By the time Zhou Ye finished eating and looked up to meet the shocked faces of Lin Dashan and He Guixiang, he finally remembered that Xiaopu had only shared his secret with Lin Shu, not with his uncle and aunt. By letting himself eat until he was full, hadn’t he just confessed his secret voluntarily?
Fifteen minutes later, after Lin Dashan and He Guixiang had confirmed that Zhou Ye hadn’t burst his stomach, they fell into deep thought.
He Guixiang asked, “A-Ye, in the past…” Had you never eaten your fill?
Before He Guixiang could finish her question, Lin Shu took over the conversation. “Father, Mother, I’ve seen this kind of constitution in an ancient book before. It’s called the ‘Taotie Iron Stomach.’ No matter how much food is stuffed into his stomach, it can hold it. At the same time, his strength will increase exponentially along with it. If he eats enough for three people, he can exert the strength of three; if he eats enough for ten, he can exert the strength of ten. It can truly be called ‘God-given Divine Strength’!”
Lin Dashan and He Guixiang, who lacked worldly experience, were stunned by these words.
There was actually such a constitution in the world?
Under Lin Shu’s diversion, their focus shifted entirely. If eating for ten meant having the strength of ten men, that was terrifying! The strength of ten men—how great must that be! Wouldn’t he be able to move even a small mountain?
Zhou Ye looked at Lin Shu, who was talking serious nonsense, with a subtle expression.
Receiving his gaze, Lin Shu immediately winked at him, as if saying: It’s a small matter, leave it to me.
“A-Ye, is it really as A-Shu says?” Lin Dashan asked, half-doubting.
Zhou Ye nodded hesitantly and then immediately said, “But Uncle, eating enough for three people is usually sufficient for me.”
Lin Dashan muttered to himself for a while and then suddenly clapped his hands and laughed, “Good! This constitution is excellent!”
He Guixiang also chided with a smile, “It’s my first time seeing such a constitution. A-Ye, this child, never mentioned it before.”
Lin Shu teased, “He probably feared that Father and Mother would feed him enough for ten people just to make him do the work of ten men alone.”
Lin Dashan and his wife both laughed at this. They would have liked to, but the family didn’t have that much surplus grain. In the future, once they saved enough money, they could add a few more acres of land. With Zhou Ye’s constitution, they wouldn’t have to worry about having too much land to farm.
Seeing that the two of them believed Lin Shu’s words, Zhou Ye quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Brother A-Ye.”
Lin Shu suddenly called his name. This call was sweeter than honey, but it made Zhou Ye’s heart skip a beat.
He looked up at the woman who was resting her chin on her hands and watching him. An oil lamp on the table cast a warm yellow glow over her porcelain-white face. In her dark eyes, a smile danced along with the flickering flame…
As if he had been burned, Zhou Ye abruptly looked away.
Lin Shu asked with a beaming smile, “Brother A-Ye, was the fish tonight delicious?”
Zhou Ye: “…It was delicious. Is there something you want me to do? There’s no need for formality between family.”
Lin Shu truly did not hold back with him. “I want to dig a fish pond next to the vegetable garden behind the house and divert mountain spring water to it. From now on, the fish Xiaopu and I catch will be kept in that spring water pond. Whenever you want to eat fish, I can catch a fresh one and cook it for you anytime. What do you think?”
Zhou Ye paused. “If Uncle and Aunt have no objections, then of course it’s fine.”
Lin Shu immediately smiled. “They agreed; Father has already given his permission. For the next three days, you are mine!”
Hearing this, for some unknown reason, Zhou Ye’s heart suddenly tightened and then began to throb wildly.
“Not tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to take the wild boar meat to town to sell,” he replied, his voice somewhat strained.
Lin Shu’s heart stirred, and she instinctively leaned her head and neck forward. “Going to town… I have things to do tomorrow, otherwise I’d really want to go with you and see the town!”
“The road is long and hard to walk. You’re better off staying home.” Zhou Ye hurriedly got up, went to the kitchen, and gulped down several mouthfuls of mountain spring water from a gourd ladle. Only then did that feeling of discomfort fade slightly.
By the time he returned, Lin Shu and He Guixiang were already clearing the dishes from the table.
“Aunt, let me clear them.”
Lin Shu also said, “Mother and Father should go rest. It’s enough for Brother A-Ye and me to clean up together.”
Zhou Ye paused and threw out a sentence, “You go rest, too.”
“Brother A-Ye, I’ll help you.” The end of her sentence was sweet and waxy.
Zhou Ye’s heart felt uncomfortable again. He immediately moved further away from Lin Shu; only once he was distant did his heart feel much better.
Seeing him avoid her as if she were a venomous snake, Lin Shu snorted in her mind. Is that really necessary? If it weren’t for wanting my fish pond finished sooner, who would bother with you?
After making a show of helping, Lin Shu left the mess to Zhou Ye. She used the hot water in the pot to wipe herself down in her room, took a soaked willow branch, bit down on the end until the fibers were all splayed out, and carefully cleaned her teeth. Finally, she chewed a leaf of fragrant herb to sweeten her breath. After rinsing her mouth, she lay back on the bed comfortably.
Lin Xiaopu was too excited to sleep, already craving the big wild boar in the courtyard.
Lin Shu was craving it too. On her journey back from the Marquis’s manor, although Shi Qing was willing to order a couple of meat dishes when they stayed at inns or relay stations, it was always just a few slices of meat mixed with vegetables. Before she could even reach out with her chopsticks, Nanny Gui would have already picked them away. She had eaten wild rabbit and pheasant caught by Shi Qing a few times on the road, but she genuinely hadn’t tasted pork for two months!
Red-braised pork hock, Dongpo pork, braised pork with preserved mustard greens, steamed pork with rice flour, crispy fried pork, pork bone stew…
Sluuuuurp. Lin Shu’s mouth was almost watering.
For the sake of this large wild boar Zhou Ye had caught, Lin Shu decided to forgive his rude behavior of avoiding her like the plague today.
The next day, just as the sky was beginning to turn gray, there was movement outside—a lot of noise and shouting.
“Sister, it must be the uncles coming to help slaughter the pig!” Lin Xiaopu said, having already changed her clothes and tied her small braids herself.
It wasn’t just the villagers helping with the slaughter; there was also a crowd of curious children.
Villagers had few nighttime activities; they slept early and woke early. It wasn’t like the capital where, because there was no curfew, the nights were brightly lit and the nightlife was rich.
Lin Shu put on her clothes and used a wooden comb to smooth her raven hair that reached her lower back. She took a strand from each side to braid into small plaits and pinned them up, while the rest of her hair was loosely tied with a ribbon. It was simple and beautiful, and it didn’t interfere with her work.
At the time, women’s hairstyles were varied, but regardless of the style, unmarried girls usually wore their hair half-down or in a single braid to show they hadn’t “pinned up” their hair for marriage yet. If it weren’t for that, Lin Shu really would have just tied a big bun on her head and been done with it.
By the time the two sisters finished getting ready and went out, several villagers had already arrived in the courtyard. Lin Dashan was talking to a middle-aged man who looked fifty percent like him. Both of them appeared quite constrained.
If she wasn’t mistaken, this man must be the Third Uncle, Lin Dashui. When they rested last night, Mother must have told Father about her intention to teach Lin Yushu to read. Third Uncle’s arrival today under the pretext of the pig slaughtering was his way of voluntarily lowering his face and offering her father a graceful way out.
Seeing the two of them come out, Zhou Ye shouted for the villagers to begin slaughtering the pig.
Although the wild boar was severely injured, its strength during its death throes was not small. Four strong men helped pin the boar down. Zhou Ye took the axe he usually used and aimed at the neck. With just one light stroke, the axe bit deep into the lower neck. The wild boar let out a long, piercing wail, which soon faded away.
Blood flowed from the neck. A wooden basin prepared in advance caught the pig’s blood, filling more than half of it.
He Guixiang and two women who were helping with the fire had already boiled a pot of hot water. The hot water was poured over the now-motionless wild boar, ladle by ladle, to wash away the filth and scald the skin so the hair could be scraped off.
Four or five enthusiastic villagers had brought their own kitchen knives to help scrape the pig hair. Lin Dashui was among them, burying his head and scraping silently. The ears, hooves, and other wrinkled parts were the hardest to scrape; he specifically picked those areas to work on.
When it was time to flip the pig over, it didn’t require four or five men; Zhou Ye flipped the entire pig over by himself.
Immediately, someone joked with a smile, “Young A-Ye really is worth five men. Second Lin, you can just look forward to enjoying your fortune in the future.”
Lin Dashan was preparing a brazier to singe the pig skin later. Hearing this, he grinned broadly. “A-Ye is my son. Having him to show me filial respect in the future is my good fortune.”
Hearing this, Lin Dashui became even more silent, his head bowing lower.
After scraping, the wild boar looked dark and smooth. Zhou Ye lifted the pig easily by himself and held it over the brazier to singe the skin. He didn’t stop until the entire pig’s skin had been singed hard and crispy.
Next came the main event.
Cutting off the head, disemboweling it, and categorizing the meat.
Zhou Ye didn’t ask others for help. Holding He Guixiang’s kitchen knife, he nimbly broke down the pork.
The lungs, heart, liver, and gallbladder were placed in one basin. The family only had one wooden basin, so this one was borrowed from a villager.
Two racks of ribs, four hooves, and the large bones were separated and put into another basin.
The large intestines, small intestines, and stomach—the “pig offal” with strong smells—were placed in a separate basin.
Lin Shu caught a glimpse of Zhou Ye’s hands, which had just stroked through the intestines, and silently stepped further away.
These things were delicious to eat, but before they were processed, they were truly stinky.
The small intestines looked like a tangled mess inside the belly, but when fully unraveled, they were thirty or forty feet long. The wooden basin was filled to the brim. At this point, some helpful women, not minding the smell, voluntarily took the basin to the river to process them.
He Guixiang silently noted those two women. Later, she would definitely give them some of the cleaned pig intestines and stomach.
“Mother, after Brother A-Ye finishes processing the wild boar meat, will he head to town?” Lin Shu asked in a low voice.
“Raw pork can’t be kept long in this weather; he definitely has to go to town to trade it for money,” He Guixiang said. Even if it was kept cool with mountain spring water, it would only last two or three days at most.
Lin Shu: “Then I’ll make some travel rations for Brother A-Ye to take with him on the road?”
He Guixiang glanced at the villagers working nearby and said softly, “Mother has already prepared pancakes.”
Lin Shu understood. In the village, if you made food right in front of people, it would be improper not to offer them a bite, especially since these people were here to help.
But there were simply too many people.
In the end, it was all due to poverty.
Lin Shu pondered that later she should prepare some small snacks at home to entertain guests, and tea should also be prepared. She didn’t have the expensive teas that rich people drank for a hundred gold per ounce, but she could roast some wild flower and herbal teas.
Kudzu flower tea to relieve hangovers and lubricate the intestines, pine needle tea for beauty and health, goosegrass tea to expel wind and dampness, mulberry leaf tea to clear the lungs and moisten dryness… and these were available everywhere in the wild.