1940s: I supported my wife and sister-in-law by hunting.

Chen Gaoshan and Qi Da Kuaizi, with their boning knives in hand, rolled up their sleeves and got to work, cutting the wild boar meat into pieces.

Xiao Kouzi and Wang Si held scales in their hands, weighing the cut meat and announcing its weight.

It was agreed that the meat would be divided according to the number of people, with each adult receiving five jin and each child receiving two jin. No one dared to cause trouble. If you dared to cause trouble, Wang Changfa had a gun in his hand, and if he said he wouldn't give you any, he really wouldn't.

Every household lined up with baskets and cloth bags, and the villagers who received the meat were all smiles, their back teeth showing. They thanked the people who had come up the mountain to hunt for the wild boar meat.

"Shanzi, could you please weigh me? My family consists of me, my mother-in-law, and a little baby."

A familiar female voice rang out. Chen Gaoshan paused, his knife twitching. He looked up and saw Liu Chuncao standing in front of him, a bamboo basket slung over her shoulder, her eyes crinkling as she smiled at him.

Without saying a word, he specifically chose a thick, fatty part of the meat, cut off a large piece, and weighed it to make sure the amount was about right.

"Two adults and one child, totaling thirteen jin. Little Kouzi, make sure the scale is accurate for your sister-in-law Chuncao!"

"Alright!"

Xiao Kouzi immediately picked up the scale hook, hung the meat on it, and started weighing it.

"It's so tall."

Liu Chuncao picked up the basket of meat and walked past Chen Gaoshan sideways. Inadvertently, the back of her soft hand brushed against his buttocks.

Chen Gaoshan turned his head and met her gaze. Her almond-shaped eyes were watery and incredibly alluring. She was clearly flirting with him and trying to seduce him.

That little vixen, she's only been away from me for half a month and she's already so anxious and restless. Looks like I'll have to climb over the wall to her house tonight and give her a good dressing down.

He had just come to his senses.

"Shanzi, cut me a piece with some fat, not skinny! There are two adults and three kids in my family, so don't skimp on it!"

Then Zhu Mantang, the wealthy man in the village, stood in front of them. He had a thin, oval face, a big, round nose, and small eyes that were fixed on the wild boar meat on the cutting board.

"Hey Zhu Mantang, your family is one of the wealthiest in the village, what's a little wild boar meat to you? Why are you making such a fuss?"

Everyone knows that Zhu Mantang is a wealthy man in the village. His father used to be a bearded man, and it is said that the second-in-command of Black Tiger Mountain is related to his family. Over the years, he has accumulated a lot of wealth and lives a more comfortable life than anyone else.

Zhu Mantang immediately pursed his lips, looking serious.

"What do you know! My dad said that you won't go poor from eating or dressing, but you will go poor if you don't plan ahead. This family's wealth was saved up penny by penny, bite by bite. How can we waste it recklessly?"

"Hurry up, scrape off that little bit of oil off the back of the knife and put it in the basket, don't let it go to waste!"

He turned to Xiao Kouzi and gave him another instruction, not wanting to miss a single drop of profit.

Everyone watched as Zhu Mantang, who had wrapped the wild boar meat tightly in layers of cloth, swaggered home, his stingy manner suggesting he wanted to stuff even the scraps of meat into his pockets. He had only taken a few steps when...

The villagers behind him immediately erupted in a commotion, pointing and whispering among themselves.

Li Laoliu, with a pipe in his mouth, slammed the pipe bowl onto the sole of his shoe, smirked, and started chatting.

"Look at how stingy he is! This is what they call the more money he has, the stingier he is, and the stingier he is, the more he accumulates wealth. Even if a fart pops out a bean, he'll still pick it up and eat a few snails!"

Those who did odd jobs for him all complained behind his back that his cooking was terribly bad—dry, bland, and even choking.

Those who gathered around craned their necks and shook their heads, asking questions with puzzled expressions.

"What's going on? Shouldn't we farmers make sure our workers are well-fed?"

Old Man Li slapped his thigh.

"No wonder you'll never get rich in your lives, never become the big shots in our village! Zhu Mantang is shrewd. He says he'll feed you to your heart's content, but he deliberately makes the food unpalatable. A strong laborer who could normally eat three bowls in one meal, oh my god, he just can't swallow that food. He barely manages to eat two and a half bowls before putting down his chopsticks. Doesn't that save half a bowl of grain? Over time, if you save a little every day, how much food can you save in a month, a year? He's really shrewd!"

Chen Gaoshan, who was listening nearby, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Only Zhu Mantang could come up with such a wicked trick; upon closer examination, it's actually quite clever!

Even chicks have their own ways of not urinating; it's true that landlords have their crooked ways.

Making the food taste bad saves a lot of food, and people who are too full don't want to move around.

Secondly, if the food isn't comfortable, one can't eat too much and can only work honestly.

This person's mind is so sharp; I really don't know how they were born.

"These abacus beads are practically reaching the outskirts of our village!"

After the meat was distributed, everyone was eager to go home. At this moment, the whole Nangou Village was even more lively than during the Spring Festival.

Smoke was rising from every rooftop, and wild boar stew was bubbling away in iron pots; the whole village was enjoying a meat feast.

Those young boys who were going hunting in the mountains for the first time were finally able to hold their heads high. They stood tall and proud, carrying the little wild boar cubs home with great pride.

Along the way, the uncles, aunts, grandfathers, and grandmothers in the village would give them a thumbs up and praise them loudly whenever they saw them.

"Good job, kid! You've really made something of yourself! Daring to go into the mountains to chase wild boars, you're a real man in our village!"

"You're so young yet you're already putting in so much effort; you're even more impressive than your dad was at that age!"

The boys were so flattered that their faces turned bright red, their foreheads practically glowing, and they walked with a swagger, their mouths stretched to their ears. They were incredibly happy and couldn't wait to show off to the whole village that they were now men who could hunt and do manual labor.

Chen Laonian, of course, heard the news and knew his son was tired. He carried a wild boar cub weighing about fifty pounds after removing the offal on his shoulder and went back with Shanzi.

Half of it was used to make cured meat. The meat was cut into large chunks, and a whole vat of it was marinated with a layer of salt. Finally, boiled water that had cooled down was poured in, and a large stone was placed on top to weigh it down. It was delicious stewed with green beans and sauerkraut.

Some families slaughter a pig for the Lunar New Year, and the meat is enough to last until the green beans are harvested the following year, so they can stew the green beans and eat them.

That night, Chen Gaoshan went to Widow Liu's house in the middle of the night and imitated a cat's meow twice by the wall before having someone pull him onto the kang (heated brick bed) inside.

"Shanzi, how come you have so much energy? You're like a bull! Today, I'm going to let you mess with me as much as you want, mess me to death, mess me to death!"

"What are you doing, acting like a fool? Are you really going to kill me?"

Liu Chuncao's heart was overflowing with joy at that moment.

Chen Gaoshan listened to the coughing from the east room and the whimpering of Daya beside him.

"You can call out more quietly, or you'll wake up Daya."

Liu Chuncao swung her leg. "Da Ya is such a heavy sleeper, she wouldn't even know if you carried her away."

Two hours later, Chen Gaoshan hurried home under the cover of night.

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