Chapter 119: Out of oil

Chapter 119: Oil

After the beans were cooked, Gu Jinli immediately stopped the fire and said to Gu Jinxiu who was lighting the fire in the kitchen: "Sister, where is the little cloth bag I asked you to make?"

 Small cloth bags are used to hold fried soybeans and make cake embryos.

Gu Jinxiu said: "It's in the bag hanging behind the door of our house. You can get it yourself."

After hearing this, Gu Jinli ran to the house where they lived and took out a bundle of small cloth bags from the bag hanging behind the door.

 The small cloth bag is only the size of a clay pot. It is made of two layers of burlap. It is very thick and can withstand beatings.

 Gu Jinli returned to the kitchen corridor, took a wooden bowl, put the fried crushed soybeans into a small cloth bag, then tied the mouth of the bag with a piece of coarse cloth, and placed it on the straw mat aside for later use.

 Brother Cheng is very sensible. He was the one who brought the straw mat. At this moment, he is watching Gu Jinli packing the crushed soybeans with his big eyes open without blinking.

He reached out and poked the small cloth bag containing crushed soybeans on the straw mat, and asked Gu Jinli: "Second sister, can you make oil after filling the beans?"

Gu Jinli nodded: "Well, just pack the soybeans and start pressing the oil." As he spoke, he filled another small cloth bag, tied the mouth of the bag and placed it on the straw mat.

“Squeezing?” Brother Cheng asked very puzzledly: “Second sister, what is pressing? Is it like croquettes during the Chinese New Year?”

Gu Jinli smiled, pinched his cheek and said, "No, you will know later."

　　One squeeze is not the other one, this squeeze needs to be beaten.

 Brother Cheng is a good boy. When he heard this, he didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he watched quietly and waited for his second sister to extract the oil.

Ms. Cui was already used to seeing Gu Jinli like to make weird things. She was busy scooping out bean curd to make tofu, but she only glanced here and then looked away.

Soon, Gu Jinli packed twenty kilograms of crushed soybeans into eighteen small cloth bags.

After installing it, he ran to the yard and moved a large wooden box made by Gu Dashan to the kitchen porch. Then he brought the custom-made discus, one discus and two discus embryos, placed at intervals like this, and put the eighteen discs. After all the embryos are placed, add another discus.

He ran to the yard again and moved a wooden frame over.

She asked Gu Dashan to make the wooden frame according to the size of the discus.

This wooden frame can be disassembled. After she split the wooden frame into two halves, she put it on the stacked discus and cake embryo. After aligning the six tenon joints on both sides of the wooden frame, she slapped it hard.

With a few clicks, the separated wooden frames were connected with mortises and tenons to hold the discus in place.

She was worried that the tenon joints of the wooden frame were not strong enough, so she brought another bundle of burlap, cut the burlap into finger-width strips, and tied the wooden frame around a dozen times before stopping. .

Finally, she took a large wooden bowl, dug a small pit, placed the wooden bowl in the small pit, picked up the hammer with both hands, and hit the top discus hard.

Dang, Dang, Dang!

 The hammer struck the discus time and time again.

There was a lot of movement. Brother Cheng next to him was startled. He quickly covered his ears and looked at his second sister blankly.

 “Second, second sister…”

 Why do you want to throw a discus?

When the third grandmother, Cui Shi, and Gu Jinxiu heard the commotion, they all ran out to take a look. They saw her hitting a discus with a hammer, and they all looked confused.

Third Grandma asked: "Xiaoyu, what are you doing? What are you doing playing discus?"

Gu Jinli smiled and said, "Third Grandma, I'm making oil. If you wait a little longer, the oil will come out in a while."

"Making oil again?" The third grandma shook her head: "Then you do it. If you can't make it, you will give up." They knew about Xiaoyu making oil, but they felt that she was just messing around and only had fat. Meat can produce oil, but I have never heard of beans making oil.

But Xiaoyu was a great contributor to their family. She made tofu and allowed them to make a living, so the third grandma left it to her.

Mrs. Cui was very worried when she saw her hitting a discus with a hammer, and warned her: "Slow down, be careful not to hurt your hand."

“Hey, I understand, mother, don’t worry and wait for your daughter to make oil for you.” Gu Jinli said as he continued to hit the discus with a hammer.

Ms. Cui stood aside and watched worriedly for a while. After seeing that she was hitting accurately without hurting her hand, she returned to the kitchen and continued making tofu.

Gu Jinli continued to beat the discus. The discus was pressured by the beating and slowly sank. As it sank, the pressure squeezed the soybean cake embryo sandwiched in the middle of the discus.

After a cup of tea, oil slowly seeped out from the cake wrapped in a small cloth bag, and the soybean oil slowly flowed to the bottom of the box and met at the bottom of the box.

 A quarter of an hour later, a light layer of soybean oil had accumulated on the bottom of the wooden box.

Gu Dashan made a long downward-sloping groove for the wooden box. The soybean oil flowed out along the long groove and dripped into the wooden bowl. The wooden bowl was filled in a short time.

 Brother Cheng's eyes widened and he pointed at the wooden bowl and said, "Second sister, second sister, the oil is really coming out."

 Second sister did not lie to them, soybeans can really be turned into oil.

Gu Jinli smiled and said to Brother Cheng, "Go and get a pottery basin to put the oil in."

“Oh, I’ll get it right away.” Brother Cheng ran into the kitchen on his short legs and came out with a pottery basin.

 He put the clay basin on the ground, took out the wooden bowl filled with soybean oil, carefully poured it into the clay basin, and then put the wooden bowl back.

 Brother Cheng looked at the yellow soybean oil and asked Gu Jinli: "Second sister, can the soybean oil be eaten?"

Gu Jinli said: "Of course it can be eaten. This soybean oil is similar to meat oil. It can be used for cooking, frying, and lighting lamps."

 Da Chu has only been established for three generations, and the previous dynasty went through many years of war. Therefore, the people of Da Chu are very poor, and many families cannot afford to light lamps.

They and their family had no oil to light their lamps when they first came to Dafeng Village, so they could only use fires for lighting at night.

 With this soybean oil, her family will be able to light lamps every day and no longer need to burn fires for lighting.

 Brother Cheng was very surprised when he heard this: "It can light a lamp." Children are afraid of the dark. Hearing that soybean oil can light a lamp, Brother Cheng was very happy.

Gu Jinli wielded a hammer, banging the discus to press the oil. He beat it for a quarter of an hour and then stopped to rest.

Qin Sanlang did not go out to work today, but went into the mountains to cut firewood. When he came back, he heard the sound of her oiling and saw her little person swinging a hammer to hit a discus. He frowned and came to her yard. He said: "This work is quite tiring, let me do it."

Along the way to escape from famine, Gu Jinli had already become familiar with Qin Sanlang. He was not polite to him and handed him two hammers: "Here you go."

Qin Sanlang took the hammer and hit the discus quickly. He has been practicing martial arts since he was a child. He is bigger than his peers and has a lot of strength. He can beat a lot of oil for a while.

After beating like this for half an hour, the cake dough has been beaten very thin and there is less oil. Gu Jinli said: "Brother Qin, stop."

 At this moment, they have already made a clay pot of soybean oil.

 (End of this chapter)