Chapter 30: Rich pork bone soup, stir-fried pork intestines, pork, lard...
Zhou Ye breathed a sigh of relief and continued to work. He answered whatever Lin Shu asked and no longer dared to ignore her.
Lin Shu squatted, then stood, wandering around him until she heard Lin Dashan's voice from the other side of the courtyard. Not long after, He Guixiang called out, "Aye, Ashu, come back for dinner—"
The vegetable patch was right behind the house, and anyone talking a little louder could be heard clearly, not to mention that He Guixiang was shouting at the top of her lungs.
Zhou Ye picked up the shovel, took a light step with his long legs, and then kicked out of the large pit, which was not shallow at all.
Lin Shu took a look and exclaimed, "Brother Aye, you're amazing! It hasn't been that long, and you've already dug such a huge hole!"
Although it's deep in the middle and shallow on the sides, the deepest part is already almost a meter deep. At this rate, the fish pond will be dug out in another full day tomorrow!
Zhou Ye said: "After dinner, I will dig for a while."
Lin Shu quickly said, "No, no, you should have a good night's rest. Once you've rested enough and are fully refreshed, you'll be almost done digging by tomorrow."
Zhou Ye glanced at her.
Lin Shu: ? ?
"You still have to haul sand and gravel from the river. Digging the pit is nothing. If you want to fill the entire pit with sand and gravel, you'll have to go back and forth many times. You also have to plant grass and flowers, so all that has to be taken into account."
Lin Shu felt a little guilty. "...There's no need to be so anxious. The fish pond was dug to raise fish, to improve the lives of you and Dad, the two pillars of the family. If I exhaust myself physically and mentally over this pond, wouldn't that be putting the priorities right?"
Zhou Ye looked at her and hummed, "I'll listen to you. I won't do it tonight."
When the two men finished work and returned to the yard, the smell of stir-fried pork intestines had already filled the yard, even covering up the aroma of the pork bone stew.
Lin Dashan moved the dining table in the main room to the courtyard, and a sumptuous meal was already placed on the table.
A large earthenware pot of pork bone and bamboo shoot soup, the soup was rich and juicy with a layer of lard floating on top.
Slippery meat is made by coating the lean pork with batter and sliding it directly into the soup after the bone soup is cooked.
Long pieces of wild onions are added to the stir-fried pork intestines. The wild onions are stir-fried until crispy and fragrant, and then mixed with the pork intestines. Hot pepper flowers are sprinkled on top, adding a pink embellishment.
A plate of tender green vegetables was stir-fried, and it was obvious that they were fried with freshly refined lard.
A small bowl of lard residue is the essence extracted from the fat after the oil is refined. It is crystal clear and will whet your appetite.
After soaking the dried bamboo shoots, cut them into small pieces and stir-fry them with the pork belly that has been fried to golden brown edges to make a dish of stir-fried pork with dried bamboo shoots.
The piece of Guanyin tofu that Lin Shu had cut out in advance was also cut into pieces by He Guixiang and mixed with simple seasonings.
"Mother, it's New Year's Day today!" Lin Dashan said with a smile.
On weekdays, I don’t eat meat for dinner, and I even eat very little rice, just a little porridge and pickles to fill my stomach. This table of food is really rich!
Lin Xiaopu was already drooling with greed, and shouted to Lin Shu and Zhou Ye, "Sister, Brother Ye, come here quickly!"
Before returning, the two men had washed their hands with the mountain spring water behind the house, put down their things and sat down.
He Guixiang made dry rice again for this meal. She even grabbed two more handfuls of rice when steaming it. The rice in Lin Dashan and Zhou Ye's bowls was so full that it was sticking out.
As soon as Lin Dashan, the head of the family, started eating, everyone else immediately followed suit and couldn't stop eating.
The wild boar meat is chewy, the stir-fried pork intestines are spicy and crispy, the stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots is fresh and refreshing, and the lard scraps are a delicious snack that gets better with each chew. A chopstick of greens and a spoonful of Guanyin tofu are refreshing and refreshing. Finally, a bowl of rich and delicious pork bone soup is the perfect finishing touch.
Tsk, how comfortable!
After the family finished eating several dishes, they shared their chopsticks and drank the pork bone soup clean.
Zhou Ye was still not satisfied after eating because he had filled his stomach with the big bowl of Guanyin tofu in front of him. So when he had dinner now, he was not as hungry as before and just swallowed the food without tasting anything. He rarely felt a sense of satisfaction.
He could eat ten more bowls of rice, just the pork intestines soup and pork bone soup would be enough.
Thinking of the big bowl of "snacks" he had eaten, Zhou Ye secretly glanced at Lin Shu.
Lin Shu now has a very small appetite and feels full after eating only half a bowl of rice, so she feels particularly satisfied every day.
After dinner, Lin Shu and Lin Xiaopu helped He Guixiang clean up the dishes and bowls on the table. Zhou Ye put away the shampoo that Lin Shu left for him, intending to use it tomorrow.
Seeing this, Lin Shu asked him why he didn't use it.
Zhou Ye explained: "It's too late today. My hair won't dry for a long time after I wash it."
Lin Shu tilted her head and asked, "Xiao Pu said you like to be clean. Today you killed pigs and sold pork, and you also helped dig the fish pond all afternoon. If you don't wash, will you feel uncomfortable all over?"
Zhou Ye: "Leave your hair for tomorrow morning. I'll go take a bath in the river later."
Lin Shu thought of something and jokingly said, "Do you want me to keep watch for you? What if some girl accidentally passes by here and takes a look at you?"
Zhou Ye looked speechless, and after a while he replied, "No girl would run to the river after dark."
Lin Shu curled her lips slightly, deliberately contradicting him, "Who said there isn't? When I'm in a bad mood, I like to run to the river."
This was mostly a joke, but Zhou Ye frowned and said solemnly, "Don't go to the river alone. If you want to go, ask someone to go with you. It's best if they can swim."
Lin Shu understood his good intentions and explained, "The river flowing through Tianshui Village is not deep."
Zhou Ye said in a deep voice: "People can easily drown in shallow water. There are many people on the river bank during the day. You can go there during the day, but don't go after dark."
Lin Shu nodded and stopped teasing him. Zhou Ye's expression was not very good at the moment, as if he was remembering something bad from the past.
Zhou Ye, who had been busy all day, became particularly silent at this time. He went back to his room to get a bag.
The bundle was covered with a piece of gray old cloth, which tightly wrapped the contents inside, leaving nothing behind. However, Lin Shu, who had a keen sense of smell, could smell a hint of blood.
Her expression remained unchanged as she calmly asked, "Brother Aye, what is that in your hand?"
"The clothes I wore when I went deep into the mountains two days ago are very dirty. I went to the river to soak them overnight so they can be washed."
After saying this, Zhou Ye picked up his bag and went straight to the river alone.
Lin Shu looked at his departing back, lost in thought.
"Mother, does Brother A Ye always change into clean clothes when he comes back from the mountains?" She realized belatedly that Zhou Ye wore different clothes when he went into the mountains and when he came out.
He Guixiang didn't think there was anything wrong with it and explained, "Yes, your brother Aye likes to be clean. Every time he goes deep into the mountains, he always brings a clean piece of clothing with him and changes into it when he comes out of the mountains."
Lin Shu hesitated for a moment before asking, "Mother, there must be a lot of wild animals in the deep mountains. Has Brother Ye never encountered any?"
He Guixiang couldn't help but sigh when she heard this, "Of course there is, otherwise how could those villagers go to the mountains and never come back? But every time your father and I asked Ah Ye, he was vague about it. He didn't want to say, and your father and I didn't ask too much. But we guess Ah Ye must have a way to avoid wild animals, otherwise he wouldn't come back safely every time. But we can't just let Ah Ye do whatever he wants just because he has this ability. The less we can go to the mountains, the better. It's better for me to farm peacefully and make me feel at ease."
Lin Shu fell silent after hearing this.
She thought of herself struggling to survive in the apocalypse.
There is no way to avoid the beast. It will probably be a fight to the death.
Zhou Ye carried the bag and did not go to the river. Instead, he went into the back mountain under the moonlight and starlight. He found a place sheltered from the wind, dug a hole, gathered a pile of firewood, lit it, and threw the old clothes in the bag into the fire.
The light grey coarse linen was stained with a large pool of blood, looking horrifying, as if someone had simply sprayed a large basin of blood onto it. The flames quickly engulfed the cloth, consuming the blood stains as well.
Zhou Ye looked at the crackling flames quietly. After making sure that the clothes were burned to ashes, he extinguished the flames and buried everything with soil.
This time he was unlucky in the mountains and encountered a pack of jackals. What a shame for his clothes...
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