The Cultivator's Reborn to 1970s
Chapter 55

Chapter 55: 55

Of course, Zhao Li found a rather nice excuse. Lan Tian has just started school and knows only a few characters. It was convenient for her to help read the letter out loud to avoid Lan Tian struggling over each character without knowing what comes next, while Mo Yuanle also sat in the hall, listening.

After opening the envelope and pulling out a stack of letter paper, Zhao Li was dumbfounded by the drawings she saw. She flipped through the three sheets, all the same, then handed them off to Grandma Sun. Grandma Sun looked them over and passed them to Mo Yuanle. Being a grown man, Mo Yuanle felt awkward about reading his niece’s letter, so after a glance, he handed it back to Grandma Sun.

The three adults were at a loss, stupefied and helpless, having never seen anyone write a letter this way.

Lan Tian took a look and didn’t find it strange, remembering how in her previous life when she was illiterate, she used to draw pictures to record things. When she didn’t know how to write certain characters, she would express them with images that most people couldn’t understand.

What Lan Tian didn’t expect was that Mo Junhua, who had held such a high position in her previous life, also started out not knowing how to write. It made her laugh out loud.

"What is this drawing? Who can understand it? Surely the kid could have found someone to write for him? There must be someone in the army who can write!" Discarding the letter paper on the table, Zhao Li felt quite helpless. She had been so excited, looking forward to seeing what the two kids had to say, only to end up disappointed.

"Let me take a look!" Lan Tian took the letters and started reading from the first page. After looking through all three pages, she generally grasped the meanings and began to explain to the three adults, pointing at the drawings.

"This split woodpile here with a circle on top represents a person, and this short rectangle signifies a car, while the long rectangle next to it represents a train. I’ve seen these when I was wandering around before. The pentagon represents the army. What it means is, he took a car by himself and then boarded a train to reach the army." That was the first page explained.

Lan Tian continued with the second page, "See, there’s a pentagon with a steamed bun next to it, which stands for a house, meaning that he arrived at the army and is living in the ’steamed bun’ house. Behind the house, there are three people drawn, signifying he and others train every day. The phrase ’three months’ next to it means that after three months of training, he left by car again."

Lan Tian pulled out the third letter, "This one is about him arriving at a new place, living in a new house, and still training every day. See the cannon? He must be in artillery. Then, he’s asking if I’ve grown taller, if I’ve been eating well, studying hard, and so on."

Grandma Sun and the others listened with eyes wide and jaws dropped, forgiving their own lack of knowledge. They had never realized that a letter’s content could be interpreted this way. It was an eye-opener.

Lan Tian felt a bit regretful that no ambiguous words were said, and she omitted mentioning the polite inquiries about her family at the end of the letter. There was no need to improve the image of the enemy.

On the 26th, they’ll slaughter the pigs. The village has raised more than a dozen pigs, and they’re quite well-fed, each weighing over a hundred pounds. The pigs are collectively raised by the community, with each household taking turns feeding them for a day. When New Year comes around, the pigs will be slaughtered, and each family will get to share the pork.

With over a dozen pigs, the village will need a whole day to slaughter them. The women must go to help boil water, while the men need to help scrap the hair off the pigs. There’s only one butcher in the village, Fourth Grandpa Lan Tian’s second son.

With the New Year approaching, his business is booming. Even folks from neighboring villages come to ask him to slaughter pigs, and they have to schedule appointments. On the 26th, he put all other business aside to focus solely on the village’s pigs. He couldn’t handle it all by himself, so Mo Yuanle also had to help with the slaughter. The butcher gets a slightly larger share of the meat than the villagers.

In the morning, Lan Tian and Grandma Sun carried two wooden basins to collect pig’s blood. The villagers had to wait until they and Er Tang Bo’s family were done before it was their turn. Lan Tian ran into Shitou, Tie Jun, Heizi, and the others at the pig-slaughtering scene, each holding a wooden basin. Lan Tian greeted them and then returned to Grandma Sun’s side.

Pig slaughter was a bloody affair, the butcher’s knife gleaming cold and threatening. A white blade thrust in and a red blade pulled out, spurting out bright red blood. Taohua took one look and screamed, running away.

On the twenty-seventh, tofu making was the task, and the village had already distributed the beans. Each family made their own tofu. Lan Tian’s family made two smashes of tofu. The beans soaked on the twenty-sixth evening were ground in the morning; at noon, they boiled water to scald the bean dregs, in the afternoon they filtered and mixed with gypsum water, and in the evening they drained the water off.

Lan Tian started drinking soy milk from noon, ate tofu pudding in the afternoon, and fresh tofu at night.

On the twenty-eighth, it was time to pound Ciba (glutinous rice cakes). Today, they did it together with Wang Guiyu’s house - Lan Tian’s family’s Ciba in the morning and Wang Guiyu’s in the afternoon. Early in the morning, Grandma Sun and Zhao Li got up to steam the glutinous rice, while Mo Yuanle washed the stone trough.

By mid-morning, Wang Guiyu’s family came over to help. Mo Yuanle, Wang Guiyu’s eldest son, Mo Chunlai, each holding a club as thick as an arm, with a narrow head and a thick foot, Zhao Li put the glutinous rice into the stone trough, and the two of them began to grind the glutinous rice slowly in the trough, then took turns pounding it.

The women cleaned their hands and lifted the pounded glutinous rice from the stone trough to the table beside them, pinching out balls of rice and placing them on the side. The people behind then flattened the balls into round Ciba with their palms, Chuntao and Chunhua did it with great skill.

The porcelain white glutinous rice balls were tantalizing. Lan Tian ate while pinching the rice balls. Chuntao sneaked a glance at Lan Tian and pinched a small piece, quickly stuffing it into her mouth when no one was looking. Lan Tian winked at them, indicating that she had seen them. Chunhua, with thinner skin, blushed and hung her head, not daring to look at her. Chuntao, thick-skinned, glared at Lan Tian and stuffed a piece into Lan Tian’s mouth.

In future generations, there would be many different kinds of biscuits. Lan Tian, feeling playful, started shaping the Ciba into various animal forms, to the surprise of Chuntao and Chunhua standing beside her.

"So pretty, Lan Tian, you are so talented, you can even make rabbits." Chunhua peeked at the adults and seeing that they were not looking their way, whispered in Lan Tian’s ear, picked up a rabbit-shaped Ciba to admire, and then put it back.

"It’s so beautiful, just like the real thing. Lan Tian, who taught you? Was it your aunt or your grandma? My mother says your aunt is a young lady from the big city, she was very beautiful when she was young and knew many things we don’t. Can I follow you and try making the rabbit?"

"If you want to make it, just go ahead! Rabbits, fish, chickens, ducks, birds, flowers, all are possible." As long as you can make it, Lan Tian didn’t say the latter part of the sentence to avoid denting her confidence.

Upon hearing this, Chuntao kicked Chunhua and said, "What ruckus are you starting? Don’t you see that the pile is building up here? Hurry up and pinch! Do you think you can compare to her? She’s just padding out numbers here. I can pinch five, and she can’t even do one properly. If you keep being lazy, I’ll split the count with you, five for me, three for you, any unfinished will pile up in front of you."

Chunhua pursed her lips and gave up on making elaborate shapes.

Lan Tian side-eyed Chuntao; Wang Guiyu’s family was honest and simple, but how did they end up with a sharp-tongued girl like Chuntao? She had been picking on her, making fun of her in the previous life, and now Lan Tian showed her teeth and refrained from stooping to Chuntao’s level.