"Never mind, Chaosheng." Liang Mei quickly stopped her husband's actions, and said with a shy expression, "Let Xiao Fu and I do it."
"Yes, yes, brother-in-law, you've had a long day, how can we let you do the cooking?"
Liang Fu held Liang Mei's hand. The nourishment they had received over the past two days had made their skin glow. Not only were their faces a little rounder, but even their eyes were shining.
"We can't possibly eat all this pork in a short time. Why don't you take some to your parents?"
Looking at the pig's head, which was as big as half a pig, Liang Mei was overjoyed, both on her face and in her heart, but she still maintained her rationality.
"It's hot now, this meat will spoil if we don't eat it."
As Liang Mei was speaking, Lin Chaosheng smiled and gently pinched the tip of her nose, saying happily, "I knew my wife would love me the most. But don't worry, Shansheng has already taken back Mom and Dad's share."
"As for this pork, you can cook it however you like." Lin Chaosheng squatted down, slicing the pork with his knife, and asked, "Is this enough for our family to eat for three days?"
"That's enough, that's enough! Eat what you can't finish!"
Liang Mei quickly said, afraid that Lin Chaosheng would cut off another piece.
Lin Chaosheng looked up at Liang Mei with a smile, but his gaze seemed inappropriate, causing Liang Mei's cheeks to flush.
"Eat more meat so you can give me a big, healthy daughter, as beautiful as you. That way, when we go out, I can hold one in my arms and carry one on my back. That would be so impressive!"
Liang Mei glanced at Xiao Fu standing beside her and said to her husband in a coquettish tone, "The child is still here, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Lin Chaosheng glanced at Liang Fu, who had her head down, and didn't continue speaking. Instead, he lowered his head and continued cutting the meat.
"I plan to smoke this part of the meat to make cured meat, but I don't really like eating this stuff. Enough for you guys is fine."
"I'll make this one into salted pork. I'll get a whole vat of it tomorrow."
"Let's render the remaining fat into lard. Then our family will be able to eat dishes made with pork and pork cracklings."
Liang Mei's eyes lit up as she listened to Lin Chaosheng's arrangements, filled with admiration.
"Chaosheng, you're amazing! Compared to you, I feel like I can't even cook... You have so many ways to preserve meat."
Liang Mei felt that marrying Lin Chaosheng was the happiest thing in the world.
She is now very glad that she did not give up on Lin Chaosheng because of what others said, otherwise she would probably regret it now.
Because many young men in the village went hunting in the mountains with Lin Chaosheng, most families in the village had meat to eat tonight.
Those who didn't get to eat meat stuffed all the cracks in their doors and windows tightly shut, but the smell of meat still seemed to have legs and wafted into their houses, into their noses.
"Damn it, how am I supposed to eat this lousy food?!"
Old Liu's paralyzed grandmother threw down her chopsticks and felt nauseous looking at the plate of rotten vegetable roots and rice soup on the kang table.
"Just eat it, or don't!"
Liu's wife was no pushover either; she was a notoriously shrew. Her husband was terrified of her and was sitting on the ground listening to the two arguing.
"How dare you say that? It's all because you wouldn't let Tieling go hunting in the mountains with those two Lin boys!"
"If you weren't such a coward, I would have been eating meat long ago! Why am I stuck here smelling other people's meat while eating rotten vegetable roots that I can't even chew!"
"Now you're blaming me?" Liu's wife slammed down her rice bowl and cursed, "Don't you know what kind of scoundrel Lin Chaosheng used to be? The reason I didn't let Tieling go was because I was afraid that Lin Chaosheng would ruin him..."
Arguments like these happened quite often tonight; even those who barely got any meat had arguments breaking out.
But these arguments were all held behind closed doors, so Lin Chaosheng was unaware of them.
At the Lin family home, Lin Shansheng sat in the courtyard humming a tune as he washed pork.
"Make sure you trim all the fat off the meat. Tomorrow, Mom will cook pork for you. The pork cracklings are so crispy and crunchy, you'll never get enough!"
Zhao Shufen was happily slicing pork in the kitchen. Her black and white hair was carefully combed into a bun, and although her clothes had many patches, they were still neat and clean.
Lin Shanhai was also sitting in the courtyard, but he was singeing a pig's head with fire.
The pig's head was specially allocated to the brothers Lin Chaosheng and Lin Shansheng by the village chief; the rest were confiscated.
Even so, the fact that the two brothers shared a pig's head was enough to make others envious, but no one was jealous.
After all, if it weren't for the two brothers leading people up the mountain to hunt, these people would never have encountered wild boars, let alone eaten wild boar meat.
So after the village chief made this decision, no one stood up to object; instead, everyone agreed.
"You old bastard, stop showing off like that!" Zhao Shufang came out of the kitchen and saw Lin Shanhai shaking his head happily. She immediately laughed and scolded, "That pig's head was earned by our two sons with their lives. In particular, Chaosheng specially asked Shansheng to bring it back for us. If you burn a piece of meat, I'll cut it off from your body tonight to make up for it!"
"I know, I know, this is what our son hunted and brought back with great effort. Don't worry, I definitely won't burn an extra piece of pigskin!"
Lin Shanhai said excitedly, "Once I singe off all the hair on this pig's head, I'll put the pig's head meat in a pot and stew it tonight. The longer the pig's head meat stews, the more tender it will be. When it's dipped in minced garlic, it will be very fragrant!"
Lin Shansheng listened from the side, his mouth watering.
Pig's head meat? That was something he had only ever imagined; he had only heard of it but had never eaten it.
He never imagined that this big pig's head would be in his house now, and that he could even eat it tomorrow. This was something he never dared to dream of.
"Dad, what does this pig's head taste like? Is it really that delicious?"
This question stumped Lin Shanhai. Zhao Shufen chuckled and said, "Your dad probably only ate it once when he was a kid, right? Maybe he just gnawed on a bone and ate some oil. He probably didn't even know what it tasted like."
Lin Shanhai felt embarrassed by Zhao Shufen's words and immediately said, "What era was that? We were lucky to even have oil! But things aren't good now either. It's only because our two children are successful that we have such good lives..."
Looking at Lin Shanhai, Zhao Shufen thought of the hard times her family had gone through, and tears almost welled up in her eyes.
Fortunately, their family's hard times are over, and good days are ahead.
"Mom and Dad, I'm here!"
Lin Chaosheng walked in, but this time he came empty-handed, without carrying anything in his hands.
"Mom and Dad, do we have any empty jars left? I want to take them back and make some salted meat, otherwise the meat will spoil if we can't finish it."
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