Chapter 80 Pork Bone Hot Pot
After Lu An left, Zhao Xuan returned to the living room with 460. She sat at the table for a while, seemingly contemplating how to arrange her life for the next month.
460 stared at Zhao Xuan for a long time, then turned away out of boredom and lay back down in its little sofa nest under the stairs. Just as it was half asleep, it heard Zhao Xuan stand up and then hear her footsteps... Hmm, she was going upstairs. It's not a big deal. As long as Zhao Xuan doesn't go out, it doesn't need to follow her all the time.
Zhao Xuan went up to the room on the third floor where the grain was stored. She carried a sack and began to put sweet potatoes into it. When the sack was half full, she weighed it in her hand and realized that it was the limit of her strength. Then she dragged the sack downstairs and struggled to lift it onto the back of her small mountain truck.
460 immediately perked up its ears and looked up in its direction.
Zhao Xuan replied, "You go to sleep, I won't go far." Then he rode his tricycle towards the well downstream of the village.
Near the well, there was a small kitchen resembling a family home—also built right next to the main house. The main house had a wall that was already corroded and blackened due to water seepage; it was already a dangerous wall, and then a typhoon caused half of it to collapse. Fortunately, the wall next to the kitchen was relatively sturdy, and the furniture inside, such as the stove, was still usable.
Because it was close to the well, they used to draw water from this small kitchen to boil and bathe. Later, they found that after bathing, they had to walk a long way home with wet hair, which made them more susceptible to catching a cold. So Lu An suggested that even if it was tiring, they should carry water to their own bathroom to bathe, and the kitchen was left unused.
Later, when Lu An and Lao Dao were making vermicelli together, they came to this kitchen again. Making vermicelli requires a lot of water, and this place is close to the water and has a stove, so making vermicelli here is obviously much less strenuous.
Now, Zhao Xuan plans to make this year's rice noodles himself.
Last year, Lu An took most of the rice noodles to sell. Rice noodles aren't heavy; Zhao Xuan could carry a whole sack of them by himself. They also have a long shelf life. However, rice noodles are very common at the salt field market and aren't expensive. He took them to sell as a side benefit—after all, if the various grains at home weren't made into rice noodles to sell, they really wouldn't be able to finish them all.
The grains harvested at home now include rice, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, beans, a little bit of wheat, and glutinous rice.
The husks and straw from rice can be used for burning, and the bran from milling can be used to feed pigs. Some corn is kept for personal consumption when it is young, and the rest is dried, threshed, and used primarily as animal feed. Beans have many uses: making tofu and soy milk, and brewing soy sauce. Every year, the harvest feels insufficient, and the most precious wheat and glutinous rice are only eaten on special occasions.
The remaining potatoes and sweet potatoes have a large yield and can be used as a supplement to the staple food, but Zhao Xuan's stomach has always been bad. Eating too many potatoes and sweet potatoes will cause acid reflux in his stomach. Therefore, some emergency stock and seeds are kept, and the rest will be made into rice noodles.
The weather is getting drier every day, and the sun can shine for several days in a row, making it the perfect time to dry things. Although the temperature is high in summer, insects often lay their eggs on the food being dried, and after a night of high temperatures, maggots appear the next day. Autumn is different; it's dry, there are no mosquitoes, and the temperature is low at night, making it the most suitable time to dry meat, vegetables, or rice noodles.
Zhao Xuan plans to take advantage of the good weather to dry a lot of various dried goods and store them for winter consumption.
Two weeks ago, she picked a large basket of dates. Since she couldn't finish eating the fresh dates, she dried them into red dates. The oranges are also ripe now, so she dried a lot of orange peels, as well as some green beans and eggplants. She dried all the vegetables that weren't very tasty after autumn into dried vegetables.
Zhao Xuan's drying activities were meticulously planned: the sun was shining, and she couldn't waste a single day. Seeing that all the dried items in the yard were almost done drying, she had to seamlessly transition to drying another type of food.
So she decided to make the potato starch and sweet potato starch herself first. She would press the potato starch into noodles and dry them, and keep half of the sweet potato starch in powder form and press the other half into noodles as well.
Sweet potato starch can be used to make stir-fried meat, and stir-fried meat can be used as a topping for dried sweet potato starch.
The first step in making rice noodles is grinding them into powder. Zhao Xuan carried a large basin and a sack of sweet potatoes, washed them all clean, and then grated each sweet potato into a paste.
460 slept for a while, but still worried, it decided to go out and look for Zhao Xuan. The courtyard gate was already locked by Zhao Xuan. 460 crawled out through the dog hole and followed the scent, eventually finding Zhao Xuan's small figure working in a small room by the well. 460 knew this kitchen; its owners used to bathe here, so it had long since designated it as its own property. Seeing Zhao Xuan's busy figure, it sighed. Beside the stove was a large pile of dry straw for starting a fire. It gathered the straw, made a small nest, and comfortably lay down inside, sleeping alongside Zhao Xuan.
The temperature suddenly dropped on a windy night. It used to be hot enough to wear short sleeves at noon, but in just one day, I had to wear two long sleeves instead of short sleeves.
The sky was cloudless, and the air humidity had dropped drastically. Zhao Xuan's lips would occasionally crack, and if you licked them, you could taste blood.
She knew that a long period of sunny weather would inevitably be followed by a long period of rainy weather, so in addition to drying the clothes, she also had to hurry up and wash and scrub.
After several days of work, the potato starch and sweet potato starch have been dried. The next step is to press them into noodle strips, cook them, and then dry them into rice noodles. Only then is the process truly complete.
During this time, she removed the bamboo mat, washed and sun-dried it before putting it away, and replaced it with a fluffy and warm cotton quilt. Even the large sofa belonging to her alone was moved to the yard after many difficulties and was thoroughly cleaned.
To prevent mice from getting into the house, all the extra furniture was thrown away, leaving only a sofa. Zhao Xuan remembered that when she was a child in the countryside, mice liked to gnaw holes in the back of the sofa and make nests inside. So every now and then, she would drag the sofa out to wipe it clean, remove the dog hair, and check for any signs of mice gnawing.
Lu An disagreed, saying that any rat that dared to build another nest in 460's nest was an idiot and nothing to be afraid of.
Since Lu An left, the dog has resumed its daily morning check-in routine. If the dog doesn't come in the morning, Zhang Xiaohe will definitely come in the afternoon. During this time, the mother and son also went to the reservoir to ask Zhao Xuan to cut some grass to help them feed the sheep—their flock is growing stronger, and another ewe is pregnant and needs fresh grass every day.
When Zhang Xiaohe and her son returned in the evening, they first went to Zhao Xuan's village. The dog had caught three large buckets full of fish, each one fat and big.
Zhao Xuan couldn't help but marvel once again at the dog's godlike fishing talent—their family didn't need to raise poultry at all; if they wanted meat, they could just rely on this kid fishing.
The dog gave Zhao Xuan a few big fish, telling her that the fish she couldn't finish could be dried into preserved fish. However, these fish were too big, so they needed to be gutted and propped up with bamboo skewers to dry, making them look like salted duck. Otherwise, the fish meat would be too thick and would spoil before it was even dried.
The dog is not only skilled at fishing, but also a natural at drying fish.
So after drying the rice noodles, Zhao Xuan started drying the preserved fish.
— Farm work, as long as you want to do it, there are countless jobs to do.
During this time, 460 closely followed Zhao Xuan, indicating that not only were people traumatized by Yu Laosan, but even the dog suffered a great deal of psychological pressure.
Perhaps because they hadn't been out to play for too long, the Paw Patrol even looked for 460 twice, and the lead yellow dog was chewing on a black cloth ball whose original color was no longer recognizable.
The cloth ball originally belonged to 460, who gave it to Xiaohuang as a token of friendship. Xiaohuang liked it very much. Later, it discovered that Zhao Xuan could play beanbag toss, and 460 would play back and forth. Xiaohuang envied 460 for being able to play this game, so it took the little cloth ball with it to find 460, hoping that 460's two-legged mother could play with it like that.
For Zhao Xuan, the Paw Patrol is not only her children's friends, but also her saviors. So, on the few times the Paw Patrol visits her home, she not only treats them to a meal, but also plays fetch with the dogs.
Yao Yuan had some concerns about the Paw Patrol. After all, they were wild dogs that had killed and eaten human flesh. There was no guarantee that they wouldn't suddenly become aggressive and harm Zhao Xuan and his friends. Even 460 was a threat—460 had eaten a lot of Yu Laosan's flesh to protect Zhao Xuan. But after all this time, apart from killing Yu Laosan, 460 and the pack of wild dogs had behaved the same as before: shy, quiet, and even somewhat polite. They would obediently wait at the door every time they came to visit, only entering after Zhao Xuan greeted them.
460 is still the same, still slow to react. Because of its slowness, it sometimes seems quite aloof.
Zhao Xuan explained that all Chinese rural dogs are like this. They are intelligent and strong animals with great fighting ability, so they can guard the house. However, they are very gentle with their owners. Not being allowed inside the house is probably a rule ingrained in their genes: because farm dogs basically sleep in the yard. It doesn't matter if they eat leftovers, one meal a day is fine. Sometimes they pick up bones from under the table and get kicked by an impatient owner. They just whimper a couple of times and leave. Dogs that bite their owners don't survive to the next day in the countryside.
They seem to understand the word "loyalty" and will never bare their fangs at their owners, even if some owners are not doing a good job.
Zhao Xuan trusts the Paw Patrol completely; on days when the Paw Patrol comes to visit, she feels especially at ease.
Little Yellow's precious cloth ball was already worn out and would soon die. Zhao Xuan thought about giving it a more durable toy. Fortunately, the sun was shining, so she decided to dry two bones for the puppies.
The pork bones were left over from the last pig slaughter. Because it takes two hours to stew, Zhao Xuan found it too troublesome and hadn't eaten them.
The day before, she took out the pork bones to thaw, and the next morning she started stewing them. Since they were for a dog, Zhao Xuan didn't even add wine or ginger. A whole pot full of four bones, stewed for a whole morning, but even so, the aroma of the broth still filled the air.
It was almost noon when 460 belatedly realized: something's not right. How could its mother eat such a big pot of bones by herself... Could it be that one of the bones was hers?
Its eyes lit up immediately, and it darted into the kitchen like lightning. Then it saw Zhao Xuan sitting on a small stool in front of the stove, gnawing on a big bone with his mouth full of oil.
The man and the dog stared at each other, and Zhao Xuan felt a little awkward.
"There's too much meat on the corn. It's easy for the meat to spoil in the sun if it's not salted. Let me remove some for you," she added.
The pork bones had been simmering for a whole morning, and the meat on them was so tender that it would fall off with a slight shake. The fat had seeped into the broth, making it milky white and emitting an enticing aroma under the heat of the flames.
Zhao Xuan picked out the cooked pork bones one by one. She then set up a small stove with a wire mesh on top. She placed the pork bones on the mesh and used charcoal to dry the meat. This way, when she took them out to dry completely, the meat would not easily spoil.
Zhao Xuan gave the bone he had been gnawing on to 460. 460 happily chewed on the bone and went to the yard, found a comfortable spot to lie down, and began to concentrate on gnawing on the bone.
The roasting pork bones needed to be turned over from time to time, and a lot of meat had sunk to the bottom of the remaining broth. Zhao Xuan felt it was a pity and decided to save the pot of broth to use for hot pot that night. She added a few slices of ginger and some white wine to the broth to remove the fishy smell and continued to simmer it until it was thick.
As evening approached, the remaining three pork bones were finally roasted. Zhao Xuan hung them next to the cured fish to receive the baptism of tomorrow's sun.
After autumn arrives, it gets dark very quickly. Before it gets completely dark, Zhao Xuan inspects the pigsty and the area outside his house, then returns home and locks the gate.
On the square table in the hall, there was a small stove with a large, open casserole on top, bubbling with thick, white bone broth. Next to the stove were several dishes: a plate of seasonal vegetables, a plate of white tofu and red chicken blood, a plate of freshly dried sweet potato noodles, and a plate of freshly made pork meatballs.
Zhao Xuan had been busy all day and had only managed to gnaw on a pork bone; now she was so hungry her eyes were practically glowing. After locking the door, she hurried to the living room and sat down expectantly in front of the small pot.
Although she was alone, she still made herself a small dipping sauce dish, which contained only a little bit of aged vinegar, some soy sauce, and a handful of chopped cilantro. It was simple, but it made her very satisfied.
The soup in the pot had been boiling for a while. She first blanched the quick-cooking vegetables and a few pieces of tofu to soothe her lonely stomach, and then started cooking the meatballs and glass noodles.
The lights were dim, and the hot pot with pork bones steamed up a wonderful mist. As Zhao Xuan ate and got hot, beads of sweat appeared on the tip of his nose.
She finished her food and quietly put down her chopsticks to wait. She used to be very impatient; she liked to scroll through her phone while eating. She couldn't stand the few minutes of waiting for the food to cook, even though she couldn't remember what she was scrolling through. She just felt that it was better to scroll through something than to wait idly, as if that would save her time.
Actually, Zhao Xuan misses the days when she could use her phone anytime, anywhere, but things are good now too. She is very patient now; she can wait for crops to grow over several months and for these delicious foods to ripen.
The meatballs made in the afternoon contained a little bit of chopped water chestnuts, giving them a slightly crunchy and sweet texture. They were also simply made with some flour, soy sauce, sesame oil, and minced ginger. Although the recipe was common, they tasted so delicious that Zhao Xuan felt incredibly happy.
What a pity, Lu An didn't get to eat such a delicious pot of pork bone hot pot. Zhao Xuan thought to himself.
It's a pity that her parents never got to see how good she is at cooking—she can even make meatballs and dry sweet potato noodles herself. As Zhao Xuan ate, her thoughts wandered: If her parents knew how amazing their daughter was, they'd probably put up a banner and cycle all the way from their hometown to Tibet, letting everyone along the way know just how incredible their daughter is.
What if her long-deceased grandmother found out? The old lady would laugh her dentures out, and she would throw a three-day, three-night feast for the whole village to tell everyone how amazing her son is, that he can not only cook but also farm!
As he ate, Zhao Xuan's eyes turned a little red.
Since the passing of a close relative, reminiscing and imagining have become very common: what they were like, and what would happen if they were still alive.
Lu An once comforted Zhao Xuan: "Live well. Every day you live means you're one day closer to seeing your parents again."
"Life" is the meeting of living people, and "death" is the reunion of dead people.
As time goes by and the body ages, everyone will encounter those old friends they have longed for.
Zhao Xuan was so satisfied with the delicious hot pot that he shook his head and swayed back and forth.
She missed her family and friends, and she missed Lu An too.
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