Chapter 21: Struck It Rich!

◎Do You Know How to Butcher?◎

Wu Yun handed over ten big bills to Jiang Che as soon as the goods were delivered.

Jiang Che held the money, and if it weren’t for saving face, he would’ve grinned from ear to ear. Even though he’d made some money recently, this was the first time he’d gotten such a large sum all at once.

He couldn’t resist and counted it carefully. When he got to the tenth bill, he paused, pulled one out, and handed it back. “This is too much. Too much.”

Wu Yun didn’t even look at him, waved a hand, and said, “Alright, cut it out. Consider the extra five bucks a deposit. If you’ve got nothing else to do, get back to work. I still need to hurry up and deliver these sauces.”

Jiang Che didn’t argue and simply accepted the money with a smooth, “Alright then, I’m off.”

He had the money in his pocket all day and couldn’t wait to show it off. That night, he rushed home, didn’t even stop for dinner, and ran straight to the kitchen to drag Wei Xuan into the room to count money with him.

Wei Xuan stumbled from the tug, “Hey, what are you doing? I’m still cooking!”

Jiang Che ignored her, went back into the room, pulled out the money, and showed it to Wei Xuan. “We’re rich! We’re really going to be rich! Honey, quick, get the cash box—let’s see how much money we have now!”

“Look at you, acting like you’ve never seen money before. Hold on,” Wei Xuan teased him with a playful glare, then turned to fetch the cash box.

The couple opened the box and dumped all the money onto the kang bed.

And honestly, it looked pretty impressive—mostly because there were a ton of small bills, like fifty-cent and one-yuan notes.

Each of them scooped up a pile and started counting.

It took quite a while before they finished. Then they added both totals together. They looked at each other and broke into silly grins.

“Our savings are about to hit one thousand,” Jiang Che couldn’t believe he was this “wealthy” now.

Wei Xuan also loved this feeling of the two of them working hard and saving together. “Yeah. And we’ll have even more in the future.”

After they finished counting, and their excitement finally settled, they suddenly realized it had gotten dark outside—and their stomachs were growling.

So Jiang Che took charge of putting the money back in the box, while Wei Xuan went to the kitchen to reheat the food. After all the fuss earlier, the dishes had already gone cold.

After dinner, Wei Xuan remembered the new snack idea they had talked about before and figured it was about time to start preparing. She reminded Jiang Che, “Make sure to talk to Brother Wu in the next few days. Ask him to set aside more meat for us.”

Jiang Che perked up immediately. “You’re making something new again?”

“Yeah, it’s almost New Year. We need to start preparing some festive food for the house—and I’ll make extra to sell.”

“Alright, I’m sure Brother Wu will be more than happy to help with that.”

Actually, the food Wei Xuan was talking about was pretty simple—just sausages and cured pork.

Besides that, Wei Xuan also thought salted duck was really tasty, but obviously there weren’t enough ducks around for her to work with right now, so she only planned to make a small batch of salted duck for their own household.

Back when she was in the orphanage, every year before New Year’s, the headmaster would organize everyone to make sausages and cured meat together, which they’d save for the holiday. Pretty much every household did it like that.

But each region had its own way of making them.

For example, Wei Xuan preferred sweet sausages, but most people liked the salty kind more. This time, she planned to make both types and see how they sold. If they didn’t sell well, she’d just keep them and enjoy them herself over time.

As for the cured pork, she used a recipe she had developed herself—blending techniques from a few well-known regions from her past life. First, she rubbed the meat thoroughly with a mix of salt, Sichuan peppercorns, soy sauce, sugar, and white liquor—whatever seasonings she could get her hands on. Then she packed it into containers and let it sit for about seven days before taking it out to steam and smoke.

“Don’t move, I’ll do it,” Jiang Che quickly stopped Wei Xuan when he saw her about to lift the jar.

Wei Xuan gave it a try and realized she really couldn’t move it, so she didn’t insist. “Alright then, take these two jars of cured pork and put them by the wall outside the kitchen.”

“Got it,” Jiang Che set down what he was doing and washed his hands along the way.

Wei Xuan walked over to the spot where he had just been squatting and asked, “Are all these sausage casings cleaned?”

“I think they’re pretty much done, but you should double-check just in case.” Jiang Che reached out and tested the weight of one of the jars filled with cured pork. “Man, this thing is heavy.”

“And that’s not even much. Once it’s all air-dried, there’ll be even less.”

To make the cured pork and sausages, Wu Yun had specially gotten them a whole pig.

But pigs these days weren’t very fat to begin with, and after removing the bones, organs, head, and all the other odds and ends, there was less than 150 jin (about 75 kg) of usable meat left.

Once everything was fully dried and the moisture was gone, they’d be left with maybe around 100 jin (50 kg) of finished product. That’s why Wei Xuan was determined not to sell the sausages and cured meat too cheaply—otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth all the effort the two of them had put in.

Making sausages was even more troublesome than cured pork. First, the meat had to be chopped and mixed well with the seasonings, then stuffed into the sausage casings.

There weren’t any special tools available now, so the two of them could only use the most basic, old-fashioned method and take it slow. Fortunately, aside from being a bit clumsy at the start, they got more and more skilled as they went.

Once the sausages were stuffed, they just needed to be pricked with toothpicks to make small holes and then hung up in a well-ventilated place to dry.

Just as they finished making the sausages and were about to catch their breath, the Laba Festival arrived.

That morning, Wei Xuan made traditional Laba congee—soft, simmered porridge with beans, sprinkled with white sugar. It was fragrant and sweet, and she alone polished off two bowls.

After the Laba Festival, it was finally time to take the cured pork out for steaming and smoking.

Since it wasn’t convenient to smoke over an open fire, Wei Xuan decided to use a large iron pot instead.

She placed the smoking materials at the bottom of the pot, set a rack over them, and laid the cured pork on top. Then she lit a big fire underneath. In about twenty minutes, the smoking process would be done.

As for the smoking materials, she and Jiang Che had saved up mandarin peels and peanut shells from what they’d eaten, and added rice husks to the mix. Though it didn’t have the same aroma as cypress wood, it had a unique flavor all its own.

Jiang Che sniffed the aroma and sighed, “All that time I spent picking up discarded mandarin peels and peanut shells wasn’t for nothing.”

Wei Xuan couldn’t help but laugh. Hadn’t she done the same herself?

Even Sister Hong had asked her if something had happened at home.

After hanging the last string of cured meat under the eaves, both Wei Xuan and Jiang Che let out a sigh of relief. They had really been run ragged these past few weeks, barely resting for a moment.

Fortunately, the results were worth it. Looking at the rows of meat hanging neatly under the roof, the two of them felt deeply satisfied.

In the days that followed, aside from continuing the daily prep of braised meat, Wei Xuan used her spare time to make Jiang Che two sets of thermal underwear.

Then one day, Jiang Che came back carrying three ducks and two chickens in a burlap sack.

“Wife, I got the ducks you wanted.”

Wei Xuan was still inside cooking breakfast. Hearing this, she ran out, saw the sack still squirming, and asked, “They’re alive? Do you know how to butcher them?”

Jiang Che looked at her innocently. “You don’t? Brother Wu said he had some already butchered, but I told him no need—this way it’s fresher.”

Wei Xuan silently stared back at him…

“Alright,” Jiang Che surrendered. “I’ll figure something out. You don’t have to worry about it.”

And then Wei Xuan really didn’t bother with it anymore—after all, she had no idea what to do.