HPDBC Chapter 13 Big Bowls of Wine and Big Mouths of Meat
Chapter 13 Big Bowls of Wine and Big Mouths of Meat
The educated youth settlement had portable cooking pots, which saved Chen Tuo the trouble of finding a pot and building a stove on the spot.
Use a logging axe to chop the wolf meat and otter meat into large pieces.
I found the stewing seasoning mentioned in the survival diary: Schisandra chinensis vine.
According to the diary, this is Sichuan pepper.
Having tasted some Sichuan peppercorns with indescribable flavors, Chen Tuo didn't dwell on it.
Pull a schisandra vine and sprinkle some coarse salt on it.
After soaking the meat in two buckets of well water, they placed the cooking pot on a stove made from a gasoline drum.
When pine trees are used as firewood, in addition to producing smoke, they also release the kind of oily soot that is only found in chimneys.
The gatehouse was filled with this fluffy tobacco ash.
Aside from the poor quality of the firewood.
Apart from a field pot, the cooking utensils in the house were practically useless.
A strangely shaped wooden rice shovel.
A rice spoon made from a gourd ladle.
Rice bowls and small basins were covered in broken pieces.
Nothing they could take with them, none of the registered educated youth left behind.
Once the fire is burning brightly, the water will boil.
Chen Tuo skimmed the foam from the pot before leaving the smoky gatehouse to continue shoveling snow.
When the moon rose over the ridge, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard outside the educated youth settlement.
Before Chen Tuo could turn around, Sun Changkui's deliberately gruff voice rang out.
"Chen Zhiqing, your skill in smashing dry pots and digging out fish nests is too poor! There are twenty or thirty old catfish balls and blackfish sticks underneath."
Sun Changkui used the single word "old" to describe the large catch in the fishpond before reporting the expenses:
"About a hundred crucian carp, each the size of two palms, and about two hundred pounds of other fish—this harvest is more than enough for the New Year! They're quite plentiful!"
After announcing the catch, Sun Changkui, standing outside the door, waved his hand and said decisively:
"Hey, you silly boy, take the fish to the educated youth's station for Chen!"
Sun Changkui could smell the aroma of Sichuan peppercorn stewed with meat back in the Hetao region.
But he couldn't guarantee that Chen Tuo would be as perceptive and understanding as he thought.
The best way to resolve this is for Chen Tuo to invite us to stay for dinner, exchange a few polite words, and then everyone can go home.
The matter of Chu Maolin making things difficult for him was temporarily put on hold.
Without the fish catch, even if something happens to Chen Tuo, it won't be directly related to Chu Maolin.
Moreover, no one can stop an accident like this, right?
They saw the Forestry Bureau's security personnel and the Songlin Town Armed Forces Department's security guards carrying two sacks of fish into the educated youth settlement.
Sun Changkui also gripped the bundle hanging on his crutch tightly.
Chen Tuo invited him to stay for a meal, which allowed him to conveniently leave behind the winter coat from his bundle.
Chen Tuo didn't say anything, but he went out of his way to offer clothes, which was a way of putting Chu Maolin in a bad light.
"Brother-in-law Sun, thank you so much. I'm not very healthy, and without you, I wouldn't have been able to get these fish back, would I?"
Upon hearing this, Sun Changkui felt relieved.
Although Chen Tuo did not offer him a meal, he did say some conciliatory words.
Once the section with frostbite was completed, Da Lingzi in the family could finally speak, which could be considered a step forward.
"We're all neighbors, why be so polite? Your sister Lingzi is still thinking of you back home! Look, you even forgot the cotton-padded coat she brought you..."
If Chen Tuo doesn't offer to stay for a meal, Sun Changkui has to find a way to get him to stay.
Scooping fish out of their nests during this season is not a good business.
Of the sixteen people, he and Chu Maolin did not go down into the ice cave.
The other fourteen people took turns catching fish and warming themselves by the fire, but they were freezing.
Chen Tuo's polite words didn't resonate with the other person, and it would only make things more difficult for him, like the fourteenth Chu Maolin.
"Brother-in-law Sun, Uncle Wu gave me some wolf meat. I didn't have anything else to eat, so I stewed it. Would you all like some?"
After Chen Tuo said this, Sun Changkui burst into laughter:
"Alright, Old Wolf is better than Black Dog! Yu Laosan, take those two big Aohua liquors to Old Du's place and exchange them for wine, not Erguotou, but Songling Bai!"
Sun Changkui sent the militiamen who came with him to exchange for wine, and he didn't forget about Wu Laowai either.
"Maolin, go to town and find it for your Uncle Wu..."
After making the arrangements, Sun Changkui glanced at the pile of pine branches that had been partially cleared, shook his head, and then said:
"Chen Zhiqing, before you leave work tomorrow, have someone haul some maple and birch wood for you. That stuff burns well and doesn't produce smoke."
Seeing that Chen Tuo remained noncommittal, Sun Changkui did not stand on ceremony and then arranged for people to light a bonfire and place wooden stools outside the gatehouse of the educated youth settlement.
They then placed the wolf meat from the marching pot on the outdoor campfire.
After everyone had warmed themselves by the fire, he pulled Chen Tuo into the gatehouse.
"Chen, you know, there are some things that the forest farm can only follow the crowd; it's not good for you to be the one to stick your neck out."
Having set the tone, Sun Changkui patted Chen Tuo on the shoulder and offered heartfelt words of comfort:
"Don't worry, the mountains and forests around here are fertile! When you have time, come find me at the shooting range, and I'll teach you how to shoot..."
With six sons in the family, even though Sun Changkui wanted to help Chu Maolin, he didn't dare to take on too much responsibility for their food rations.
Grain rationing is the lifeline of the forest area.
Let alone Sun Changkui, even if you gathered all the directors of the five forest farms in Songling together, no one would make such a guarantee.
Chen Tuo was not the only young man in Songling Forest Area; the children of the pioneers had also grown up.
Opening a channel would create at least several hundred jobs and several hundred food rations.
Who would dare to open such a loophole?
Chen Tuo was a little better off; he had the title of "educated youth" and could live in a large educated youth settlement.
In Songling Town and Songling area, there are now many families with more than ten people living in three rooms.
In the Songling Forest Area, without the forest farm providing funds, labor, and timber, it's a pipe dream for ordinary families to build houses or settle down.
"Brother-in-law Sun, I understand. I don't have any special demands; I just want to make a living! No matter how strict the rules are, they can't let me starve, right?"
After accepting the burden handed to him by Sun Changkui, Chen Tuo also chose not to reconcile with Chu Maolin in person.
You can't just kill it directly.
It's not worth getting angry with this kind of deliberately difficult toad, whether you win or lose.
It will only be a waste of energy.
Instead of wasting time on this, you should plagiarize more poems and earn some extra money.
Then use good things and good days to disgust him in return.
Having enough to eat and drink and living a good life, seeing Chu Maolin's arrogance and envy must feel more comfortable and pleasant than beating him up.
Having figured this out, Chen Tuo was unusually relaxed after Chu Maolin and Wu Laowai arrived.
Eating large chunks of meat and drinking heartily—that's what you call carefree and enjoyable.
Two old wolves and one otter, their flesh and bones together weigh at least seventy or eighty pounds.
Because of Sun Changkui's influence, he exchanged two Aohua (a type of Chinese liquor) for a large barrel of bulk liquor. The liquor was incredibly strong, bitter, spicy, and intoxicating.
But in the Xingan Mountains where temperatures drop to minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius, this is the kind of drink you should have. One sip and your eyes will be sparking.
Even the coldest extreme cold will be dispelled by the pungent aroma of cooking.
It was the same place in the Xingan Mountains, and it was the same gathering where they drank heavily.
At this moment, Chen Tuo felt none of the worries and helplessness he had felt before coming.
sense of security……
Perhaps it comes from the group of forestry workers in Songling.
It may also have come from the gatehouse of the Xiaoyangqi educated youth settlement.
Or perhaps it came from the pine firewood piled up like a small mountain in the courtyard.
Or perhaps, in the midst of drinking from large bowls and eating large chunks of meat, Chen Tuo began to let loose, completely disregarding the extreme cold of minus thirty degrees Celsius in the Xing'an Mountains...