Chapter 79 Snail Stew
Another half month passed peacefully, and Zhang Xiaohe brought over the jujube cakes she had made.
The jujube cake was packaged in a large glass jar. The cake itself was a pale orange color and had been cut into delicate small squares. Zhao Xuan couldn't wait to take a bite—it was sweet with a hint of sourness, very chewy, and much tastier than jujubes.
Then she thought again, "Sour jujube cake is so sour, how much sugar would I need to make it sweet and sour?" Sure enough, everyone knew before the apocalypse that eating snacks could easily make you fat.
Thinking this, Zhao Xuan picked up another one and threw it into his mouth.
But she's not afraid now. She needs to make herself strong, otherwise she won't be able to protect herself.
In return for a large jar of jujube cake from Zhang Xiaohe, Zhao Xuan gave her two jars of homemade loquat preserves.
Half a month later, Lu An and Yao Yuan brought back a muntjac and several pheasants from the hunting lodge.
Yao Yuan and Lu An regularly traveled between the village and the hunting lodge, using the lodge as a base to set traps deeper into the mountains. Their catch was neither too much nor too little, just enough for the two families to have a treat. A month they could get a few pheasants and ducks, a few bamboo rats, or one or two wild rabbits.
This is the first time we've caught a muntjac. This animal looks a bit like a deer, but it's smaller. An adult muntjac weighs around 120 pounds, but the one we caught this time was a little thinner, weighing just over 100 pounds.
When Zhao Xuan first entered the village, she had seen a muntjac once. She had seen it from afar when she went into the mountains to pick mushrooms—a small, light brown figure. As soon as it made eye contact with her, it flew away like a cannonball, so fast that even its afterimage could not be seen.
Zhao Xuan knew that muntjac meat was edible, although at that time muntjac had already been listed as a wild animal and hunting it was illegal. The people who had eaten muntjac meat were his grandfather's generation. When they were young, those old people living in the mountains ate some wild game from the mountains to fill their stomachs. Muntjac, wild boar, and bamboo rats were all very common wild game.
After the apocalypse, the wild animals that Zhao Xuan and Lu An ate most were field mice in the wasteland. At that time, they had not yet transitioned from being civilized city dwellers, and they could not even find large wild animals. Only the unusually fat field mice in the fields were something they were finally able to catch one or two after many attempts.
Field mouse meat tastes a lot like rabbit meat. Zhao Xuan also heard from the old people that muntjac meat tastes like rabbit meat. In any case, he learned from the old people that most wild game in the world tastes like rabbit meat.
Zhao Xuan was genuinely surprised when he saw the "rabbit-like" muntjac. After all, catching a wild boar was already considered extremely lucky, and he never expected to catch another large prey!
Yao Yuan rarely joked: "Didn't your family contribute two seasons of rice to the mountain god for two years? It's not unreasonable for them to send back a pig and a muntjac."
The muntjac had long since died and was now placed in the yard, ready to be gutted. Zhao Xuan was cleaning pheasants nearby. She stared at the muntjac for a while before saying to Lu An, "Lu An, don't chop up that half of the muntjac. I'm going to smoke it dry and sell it to those wealthy people by the sea!"
Upon hearing this, Yao Yuan and Lu An both stopped wielding their butcher knives and turned to look at Zhao Xuan, who had a matter-of-fact expression on his face.
Lu An asked, "Aren't you going to eat? I was saying I'd stew some for you tonight to help you recover."
"Why bother with supplements? This muntjac died before it was bled, so it'll probably have a bit of a gamey smell. We can use it to smoke it, and it'll smell nice once it's dried!"
Yao Yuan asked, "What's the story behind that wealthy man by the sea?"
Zhao Xuan replied, "Aren't there many merchants in the market at that salt field by the sea? I heard from my brother that they mainly sell local coastal goods or products from before the major epidemic. There aren't many mountain products from the north of the province, and there are many bosses with large resources there. Muntjac meat can definitely fetch a good price there." She chuckled again, "Brother Yuan, you can have any of your muntjac meat. I mean, I've decided to sell the one from my house."
Yao Yuan suddenly realized what was going on, so he stopped trying to kill the muntjac. The two families discussed it and decided to smoke the muntjac together and sell it at the saltworks market, splitting the proceeds in half.
Muntjacs only appear in the mountains and forests of northern Taiwan. While there may be wild boar, bamboo rat, or pheasant and duck meat at saltworks markets, muntjacs are extremely rare, and if you know what they're talking about, they're likely to be quite expensive.
Zhao Xuan had been preparing to sell her goods at the salt fields by the sea since spring. She collected a lot of medicinal herbs and mushrooms so that she could exchange them for medicines and seeds that they didn't have. She even made preparations for Lu Anhui's annual trip. Autumn in the province is dry and warm, and there is not much farm work, which is perfect for travel.
Lu An and Yao Yuan had gone out alone several times already, establishing a basic understanding. Although Yao Yuan appeared quiet and introverted, he was actually ruthless and vicious; without his protection, Zhang Xiaohe and her son wouldn't have survived this long. Lu An's appearance was deceptive, but he was equally insidious and cunning. The combined fighting skills of these two were no less formidable than Lao Dao's, given that Lao Dao's moral compass was far superior to theirs.
The two of them could go to the salt field by the sea without any problem, but they were very worried about the people left behind at home. Yu Laosan's incident had caused great psychological trauma to everyone.
The salt flats by the sea are a must-see.
Although Lu An didn't say anything, Zhao Xuan knew he was worried. But changing people was definitely not an option, as the dangers along the way were unknown, and bringing his family with him was definitely not a good idea.
During this time, Lu An became even more silent. When Zhao Xuan and Zhang Xiaohe smoked the mountain deer together, they would find that Lu An had done all the work. If there was really no work left, he would go chop firewood. Before winter even arrived, the firewood in the house was already almost piled up to fill two walls.
That evening, the two discussed the goods they wanted to exchange under the lamplight. Zhao Xuan thought Lu An should exchange two sows for some vegetables they didn't have. She was very thoughtful; she knew Lao Dao had introduced Lu An to many friends along the way, and these friends were a guarantee of safety. They couldn't lose contact, so they should also bring some gifts. Their most valuable items were red mushrooms and various dried medicinal herbs, so Zhao Xuan picked some out, packed them into several portions, wrote names on each portion, and asked Lu An to deliver them along the way to strengthen their relationships.
Zhao Xuan kept rambling on and on, occasionally jotting something down in her notebook. Lu An, sitting opposite her, stared at her like a block of wood. After talking to the air for a while, Zhao Xuan looked up at Lu An and waved her hand in front of his eyes: "Lu An? Lu An!"
Then everything went black before her eyes. Suddenly, Lu An jumped in front of her, squatted down, hugged her waist, and buried his face in her chest like a wronged puppy.
Zhao Xuan was shocked for a moment, then hugged his furry head. Lu An was very tall, so even though Zhao Xuan was sitting, Lu An was squatting and his head could rest on Zhao Xuan's chin.
Zhao Xuan suddenly smiled faintly.
She hugged Lu An gently, comforting him, "It's okay, it's okay... I'll take care of myself. I'm not legless. If danger comes, I'll run away. At worst, we can abandon this house. I'll hide in the hunting lodge and wait for you to come back..."
Lu An gradually calmed down. He raised his head, and Zhao Xuan looked into his beautiful eyes, then leaned down and kissed him.
Lu An knew Zhao Xuan was very resilient. Back in the camp, when he was beaten so badly he couldn't get out of bed, it was Zhao Xuan who went out to gather herbs to feed him. There was no reason why, after struggling in this apocalypse for several more years, Zhao Xuan wouldn't be able to survive on her own. But strangely, in those precarious times, they didn't think much; their only thought each day was to fill their stomachs and find a place to shelter from the rain for the night. Now that they could eat their fill and sleep in warm houses, he began to feel fear. He was terrified of losing Zhao Xuan. He had already forgotten how to live alone. Zhao Xuan was his little sun; without her, he would wither and die immediately.
He even considered not going to the salt fields by the sea to exchange for supplies. He and Zhao Xuan were already well-fed and clothed in this village, and living another 10 or 20 years wouldn't be a problem. But what if they got sick? They had no medicine. When he watched Zhao Xuan die of illness without even an antibiotic, he would definitely regret not going to the salt fields by the sea to exchange for some medicine.
Lu An now suffers from severe separation anxiety.
Zhao Xuan also had concerns, but she felt she shouldn't show them. When Lao Dao and Lu An went to the salt field by the sea, she had a tough and tiring time on her own. She was worried that Lu An might catch a disease in the crowded market and die, or that he might encounter danger and die on the way. They each had their own worries, and because of this, she had to remain calm in front of Lu An, who was feeling uneasy.
When one breaks down, the other absolutely has to step up and support them—this is the tacit understanding they've developed over the years.
Smoked deer meat is not something that can be done overnight. While the meat was being smoked, both families were preparing for their trip to the salt fields by the sea.
As late autumn approaches, more and more egrets appear in the barren fields and marshes. These are migratory birds that come here to spend the winter. Their calls are melodious and deep. One by one, the snow-white egrets perch on the banks of the fields and marshes, pecking at small fish and shrimp. They are quite bold. Even when Zhao Xuan got very close, they slowly flew away.
Zhao Xuan liked to follow them around; in the wasteland where they were, the snails were always exceptionally large.
In spring and summer, Lu An often catches small river shrimp and fish to eat. There are no large ponds nearby, and if they want to eat big fish, they have to go to the reservoir to fish, but that's too much trouble. So they mostly eat small fish, shrimp and snails.
Small fish and shrimp can't be used to make any fancy dishes; they're usually pan-fried until crispy and eaten with white porridge in the morning. After autumn comes the dry season, the streams become less watery, and small fish and shrimp become even scarcer. But at this time, the snails in the abandoned fields become plump. Zhao Xuan follows behind these picky egrets, letting them lead him to paddy fields with large snails. Once he finds one, he discards it after using it, waving a small bamboo stick to drive away the egrets and keeping the field all to himself.
Sometimes she would run into Yao Yuan and his son, who were also out collecting snails. Once they got to know each other, Yao Yuan would joke: He said that Bai Lu was very vengeful, and that Zhao Xuan's behavior would make Bai Lu follow her to her house and defecate on her roof.
"Brother Yuan, you're talking about crows, aren't you?" Zhao Xuan said, completely unconcerned.
Because no one was harvesting them, the snails in the abandoned fields were all the size of ping-pong balls. Zhao Xuan didn't refuse any of them; she picked up the smaller ones to feed the chickens and kept the larger ones for herself.
The snails that were picked up were first soaked in a basin to remove the mud and sand, and then they could be eaten in the evening. They were cooked in a clay pot to make a spicy flavor. This dish was served almost every day during this period. When Zhao Xuan got tired of it, he made the snails into stuffed snails.
Stuffed food generally refers to stuffing various ingredients with meat. Stuffed tofu is tofu stuffed with meat, and stuffed bitter melon is bitter melon stuffed with meat. Stuffed snails are more complicated. First, the snails need to be cooked, the snail meat inside needs to be removed, leaving the meat and removing the tail. The snail meat and pork are diced together, mixed with seasonings, and then stuffed back into the snail shell. Finally, it is simmered in a clay pot to make a spicy flavor.
The process is time-consuming and laborious, but the taste is excellent. Sometimes Zhao Xuan can even innovate on his own, keeping the shells and meat of the large snails, mixing the meat of smaller snails with pork to make a filling, stuffing it into the shells of the large snails, and finally putting the large snail meat back in its original position—in this way, the inedible parts of the large snails are replaced with edible stuffed meat, but because the snail meat is still there, it looks like a regular snail stew.
Lu An felt that Zhao Xuan's dish was a little strange, but he immediately tried to convince himself: This is not strange, it is obviously clever!
Autumn offers a plethora of delicious foods: besides snails, there are chestnuts, lotus roots, and various melons and fruits. With such a wide variety of dishes, you can enjoy a different meal every day. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaohe's homemade soy sauce is ready to dry.
After half a year, the two large vats of soy sauce have been transformed into two small vats of soy sauce, one for each person. There's no need to repackage them; just seal the vats and transport them, vats and sauce together, to the salt fields by the sea for sale. So many years have passed since the apocalypse, and the soy sauce produced in the factory has long expired. Moreover, there aren't many people who have mastered the soy sauce brewing technique, so these two small vats of soy sauce should sell well. There's no need to sell them individually; they can be sold directly to the large merchants selling sauces in the market. Once you become familiar with them and establish a sales channel, you can reliably sell two vats of soy sauce every year.
Zhang Xiaohe set aside the amount of soy sauce needed by both families for the coming year. The brewed soy sauce could not be eaten on the spot; it needed to be boiled over a high flame to sterilize it. Only the amount needed to be cooked was to be cooked. Zhang Xiaohe cooked a bottle for Zhao Xuan first and told her to take it home and try it.
In just one year, Zhao Xuan couldn't fully learn how to brew soy sauce. Zhang Xiaohe said she would still teach Zhao Xuan to brew it next year. This skill can be mastered through practice. Trying to do it on your own is definitely not as easy as being taught by a master. After all, it's something that goes into our mouths, so we should learn it carefully.
Zhao Xuan returned home happily with his soy sauce.
Zhang Xiaohe carefully divided the soy sauce into three parts: a small vat of soy sauce to be sold, a jar of soy sauce for herself to eat next year, and a bottle of soy sauce that had already been cooked and was ready to eat.
Zhao Xuan poured two drops of soy sauce from the bottle onto a spoon, tasted it plain, and found it salty and savory—not as savory as she had imagined. Perhaps the soy sauce she remembered had a lot of additives, but as it stands now, the savory flavor of this homemade soy sauce is sufficient.
The soy sauce was ready, the muntjac was being smoked, and the herbs and mushrooms dried in spring and summer could be collected and sold. Lu An recognized the mushrooms, so he only needed to bundle them into large bags to sell himself. The herbs were sorted into smaller bags, each numbered, and Zhao Xuan handwrote a booklet listing the names, properties, and price ranges of the herbs corresponding to their numbers. There were over a dozen bags of various sizes. Zhao Xuan instructed Lu An to sell these herbs directly to herbalists; selling them individually would take a long time, but they couldn't be sold cheaply. He could check prices at various herbal shops first. Herbs had become popular again after the apocalypse, but like other craftsmen, few people recognized them, making doctors and herbs a precious commodity. Among them was a very special herb: tobacco. Tobacco is an annual plant, and it's not easy to find tobacco in the fields these days. Fortunately, before the major disease outbreak, tobacco was a government-promoted economic crop in the mountainous areas of northern province, and it was planted on large scales. So now Zhao Xuan can occasionally find surviving tobacco plants.
These things are large, looking like giant bok choy from a distance, standing out like cranes among chickens in the weeds. They're harvested in late summer. The tobacco curing barn is readily available; all you need to do is skewer the large tobacco leaves with bamboo sticks and put them in the barn to cure. The cured tobacco leaves are yellow or brown, and after being cut into shreds, they can be rolled into the coarsest kind of tobacco to smoke. Zhao Xuan and Lu An don't smoke, but Zhao Xuan initially tried curing some tobacco herself, soaking it in water, and spraying it in the vegetable garden to repel insects. This year, they had a surplus of tobacco leaves, so she packed them up and asked Lu An to try selling them.
Before setting off, Lu An renovated his house, the pigsty, and the small house with the generator. In fact, Lu An would renovate his house inside and out every now and then. Small problems were easily repaired. They didn't have cement, and they would be powerless to deal with major problems if there were any, so it was better to nip the big problems in the bud.
Time flew by. The muntjac was smoked, and all the things to be taken were loaded onto the car. The flock of chickens raised at home had dwindled by more than half in the past six months—Zhao Xuan still prepared canned chicken and some salted eggs for Lu An and the others. Zhang Xiaohe also prepared a lot of food that could be stored for a long time, so the two of them could share their food and have a variety of dishes each day.
On the day of departure, Zhao Xuan and Lu An got up early. 460 seemed to sense it and probably knew that when its master was about to leave for a long trip, it would fill the tricycle to the brim. So it ran out of its den early in the morning, wagging its tail and following closely behind the two busy people.
The goods on the tricycle were completely covered with a tarpaulin and then tied tightly with ropes.
Zhao Xuan was busy cooking a hot meal for Lu An, while Lu An was putting tools and daily necessities into his backpack.
Yesterday, Zhao Xuan gave Lu An a haircut. As Zhao Xuan's hairdressing skills improved, Lu An's hair gradually changed from a bald, mangy shape to a more natural look, and eventually it looked quite nice. Today, Lu An sported a nice haircut, wearing a black windbreaker and a pair of brand-new sneakers—shoes he'd traded at the saltworks by the sea last time. He had one pair, Lao Dao had one pair, and Lu An had been reluctant to wear his own, always thinking they'd get muddy from farm work. Zhao Xuan said that a poor family should be generous on the road, and if he didn't wear them on this long trip, these sneakers would have to sit until they naturally came unglued.
Lu An looks great in this outfit. His striking features and simple black attire actually accentuate his handsome face.
Lu An packed his backpack with daily necessities and temporarily placed it on the table. Then he put on a black baseball cap, tied a small waist bag around his waist containing emergency survival supplies such as a dagger, flint and steel, and a Swiss Army knife—enough to ensure his survival even if he lost his tricycle and backpack. Finally, he grabbed a rope, an axe, and other tools, stepped out of the room, and hung them on the handlebars of his tricycle.
Zhao Xuan was putting a large bucket of cooled boiled water into the car when she saw that Lu An had already finished packing. She then hurriedly ran to the kitchen and took out a large thermos, saying it was for their hot meals for the day.
Curious, Lu An lifted the lid and saw four neat rows of stuffed meat inside: stuffed green peppers, stuffed shiitake mushrooms, stuffed tofu... and stuffed snails?
Perhaps Zhao Xuan thought it would be inconvenient for them to eat snails in the wild, so he first used toothpicks to pick out the stuffed meat from the snails. If it weren't for the snail meat on top of each stuffed meat, Lu An would have thought the last row was meatballs.
This box of stuffed meat clearly came from one pot. Zhao Xuan put the ingredients into the pot in order of how easily they cooked, added this year's newly sun-dried soy sauce and dried chili peppers, and made a pot of fresh, fragrant, spicy stuffed meat stew. Then he neatly arranged them in a square insulated box, poured on a pot of sauce that had been simmered over high heat until it became thick, and finally sprinkled a handful of bright green scallions on top.
As soon as the box was opened, a strong fragrance wafted out, but it was immediately covered up by Zhao Xuan.
She took the insulated box, put it in a small cloth bag, and tied it to the front of the tricycle, saying, "Open it when you want to eat it, otherwise it will get cold." She guessed that Sister Xiaohe must have prepared a lot of rice cakes. These rice cakes are soft and slightly sweet, which are perfect to eat with her stuffed meat stew. The rice cakes dipped in the hot sauce must be delicious.
With everything ready, Lu An slung his backpack over his shoulder, picked up the heavy tricycle, and was about to head out. 460 tried to follow, but Lu An gave it the order not to come. It whimpered and its tail wagged less enthusiastically, but it was very obedient and really didn't follow.
Zhao Xuan helped Lu An push the back of the tricycle—this vehicle was really heavy, and it was not easy for Lu An to ride such a heavy vehicle back and forth.
The two of them and the car stopped as soon as they left the courtyard. Lu An didn't ask her to see him off. They looked at each other, and Lu An stretched out his hands to her. Zhao Xuan threw herself into his arms, and he tightened his grip on her hands before gently kissing her hair.
On an autumn morning, the air was quite chilly. Lu An's warm breath tickled Zhao Xuan's face.
The hug was brief. Lu An seemed afraid of going back on his word, and released Zhao Xuan a few seconds later. He then got on his tricycle and sped away.
He didn't even turn around; he simply reached out and waved to Zhao Xuan with his back turned.
Zhao Xuan didn't shout anything to that retreating figure anymore. Instead, he stood on tiptoe and watched Lu An walk away. 460 followed Lu An for a few steps, then seemed to remember something and turned back to look at Zhao Xuan, who was looking up. It paused for a moment, then turned back and stood firmly beside Zhao Xuan.
"Woof woof!" 460 barked at Lu An a few times, which was especially noticeable in the quiet morning. It and Zhao Xuan watched Lu An disappear around the corner.
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