Chapter 347 Doubt about Life
"Brother, open the door!"
The knocking on the door stopped, and Lin Yue's voice rang out outside.
"Yes, brother. Did you catch any prey?" Xiulan asked curiously.
"I'll go and take a look and find out." Lin Heng said as he stood up to take a look.
When he opened the gate of the yard, he saw his eldest brother standing at the door, carrying a large wild boar with brown and gray hair on his shoulder.
Lin Yue said excitedly: "The trap we set worked today, but this wild boar is not big."
"Let's go inside and talk!" Lin Heng quickly let his eldest brother in, and did not stop the other people who followed in to watch the fun.
"This wild boar is probably only a little over a hundred pounds. It's a little too small." Lin Yue said as he put the wild boar down.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "Okay, this size is the most suitable."
"Yes, wild boars this size are the best to eat."
"If it gets any bigger, it will be too old and the flesh will not be able to be chewed."
Several old men who were watching nearby echoed this, and from their words they seemed to be very knowledgeable about food.
When Lin Heng went to get the scale, Lin Yue told everyone about his hunting process. In fact, when he went there, the wild boar was almost dead. The big clamps that Lin Heng had set had pierced into the flesh and blood, and the wild boar had lost too much blood in its violent struggle. Even if he didn't shoot it again, it would have been difficult for it to survive.
After weighing on the scale, Lin Heng smiled and said, "One hundred and twelve pounds, very good."
The pigs are fat in autumn. This wild boar has gray fur and is obviously a young wild boar of one or two years old. Its meat is the best.
Lin Yue nodded and said, "That's fine. I'll go back and ask your sister-in-law to boil some water. You can boil some water here too so we can kill the pig later."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded in agreement, took Xiulan into the house, then went to the kitchen to boil two pots of water, and then used a hot water heater to boil a bucket of water in a wooden barrel.
The old men and women who came into the house to watch didn't want to leave, so Lin Heng poured them a cup of water and left them alone. They found it boring not to kill the pig for a long time, so they ran into the house to take a look at Lin Heng's freezer before leaving reluctantly.
When Lin Heng saw them go out, he quickly closed the door, but did not lock it.
"Do you want to kill this wild boar and freeze it in the refrigerator?" Xiulan asked while looking at Xiaoxia.
Lin Heng glanced at the wild boar and said, "Just keep some fresh meat and dry the rest into bacon for storage. The weather now is very suitable for drying bacon."
Although this is a sow wild boar, the fresh meat still tastes great. Drying it into bacon not only preserves its flavor but also reduces the fishy smell.
Another thing is that the high salt content in bacon can kill parasites and bacteria in wild boar meat.
"You think the same as I do." Xiulan said with a smile.
Wild boar meat doesn’t taste particularly good when fresh, so she prefers to make it into bacon before eating. The advantage of a freezer is that bacon won’t get worms when it’s frozen.
"Dad, are we going to make autumn pear paste today?" Xiaoxia asked with her head tilted, grabbing the pears in the winnowing basket.
"Go ahead and do it in the afternoon after we kill the pig." Lin Heng picked up a pear and took a bite.
Compared to before, the pear is now much sweeter, but still a bit astringent.
When the water was almost boiling, Lin's father and mother came over.
"Such a big wild boar, it's amazing." Father Lin turned over the wild boar and said with a smile.
"We don't have to kill pigs for the New Year." Lin's mother said happily.
"The water is boiling, let's cook the pork first." Lin Yue reminded with a smile.
Then they went to the old house and got a big wooden barrel. The barrel had not been soaked in water for a long time and was leaking badly. Fortunately, the pig was small and the soup was ready in ten minutes, so the hair could be plucked easily.
The next step is to hang it up, cut open the intestines and stomach, and cut the pork.
Lin Yue had made a greater contribution in beating the pig, so he advocated an equal split. However, Lin Heng naturally did not want to take advantage of his elder brother.
The final result of the discussion was to give him the pig's head and pork fat, and the rest would be divided equally between the two of them.
As for the internal organs, Lin Heng got the pig's large intestine, liver and lungs, and gave the small intestine, heart and stomach to his eldest brother.
The pork is divided equally, divided into two halves starting from the spine, with each person getting half.
"Brother, please put these two pieces of meat in your freezer and keep them for me. They will be delicious and fresh."
After the meat was divided, Lin Yue held up two pieces of pork belly and said with a smile.
"That's no problem." Lin Heng cut it into small pieces and put them in plastic bags for separate storage.
His family also kept about ten pounds of fresh meat, not a whole piece, but all lean meat.
This wild boar had a good meal in the fall and had a lot of fat, but the fresh fat was not tasty.
While helping Lin Heng rub salt on the pork, Lin's mother asked, "I got a lot of fennel seeds this year. Do you want some?"
"Yes, I'll go with you to get it later." Lin Heng nodded. This time, the pork was lightly salted because there was a freezer so there was no need to worry about the salt going bad.
After the pork is rubbed with salt, it needs to be piled in a basin and marinated overnight before it can be taken out to dry in the sun or smoked over a fire.
"The pig intestines have been turned over, so let's go back first." Father Lin said as he walked into the house carrying the processed pig intestines.
Over at Hongfeng Mountain, the workers he had called were still clearing the land, so he couldn't leave for too long.
"I'll go with you." Lin Heng gave them a piece of meat so that they could stir-fry it for lunch. His third father, uncle and others were there too.
When Lin Heng came back with fennel from Red Maple Mountain, Xiulan also prepared a lot of spices for him.
"If you crush these and apply them on the meat, the bacon will taste better."
Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said that she was more experienced in handling bacon than Lin's mother.
"Okay." Lin Heng rinsed the spices, lit a charcoal fire and slowly roasted them, and finally used a stone mortar to crush them into powder and spread it on the pork.
At noon, they fried wild boar meat and ate it with rice. The wild boar meat was fried with hot and sour sauce and pickled radish to reduce the fishy smell of the pork while retaining its unique flavor.
Hot and sour food goes well with rice, but Xiaoxia always slurps the spicy food and even acts like a spoiled child and asks for honey water to relieve the spiciness.
"This wild boar meat is pretty good and tender," Xiulan commented after eating.
Lin Heng nodded and said, "It should be the wild boar from last year. It tastes pretty good, probably because it eats a lot of chestnuts."
Compared to the wild boar meats I had eaten before, this one tasted strangely much better.
Xiulan said, "Since it's not bad, let's keep some more fresh pork."
"I'll cut some more and put it in the refrigerator later." Lin Heng nodded.
In the afternoon, Lin Heng went to Hongfeng Mountain to wander around and help with some work, mainly chatting with Lin Hai and Li Shiwei.
After returning home, I started to make autumn pear paste. His family had both monk fruit and Sichuan fritillary.
Wash the pear, pour it into the pot and boil it until it is soft. Then take it out and crush it with a mortar and put it back into the pot. Add monk fruit, ginger, red dates, and some Fritillaria cirrhosa and cook together.
Bring to a boil over high heat and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly. It took an entire afternoon to cook, and Xiaoxia was tired of waiting for the food to be served.
Xiulan was in charge of stirring, while Lin Heng took the time to chop the pork ribs and pork legs into small pieces with an axe and put them in the freezer for storage.
Pork makes delicious bacon, but pork legs and ribs are not so delicious. They taste best when they are fresh and cooked.
After preparing the ribs and pork legs, Lin Heng processed and cut the pig intestines and stir-fried them briefly.
"Honey, do you think it's cooked enough?" Xiulan shouted as the sun was about to set.
Lin Heng walked over and saw that the autumn pear paste had become viscous and looked like summer honey.
"That's totally fine." Lin Heng nodded. He took the pot off the fire, got some gauze to filter it again before putting it into a glass bottle.
"It takes nearly 50 kilograms of Tangli pear to make three bottles of autumn pear paste." Lin Heng said as he looked at the finished autumn pear paste.
This bottle is 300 milliliters, and three bottles are less than one liter.
Xiulan took a spoon and tasted a little and said in surprise: "I thought it would be very sour and astringent, but I didn't expect it to taste so good, sweet and sour."
"Mom, I want one too~" Xiaoxia hugged her mother's legs coquettishly. She had been waiting for a long time.
Xiulan scooped a spoonful, blew on it and fed it to her. Xiaoxia immediately smiled happily: "It's delicious!"
"Try it." Xiulan fed Lin Heng another spoonful.
After tasting it, Lin Heng nodded: "It's a little sour, you can add some honey."
There is no doubt that the rich aroma of autumn pear paste is much stronger than the ones sold in the market. This kind of pear paste also has a light pear fragrance, and seems to taste better than ordinary pears.
"This way I can let Mom do some too. There are still a lot of pear trees on the mountain." Xiulan said with a smile. Pear trees still stand upright on the branches even in winter, and those that fall to the ground are generally not rotten.
Lin Heng agreed: "Tell her some other day."
After putting the autumn pear paste on the coffee table to cool, they started to prepare dinner. They fried pig intestines with pickled radish and made a dish of pork intestine noodles.
Get up early the next day and hang the pork to dry in the sun instead of smoking or grilling it directly.
In the following days, Lin Heng took Xiulan and Xiaoxia to experience the last aftertaste of autumn. Apart from going to Hongfeng Mountain to help, he spent the rest of his time accompanying Xiulan and Xiaoxia.
As the weather gets colder, trees like the cotinus coggygria and red maple are gradually dropping their leaves, and it looks like there is a beautiful carpet of leaves on the Red Maple Mountain. Unfortunately, Xiulan can’t go up to see it this year, as she is pregnant with twins and can’t climb such a steep slope.
The land reclamation work did not proceed quickly. Removing tree roots and stones was troublesome and time-consuming. Twenty people could only reclaim about one acre of land in a day.
In a blink of an eye, it was already the second Sunday of November. Caiyun came back from vacation to help take care of Xiulan, while Lin Heng and his eldest brother went to Baishigou for two days to look for prey.
Unlike last time, this time they had little gain. They didn't catch any large prey in two days. The most that Lin Heng caught were enoki mushrooms, and the only prey he caught was a hazel grouse.
His eldest brother was a little luckier and shot two pheasants, but the other two did not catch any, which could be considered a failure.
"I'll come back and have a look tomorrow. I don't believe it's gone." Lin Yue felt a little unwilling on the way back.
"I don't recommend you to come here alone. It's too far and very dangerous." Lin Heng patted his eldest brother's shoulder. He wouldn't be able to come here tomorrow.
"Then I'll call others to come along, and I'll tell you when I get any clues." Lin Yue thought for a while and said, it is indeed very dangerous to be alone in the wild.
After returning home, Lin Heng hung the chicken soup on the wall, preparing to stew it for Xiulan the next day.
"This is quite expensive, why don't you keep it and sell it?" Xiulan suggested.
"No need, you are more valuable than anything else." Lin Heng refused with a smile.
Xiulan was amused and smiled: "You are the best at talking."
"I'm telling the truth."
Lin Heng came over and sat next to her, listening to the fetal movements in her belly. They were now very obvious and he could feel the fetus kicking its legs from time to time.
"I just don't know whether it's a boy or a girl." Xiulan sighed while touching her belly.
"We'll know in two months, don't worry." Lin Heng said with a smile as he stroked her hair.
"Okay." Xiulan nodded.
The next morning, Lin Heng made a charcoal fire and stewed the chicken. He added Codonopsis pilosula, red dates, chestnuts, and lotus seeds. It tasted delicious just by stewing it with a little salt.
After stewing, Lin Heng took Xiulan for a walk towards Hongfeng Mountain. She was now in the late stage of pregnancy, nearly eight months, and the burden on her body was getting greater and greater, so she needed support to walk.
But staying at home all the time is not a good thing. Even those who like reading can’t stand it and need to go out and walk from time to time.
It is now November 13th, and most of the leaves have basically fallen. Except for some pine forests, most areas are bare.
Even trees like the ginkgo biloba, which shed their leaves very late, could not hold on any longer. With a gust of wind, countless golden leaves fell down, and the whole tree gradually became bare.
Xiaoxia picked up a lot of leaves and asked Lin Heng to teach her how to make flowers. After she was done, she gave them to her mother, which made Xiulan very happy.
When we came to Hongfeng Mountain, we could see workers clearing land halfway up the mountain from afar. Compared to a few days ago, the mountainside now looks much tidier.
It is no longer as messy as before. The reclaimed land has been planted with ryegrass, which has grown to about three or four centimeters high. The green color looks well-arranged.
"Is all the land on Red Maple Mountain planted with ryegrass?" Xiulan asked, looking at the hillside.
Lin Heng nodded: "The land that has been cleared can't be planted for the time being. It's too cold. We have to plant it in the spring next year."
Xiulan nodded and pulled Lin Heng slowly towards the breeding base.
“Ouch~”
As soon as we entered the breeding base, Lai Fu let out a welcome roar.
"It's been pregnant for a month, right?" Xiulan asked curiously.
"Yes, the baby should be born at the beginning of next month." Lin Heng nodded. He was looking forward to Xiongba and Laifu's child. He wondered if the child would inherit Xiongba's intelligence.
"Why don't we take it back and feed it something good? Mom and the others are reluctant to feed it good food." Caiyun said to Lai Fu.
"Okay, I'll bring Fengshou over some other day and replace Lai Fu with him." Lin Heng agreed. His mother was the kind of person who would use rice to clean the remaining grease in the pan after frying pork, and she was really average in feeding dogs.
People of their generation are often described as "suffering for nothing". They are very fond of things and are reluctant to throw away expired items, even those that are seriously moldy.
But there is actually no way, because they have experienced the famine years when they had to chew tree bark and eat soil, and the habit of saving has been engraved in their bones. It is difficult for those who have not experienced it to understand their behavior.
But compared to before, his parents have improved a lot, and they are not stubborn people anymore.
After playing here for a day, Lin Heng helped with the work while Xiulan took a walk here. When they went back in the afternoon, the hazel grouse soup was cooked very well. They lit the charcoal fire again and the three of them could enjoy it together.
Days passed, and in the blink of an eye it was the third Sunday of November. Lin Heng went hunting in the mountains with his elder brother again.
This time we are heading towards Baishigou, and our final destination is Birch Cliff, which is across Sanmianliang from Baishigou. We will stay on the mountain for two days, hoping to hunt more prey.
It was just the beginning of winter and the prey were still fat and active. Both of them wanted to catch a muntjac or roe deer to take home so that they would have meat for the New Year.
But once again, things went against their wishes. Not only did they fail to catch the deer and the robe, they failed to even catch a wild boar. Only Lin Heng caught two grouse and Lin Yue caught three golden roosters.
"Could it be that there is no prey here?" Lin Yue began to doubt his life.
Lin Heng exhaled and said, "Maybe it's really possible."
It's really frustrating that we didn't find anything after two days of perseverance.
Lin Yue looked at the foggy sky and suggested, "Let's go to Sanchagou next Sunday."
"I have to go to the district to attend the commendation meeting, so I have to wait until December." Lin Heng shook his head.
(End of this chapter)
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