“What’s Beggar’s Chicken? What kind of dish is that? Is it good?”
Auntie Li held a live old hen in her hands, looking curiously at Su Hongxia, her eyes full of anticipation.
The military wives nearby all craned their necks as well.
Just hearing the unusual name of the dish made it sound extraordinary.
Su Hongxia took the still-flapping hen and weighed it in her hand. It must have been four or five jin—solid and heavy.
She smiled confidently, dimples appearing on her cheeks.“Auntie, don’t worry. This dish will smell so good your pot lid won’t be able to hold the aroma in!”
Even as she spoke, her hands moved swiftly.
She grabbed a cleaver from the kitchen, slit the chicken’s neck to bleed it, then dunked it into a basin of hot water in the corner of the yard. In just a few quick movements, she plucked the feathers clean. The whole process flowed smoothly, leaving the watching military wives dazzled.
“Wow, Hongxia! Your chicken-killing skills are faster than the master chefs in our cafeteria!” someone exclaimed.
Su Hongxia only smiled.To her, this was nothing. Back in the state banquet kitchens she had once worked in, handling all kinds of poultry and game was basic training.
She cleaned the chicken, removed the organs, then went to the yard wall to dig up several lumps of yellow clay. From a corner she also pulled out a bundle of dried lotus leaves.
She had picked and dried those leaves herself a few days ago at the pond.
Next came the stuffing.
Since she didn’t have luxury ingredients like in a state banquet kitchen, she improvised. She diced some leftover pork from the day before, mixed it with soaked mushrooms and wild scallions, then added her secret spice powder along with soy sauce and cooking wine.
The moment she mixed it all together, a rich, complex aroma rose from the small bowl in her hands.
Just smelling the stuffing made the watching wives swallow hard.
“My goodness, the seasoning alone smells this good—how delicious will the finished dish be?”
Su Hongxia packed the stuffing tightly into the chicken’s cavity, then wrapped the whole chicken with several large lotus leaves and tied them securely with hemp string.
The fresh fragrance of lotus leaves instantly locked in the meat’s aroma, creating an even more wonderful scent.
The final step—also the most crucial—was covering the lotus-wrapped chicken with the prepared clay. She carefully smeared it all around until the chicken was completely sealed into an oval-shaped mud ball without a single gap.
After finishing, she lit the simple brick stove she had built in the yard a few days earlier. Once the firewood burned fiercely, she tossed the mud ball directly into the flames.
“That’s… it?” Auntie Li stared, dumbfounded.
“Yep, that’s it.” Su Hongxia clapped the dirt from her hands casually.“Now we just wait. Auntie, you can go home first. Come back in about an hour and a half to pick it up.”
Auntie Li and the other wives left, half convinced and half doubtful.
A chicken wrapped in mud and burned in fire… could that really taste good? What if it just turned into charcoal?
Time slowly passed.
Half an hour later, a faint aroma—mixed with the earthy scent of clay and the fresh fragrance of lotus leaves—began drifting out from the Lu family courtyard.
After an hour, the smell turned powerful.
The lotus fragrance had fully blended with the meat’s aroma, forming a scent impossible to describe yet incredibly penetrating.
It wasn’t as straightforward as braised pork, nor as intense as spiced offal. It was like an invisible hand slipping quietly into your nose and tickling the very core of your appetite, making your heart itch with hunger.
Soon, much of the military compound downwind was enveloped by this strange fragrance.
Windows opened across the neighborhood. Adults whispered among themselves in their yards, while children—like little cats smelling fish—followed the scent and gathered outside the Lu family gate, peeking through the cracks and drooling.
“It smells amazing… what is that?”
“It’s Commander Lu’s house again!”
Next door, however, Mrs. Wang was having the most miserable evening of her life.
Her family’s dinner never changed: pickled vegetables with coarse corn buns, sometimes with a bowl of watery corn porridge with barely any grains.
Normally it was bland but filling.
But tonight, with the irresistible aroma drifting over from next door again and again, the corn bun in her hand suddenly tasted like chewing wax.
The smell seemed to have hooks, pulling at her cravings until she couldn’t sit still.
“Mom! I don’t want corn buns! I want meat!” her seven- or eight-year-old son Wang Xiaohu wailed.
He threw the bun on the ground and started crying loudly.“It smells so good next door! I want their meat!”
“Eat, eat, eat! That’s all you know!” Mrs. Wang already had a bad temper, and her son’s tantrum pushed her over the edge.
She grabbed a feather duster from the bed and started smacking him.“I’ll let you eat! I’ll let you eat! Where am I supposed to get meat for you?! You’re lucky you even have corn buns!”
Wang Xiaohu howled as he rolled on the ground, crying even louder.
“I want meat! I want meat! Your cooking is pig food! I want Auntie Hongxia’s meat!”
“You dare say that? You little brat!” Mrs. Wang’s face turned green with rage as she chased him around the house.
Their home erupted into chaos—shouting, crying, and scolding mixed together.
Meanwhile, next door in the Lu courtyard, the atmosphere was completely different.
An hour and a half later, Auntie Li arrived right on time.
Su Hongxia used fire tongs to pull the hardened, scorching-hot mud ball out of the flames and placed it on a stone slab.
“Hongxia… can we really eat this? It looks like a rock,” Auntie Li said nervously, staring at the black lump.
Su Hongxia smiled mysteriously. She picked up a small hammer and struck the center of the mud ball.
Crack—!
The hard shell split open instantly.
The moment it cracked, a burst of thick white steam—ten times richer than the aroma before—shot out from the gap.
It was like a fragrance bomb exploding in the courtyard.
The ultimate aroma—chicken’s savory richness, lotus leaf freshness, mushroom depth, and spices—swept through the yard and spread in every direction.
Everyone present, including Lu Huaizhou, who had been reading under the eaves, felt their minds go blank the instant they smelled it.
It was too fragrant.
No one had ever smelled anything like it.
Unhurriedly, Su Hongxia peeled away the clay shell, revealing the roasted lotus-leaf package inside. She untied the string and slowly opened the layers of leaves.
When the final leaf was lifted, a perfectly shaped, golden, glistening Beggar’s Chicken appeared before everyone.
The skin was slightly crisp and browned, oil sizzling gently across its surface. The rich aroma was almost maddening.
With a gentle poke of her chopsticks, the meat separated from the bones like tofu, revealing juicy flesh and stuffing soaked in flavorful broth.
Gulp.
Someone in the crowd swallowed loudly.
Auntie Li stood frozen in shock, pointing at the chicken, her lips trembling without words.
Su Hongxia picked up a small piece of the tender drumstick meat, blew on it, and held it to Auntie Li’s mouth.
“Auntie, try it.”
Auntie Li mechanically opened her mouth and ate it.
The moment the meat entered her mouth, she froze as if struck by lightning. Her eyes widened instantly.
Tender.Silky.Fragrant.Melting.
The chicken was so soft it practically dissolved without chewing.
The crispy skin, tender meat, savory stuffing, and fresh lotus aroma exploded layer after layer in her mouth.
It was so delicious it made her want to cry.
“So good… unbelievably good!” Auntie Li shouted through a mouthful of meat. Tears actually streamed down her face.
She grabbed Su Hongxia’s hands excitedly.
“Hongxia! You’re a miracle worker! Fifty cents for the labor is too little! I’ll give you one yuan! No—one and a half!”
Su Hongxia smiled and pushed the extra money back, accepting only the agreed fifty cents.
“A deal is a deal. Auntie, take it home while it’s hot for your family.”
Auntie Li left gratefully, carrying a basin full of fragrant Beggar’s Chicken.
At the gate, the children who had been drooling the whole time stared at the chicken in her hands like starving wolves.
Wang Xiaohu even ran out of his yard, hugging Auntie Li’s leg and crying for meat.
In the Lu courtyard, Su Hongxia watched the scene, the smile on her lips deepening.
She knew that from today onward, her food business in the military compound had officially begun.
After tidying up, she calculated the money and ration tickets she had earned.
It was time to visit the “old place” again to replenish some special “seasonings.”
And the mung bean cakes ordered by the commander’s wife were also ready for delivery.