Chapter Sixty-Six
Lei Tingjun then asked, "When? The 3rd? What time is the train?"
Xiao Qiang scratched his head: "I don't know the specifics. Miss Ji only mentioned it in passing and didn't tell me anything in detail."
Xiao Qiang looked at Lei Tingjun with a puzzled expression, thinking to himself, "Isn't Miss Ji your girlfriend, Brother Lei? Shouldn't you know her best? Why are you asking me?"
Lei Tingjun lowered his head and didn't say anything. After a while, he turned and left.
Xiao Qiang hurriedly asked, "Hey, Brother Lei, where are you going?"
Lei Tingjun waved his hand with his back to him: "You go ahead and do your own thing, I have something to do."
That noon, Lei Tingjun arrived at the factory's staff compound. He waited until fewer people were coming and going at the gate before discreetly walking in.
The Ji family courtyard is the innermost building, located near the left-hand passageway. It's on the first floor, and two clumps of bamboo are planted outside the courtyard wall, which serves to block the view from the outside passageway, making it relatively quiet and the courtyard the most spacious.
Of course, these conditions are also inseparable from Ji Xingguo's treatment as the factory director, and he has priority in choosing housing.
Lei Tingjun came here to find Ji Wanmei, and because this place was relatively quiet and secluded, there were few other people around, so most people wouldn't notice him.
During the day, Ji Wanmei is home alone and usually just eats whatever is available.
But she was thinking that she would be going to Zhejiang in two days, and her father would be home alone and probably just make do with whatever he could find. So she decided to cook some easy-to-store dishes for him so that he wouldn't have to go through all that trouble when he got home from get off work.
After thinking it over, Ji Wanmei decided to steam a few bowls of braised pork with preserved mustard greens for her father.
So early in the morning, Ji Wanmei went to the market and bought a large piece of pork belly.
The meat is freshest in the morning, and you can choose any part of it.
Ji Wanmei picked out a piece that was half lean and half fatty, because her father didn't like eating too much lean meat, thinking it was too dry.
People of this generation may not like to eat lean meat, but instead have a special fondness for fatty meat, thinking that it is more fragrant because it is oily.
But Ji Wanmei felt that it was too fat and high in cholesterol and fat, so she bought half fat and half lean instead.
After buying the meat and dried preserved vegetables, Ji Wanmei prepared to start cooking around 10 o'clock.
She first soaked the dried mustard greens in warm water in a basin, drained the water, then took them out. Next, she heated the pan, poured in a little oil, added a little dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, a little sugar and cooking wine, stir-fried them, and finally added a little water.
After stir-frying, set aside.
Take another soup pot and put in sliced ginger, scallions, and cooking wine. Then put the pork belly you bought in to blanch it.
Take it out after cooking for about fifteen to twenty minutes. Ji Wanmei thought that her father liked the meat to be a little soft, so she cooked it for twenty minutes.
After blanching the pork belly, take it out and rub it with white wine, brown sugar and dark soy sauce to marinate it.
Wash the pot clean, pour in oil and heat it to about 70% of its maximum temperature. Then, put the marinated pork belly in and fry it until golden brown. Ideally, the pork skin should be fried until it puffs up slightly.
Remove the fried pork belly from the water and cut it into slices about one centimeter thick.
Then she found a few earthenware bowls in the cupboard that were specifically for steaming dishes, put two scallions at the bottom, and neatly arranged the sliced meat skin-side down in the bowls.
Finally, add ginger slices, soaked shiitake mushrooms, cardamom, star anise and other spices, top with stir-fried preserved mustard greens, sprinkle with a little salt, and pour in some of the marinade sauce.
Then you can put it in a pot to steam. Generally, steaming for about an hour and a half is enough.
Once steamed, invert the bowl of braised pork with preserved mustard greens and place it on a plate.
If you want to be a bit more particular, you can thicken the broth with cornstarch and pour it over the top. This will make the color look more reddish-brown and glossy, the broth thick and delicious, and the taste smooth, mellow, and not greasy.
But if it's just for ordinary people to eat, there aren't so many rules. They can just take it out, turn it upside down on a plate, and eat it with rice.
When Lei Tingjun arrived, Ji Wanmei had just put the braised pork with preserved mustard greens into the pot to steam for an hour.
The aroma of meat wafted out with the rising smoke from the pot, and could be smelled from afar.
While the meat was steaming in the pot, Ji Wanmei tidied up her things since she had nothing else to do.
She took out two decent and presentable outfits from her room, and also brought a pair of comfortable white mesh shoes so she could wear leather shoes when taking the train. As for other things, she thought she could bring some dry food, such as dried meat and snacks, so she could have something to eat if she got hungry on the train.
The boxed meals and instant noodles on the train were more expensive than usual, and the train was crowded with people, mostly migrant workers from afar. In order to get to their destination, no one had time to change their clothes, and the smell was indescribable. Eating on the train or eating noodles was not as good as eating a few boiled eggs with water.
Thinking of boiled eggs, Ji Wanmei silently told herself that she should boil more eggs the night before departure and pack them in her luggage. There were three of them, and they ate three eggs per meal. She wondered if bringing twenty or so would be enough.
Ji Wanmei packed her things into her small suitcase as she went.
The small suitcase isn't too big; a large one would be bulky and inconvenient for long trips.
Moreover, items like dry food and water can be eaten on the train, reducing the load and freeing up space to carry more goods back.
Just as Ji Wanmei was busy in the living room, she heard Lei Tingjun calling from outside the courtyard.
"Ji Wanmei, Ji Wanmei?"
Ji Wanmei listened intently, and it really was Lei Tingjun.
She ran out of the yard and saw Lei Tingjun standing outside the wall. In the middle of the day, he was covered in sweat, beads of sweat running from his thick black hair and temples down to his bulging neck. His wheat-colored face was also a little red from the sun, clearly indicating that he had run there.
Ji Wanmei hurriedly asked, "Why did you come here?"
Now that she saw Lei Tingjun coming, Ji Wanmei wasn't as surprised as she had been at first, after all, he had come to her yard to look for her more than once or twice.
The first time he came, he climbed over the wall in the middle of the night.
As long as he stops sneaking over the wall at night, Ji Wanmei will no longer be surprised to see him suddenly appear outside her house.
Lei Tingjun stared at her through the courtyard wall with his dark, deep eyes and asked, "You're going to Zhejiang? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Oh, I'm going to Zhejiang to buy goods, and I'll be going with Chunyan. My dad will also send a factory worker to take us there; we'll be back in two days."
Seeing that he seemed to care about this, Ji Wanmei explained, "I was going to tell you, but I just couldn't find a chance to see you."
Lei Tingjun was silent for a moment, then said, "If I hadn't come to find you today, you probably wouldn't have told me even after you got on the train."
Ji Wanmei was speechless for a moment. She had indeed been too busy these past two days and hadn't had time to think about this matter.
The two stared at each other silently for a moment across the brick-red wall. Ji Wanmei felt that it was rather pitiful to have him standing outside like that, baking in the sun.
She pursed her lips, glanced back at the kitchen, and said, "Have you eaten? I steamed some preserved mustard greens with braised pork belly in a pot. I'll bring you a serving. Come in and eat before you go back."
Lei Tingjun looked up: "Okay."
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