When Liu Yuhe saw the two brothers return empty-handed, he found it strange and inquired about it. He learned that they had encountered a tiger, and Liu Yuhe breathed a sigh of relief.
"Luckily, the tiger caught the pig first, otherwise, who knows what would have happened to these stupid dogs."
"Not necessarily. If it's a flower tiger, it should be fine. But if it's another tiger, then it's uncertain," Sheng Xiping said with a smile.
Hua Hua was raised on dog milk and is quite friendly to dogs and also close to people.
So even though Hua Hua has been back in the mountains for so long, there has never been any news of tigers injuring people or livestock, whether in Dajianchang or Qianchuan Forest Farm.
The brothers had been running around in the mountains for most of the day, but Erlang Shen and his gang messed things up at noon, and they didn't even get to eat lunch.
They finally got home a little after 2 a.m. Zhang Shuzhen quickly heated up some food for them, and the brothers wolfed it down, feeling much better afterward.
After finishing their meal, the Liu brothers didn't rush to leave. They sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and played with the two children for a while, and chatted with Zhang Shuzhen for a bit.
After resting enough, the two said goodbye. Before leaving, they made an appointment with Sheng Xiping to go up the mountain again the next day.
Sheng Xiping originally intended to share the meat with Liu Yujiang and the other two, but they refused, saying they would save it for their banquet.
We don't know if we'll find any prey when we go up the mountain tomorrow. The Liu family has plenty of meat, so we should save these.
After seeing Liu Yujiang and his brother off, Sheng Xiping and Sheng Xi'an busied themselves skinning and deboning the wild boar. Following Zhang Shuzhen's instructions, they cut the meat into pieces and put them outside to freeze.
In the evening, Zhang Shuzhen boiled a large pot of the pork bones she had removed, just enough for soup and meat the next morning.
Around five o'clock the next day, Sheng Xiping was about to get up to fetch water when he opened the door and discovered that it had snowed sometime during the night.
The ground was covered with a thick layer of white snow, about two inches thick, and a few snowflakes were still slowly falling from the sky.
It's cold at night, but warm during the day when the sun is out. Once the snow melts, the whole yard is muddy and wet, making it difficult to walk.
So Sheng Xiping quickly grabbed a broom and opened the door to sweep the snow.
Unexpectedly, when they opened the gate, they found two pigs at the entrance, one yellow-haired and the other old and slender.
Sheng Xiping stepped forward and touched the two pigs, feeling that they were still warm. Looking at the snow in front of the gate, he saw several large footprints, which were the paw prints of a tiger in the shape of plum blossoms.
Needless to say, this was delivered by Huahua; she must have just left.
"Second brother, third brother, get up and help, Hua Hua has brought the pig."
Sheng Xiping threw down the broom, dragged the two pigs into the yard, and then called out to Sheng Xi'an and Sheng Xikang to come out and work.
Hearing the older brother's shout, the two brothers hurriedly put on their clothes and came out. As soon as they stepped outside, they saw two pigs.
"Wow, this flower is amazing! How did it manage to drag two pigs into the village?" Sheng Xi'an muttered curiously.
"Alright, never mind how we got it back, hurry up and gut it. We don't even know when Hua Hua bit it to death, so if we keep covering its belly, the meat won't be edible."
The two pigs were intact, with no other wounds except for a few bloody holes in their necks.
Fearing that the pork would taste bad if it was mushy, Sheng Xiping quickly took out a sharp knife, cut open the pig, and took out the meat.
Fortunately, the pig hadn't been dead for too long, so its internal organs hadn't started to rot.
Just then, Zhang Shuzhen got up and went out to see the situation. She quickly told Sheng Xiping to boil water to remove the hair, but not to skin it.
It's good to leave some meat with the skin on, either to braise the pork belly to make steamed pork belly or to make red-braised pork.
The three brothers naturally had to listen to their mother's instructions, so they quickly started a fire and boiled water.
Before long, two large pots of water boiled, and the pig was placed on the cutting board. Hot water was poured over it to scald it, and then the pig hair was scraped off with a knife.
The three brothers worked all morning and finally managed to clean the two pigs.
Sheng Xiping was also worried that the pork might have an odor, so he put the meat in a large basin, soaked it in clean water, and changed the water several times.
With these two pigs, there's no need to go up the mountain anymore.
So Sheng Xiping sent Sheng Xitai to the Liu family to inform the Liu brothers that they didn't need to go up the mountain today.
February 26th, Sunday, the 20th day of the first lunar month. The Sheng family held a banquet to celebrate Sheng Xi'an and Zhou Qinglan's admission to university.
Sheng Liancheng took leave and went down the mountain. Zhou Mingyuan and Wang Chunxiu, along with Zhou Qingyue, arrived at the forest farm a day early.
Even Wang Jianshe, Chen Weiguo, and others took leave to come and help.
Qianchuan Forest Farm and Dajianchang were also there. Any family that had a good relationship with the Sheng family came to offer their congratulations and help.
It happened to be Sunday, a day when students didn't have classes, so all of Zhou Qinglan's former students came over.
The Sheng family's place was too small to accommodate so many tables, so they set up a few tables at their neighbor's house next door.
More than ten tables were set up for lunch and dinner, and all the forest farm cadres, including Wang Jiachuan and Zheng Xianyong, as well as the school teachers, were present.
Even Zhao Yongsheng and his son Zhao Guangning brought congratulatory gifts and arrived in Qianchuan by motorcycle.
This is so lively, it's almost as big as when Sheng Xiping got married.
Many guests gathered together, raised their glasses and drank to celebrate the emergence of a golden phoenix from this remote mountain valley.
On the 27th and 28th, Zhou Qinglan and Sheng Xi'an made final preparations at home, packing up everything they needed to bring.
"Mom, I'm going to school soon, so I'll have to leave Xinhua and Xinyu in your care. I'm sorry to trouble you."
My dad asked someone to buy the milk powder from Tonghua, and he'll send some more over in a while.
Xinyu isn't as reliable as Xinhua, so Mom will probably have to put in a lot more effort. I won't be back for several months, which will be hard on you.
On the evening of the 28th, Zhou Qinglan held Sheng Xinyu, breastfed her youngest son, and said goodbye to her mother-in-law while wiping away tears.
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