Last night, practically the entire Li Dazhu family hadn't gone to sleep until well after midnight. There was no helping it... By the time Li Dazhu and his wife Zhang Yuniang, along with Li Menglan and her siblings, had finished roughly processing the wild boar meat, the hour was already late.
Li Menglan was the youngest, and her eyelids had long been fighting to stay open. Her mother, feeling sorry for her daughter, urged Li Menglan, Li Zhiming, Li Zhihao, and Zhang Wenli to wash up and go to sleep.
As for the elderly folks at home—Li Fujin, Old Man Zhang, Lin Sanniang, and Wang Shi—they were too old to endure staying up late and had already gone to bed.
This... naturally didn't include Old Master Zhao. After all, who would ask the Zhao family's old master to stay up late helping with work?
Only after Li Menglan promised to make him something delicious the next day did Old Master Zhao return, fully satisfied, to the guest room that Li Menglan had arranged for him.
Because she had slept so late last night, by the time Li Menglan got up, the sky was already bright. "Good morning, Grandpa, Grandma, Grandpa Zhang, Grandma, Grandpa Zhao!" Li Menglan walked out of her room and into the courtyard, rubbing her eyes, still not fully awake.
"Good granddaughter, why didn't you sleep a bit more? It's still early!" Li Fujin glanced at Li Menglan with concern.
"That's right! Girl Lan, your grandpa is right. It's still early, go get some more sleep." Old Man Zhang chimed in from the side.
That the Li and Zhang families could live in such good houses and eat their fill with every meal—all of this was thanks to Li Menglan. Every single member of the Li and Zhang families, young and old, knew this perfectly well. Everyone had originally doted on Li Menglan very much, but recently they had become even more attentive to her.
"No need, Grandpa, Grandpa Zhang. There's still a lot to do at home today. When things are less busy in the future, I'll laze in bed every day and not get up." Li Menglan said with a smile.
Li Menglan suddenly remembered something. "Grandpa Zhao, does your Zhao Ji Restaurant want to buy the cured meat I make? I guarantee it will be delicious."
Li Menglan thought about the two big wild boars from yesterday. After cleaning them, they had actually weighed over four hundred and eighty jin! Apart from giving seven or eight jin of meat to the three Wang brothers—Wang Tiezhu, Wang Tongzhu, and Wang Tongtou—who had come to help, as well as Uncle Laocheng's family, there were still roughly four hundred and fifty jin left even by the most generous count.
Naturally, they couldn't eat so much meat just by themselves. Keeping one wild boar at home was more than enough. Li Menglan planned to sell the other one, and Old Master Zhao before her naturally became her first choice.
Heh... At this moment, Li Menglan simply didn't remember... these two wild boars had been hunted and killed by Old Master Zhao himself, and had absolutely nothing to do with her.
Li Menglan might not remember, and Old Master Zhao didn't care about such matters in the slightest; but that didn't mean Li Dazhu had forgotten...
Li Menglan's words stunned Li Dazhu, who had just walked into the courtyard. "Daughter... uh... those two wild boars were hunted by your Grandpa Zhao, you..."
Li Dazhu didn't finish his sentence. He was afraid his daughter would feel embarrassed and lose face. He just rubbed his hands awkwardly. His daughter recently seemed to have fallen into a money-grubbing frenzy. A hint of dark red appeared on Li Dazhu's dark face.
Li Dazhu's words gave Li Menglan a start, but she quickly acted as if nothing had happened. She said cheerfully, "Dad, I know! But you've probably forgotten one thing..."
Li Menglan reminded her honest father, "Old Master is currently a guest in our family, isn't that right, Grandpa Zhao?"
Li Menglan kicked the ball to Old Master Zhao's feet. She wanted to see how he would resolve this matter.
If... if Old Master Zhao's solution wasn't to her satisfaction... hmph... Li Menglan decided she would never make him anything delicious again—she'd starve him with longing!
Fortunately, Old Master Zhao still remembered that Li Menglan had said she would make him something delicious today. "Haha... Nephew, if you say that, this old man will really die of shame. Lan'er is absolutely right. This old man is currently a guest in your household. How could a guest take away prey from his host's home? Naturally, these two wild boars have nothing to do with this old man."
"Uncle Zhao, Girl Lan is just spouting childish nonsense. Please don't take it to heart..." Li Dazhu thought Old Master Zhao was only saying this because he felt awkward due to Li Menglan's words, and hurriedly spoke up.
Old Master Zhao waved his hand to stop Li Dazhu. "Nephew, this old man is definitely not joking. These two wild boars truly have nothing to do with this old man." Old Master Zhao said with a completely serious expression.
"But..." Li Dazhu was an honest man and felt that this way... no matter how you looked at it, Old Master Zhao was the one losing out.
Li Fujin truly couldn't stand watching from the side. "I say, Dazhu! You really are something. Since your Uncle Zhao has already spoken to this point, you should stop dawdling and go back to your own business."
Li Fujin reminded his son, "Didn't our good granddaughter say we have a lot to do today? Are you free right now or something?"
"Got it, Dad." Reminded by his father, Li Dazhu remembered... he had originally planned to call everyone for breakfast. "Dad, Mom, Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, Uncle Zhao, Girl Lan's mother has already prepared breakfast. Everyone, come into the main hall to eat!"
"Little sister." The two brothers, Li Zhiming and Li Zhihao, who had been hiding nearby, seeing that the elders had all left, quickly darted in front of Li Menglan. "Are we really making cured meat at our house today?"
"That's right! In this weather, although the wild boar meat won't spoil in a day or two, it can't be kept for too long either. If we make it into cured meat, it can be kept for half a year without going bad." Li Menglan said to her two brothers as she walked.
"Mm... Sister, after breakfast, Big Brother and I will come help you." Whenever food was involved, Li Zhihao was always in high spirits.
"Of course, otherwise I won't be able to manage by myself." Li Menglan nodded. "Right, later Second Brother, you and Big Brother should first clean the offal from the two wild boars. I'll make them into cured delicacies along with everything else. Cured pork offal is also very tasty."
"Mm... I got it, Sister." Li Zhihao unconsciously swallowed his saliva.
"Where's Little Uncle? Why haven't I seen him all morning?" Li Menglan looked around everywhere, asking with a suspicious expression.
"Early this morning, Little Uncle said—Sister, once you woke up, you'd definitely find a way to deal with the wild boar meat at home. He said our family doesn't have enough salt. He went to Changban Town to buy salt first thing in the morning." Li Zhiming said.
"Oh!"
Li Menglan responded softly, feeling very sorry for her little uncle in her heart. How could such a fine man have had his marriage broken off? Sigh... in the end, it was all because he had been dragged down by her.
Li Menglan secretly made up her mind. She had to quickly get her mother and maternal grandmother to find a matchmaker to marry Little Uncle off to a little aunt, so they could spend a harmonious and happy New Year.
After eating, Li Menglan began preparing the spices for making cured meat. Fortunately, she had bought quite a lot of spices last time, but there was too much wild boar meat... Li Menglan estimated that it would only be enough to cure one wild boar. She still had to make a trip to Qingshui Town tomorrow. Besides... tonight she still had to sugar-roast chestnuts! Then she could conveniently kill two birds with one stone—deliver goods and buy spices.
When making cured meat, first heat salt and Sichuan peppercorns together in a pan, removing them from heat once the salt turns yellowish. Then cut the required pork into roughly equal-sized pieces. To allow better flavor absorption, Li Menglan had her father cut each piece of wild boar meat to about a little over one jin in size, setting them aside for later use.
Apply the fried salt evenly onto the meat (about half a jin of salt, adjustable to one's own taste). Here, the salted meat is usually placed in a basin to cure for seven days, turning it over every day. After curing for seven days, take the meat out to hang and dry in a particularly well-ventilated place so it can air-dry as quickly as possible.
Finally comes the smoking. Use smoky sawdust, pine branches, and the like to smoke it until it turns black or golden yellow, and then it's successfully completed. Normally, just hang them in a ventilated place, and when you want to eat, cut off a piece with a knife.