Li Muwu and Mingxi were both holding the pork on their backs tightly in their hands, and neither of them was willing to open the door, but they didn't have the courage to kick the door.
Li Muwu called out "mother" twice, but no one paid attention to him. He could only move the pork to the side and bumped it with his shoulder. There was a loud bang, and Mrs. Li shuddered again: "Can't you open the door? Why are you like a bandit? Can't you just..."
Li Muwu came in halfway through her sentence, carrying a large wild boar. Old Lady Li changed her mind immediately, "Hey, why didn't you say anything? I'll open the door for you!" She shouted at the top of her voice, "Mingnan, Mingbei, come out and help!"
The two brothers had just returned to the room and were about to take off their shoes and lie on the kang for a while when they heard Old Lady Li calling them in the yard. Mingbei covered his ears and shouted back, "I didn't hear you!"
"You little bastard, you are so bold!" Old Lady Li cursed, and directed Li Muxi: "Put the meat down quickly. We have brought back two or three hundred kilograms of meat in total, right?"
"Meat?" Li Mingnan heard the key words with his sharp ears and immediately pulled Mingbei. The two brothers jumped up from the kang in the south without even taking off their shoes. They opened the window and looked out. They saw Li Muwu putting the pork on a broken cabinet in the yard, and then reached out to untie the four pig thighs from Li Mingxi's shoulders.
"Dad, we're here to help you!" Mingnan and Mingbei's voices instantly became as sweet as honey. They didn't even go through the door, but jumped out of the window directly on the kang. They ran out ten meters in a few steps, ran to Li Mingxi to help take off the pig leg, and then moved to the side of old lady Li, and diligently massaged her back: "Grandma, what do you think we should eat this meat tonight?"
"Don't want to eat? I'll leave it here for you to watch!" Old Lady Li looked at her two grandsons leisurely, picked up her pipe and hit each of them on the buttocks: "You bastards, you are so bold at such a young age, and I can't even control you two."
"How could that be possible?" Li Mingbei smiled awkwardly and rubbed Old Lady Li's arm. "I jumped out of the window as soon as grandma gave the order. I didn't even have time to go out the door because I was afraid of delaying your business."
Old Mrs. Li was so amused that she couldn't hold back. She scolded them and knocked them again: "Stop talking so slickly. Mingnan, light the big pot in the back room and boil two large pots of water for your father and your brother to take a bath. Mingbei..."
As soon as Mrs. Li called Mingbei's name, Mingbei immediately responded, "I know. I'll go to my third uncle's house and ask them to come for dinner."
Old Mrs. Li couldn't help but laugh: "Oh, aren't your legs tired now?"
"I felt quite tired at first, but as soon as you gave me an order, my legs immediately felt no longer tired. If you don't believe me, I'll run two laps for you to see!" After saying that, he ran around the yard twice and then ran out the door in a flash.
It was the first time for Mingxi to carry such a heavy thing and walk such a long distance. After he put the pig leg down, he felt his legs go weak. Thinking that it would take some time to boil hot water, he relied on his youth and strength to stand in the middle of the yard and scooped cold water from the vat to rinse his head.
After the blood smell on his body was washed away, Mingxi walked into the house wet. After returning to the west room, he took off his clothes and pants and threw them into the basin. He wiped himself twice with a towel and put on clean clothes. Then he lay comfortably on the kang, ready to take a nap before dinner.
Although Li Muwu was old, he had long been accustomed to such intense work. He only rested for a while on a small stool in the yard, then found a hook to hang the wild boar on the wooden fence. After Mingnan boiled the hot water, Li Muwu was not in a hurry to take a bath. Instead, he burned the pig hair and scalded it with hot water, and it took several pots of hot water to clean it up.
The wild boar had thick skin and fat, so the skin was cut off first, and then the fat, which was three or four fingers thick, was cut off piece by piece, and saved for making lard. The ribs were cut off, and the hindquarters were cut into large pieces. By the time Li Musen and his family arrived, most of the pork had been distributed.
"Oh my, this wild boar is really big? Did you carry it back by yourself?" Li Musen pushed the door open and looked at the broken cabinet in the yard full of meat. He also saw Li Muwu covered in blood and hurried over to help: "You go wash it, I'll do the rest."
Li Muwu sat down on a small stool and took a few deep breaths. "Mingxi came with me to the mountain to hunt. We originally wanted to shoot a roe deer, but we walked too far and encountered a wild boar. I shot the wild boar and it didn't even tremble. You don't know how scared I was at that time. If Mingxi hadn't been behind me, I would have climbed up the tree."
Mingnan boiled another pot of water and Li Muwu asked him to serve him a bowl of water, which he drank in one breath. Li Musen was also a frequent hunter, and he was also scared after hearing the scene: "Then how did you kill the wild boar? Did you hit its eye?"
"How could it be such a coincidence? I was so stupid at that time. I was lucky to hit the boar, how could I hit its eyes!" Li Muwu asked Mingnan to bring him a cigarette basket, rolled a cigarette and took two puffs: "This wild boar is too smart. It shook me and pounced on Mingxi. Our Mingxi is very brave and strong. He was not afraid of the wild boar coming and smashed its head with one knife."
"Really?" Li Musen's face was full of admiration. "I can't believe Mingxi. I'll take him with me when I go hunting in the future. After two years of training, when I can't climb the mountain anymore, I'll count on him to hunt wild boars for us."
"That's right. When we go out to hunt wild boars in winter, we'll take Mingxi with us. We'll hold guns and he'll hold hunting knives. The three of us will definitely be able to bring back a wild boar." Li Muwu smoked a cigarette with pride on his face.
Mingxi was lying on the kang and was about to fall asleep when he heard his uncle's words in the yard. He was immediately frightened and perked up. He climbed onto the windowsill, stuck his head out, and said in a crying voice, "Uncle, don't listen to my father's nonsense. It was just a coincidence."
"If by chance you can even make a hole in the wild boar's head, then if by bad luck you'll have smashed the pig's head into pulp, right?" Li Musen thought it was quite funny and couldn't help laughing.
"That's right!" Li Muwu nodded proudly, and turned around to comfort Mingxi: "It's okay, Dad will accompany you next time. I think you don't need to bring a hunting knife by then. The axe should be more handy. It won't be a problem to chop a wild boar's head with just one click."
Mingxi retracted his head tiredly, silently thinking that he must study hard after entering high school and never go up the mountain to hunt wild boars again. The sight of that thing pouncing towards his head was really scary.
After Li Musen divided the meat, he looked at the pieces of wild boar meat and felt a little confused: "How can we store so much meat until winter? Don't spoil it!"
In the past, the Li family would only hunt wild boars in winter. At that time, the meat would be frozen hard in a day if thrown outside, and would not go bad for months. When they wanted to eat it, they would bring in a piece and eat it with sauerkraut. It was so delicious.
It was summer, and although the weather was not so hot, the pork would not last for a few days, and there was no pickled cabbage or wild boar meat to go with it. But for a family that hadn't bought pork since the Chinese New Year, it didn't matter what it was stewed with, as long as there was plenty of meat.
Both large pots were heated up. Guihua looked at the row of fat fish and generously poured more soybean oil into the two pots. She stewed the fish in one pot and stir-fried a large pot of spine in the other pot, sizzling with smoke.
Mingnan, Mingbei, and Mingrong and Mingguang from Li Musen's family surrounded the cabinet where the meat was placed and were unwilling to move, staring at the large pieces of meat on it.
Mrs. Li said cheerfully, "After dinner, when your sister-in-law has finished boiling the lard, you can sprinkle sugar on the remaining lard."
Mingnan and Mingbei drooled as soon as they heard this. Mingguang swallowed his saliva and tugged at Old Lady Li's sleeve: "Grandma, can I stay at your house tonight?"
"You can live here. Your brother's room has a big kang, and you two brothers can live here." Old Mrs. Li took a puff of her pipe, glanced at her grandson, and couldn't help teasing him: "I heard that you are greedy for food. Actually, you can come here tomorrow morning. Your mother may not agree to let you live here."
Li Mingguang got anxious when he heard this, and he pulled Mrs. Li's sleeve and started to act like a spoiled child: "Grandma, please talk to my mom. I'm afraid there won't be anything left when I come tomorrow morning, and Mingnan and Mingbei will definitely get up and eat it secretly at night."
Li Mingrong squatted beside him and nodded in agreement. Li Musen glanced at him and couldn't help but want to say something to him: "You and your brother Mingxi are not much different in age. Look at them, they can go up the mountain to hunt wild boars, but you just sit there and eat oil. Don't be idle in winter. Come with us to the mountain and let your brother Mingxi show you how to kill a wild boar with one knife."
"The wild boar was beaten to death!" Li Muwu corrected him, "It was beaten to death. The head of the boar was broken. Li Laoer's wife took the head home to boil. If I had known, I should have brought it back to show you. Your brother Mingxi had beaten the skull off."
Mingxi was lying on the kang, looking hopeless as she recalled the scene when the wild boar pounced on her. Zhenzhen, who was lying on the south kang in the east room and listening to the adults talking, also looked conflicted: Could you please stop talking about smashing a pig's head with a slap? As a lady, this is a bit of a disservice to her character.
Li Muwu talked for a while before he recovered. He thought it was almost time for dinner, so he asked Wang Sufen to find some clean clothes. He went to the back room and washed himself from head to toe. He even used soap to wash away the blood smell on his head. After he was completely clean, he changed into new clothes and went out to eat.
A pot of stewed fish, a pot of cabbage and pork stewed with vermicelli, and a pot of stewed pork ribs with sauce and potatoes were placed on the table. Mingnan quickly went to get the bowls and chopsticks, while Mingbei picked out the tenderest pieces of meat from the cheeks of the fat fish head and put them in a small bowl and handed it to Wang Sufen: "Give it to my sister."
Zhenzhen couldn't help but show her two newly emerged white teeth to Mingbei when she smelled the delicious fish meat: That's very nice. I will help you next time you go fishing.