Old Mrs. Song is reborn; get out of here, you scumbag husband and illegitimate child!

Youbao bumped his head and cried for only a couple of minutes before Song Xianglan comforted him. He then went with Fubao to the chicken coop to have a contest with the rooster to see who could make the loudest noise.

Pig's head, offal, ribs, trotters, large intestine, small intestine, heart, kidney, liver, stomach... all laid out.

Song Xianglan rolled up her sleeves.

First, the pig's head was singed with charcoal using tongs, and the smell of burnt meat mixed with the grease from the pig's skin filled the air.

After burning it, scrape it clean with a knife, split it in half, and put it in a large wooden basin.

"Huijun, bring those pig's trotters over and scald them too."

"it is good."

Shen Huijun carried the pig's trotters to the pot, where the water was already boiling.

Four pig trotters were thrown in one by one.

Boiling water splashed up and scalded the back of her hand. She hissed and pulled her hand back, wiped it with her apron, and continued working.

"Where's the pig's heart?"

"I'm washing the pig's heart."

Shen Huijun scooped the pig's heart out of the basin, cut it in half with a knife, and removed the blood clots inside to clean it.

While preparing the braising liquid, Song Xianglan said:

Stew pig's heart with astragalus and goji berries. Reserve two pig's trotters to make taro and pig's trotter stew.

Braised pork intestines and pig's head together, stir-fried pig liver with shredded ginger, and pork kidneys with sesame oil.

I cut off a portion of the small intestine and cooked it together with pork ribs, yam, lotus seeds, poria cocos, and goji berries in a Four-Ingredient Soup.

Shen Huijun was speechless with astonishment:

"Mom, you've completely torn this pig apart!"

Song Xianglan threw star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and bay leaves into the braising pot, and added a few spoonfuls of dark soy sauce and rock sugar. "Let's use the pork belly to make braised pork too. The more braised flavor, the less work we'll have to do."

The braising liquid bubbled and simmered in the clay pot, releasing its aroma.

Fu Bao peeked out from the kitchen doorway.

"Grandma smells so good."

"Don't come in yet. The oil in the pan will burn you. We'll call you when it's ready to eat."

Fu Bao pouted and retreated.

He plunged into the chicken coop, sticking his rear end out to grab the old hen.

Shen Huijun took a kitchen knife and chopped the ribs into short pieces.

Her cooking skills have improved significantly since she first married into the family.

"Mom, how do we prepare these pork kidneys?"

"First, remove the white tendons, make decorative cuts, and rub it with salt and rice wine to remove any fishy smell. Later, stir-fry ginger slices in sesame oil over high heat, and drizzle with rice wine before serving."

"OK."

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law work together smoothly, one managing the stove and the other the cutting board.

Seven or eight things were put into the pot one after another, the fire in the stove was burning brightly, and white smoke was billowing out of the chimney.

"Any news from your residential compound lately?"

Shen Huijun was waiting for these words.

Her eyes lit up, and she even put down the knife. "Mom, guess what? Director Wang, who works in finance, was caught with his secretary in the toilet."

"What are you doing in the toilet?"

"They were cuddling and hugging while cooking," Shen Huijun said in a low voice. "The people on duty saw them."

Song Xianglan scoffed. "A bunch of troublemakers who can't be controlled."

Song Xianglan added some more shredded ginger to the pig liver and mixed it well. "Your family compound is full of gossip. Most of what you know is who's dating, who's arguing with whom, who got promoted and who didn't."

Shen Huijun gave an awkward smile.

"My mom and I were always the last to know the news; it wasn't as lively as it was in the village."

"You want to hear it?"

"I want to." Shen Huijun adopted an attitude of listening attentively.

Song Xianglan put the pig liver into the oil pan, flipping it with a spatula at lightning speed. She talked as she flipped it.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law chatted idly, their hands never stopping.

The pig's heart is stewing, and the pig's trotters are also being blanched.

After blanching the pig's trotters, remove them from the water and place them in a clay pot. Add dark soy sauce and rock sugar, cover the pot, and simmer on the stove. After simmering for a while, add the deep-fried taro.

Song Xianglan then began to process the small intestine.

The small intestine took the most time to clean. I turned it inside out and washed it four or five times, rubbing it with flour and washing it clean again.

Cut the thoroughly cleaned small intestines into small sections, and keep some of them to make a Four Gods Soup with pork ribs, yam, lotus seeds, poria cocos, fox nuts, codonopsis, and astragalus.

"Mom, I've made this Four Gods Soup in Xincheng before, but it's never quite the same."

"Four-herb soup needs to be simmered slowly in an earthenware pot for at least two hours. The flavor won't dissipate if it's cooked in a pressure cooker."

Shen Huijun nodded repeatedly.

I memorized the recipe.

The braising pot already contained pork belly and pig's head meat, a large pot brimming with it. The dark brown braising sauce coated the meat as it simmered, filling the entire kitchen with the aroma of braised food. Song Xianglan then added large intestines, dried tofu, and bamboo shoots.

"Mom, with your cooking skills, you could open a braised food shop."

"I wish I had three heads and six arms."

The loud, clear voice of Liu Chounv came from the next courtyard:

"Has Huijun returned?"

Shen Huijun put down what she was holding and called out to the wall, "Auntie, I'm back!"

There was a two-second silence next door.

Then the gate rang, and Liu Chounu came around carrying a bamboo basket.

She was wearing a dark blue cotton-padded jacket, her hair was tied in a bun with a red camellia in it, and the wrinkles on her face were gathered together.

"Come on, have something to eat." Liu Chounu placed the basket on the table.

The garlic sticks were fried until crispy and fragrant. There was also radish cake on the plate.

Shen Huijun quickly took it. "Auntie, you're too kind."

She fed Song Xianglan a vegetable cake, and then ate one herself. "The vegetable cakes in Qingyang are better than those in Xincheng."

"This was made by my eldest daughter's family." Liu Chounu pointed at the fried dough with her finger.

"I know that they also sell fried dough sticks in Xincheng, but the ones she makes are different. Her mother-in-law is from Dongtang, and her fried dough sticks are more fragrant than usual."

Song Xianglan peeked out from the kitchen.

"Was this made by Lin Yan's family?"

"Hmm." Liu Chounu's expression subtly changed; her lips twitched, but she neither went up nor down.

Song Xianglan wiped her hands on her apron and came out.

"Lin Yan is back?"

"no."

The ugly woman shook her head.

Her voice dropped by half.

"Even though our children are all grown up, they still hold grudges against us. Back then, we broke up a couple over twenty pounds of sweet potatoes and two yuan, forcing her to marry someone she didn't like. She still holds a grudge to this day."

The ugly woman wiped the corner of her eye.

"Children are always troublesome," she muttered. "We had no choice back then. She was the eldest sister, with younger brothers and sisters below her."

When she married into the Liu family, they gave her at least twenty catties of sweet potatoes and two yuan as a dowry. The Huang family could only afford five yuan as a bride price.

Shen Huijun's mouth dropped open in astonishment.

He married his daughter off to someone he didn't like for just two yuan for twenty jin of sweet potatoes.

Liu Chounu noticed her expression and gave a bitter smile.

"You young people don't understand. In those days, twenty pounds of sweet potatoes could save a family's lives for half a month. Two yuan could buy so much. Do you think parents would willingly do that?"

She paused, then said:

"I married Old Lin because I listened to my parents. That's how life went. But Lin Yan and that boy from the Huang family in the village fell in love."

Song Xianglan crossed her arms over her chest.

He leaned against the door frame without saying a word.

She did a lot of foolish things in her past life because of Yang Jianjun's bastard child.

He helped him earn money, managed the household, and cleaned up the mess, but in the end, he ended up being held back by a hamster's poop.

Despite a lifetime of humiliation, she was fortunate that she was prepared to die with her whole family, so she first closed the doors and windows of the villa and turned on the gas for all the stoves.

Now, listening to Liu Chounu's words, she could clearly hear the regret in them.

"You went to see her?"

Liu Chounu's shoulders slumped. "I'm afraid that brat will really cut off all ties with us. After all, she's been married for almost twenty years, and she's only come back a handful of times."

Song Xianglan asked:

"When did you go?"

"Yesterday." Liu Chounu sat on the threshold, her hands resting on her knees, the wrinkles on her old face deeper than the roots of a banyan tree.

"It just so happened that her eldest son was getting married, and the matchmaker brought the girl to the man's house for a meeting. I brought a lot of things with me, but I didn't expect it to make my daughter look good."

"and then?"

"Then that brat saw me and her face turned ashen. She just stared at me coldly no matter what I did."

The matchmaker and the girl's family left after half an hour, not because of me, but because the girl never really liked her eldest son. Xiao Yan always says that although she's married, she's all alone.

Shen Huijun, who was listening nearby, frowned.

Liu Chounu chuckled at this point, but it wasn't a happy laugh.

"She was still worried that I wasn't doing well. She specially killed a chicken for cooking, and gave me both chicken legs. She said she remembered that I couldn't bear to eat meat all year round, and she also remembered that she had never seen me eat chicken legs."

The ugly woman smiled bitterly: "My daughter has never eaten a chicken leg either."

After she finished speaking, she looked at Song Xianglan cautiously.

"Lanlan, my grandson wants to find a job. Could he work at your factory?"

How old are you?

Nineteen. Very sturdy and able to endure hardship.

"Let's go to the factory," Song Xianglan readily agreed. "Have him go for an interview at the HR department, and just say that you, that old monster, put in a good word for him."

Liu Chounv laughed, her wrinkles smoothing out with her laughter.

"Actually, Xiaoyan is doing better than Xiaofang." Liu Chounu suddenly blurted out this sentence, with a tone of self-consolation. "My eldest son-in-law is not a sweet-talking and caring person, but he is a practical person who is devoted to the children."

"He has a bad temper and is careless, but he's better than Xiaofang's previous son-in-law who hit people."