By the end of the sixth lunar month, Qingya and her two siblings had already been on summer vacation. Qingya and Yanan had already graduated from high school, and the brothers Ruirui and Feifei had both been admitted to the county high school. Ruirui had even placed first in the junior high school graduation exam, earning a thirty-yuan reward from both the commune and the county. Qingya and Feifei were incredibly envious.

After graduating from high school, Qingya and Yanan followed their family to work in the village. There were not many places recruiting workers in the county town now, and Qingya was waiting for Wang Weiguo and his family to come back in early July of the lunar calendar.

Why did Qingya wait for Wang Weiguo and the others? Because after Wang Weiguo came back this time, he planned to take Qingya back with him when he returned to the army. Their army had organized a female soldier in recent years, and Wang Weiguo recommended Qingya. As long as Qingya passed the assessment, she could stay in the army and serve.

This time, Wang Weiguo and his family took leave to come back and stay for about five or six days because Zhiqian found a marriage partner. Zhiqian's partner is a girl from their army's art troupe, also a southern girl, but not from Nanhu Province.

The two had already applied for marriage approval in the army and obtained a marriage certificate there. Wang Weiguo and his wife discussed with their grandparents and planned to hold a wedding banquet in Wangjia Village.

After returning to the village this time, the grandparents did not plan to go to the army with Wang Weiguo and his wife. The twins, a boy and a girl, are nine years old this year and do not need to be looked after. Yang Wanru can handle it alone.

Wang Weixi knew what Wang Weiguo's family was planning, so he applied for annual leave from the army in advance. With half a month's vacation, he could stay at home for about ten days. This was the first time their family had returned since Yang Xia went to join the army.

Yang Xia could stay at home for a while, but it would not be safe for her to take her two sons with her when she returned to the army, so Yang Xia had to return to the army with Wang Weixi. Wang Weixi's family came back two days earlier than Wang Weiguo and his family.

Unfortunately, Zhiwen and Sitong are in the army and cannot come back. They plan to come back at the end of this year. They both have partners and plan to bring them back to meet their families at the end of the year. If there is no objection, they will get married.

On the sixth day of the seventh lunar month, Wang Weiguo and his family returned to Liujia Village. The next day, Liu's mother and the three siblings, Qingya and Lin Jin, took the two sisters, An'an and Lele, and the two brothers, Lin Jin, to Wangjia Village for a visit. The two sisters each received a stack of red envelopes. The two brothers also received a red envelope each, given to them by their grandparents on behalf of the Wang family.

On the eighth day of the seventh lunar month, Zhiqian and his wife were married in Wangjia Village. Liu's mother had gone to Wangjia Village yesterday afternoon to help out, and she was responsible for today's banquet. Xuemei had also taken two days off in advance, planning to make something for Qingya at home tomorrow and bring it to the army. The whole family finished breakfast early and went to help out at the grandparents' house.

On the tenth day of July, Qingya was about to leave with Wang Weiguo's family. After Wang Weiguo came back, he asked Zhiqian to test Qingya's skills. He found that Qingya had made great progress in this aspect. Wang Weiguo was completely confident that Qingya would stay in the army this time.

Xuemei was worried Qingya wouldn't have good food in the army, so she took two pounds of meat coupons from Liu's mother, which were left over from last year's pig sale. She traded some with a colleague, and added some of her own. On the morning of the ninth day of the lunar year, she asked Han Chen to buy a total of three pounds and seven ounces of pork tenderloin, intending to make pork jerky for Qingya.

After the other people in the family went to work, Feng Ru and Lin Ren looked after the two sisters An An and Le Le, while Lin Jin followed Qing Ya and her two siblings to the mountains to chop wood and hunt. Xue Mei started to make pork jerky.

First, Xuemei cut the pork into small pieces and minced it. After the minced meat was ready, she began to season it. Xuemei saw in the book that it said to add 5 grams of salt and 50 grams of sugar to one pound of minced meat. If you like it sweet, you can add 10 grams more.

The meat in the wooden basin weighed over 3.7 jin (15.7 kg). Xuemei's small wooden spoon, which weighs about 5 grams per spoonful, added three and a half spoonfuls of salt, followed by nearly 4 liang (15.3 kg) of sugar. The recipe also mentioned a number of other seasonings, but she didn't have any at home, so Xuemei simply added a little white wine and two wooden spoonfuls of soy sauce. The recipe also said to use as little liquid seasoning as possible to prevent excess juice from leaking during grilling. Xuemei added these two liquid seasonings and also ground some pepper.

Then Xuemei mixed it with her hands, covered the wooden basin, and placed it in a cool place in the kitchen to marinate for more than an hour to make it tasty.

After lunch, Xuemei took Feifei to continue cooking, while Qingya and Ruirui processed two rabbits in the backyard, planning to eat one tonight and salt the other one and dry it over the fire at night.

After Xuemei cleaned up the things on the table in the living room, she spread a large piece of wax paper on the table, put a piece of meat filling on it, folded the wax paper over to cover it, and began to roll it flat with a rolling pin. The thickness should be about 2 to 3 mm. The book said that if it is too thick, it will not be conducive to baking. First, it will easily release water, and second, it will not be baked thoroughly.

After the pork slices are cooked, they're brushed with pre-melted honey and roasted on the wire mesh of a brazier filled with warm charcoal. The charcoal is made from the wood they use every day after burning their own fire. The honey is from Liu's father, who went to the mountains last year to get his hands swollen from bee stings. It took several days for the stings to heal.

When the pork slices are half cooked, sprinkle them with white sesame seeds and apply a layer of honey water and continue baking. When the pork slices are slightly crispy, you can remove them, let them cool, slice them and eat them.

Xuemei and Feifei had no experience in grilling meat for the first time, and half of the first slice was a little overcooked, but Feng Ru and her two children still thought it was delicious. The two brothers Lin Jin followed Xuemei and Feifei closely when they started to roll the meat slices.

The two sisters An An and Le Le watched everyone eating pork jerky, and they anxiously patted the cradle with their hands, their saliva flowing. Unfortunately, the two sisters were destined to just watch, and they could only eat rice porridge for now.

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