Braised pork belly

Following Wang Shuitao's suggestion, two products were eventually produced.

One type is rainbow candy. It comes in a wooden box with three layers, each layer having two rows and five columns. The box contains a total of thirty candies, weighing about half a pound. They are all plain, without any added orange or grape flavors.

After discussion, the rainbow carved on the wooden box was also painted with the corresponding seven colors.

The other wooden box features a seven-colored flower with a cyan center and five petals in red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple. The leaves and branches below are green.

The branches and leaves are also carved in a very simple way: two vertical lines form the branches, and four curved lines form a leaf on each side.

Wang Shuitao recognized the finished product immediately. It was exactly the drawing method taught to kindergarten children. It was indeed a classic, which is why it has been passed down for decades.

There are five layers in total. The flowers have been changed to solid colors, and each layer only has one flower. The five layers together have a total of five colors.

Although the big holidays we've encountered recently are May Day and the start of summer in the 24 solar terms, there's no tradition of giving gifts in this area.

But Director Sun still resolutely placed the newly produced candy gift boxes at the supply and marketing cooperative.

After being urged, Wangjiazhuang handed over more than 400 wooden boxes, most of which were provided by the old carpenter, who already had stock at home and whose skills were indeed more refined than those of the apprentices.

One hundred and fifty boxes of each of the two candy gift boxes were put on the shelves of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Unexpectedly, more than a hundred boxes were sold on the first day, with the two styles basically sharing the market equally.

In fact, most of the purchases were made by sales clerks who knew what was inside, and some were also made by their relatives and family members after being introduced by the sales clerks.

Such sales results greatly surprised Factory Manager Sun, after all, even the experienced sales staff were pleased.

We've decided not to wait until the Lunar New Year; we'll produce the remaining 1,500 boxes during the Dragon Boat Festival.

He planned to take the remaining hundred or so candy gift boxes to the city to show the leaders, so they would know how diligently he, Old Sun, managed the candy factory in the county town in fulfilling the tasks assigned by the state.

You can sell some of the hundred-plus yuan at the supply and marketing cooperative in the city.

Most importantly, the leaders can check the results during the Dragon Boat Festival.

So Director Sun hurriedly asked Master Zhang to take him to the city, but only one hundred candy gift boxes remained.

The factory's new product achieved great success, and all the employees were overjoyed. Moreover, after Director Sun returned, the canteen added an extra meat dish that day.

It's braised pork that's rich in flavor and tender.

Pure meat dishes!

The braised pork belly is made with three layers of fat and lean meat, which Li Yuanhong obtained by exchanging over sixty boxes of sugar that he had painstakingly extracted from the meat processing plant.

Of course, there's still a significant price difference to pay, but everyone's happy enough to be able to get a chance to buy meat ahead of other factories in the queue.

A large piece of pork, with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, was carried by Li Yuanhong and the canteen chef around the entire sugar factory.

Make sure every worker sees it and knows they can buy braised pork tonight.

Wang Shuitao has a common problem among most young people in the 21st century: she doesn't like fatty foods and only likes lean ones.

If she absolutely has to eat fatty foods, then she can only accept parts of the skin that are full of collagen, such as beef tendon or pig's feet.

I only eat a couple of bites after pressure cooking it for half an hour until it's almost melted in my mouth.

It's not that I'm being pretentious, but rather that overly fatty foods can cause nausea in people who are overnourished.

But once she got here, she easily tasted the deliciousness of the rich, oily flavor.

I've successfully discovered that fatty meat can be so satisfying, especially when paired with a mouthful of finely cooked rice that the chef made today.

You can feel the satisfaction emanating from the inside out as this sugar and oil mixture enters your stomach.

Today's chef didn't waste such good ingredients.

First, the pork belly was cut into large chunks, about the size of half a woman's palm.

Then, they used the factory's readily available white sugar to caramelize it, added the meat and stir-fried it until it was successfully coated with a brownish-red color, and then added boiling water.

Next, cover the pot with an oversized round lid made of wooden planks, and then place several heavy stones on top to ensure that the stewed meat is tender but not falling apart.

With one bite, the oil and broth mix together and burst into your mouth; the only downside is that it's hot.

All the employees walked out of the cafeteria today chatting and laughing, their lips glistening with an enticing sheen of oil.

It's as shiny as if you've applied lip gloss.

Those workers who didn't live in the dormitory and needed to go home packed their own portions into lunchboxes to take back with them.

No one stayed in the cafeteria to eat; it was obvious they wanted to take the food home for their families to enjoy, as such an opportunity was rare.

Perhaps the satisfying carbohydrates brought on the drowsiness, because Wang Shuitao felt that everyone seemed to have turned off the lights earlier tonight.

But she didn't sleep well in the latter half of the night, feeling like there were noises around her.

It was like falling into a nightmare in a state between sleep and wakefulness, just like every lunch break I spent sleeping on my desk during my high school years.

A menacing black shadow lunged at her with a scream, but the scream was faint and weak, as if it came from some extremely distant place.

With a dull thud, Wang Shuitao stomped her foot on the annoying shadows, only to miss and find herself falling towards the cliff, where all below was darkness.

After trying her best to convince herself that she was dreaming, Wang Shuitao woke up.

When she discovered the aluminum lunchbox had fallen to the ground, her heart skipped a beat; the lack of sleep exacerbated her heart discomfort.

But I didn't have time to pay attention. I just tiptoed out of bed, skipped putting on my shoes, and tried to make as little noise as possible as possible, and slowly moved to the door.

The current door is made of several pieces of wood nailed together, and there is no peephole to see outside.

Wang Shuitao involuntarily held her breath, as if she thought even her exhalation was too loud.

She slowly turned her head at a small angle, but still couldn't find a gap to observe the outside.

I was frowning, wondering whether I should sneak open the door a crack to check what was happening outside. I felt so unsafe not knowing anything right now.

However, it is very likely that someone is secretly standing outside, waiting for them to come to them.

Wang Shuitao finally managed to control her instinctive emotional reaction when faced with danger.

She stood there for a long time, almost thinking it was about to dawn, but outside the window it was still dark, still deep into the night.

Just then, a scream suddenly came from outside.

"Thief! Thief! A thief has come!"

Someone was shouting. Wang Shuitao could feel that there was a lot of noise outside, with many people walking and running.

She also heard many familiar voices, so she opened the door and went out.

There was a commotion outside, and some people were cursing and swearing, saying that they had been injured.

He discovered the thief inside the room and happened to get up in the middle of the night to go to a public restroom.

Several people were injured, including Meng Songying.

He lives alone, but his salary is so high that it's not surprising he's being targeted.

When Wang Shuitao saw this and walked over, she found everyone gathered together, each person making a louder and louder noise.

It turned out that a few people who had fought with the thieves were trying to recreate the appearance of those people, but none of them could express it clearly.

Then they all started complaining, saying that in such a dark night, who could see what the thief looked like?

Wang Shuitao was not surprised. The current situation is likely due to a lack of vitamin A and malnutrition caused by insufficient meat consumption over a long period of time. Most of them suffer from night blindness.

It takes a lot of courage to fight a thief in the dark.

As she drew closer, she noticed a distinct red mark on Meng Songying's fair face, from which tiny drops of blood were still seeping.

Wang Shuitao frowned. For some reason, she always felt a sense of fear towards open wounds.

Fortunately, Meng's facial wound wasn't that serious, and since they were already quite familiar with each other, she still braved the goosebumps on her body and prepared to go over and check on her.

Having known each other for several months, this was the first time Meng Songying had appeared in public so disheveled, and she was recounting her story very seriously—

The thief's arms and legs were injured by the chair in the room; there must be redness and bruising.

The injuries are on the left hand and left leg. You can check if anyone in the vicinity has similar injuries.

Seeing that he was silent, Wang Shuitao slowly walked through the crowd and stepped forward. Unexpectedly, Meng Songying subconsciously flinched away.

She froze, staring at Meng Songying, who had dodged but then realized something was wrong and took two steps forward.

Meng Gong just described the thief as if he had used up his vocabulary, now opening his mouth and then closing it, opening his mouth and then closing it again.

The crowd was dense, and he had no regard for his appearance, so he really didn't know what to say.

The security department arrived late at that moment.