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The firewood in the stove burned brightly, and the water poured into the wok soon came to a boil. Two pork knuckles simmered fragrantly in the rolling hot water. In an instant, the scent of meat filled the air.

Since it was his first time cooking on an iron wok stove, Tao Yan was having a little trouble controlling the heat. Fortunately, braised meat did not require such precise heat control as stir-frying.

Tao Yan fished the cooked knuckles out of the wok and had Huo Baichuan pour out all the water. Then he poured in nearly half a wok of hot oil and deep-fried the two knuckles again.

"Oh, my dear heavens!" The volunteer aunt had just finished shredding the cucumbers when she turned around and saw Huo Baichuan glugging nearly half a jug of oil into the wok. Her face immediately creased in pain. "Are you cooking for an imperial banquet? How much oil are you wasting? You really don't know how expensive rice and firewood are until you run a household! Who wastes things like this?"

The volunteer aunt clutched her chest, her face turning green with anger. "Do you know that half a jug of oil is enough for our orphanage to eat for two months? And you just poured it in like that?"

Seeing this, Huo Baichuan said with a cheeky grin, "Don't feel so bad about it. We'll use this oil to fry potatoes later! Besides, you eat boiled vegetables every day without even a drop of oil. Aren't you sick of it by now? Just think of this meal as an improvement to your diet!"

The volunteer aunt shot Huo Baichuan an irritated glare. "Our welfare home makes dumplings twice a month, and everyone eats quite well. Isn't every family like that these days? What household could stand up to the way you waste things? Even a state-run restaurant wouldn't use half a jug of oil to stew two pork knuckles!"

The volunteer aunt's indignant complaints drew several other volunteers from the courtyard. They all came into the kitchen and craned their necks around. Before they could say anything, the aroma of the fried knuckles filling the kitchen made them swallow hard.

"What smells so good?"

"Are those braised pork knuckles? They smell incredible! Better than the braised meat from Old Li's shop at the alley entrance!"

"You used half a jug of oil to fry pork knuckles. Of course they smell good!" As she spoke, the volunteer aunt rolled her eyes resentfully. "I've never seen anyone waste things like this!"

As they spoke, Tao Yan lifted the two pork knuckles, golden all over with crisp skins, from the oil and set them aside to drain. Then he poured out the oil from the wok and tossed in several chunks of rock sugar to caramelize.

Seeing Tao Yan toss in rock sugar as though it cost nothing, the volunteer aunt felt an even sharper pain in her chest.

"You two just keep at it! What orphanage children? You're clearly young masters from capitalist families!"

Huo Baichuan looked at the volunteer aunt with a grin. "You may be hurting now, but you'll enjoy eating it even more later."

Before the volunteer aunt could speak, Huo Baichuan added, "Besides, it's not like the oil gets thrown out after one use. You can use it for stir-frying. Oil that's fried pork knuckles smells so good! Even vegetables stir-fried in it will carry a meaty aroma."

Hearing Huo Baichuan say that, the volunteer aunt suddenly felt that he had a point. She gave the two of them a disgruntled look and said nothing more.

Tao Yan tossed the two drained pork knuckles back into the wok and stir-fried them once more with the melted rock sugar. Then he added the peppercorns, star anise, dried tangerine peel, and other spices he had prepared beforehand, stirring continuously until both knuckles were evenly colored. After that, he added enough water to cover them, poured in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and more spices, covered the wok, and braised them over high heat for two hours.

The volunteer aunt could not help clutching her chest again. "Two hours? How much firewood will that take? Do you think firewood is free?"

Huo Baichuan merely grinned and said nothing.

Tao Yan looked around the kitchen. He had originally wanted to boil several dozen eggs and toss them in to make braised eggs, but judging by how distressed the volunteer aunt looked, she probably would not agree to him wasting the orphanage's eggs.

It was a pity to waste such a good pot of braising broth without cooking something else in it. After thinking it over, Tao Yan took out his remaining one yuan and fifty cents and handed it to Huo Baichuan. "Go to the market and buy some dried tofu and tofu puffs. They'll taste good in the braising broth too."

Huo Baichuan took the money and answered in agreement.

Still clutching her chest, the volunteer aunt asked loudly, "You're buying more things?"

"Don't buy any. We have tofu at home." As she spoke, the volunteer aunt walked to the cupboard in the corner and took out several blocks of tofu. "I was going to make baby bok choy stewed with tofu for you tonight, but there's no need now. Just braise it for flavor, so it doesn't turn sour overnight and go to waste."

Tao Yan looked at the tremblingly soft, snowy-white blocks of brined tofu in the aunt's hands. Though braising this tofu would not taste as good as dried tofu or tofu puffs, it would not be wasteful either.

"Do you have a clay pot?" Tao Yan asked. Brined tofu was tender, and if it simmered in the pork broth for two hours, it would probably fall apart.

It would be better to wait until the pork knuckles were done, then simmer the tofu in a clay pot. The flavor would clearly be much better.

"We do have one. But the clay pots are used to boil medicine for the children." Children's immune systems were naturally weaker than adults', making them more prone to illness. There were also many children in the orphanage. Whenever one caught a cold or ran a fever, the volunteer aunt would use the clay pot to simmer ginger or Chinese herbal medicine for them to drink.

Then they could only use the iron wok. Tao Yan sighed. A craftsman may wish to do good work, but his tools are inadequate.

Seeing this, the volunteer aunt also frowned and muttered under her breath, "He sure needs a full set of equipment. Who knows whether he can actually cook."

While the pork knuckles braised, Tao Yan still had to make liangpi.

He poured wheat starch and flour into a mixing basin at a ratio of ten to one, then added water and stirred them into a batter.

"Do you have a larger plate? One with a flat bottom?" Tao Yan asked the aunt again.

Although the aunt felt that Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan wasted food and did not know how to manage a household, the two children had just arrived at the orphanage and were already willing to buy so many things to cook for everyone. Their intentions were good. She could not dampen their enthusiasm. With a stern face, she somehow dug out two large round trays from some nook or cranny. "We usually use these to steam rice cakes. Will they work?"

Tao Yan took a look and nodded with a smile. "They'll do."