Chapter 1067: Chapter 438: Even the Most Rigorous System Has Bugs! Perfect Level Red Bean Paste Acquired!
Back then, when he was bored he could still kill some time playing that trash-picking game, but ever since the business kept getting bigger, that little thrill of picking up bottles and cans in the game was gone too.
On the road of growing up, you always gain some and lose some.
That’s probably what life is.
For a moment, Lin Xu was full of feelings.
Chen Yan had originally planned to go play tennis with Ren Jie after polishing off this high-sugar, high-carb, high-purine, heavy-flavor "mixed pork congee," but the moment she heard they were going to make red bean paste, the glutton in her started to stir again:
"If we’re shooting the video at home, we’ll need to rearrange the camera and the fill lights. How about this, I’ll come over with Ren Jie and help out, so you two don’t end up running around like headless chickens."
She put on this act like she was thinking of everyone, but Shen Jiayue didn’t buy it:
"If you want to eat, just say so. Do you really need to play all these mind games?"
Chen Yan: "..."
You just had to say that right in front of my Ren Jie.
What happened to tacit understanding between sisters?
Since you’re being so heartless, just wait till we’ve finished eating all the goodies made with Red Bean Paste—see if I don’t tell your husband every single embarrassing story from your childhood.
Don’t think you’re the only one who can stab people in the back, I can too!
President Chen was full of complaints, but thinking about how she was still going to freeload food and drinks later, she swallowed them down.
After everyone finished eating, Lin Xu helped Grandma Shen tidy up the kitchen, then picked up Dundun and said goodbye:
"Grandma, once we finish making the rolled soybean cakes tomorrow, we’ll bring some over for you."
"Alright, my grandson-in-law is so considerate."
Then she turned to her other grandson-in-law, Ren Jie, and said:
"Xiaoyan has been spoiled since she was little. If she’s willful sometimes, just be patient with her."
Ren Jie hadn’t expected the old lady to say that just as they were leaving. He answered seriously:
"Yanyan’s good in every way, she’s never been willful. If anything, it’s me—because I joined the army so early and later went to police academy, I’m lacking in a lot of areas. I rely on Yanyan to put up with me..."
Those words made Chen Yan a little embarrassed:
"Idiot, I’m not as good as you make me sound."
Grandma Shen looked at her granddaughter, quite pleased with how happy she seemed, and said with a big smile:
"Yueyue and Lin Xu are planning to get married at Spring Festival, you two should hurry up as well. I’m still waiting to hold my great-great-grandchild."
Chen Yan thought for a moment and said:
"Grandma, Ren Jie and I want to get engaged around New Year’s Day, is that okay?"
"What’s there not to be okay about? Of course it’s okay. When the time comes, just book a few tables at Lin Xu’s place. If your mom and dad don’t agree, I’ll go talk to them..."
With that promise, Chen Yan broke into a wide grin:
"Thank you, Grandma. I’ll toast you with a drink when the time comes."
After sending everyone off, Grandma Shen didn’t stay home idle either; she went to find the neighbors to keep playing cards.
Her granddaughter kept saying Dundun was a little lucky cat, and she’d just held the little one for so long, so now was the perfect time to test it out, see if she could pull off another three-way sweep like in the afternoon.
Lin Xu drove back to the shop, grabbed the fill light, tripod, camera, and the necessary ingredients, then drove home.
By then the Shen Family’s three and Chen Yan’s little couple had already arrived.
Han Shuzhen was giving Dundun a piano lesson, while the other four each held a game controller, playing a 2v2 game.
When they saw Lin Xu come back, everyone got up to help and set up the fill lights and such.
Once the gear in the kitchen was ready, Ren Jie and Lin Xu went downstairs, brought up the pear pulp, and under Shen Guofu’s lead, started fertilizing the flower beds upstairs.
It wasn’t a hard job: dig open the soil in the middle of the flower bed, bury the pear pulp, cover it back up with soil, then shovel some still-unmelted snow on top.
With moisture and sunlight, that pear pulp would ferment like crazy.
While they were busy with all that, Lin Xu went back to the kitchen and started filming the process of making red bean paste.
He put a pot of water on to boil, and once it was boiling, he added ten jin of dried red beans. When it boiled again, he turned off the heat and let the beans soak.
For red bean paste, it’s best to soak the red beans overnight in advance.
But they obviously didn’t have enough time today, so Lin Xu used this method instead.
Facing the camera, he said:
"First, soak the red beans in boiling water for twenty minutes, then rinse them with cold water. This not only effectively removes dust and impurities from the surface of the beans, it also uses the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to cut down on simmering time."
If you cook red bean paste directly with dry beans, even a couple of hours of high heat might not be enough to get them soft, but with this method, you can get the beans cooked until they’re nice and mushy in about an hour.
Twenty minutes later, Lin Xu put a stainless steel colander in the sink, picked up the pot with the soaked beans, and dumped the beans and water into the colander in one go.
The water flowed down the drain, while the beans were caught by the colander.
Lin Xu rinsed out the soup pot, washing away the sediment stuck to the bottom, then added cold water, poured in the still-hot beans, and scrubbed them carefully.
When making Red Bean Paste, the beans have to be very clean.
Only then will there be no impurities or off-flavors mixed into the pot.
He rinsed the beans several times with cold water. Once the red beans had completely cooled down, he poured them back into the pot, added half a pot of water, and set it on the stove to cook again.
He brought it to a boil on high heat, then turned it down and started simmering.
Lin Xu took the camera and shot a close-up of the flame, then a shot of the red beans bubbling away in the pot. After that, he switched off the camera and went upstairs to check on everyone’s fertilizing progress.
By then it was getting dark, and the temperature had dropped quite a bit. When Lin Xu stepped outside in his cotton slippers, he shivered from the cold.
It wasn’t much work to do the fertilizing, but Shen Guofu had still divided them into teams.
He and Director Han were one team, and Ren Jie and Chen Yan were another.
