“You’re not afraid anymore?”
Bai Su reminded her, “They’re people who live in the cowshed.”
Hehua smiled sheepishly. “After seeing him, I’m not afraid anymore. He doesn’t look like a bad person. Bad people aren’t that handsome.”
Bai Su: “…”
Oh, no!
It seemed her third daughter, Hehua, was secretly a sucker for handsome faces, and Yin Fan happened to be exactly her type…
He Yan had ventured deep into the mountains but hadn’t managed to catch any large game yet.
However, the traps he and Li Xiangyang had set had caught several wild pheasants and rabbits.
As dusk fell, He Yan came down the mountain carrying a rabbit and two wild pheasants. Bai Su had already returned home with Lihua and her sisters, sorted through the mountain produce and medicinal herbs, and was preparing dinner.
Just then, He Yan walked into the house with the rabbit and pheasants!
“Wow! Wild pheasants and a rabbit! Brother He Yan, you’re amazing!”
Hearing Hehua’s excited cry, Bai Su finished washing the rice and putting it on to cook, then prepared to come out and have a look. Before she could, He Yan entered the kitchen carrying the pheasants and rabbit.
Bai Su’s eyes widened when she saw the animals dangling from his hands. “You caught this much on one trip into the mountains?”
“This is nothing. Xiangyang took half of what we caught.”
According to the rules, animals hunted in the mountains belonged to the collective and were supposed to be handed over.
But He Yan was cunning enough to bring Li Xiangyang into his little arrangement.
That meant smaller animals like pheasants and rabbits could end up on their own dinner tables, provided no one saw them bringing the game home.
Of course, larger animals required a different approach. He Yan and Li Xiangyang had a cave in the mountains where they specifically hid their catches. He Yan also had a close friend on the black market, someone who had been through life-and-death situations with him. Once the goods were transported to the county town, they could be exchanged for money and ration coupons.
They simply had to be careful when transporting the game. If anyone spotted them, they could land themselves in serious trouble.
“Here’s a rabbit and two wild pheasants, Auntie. You can prepare them. We’ve been working hard in the mountains all day, so let’s add another dish to dinner.”
Bai Su felt increasingly certain that she’d chosen the right son-in-law for Lihua. With a husband like He Yan, her eldest daughter would never have to worry about going without meat.
A rabbit and two wild pheasants had arrived all at once, and there was still plenty of pork left from what Qin Yanyue had brought the previous day.
Bai Su felt as though her household had become incredibly prosperous.
But they couldn’t possibly eat all those pheasants and the rabbit at once.
The weather was growing warmer, and meat wouldn’t keep for long.
That was also why He Yan had brought the game over for them to enjoy. There were still several days before Bai Su’s examination in the county town, and he was worried the meat would spoil before then.
“How about this? Lihua’s uncle sent us some dried abalone. Let’s slaughter one pheasant and make abalone and chicken soup. I’ll rub salt over the remaining pheasant and rabbit and smoke them.”
Bai Su lowered her voice as she discussed another idea with He Yan.
“We can also make some spicy meat sauce. It keeps well and tastes wonderful with rice. I’m sure there’ll be people willing to buy it in the county town.”
Black-market dealings weren’t something that could be discussed openly.
It was only because He Yan regarded Bai Su as family that he’d revealed some of his activities while arranging for someone to bring supplies from the county town.
Not only did his future mother-in-law have no objections, but she was actually suggesting they work together?
He Yan felt that his judgment had been right all along.
Auntie Bai was a woman with courage and initiative!
When he heard her mention making meat sauce, He Yan felt a secret thrill, as though he and Auntie Bai were about to embark on some daring and slightly wicked enterprise together.
“Then I’ll bring over whatever game I catch tomorrow too.”
“What would you bring it here for? Take it all back to your house.”
Bai Su lowered her voice. “We’ll smoke the meat and prepare the sauce at your place. It’ll attract less attention. Besides, I’ll be coming over every day to give your mother acupuncture and prepare her medicine.”
He Yan thought she had a point. There were quite a few people in Auntie Bai’s household.
If any one of them accidentally let something slip, the consequences could be serious.
He was descended from a family branded as landlord tyrants. The brigade members generally avoided his family, and hardly anyone visited their house.
Still, He Yan was naturally cautious.
Both his house and Auntie Bai’s were situated not far from the Brigade Medical Station.
If someone came to see Educated Youth Zhou for treatment at night and smelled the meat sauce cooking, it might attract unwanted attention.
The grain distributed to households by the brigade each year was barely enough to fill their stomachs, let alone allow them to enjoy meat.
He Yan wasn’t particularly afraid of the consequences when he was the only one involved in secretly trading a few things. But if Auntie Bai became involved in making meat sauce and smoked meat, they would have to be especially careful.
“The rabbit and pheasants I brought today have already been seen, so you can smoke whatever’s left and send it to Lihua’s uncle.”
He Yan discussed another possibility with her.
“Our family’s old residence has been standing empty ever since it was taken into collective ownership. It’s in a secluded place, and hardly anyone goes there.”
A cunning rabbit has three burrows!
Besides the cave deep in the mountains where he hid his game, the He family’s supposedly haunted old blue-brick residence was another of his secret storage places.
By telling her this, he had revealed yet another of his secrets.
After speaking, He Yan looked at Bai Su somewhat nervously.
But Bai Su already knew that her future son-in-law was no ordinary young man, so she wasn’t particularly surprised.
She nodded in agreement and casually handed him one of the pheasants.
“Take this. You and Lihua can go to the stream and clean the pheasant and rabbit. Tell your mother not to cook dinner. I’ll prepare enough here, and you can take some over to her.”
“Abalone and chicken soup is very nourishing. Her health is poor, so she needs proper nourishment.”
“Actually, tell her not to bother lighting the stove at all. I’ll be going over later to give her acupuncture anyway, and I’ll prepare the medicinal herbs I gathered for her here too.”
He Yan felt that he was another step closer to becoming a real member of Lihua’s family.
Going to the stream to clean the pheasant and rabbit would also give him a chance to spend some time alone with Lihua.
And if he could eat Auntie Bai’s cooking every day, he really would be the luckiest man in Heping Production Brigade!
Delighted, He Yan cheerfully picked up the pheasants and rabbit and called Lihua to accompany him to the stream.
In an era when the brigade still had no electricity, Bai Su was worried that Lanhua and Hehua might end up being unwanted third wheels. She deliberately called them into the kitchen to help tend the fire and prepare dinner.
Lu Lanhua wasn’t particularly talkative, and Bai Su had no idea what she was thinking.
When Bai Su asked her to help with the fire, she simply sat quietly in front of the stove and fed it firewood.
Hehua, on the other hand, had become noticeably livelier after meeting Yin Fan in the mountain hollow that day, despite her usually timid nature.
She kept circling around Bai Su in the kitchen, saying that she wanted to learn how to cook.
He Yan was very skilled at slaughtering and cleaning pheasants and rabbits.
Before long, he and Lihua returned with the cleaned animals.
The front of Lihua’s clothes was damp, while He Yan was practically soaked from head to toe.
When he handed everything to Bai Su, he couldn’t stop grinning foolishly.
The corners of his mouth were turned up, and he simply couldn’t hide the smile on his face.
Had these two started a water fight while cleaning the pheasants and rabbit by the stream?
And had He Yan deliberately let Lihua win, leaving himself completely drenched?
Bai Su could hardly bear to look at them!
She asked Hehua to bring over the chopping board so she could cut up the pheasant, then cleared her throat.
“You’re both grown up, yet you’re behaving like little children. Go on, both of you, change into dry clothes!”
He Yan and Lihua hadn’t wasted any part of the pheasants or rabbit when cleaning them.
They had even turned the intestines inside out, washed them thoroughly, and brought them back.
Bai Su heated some camellia oil and stir-fried a large basin of pheasant and rabbit offal with garlic shoots. She also made a pot of abalone and chicken soup.
There was still some stem lettuce left from what He Yan had picked the previous day, so she stir-fried a plate of that too.
There were only three dishes, but the portions were generous.
After spending the entire day in the mountains, Lihua and her sisters ate until they were full and felt so comfortable that they wanted to collapse where they sat.
Compared with the days when they had lived on sweet potato porridge, being able to eat meat every day now was like living in an entirely different world.
Their satisfaction wasn’t limited to their mouths and stomachs. It was a feeling of contentment that reached both body and mind.
But Bai Su had no intention of letting them lie around doing nothing.
She immediately began assigning chores, telling Lihua and He Yan to wash the dishes and clear the table before putting the medicinal herbs on to boil for He Yan’s mother.