Chapter 224: People will eventually be trapped by things that they cannot obtain when they are young
After having breakfast and taking a short rest, Lin Heng and Xiulan went to process the pig's head and internal organs. The hair on the pig's head needed to be burned off and then peeled off before being braised.
The internal organs are simply cleaned. The ones you buy may not be cleaned thoroughly, so you need to add alkaline noodles and wash them again.
After Lin Heng finished processing the pig head, he looked at Xiulan and said, "Let's kill another chicken and make some braised chicken."
"Then you should kill two chickens and two ducks. That will be enough for the New Year." Xiulan said after thinking for a while.
"Okay, you boil the water and I'll kill it."
Lin Heng went to the back mountain with a rope, and the chickens and ducks were still in the pen. The ducks immediately drew two unlucky eggs, and the chickens turned the door and caught two big roosters that ate centipedes and scorpions and liked to attack people.
With their wings and legs tied, they were carried back to the backyard. Even though they screamed, it was of no use.
After Xiulan's water was boiled, Lin Heng began to kill the chicken. Killing a chicken also requires skills. You need to hold the chicken's wings, legs and neck with one hand, pluck the hair from the neck, and cut the trachea and aorta with a 100-forged steel dagger.
After cutting it, he held the chicken leg upright with his right hand to let the blood flow down better. Lin Heng always caught the chicken blood. He and Xiulan didn't like to eat it, but his parents liked it very much, so he could send it to them after it was done.
After a while, the chicken stopped moving after its blood was drained, so it was thrown aside and the next one was killed.
Lin Heng and his brother have been in charge of slaughtering chickens in the house since they were young. They are very skilled and it only takes them one minute to kill a chicken or a duck.
“The water is coming!”
After Lin Heng killed the chicken, Xiulan came over with a bucket of water.
The water is boiling and not mixed with cold water. Put the killed chicken in to blanch it, and the feathers can be plucked easily.
Xiaoxia had nothing to do, so she ran around the backyard with her blue wolfhound Laifu, seemingly simulating hunting. Lin Heng and Xiulan were busy plucking the feathers, and it took them a full half an hour to pluck all the chicken and duck feathers.
"I'll get a scale to weigh it."
Xiulan went into the house and took out a beam scale. After weighing the weights, both of them were satisfied. After plucking their feathers, the two roosters weighed six pounds and seven pounds respectively, and the two ducks weighed more than four pounds each.
This is a chicken that has been fed for half a year, and this weight is pretty good.
It took another half an hour to gut and process the internal organs before the chicken was finally killed.
Seeing that it was already past two o'clock in the afternoon, Xiulan cooked the chicken blood and duck blood and asked Lin Heng to take them to his parents, and she began to make lunch.
"Dad, let's go together."
Lin Heng went to deliver something, and Xiaoxia followed behind him with her blue wolfhound Laifu. She liked Laifu so much that she took him with her wherever she went, and she played less with Xiongba.
Lai Fu barked like a husky, and his voice was very attractive. Several little girls in the village were also very envious.
After giving the chicken blood and duck blood to his mother, Lin Heng strolled outside the yard for a while. There were many children playing with wooden tops in the yard of Li Caifeng's house next door, and their laughter could be heard from far away.
There were a few people playing hoop rolling on the road below, using hooks to push the hoops to see who could roll farther. The competition was quite lively.
Lin Heng felt that the memory of him playing with these things seemed to be just yesterday, but it also felt as if there was a thick layer of fog between them, and those memories had been blurred by the wind of time.
He wanted to try it, but then shook his head and pulled his daughter into the house, thinking that he should save it for his own daughter and son to play with later.
For lunch, Xiulan made stir-fried pork with garlic sprouts, using fresh pork given by her father. It tasted extremely delicious.
These two things will be fragrant enough if they are just fried casually, not to mention that Xiulan is a very good cook.
“It’s delicious.”
Lin Heng praised it highly. He said that putting a few garlic sprouts leaves and a piece of meat together and eating it with a mouthful of rice was the most delicious enjoyment.
“The meat is delicious!”
Xiaoxia doesn't eat garlic sprouts, but she also praises the meat.
"As long as it tastes good." Xiulan ate her meal with a smile on her face, feeling happy.
After dinner, Lin Heng washed the dishes. He was bored and decided to make a wooden car for Xiaoxia to play with using some leftover scraps from making furniture. The kind that she could sit in.
“Boom boom boom!”
"Lin Heng, open the door!"
Just as I finished making the bottom plate of the car, I heard Liu Sheng’s voice outside.
When Lin Heng opened the door, he saw Liu Sheng walking in with two bottles of Erguotou. He smiled and said, "I don't have anything good to take, so I just gave you two bottles of Erguotou. Don't be disgusted."
"There's really no need for that. Given our relationship, you still bring gifts when you visit." Lin Heng looked at him speechlessly.
Liu Sheng entered the house, put the wine on the long grain cabinet, and said with a smile: "This is not really a gift. It's almost the New Year and it's not good to come empty-handed."
"All right."
Lin Heng shook his head helplessly and prepared to take him to the study for tea. But Liu Sheng said he was not thirsty, and said hello to Xiulan, and wanted to make a wooden cart for Xiaoxia with Lin Heng.
"This is not fun and can't be finished in a day." Lin Heng shook his head.
Liu Sheng, like his father, has a very long horse face. People in the village often laugh at this kind of face shape as "a tear shed last year, but it hasn't reached the mouth this year." When he was a child, he often fought with others because of this, and Lin Heng was always loyal enough to help.
Now he has grown his bangs a little longer and looks much better. He is wearing a black cotton jacket and is a little fatter than before.
Liu Sheng laughed: "Recalling my childhood, I always wanted to make a wooden car of my own. Now making one for my niece is a dream come true."
When they were young, they loved playing the game of pulling a cart, where one person would pull another person along a wooden board tied with a rope on the main road.
Later, several children in the village got wooden carts made by adults and showed them off everywhere. Liu Sheng also wanted one, but unfortunately his father had no intention of making one for him. He just spanked him with a willow branch and said he was not doing his job properly.
Lin Heng looked at him and smiled: "If you don't want to drink tea, then let's go out and play. I'll take you to see the wooden house I built on Hongfeng Mountain."
Having their own secret base outside was also one of their childhood dreams.
"Okay, then I'll go over and take a look." Liu Sheng nodded with a smile, showing great interest in this.
Lin Heng looked at Xiulan who was cracking walnuts and asked in a low voice: "Wife, Liu Sheng and I are going to Hongfeng Mountain to play. Do you want to go?"
Xiulan looked up at him and said softly, "You guys go ahead. I won't disturb you guys from reminiscing about the past. Just come back before dark."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and said, "You don't have to crack the walnuts. I'll crack them for you tomorrow morning."
"Um."
After making an agreement with Xiulan, Lin Heng took the key, bow and arrow, and Xiongba, and went to Hongfeng Mountain with Liu Sheng.
"Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have let you run around with us."
Walking out of the yard, Liu Sheng sighed that he was extremely envious of the relationship between Lin Heng and Xiulan.
"It's all for making money." Lin Heng smiled. He went out to make money in the first place, but he made the mistake of trusting Zhao Hu too much.
"You are making money at home now. I am so envious. What were you thinking at the time that made you suddenly go back home?" Liu Sheng asked curiously.
Lin Heng smiled slightly and said, "I had a very long and very real dream, and then I woke up. I feel that money is important, and family is also important."
"Okay, it seems you have figured it out." Liu Sheng was not surprised. Sometimes people will change a lot when they figure it out.
Xiongba was running in front, while Lin Heng was exploring the way at home. Lin Heng was chatting with Liu Sheng, and soon they arrived at Hongfeng Mountain.
Arriving in front of the wooden house, Lin Heng smiled and said, "Look, this is the wooden house I built this year. Is it okay?"
When Liu Sheng saw the wooden house, his eyes lit up: "This is not only good, it's really great, and so beautiful."
He tried the swing first, then looked at the wooden platform, and finally went into the wooden house. After looking inside and out three times, Liu Sheng exhaled deeply: "It would have been great if I could have built a house like this when I was a child."
When they were young, he, Lin Heng and Lin Hai spent more than half a month collecting wood to build a simple wooden house. They called it a secret base. They liked to hide in it when they were bullied at home. They also roasted frogs and stream groupers in it.
Unfortunately, the secret base existed for less than a month before the old man from the Tian family, who had already died, deliberately tore it down and burned it at home. At that time, they were so angry that they secretly killed the old man's two chickens and destroyed his vegetable garden, which made the old man from the Tian family curse in the village for several days.
Lin Heng also sighed: "It's because there was no such thing when I was a child, so I built it when I grew up."
People will eventually be troubled throughout their lives by things that they could not obtain when they were young.
There was not much wind in the forest today. Lin Heng took some charcoal from the house, lit it, boiled a pot of water, and made a cup of tea.
There was no snow in winter, and there was nothing much to see in the distant scenery, so the two walked around in the woods, and Liu Sheng suggested catching two fish to grill.
Only two people could catch fish in the freezing mountain stream in such a cold day. Lin Heng caught a fish from under a rock in a short while.
"Your skills haven't changed at all." Liu Sheng said in surprise.
"Of course." Lin Heng smiled slightly. The ability to catch fish was already ingrained in his bones.
We caught about ten stream groupers, none of which were big, so we washed them in the stream water and then grilled them over the charcoal fire.
"It's okay, it tastes the same as before." Liu Sheng said with a smile after taking a bite.
Lin Heng also nodded. The stream grouper does not have much fishy smell. After being roasted, the fish meat tastes tender and fragrant, and seems to have a hint of sweetness.
After playing here for a while, Lin Heng took him to look in the nearby woods, but unfortunately no trace of prey was seen.
During this period, if you want to hunt, you have to go to the mountains, or wait in the green wheat and rapeseed fields for wild boars, or wait until night to look at the ditch.
It was within Lin Heng's expectation that he failed to catch any prey. When it was getting dark, the two of them walked back. On the way, they met Liu Ciwen, who was herding cattle. Lin Heng chatted with him for a while.
When they got home, Liu Sheng insisted on tinkering with the little wooden cart for Xiaoxia. Lin Heng did not stop him and went to help Xiulan and made the wooden cart with him.
At half past six, Xiulan finished cooking the dishes and Lin Heng called Liu Sheng to eat.
Liu Sheng saw the dishes on the table and was shocked: "Oh my God, are you making a New Year's Eve dinner? It's so sumptuous."
There are eight dishes, four meat dishes and four vegetable dishes, which are of higher standard than his family’s New Year’s Eve dinner.
"I have hunted the most wild boar meat, so you can eat as much as you want. Let's have a drink first." Lin Heng raised his glass with a smile.
"This is too much. Xiulan's cooking skills are so good." Liu Sheng also picked up the wine glass and said with a smile.
"You haven't even eaten it yet and you're already praising me. I can barely eat it."
Xiulan said modestly that she was drinking rice wine with Xiaoxia and occasionally interjected a few words.
"It smells delicious, and tastes better than anything in restaurants."
Liu Sheng praised him a few words and then started drinking with Lin Heng.
After the meal, Liu Sheng felt that it was more comfortable than going out to a restaurant and he was fully satisfied.
After the meal, when seeing Liu Sheng off, Lin Heng gave him a piece of meat: "I'll give you some wild boar meat to take back for your parents to try. I have a lot of it at home, and you've seen it, so don't refuse."
"Okay, thank you." Liu Sheng took a look and didn't refuse. He took the meat and left with a smile on his face.
After seeing Liu Sheng off, Lin Heng helped Xiulan clean up the table.
The next day, it was suddenly colder in the morning. After exercising, Lin Heng smashed some walnuts. He knew that these were the walnuts Xiulan was going to use to make dumplings.
In the south, reunion dinners must include rice cakes, while in the north, dumplings are a must. They are located in the Qinling Mountains, the border between the north and the south, so it all depends on their own preferences. Lin Heng's family likes dumplings.
Xiulan hurriedly made breakfast and then started to braise the meat. Because she had some old braised soup stock that she had saved from earlier, her sister-in-law and Lin's mother came to ask for some to take back to the braised meat.
Lin Heng helped to light the fire for the whole morning, and at noon he drove his sidecar three-wheeled motorcycle to Huangtan Town.
Today is the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, which is also the 31st day of the first lunar month in the Gregorian calendar. The store is closed and he has to go down to settle the accounts and pay Wang Zhou his wages so that he can go home for the New Year.
He also brought homemade cakes, honey, and a braised golden chicken to Grandpa Gao. Although he certainly wouldn't be short of these, it was still a token of his appreciation.
He didn't catch the golden rooster himself, but bought it from Wang Kaidian in the village.
Before the Chinese New Year, he also gave some gifts to Manager Jin, Li Chengguo, Guo Xu, and even Ge Qingshan.
When Grandpa Gao saw Lin Heng taking these things, he was naturally happy. As the saying goes, a good gift is never a bad thing.
"Brother Lin, I have calculated all the accounts for this year. We opened on September 7th, and now it's seven days and five months away. The total profit is two thousand and twenty yuan."
Seeing Lin Heng coming out of Grandpa Gao's house, Wang Zhou smiled and handed the account book to Lin Heng.
Lin Heng nodded, took the account book, looked at it for a while, and found no problems.
The canteen and purchasing station originally estimated their profit to be a little over 3,000 yuan a year, but now they have only made 2,000 yuan in five months.
This is not unrelated to Lin Heng's sales tactics. Another point is that the purchase price of the mountain products here is not so high, so people from other towns will also come here to sell, especially some more valuable mountain products.
“How much cash is here now?”
Lin Heng asked.
"There's 823.78 yuan in cash." Wang Zhou handed over a black cloth bag and said.
Lin Heng counted the money and found that it was correct. Together with the money he took, it was just enough.
After thinking for a while, Lin Heng took out four ten-yuan bills and handed them to Wang Zhou, saying with a smile: "Twenty is your salary, and the other twenty is your year-end bonus. You have done a great job this year."
“This… is so much!”
When Wang Zhou saw so much money, his eyes suddenly widened. He thought that the five yuan year-end bonus that Lin Heng mentioned would be good, but it turned out to be his monthly salary.
This is such a huge surprise.
"What's the matter? Do you think it's not enough?" Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Of course not, thank you Brother Lin."
Wang Zhou quickly shook his head, took the money and nodded vigorously, feeling very flattered.
"It's still the same, just sign the pay slip. Then wait for me here, I'll take you home after I finish my work," Lin Heng said with a smile.
(End of this chapter)
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