Siheyuan: The Temptation of the Mountains

"As long as we have meat to eat, it's fine. The mountains behind the village have been uneasy these past few days, so forget about the wine."

Ge Er waved his hand and said with a smile, "Let Zhao Ming guard the shack alone tonight. I don't know how scared he will be."

"After the wolves go down the mountain, there shouldn't be any other dangers, right?" Lin Fuqiang was not very clear about this. He looked towards the mountains behind the village, still full of vigilance.

Lin Ze went back home with his grandfather. Liu Ying had already prepared the dish and the braised wolf meat was still delicious.

"Xiao Ze, I'll use your milk to tan these two wolf skins and let you wear them as cloaks in the winter." Lin Changgui was full of pride in his grandson's abilities.

Liu Ying also nodded, "Wolf fur coat, my eldest grandson will look so handsome in it."

For dinner, Lin Wen and Lin Wu came over again to eat. They had eaten porridge at home, but they didn't eat Sanhe flour pancakes when they came to Lin Changgui's house.

But they were all greedy for Liu Ying's braised wolf meat. Each of them ate three pieces. It had seasonings picked by Lin Ze. Liu Ying's cooking skills were much better than Wang Erni's.

The wolf meat stewed with peppers has no sour taste at all. It is spicy and delicious, making people want to swallow their tongues.

"Grandma, I want to come here to eat every day!" Lin Wen licked his fingers and said obediently.

"You wish. It was almost the same when your brother Ze was here." Liu Ying rolled her eyes at Lin Wen and looked at Lin Ze as if he was looking at a treasure.

"Brother Ze, don't go back to the city, just stay in the village. The village is so nice, there are so many delicious foods in the mountains..."

Lin Wu took the piece of meat that Lin Ze had given him and chewed it slowly.

Lin Ze ate the meat with equal relish. He nodded and shook his head.

"I also want to stay in the village for a few more days, but my grandparents' food supply is running low. My parents' family in the city have eaten all the fish and probably have no meat left. I have to send them some meat."

After Lin Ze finished speaking, he looked at the whole wolf meat pickled in the corner of Lin Changgui's kitchen.

"You should take it home. I'll bring some meat back to your parents tomorrow. If you want to come again, what's the problem?"

Lin Changgui took a sip of Fenjiu, then picked up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it into his mouth and chewed it carefully.

"Yeah." Lin Ze nodded, picked up a piece of mushrooms that Liu Ying had specially fried for him, and put it in his mouth. The matsutake was so delicious that he almost bit off his tongue.

At night, he soaked his feet in the water that Lin Wen and Lin Wu prepared for him. After he finished soaking his feet, Lin Wen and Lin Wu took over. By the time the two younger ones had finished soaking their feet, the water was black and muddy.

Lin Wen and Lin Wu wore straw sandals during the day, but their shoes always fell off, so most of the time they simply didn't wear shoes and walked barefoot in the village.

The next day, Lin Ze returned to the village with a whole skinned wolf in his backpack. Lin Musheng drove the ox cart and Ge Er saw him off with a gun.

Lin Ze was still a young boy after all, carrying so much weight, and Ge Er was worried that he would be robbed on the road.

Although guns were not controlled in the countryside in those days, Lin Ze could not bring a shotgun into the city.

Ge Er was lying next to Lin Ze, holding a cigarette made of leaves and newspapers in his mouth. He took a deep puff and choked, causing him to cough repeatedly.

"Brother Ze, next time you come back to the village, you must bring me a box of cigarettes."

It was no secret that Lin Ze brought cigarettes for Grandpa Lin, and this was something that made all the old men in the village envious.

Lin Changgui cherishes his cigarettes very much and rarely gives them to others.

"You call my eldest nephew "brother", so shouldn't you call me "uncle"? " Lin Musheng asked cheerfully while driving the ox cart.

"Bah, bah, let's talk about our own things. Your nephew and I are brothers. That doesn't prevent you and I from being brothers. These are two different matters." Ge Er snorted.

Lin Ze found it funny, and he imitated Ge Er, crossing his legs. He picked a dogtail grass from where the ox cart passed by, and chewed it carefully.

The ox cart swayed all the way, and Lin Ze gradually fell asleep.

When they reached the city gate, Lin Musheng woke up Lin Ze.

Seeing Lin Ze opened his eyes in a daze, Ge Er looked at him with amusement, "Brother Ze, we have reached the city gate, you can carry the meat back home by yourself."

Lin Ze rubbed his eyes and looked at the watch on his wrist. "10:, Uncle, Brother Ge, do you want to come to my house for lunch?"

Ge Er and Lin Musheng shook their heads repeatedly. "We still have things to do in the village. We will definitely have a good meal at your house next time."

Ge Er touched the gun in his arms and said, "It's too troublesome to register when you bring a gun into the city. I won't bring a gun next time."

Lin Ze nodded, put on the backpack and went into the city.

Lin Ze walked along Dongzhimen towards Nanluoguxiang. He quietly put more than 30 kilograms of wolf meat into the space in a remote place and chopped off the upper half with the wolf head.

He put the lower half back into the backpack. Lin Ze removed the hair from the wild boar meat in the space, cut off the half with the pig head, and stuffed it into the backpack as well.

Half a pig of wild boar meat weighs fifty to sixty kilograms, plus more than ten kilograms of wolf meat. Lin Ze was so tired that he was sweating profusely.

Fortunately, he saw an acquaintance from afar, the director of the street office, Wang Ting, riding a bicycle, "Hey, Lin's boy, what are you carrying?!"

"What a big pig head! Where did you get this pork, Lin family boy?"

Lin Ze said, "Aunt Wang, I caught this pig from a trap set on the hill behind my grandfather's house."

"Your grandfather's home? I remember your hometown is quite far from the city. It takes you half a day to walk there. You must be exhausted, right?" Wang Ting said as she got off the bicycle. "Come on, put the meat on the back seat. Auntie Wang will help you carry the meat."

Lin Ze did not refuse. He and Wang Ting were quite familiar with each other. "Auntie, let's go to the purchasing station first. I want to exchange all this meat for tickets."

"Xiao Ze, you can sell some of this meat to your Aunt Wang. You know what kind of person your aunt is. I will never let you suffer a loss."

"Okay, we'll go to the purchasing station later. I'll follow you, Aunt Wang."

The two talked as they walked and soon arrived at the purchasing station.

The staff at the purchasing station had not seen so much meat for a long time, and they quickly called out Du Tao, the manager in the back office.

These days, the meat from meat processing plants is directly sold to the purchasing departments of major factories, so it is difficult for the purchasing stations to receive much good stuff.

Manager Du Tao was delighted. He asked, "Director Wang, what brings you here?"

"I'm a little boy. I set a trap in the mountains and caught a wild boar. I want to exchange some notes from you. What do you think..." Wang Ting took Lin Ze's backpack off the back seat of the bicycle.

"Oh, such old pork. Hey, what's the meat underneath?"

Du Tao picked up the pig's front legs and took half of the wild boar out of the backpack.

"Dog meat, are you going to take it?" Lin Ze said.

"Yes, of course I should. Dog meat hotpot is a very nutritious food." Du Tao rubbed his hands.

"Brother, our purchasing station buys pork at 5 cents per pound. You have pork and dog meat. I won't sell it to others. I'll give you 8 cents per pound. Next time you have something good, come and sell it to our purchasing station. What do you think?"