The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

"Wash the dishes and I'll tell you."

Bao Ya immediately understood what he meant; he wanted her to make braised pig's head for him. She needed to think carefully about what to ask him for.

"Huh? Washing the dishes?"

The monkey looked at her as if she'd seen a ghost, as if she'd said something incredible. It was the first time in his life he'd ever heard of him being asked to do the dishes.

"Fine, don't bother swiping then, the door's over there."

Bao Ya didn't even glance at him, and finished the porridge in her bowl in one gulp.

She didn't care what he thought; when you encounter someone like that, you have to teach him a lesson first.

Especially for children from well-off families, if you always give in to their demands, they'll dare to treat you like a maid in the future.

"No, how come you..."

The monkey stared wide-eyed at Bao Ya, then turned to look at Jiang Yuan, as if to say, "Why don't you do anything about your wife?"

Jiang Yuan winked at him and said slowly:

"Do you still want to eat pig's head? If you do, then listen to your sister-in-law."

Seeing that Jiang Yuan also said that, Monkey wanted to say something more, but seeing Bao Ya's unyielding attitude, he finally gave up.

She thought to herself, "Fine, I'll wash the dishes. If the braised pork head doesn't look good, I'll scold her."

Watching the monkey's reluctant back, Bao Ya asked Jiang Yuan:

"You seem to know this brat quite well?"

"Yes, we're very close. Director Song and my brother were comrades-in-arms."

Tsk, this brother-in-law I've never met seems to have a wide circle of friends, but that doesn't stop me from taking advantage of him.

After the monkey finished washing the dishes, Bao Ya checked them again. They were alright, not too useless.

"How many pig heads do you have?"

Bao Ya spoke slowly, while calculating how much she could get from him.

The monkey's lips twitched as he listened. Several, indeed. His father was the director of a meat processing plant, but pork wasn't something you could just take away.

The monkey seemed a little hesitant in its speech, and tried to ask:

"Um, if you want, could you make one?"

The monkey felt a little embarrassed, after all, he usually led a group of brothers and was quite imposing, so was doing it alone a bit too little?

"Is one even worth making a whole pot of? Forget it, here are two pig intestines to satisfy your craving."

Bao Ya glanced at him indifferently, thinking that the factory tycoon who couldn't even produce two pig heads wasn't worth her time.

If he could bring two pig heads, and figure out how to divide one in half, how much could he possibly get from a single pig head? A pig ear? This job isn't worth doing.

Moreover, nowadays, a pig that weighs over 200 jin is considered a large pig, which is incomparable to the large, fat pigs weighing over 300 jin in later generations.

The monkey was immediately displeased; she felt this was an insult. "Just two pig heads, huh?" she thought. Then, raising her chin, she said to Jiang Yuan:

"Brother, get me two pig heads tomorrow."

"Get out of here! Do you think I'm your father? You just spout nonsense like you're an idiot."

Jiang Yuan gave the monkey a disdainful look. This kid was talking nonsense. How could you just throw a pig's head out like that?

Tsk, what's wrong with this couple? Why do they both love acting like their own fathers?

"you……"

"Go ask your father to approve the note."

Seeing that the monkey was about to get angry, Jiang Yuan immediately gave the correct answer.

Hearing Jiang Yuan say this, the monkey fell silent. It's just a matter of getting the old man to criticize two pig heads, that's easy.

Seeing that the two of them had reached an agreement, Bao Ya continued:

"Do you want it cooked through, or do you want it to taste good?"

Isn't that obvious? If it didn't taste good, would he eat it?

"Of course it's delicious."

The monkey gave the answer without even thinking.

"If you want something delicious, you need to prepare the ingredients. I'll give you a list, and you can buy it according to that."

Before he could reply, Bao Ya went to get paper and pen and started writing down the necessary information.

After she finished writing, Monkey looked at the form, then at Bao Ya, and felt that Bao Ya was treating him like a fool.

"Two pounds of rock sugar? You want to make candied hawthorn skewers? And two pounds of soy sauce, two pounds of liquor, and this is Chinese medicine, right...?"

The monkey counted out the items on the list for her one by one, but this tiger woman really thought he was a fool.

Bao Ya rolled her eyes at him without showing the slightest bit of guilt.

"Look at you, so ignorant. Why do you think pig intestines are so delicious? If it's that simple, why don't you go home and cook them yourself?"

"I only use this much seasoning for my braised pork. If you don't want it, fine, I'm too lazy to make it anyway."

After saying that, Bao Ya stood up and walked into her room. Who would do this lousy work if there wasn't some benefit to it? It's dirty and tiring.

Besides, aren't those spoiled rich kids just waiting to be fleeced? If they don't want to be fleeced, who's going to bother with them?

"Hey, you..."

Seeing that she was about to leave, the monkey quickly called out to her, but before he could speak, Bao Ya suddenly turned around and said to him:

"I forgot to tell you, you have to clean the two pig heads yourself, and give me half of one after you've finished cooking. That's the rule I follow when I cook pig intestines for Aunt Xie."

You can also take a few pig trotters and pig tails to braise together.

After saying that, he went into his room without looking back.

I thought this silly boy would need a few days to think it over, but to my surprise, he had all the ingredients ready by the afternoon of the next day.

"Tsk, why are you bringing such good wine? Just go to the supply and marketing cooperative and buy two bottles of loose white wine."

Bao Ya looked at the monkey with a disgusted expression, holding the two bottles of Fenjiu. "This good-for-nothing! Why would you need such good liquor to make pig's head?"

Why didn't you say so sooner?

Hearing Bao Ya say that, Monkey realized what was going on. He realized that buying wine at the supply and marketing cooperative would cost money and require coupons, so he had taken two bottles from his father's cabinet. Now he had made a huge mistake.

"You didn't even ask me. Oh well, let's just make do."

"What do you mean 'make do'? I'll break it up for you right now."

As the monkey was talking, he reached for the liquor in Bao Ya's hand, but before he could touch the bottle, Jiang Yuan reached out and took the liquor from him.

"Alright, that's fine. I've put the loose cigarettes in there. Later, take a few packs of cigarettes out of your dad's cabinet."

After saying that, he turned around, took the wine back into the house, and put it in the cabinet. There were several other bottles of loose white wine in his cabinet, so he could just take one out.

"You two are really..."

"What the hell? Go clean up this pig's head."

Before he could finish speaking, Bao Ya pointed to the frame Jiang Yuan had set up for him to burn the pig's head, and told him to burn off the hair on the pig's head, as well as the two pig's trotters and three pig's tails.

The monkey was really going all out to eat pig's head meat, and she angrily went to cook it. She was already thinking about how to get her money's worth at her house in the future.

"Sister~".

There was a flurry of activity in the yard when Simao arrived carrying two lunchboxes.

"Si Mao is here, hurry up and come inside."

"Why."

Si Mao glanced at the monkey in the yard, who was roasting a pig's head with his fingers curled up in a delicate gesture, and thought, "Tsk, this job is really terrible." Then he carried the lunchbox into the house.

"Is it a holiday today?"

Bao Ya poured him a cup of hot water and had him sit by the stove to warm himself.

"Yes, Master gave me half a day off. This is the dish I brought for you; it was just cooked."

Bao Ya took the two lunchboxes, one with stir-fried pork with chili peppers and the other with steamed egg with minced meat, just in time to heat them up for dinner.

"Why don't you eat dinner before you go back? We're having braised pig's head today."

This younger brother is really great. He does whatever you ask, and he gives her ten yuan every month. She gets money without having to work. I wish we had more younger brothers like him.

"Okay. What should I do? How about I roast a pig's head..."

That guy outside with his delicate pinky finger really doesn't look like someone who can do manual labor. If I did the work like that, the master would definitely kick him.