Chapter 27: Old Guī (2)

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  As Huang Xiaojun and others drove away, Song Wencai turned around and headed back home.

  Before entering the door, I heard a burst of laughter and scolding sounds coming from inside. Then I heard my little nephew's sweet voice calling out: "Grandma, I'm hungry."

  "Wait a bit, your uncle will be back and we'll have dinner then."

  "When is that uncle coming back."

  "Hurry up, little glutton."

  When Chen Xiuhui heard that her son had hit a wild boar, she rushed over to take a look. Xiao Huihui also shouted and wanted to come over. So, Chen Xiuhui brought Lin Qinglan and carried Xiao Huihui together to come over.

  Chen Xiuhui's cooking skills are not bad, the wild boar meat was stir-fried by her in various ways to create delicious dishes, including garlic shoots with meat slices, stir-fried wood ear with vinegar pork, sugar and vinegar ribs, and most importantly, there is also a large jar of braised meat.

  The braised meat in Nanzhou is famous, and it's usually made by elderly people who are good at it. However, these elderly people don't normally make it, they only do so when someone in the family has passed away and they go to help out with the funeral. Chen Xiuhui learned this skill by secretly watching them when she went to help out with funerals. Although her braised meat isn't as authentic as what the elderly people make, it's not much worse either.

  The most important thing in making braised meat is the fire control of caramelized sugar. If the caramelized sugar is well done, then the braised meat is almost half successful; if not, this pot of braised meat will be ruined. Song Wen still remembers that when his mother first made braised meat, she overcooked the caramelized sugar, so that the braised meat had a bitter taste, and they suffered for a while.

  Making braised pork is not very difficult, the main ingredient of braised pork is five-flower pork, also known as three-layer meat, one layer of lean meat, one layer of fat meat and another layer of lean meat, alternating between fatty and lean, with some mushrooms, garlic, and seasonings using soy sauce, oyster sauce, Sichuan pepper powder and a little salt.

  First, cut the pork belly into cubes of about 3-4 cm. Wash and clean the mushrooms, cutting the larger ones in half. Heat a pot with oil, then add sugar. Stir the sugar slowly until it dissolves completely. Once the sugar turns reddish-brown, add the pork, mushrooms, garlic, and Sichuan pepper powder, stirring to combine. When the pork is reddish-brown, add hot water to cover the meat, followed by light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and salt to taste. Braise until the meat is tender. The resulting braised pork is soft, fragrant, and savory, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture that's hard to resist.

  As soon as Song Wenyi came in, he smelled the strong braised meat aroma and his mouth began to water. He picked up his chopsticks and took a piece of meat into his mouth. Who knew that the braised meat had just been cooked and was still hot, scalding him so much that he cried out in pain. Xi sat at the table, staring straight at her uncle with wide eyes, then turned to glance at the kitchen before quickly turning back to grab a piece of pork and stuff it into her mouth, her sneaky expression making people laugh.

  At this time, Chen Xiuhui and Lin Qinglan brought out rice and dishes from the kitchen.

  "Xixi stood up straight and pointed at Song Wen, saying: 'Grandma, Uncle is stealing food.'"

  This little guy is crying out for help while being a thief himself.

  Chen Xiuhui glared at Song Wen with a bad temper, blaming him for corrupting the child.

  "Xi Xi is the most obedient, come on, grandma will feed you." Chen Xiu Hui smiled and handed him a bowl of food, then poked her head inside and called out: "A Shui, dinner's ready."

  After dinner, Xi Xi took over the TV. Generally, as long as the TV is turned on, cartoons are always played because he snatched the remote control and only likes to watch cartoons. The little guy sat cross-legged on the soft cushion, watching the cartoon with relish. Chen Xiu-hui and Lin Qing-lan sat beside him, knitting sweaters and chatting, while Song Yuan-shui was leisurely brewing tea on the side, occasionally glancing at the animation.

  Song Wen felt bored and remembered the trees in the parking lot, so he picked up his flashlight and went out.

  It's already the end of the month, and the weather has turned cold. Song Wen is wearing a short-sleeved shirt with an overcoat draped over it, but he can still feel a chill creeping in through his sleeves.

  The night wind is crisp and blows the bamboo branches swaying. In this moonless night sky, the silent mountains seem so eerie.

  Fortunately, there was still the sound of the creek water gurgling quietly, bringing a bit of life to this dark night. Otherwise, people with heart problems would have had an attack in this dead silence.

  Song Wen was not timid, when he was a kid, he once ran to the cemetery full of tombs just because his partner picked up some copper coins that looked good, and he didn't feel anything. This dark and quiet night, for him, is simply like a small thrill.

  Arriving at the parking lot, I took a look at those trees and felt that nothing should be wrong, so I put that dying old Osmanthus tree into the Ruyi fan and soaked it in the pool to try and see if it could be saved.

  Returned home, and then went to the backyard to inspect the big water buffalo and the small calf. Then came to the entrance of the hole dug by the little hedgehog, picked up the little hedgehog, wanting to put it into the Ruyi fan. Unexpectedly, the little guy was ungrateful, struggling desperately to return to its own hole, thinking that it didn't want to be confined in the small space of the Ruyi fan. Seeing that it was unwilling to go in, Song Wen also did not force it, and placed a few handfuls of dry grass at the entrance of the hole, so as not to let it catch cold, and then walked back into the house.

  As soon as he returned to the house, he saw the little dog on his bed, biting a pillow and running back and forth. Seeing Song Wen return, the little guy quickly put down the pillow and wagged its tail to please him. Song Wen picked it up in one motion, pinched its plump body hard, and then took it into the Ruyi fan.

  The day before yesterday, he dug up a pile of wild vegetables from the mountain that had not been planted yet and placed them by the pool. They still looked very fresh and didn't feel wilted at all.

  Suddenly, he found that on the side of the wild vegetables, there seemed to be some small things crawling around, as if eating the wild vegetables. Curious in his heart, he squatted down and looked closely, but it was a few young mountain crabs, strange in his heart, he didn't seem to have caught any small mountain crabs!

  At this time, he saw several large mountain crabs crawling around the edge of the pool, with a grass rope scattered beside them. It was only then that he suddenly realized that these were the mountain crabs he had caught last time, and he hadn't expected that they would multiply so quickly after being left uneaten in the pool. He looked at them for a moment, but didn't bother to intervene, deciding instead to let them settle down there. Who knows, maybe one day there will be too many mountain crabs to eat, and he won't have to go up the mountain to catch them anymore.

  Looked around and walked to the sweet potato seedlings, found that the vines of the sweet potato seedlings had grown very long, and the leaves were also very lush, all of which could be cut off for planting sweet potatoes.

  Then, he took out the fan and went to the backyard to find a hoe. In the peach blossom fan, he opened up row after row of sweet potato ridges and planted the cut sweet potato seedlings. There were five rows of red sweet potatoes and three rows of purple sweet potatoes. Along with the Qingming vegetables he had dug up and transplanted, they looked lush and green, a delightful sight. Those Qingming vegetables could indeed be grown inside, and they would soon bloom. After they bloomed, he would save the seeds, which could then be used for sowing. The tender shoots that grew afterwards were the most delicious.

  The next morning, he came to the Ruyi fan without brushing his teeth to check on the old Osmanthus tree. He found that the old Osmanthus tree was slowly recovering its vitality, some living roots became more vigorous, and some even sprouted new roots, but some roots were completely withered. After a closer inspection of the old Osmanthus tree, he discovered that although the lower roots were alive, they could not transport nutrients to the upper part of the tree, only reaching the outer skin that had been gnawed out by termites, and that layer of skin had already shown new vitality.

  Song Wen scratched the bark with his fingernail, and there was sap, much more than the dry green color he had seen before. However, even so, Lao Gui's situation is not optimistic, because the nutrients below cannot be transported to the top, and the branches above will slowly wither and die. It seems that we need to think of a way, otherwise, relying on Lao Gui to transport nutrients to the top, who knows how long it will take, maybe by then the branches above have already died, leaving only a tree trunk, what's the use? Can't even make a bonsai? This doesn't suit his taste.

  After fetching the fan, brushing his teeth and washing his face, he took the cleaned mouse cage and headed up the mountain to see if any bamboo rats had been caught or wild boars had fallen into the trap.

  But it's clear that the good fortune of a whole family of wild boars falling into traps like yesterday is not something that can happen every day. Not one of the wild boar traps was damaged, but the tender bamboo shoots placed on top were eaten clean, and he added some more. Then he inspected all the mouse traps in the bamboo forest, and finally only caught two bamboo mice. Well, it's better than nothing.

  After checking the mouse cage, Song Wen put down the mouse cage he brought and saw that the original bamboo shoots used as bait were a bit old, so he replaced them again. Then he took the caught bamboo mice out of the bamboo forest.