After the children had all fallen asleep, Fenniang fished the pig offal out of the wood ash water and rinsed it over and over again.
Sure enough, after soaking in the wood ash and alkaline solution, the intestines no longer smelled nearly as strong.
Madam Zhang also came over to help. She stuffed two wads of straw into her nostrils before turning the pig intestines inside out and rinsing them thoroughly.
She had heard the family come home earlier.
During lunch, no matter how much they urged her, she had refused to stay for a bite.
Only now, seeing Fenniang busy again, did she come over uninvited.
“Sister-in-law, do it like this. Use a shard of pottery to scrape off the fat inside the intestines.”
Fenniang demonstrated a few strokes before explaining,
“All the filth hides in the fat. Once you scrape it clean, there won’t be much smell left.”
“What about the pig lungs? Look at all this dirty water inside! No matter how much you wash them, they never come clean.”
Madam Zhang patted the lungs in disgust and complained animatedly,
“And after they’re cooked, they’re all slimy inside. It feels like eating a mouthful of snot! It’s disgusting!
“Honestly, unless people are starving to death, who around here would willingly eat this stinky stuff?”
Fenniang burst into laughter.
“The pig lungs need to be filled with flour mixed with water. Shake them back and forth several times, and the flour water will draw out the slime and dirt. Then flush them with clean water over and over, and they’ll be perfectly clean.”
“Fenniang, you really know everything!”
Madam Zhang looked at her in surprise and began counting on her fingers.
“You can read a few characters, you know how to use an abacus, and now you even know how to prepare things like this.
“What kind of family did you come from?”
Fenniang fell silent for a moment before lowering her head.
“My family wasn’t well-off either. I was sent to work in a restaurant when I was little. I spent my days mending clothes, washing dishes, and cleaning vegetables.
“That’s where I learned.”
“No wonder you’re good at everything.”
Madam Zhang sighed.
“I’ve always said that poor children grow up early.”
When Zhuo Ling woke up from her nap, the first thing she saw was an extraordinarily handsome face right in front of her.
Her breathing caught for a moment.
Her heartbeat suddenly sped up beyond her control.
She couldn’t bear to look away.
Eldest Brother is so handsome!
Even if you put everyone in the underground city together, none of them could compare with him.
If he became a movie star, wouldn’t his female fans go absolutely crazy?
Now that she’d transmigrated to ancient times, she still had no idea what she looked like.
I’ll have to look into a well later…
“Awake?”
Zhuo Chang’an opened his eyes, lightly patted her little bottom, and smiled.
“What are you staring at me for?”
Slurp…
Before she could stop herself, Zhuo Ling loudly swallowed her drool and answered without the slightest embarrassment,
“Because you’re handsome!”
Zhuo Chang’an: “…”
By the end of the afternoon, the foul-smelling pig intestines, stomach, and lungs had all been scrubbed spotlessly clean, gleaming white in the wooden basin.
Fenniang blanched everything in boiling water before setting up two chopping boards in the courtyard. She and Madam Zhang each took one and began slicing the meat.
There wasn’t much work to do in the afternoon, so several village women who got along well with Fenniang wandered over to join the excitement.
Even if they couldn’t eat any of the meat, these days people could barely afford mixed-grain flour.
Just looking at it helped satisfy their cravings.
The group of women gathered together, chatting noisily like a flock of ducks.
“Fenniang, what trick did you use to get all the smell out of the pig offal? The offal at the butcher’s stall is the stinkiest part. Nobody ever buys it.”
“So what if she teaches you? Can your family even afford pig offal?”
“I heard your foolish little girl got acquainted with the Pang family’s young madam. They say the young madam likes her a lot. Is it true?”
“Of course it’s true! Otherwise, why would she give them several taels of silver? That’s how they were able to buy grain and meat…”
…
As evening fell, smoke drifted lazily from the chimney of Zhuo Dawu’s house.
The rich aroma of stewing meat spread through more than half the village.
The villagers couldn’t help glancing toward the Zhuo family’s home as they held bowls of mixed-grain porridge in their hands.
Breathing in the scent of the meat, they pretended the bowls they were eating contained meat soup.
Squatting together with their porridge, everyone talked at once.
“Just look at the life they’re living! These days, we’re lucky just to have a bowl of porridge, while they’re eating meat!”
“When you think about it, that little fool couldn’t even speak properly before, yet she’s become her family’s lucky star. With fortune like hers, finding the Pang family’s young madam’s hairpin, why would they ever have to worry about finding food again?”
“I heard from Madam Zhang that the young madam even gave them a lot of refined salt! She saw half a jar of it!”
“We used to laugh at Dawu for being so soft-hearted. His family was already struggling, and he still brought home another mouth to feed.
“But now…”
“We’re the ones being laughed at because we can’t even afford meat!”
…
“Hmph. So what if they’re eating meat? What’s so impressive about that? Let’s see if they can afford to eat it every day!”
The Second Aunt leaned against the firewood gate, munching on a coarse-grain bun. The more she listened, the sourer she felt.
Curling her lips, she sneered,
“If you ask me, that Fenniang clearly doesn’t know how to run a household.
“She gets a little reward money and immediately starts showing off!
“Instead of buying extra grain to store away, she spends it on meat.
“She’s always making a spectacle of herself! Who’s she trying to impress?”
“They earned that reward fair and square. If they want to buy meat, that’s their business. Why are you worrying about it?”
The moment Madam Zhang heard that, she bristled.
Without the slightest courtesy, she shot back,
“Second Sister-in-law, if you’re jealous of their meat, just say so. Stop making those sarcastic remarks in front of everyone!
“You say Fenniang is showing off? Then why don’t you show us what you can do?
“Let’s see if you’ve got the means to ‘show off’ like that!”
The moment she finished speaking, the crowd burst into laughter.
“Bah!”
The Second Aunt’s face turned red, then green with anger. She spat on the ground and cursed,
“Madam Zhang, what are you so proud of? You worked at their house all afternoon for nothing. Now that the meat’s ready, did they even give you a bite—”
“Sister-in-law, I had Chang’an go invite you over, but he couldn’t find you. So this is where you were.”
Just then, Fenniang happened to walk over carrying a large bowl piled high with cooked pig offal.
Smiling warmly, she said,
“You wouldn’t come eat, so I had no choice but to bring some to you.
“And if you still refuse, I won’t speak to you anymore.”
The rich aroma of the meat instantly drew everyone’s attention.
The bowls in the villagers’ hands suddenly didn’t seem appetizing anymore, and saliva uncontrollably filled their mouths.
“Oh my, look at you!”
The pride on Madam Zhang’s face was beyond words.
She shot the Second Aunt a smug glance before accepting the bowl with feigned reluctance.
“I only helped out for a little while. If I took your meat, what kind of person would that make me?
“You should keep it for the children. I already told you I didn’t want any, yet you insisted on bringing it over.”
Fenniang smiled.
“We have plenty.
“Go ahead and enjoy it. I still need to take some over to Uncle Feng’s family.”
Gulp…
The Second Aunt’s eyes instantly widened.
She had barely finished mocking them before reality slapped her hard across the face.
Her mouth flooded with saliva again, but with everyone watching, she was too embarrassed to swallow.
“Mother! The fool’s family is eating meat!”
Xiaohu came out of the house holding a bowl of porridge. The moment he saw the meat, his eyes lit up.
“Mother, I want some too…”
“Eat your mother’s foot! Get back inside!”
Humiliated, the Second Aunt shoved her son’s shoulder and pushed him toward the house.
Grinding her teeth, she muttered,
“That shameless little hussy!
“She has enough meat to give this person some and that person some, while your own uncle’s family is scraping by on bran and vegetables.
“Can’t she spare us even one bite?
“Son, you’re a fool too!
“If you want meat, go ask at the fool girl’s house!
“Just sit yourself down over there. That’s your eldest uncle’s family after all.
“Once you’re there, do you think she’d dare refuse to give you a bite?”