In the kitchen, when Xu Ma and Lu Ma were about to cook, Xu Ning said, "Mom, Aunt Lu, you just need to make some pancakes. Yesterday, I went to the city and saw that no one wanted the pork offal sold there, but there was also a pig's head, so I bought it and braised it this afternoon. I also added some potatoes and kelp. You should eat it while it's hot. Here are two kilograms of wine. It's cold today and no one is going out. Let my dad and Uncle Lu accompany Grandpa Qi to drink." After saying that, he put the dishes on the table and took out the wine from the backpack.
Xu Ma and Lu Ma saw two large pots of vegetables sticking out from the table, one of which was full of meat, and asked, "Why is there so much meat?"
Xu Ning said, "This is not good meat, it's pig's head and pig's offal. Call Grandpa Qi to come and eat it, it will get cold soon. You don't have to cook tomorrow night. I still have half a pot of stewed meat today. I will bring it to you tomorrow night. We will go back first. Xiao Mo is home alone." After saying that, he and Xu An went back.
A few people looked at each other, and it was Aunt Xu who said, "Go and call Uncle Qi out to eat. It's snowing today, so there shouldn't be many people coming here. You can just drink with Uncle Qi."
Xu Ning returned home and scooped a bowl and started eating. He asked Xu An and Xu Mo if they wanted to eat more. , both of them shook their heads, they had not yet digested what they had just eaten.
Over at the cowshed, Xu Ma and Lu Ma saw two large pots of food on the table. They put the cabbages that had just been washed but not yet put into the pot, added water into the pot, and put a circle of cornmeal cakes on the edge.
Dad Xu and Dad Lu had already invited Grandpa Seven to come out and sit at the table. Dad Xu brought over the jar of wine, and Dad Lu went to get three bowls. He filled one bowl and poured half a bowl into two other bowls, which was enough for two or three mouthfuls.
Father Xu handed the full bowl to Grandpa Qi and said with a smile, "Uncle Qi, Ningning brought this wine. She said it was snowing today and the weather was cold, so she wanted you to drink some to warm yourself up. Brother Lu and I will drink with you."
Dad Lu also picked up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it in Grandpa Qi's bowl, saying, "This is Ningning's braised pig head and pig offal. Come and try it."
Grandpa Qi picked up the bowl, took a big sip of wine, took a bite of meat, and said, "It's been many years since I had such good wine and eaten such delicious meat. When your Aunt Qi was alive, she made such delicious pork head for me." After saying that, he stared at the Daqing Mountain with empty eyes for a long time. It was the voice of Dad Lu persuading him to eat the food that brought him back from his memories.
Several people started drinking again and learned about Grandpa Qi's past. He fled to Yushu Village more than 40 years ago. His family members were lost on the way. He was found by Chen the hunter from Yushu Village when he was looking for food in Daqing Mountain. Chen the hunter saw that he was young and was afraid that he would be eaten by wild beasts in the mountains, so he brought him back. When Grandpa Qi was 15 years old, Chen the hunter died. Grandpa Qi went to work for a wealthy family in the city to fill his stomach. The young boy was at the age when he could eat, and the meals given by the master were all fixed. His stomach was rumbling all day long. One night he was so hungry that he wanted to go to the kitchen to see if there was any leftovers from the master. Before he even got to the kitchen, he smelled a strong aroma. Grandpa Qi couldn't help but secretly peek inside through the crack in the window. He saw a young cook opening the lid of the pot and stirring the meat while muttering, "You're almost 200 pounds, and you still have to eat pig heads in the middle of the night. How come you haven't died of obesity?"
Grandpa Qi knew that she was talking about the third young master in the mansion. The young cook was good at braised meat and was hired by the mansion to cook braised dishes. Smelling the overbearing aroma inside, Grandpa Qi couldn't help but open the window wider and wider until the young cook inside saw him and exclaimed. The young cook recognized him and asked, "It's so late, why don't you rest and run to the kitchen?"
Grandpa Qi swallowed his saliva and looked at the meat in the pot. The young cook knew that he was hungry, so she took a large bowl, scooped out a large piece of pork head, cut it on the chopping board, put it in the bowl, scooped a spoonful of soup, brought it to the table, and said to him, "Eat it," and took two steamed buns from the basket to him. Grandpa Qi gobbled it up and thanked the young cook embarrassedly. The young cook told him to find her in the kitchen when he was hungry next time. In this way, the two became familiar with each other in the mansion. There were wars everywhere in those years and it was very uneasy. The master of the mansion planned to go to the south and dismissed everyone in the mansion. The young cook's family was not from the local area. She had only one brother in her hometown who had been married for many years. She ran away because her sister-in-law wanted to sell her.
Over the past few years, the two of them had been living together in the mansion and had long had feelings for each other, so they got married. They also saved some money in the mansion, especially the young cook's cooking was good, and the masters and mistresses often gave her tips. The two of them discussed renting a shop with a yard in the city, selling braised dishes in the front and living in the back. Although the world was not peaceful, the young cook's cooking skills were good and the business was still decent.
One year after they got married, the cook became pregnant, so Grandpa Qi stopped letting her go to the front and asked her to braise the dishes while he worked alone in the front.
A few months passed like this. Five or six burly men came when the shop was about to close in the evening. One of the drunken men accidentally revealed their plan to go to Yushu Village to rob food the next night. The other leading man glared at them fiercely, and then they paid the bill and left. Before leaving, the leading man glanced at Grandpa Qi.
Grandpa Qi calmed himself down, smiled and sent the few people away, then immediately went back to the backyard and told the little cook what had just happened. The people of Elm Village had done him a favor, and he couldn't just ignore it. He wanted to go back and report the news overnight, but when he thought of the way the leader looked at him when he left, he was worried about leaving the little cook here alone.
The autumn harvest had just ended and all the grain was stored in the village granary. If the bandits took away the grain, the villagers would have no way to survive, so he immediately packed up his things and rushed to Yushu Village with the little cook.
The path they took went around Daqing Mountain and ended up at Yushu Village. At the time, they were busy returning to the village to report the news and did not notice someone following them.
By the time the two men found out, they were almost at Daqing Mountain. Grandpa Qi asked the little cook to hide in Daqing Mountain while he walked to Yushu Village alone. He ran fast and could report the news earlier. The little cook knew that he wanted to lead people away, so she nodded and agreed. The little cook hid on the hillside above Daqing Mountain and watched Grandpa Qi run away. Then she saw the two people following them running over. She immediately pretended to be panicked and ran up the mountain. When the two men found out, they immediately chased after them. In this way, the little cook led the two people around in the mountains. When Grandpa Qi ran to Yushu Village, he felt something was wrong and immediately knocked on a family's door and asked him to go find the village chief and tell him about the bandits coming to rob food. Then she turned around and ran the same way she came.
By the time it ran up the mountain along the same path it came from, the little cook had accidentally fallen off the cliff. Grandpa Qi immediately went over to fight with the two men, and the villagers followed behind, tied up the two men and handed them over to the police station. Later, they followed the clues and wiped out the bandits' lair, but the little cook and the baby in her belly were gone, and Grandpa Qi also became lame in the fight with the two men.
After hearing this, Father Xu and Father Lu remained silent. Grandpa Qi took another sip of wine and said, "Xu girl is a good and capable child."
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