Chapter 271 Floral Dress
"Wake up!"
In a daze, Lin Heng heard his wife calling him.
"Ah~ What time is it?"
Lin Heng yawned, opened his eyes, glanced at Xiulan, turned over and continued to sleep.
"It's eight o'clock, Xiaoxia is awake." Xiulan said.
"Get up, Dad!" Xiaoxia's clear voice also sounded beside him.
Lin Heng stretched and sat up. He didn't sleep well in the mountains, so when he came back he slept so comfortably that he didn't want to get up.
"Ah~ Then get up."
After getting dressed and getting up, Lin Heng realized that what his wife was wearing today was completely different from yesterday.
She wore a white round-neck shirt on the upper body, a light-colored plaid shirt on the outside, a beautiful white floral skirt on the lower body, which was ankle-length, and black canvas shoes on her feet.
Her hair was tied into a high ponytail and her lips were painted with lipstick, which looked very smooth and shiny. Her whole temperament was like that of a gentle and beautiful neighbor sister.
Lin Heng asked curiously: "Wife, why are you dressed so beautifully today?"
He remembered that when Xiulan came back yesterday, she was still wearing old clothes that had turned white from being washed so much. How come she suddenly dressed so beautifully today?
Xiulan rolled her eyes at him, tilted her head angrily and said, "If you don't like it, I'll change it back."
Yesterday, Lin Heng was not at home, so she was too lazy to dress up and did not want to do anything. Now that Lin Heng is at home, she wants to dress up beautifully for him.
She got up in the morning and spent a long time getting dressed, but this guy was still so confused, which made her a little angry.
"No, no, it looks very beautiful. I just woke up and my mind is fuzzy." Lin Heng quickly pulled her and coaxed her. Being smart, he quickly figured out the reason.
Xiulan was in a good mood, and she blinked and said, "Then wash your face quickly, and I'll go get you some food."
"good."
Lin Heng and Xiaoxia washed their faces together. They didn’t feel like exercising today, so they decided to take a break for a day and do it tomorrow.
The backyard is full of greenery, and the flowers, plants and trees planted are growing very rapidly. The orchids have already sprouted flower spikes, the wild lilies planted in the yard have also grown snow-white buds, and the small shrubs that bear goat's milk fruit are full of white flowers.
The pine trees and cypress trees grew very fast because they had moved to a nutrient-rich environment. Lin Heng felt it necessary to prune them, otherwise they would lose their original vigorous and tenacious artistic conception.
The fish in the pond are swimming happily and playing under the small lotus leaves. These palm-sized lotus leaves have covered the four corners of the pond, and the small lotus flowers are probably about to grow out.
The red grapes grafted on this side of the grape trellis have grown new branches twenty centimeters long because of the strong root system of wild grapes. The largest leaf is already the size of a palm.
The new branches of the three-year-old grafted Kyoho seedlings planted next to it were only ten centimeters long, which was completely incomparable.
After walking around the yard, Lin Heng was very satisfied with his current courtyard.
Then he and Xiaoxia went to the back hill to have a look. The fruit trees had not changed much except that the leaves were more luxuriant. The cucumber seedlings were already 30 to 40 centimeters tall and had blossomed, and the watermelons and cantaloupes had just begun to grow tendrils and climb.
Even though Lin Heng started growing seedlings very early, the influence of temperature still caused the watermelons to grow slowly.
"Dad, the melon seedlings I planted have grown out." Xiaoxia said, pointing to the pumpkin, winter melon and cucumber seedlings next to her that had grown two new leaves.
She would come to see them every day and learn to water them like her mother.
"Xiaoxia is amazing." Lin Heng praised his daughter and went to look at the other animals.
The big yellow cattle, the little dairy cow, the red dates and the little ewe are not at home. They must have been taken away by their parents to graze. The dairy cow and the musk deer are still at home.
These days, ryegrass and barley grass grow as fast as wheat, so the cows are enjoying a feast. The female forest musk deer eat not only barley grass, but also some young tree shoots, of many kinds.
"It looks like she will give birth in May or June."
Lin Heng touched the female musk deer's head and talked to himself, its belly was obviously much bigger than before. It was already April 26th in the Gregorian calendar, and it would probably give birth in mid-May.
I just don't know how many cubs it will have. Musk deer usually have two cubs, but there are also cases of one or three cubs.
"Dad, what does giving birth mean?" Xiaoxia asked, tilting her head.
"It means giving birth to a little musk deer. The musk deer's mother gave birth to the little musk deer, and your mother gave birth to you before that." Lin Heng answered with a smile.
Xiaoxia tilted her head as if she didn't understand and asked curiously, "How did you give birth to me?"
"Born from your mother's belly, you will understand when you grow up." Lin Heng picked her up and walked back, temporarily ending the topic.
Xiaoxia tilted her head and thought for a while, then said, "I want to see a musk deer mother giving birth to a musk deer cub."
She wondered how her mother had given birth to her.
"Okay, dad will take you to see it when the time comes." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.
"It's time to eat. I still make potato skewers."
Xiulan looked at the father and daughter coming back and said softly.
"I like to eat this, it's very good." Lin Heng nodded with a smile. Potato fork is potato pancake, which tastes very fragrant and rich in flavor.
Potato pancakes with milk, a rich and nutritious breakfast. Although the milk was only bought two months ago, he felt that the complexion of his family members had obviously become better than before, and Xiaoxia was even whiter and plumper, and it seemed that she was growing much faster than before.
After breakfast, Lin Heng looked at the venison. The average temperature now is around 14 or 15 degrees, so the meat must be processed as soon as possible.
"Xiu Lan, do you still have the braised soup from before?" Lin Heng asked while looking at the deer's internal organs.
Xiulan nodded: "All of them, I still get hot every two days."
Lin Heng said: "Then let's braise all the deer's internal organs."
"I thought so too." Xiulan nodded.
"As for the venison, braise two pieces and save some for the next two days, and make the rest into jerky." Lin Heng said and started to pick.
After dividing the meat, Lin Heng was not in a hurry to cook it. He and Xiulan went to prepare the seasoning first. They planned to make two flavors, one spiced and one spicy. They had all the spices in the house, so they just needed to grind them into powder.
Xiulan was responsible for drying and grinding the spices, while Lin Heng began to process the deer antlers.
It is not difficult to process deer antlers. Wash the surface with alkaline water and then boil it in boiling water. However, do not let water enter the root where the cut is made.
After blanching for two hours, you can take it out and place it in a ventilated place under the eaves to air dry. Then blanch it a few more times until it is half dry. Then you can slice it, dry it thoroughly, and seal it for storage.
Of course, you can cut it directly and dry it in the sun, but it will cause a lot of nutrients to be lost.
While the antlers were cooking, Lin Heng helped grind some spices and quickly prepared the ingredients for making jerky venison.
Then the two of them took knives and cut the venison into long strips. In order to dry it faster, it needed to be cut thinner.
I originally wanted to call for help, but my parents, older brother and sister-in-law were out, so the two of us had to do it ourselves.
After more than three hours of cutting, I finally cut the 90 kilograms of venison into long strips. I worked from morning until noon, and was always working except for drying the antlers.
"It's really tiring." Lin Heng moved his wrist. Fortunately, the knife was sharp enough, otherwise he would never be able to finish the job.
Xiulan smiled and said, "Cooking is tiring, just enjoy it secretly."
"That's right. Others don't even have enough to eat." Lin Heng chuckled. The villagers were so jealous when they heard this that they wanted to beat him.
After resting for a while, the two continued to work. They put the cut venison into two large wooden basins, and then poured in the prepared spices, salt, white wine, sugar, MSG and soy sauce and mixed them evenly.
Xiulan made the salt a little saltier so that it could better preserve the meat and prevent it from spoiling.
It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when the meat was mixed and marinated. They washed their hands, drank a cup of tea, rested for a while, and then went to eat some rice.
Xiulan had just found time to prepare the rice, and the dish was stewed deer ribs soup. Before eating, Xiulan also improvised a stir-fried deer meat with dried chilies and coriander.
"It tastes better than coriander beef." Lin Heng tasted it and praised it highly.
Xiulan smiled and said, "Then eat it more often in the next two days. If you don't eat coriander anymore, it will get old."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, and drank some pork rib soup after dinner. The pork rib soup with black truffles and morels was also very fresh and fragrant, and he wanted to drink it again.
The stewed deer ribs taste good too. Xiaoxia likes them very much. She also likes stewed potatoes and mushrooms.
"Dad, I want more~"
Xiaoxia finished a bowl of soup and looked up and said.
"Okay, I'll give you some more." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.
After finishing the meal, Lin Heng went to clean up the dishes and rested for a while. Then the two of them took the almost marinated venison to the yard and hung it on a rope to dry in the sun.
“Ouch~”
“Ahhh~”
When Lin Heng and his friends were drying the meat, Xiongba, his two puppies, and even Jinbao looked over. These guys had been coveting the meat for a long time.
"Isn't what you just ate enough?" Lin Heng glanced at Xiongba and scolded.
He fed it a lot of the bad scraps of meat, and it ate a lot. The other two puppies and Jinbao also ate some. He did not treat them unfairly.
Although it was some minced meat with fascia, it was eaten by humans in other households in the village and would not be left for cats and dogs.
Only the cats and dogs in Lin Heng's family can be so happy.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba rubbed against Lin Heng and wanted to eat more.
But Lin Heng didn't give it this face at all. After hanging the meat, he tied up the three dogs and one cat so that they could not covet the meat.
"Finally, the preliminary work is done. It's been a busy day."
After drying the meat, Lin Heng stretched and sighed, saying that he had not left the house until now.
Xiulan took a sip of water and said with a smile: "There are still internal organs, deer skin, bones, and deer heads that haven't been processed yet."
Lin Heng waved his hand lazily: "Let's just leave the deerskin in the sun for now, and we'll slowly process it when we have some free time in a couple of days. I'll take some of the bones to Sandie and the others later, and we'll cook the rest tonight and remove the meat to feed the dogs. We'll also cook the deer head and remove the meat."
"That's fine. Mom's not here anyway. So you can take some ribs to Third Dad and the others later." Xiulan nodded.
"Yes, don't tell mom." Lin Heng said with a smile. If his mother saw this, she would nag him for wasting money. Only Xiulan would listen to him.
After resting for a while, Lin Heng took out some meat and bones.
"Old Man Tian, this is the venison you wanted." Lin Heng came to Old Man Tian's house first with the things in his hand.
"How much money?" Old Man Tian was digging in his vegetable garden. He saw Lin Heng and asked with a smile.
"A pound of meat and some bones. It's free. I'll leave the meat here for you." Lin Heng hung the things on the railing and waved his hand and left.
Old Man Tian often spoke well of him in the village, so he was too lazy to charge for the meat.
"Thank you very much. I will return you something good later." Old Man Tian grinned and said without any hesitation.
When Lin Heng turned around and walked back, he took some more food to the village party secretary Tian Dongfu. Not to mention Tian Dongfu's help to him, even Tian Yan often taught Xiaoxia to draw and play paper cutting, so he had to give some food to her. Anyway, his family couldn't finish it.
Then he sent some to his third father's house. When his third mother Li Xue saw the meat, she was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling and kept praising Lin Heng for his ability.
"Lin Heng, you are really awesome this time. You actually killed a sika deer weighing more than 200 kilograms." Third father Lin Xutao also gave a thumbs up.
"Haha, good luck." Lin Heng chuckled. Another reason he came to deliver the meat was to show off that he had hunted a deer.
"Don't say it's luck. This is not luck." Lin Hai said with a smile.
"This is a skill." Lin Xutao nodded.
"Haha." Lin Heng smiled, said a few more words, and then said goodbye and went home.
When walking in the village, you could hear people talking about how great it was that he had killed a sika deer. Although he did not deliberately show off, the news had already spread, causing many people to be envious and jealous.
Whenever I meet people, I will ask them a few questions about sika deer and then show an envious expression.
"Lin Heng, aren't you going to take this venison to town to sell?" someone asked curiously.
Lin Heng smiled and shook his head: "I'm too lazy to sell it. It's too troublesome and I can't get much money. I'll just make it into jerky and eat it myself."
“Eat it all by yourself.”
After hearing this, the group of people suddenly felt jealous. If they wanted to eat so much venison by themselves, they would have to have meat for three meals a day.
"Yes, everything has been done." Lin Heng said.
"But deer penis can be sold. If anyone needs deer bones as a folk remedy, they can also ask me for some." Lin Heng said again.
"How much does a deer penis cost?" someone asked curiously.
"If you really want to buy it, you can come and discuss it with me." Lin Heng smiled but did not say the price.
After chatting for a while, he went home and helped Xiulan clean the deer's large and small intestines. After that, Xiulan put them all in the pot and braised them.
Lin Heng looked at the venison that had been a little dried out by the sun, sat on a bench in the yard to enjoy the cool air and the quiet evening and sunset.
The strawberries in the yard have bloomed, and the number of plants has exceeded one hundred, filling up an area of twenty square meters.
However, Lin Heng did not thin out the seedlings. The soil was fertile enough, and it would not be too late to thin out the seedlings after they bloomed and bore fruit.
The watermelons, cantaloupes and cucumbers in the yard have also started to climb, and are not far from flowering and fruiting. They are doing better than those growing on the hill behind.
"I am so tired."
Xiulan stretched and walked out of the house, sat next to Lin Heng and looked at him.
"Thank you for your hard work, my wife."
Lin Heng stretched out his hand and let her lean on him.
Xiulan smiled playfully: "It's not hard, this kind of life is what I like, and I have been very happy in the past year."
Knock, knock, knock! Just as Lin Heng was about to respond to Xiulan, there was a knock on the door, followed by his mother's voice: "Open the door, I brought you something good."
(End of this chapter)
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