The little one's purse connects the two worlds, turning a desolate village into a paradise.

The dough on the table had almost fully risen by now, and Ji Chuntao lifted the coarse cloth.

The previously firm dough has risen to a thin layer, its surface becoming moist and soft with a gentle beige hue. When pressed lightly with a fingertip, the indentation slowly springs back. The gluten that was stretched during kneading has completely loosened, and even if you tear off a piece and pull it, it won't suddenly rip.

Ji Chuntao pinched off a small piece of dough, crushed it in her palm, nodded in satisfaction, and invited everyone at the table to help distribute the dough and knead the dough into small pieces.

The wooden door of the small earthen house creaked softly.

Ya Ya, half asleep in bed, vaguely heard a series of chirping sounds. She lifted the blanket, and the sounds became clearer.

She rubbed her sleepy eyelids open, her slightly yellowed hair disheveled from sleep, looking like she had a feather duster on her head.

"chick?"

Ya Ya sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and murmured to herself. She then grabbed a dark blue work uniform from the side, wrapped it around herself, and pushed open the door to come out.

The clear, delicate sounds became even more distinct.

Little Bean, who was squatting by the chicken coop, immediately turned her head upon hearing the noise. Her eyes lit up, and she called out in a low voice, "Sister Ya Ya, Grandpa Village Chief has brought over some chicks!"

Ya Ya's still somewhat confused mind suddenly cleared, her eyes focused, and she quickly ran over with her short legs, one hand holding the hem of her clothes, and carefully squatted outside the chicken coop.

Two tiny, yellowish-brown fluffy balls huddled together in the haystack. Beside them, a little pheasant's neck feathers were slightly tense. It would occasionally peek out at the new chicks in the nest, making low, wary cooing sounds in its throat.

"Keep Yaya away, the pheasants are protecting their territory," Zhao Hu instructed, and casually placed a row of wooden sticks between the three chickens to separate them.

Ya Ya and Xiao Douzi obediently moved back half a step and squatted outside the fence, watching for a long time. The two of them then went to the corner of the wall and picked up some tender insects, carefully passing them through the gaps to feed the chicks.

Only when it was almost dawn did they reluctantly get up from beside the chicken coop.

The two little ones carried their little flower cups and toothbrushes out of the yard. As they passed the round table, they noticed that Aunt Chuntao was leading several people around the table, working on dough.

Everyone at the table held a small piece of beige dough in their hands. They first rolled it into a long strip, then pinched off small pieces of roughly the same length, flattened them in their palms, and then gently twisted the dough with their thumbs to create layers of pleats, tapering the ends to a fine point and arranging them in a curved shape.

A little swallow with its wings folded was sculpted.

"It's a swallow! Aunt Chuntao, I want to make one too!" Ya Ya stared longingly at the few remaining fluffy dough balls on the cutting board.

Ji Chuntao looked down at her and smiled gently: "Okay, little girl, go wash up. Auntie will teach you how to do it from the beginning in a bit."

The two little ones happily ran outside to wash up.

Ji Chuntao put down her work, turned around and found a small ceramic basin, scooped in half a basin of flour, added a small bucket of water and a small bag of flour, and put them all on the plastic chair. This spot was specially reserved for the little kids to play with.

When Ya Ya and Xiao Douzi ran back, wiping their hands, Ji Chuntao gently instructed them, "Auntie will teach you how to do it, listen carefully. First, add water to the flour little by little, then stir until the batter no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. After that, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for a while. Once the dough has risen and softened, you can shape it into swallows."

"Okay, I got it!" Ya Ya nodded vigorously, rolled up the sleeves of her work clothes, and squeezed herself and Xiao Douzi on either side of the chair.

Ya Ya grabbed a small wooden spoon and added water to the basin. The little one couldn't control the pressure, and when the water fell in, flour splashed up, covering the two of them with a layer of white dust on their noses and cheeks. They looked at each other and burst into laughter.

"It seems like I added too much water." Little Bean looked at the runny batter and grabbed a small handful of flour from the cloth bag next to him.

Now the dry flour piled up at the bottom, and no matter how much you stirred it, it wouldn't dissolve, and lumps of dry flour floated on the thin batter.

"You put in too much flour!" Ya Ya frowned and added another spoonful of water.

When it got too dry, he added water; when it got too thin, he added more flour. He kept going back and forth like this, and in no time, the perfectly good flour was turned into a bowl of thick porridge.

"How come our dough has turned into porridge?" Little Bean stared at the bowl.

"We've learned how to make porridge! We're so amazing!" Ya Ya wiped her forehead with her little hand, very satisfied with her achievement.

Ji Chuntao turned her head to look over when she had a moment, and her lips twitched slightly when she saw the bowl of messy batter.

She went over and slowly added a little dry powder at a time, kneading it until it was the right consistency. Then she put the bowl back on the chair and said, "This is just right. You two knead it for a while longer. Once it's smooth, cover it with a cloth and let it rest. You can start making little swallows soon."

The group around the table had reached the final stage of the process, with neat rows of shaped swallows arranged in a row.

Ji Chuntao took the soaked red dates, cut off half of one, and pressed it on both sides of the swallow's head to serve as eyes. For the smaller ones, she took a single broken date and embedded it in the tip of the swallow.

After the eyes were painted on, the originally plain swallows became lifelike. A large area was densely covered with them on the round table, and a rough estimate suggested there were at least three hundred of them.

After all the dough balls were shaped and decorated, the group used fresh willow branches that had been cleaned earlier to gently tie the tails of the dough balls to the branches and string them together.

Just wait to steam it thoroughly and let it cool.

Ya Ya and Xiao Douzi rolled up their sleeves and buried their little hands in the ceramic basin, kneading the dough vigorously.

Grandpa Li walked over carrying Xiao Shuanzi in his arms. Xiao Shuanzi clung to his grandfather's shoulder and immediately saw Ya Ya and Xiao Douzi busy at work. He started babbling and trying to get down on the ground.

After landing, the three children bounced over to each other. Ya Ya moved aside a little so that he could squeeze to the side. The three children buried their little hands in the dough, pushing and shoving each other, making quite a scene.

After kneading the dough until it no longer sticks to the edge of the bowl, as Aunt Chuntao had said, Ya Ya picked up a cloth and covered the small bowl with it. "You two watch carefully for a while and learn diligently. When our dough has risen, we'll make pretty little swallows ourselves."

"Okay!" Little Bean and Little Shuanzi obediently stood by the table and looked up after receiving the order.

Ji Chuntao's lips curved slightly as she slowly explained the intricacies of making dough swallows by pinching them onto willow branches: "When pinching them, the dough pieces should be of uniform size, slightly bulging in the middle, and gradually tapering to a point at both ends. Don't tear the dough, and don't press the dates in too deeply..."

The three children listened attentively, occasionally reaching out to imitate the adults' kneading motions of dough.

Grandma Liu stood guard by the stove.

The wheat kernels, soaked overnight, were drained of water and plump and round. Da Niu poured the wheat kernels into a stone mortar and gently sat down to pound them.

No need to crush it into powder, just pound it to crack the outer skin and let the soft rice core inside see through. Next to it, there are steamed almonds, which are moist, white and plump.

"Grandma Liu, is this pounding enough?" Da Niu put down the mortar.

"That's enough, you young folks are really strong." Grandma Liu patted Da Niu's shoulder with a smile, "Go and rest for a while."

Da Niu waved his hand, "I'm not tired, I'm full of energy!"

As she spoke, she got up, poured the pounded wheat kernels into the pot, and added an appropriate amount of well water as Grandma Liu had instructed.

The firewood under the stove is pressed very lightly; if burned too fiercely with an open flame, it will easily burn at the bottom, so it must be simmered slowly over a low flame.