Meat
After the whole family left, Xu Nian was the only one left. She was very sleepy after dinner and yawned one after another. She didn't dare to rest and delay her work. She touched some cold water and put it under her eyelids, then went to her uncle's house on the front street.
When he arrived at the door, he didn't even knock because he had a guilty conscience. The door was closed anyway. With a creaking sound of the wooden door, Xu Nian closed the door and ran to his grandparents' room.
The old couple had just finished their meal and were sitting down to rest after cleaning up. Grandma Xu was holding the three rolls of wool yarn sent by her little daughter this month and was discussing with her husband how to knit.
As a result, the door curtain was lifted, revealing a fair little face, which smiled instantly. Apart from anything else, the grandfather and grandson disliked each other yesterday, and when they left, it seemed that they would never have any contact with each other again. Who would have thought that they would come back in less than a day.
She liked her fair and well-behaved granddaughter, so she walked over with a smile and pulled her in. "It's just right that Nian Nian is here. Your aunt mailed me some wool, but I don't know what to do with it. Come and take a look." She didn't make anyone feel embarrassed at all.
Xu Niangang saw it immediately. Speaking of sweaters, it was rare for them to find one, not to mention knowing how to knit one. However, it was the right person to ask her. In her later life, she had carefully looked for someone who had learned how to make one. Her main purpose was to return the favor and knit it for her adoptive parents to show her filial piety.
Xu Nian took Grandma Xu's arm and went over to pick it up and took a look. It felt soft and fluffy. She smiled and said, "Grandma, my aunt is so kind. She always thinks about home. I learned this from my friends in the county. I will teach you when the time comes."
After she finished speaking, she glanced at her grandfather and was about to get down to business, but her grandfather quickly picked up the conversation, "Your sister-in-law is the right person. When a girl gets married and has the ability, she should help the family more. She can't just take money from the family. You should learn more."
Listen, this is definitely a matter of yin and yang. She ate two extra cookies yesterday, but the key point is that she didn't take them from him. Her grandmother gave them to her. The old man would stare at her. Xu Nian simply stopped pretending and played the game directly. "Grandpa, you are so narrow-minded. Do you still remember that I ate two extra cookies yesterday?"
Could Xu Xiuman admit this? He absolutely couldn't. Seeing his wife laughing silently beside him, he felt embarrassed for a moment, "You are just a child. How can you talk to your elders like that?"
Xu Nian didn't care about that. After a few rounds of competition with her grandfather, she knew that the old man was just talking nonsense without any substance. "I'm much more generous than you. Today, I invite you and my grandma to come back to my house to eat meat. Do you want to come?"
Xu Xiuman has lived to this age, and due to the background of the times, he has never eaten any good food. He thinks meat is the most delicious. His eldest daughter-in-law is stingy and hasn't bought meat for a long time. To be honest, he is also greedy.
"Go, of course I should go. My son invited me, so I have to go."
Xu Nian chuckled and shook his index finger, "No, it wasn't my dad who treated me, it was me."
Xu Xiuman: "..."
Li Jinhua wanted to laugh when she heard this. She pinched her granddaughter's hand to indicate that it was almost done. If she said any more, her grandfather would be embarrassed. Xu Nian immediately stopped because she still needed her grandfather after all.
Xu Xiuman sat on a low stool. Xu Nian walked over and squatted, deliberately staring at him. When the man glared at her, she said, "Grandpa, how come you are so capable? You have so many skills. I think my brothers and sisters inherited your good genes from the previous generation."
Xu Xiuman didn't understand the direction of this. He didn't know much about genes, but he could understand it after hearing his little granddaughter's praise. Could it be that he was really old and could no longer keep up with the thinking of today's children?
"If you have something to say, say it quickly. You're praising me so much that it's scary."
Xu Nian felt that her grandmother had suffered for meeting such a straight man, so she stopped talking nonsense. "Yesterday, my eldest and second brothers and I went to the back mountain to dig traps, thinking that we could improve the food for Tietou's birthday. Who knew we would be so lucky and directly harvest two rabbits and three chickens..." Seeing the look of disbelief on her grandparents' faces, she paused before adding, "And a wild boar weighing a hundred pounds."
Li Jinhua exclaimed, "You guys are going to the mountains for the New Year? Why are you still trapping wild boars? That's too dangerous."
Xu Xiuman was concerned about another issue. "The wild boars came down the mountain unusually early this year. I need to talk to the team about it. We need to be on guard."
Xu Nian expressed his admiration when he saw that neither of the couple was thinking about eating meat.
"Grandpa, please come with me quickly. We haven't processed the pork, pheasants, and rabbits yet. Your second grandson said that you are such a great butcher that they can't do it, so they want to ask you to come out of retirement."
Lee Soo Man came back to his senses after hearing these words and felt relieved. He also felt that the second son's family had grown a lot and knew not to show off. He looked down at his little granddaughter squatting next to him, who praised him to bits when she used him, but acted so aggressively when she didn't need him. He couldn't help but wonder who this sweet-mouthed but treacherous granddaughter resembled?
Time waits for no one, so the two elders acted without hesitation. The three of them walked together to Xu Nian's house in the back street. Xu Nian yawned a few more times after completing her task. Her unsettling look earned her a blow from her grandfather's iron sand palm...
When they got home and led her grandfather to the place where the game was kept, she was sent away to boil water. Xu Nian was drowsy from the smoke while roasting by the fire, but this was just the beginning. After the water boiled, she had to remove the pig hair. Wild boar hair was longer and harder than domestic pig hair, making it particularly difficult to do. Even so, the pig was dead, so the step of slaughtering it was saved. Xu Nian couldn't bring herself to do it now. She didn't even have a strong desire to eat meat. It really looked a bit "tragic".
Li Xiuman didn't say anything to her this time. He told her, "Find a reason to call Feng Kai over."
Seeing that she was finally not needed, Xu Nian walked outside as ordered. She was so quick on her feet that she was afraid of being stopped. She only vaguely heard her grandmother say, "Feng Kai has never done this before, so he's probably afraid too."
Then I heard her grandfather reply, "Everyone has a virginity. How can a man be good if he doesn't have this much courage..."
Xu Nian looked up at the sky and the earth, silently shedding tears for her brother Kai.
She called out to people at the edge of the field, making the excuse that she didn't understand many questions while doing her homework and wanted to ask her cousin who was both good in character and academic performance. This won her a lot of praise from outsiders, but she got several glares rolled at her by her aunt. If her cousin hadn't stopped her, her aunt would probably have done something strange and made her study in the field.
On the way, no matter how her brother Kai asked that question, Xu Nian always insisted, "You'll know when you get there."
When Xu Nian got home, she relaxed instantly. She also heard a familiar voice talking to her grandfather. She was instantly delighted because there was another labor force.
Pulling her brother Kai, she ran inside following the sound, "Third brother, my dear brother, you're back. Didn't you say you wouldn't be back this week?"
Xu Fengkai was so heavy that he was willing to let Xu Nian pull him, otherwise she wouldn't be able to pull him. But the strange thing was that he smelled a fishy smell as soon as he entered the yard, and his eyes widened when he was pulled to the destination.
My uncle's family must have made a fortune, so they even gave up their own money to buy a pig.
When Xu Fengcheng heard his sister's question, he felt that he shouldn't have come today. He wanted to take a break, but who knew that he would be assigned a lot of things to do as soon as he got home, and now he was still holding pig hair in his hand.
He was not at all excited about his sister's arrival, but he welcomed his cousin's arrival very much. They believed that they should suffer together, and the key point was that his younger brother was stronger than him.
The three men finally relieved Xu Nian and her grandmother. Li Jinhua took Xu Nian to continue boiling water. She was afraid that the children might not be able to eat pork if they left early in the afternoon, so she asked her grandchildren for their opinions and plucked a chicken and took it out.
Xu Nian was much more friendly to the chickens. She wanted to pick small ones because there were more people. She suggested big ones because there were more people. She was mainly thinking about Xu Hongqi who ate simple meals every day. She wanted to bring some for him.
The amount of oil at home is limited. Maybe because her grandmother was at her daughter-in-law's house, she didn't want to use too much, so she asked her husband to cut some wild boar fat and boil the oil in the pot. When it was almost done, she started to stir-fry the chopped chicken pieces in the pot. Today the chicken was braised.
Xu Nian asked her grandmother to add more ginger and chili peppers, thinking that it would make the food more flavorful. Then she ran to the cellar and brought up a bag of potatoes. She wanted a lot of potatoes so that they would be soaked in the aroma of chicken. It would be so fragrant, delicious and tempting to eat.
The five people in the family worked non-stop for the whole morning and finally finished cooking. Li Jinhua also prepared the dishes. The main thing was that the dishes were tasty when fried, so they had to be prepared in advance to let the smell dissipate. Xu Nian was sitting by the stove, his mouth full of fragrance, and he ate several pieces while trying the salty and sweet flavors.
When you are busy, you can't forget the time. Lu Mei deliberately returned home early today because she was afraid that she would be too busy. Especially after Xu Nian called Xu Fengkai away, she felt panicked. If they hunted a little, no one would think much of it. But if they hunted a big one, what would happen if they were discovered? The main reason is that they feel guilty.
When she arrived at the door, she could smell the faint smell of meat. It was cold so the smell did not dissipate quickly. She went to the backyard first and saw that it was the grandfather and his two grandchildren. After looking carefully, she found that the one cleaning the floor with his head covered was the youngest son, and her father-in-law was holding a knife in his hand.
She calmed down and greeted her father-in-law with a smile, "Dad, you've worked hard today. I'll make dinner later. Eat more."
Li Xiuman looked up at his daughter-in-law after hearing the voice and waved to her, "Go to the kitchen and help your mother. She is in the kitchen."
Lu Mei said "eh", praised her nephew, and urged her youngest to do more before leaving.
Xu Fengcheng looked at her mother's back with a hopeless look, thinking that he was the big grudge that his sister always talked about.
Lu Mei didn't care what her son was thinking. She greeted him and went to the kitchen. Seeing Xu Nian nodding at the stove, she felt a little distressed. However, she still greeted her mother-in-law with a smile and said to her mother-in-law, "Mom, you've worked hard today."
Li Jinhua has a good temper and is in good health. Besides, doing some work for her son's family is nothing. "It's not hard work at all. I get meat to eat."
Xu Nian rubbed her eyes when she heard her mother's voice, and called out "Mom" in a soft voice, and then the next sentence was "The meat is so delicious."
When she spoke, both the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law laughed. Lv Mei glanced at the meat bubbling in the pot and said, "Your grandmother's cooking skills are amazing, so of course it's delicious."
I made two dishes for lunch. One was pheasant stewed with potatoes and some dried beans from the summer sun. The other was wild boar meat with vermicelli and cabbage stir-fried. Both were quite generous.
Li Jinhua glanced at her wife's expression, not feeling sorry for her nor blaming her for acting on her own initiative. Her smile became more genuine, "Second brother, the wife's food is almost ready. Please serve some out. We won't eat here anymore. Otherwise, if someone sees us, they might think too much."
When Lu Mei saw that her mother-in-law didn't cook, she knew that this was to save food for her. If everyone in the old family came, it would cost a lot of food. She felt that her mother-in-law was experienced and knew how to behave.
But she wasn't stingy. She immediately took out a clay pot and divided nearly half of each item into two portions. She smiled and said, "Mom is really cautious. I didn't think of that. I was just happy and wanted to have fun."
When they were done, the three men at the back came out. Li Xiuman said to his daughter-in-law, "Everything is ready. The chickens and rabbits have been skinned. It's up to you to decide how to deal with the rest."
Lu Mei thanked him profusely and went to the backyard to pick up a pork leg. "Dad, I'll have Feng Jian's dad secretly bring it to you tonight."
Then he turned to his mother-in-law and said, "I heard my aunt say last time that there are more aquatic products over there and fewer land animals. I'll send them some smoked chickens and rabbits so they can try them."
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