The deliciousness of rabbit meat lies in the fact that it contains no fat, only lean meat, which isn’t as tough as other meats.

It’s very tender, smooth, and falls apart easily when cooked.

Also, when stewing it, you don’t need too many seasonings.

Just add wild mushrooms, and as long as you stir-fry the sugar evenly, it’ll coat the meat in a natural reddish-brown glaze.

The most fragrant part of the rabbit is definitely the four legs.

Each person had a large, fatty leg of rabbit, along with a pancake made from buckwheat flour, wrapped with shredded cabbage, carrots, and marinated in apple juice.

The two kids, who hadn’t eaten meat in a long time, hesitated to take a bite.

“Go ahead and eat,” Nie Bozhao said as he took a bite of the pancake.

Er Dan immediately grabbed a rabbit leg and took a bite.

Nie Weimin was about to bite into his pancake when he almost left a rabbit paw print on it.

“Wei Min, let me ask you this. If someone bullies Er Dan or San Dan in the future, will you just throw a punch without even thinking?” Nie Bozhao asked.

Chen Lina, who had just served the soup and was about to speak up and suggest that they stop scolding the kids during mealtime, received a stern glare from Nie Bozhao.

Alright, she decided not to say anything.

Nie Weimin thought seriously for a moment and nodded, “Yes, I’ll hit them. Not hitting them would mean I’m not a man.”

“So besides resorting to violence, do you have any better ways to solve these problems?” Nie Bozhao asked.

Nie Weimin thought about it for a while, then shook his head firmly. “No.”

Er Dan quickly added, “Dad, my fists are really strong!” He ate a lot, was strong, and his little fists were as hard as rocks.

Occasionally, when he bumped into Chen Lina, she’d be out of breath for a while.

Chen Lina couldn’t help but laugh.

Er Dan and Nie Weimin also grinned sheepishly.

“You know, back in 1948, when we liberated Hongyan, I sent your grandparents to the people who later became your grandparents.

When Dad first arrived in the city, he was only eight years old. He was so weak from famine and malnutrition.

Dad’s adoptive parents were soldiers, so we lived in a military compound at the time.

The place was full of the families of regimental commanders, battalion commanders, and chief-of-staff officers—those kids were tough, even more so than you guys. So when I first arrived, I was always getting beaten.”

Er Dan, hearing this, got upset. “Dad, you’re so tall and strong, and you couldn’t beat a few kids?”

“Back then, I was just a kid too,” Nie Bozhao explained.

But simple-minded Er Dan couldn’t imagine his dad as a kid, since all he remembered was that his dad was tall and invincible.

“At that time, Hongyan wasn’t fully liberated yet, and our borders weren’t either.

The mission of the Hongyan Military District was to liberate Hongyan, the borders, and Tibet.

The adults were very busy and had no time to care for us. There was a girl named Ma Xiaofang in the compound.

One day, she gave me a winter pear. Her brother, Ma Dafang, found out and chased me, beating me up. He even buried me in the snow and wouldn’t let me out.”

San Dan, furious, said, “Dad, you should have jumped up and hit him!”

Nie Bozhao shook his head calmly. “That time, I got very sick and was bedridden for a long time.

Your grandfather happened to come back on leave and taught me how to read and write. That’s when I started learning how to recognize characters.”

Er Dan, still angry, bit into his rabbit leg and grumbled, “If I was there, I’d have beaten him to really good.”

Taking a piece of rabbit meat and another pancake, Nie Bozhao continued, “Later, I studied. I only finished two years of elementary school, two years of middle school, and then I went to high school and university.

As for Ma Dafang, he couldn’t keep up with his studies, so after the liberation, he stayed in the government compound and worked as a newspaper delivery boy.

In 1958, when the whole country was starving, I scored full marks in physics and chemistry during the university entrance exam, and the state approved my admission to an industrial university.

Ma Dafang, however, was sent to the countryside to work in the steel industry.”

“What happened to him later?”

“He starved to death, with no food and not enough to survive.”

“Why didn’t you starve to death, Dad?”

“Because there were many uncles, grandfathers, and people who believed I would achieve something.

They saved their own food rations for me, so I could continue studying.

They hoped I would bring glory to the country, boost the oil economy, and help everyone stop starving. That’s why I survived.”

Nie Bozhao was clearly saddened, but Er Dan was more curious. “Dad, did you eat things like fatty rabbits and pancakes back then?”

“When Dad was at his hungriest, I ate leather belts. It took two days and nights of boiling before they could be chewed.

I also ate the ash from buckwheat husks mixed with ground sorghum stems to make steamed buns.

Oh, and I ate freshly peeled tree bark. It was bitter and rough, but it filled me up.”

“Sounds so good, Dad! Let me try!” Er Dan said, drooling.

Nie Weimin added, “Fists win sometimes, but knowledge is what keeps us undefeated. Dad, am I right?”

“You’re absolutely right,” Nie Bozhao replied.

Nie Weimin was intelligent and good at summarizing.

The early family conflicts probably contributed to his early maturity, but as long as he didn’t go astray, he would grow up to be a very capable person, someone who could contribute to society.

That evening, Nie Bozhao washed the dishes while Nie Weimin and Er Dan, having received their scolding, behaved well.

Without being asked, they swept the floor, mopped, and tidied up the bedding, then went to bed early.

Chen Lina went into the study and pulled out the household registration forms for the farm, staring at them blankly.

After a while, she turned her gaze to a large wooden box on the desk.

Inside the box were two large footprints made of gel, placed in a box of soil, creating a small sand table.

The farm had been robbed, with the latest varieties of pumpkins, grapes, and other precious crops stolen.

Tian Jin, the seedling expert, was, of course, very angry.

The team leader only found Sun Duoyu at the scene, but Tian Jin believed that Sun Duoyu wasn’t the actual thief.

Why?

Because after comparing the footprints left at the scene, the thief’s footprints didn’t match Sun Duoyu’s at all.

Being an expert, Tian Jin decided to personally make a gel mixture using flour and starch, and he carefully poured it into the footprints on the ground.

Once the gel solidified, it created two complete footprints that could reveal the thief’s foot length, width, and depth of the steps.

Tian Jin handed these models to Chen Lina, hoping she would send them to the Urumqi police department’s criminal investigation team to help identify the real thief.

At this point, the gel had already solidified, leaving two clear impressions resembling the shape of shoes, which restored the thief’s foot size and depth of step in the soil.

Chen Lina was feeling a bit troubled.

To send the sample to the Urumqi police, she would have to provide the farm’s household registration details.

But doing so would expose all the “black five” elements (those deemed problematic by the state) in the farm.

To catch a thief, she would be risking revealing much more.

“Want to catch the thief?” Nie Bozhao, after washing his hands, walked in.

“Yes, I really want to catch that pumpkin thief.”

“Come, come, I’ll help you find him,” Nie Bozhao said, carefully taking out his measuring instruments—micrometers, height gauges, and thickness meters—from the briefcase he always carried.

“Old Nie, aren’t these lab tools supposed to stay confidential?” Chen Lina asked.

“They’re for my family, what’s the problem?” he asked back.

The man, skilled in mathematics, chemistry, and physics, was now preparing to use formulas to help her find the thief on the farm.

Soon, with a pencil in hand, he adjusted his calculations and pointed to the formulas he had written, saying, “This person is 1.35 meters tall, with short legs but large feet. Based on the pressure exerted on the soil, they weigh around 65 kilograms, and their hands should be quite large. So, judging by the height, this person is a dwarf.”

“Old Nie, we don’t have any dwarfs on the farm, and if we actually catch him, I’ll believe you’re a god.”

This engineer, so focused on his work, had deep eyes behind his black-rimmed glasses, wearing a white shirt. He was handsome, really handsome.

Old Nie tossed the pen aside, leaned his elbow on the table, removed his glasses, and stared intently.

Chen Lina sensed something strange in the air—desire, but it wasn’t even a month yet.

This man had clearly become aroused.

Well, his restlessness was becoming more frequent.

“No, this isn’t right, Old Nie. It’s only mid-September, we just finished the last time.”

Nie Bozhao sighed deeply, saying, “Comrade Chen, I must admit, one round a month is really too torturous. I think about it all day, and I just can’t work efficiently. Today during the outdoor shooting, I hit the bullseye on every shot, but I even missed once. Do you know why?”

“Why?” Chen Lina asked.

“Because I saw you standing there across from me.” He even imagined her standing there naked.

Oh my, Nie Bozhao turned and lay on the ground, staring at the sky, thinking he was probably losing his mind.

“So?” Chen Lina asked.

Even if she were a robot, she was confident that he would bow to her.

But now, she had to stay calm and not let him notice her smugness.

“So, I plan to speed things up this month, that should improve my work efficiency,” Nie Bozhao said.

“Didn’t you just have military training all day? Every time you come back from military training, you always claim your arm hurts and can’t lift it, and you don’t even wash the dishes. If you were that tired, how could you do push-ups?” Chen Lina teased.

“I think I can manage. Tomorrow’s the weekend, I’ll rest for a day and be fine.”

“Old Nie, you’re breaking the discipline you set for yourself. This isn’t your style. Or are you now seduced by the decay of capitalism, just wanting to enjoy life instead of contributing to building the country?” Chen Lina remarked sharply.