In the kitchen, as soon as Li Min steamed the pumpkin, Tian Jing assigned him the task of cleaning the pot and lighting the fire.
"Don't have dinner?" Li Min didn't understand. Dinner is ready, why not eat it while it's hot?
"Hurry up and work." Tian Jing didn't answer her.
Li Min could only clean the pot and continue to light the fire.
Tian Jing scooped up the hot water from the clay pot and poured it into the pot, then poured in the pork and urged Li Min to start the fire.
Li Min howled while adding firewood, "Sister-in-law, there are ten pounds of meat, do you want to eat it all in one go?"
"No." Tian Jing was finally willing to explain to her, "I don't have peppercorns and other aniseed ingredients at home, so I decided to stew them all at once. I would eat as much as I could eat the first time, and the rest would be stewed with cabbage and vermicelli."
Li Min breathed a sigh of relief, but when she thought about it, she would have no more meat during the Chinese New Year, and she felt a little uncomfortable because her sister-in-law was too spendthrift.
Li Zhengguo had already entered the kitchen for a while. Seeing that Tiantian had already given an explanation and his sister still looked disapproving, he scolded his sister, "Shut up, there's a lot of nonsense."
Li Min pursed her lips, lowered her head and continued to light the fire.
After the pork had passed through the water, he fished it out on a drawer to control the water, and brushed the pot to refine the oil. Tian Jing said to Li Zhengguo who was standing aside, "You and your mother will eat first. I'll be done here in about ten minutes. The pork liver is cold."
It's fishy. After eating, I can help your mother out for a walk to digest."
Li Zhengguo stretched out his hand and lifted Li Min up from the stove, "You go, I'll light the fire."
Li Min went to serve her mother silently, while her elder brother was angry.
When Li Min left with the basin, Li Zhengguo said to Tian Jing, "I'm sorry, she didn't know that you shot this wild boar."
"It doesn't matter." Tian Jing didn't care, "She is also a person who is afraid of living a hard life. Just wait until I go up the mountain again and encounter prey and then hunt it back."
Li Zhengguo was speechless. Just now, he disliked his sister's nagging. Now, he couldn't say that Tian Jing was not allowed to go. Moreover, when they were on the mountain, he promised not to follow.
I couldn't help it, so I could only say, "It's too dangerous."
"Don't worry." Tian Jing knew that he meant that the prey was too big. She was in a hurry to go into the mountains today and ignored the hares and pheasants she encountered on the road.
"I encountered this wild boar by chance. I'm not stupid. Why would I take other people to eat meat? I'll hunt some hares and pheasants and come back. I'll peel the rabbit skins and salt them to make knee pads for your mother, or piece them together to make the lining of a cotton coat."
"Okay, I'll do it for you too." Li Zhengguo smiled at Tian Jing, Tiantian liked to see him smile.
Looking at the person who was smiling happily, Tian Jing smiled and said, "Okay, hit more, you know how to sharpen your skin, right?"
"Yes." The smile on Li Zhengguo's face became even bigger.
Tian Jing lowered her head to work, scooping the oil residue into a large bowl and ladling the lard into an enamel basin.
Just put the oil in the pot, add the minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, put the pumpkin vines that I planned to eat at noon but didn't eat into the pot and fry them. I wanted to use the starch, but the slurry has not settled yet, so I just fried them casually.
Brush the pan with oil, add the meat to the pan and stir-fry until all the seasonings are in the pan.
After mixing the hot water in the clay pot, the water surface was not enough, so I added some cold water and said, "Add more firewood and let it simmer slowly. Let's go eat."
"Okay." Li Zhengguo added the firewood on the stove, washed his hands, followed Tian Jing to the main room with fried pumpkin vines.
In the east room, Mother Li had already finished her meal. She ate a small piece of pork liver and a large piece of steamed pumpkin, but did not dare to eat any more for fear of overeating and accumulating food.
When I saw my son and daughter-in-law coming in, I quickly called them to sit down and eat.
Tian Jing looked at the pork liver that was missing and asked, "You didn't eat it?"
"I ate a small piece. It tasted good. Minmin didn't eat it." Li's mother replied while carefully observing Tian Jing's face. Her daughter was in trouble again.
Tian Jing picked up a piece of pork liver and put it into Li Min's bowl, "You are like this. If you go to Tian's house, you will starve to death. Mrs. Tian's food is all shared by Mrs. Tian herself, so you can only eat half full."
"Those who are soft-tempered will be robbed of their food by those who are aggressive. Mr. Tian and Mrs. Tian never ask questions. People who cannot protect their food are incompetent and should not be taken seriously."
Li Min lowered his head, said thank you in a low voice, and started eating.
Tian Jing was irritated by this air of being a doormat, "Li Min, people who give themselves a hard time are the stupidest people. If your eldest brother can hunt a wild boar, he can hunt hares and pheasants. I will help him in the future."
If you use cover, your family will not be short of meat, do you understand?"
Li Min raised his head, tears welling up in his eyes, "Sister-in-law, I'm sorry, it's just my small-mindedness."
"It's okay. I don't care. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said so much nonsense to you. After dinner, go and put away the oil residue and the basin of oil."
"Also, if you owe anything to anyone, tell your elder brother. In two days we will go to the county town, buy it and return it to them. If you have anything special you want, tell your elder brother."
Tian Jing dropped the bomb and continued to eat. She also wanted to eat more pork liver to replenish her blood.
Li's mother and Li Min were stunned, as if they didn't understand what Tian Jing said.
It took a long time for the two of them to realize, "You, me, our family has no money."
Tian Jing ignored them and continued to eat.
Li Zhengguo coughed slightly and lowered his voice and said, "When you go to the county town and exchange the things in Tiantian's hands, you will have money."
"No!" Mother Li's eyes were fixed on Tian Jing's neck. The red rope looked like an ancient weaving technique. How could it be taken out and replaced?
Li Min followed her mother's gaze, then looked at her eldest brother in disbelief, "Brother?"
How can the eldest brother exchange the sister-in-law's things for money? It's so, so shameless.
Tian Jing pulled out the rope around her neck and revealed the small key, "This is not even ten grams, and it only costs forty or fifty yuan when sold. Can it be considered rich?"
Forty or fifty yuan is not considered rich, but how much is considered rich?
Tian Jing understood the expressions of the mother and daughter opposite, and she stuffed the key back into her collar.
"In short, don't worry about it. Comrade Li Zhengguo and I know how to live a good life. The good times are yet to come."
"No matter who asks anything from now on, you just don't know anything. Once you know the secret, if you can't keep it, the whole family will be in trouble."
When Mother Li heard that it was a secret, she stopped caring. She stared at the bowl of green paste on the kang table, "Is this the pumpkin vine?"
"Yes, you try it." Tian Jing took a chopstick first. Although there was no rice noodles, it was delicious after being stimulated by her super power.
Mother Li picked up the chopsticks again. After taking a bite, she picked up two more chopsticks before reluctantly putting them down. She couldn't eat anymore, so she urged her daughter.
"Minmin, eat quickly and help me go out for a walk after eating. I feel stronger in the past two days. I want to recuperate my body and help your elder brother and sister-in-law take care of the children in the future."
Cough, cough, cough, Tian Jing and Li Zhengguo both choked and coughed.
Across the way, Li Min, who was happily eating pumpkin vines, heard her mother say this and blinked at the two people who were choking.
Then her mother said, "Yes, this is a very good idea. You will have a bright future, right?"
"That's right, from the day your sister-in-law came in, our family's life has been in full swing."
Mother Li's face was full of longing, as if she had seen the days when her children and grandchildren were around her knees.