Chapter 5: Mi Xia Makes Pig Intestine and Bone Soup

Mi Xia, carrying her belongings and taking Mo Zhixia with her, went to a secluded place for lunch. Since they didn’t have ration coupons, they had to get food from Mi Xia’s space.

She took out two cups of milk tea and two bowls of preserved egg and lean meat porridge. The two of them ate happily; Mo Zhixia had never tasted such delicious porridge before.

The little girl now understood that no matter what her mother gave her to eat, she had to keep it a secret, otherwise, the delicious food would be snatched away by others, and she and her mother would be caught by bad people.

After they finished eating, following the original owner’s memory, they went to the black market. The black market was located in a secluded alley; two people stood guard at the entrance. Mi Xia showed her basket, saying she was buying things, and was allowed to enter.

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary alley, but once inside, it was a labyrinthine network of paths, with people squatting at intervals.

There were baskets covered with cloth, with only a small slit visible. Mi Xia observed that people would walk past, look at the contents of the baskets, and if interested, they would stop for a brief chat and quickly complete the transaction before leaving. If not interested, they would simply leave without saying a word.

Mi Xia followed suit, looking around. Prices here were double the price outside if you had coupons, and triple the price without. After browsing, she only bought some candy; she already had everything else in her space.

It was around 3:30 PM when they left. Mi Xia carried Mo Zhixia towards the ox cart. On the way, they reached a secluded spot.

Out of the little girl’s sight, Mi Xia used her mind to take items from her space and put them directly into her backpack: some rice, flour, and oil, and a can of milk powder (the outer packaging had been removed). She didn’t take any pork; they already had some at home, and it wasn’t appropriate to conduct black market transactions with Mo Zhixia present. She wouldn’t bring her next time.

When they arrived home, Zhang Hongxia and the children had already returned. Because they had gone to their grandmother’s house that day, the nephews hadn’t gone to collect pigweed. Mi Xia put Mo Zhixia down to play with her nephews and went to the kitchen to help her sister-in-law with the pork.

Entering the kitchen, she took out the items from her backpack, saying, “Sister-in-law, let’s steam rice tonight. I bought some rice and flour. We can also stir-fry a dish and make some soup.”

“Oh, I also bought a jar of snowflake cream and a can of milk powder in the backpack. You can use the cream, and we can give the milk powder to the children.”

“Why did you waste your money on milk powder? It’s so expensive! Don’t we still have sweet potatoes? What’s the difference?”

“Now that we have this wild boar meat, this kind of life is something we wouldn’t have dared to dream of before! And keep the snowflake cream for yourself; I don’t need it.” Zhang Hongxia couldn’t hide her smile. Her younger sister had even brought her snowflake cream; she was very happy with this thoughtfulness.

“Sister-in-law, my brother and nephews work hard all day, and the nephews are growing. It won’t hurt to eat better. And I don’t need the snowflake cream; look at my face, do I need it?” Mi Xia said.

Zhang Hongxia took a closer look. She hadn’t paid much attention before, but now she saw that her younger sister’s skin was indeed very good, so she accepted the cream.

“Look at you, bringing home such a heavy pig leg today made my mother so happy! She praised our whole family. I feel bad enough about the pig, and now you’re buying things again. Don’t do this in the future. Save your money; there will be many places to spend it later.” Zhang Hongxia was completely satisfied with Mi Xia.

“Okay, I’ll listen to you, sister-in-law.” Mi Xia replied obediently, though she planned to buy things again next time.

Mi Xia took out the pig intestines to clean them. “How stinky! Is this pig intestine? Nobody wants this stuff around here; it smells no matter how you clean it. Why did you bring this back?” Zhang Hongxia wrinkled her nose and asked, covering her nose.

“Sister-in-law, don’t judge it by its smell. Once I make it, you’ll know how delicious it is.” Mi Xia said as she got some plant ash to clean the pig intestines.

There was a well in the yard. Mi Xia rubbed the pig intestines with plant ash repeatedly until they were clean, then brought them to the kitchen and cut them into pieces.

“Sister-in-law, go check on the children. I can handle the kitchen. I’ll show you my skills tonight.” She stuffed the snowflake cream into Zhang Hongxia’s hand.

Zhang Hongxia laughed heartily. “You little rascal, can you really do it yourself? Do you need me to help with the fire?”

“No, sister-in-law, just wait for the food.” Mi Xia said, and Zhang Hongxia put the rice on to steam before going to find the children.

After her sister-in-law left, Mi Xia took out the bones, chopped them, soaked them in cold water for 3 minutes, rinsed them, and prepared a pot of water, putting the bones in.

When the water boiled, a layer of blood foam appeared. She skimmed off the foam, added the prepared seasonings (scallions, ginger, red dates), boiled it over high heat, then simmered it over low heat for an hour.

Then, she heated oil in another pot (if Zhang Hongxia saw how much oil she used, she’d be heartbroken). After heating the oil, she added scallions, ginger, and garlic, then added the pig intestines, stir-fried them, added soy sauce, salt, and a little water, simmered for eight minutes, and added chicken essence before taking them out.

It smelled so good that Mi Xia couldn’t help but take a piece and burned her hand and tongue. She decided to make a dish of braised pork; this was her first meal since coming here, and it had to be extravagant.

Just as she finished, she heard the voices of her brother and nephews outside.

After a while, she added salt to the ribs and took them out. She put anything that didn’t belong to this time period into her space, put the dishes on the table, went back to the kitchen to serve rice, and Zhang Hongxia came to help.

The whole family sat neatly at the table. The children, smelling the fragrant food, their eyes lit up, and their mouths watered. They rarely ate rice, let alone meat. However, they couldn’t use their chopsticks until the elders spoke. At Mi Qiu’s command, everyone started to eat.

Mi Xia looked at her brother’s family, their faces filled with happy smiles. She couldn’t help but sigh that happiness was so simple in this era. Children in the future were pampered, refusing to eat this or that, but children in this era had to collect pigweed.

“Little sister, what is this?” Mi Qiu asked curiously.

“Try it; it’s delicious.” Mi Xia said, giving Mo Zhixia a piece and taking a piece herself.

Mi Qiu also took a piece, his eyes lit up after tasting it, and he couldn’t stop eating. Zhang Hongxia was stunned, and Mi Xia’s appetite increased.

“Little sister, your cooking skills are amazing! It’s so delicious. Teach your sister-in-law later.” Mi Qiu said, without stopping his chopsticks.

“You think my cooking is bad, yet you’ve eaten it for so many years, huh?” Zhang Hongxia pretended to be angry.

“No, no, how dare I? My wife’s cooking is also delicious.” Mi Qiu quickly stopped eating to express his loyalty, making Mi Xia grin.

The children’s father didn’t know what it was made of, but the children saw their father eating so happily and followed suit. Zhang Hongxia also joined in, eating without even having time to talk.

Soon, the two dishes and one soup were wiped clean. The brother even dipped rice into the meat soup, and the plates were as clean as if they had been washed. Mi Xia found it both funny and heartbreaking; it was all because of this era.

After the meal, Zhang Hongxia asked Mi Xia to take the children back to rest. There wasn’t much entertainment in this era, especially in the countryside; they didn’t even have a radio. After eating, there was nothing to do except sleep.

After bathing Mo Zhixia, she put her to bed. The little girl fell asleep while Mi Xia was telling her a second story. Mi Xia then went into her space.