Four Foods in the Mountains

There were still some meat buyers in the Wu family's yard, so Brother Zhu's voice was not too loud.

But Wu Erhe, a tall and burly man, lowered his head when he heard Brother Zhu's voice trembling. He didn't ask Brother Zhu which piece he wanted, and just cut the pork belly and wrapped it up.

He said in a muffled voice, "Plum blossom meat is sold out, and this piece of meat is the best leftover."

Brother Zhu nodded and took the meat, took out a copper plate from his pocket and handed it over.

"No need to—"

Brother Zhu interrupted before finishing a sentence: "Did my mother come to your house last time for nothing?"

Wu Erhe immediately lowered his head and dared not make a sound.

Sister Xi looked at her brother and shook her head, stepped forward to take the money from Brother Zhu, neatly wrapped a pair of pig intestines and stuffed it into Brother Zhu's basket, and said with a smile: "Brother Zhu, you Take some large intestines back home and fry them together, I remember my aunt likes to eat this."

Since she hadn't officially married yet, Sister Xi didn't change her mind.

Brother Zhu took it with a smile, thanked her, and asked Cen Ning: "Ning'er, have you bought it yet? Alright, let's go together."

Cen Ning nodded, and handed over the copper coins for buying pork belly to Sister Xi.

The two of them were about to turn around and leave, but Brother Zhu suddenly turned around and said to Wu Erhe, "I'm leaving."

"Oh, good..." Wu Erhe raised his head overwhelmed by the flattery, he was speechless for a while, and almost said that he would come back next time he bought meat.

Seeing his stupid look, Brother Zhu raised the corners of his mouth, and left with his arm on Cen Ning.

Since the incident with Mrs. Li last time, Cen Ning hadn't seen Brother Zhu for half a month. When we met, he lowered his voice and asked, "How are you recently?"

"Okay," Brother Zhu said, "Eat and drink well every day, and we'll get married in the next year."

He knew what Cen Ning wanted to ask, and after joking, he said, "Don't worry, my family is fine. In the past, my mother always talked about family and everything was going well, and she let my brother and sister-in-law do whatever they wanted. Bear with it, I'm always afraid that there will be a quarrel and others will see it as a joke, what happened last time completely lifted our family's fig leaf, but now I feel comfortable."

Cen Ning nodded and said nothing.

Brother Zhu understood what he was thinking and said: "You don't need to apologize, it was me who did the thing last time, and I would rush to do it on the spot. Now I stay in my room every day to embroider the wedding dress, and I rarely meet with my brother and sister-in-law. , and don’t need to help coax the children. After my brother and sister-in-law were taught a lesson last time, they were afraid that my parents would be anxious to separate the family. Recently, they have become very honest and are willing to do the housework. My parents and I Much easier."

Only then did Cen Ning feel more comfortable: "That's good. After all, this matter has nothing to do with you and Aunt Qian. Although I'm annoyed at your sister-in-law, I'm also afraid that the troubles during the New Year's Day will make your family uneasy."

"Don't worry, it's okay, I'm annoying my sister-in-law, so I haven't gone to play with you recently, it will be fine when I get married in the next year." Brother Zhu smiled and took Cen Ning's arm.

Speaking of getting married, Cen Ning recalled the scene at the Wu family just now, and said softly: "I see that the second boy of the Wu family is very good, and he looks very reliable."

"That's right." Brother Zhu said with a big smile, "My mother also saw that he was honest and willing to work, and his family was also rich, so she helped me make a marriage two years ago, fearing that he would be robbed by others." Go. You don’t know, he’s a big man with no temper, he’s boring, and he’s good at butchering pigs at home. He can enjoy the happiness of any girl or brother who marries him, and he’s very popular in our village.”

"But he likes you." Cen Ning said with a smile, thinking of the way Wu Erhe didn't dare to raise his head in front of Brother Zhu and only secretly looked up.

"I'm not bad, he should like it too." Brother Zhu was not at all shy, smiling happily while holding Cen Ning's arm.

The two chatted and walked home as usual.

Brother Zhu didn't follow Cen Ning to sit at Lu's house, he walked to the gate of his own courtyard, he waved at Cen Ning, and walked into the courtyard with a few steps.

Mrs. Li took Mr. Mori to play in the yard, Brother Zhu passed them into the kitchen, and said to Aunt Qian, "Mother, the meat is back."

"Have you received the money yet?" Aunt Qian asked.

"Accepted, Sister Xi filled a pair of pig intestines, and I also accepted."

Aunt Qian nodded: "It's okay to put the pig into the water, and you must pay for the meat."

In the yard, Mrs. Li hugged her son and snorted coldly.

Brother Zhu and Aunt Qian ignored it and talked as usual.

"Wu Erhe cut the pork belly for me. Let's stew the braised pork for lunch. Save the pig's intestines for frying tomorrow."

"Sure, it happens that there are candies at home, so let's cook a pot of meat today."

At noon, Qian Daddy and Qian Da came back from the mountain carrying firewood.

Father Qian was getting old, and he couldn't stand chopping firewood all day on the mountain, so he had to come back for a break at noon.

When Father Qian came back, Qian Daben couldn't bear the hardship of cutting firewood on the mountain, so he naturally followed him back.

The two of them unloaded and sat down, Brother Zhu brought the tea that had been brewed in advance to Father Qian, Qian Dahei looked at him, seeing that he didn't have his share, he said to Mrs Li: "Go pour me a cup The tea should be thicker, with some sugar in it."

Li frowned and said: "Didn't you see me holding my son, you don't have long hands?"

Qian Da sat on the bench and endured for a while, then went to the kitchen by himself.

At noon, Aunt Qian made a pot of braised pork, put sugar cubes in it and stewed it. Winter is coming, so I need to eat something good to nourish my body.

The braised pork was brought to the table together with the steamed bun and vegetable soup. As usual, Mrs. Li took a small bowl, put a full bowl aside and put it aside to cool down, waiting to feed her son.

No one at the table said anything. In the past, Brother Zhu and Father Qian and Aunt Qian both intentionally left more meat for Boy Sen. Two bites are enough for him to taste. After all, he is an adult, how can he be with his own meat? The child snatches his mouth.

Mrs. Li would fill bowl after bowl with Mr. Sen's small bowl. Mr. Mr. Sen was still young, and he couldn't eat any more delicious food. Mrs. Li would eat the rest of the meat by himself, or Mrs. Qian eat.

Brother Zhu and Father Qian and Aunt Qian also felt nothing, after all, their son and daughter-in-law gave birth to a grandson for the Qian family.

But today, Brother Zhu didn't even look up, he picked up two pieces of meat with his chopsticks and put them in Aunt Qian's bowl, and he also picked up a piece and stuffed it into his mouth.

There is not much meat in a pot, and only half of it is left after a few chopsticks.

But Brother Zhu's chopsticks didn't stop, he swallowed a piece of meat in his mouth and picked up another piece.

Li Shi looked at the rice in the bowl sullenly, and bumped Qian Da with his elbow.

Qian Da is a strong outsider, and he dared to fight Brother Zhu last time because of the atmosphere at that time. Now, in broad daylight, if he wants to fight Brother Zhu because of a few pieces of meat, he is afraid that Brother Zhu will get angry and play with him. .

Seeing her husband's wimpy and silent expression, Mrs. Li felt even more depressed. She thought of a way, laughed and picked up a piece of meat to feed to her son, and asked, "Is the meat delicious?"

"Delicious!" Mori swallowed a piece and opened his mouth wide.

Li smiled and said: "Then you eat slowly, the remaining half of the pot is yours, no one will grab it from you, don't worry."

A fool can hear the implication.

Brother Zhu sneered in his heart, and without changing his face, he went to pick up two pieces in the pot, picked out the big ones, and stuffed the meat into his mouth while looking at Boy Sen and said: "Your mother is wrong, the meat is from home. What you buy with money is for everyone to eat, not for you alone, do you understand?"

With meat in his mouth, Mori nodded foolishly.

He was young and ignorant, seeing that there was still a lot of meat in his small bowl, and brother Zhu had brought him so many people to get close to him, so he didn't cry.

Mrs. Li hated that iron could not be made into steel, poked the rice in the bowl with chopsticks, and said in a low voice, "After marrying into the Wu family, I can eat as much meat as I want, why bother to compete with a child for meat here."

Brother Zhu didn't speak, just pretended he didn't hear, and ate on his own, the braised pork was fat but not greasy, it melted in the mouth, the gravy soaked in the rice was even sweeter.

He ate one piece after another under Li's increasingly resentful eyes, and he didn't forget to give his parents a pinch: "You two do the most work at home, so eat more meat."

After eating a bowl of rice, Brother Zhu took the bowl into the kitchen, feeling refreshed.

People are also strange, when there was no trouble, he could tolerate everything from his brother and sister-in-law, and he had almost become a habit of it, and he didn't feel that such a life was bad.But once there is a quarrel, it will be so unpleasant to look at, whoever wants to bear it, anyway, he will not bear it anymore.

In the courtyard of the Lu family, Cen Ning washed the pork belly he bought in clean water.

Pig offal is delicious, but it is troublesome to wash, and it smells fishy if it is not cleaned.

Cen Ning rinsed it several times in clean water. His hands were numb from the cold of the well water. He ran into the kitchen to scoop up a few scoops of hot water and poured it on the pork belly to scrape off the oil. Finally, he rubbed salt on the inside and outside of the pork belly. , Rinse thoroughly with water after rubbing.

Cen Ning put the washed pork belly in the kitchen, washed his hands and continued to sew Lu Yunchuan's cotton coat and trousers in the room.

Cotton clothes and trousers are stuffed full of cotton, and the elbows and knees are specially made thicker.

It's easy to make a man's clothes without fancy clothes. Cen Ning finally got out before the beginning of winter, so that Lu Yunchuan didn't have to suffer from the cold when he went up to the mountain to cut firewood.

Don't worry about the cotton shoes, he will give Lu Yunchuan a thick sole before it snows, so that his feet won't get chilblains in winter.

Before it was dark, Lu Yunchuan came back with a pile of bundled firewood and put it into the granary.

The granary at home is actually a room specially set up for storing things. There are vegetables cooked by Cen Ning in the sun, as well as pumpkins and sweet potatoes pulled from the ground some time ago.

The other half of the granary is full of firewood, which Lu Yunchuan went up the mountain to chop in the past few days.

Farmers, these are indispensable things for winter.

Cen Ning served the stewed white radish and pork belly soup to the table.

The soup was thick and white and steaming hot, Lu Yunchuan washed his hands and walked into the main room: "It smells so good."

"Pork belly soup is the most delicious. You can drink a few more bowls while it's hot." Cen Ning put another basket of white flour steamed buns on the table. The Winter Fair is open, let’s sell it together with the firewood, maybe it will sell well.”

"Listen to you." Lu Yunchuan drank a bowl of soup in two gulps, "When the cabbage is collected before Xiaoxue, we will carry the firewood along with the radish and cabbage to the fair to sell."

Few of the towns have their own vegetable plots. In winter, if you want to eat fresh vegetables, you have to go to the store to buy them, especially cabbage. This kind of food can be eaten for a long time, and it is especially easy to sell in winter. Every household has to stock up on some.

When the heavy snow fell, it was snowing heavily outside the house, and every household was nestled in a warm house with a kang.

The whole family was joking or chatting, the cabbage stew in the boiler next to it was gurgling, and the tenderness of the cabbage was wrapped in the fragrance of the meat, and it warmed up the whole body after taking a bite.