It was the twelfth lunar month, half a month before the Chinese New Year. Two snowfalls had already fallen from the sky. There was no work in the fields, and the children were on holiday. They gathered in groups to play in the village.
Having a fight with snowballs smaller than a fist, throwing them onto the ground, with half of your hands covered in snow and half in mud, and then getting beaten up when you get home, how happy are your days?
Chen Chunhua took out all the ten and a half kilograms of meat coupons from Lao Shi's box, and added a few that her family had saved up before, a total of about 15 kilograms, and asked Liang Shengdi to take all of them to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy meat.
A few days ago, she took Lin Shu there and made an appointment with the chef to order half a pig's hind leg. Chen Chunhua planned to make salted pig's trotters.
The chef grinned and scrambled a few times before slicing the whole pig's trotter into two large and small pieces. Liang Shengdi took the larger half back home. It must have weighed about 20 kilograms.
"The pig's feet are all bones, you can take them away!" The chef waved his hand, keeping his merits and fame to himself.
Lin Shugan tiptoed and stretched out a small hand to the master, "Uncle, this is for you."
The master chef smiled and spread out his hands, then asked in a low voice, "What do you want to give me?"
Lin Shugan raised his small hand above the master chef's fat hand, and two candies fell into the master's palm. "Here are the candies, thank you uncle."
"Hahahahaha!" The master laughed non-stop as he looked at the two candies in his hand. "See? This kid gave me candies and even thanked me!"
The staff around also laughed. An old lady even said to Lin Shu, "Why didn't you send me off? Your grandma was weighing sugar here with me just a few days ago!"
Lin Shugan hid behind Liang Shengdi somewhat embarrassedly, poking his head out and whispering, "...just two, that's all..."
The master chef was extremely proud. He held the two candies in his hands and shouted to Liang Shengdi and the others to just tell him what they wanted next time.
Liang Shengdi: Hehehe, I knew it would be helpful to bring the second one along.
***
After Chen Chunhua shaved the hair off the pig's hind legs and washed them clean, she rubbed sorghum wine all over the legs, then placed them in a long basin, poured in pre-fried coarse salt, and rubbed them back and forth until the pig skin turned red, then turned them over and rubbed the meat.
After rubbing both sides, place a large stone that has been pickled with salt on top of the pig's trotter, cover it with a cloth and place it in a corner. Every few days, just turn it over and sprinkle salt all over it. By New Year's Eve, you can cut the bacon and stir-fry it.
After the New Year, dry it in the sun for a few days, and hang it in a cool and ventilated place together with dried salted fish. It can be eaten for half a year.
In the past few years, they had little money, so they could only buy a few pounds of meat to pickle as a snack. This was the first time they had pickled a whole pig leg directly; no one in Sihe Village did that. Fortunately, Liang Shengdi rode back and forth on a tricycle, so she put the meat in the car and rode faster, avoiding too many people seeing it.
Otherwise, there will be gossip again.
Just as Chen Chunhua put the stone on top and called Liang Shengdi to push the basin to the corner together, there was a knock on the Lin family's door.
The adults were busy, so Lin Shuying ran out to open the door, followed by her brothers and sisters and a few chickens. She opened the door ajar and saw a man and a woman standing outside. She didn't recognize them; they weren't from the village.
"Who are you looking for?" Lin Shuying blinked a few times and didn't let anyone in immediately.
Lin Shu, who was following behind, stood beside her and asked, "Who are you?"
Then two little heads popped out from the side, one on the left and one on the right, tilting their heads like repeaters.
"Who are you looking for?"
"Who are you?"
“Gugugugu…”
“Chuckle…”
Zhong Hui looked at the bunch of little radish heads with a mixture of laughter and tears. The emotion that had been brewing for half a day was almost gone. Shen Qiusheng was also a little confused when he saw the group of children at the door. These were his third sister's children? So many?
"Who is it? Da Nian!" Lin Guoqing came out of the room in his slippers. There was some physical work to do in the production team today. He was sweating when he came back and wiped himself inside.
"I don't know~"
He heard the children's voices at the door, and when he went out to see, he saw Chunhua's younger brother and his wife! He opened the door and invited them in, then sent the little ones to play with the chickens in the backyard, and then went to the kitchen to call Chen Chunhua.
Chen Chunhua wiped her hands and came out. She was stunned when she saw the two of them. Zhong Hui was not surprised, but Chen Qiusheng was. In fact, she never thought that there would be a day when she could sit under the same roof and talk calmly with her brothers.
"Third sister." Zhong Hui smiled and stood up when she saw Chen Chunhua. "We are here to say goodbye to you."
When Chen Chunhua heard this, she also smiled and asked, "Which one did you get into?"
"The Engineering College in Jiang Province."
"That's amazing! I remember it was a key university!"
Zhong Hui nodded, not caring how a rural woman like Chen Chunhua could immediately know whether it was a key university or not. Her eyes sparkled.
"You can register in the spring of next year. Qiu Sheng will go with me then."
Chen Chunhua looked at Chen Qiusheng, scanned him up and down, and her cheeks blushed slightly in front of this brother she was not very familiar with. After all, he was going to be a son-in-law. His wife was admitted to a key university, and he would probably be a gigolo in the future.
"You, why are you looking at me..." He still had some shame.
Chen Chunhua snorted, "From now on, when you follow Zhong Hui, you have to take good care of the family, do the laundry, cook, and take care of the children. You can't be careless in any of these things, and strive to be a good husband and a good father. If you don't do your job well, there are plenty of people who will do it. I'm afraid there will be many people trying to steal your wife away!"
Shen Qiusheng's eyes suddenly widened and he looked at Zhong Hui, his eyes full of accusations.
What did he say? If he followed Zhong Hui like this, the village would lose everything. If Zhong Hui kicked him out in the future, where would he go to beg for food?
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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