Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 186
Grilling Meat
Mr. Zhen had already cut the sheep carcass into various pieces of meat, while the sheep’s hide was drying on a wooden board.
Lu Junming took a piece of nice mutton, tied it up and took it to Jiaolan Courtyard.
Chuzi was the first to enter, when the light of the sky was dimming, and following him were Zhou Liangsheng and Lu Junming, who had entered together. Each of the two were carrying two jars of wine.
Ms. Hua lit up a charcoal grill and placed it in the middle of the courtyard, and they all moved a stool over and sat around the grill, grilling their meat together. A low table beside them held all of the meat skewers, sauces, and various paraphernalia.
Mr. Zhen placed the already-made meat skewers on the grill to start cooking, while Chi Jie volunteered to brush oil and sauces onto the pieces of meat. He sighed, “It’s a shame there aren’t any chilies here.”
Everyone else asked what chilies were, and Mr. Zhen replied, “Oh, chilies? I’ve seen them before. They’re the plants that are green when newly-grown, red when mature, and leave a fiery taste in your mouth, right? It’s a unique experience.”
Chi Ji was only interested in the meat skewers being grilled, and paid no attention to his words, but Mo Yan froze when she heard his words. Chilies only became common within the peasantry a millennium later, and they were extremely rare before that even if they were present. How did he learn about them?
After the meat skewers were done, Mo Zheng ran out wanting to try some of them, but complained they didn’t taste good and were too chewy after Mo Yan let him have a bite. Mrs. Zhen went over to take him to the kitchen, “Your stomach is weak, and you can’t eat this. How about I get you some lamb soup with noodles instead?”
Zhou Liangsheng opened the jars of wine and poured some for everyone present. Lu Junming invited Mr. Zhen to take a seat as well, and he didn’t decline.
After having three cups of wine, a red tint appeared on Mr. Zhen’s face, and he stood up to pour wine for everyone while saying, “I heard there was another war at the southern border, there must be another great loss of life, and the peasants must be suffering! The fact we’re still able to eat meat here is a blessing from the heavens.”
Chi Jie spoke while assembling the skewers, “That’s right! Lu Junming’s father is the one currently heading the troops, but I don’t know what the current situation is.”
Mr. Zhen took the opportunity to ask, “How many soldiers did he bring over? How many cavalrymen, and how many infantry?”
Lu Junming stopped eating the meat skewers, and his eyes darkened, “Do you know any military tactics?”
Mr. Zhen’s expression shifted a little, and he placed a small, guileless smile on his face, “I’m just a citizen running a small business, how would I know any military tactics? But as the saying goes, ‘The creation and destruction of countries are dependent on their militaries’, and I’m worried about the peasants living at the border.”
“Then are you concerned about the peasants of Beiyan or the peasants of Nanyong?” [1]
Everyone stopped eating and turned to look at Mr. Zhen. His wife and him were both from Hunan, which were in the boundaries of Nanyong!
Mr. Zhen placed his winecup on the table, “I just want to know when the war will be over, and when we can return to Hunan. When the two of us set out, my mother repeatedly told us to return sooner rather than later.”
This was a reasonable explanation. Lu Junming tilted his head and drained his cup of wine before lightly, but coldly saying, “If I encounter a southern barbarian here to commit crimes, I’ll kill him with a single thrust of my spear, then grill him like we’re doing with lamb skewers now before chopping him to pieces and eating him.”
Zhao’er was so scared he immediately put down the lamb skewer he had just picked up, and Mo Yan tugged on Lu Junming’s sleeve, “Don’t speak nonsense and destroy everyone’s appetites. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting this quality lamb.”
Lu Junming grabbed a skewer, placing two pieces of meat in his mouth and chewing forcefully.
Zhou Liangsheng picked up a jar of wine to pour wine for everyone. “It’s a shame the wine we have today is mediocre, and nowhere near as good as the wine we had when we became sworn brothers. That wine was from my dad’s collection, and I got a good scolding for taking that jar of wine.”
On the other hand, his words reminded Chi Jie, “I wasn’t present for that occasion, but it’s a good thing I’m here now. Come, let me greet all of you with a cup of wine.”
They only stopped drinking around midnight. Fuelled by alcohol, the four sworn brothers decided to imitate what they had done the day they became sworn brothers and slept on the same bed together. Lu Junming’s bed was nowhere near as large as Ms. Hua’s kang, but the four of them were stubborn. When Lu Junming turned over in his sleep at night, he pushed Chuzi out of the bed, but Chuzi didn’t notice anything and just slept on the floor.
The next day, the four only woke up late in the morning, and Lu Junming went out to the courtyard while stretching. Mo Zheng was playing with his two puppies in the courtyard, while the kitchen was quiet.
“Zheng’er, what’s for breakfast?”
Mo Zheng replied, “Meat wraps and douhua.”
Lu Junming entered the kitchen, and seeing there was heat emanating from a pot, opened it to see a package being warmed inside the pot. Inside the package was a meat wrap.
How could a man as caring and good at cooking as Mr. Zhen be a spy from Nanyong? He must’ve asked those questions due to being caring, and I must’ve been overthinking.
When Ms. Hua entered the kitchen, Lu Junming asked, “Godmother, is your courtyard ready?”
“Almost, we’re just missing a few details.”
“Then how about you let Mr. and Mrs. Zhen, and Mo Zheng live there! They can work together with you, and you can help each other out if necessary.”
When the wheat had fully matured, a person in the village who had returned from Yi City said that Manager Liang had been sentenced to three years of hard labour and had been sent to the border. Lin Xian’er’s business was getting better and better, and she wanted to buy one of the brothels in the city.
The wheat in the two acres of farmland belonging to the Mo family had matured. It wasn’t proper for Ms. Liang to take the initiative to harvest the wheat now, so instead, Mo Yan’s aunt from the east of the village contacted Mo Zenian and told him it was about time to harvest the wheat. [3]
The weather wasn’t bad today, so Mo Zenian took the initiative to go and harvest the wheat. He got the donkey carriage, called Ms. Liang and Mo Feng, and they went to the fields.
He had become an apprentice at the age of thirteen, so had never worked on the fields before. He had only been working for a short while before his back could no longer stand it, and he sat down under a tree to rest.
Mo Feng was even worse than him, and it was like there was a stick stuck on his waist, as he wasn’t even able to bend down. He straightened up and looked at the sun, before creasing his brow and pouting while standing still.
Ms. Liang turned back to look at the father and son duo, shaking her head in resignation before continuing to bend down to harvest wheat.
Xiuying and her brother passed by the fields along the road, and when Mo Feng saw them he hurriedly bent down to hastily harvest a few crops. Then, he quickly stood up before pretending to wipe the sweat from his brow, “The weather’s so hot today!”
Xiuying let her brother leave first, then went down to the fields, taking Mo Feng’s scythe and started to harvest wheat.
“You scholars have thin skin and tender flesh, how could you withstand being scorched by the rays of the sun?”
She used the sickle to hook a large bunch of wheat, before grabbing it with her hand and casually swiping at the bottom part of the wheat with her sickle. The large bunch of wheat ended up in front of her. After repeating this a few times, a mound of wheat appeared in front of her, and she used a piece of string to tie the mound of wheat into a bundle.
Before long, Xiuying had caught up to Ms. Liang in front of her, while Mo Zenian and Mo Feng just sat there watching.
Opposite them were Mr. Cao’s fields. The wheat had all matured, but no one had gone to collect it.
Ms. Liang asked, “Xiuying, has the Cao family not started to harvest their wheat yet?”
Xiuying replied, “Not yet, Mrs. Cao isn’t present so no one has taken the initiative to. Mr. Cao even sold his horse, he clearly doesn’t care about harvesting the crops anymore.”
“But if the wheat isn’t collected, then it’ll burst onto the ground, what a shame!”
“We can’t do anything about it. If the owner doesn’t grant permission, outsiders can’t touch their property.”
After harvesting for a day, the two acres of field had less than half of its crops remaining. At night, Ms. Liang insisted Xiuying join them for dinner, so she relented.
Ms. Liang stewed the bones of the sheep she received, and minced some of the remaining meat into a meat paste while chopping up the rest. After sauteeing it, she salted it and left it so it could be stored for longer.
She was tired today, so Ms. Liang just fried the lamb meat with green beans. Not only was it quick to make, it was also delicious.
P.S. We see how Mo Zenian is actually trying to act as part of a family unit in the countryside. As always, thanks for reading!
[1] This is a random tidbit from much earlier in the story, but Beiyan and Nanyong are two fictional (as far as I can tell) countries within the borders of modern-day China. The story is set in Beiyan, but so far that fact really hasn’t impacted this story at all.