Chapter 18: Pounding Rice

Everyone knew Qi Yue didn’t want to say much. The quantities of items like pottery, spider silk, vine fibers, hemp ropes, and grass seeds she needed were beyond imagination, but no one wanted to pry into her privacy.

After lunch, Lang En left, and in the afternoon Qi Yue planned to explain to Bao Xue’er and Ling’er how to prepare the millet, rice, and wheat. Over the past few days, whenever Hu Yue had time, he would stroll through the trading district looking for grass seeds to exchange. Thanks to these efforts, the Hu family had accumulated two large stacks of grass seeds, totaling at least sixty or seventy bags.

“Sister Xue, Ling’er, I’m going to tell you how to prepare those grass seeds now. This was told to me by Chi’er’s father-beast, though I haven’t tried it myself yet. Let’s give it a shot today. He said these seeds taste better if you hull them before cooking,” Qi Yue explained, offering the excuse she had prepared earlier.

Above her, Chi’er thought to himself, wondering why the father-beast would tell his mother to gather so many grass seeds. It probably wasn’t the father-beast who told her; of course, he wouldn’t betray his mother by letting a stranger take the blame.

“That long seed that looks like foxtail grass is called millet. After hulling, it’s called ‘xiaomi’ and can be made into porridge, which is good for our internal organs. Some sick people benefit from eating it—it boosts energy and strengthens the stomach. Then there’s rice; after hulling, it should be steamed with twice the amount of water. For us females, it can replace staple foods. Lastly, wheat is a bit more complicated: after hulling, it needs to be ground into flour, mixed with water, kneaded into dough, and then steamed or boiled. It can also serve as a staple. The green beans can be boiled into soup for summer cooling, and the yellow beans can be soaked to sprout as vegetables or ground and soaked to make soy milk,” Qi Yue explained simply, pointing to each one.

“Sister Yue, didn’t you say you haven’t been with that beast-man very long? How do you know so much?” Ling’er asked, recalling that Qi Yue had only spent a day or two with the beast-man.

“At that time, Chi’er’s father-beast went to a cave to shelter from the rain. He might have just traded several bags of these grass seeds from a tribe. I was curious and asked. After all, he’s a bird-like beast-man, so he’s quite familiar with these things,” Qi Yue answered, hoping this would quell their doubts.

“Bird-type beast-men really like grass seeds. I didn’t know they had to be hulled before eating, and that there’s so much to it,” Ling’er said, suddenly enlightened.

“Sister Xue, I want three bags of each kind. You keep the rest. Later, we can dig a cellar in the house to store them. They’ll last all winter and won’t get ruined by rain or snow,” Qi Yue calculated. Three bags each, two for eating, one for seed.

“Alright, Hu Yue, deliver the grass seeds Qi Yue requested to her house later,” Bao Xue’er instructed Hu Yue.

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“Plus, a balanced diet with both grains and meat might help you conceive your little ones sooner,” Qi Yue added casually.

“Really? This can help me get pregnant faster?” Bao Xue’er’s eyes brightened.

“Pay more attention to your diet. When stewing meat, add some wild vegetables or edible roots. This way, the diet is balanced, with rice as the staple. For us females, it’s better than eating too much meat. Try it for a while; I can’t guarantee, though. Beast-men need some animal instinct—have Hu Yue roast the meat a bit rare. If it’s freshly hunted, Hu Yue should drink some fresh blood with the meat. That way, he’ll have more energy than before,” Qi Yue suggested, knowing Bao Xue’er and Hu Yue had longed for children for over a decade.

Bao Xue’er and Lang Ling’er found this idea novel. Bao Xue’er planned to start immediately, and Ling’er intended to discuss the method with her teacher later.

Ling’er picked up a stalk of millet, playing with it. “How do you hull this millet?” She rolled it between her hands, and many grains fell out, still with the hulls attached. Removing the hulls left tiny grains.

“Sister Xue, let’s take an old beast-hide out and work on it there. The grains are too small; if we don’t place something under them, they’ll scatter everywhere and be hard to collect,” Qi Yue said, eyeing the yellow earth of the courtyard.

Bao Xue’er spread several old cowhides on the ground. Qi Yue placed some stalks on them and picked up a small wooden stick to start pounding. After a few minutes, she checked the stalks; most grains had fallen off.

The two curious girls each grabbed a handful of grains, wondering how to remove the hulls. They tried rubbing with their hands, pressing with their palms, and pinching with their fingers. Qi Yue recalled the modern term “pounding rice,” which was similar to pounding garlic or medicine, only the tools for rice were larger and usually wooden mortars.

What could they use in the courtyard as a substitute? Qi Yue looked around and saw a large wooden basin under the eaves. But what could replace the wooden pestle?

A wooden pestle and mortar were essentially a wooden hammer. She looked for a piece of wood to try. Just then, Hu Yue returned with the grass seeds. Qi Yue asked him to help bring over the wood and put the grains into the basin.

“Hu Yue, brother, help me find a piece of wood about this thick and this long,” she said, gesturing the width of a bowl and about forty centimeters in length.

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Hu Yue walked to a large tree behind the house, cut off a low horizontal branch with his claws, trimmed the other end at about forty centimeters, and carried it back to the front yard. “Is this about right?”

Qi Yue took it, pounded the grains in the basin a few times, then checked the contents, stirring with her hand. It looked pretty good. Ling’er watched intently, then took a turn pounding. Soon, she complained of arm soreness.

Seeing this method worked, Hu Yue took over. Bao Xue’er, Ling’er, and Qi Yue handled threshing, while Hu Yue pounded the rice. By afternoon, the four produced about ten jin of millet, twenty jin of rice, and ten jin of hulled wheat.

“It’s a bit troublesome to eat, but when the weather’s good, we need to dry these grass seeds more. If not dried thoroughly, they mold easily, and moldy seeds can’t be eaten. It’s best not to store them in beast-hide bags—they aren’t breathable and spoil quickly,” Qi Yue warned anxiously.

That evening, Bao Xue’er tried cooking some millet porridge, steamed a pot of rice, and boiled a pot of meat, pouring the broth and meat over the rice.

Hu Yue and the other two found the taste novel—the meat’s flavor blended with the fragrance of the rice—and said it was quite good.

But Hu Yue, being a beast-man with a big appetite and preference for meat, found the rice merely a flavor treat. It didn’t fill him or provide lasting energy.

Bao Xue’er and Lang Ling’er, however, really liked it. The food was soft, easy to digest, and had a unique aroma. Both went for a second bowl, but after eating too much, their bellies swelled. They had to support each other as they strolled around the courtyard to aid digestion.

Qi Yue soaked some rice in meat broth and fed it to Chi’er, who happily ate more than half a bowl.