Su Ci pushed Lu Si back into the compound. The two-jin slab of pork belly in her hands was like holding a nuclear weapon, attracting the attention of every living creature within a five-hundred-meter radius.
The moment they entered the house, Su Ci pushed Lu Si right into the center of the main room and stuffed a copy of “Quotations from Chairman Mao” into his hands.
“Study the spirit for a while. I’ll go cook for us,” she said. “Remember—this is our home. I’m the chief cook, and you’re the chief diner. Neither of us gets to dodge our responsibilities.”
With that, she hummed an unknown tune and slipped into the kitchen.
Lu Si sat there in the hall, looking at the little red book in his hands while listening to the crisp sounds of chopping vegetables coming from the kitchen. His mood was strangely complicated.
The image of her standing in front of him at the supply store earlier, scolding people on his behalf, burned in his mind like a branding iron.
He looked down at his legs. The familiar sense of inferiority had barely begun to rise before it was abruptly interrupted by the overwhelming aroma drifting out of the kitchen.
It was the sweet, caramelized smell of fat reacting with sugar over high heat, mixed with the rich fragrance of star anise, cinnamon, and dark soy sauce.
Su Ci had a secret to making braised pork.
There was no cooking wine these days, so she used the bottle of Moutai that had been sitting in Lu Si’s cabinet for who knew how long.
There was no rock sugar, so she patiently melted brown sugar to make caramel.
She cut the pork belly into two-centimeter cubes, stir-fried them until the excess fat rendered out and the meat turned translucent and springy, then coated them in the red caramel glaze. After adding water, she let them simmer slowly over low heat.
The aroma floated out of the kitchen window. In those days without range hoods, that pure meat fragrance was practically a biological weapon.
In the 1970s, people didn’t have much oil or meat in their diets.
Even though the residents of the compound lived relatively well, they still couldn’t afford such extravagance.
Most families rendered the fat into cooking oil, saved the cracklings for dumpling fillings, sliced the lean meat into thin shreds for stir-fries. One piece of meat could last half a month.
Cooking an entire slab like Su Ci did—straight into braised pork—was a luxury people only dreamed of during New Year.
Next door happened to be the home of the gossiping Auntie Pang.
She was cooking cornmeal porridge for her grandson. When the boy smelled the aroma from next door, he burst into tears.
“Grandma! I want meat! I want the meat from that house! It smells so good!”
Auntie Pang’s face trembled with irritation as she slapped the boy’s backside.
“Eat, eat, eat! All you think about is eating! That’s the kind of wasteful thing only a prodigal woman would do! Two jin of meat in one meal—I bet that cripple will be drinking the northwest wind soon!”
But despite her scolding, she couldn’t help swallowing her saliva.
How did that eldest girl from the Su family have such devilish cooking skills?
An hour later, the braised pork was done.
Su Ci didn’t bring it to the table immediately. Instead, she picked up a piece with her chopsticks and blew on it.
The cube of meat trembled slightly, layers of fat and lean glistening. Its color was a bright amber red, and the sauce dripped slowly from the chopsticks.
She took a bite.
It melted in her mouth—rich but not greasy, tender without being dry.
“Perfect.” Su Ci squinted happily, satisfied with her five-star-chef-level cooking.
She placed the braised pork in a large bowl, stir-fried some vinegar cabbage to balance the richness, and paired it with a pot of glossy white rice. Then she carried everything to the square table in the main hall.
Lu Si was still reading, but the page hadn’t turned for half an hour.
The constant movement of his Adam’s apple betrayed what he was really thinking.
Su Ci filled a big bowl of rice, topped it with a layer of braised pork, and ladled a spoonful of thick sauce over it before placing it in front of him.
“Eat up, hero.”
Lu Si stiffened. His stubborn pride flared up again.
He kept a cold face, trying to maintain the last bit of dignity.
“I’m not hungry. Take it away.”
He was a useless cripple, sitting all day without expending energy. Why eat something so good? It would just waste the nation’s food.
“Not hungry again?”
Su Ci didn’t indulge him.
She pulled out a chair and sat opposite him, picked up her own bowl, and deliberately put a piece of pork into her mouth, chewing exaggeratedly.
“Wow, this meat is so tender. You could mash it with your tongue without even using your teeth. Too bad someone doesn’t know how to appreciate it. I used half a bottle of Moutai to cook this.”
“Moutai?!”
Lu Si suddenly looked up. That was the aged liquor he had saved for five years!
“Yep.” Su Ci looked innocent. “To remove the smell. Besides, alcohol is for dead things. Meat is for living people. Obviously the meat is more important.”
She put down her chopsticks, leaned forward slightly, and stared straight at him before suddenly giving him a very “kind” smile.
“Comrade Lu Si, you have two choices.”
“First, pick up the spoon and eat it yourself. We’ll remain polite and respectful.”
“Second, I tie you to the wheelchair and force it down your throat while pinching your nose. You’ve seen my arm strength earlier when I pushed your wheelchair.”
“If you pick the second option and choke—or spill the sauce all over your nice clean military uniform… well… that wouldn’t look very dignified.”
Looking at the eager look in her eyes, Lu Si had no doubt that this crazy woman would really do it.
He had never feared enemies on the battlefield, yet now he was cornered by a bowl of braised pork.
“I’ll eat it myself.”
Lu Si grabbed the spoon through gritted teeth. The way he held it looked less like eating and more like charging into battle with a bayonet.
The first bite of pork broke through his defenses completely.
It was too delicious.
The long-lost richness soothed his shrunken stomach, and the satisfaction even brightened his usually gloomy mood.
At first he only intended to eat a couple of bites out of politeness.
But before he realized it, the entire bowl of rice was gone.
Seeing the empty bowl, Su Ci nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s more like it. People are like iron, food is like steel. Only when you’re full will you have the strength to argue with me, right?”
Lu Si put down the spoon and awkwardly wiped his mouth.
He looked at Su Ci, who was still devouring her food, with a complicated expression.
This woman was greedy for food, greedy for money, and had absolutely no sense of propriety.
Yet strangely, when she was around, the once lifeless house suddenly felt… alive.
And her cooking suited his taste far too well.
After a moment of silence, Lu Si suddenly reached into his pocket, took out a bunch of keys and a red bankbook, and threw them onto the table with a stiff motion.
“Here.”
Su Ci was wrestling with a rib when the sudden movement startled her.
She picked up the bankbook and looked inside. Her eyes instantly lit up like searchlights.
“One, two, three… two thousand eight hundred?!”
Su Ci gasped.
In those days, a worker only earned about thirty yuan a month. Two thousand eight hundred was a fortune!
“This is the allowance and compensation I’ve saved over the past few years,” Lu Si said, turning his head away so he wouldn’t see her money-obsessed expression. “Since you like money, you can manage it. Take our monthly living expenses from it.”
He paused, his voice lowering slightly.
“Buy whatever you want to eat. Don’t… don’t treat yourself badly.”
Su Ci put down the rib, picked up the bankbook, and kissed it before smiling brightly at him.
“Commander Lu, are you paying me protection money?”
Lu Si’s ears turned red. He snorted coldly and spun his wheelchair around.
“That’s food money! The food was terrible!”
Watching his retreating back, Su Ci grinned like a cat that had stolen fish.
“Such a tsundere man. But it’s fine—as long as the money comes through, you can call me a turtle if you want.”
That night, everyone in the compound smelled the aroma of meat drifting from the Lu household.
That night, for the first time in a long while, Lu Si wasn’t awakened by the pain in his legs.
Accompanied by the steady breathing from the next room, he slept a rare, peaceful night.