of soy milk filled the kitchen.

Zhang Enzhong weighed the coagulated gypsum powder, put it in a bowl, and mixed it with water. Then he poured it into the wooden barrel. Zhang Enzhong and his wife poured the boiled soy milk into the wooden barrel directly from the pot. This process of pouring mixed the gypsum water evenly in the wooden barrel. Under the action of the gypsum, the protein in the soy milk coagulated into a gelatinous substance, which was tofu.

Zhang Enzhong was accustomed to using a chopstick to measure the quality of tofu. He placed a chopstick vertically above the wooden barrel, let it drop vertically, and inserted it into the tofu. If it could still stand upright, leaving half of it outside, it meant the tofu was of very good quality.

However, today’s situation was very wrong. The chopstick fell down and sank directly into the soy milk.

Zhang Enzhong was shocked. The tofu was overcooked! Zhang Enzhong hadn’t experienced such a thing for many years, and he didn’t expect to taste this bitterness again today.

“In the future, your tofu should just produce tofu residue instead of tofu!” Zhang Enzhong suddenly heard Zhang Jiaohua’s somewhat childish voice in his mind.