In the afternoon, Juhua prepared the usual three sets of offal. After blanching them, adding seasonings, and stir-frying them, she placed them in a pot with pickled vegetables to simmer slowly over a low fire.
Just then, Mother Yang walked into the courtyard carrying a shoulder pole with two baskets of napa cabbage and yellow-heart cabbage. She said to Juhua, "We'll sun-dry the cabbage tomorrow. We need to hurry up and pickle it, or with the way we're selling it every day, we won't have enough pickled vegetables."
Juhua said to her, "Mother, could you go cut some more napa cabbage? I want to make spicy cabbage. That kind doesn't need to be sun-dried!"
Mother Yang asked doubtfully, "What's spicy cabbage? How come I've never heard of it?"
Juhua smiled and said, "It's something I came up with. Eating the same old pickled vegetables all the time gets so boring! Let's try a different method. We might just whip up something delicious!"
