Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 581 8 Trigrams Buds

He only sent some stewed tonic food from time to time. Before long, he even sent a lot of fresh goat milk to Hualei every day. He said he knew someone who raised goats at home.

So, Hua Lei continued to work on duty, but she did pay attention to it and would stand up and move around after sitting for about three quarters of an hour.

He also changed into more comfortable cotton shoes and no longer walked with big strides. He also took the tonics that Madam Han sent him.

I also drink a glass of fresh goat milk every day. At the same time, I also asked Sister Hehua to prepare a lot of food suitable for pregnant women.

I ate less pickled foods that I used to like. I also took regular breaks. So everything went smoothly.

However, Hua Lei did not tell anyone except Pei Jingyang and his wife and the letter she wrote back to the capital to inform them of her pregnancy.

In the Dasheng Dynasty, there was a very strange custom that stated that in the first three months of pregnancy, one could tell one's family elders and relatives in a small circle, but it was not appropriate to tell outsiders. Therefore, Hualei did not tell Zhenzhu about her pregnancy.

However, Hualei's taste has indeed changed. Hualei, who used to not like sweets, suddenly wanted to eat brown sugar glutinous rice cake.

When I was in Shangjing, many families would make their own glutinous rice balls during the Spring Festival. But when I was in Tongde Town, I often made glutinous rice cakes.

When Sister He heard that Hualei wanted to eat glutinous rice cake, she immediately took out the glutinous rice, soaked it, steamed it, put it into a stone mortar and pounded it into a paste with a stone pestle. She rolled it into strips, fried it in a pan, and sprinkled it with yellow and white sugar and cooked soybean powder.

The glutinous, sweet and fragrant glutinous rice cake made Hualei squint her eyes in satisfaction. Thinking that Zhenzhu liked sweets, she asked Qingqi to send one to Zhenzhu as well.

However, Zhenzhu, who always likes sweets, doesn't like the brown sugar glutinous rice cake, and asks Hualei for a white glutinous rice glutinous rice cake instead.

The small kitchen added bacon and chives to make it salty, which made Hualei wonder if Zhenzhu was also pregnant? Was it also not easy to make it public for three months?

It turned out that Hualei's guess was correct. Zhenzhu was indeed pregnant, a month earlier than Hualei. No wonder when Madam Han sent tonics to herself, she also often sent to Zhenzhu. Hualei suddenly realized.

However, Mrs. Han seemed to have not sent it to Rong Yu's wife Qian yet, and it seemed that Qian was not pregnant yet. Hua Lei, who was not gossipy at first, did not know whether it was because of pregnancy or some other reason, but she also started to gossip.

I wonder how Mrs. Chen, who rents the house behind my house, is doing? According to the time calculation, she should be more than five months pregnant now.

The old lady Chen said that Mrs. Chen was not in good health and had been recuperating. I don't know how she is now.

The gossipy Hualei changed her previous way of doing things, and suddenly remembered the tenant behind her house. However, Hualei's curiosity was soon relieved.

On this day, Hua Lei came back from work and the maid at the gate handed her a visiting card, saying that Mrs. Chen Shao, who rented the house behind her house, wanted to come and visit Hua Lei on her day off three days later and asked if it was convenient for her.

Looking at the exquisite visiting card, Hualei nodded. Zhenzhu said that this Madam Chen Shao's family was from a noble family, and she herself was proficient in everything including music, chess, calligraphy and painting.

Although she had never met this Madam Chen, as soon as she saw the visiting card, Hualei believed it for the most part. The beautiful and elegant hairpin-shaped calligraphy on the fresh and slightly pink floral paper was even more skillful than her own.

Since others had sent their visiting cards in advance, Hua Lei went to the warehouse to search for Mrs. Chen in order to entertain her. She found the chestnuts that Uncle Zhao had picked up when he was digging winter bamboo shoots, and asked Sister Hehua to make some snacks.

Peel the chestnuts, mash them into a paste, add an appropriate amount of honey, add fresh goat milk, and stir well, because fresh goat milk still has a fishy smell.

Therefore, Hualei asked Sister Hehua to filter the goat milk several times with gauze. When boiling the goat milk, she added dried jasmine flowers brought from Shangjing City, and the fishy smell of the goat milk was basically eliminated.

Pour a little oil into the pan, then pour in the chestnut paste, stir-fry over low heat until it clumps together, then divide it into small pieces of appropriate size, roll them into balls, put them into a mold and press them into the shape of a plum blossom, and the fresh chestnut cake is ready.

In addition, Hualei asked Sister Hehua to make taro cakes and green tea cakes. In addition, she made a small amount of egg yolk cakes. The raw materials were all sent from Shangjing City. Relatively speaking, the supplies here are less than those in Shangjing City.

On the day off, Rong Jin went to the county government office to work overtime, so Hua Lei specially called Zhenzhu over to entertain Mrs. Chen together with her.

At 2:45 in the morning, Mrs. Chen, who was already pregnant, walked slowly into Hualei's house accompanied by Mrs. Chen and several maids. Each of the maids behind her received a gift basket.

Hualei stood at the door of the main room and looked up. Mrs. Chen was about 21 or 22 years old. Maybe because of her pregnancy, her figure was a little plump. Her round oval face was lightly powdered.

There were only a few jade hairpins in her hair, which was very neat. However, perhaps because she was afraid of the cold, she wore a thick goose yellow velvet grey squirrel cloak, and she looked like a very dignified woman.

"Master Hua, Yinqiu greets you. Sister Zhenzhu, long time no see." Madam Chen Shao placed her hands on her waist and squatted slightly to salute Hualei and Zhenzhu.

"Mrs. Chen, don't be so polite. Please come in. It's cold outside." "Sister Chen, long time no see." Hualei and Zhenzhu also politely responded one by one.

Today, Hualei wore a bright red velvet jacket with embroidered flowers. With her fair and translucent skin, she looked radiant and energetic.

Her long hair, which was originally loose, was tied into a simple bun for meeting guests, with a few hairpins inserted. She had a confident look and a proper smile.

Mrs. Chen looked carefully at the smiling Hualei, and felt a little sorry for her nephew Bai Yunhe. What a good girl! Yunhe missed it.

It turned out that Mrs. Chen and Bai Yunhe's mother were cousins, but they were almost two generations apart in age, so they didn't interact much. According to the in-law relationship, Bai Yunhe, who was one year older than him, had to call Mrs. Chen his cousin.

Hualei and Zhenzhu let Madam Chen into the house. The maids behind them had already put the gift baskets on the table in the house. There were six gift baskets in total. Hualei said a few polite words and let Qingqi and Qinghua accept them.