The meat processing plant only had pork and beef. They had slaughtered several pigs, and there was plenty of pork for everyone to choose from. Only one cow was slaughtered, and Yun Qiao wanted to buy some beef brisket, but it was just the beginning, and the beef brisket with more tendons and less meat was almost all picked up. Yun Qiao could only pick some meat close to the beef brisket, which had some tendons on it, and could barely be considered beef brisket. He went home and stewed it in a casserole with canned tomatoes and potatoes. It was just as delicious.

After buying a pound of beef, Yun Qiao also bought some pork belly and front leg meat.

The pork belly is stewed in braised pork, the front leg meat is tender, and it is chopped into stuffing, which is delicious whether it is used to make dumplings or meatballs.

After buying the meat, the two struggled to squeeze out of the meat stall and went to the nearby chicken stall to buy a small rooster and a fish. The chicken and fish vendors were busy and didn't help with the butchering. The fish vendor only gave a hemp rope to tie through the fish's mouth for easy handling. The chicken vendor, however, was more considerate, securely tying the rooster's legs and wings with rope to prevent it from escaping. The market was crowded, and if a rooster escaped, while it wouldn't fly high, it would still be incredibly fast, making it difficult to catch.

After buying these, the two of them had too much stuff in their hands to carry, so they put the chicken, fish and meat back into the car first.

He Tingjun had laid two sacks in the trunk in advance and prepared a large basin. He put the meat in the basin to prevent blood from flowing onto the car and dirtying it.

Afterwards, the two of them went to the market twice more and bought everything they could buy on their food allowance: rice, flour, grain, oil, tofu, vermicelli, soybeans, peanuts...

Yun Qiao also spent a fortune on a bunch of tender green chives, grown in a greenhouse. A pound of chives cost as much as meat. It was a bit pricey, but he had to eat them. If he didn't make some chive and egg dumplings for Chinese New Year, he'd feel like something was missing.

This trip was a fruitful one.

It was noon when he got home. He Tingjun unloaded his things at home and went to the logistics department to return the car.

Yun Qiao glanced at the wall clock. It was ten minutes before twelve and it was too late to stew the meat. Yun Qiao cut some pork belly, cut the tofu into triangular pieces and fried them, then put the cabbage and vermicelli in to stew together.

Some rice was placed under the small pot on the stove to make rice porridge. A steamer was placed on top to steam three steamed buns, one for Yun Qiao and two for He Tingjun.

In this way, the dishes are out of the pot, the steamed buns are steamed, and the rice porridge is cooked. When He Tingjun returns the car, it is time to eat.

After dinner, taking advantage of the half day left on his leave, He Tingjun killed the chicken and fish, cleaned out the internal organs, and stuffed the edible ones into the chickens' stomachs. He tied them all with ropes and hung them under the eaves to freeze. When it was time to eat, he took them off and brought them into the house to thaw.

On a minus thirty degree day, the meat will not go bad even if it is hung like this for half a month.

He also took a broom and swept down all the cobwebs in the house. He cleaned the house inside and out and was busy all afternoon.

Of course, Yun Qiao was not idle either. She cut the pork belly and beef and started stewing them in two pots on the stove at the same time. She cut the pork belly into pieces and stewed it into braised pork, and stewed the beef with canned tomatoes into tomato sirloin. After stewing, she put the stew into a bowl and put it in the cupboard. She would add side dishes when eating. The dishes could be served in five minutes. It was simple and economical.

On the 28th, He Tingjun went back to work, and Yun Qiao cut the chicken leg meat into two at home, saving half for making dumplings on New Year's Eve, and chopping the other half into meat filling, stuffing it into the sliced lotus root, and frying lotus root cakes.

While the oil is hot in the pan, coat the fish with batter, fry it until cooked, and set it aside to braise during the Chinese New Year.

Yuan Jiahui, who lived next door, fried some meatballs and sent a plate to Yun Qiao. Yun Qiao picked up a few freshly fried lotus root cakes for her to take away.

Yuan Jiahui felt very embarrassed after exchanging the vegetarian carrot meatballs for Yun Qiao's lotus root sandwich. She went home and asked her son Qi Weiguo to send two large pieces of peanut and sesame candies, saying that they were sent by a relative from the spring and they were not available here, so she gave two pieces to Yun Qiao so that she could have a taste.

In a blink of an eye, it was New Year's Eve. After lunch, Yun Qiao made some paste and asked He Tingjun to paste the Spring Festival couplets.

Qin Zheng and He Tingjun were both lucky this year. Their shifts were staggered with New Year's Eve. Before mid-afternoon, Yun Qiao had already asked He Tingjun to go to Qin Zheng's house and call him over to celebrate the New Year together.

Qin Zheng didn't come empty-handed when he came, he brought a leg of lamb.

Seeing the lamb legs, Yun Qiao's eyes showed a look of surprise: "Brother, where did you get the lamb legs? We went to buy them a few days ago and didn't see any lamb for sale."

Qin Zheng smiled and said, "The deputy commander of our regiment raised sheep at home. They killed some sheep for the New Year and couldn't eat them all, so they bartered them. I didn't have anything to trade with him, so I bought a leg of lamb from him at the market price."

"Is it Deputy Commander Li Jiang who lives in No. 8 Hutong?" Yun Qiao asked. "I remember his family lived at the very back of No. 8 Hutong. He had a sheep pen next to the outer wall and kept two sheep in it."

Qin Zheng nodded: "It's him."

Yun Qiao smiled and said, "It really is his family. I only knew that they slaughtered a sheep yesterday. I didn't know they had to sell out the leftovers. Otherwise, I would have bought a pound and made some mutton dumplings with onions and carrots, which would have been delicious."

Qin Zheng handed the lamb leg to Yun Qiao and said, "Cut some meat from the leg to make dumplings. Lamb leg meat is perfect for making dumplings."

"Hey." Yun Qiao took it and said with a smile, "Then let's add another mutton dumpling today. We have a lot of people, so we can make more and freeze them outside. Brother, when you leave, take some home. It's cold now, so hang them on the beams outside and they won't go bad for half a month. If you don't want to eat in the cafeteria, just cook some dumplings at home."

"Hey." Qin Zheng said with a smile: "You knead the dough, and I'll chop the mutton stuffing."

Yun Qiao kneaded the dough and Qin Zheng chopped the mutton filling.

He Tingjun is a good cook. He has prepared the vegetarian three-fresh filling and is preparing the pork filling. Qin Zheng can't cook, so Yun Qiao took over the task of preparing the mutton filling.

She cut the onions and carrots, put them in a bowl with the lamb, and added salt and pepper, chopped green onions and garlic, and peppercorn water.

After stirring vigorously, Yun Qiao went to the edge of the basin and wanted to smell the stuffing to see if it had enough salt.

She has a pretty good nose and can tell whether the stuffing is salty just by smelling it.

Unexpectedly, this time, as soon as she got close to the basin, she was overwhelmed by the strong smell of mutton and almost vomited.