The whole mountain is my hunting ground

Along the way, Zhao Youcai felt a little wilted while sitting in the carriage. He had asked for leave from Zhang Guoqing before, and he had just confessed to Han Dachun, and his good brother Li Dayong was willing to accompany him into the tiger's den. Zhao Youcai was so confident that he was about to take off the cow-slaughtering hat from his head, but he didn't expect that things would go wrong.

There is someone from the Forestry Bureau, so Zhao Youcai is naturally not needed. And he didn't have time tomorrow. The ceremony was not only a matter for his family, it was also a major matter for the two in-laws' families.

If Zhao Youcai dared to sneak up the mountain tomorrow, not only would the Ma family fall out on the spot, but Zhao Youcai would no longer have to go home.

Zhao Youcai knew the importance and would not act recklessly. When the commuter bus was about to enter the platform outside Yong'an Village, Li Ruhai slipped to the door.

When the train stopped and the door opened, Li Ruhai was the first to jump out.

Upon seeing this, Li Dayong hurriedly got out of the car from the crowd, but at this time Li Ruhai had disappeared into the vast night.

"It's time to eat, don't run away!" Li Dayong had no choice but to shout at the top of his lungs.

When eating, you can't just go to other people's houses. At this time, Li Dayong felt that the boy deserved a beating!

At this time, the dog in Zhao's courtyard kept barking. After Jiechen parked the car, he honked the horn several times.

Zhao Ling's eldest and second brothers were still at home, so Wang Qiang and his wife had already gone back. Zhao Jun was the only man in the room, so he put on the cotton monkey and ran outside.

"Oops!" Zhao Jun ran out of the house and ran to the door of the courtyard. He saw Ji Zhong standing at the door. He immediately said with a little surprise: "Brother, why did you come down the mountain?"

"Brother!" Xie Zhong said with a bitter smile: "I have no choice. The big claws are coming. I don't dare to let the tenants go up the mountain!"

"Huh? Big claw?" Zhao Jun was surprised when he heard this and asked: "Why did you come to your place?"

"Who knows..." Before Xie Zhong finished speaking, Zhao Jun asked: "Did anyone get hurt?"

"That's not the case!" Xie Zhong curled his lips and said, "Just bite the horse to death!"

"Oh my God!" Zhao Jun frowned. Just as he was about to say something more, Wang Meilan came out with a group of women.

Jie Zhong greeted them and then asked Jie Chen to get into the trunk and unload the horse meat.

When they heard that tigers had come to kill horses in Linban, Xiao 43, the women were all frightened and frightened. After tossing two sacks of horse meat into the house, Xie Zhong said that the two sacks of horse meat were for everyone to eat.

As for the money he spent to buy horses, Xie Zhong didn't say anything, and Wang Meilan didn't ask. After opening the sack, looking at the red horse meat, Wang Meilan asked: "This meat is quite fresh, how about we make whole horse meat tomorrow?"

"Sister, don't do that!" As soon as Wang Meilan finished speaking, Xie Sun shook her head and waved her hands and said, "This is meat. The meat is thick and not very tasty."

Speaking of this, Mrs. Xie Sun paused for a moment and then said: "We always eat pork, and some horse meat is okay for a change. But if we are entertaining guests (qiě), it is not okay!"

Saying that, Mrs. Xie Sun shook her head and continued: "We eat fresh food, but if others don't take it as a good thing, we won't be the ones to blame!"

What Xie Sun said is well-founded. Horses, cows, and donkeys are all big animals, but horse meat is incomparable with beef and donkey meat. As Xie Sun said, if you eat too much pork, it's okay to eat fresh horse meat. If you use it to entertain your relatives, if they don't treat it as a good thing, they will think you are neglecting them.

At this time, Jie Zhong and Jie Chen looked at their biological mother with wide eyes. Both brothers felt that their mother had changed after just a few days in Yong'an.

Wang Meilan also listened to Sun's opinion and responded with a smile: "Okay, sister, you are right, we can keep this meat for ourselves."

"Well!" Mr. Xie Sun raised his hand and gestured to the sack, and said: "This meat must be rich in oil and water to be delicious. It just so happens that our family is not short of oil and water. One day, we will chop green onions and make big steamed dumplings or steamed buns on it. , then it smells delicious."

Xie Zhong, Xie Chen: "..."

It's right this time, this is their mother, that's right!

While a few people were talking, the dog outside barked again. Zhao Youcai and the others were back, and Zhao Jun's house became even more lively!

Although there were many people today, dinner was quite simple. After all, we have a tough battle to fight tomorrow, so we have to recharge our batteries today.

The staple food for dinner is dumplings stuffed with pickled cabbage oil, which is a favorite way of eating among Northeastern people.

To eat sauerkraut, it must have enough oil and water to taste delicious, so sauerkraut and oily sauerkraut are a perfect match.

Wang Meilan and others made more than 500 dumplings in advance, placed them on the curtain and sent them outside. At this time, everyone was back. Wang Meilan gave an order, and Yang Yufeng added firewood to the pit and boiled water to prepare dumplings.

The men took their seats in the West Room first. Although they were eating dumplings, there were also dishes.

Fried peanuts, radish mixed with sugar, canned luncheon meat, canned hairtail, pickled cabbage heart dipping sauce, and an air-dried sausage.

They are both cold dishes, dishes that go well with wine, and they go well with dumplings.

In other words, Northeastern people cannot live without sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut can be fried, stewed, and stuffed. In difficult times, sauerkraut hearts can be eaten as fruit or snacks. There is no need to wash or blanch them. You can just grab them and eat them. That's it, adults generally can't eat it, so the children eat it all.

As for the dried sausage, Zhao Chun brought it back. When Zhao Jun picked her up today, Zhao Chun took two large triangular bags, one of which contained things for the child and clothes for the couple to wear tomorrow. The other pocket contained peanuts, fungus and dried sausage.

This dried sausage was not a rare thing in the forest area at this time. It's just a little troublesome to make. When filling this intestine, you need to use three fat and seven lean pork. After filling, it is dried and steamed before eating.

Pots of dumplings are served on the table, and men, women, old and young gather together to eat, drink and chat.

A large table was set up in the west room, so Zhao Jun and Li Ruhai, who came back later, did not share a table with women and children. But neither of them drank, and each of them held a bottle of soda.

Everyone can't avoid the tiger when chatting today. When Zhou Jianjun said that people from the Forestry Bureau would come to hunt tigers tomorrow, Xie Zhong and Jie Chen applauded repeatedly. A day's work stoppage in Lengchang would be a day's waste of material and food money. Although Xie Zhong is generous, it is in vain.

Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong were both a little silent at the moment, but neither of them mentioned that they had planned to take leave the day after tomorrow to hunt tigers.

As for Zhao Jun, he didn't take the tiger to heart at all. And he has no interest in hunting tigers. If someone can kill the tiger, Zhao Jun will be happy and free.

Because there is a big event tomorrow, the men will drink in moderation tonight.

As soon as nine o'clock passed, everyone went back to their homes. Xie Zhong and Jie Chen followed the old lady Xie Sun and left. Although their Xie family had set up a house in Yong'an, they could not live in the house without a kang.

Wang Meilan made quilts for Zhao Chun and Zhou Jianjun. Zhao Chun's family of three stayed with Zhao Jun in the west room tonight. Zhao Chun and his children slept on the kang, while Zhao Jun slept on the kang slightly, with Zhou Jianjun in between.

The next day, Sunday, November 22, 1987.

Just after four o'clock, everyone in the Zhao family got up except for the three children.

Wang Meilan has already boiled two pots of water and filled three thermos bottles at home with hot water. While everyone was taking turns washing up in front of the washbasin, Li Dayong came.

Li Dayong was holding a large basin filled with tofu curd. At around three o'clock in the morning, it was still dark outside, so the couple and Li Baoyu took the soybeans to the tofu shop.

They exchanged ten kilograms of dried tofu, ten kilograms of soybean curd and a pot of tofu. Since the fire was at Li's house today, the dried tofu and soybean curd were brought directly to Li's house.

After serving half of the tofu heads to Zhao Jia, Li Dayong took the basin and left.

With tofu nao, there is no staple food, but Wang Meilan doesn't cook either. She put the tofu brains and the basin in the pot to heat them up, and just after five o'clock, Li Ruhai brought the pancakes over.

Wang Meilan called up the two little girls and waited for them to put on clothes. Zhao Hong and Zhao Na were also excited.

Except for Zhou Zhou, the family was still sleeping, while the others were eating together around the table. Although everyone spoke in a lowered voice in order not to wake up the children, everyone could see smiles on their faces.

"Brother, here's it for you!" Zhao Chun grabbed the fried cake, tore off half of it and gave it to Zhao Jun.

Seeing this, Wang Meilan pointed her chopsticks at the pan filled with cakes and said to Zhao Chun, "My daughter, you can eat it. Don't you still have this? Your aunt bakes so many!"

Zhao Chun smiled when he heard this and said, "I've already eaten one piece, but I can't eat this one myself!"

Zhao Jun also laughed, brought half of the fried cake given by the eldest sister to his mouth and took a big bite. At this time, Zhou Jianjun was holding a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, filling another bowl of tofu. He turned back to Zhao Jun and said, "Jun, I'll give you another spoonful."

"Hey!" Zhao Jun responded vaguely while chewing the oil cake, and handed the bowl to Zhou Jianjun.

After Zhou Jianjun added a bowl of tofu to him, Zhao Jun took a sip. He suddenly froze and glanced at all the relatives on the table.

Zhao Youcai, who was smacking his lips after drinking tofu nao, Wang Meilan, who was taking a bite of cucumber and pickles with chopsticks and giving it to Zhao Hong and Zhao Na, were studying her sister and brother-in-law, who were frightening their sleeping son. There was also the little nephew lying on the kang with his little fists clenched on his face.

Zhao Jun suddenly realized that this was the most complete meal for his family at this stage. In two lifetimes, this is the first time such a scene has happened.

Zhao Jun suddenly felt happy, and he felt very happy.

…

After the meal, the table was cleared. The family began to arrange themselves, everyone put on their latest and best clothes.

Then, Zhao Jun and Zhou Jianjun took enamel plates and placed melon seeds, peanuts, and candy cubes.

Zhao Youcai also made a plate, folded red paper on it, and placed cigarettes on the red paper.

At seven o'clock, Wang Qiang, Zhao Ling, Lin Xiangshun, Xu Chunyan, Yang Yufeng, Xiao Lingdang, the old lady, Jie Sunshi, Jie Zhong, and Jie Chen all came.

Xu Chunyan rushed back from her parents' home early this morning to help the Zhao family.

Of these houses, only Zhang Yuanmin did not come. Yang Yufeng asked Xie Zhong about this, but after hearing that Xie Zhong said that Zhang Yuanmin stayed behind to look after his house, Yang Yufeng stopped asking.

After everyone arrived, they started doing their own business. Among them, Wang Qiang and Zhao Ling entered the Zhao family. They were going to participate in the ceremony today. Both of them were dressed upright, and the others did not let them work.

At this time, the Zhao family was chatting in the house and making final preparations to see if any corners had fallen.

Li Baoyu, Li Ruhai, Xie Zhong, and Jie Chen were out cleaning the Zhao family yard.

After sweeping the yard, they started to mess around again. They put all the dogs of the Zhao and Li families into the car and transported them directly to Zhang Yuanmin's house.

There are guests coming today, and they are important guests. The whole yard will be filled with dogs barking non-stop, and you won't be able to hear each other talking to each other outside the yard.

After the dog was sent away, Li Ruhai took Xiaoling and Li Xiaoqiao to put them in the doghouse and clean up the dog poop. They are all children from rural areas, and no one would mind being buried.

Li Baoyu, Jie Zhong, and Jie Chen came back soon, and they led the donkey behind the Zhao family's house to the Li family's backyard.

Then, the three of them started killing chickens and geese. Two big roosters, a big white goose, and two innocent ducks together became the dead souls under the knife.

Chickens and geese are used to entertain guests. As for the ducks, Wang Meilan disliked their quacking, so although they were not used to entertain guests, she still had them killed together.

Five poultry were plucked across the water, and the women even took action. The chicken, duck, and goose feathers were collected separately, and the feathers on the wings were tied together individually. These can be sold for money.

More people bring greater strength. After the poultry sheds its feathers, there are still some small fine hairs on the chickens, and there are some small downs on the geese and ducks. At this time, Li Dayong and Lin Xiangshun had finished burning the elbows of the four wild boars, and they started to burn the poultry again.

At the same time, two large pots were placed on the stove in the Zhao family yard, and Li Baoyu, Jie Zhong, and Jie Chen were chopping wood, carrying water, and boiling water.

Pour cold water into the pot, put the cut pork belly pieces and packed pork knuckles into the pot and blanch them.

Then came the chopped chicken and goose, and the pot in the Li family room was not idle either. Jie Sun made a fire, and the old lady simply blanched the soaked fungus and mushrooms.

Everyone was busy until half past nine, and all the ingredients were ready. Bowls of blanched meat, plates of prepared vegetables, and fried tofu cubes were placed in Li's house.

The fires in the two large stove pits outside have been extinguished. Everyone tidied up the Zhao family's yard together, and then everyone went into the house and waited for someone from the Ma family to come.

The Zhao family attaches such importance to it, and so does the Ma family. At ten minutes to ten o'clock, a large group of people from the Ma family came out of the house. After Wang Cuihua locked the door, she and Ma Ling helped Liu Tiezui to Zhao's house.

Liu Tiezui was in poor health, so with the support of Wang Cuihua and Ma Ling, she walked for ten minutes for the four to five-minute journey.

Just after ten o'clock, a group of people arrived outside the Zhao family courtyard. At this time, everyone in the Ma family was silent. Ma Yang held a large bundle wrapped in red cloth and handed it to Liu Tiezui.

Seeing this big baggage, Liu Tiezui clicked his eyes, took a deep breath, and took the baggage with difficulty.

With Wang Cuihua's support, Liu Tiezui walked tremblingly to the door of Zhao's courtyard, raised his head and shouted: "Brother Zhao, Sister-in-law Zhao, I'm bringing a guest (qiě) for you!"

Fortunately, the dogs were all taken away, otherwise they wouldn't be able to hear anything when they barked.

At this time, the dog was gone and the goose was killed. Liu Tiezui shouted, and everything was quiet.

In Li's house, everyone gathered in front of the window to watch the fun. In the Zhao family's house, Zhao Hong and Zhao Na were taking good care of Xiao on the kang in the west room. Zhao Jun, Zhao Youcai, Wang Meilan, Wang Qiang, Zhao Ling, Zhao Chun, and Zhou Jianjun were waiting in the outer room.

As soon as Liu Tiezui finished speaking outside, Zhao Youcai pushed the door open and came out with Wang Meilan first.

At this time, Zhao Youcai shouted in response: "Here we come!"