Several dilapidated desks were covered with lotus leaves, and each leaf was piled with meat of about the same height. The meat was strange; the meat that Shu Aiguo bought at the market was cut into strips, but this meat was in clumps, and the shape looked wrong.
Shu Aiguo was a stranger to the locals and was afraid that if he went in to buy meat, they would kick him out. So he hid outside and waited until the man inside was called to the backyard by his wife before he sneaked in.
Shu Aiguo thought he was seeing things. There were no lumps of meat. But when he got closer, he realized that the meat was not right. It was a round lump. Wasn't this pig lymph nodes? It was the lymph node meat that pigs couldn't eat and threw away as garbage!
Shu Aiguo used to raise pigs. During the production team era, the brigade often slaughtered pigs, and Shu Aiguo helped with the work. His family raised and slaughtered pigs, and at the end of the year, they could sell them to the villagers, keeping the rest for their own consumption.
In the days when people were so poor they couldn't afford to eat, people in the village would often pick up lymph nodes and eat them. It didn't cause any problems in the short term, but after a few years, the whole family fell seriously ill.
There's a saying in Shanguan Village that you shouldn't eat lymph node meat no matter how cheap it is, or you'll get sick!
Whether buying meat at a food station or a vegetable market, people always throw away the lymph nodes. Dog owners often pick them up to feed their dogs. But Liu Chunhua is different; she actually buys lymph node meat to make dumplings and buns.
The ingredients for the Shu family were always bought by Deng Fangping. When she was too busy, Shu Aiguo would also help out. He would go to the state-owned food company or the largest and most reputable butcher shop in the market.
There are specific requirements for pork. Older pigs are more expensive and have a better flavor than younger pigs. Shu Aiguo always selects the most expensive old pork and specifically requests hind leg meat.
To make good roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), you have to choose the best ingredients. In addition to pork, the flour is rich and high-quality. The soy sauce, salt, beans, preserved eggs, etc. are all the best available on the market. They don't use leftovers. Shu Aiguo simply can't imagine Liu Chunhua using lymph node meat to make buns and dumplings in order to save money!
How can you sell food that you yourself wouldn't eat to others?
Is this even human?
Shu Aiguo rode his bicycle back home. When Chu Yu came to the shop for breakfast, he told Chu Yu about it. Chu Yu had already felt that Liu Chunhua was acting strangely.
She has no bottom line; she'll even copy someone else's signboard. How can you expect her to use good ingredients?
She thought Liu Chunhua would definitely cut corners, but she never expected her to be so bold as to use lymph node meat.
The lymph node meat in the market is used to feed dogs. It's only been a few years since the reform and opening up, and individual vendors haven't learned to use gutter oil yet. The snack shops in the market are all cleaner and more attentive than the others, afraid that if they don't do a good job, their customers will stop coming.
Liu Chunhua is quite something, daring to do such a thing.
Chu Yu didn't stand on ceremony with her and anonymously reported Liu Chunhua for using lymph node meat.
When the staff at the local industrial and commercial bureau received the report, they were taken aback for a moment, wondering what lymph node meat was. One of the staff members' uncles worked at the food station butchering pigs, and he often went to watch his uncle butcher pigs, so he explained that lymph node meat is the pork from the pig's lymph nodes, the piece of meat on the pig's neck.
“This kind of meat is thrown away directly when the food station slaughters pigs. My uncle’s family has two dogs, so he takes the meat home to feed the dogs. His dogs eat lymph node meat all year round.”
When the officials from the Industry and Commerce Bureau arrived at "Authentic Shu Family Roujiamo Shop," Liu Chunhua was happily chopping meat filling. Her neighbor, who worked as a butcher in Deyang, had once casually told her that as long as you add more seasonings, you can't taste the difference when you make dumplings or buns with pork lymph nodes.
Back then, Liu Chunhua didn't know what lymph node meat was. Her neighbor took her to see it and she found out. The meat had a strange smell, and Liu Chunhua hesitated. But after her neighbor added more seasonings and stirred it, she found that it tasted no different from ordinary meat.
Pork was sold for 1.1 yuan per jin (500g), while lymph node meat was sold individually, costing less than 1 mao (0.1 yuan) per jin. At first, Liu Chunhua was timid, so she bought seven jin of pork and three jin of lymph node meat and mixed them together. She found that customers couldn't tell the difference, so she became bolder.
Five pounds of pork yields five pounds of lymph nodes; three pounds of pork yields seven pounds of lymph nodes...
She did this so discreetly that Liao Hongmei didn't even notice. As a result, Liu Chunhua was able to earn a few extra yuan a day. In the few days since the business reopened, Liu Chunhua simply used only lymph node meat. She was generous with the seasonings, and often put scallions and cilantro in the dumplings and buns to mask the smell of the meat.
Using pork costs at least ten yuan a day, while using lymph node meat costs less than one yuan a day.
With lower costs, she wouldn't lose money even if business was bad. Liu Chunhua was a shrewd person and knew that this matter couldn't be exposed. Every day, she would secretly go to her neighbor's place to buy meat. Her neighbor would get lymph nodes from the slaughterhouse for free and sell them to her, earning her one or two yuan a day.
Both of them benefited from the deal and dared not publicize it. Liu Chunhua thought that this matter could not be discovered, but before she could even finish chopping the meat, the people from the Industry and Commerce Bureau came to her door.
Liu Chunhua panicked a little and stopped the person outside the kitchen.
"Comrades, what brings you here again?"
The staff at the local industrial and commercial bureau were impressed by her, but they weren't very friendly. "We received a report from the public that you use lymph node meat to make steamed buns and dumplings, so we came here specifically to investigate."
Liu Chunhua's face turned pale, and her lips trembled for a long time.
"Comrade, who reported me? How could I do such a thing? It must be the Shu family's roujiamo across the street. They're my sworn enemies, and they're doing this on purpose to annoy me!"
The officer from the Industry and Commerce Bureau frowned. "Who reported it isn't important. What's important is whether you actually did it. As long as you didn't do it, we'll leave after we finish our investigation."
Liu Chunhua was stunned. She gave Liao Yong a look, and Liao Yong immediately offered cigarettes to the people from the Industry and Commerce Bureau. But they weren't having any of it and pushed past them to barge inside.
The pork on the cutting board had been chopped up so badly that its shape was unrecognizable. The comrades from the Industry and Commerce Bureau searched for a long time before finally finding the unchopped lymph node meat in the water tank.
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