When Lu Xiaotang returned from the city, Old Chen was following behind with a cart of coal. As soon as he entered, he said, “Xu Zhqing, your cousin bought you a cart of coal for me to bring over.” Hearing Old Chen’s voice, Xu Ning came out of the house. As she stepped outside, she saw Lu Xiaotang parking ‘her bicycle’ at the entrance and started unloading the coal from the ox cart.

“Big Brother Lu, why did you buy so much coal again? I still have plenty left from last time,” she remarked.

She then turned to Old Chen and said, “Grandpa Chen, thank you for your trouble! Please stay for lunch.”

Old Chen chuckled and replied, “Xu Zhiqing, you’re too polite. I won’t stay for lunch; I just saw my wife when I entered the village. She said she’d cooked the meal and wanted me to come home early.”

“Oh, Grandpa Chen, you’re really lucky! Grandma Chen makes your meals every day and waits for you at the village entrance.” Xu Ning teased, making Old Chen smile broadly.

As Old Chen was leaving, Xu Ning grabbed a few fruit candies and handed them to him to take to Er Dan.

Only after seeing him off did Lu Xiaotang speak to her. “You can’t use coal chunks for the stove. The fire is too small, it wastes coal, and it produces too much smoke. This afternoon, I’ll make these into coal balls for you. They’re easier to use when burning, create a better fire, and you can just add one every night before bed. Then, in the morning, just add another piece when you’re cooking.”

Xu Ning asked him to come inside the house to eat first, placing a pot of chicken soup on the table, a bowl of sour and spicy shredded potatoes, and steamed buns.

In the afternoon, the four of them worked diligently for the entire day before finishing the coal balls. Lu Xiaotang moved the cabbages aside under the eaves and stacked all the coal balls there, covering them with oil paper.

Xu Ning placed the wild chicken soup she had stewed in Lu Xiaotang’s backpack and stir-fried a dish of pork intestines, sending him off on his own. The three siblings settled on the kang and began to eat. After a busy afternoon, they were already quite hungry; even though they weren’t the main workers, they were still exhausted.

After washing the dishes, Xu Ning returned to find the two younger ones fast asleep on the kang. She picked up a book and sat down to read while waiting for Lu Xiaotang.

Lu Xiaotang came back earlier than usual that day. Xu Ning had just read two pages when he pushed the door open. She told him there was hot water on the stove, suggesting he soak his feet for comfort.

Lu Xiaotang nodded and reminded her to go to bed early.

The next morning, Xu Ning woke up early. The day before, Lu Xiaotang had mentioned to Xu An that they would go hunting in the mountains today. Since there was half a leg of lamb at home, Xu Ning planned to make lamb soup for breakfast to keep warm on their way up the mountain.

After they finished eating, they each carried a backpack and set off. Xu Ning soaked the dried wild vegetables and then went to knead the dough, planning to make dumplings for lunch.

She took two pieces of meat from the jar and chopped them for filling, then diced the soaked wild vegetables, added various seasonings, and began to wrap the dumplings. She spent the whole morning wrapping and managed to make over two hundred dumplings.

Realizing it was already past noon and the two hadn’t returned yet, she decided to cook half of the dumplings and take them over to the cow shed. Just as she reached the entrance, she saw Uncle Lu coming back with a bucket of water. Xu Ning didn’t go inside; she handed the dumplings to him and headed home.

By the time it was past one o’clock, the two still hadn’t returned, so Xu Ning and Xu Mo decided to cook and eat. Just as they finished, they heard the sound of the door opening. Xu Ning quickly rushed to the door.

Xu An was in front carrying a backpack, and Lu Xiaotang was behind him, dragging a wild boar. Xu Ning hurried over to help, but Lu Xiaotang told her to close the door instead.

After closing the door, Xu Ning immediately scooped out water for the two of them to wash their hands. Seeing that they had returned, Xu Mo headed to the kitchen to start a fire.

Xu Ning boiled a pot of dumplings and told the two to eat first. They were so hungry that they barely spoke, grabbing their chopsticks and digging in.

Xu Ning glanced at the wild boar. She noticed a dent in its head, larger than the last one that Uncle Lu had killed, and it appeared to weigh over a hundred pounds. In the backpack that Xu An had brought back, there were several wild chickens and a hare.

Xu Ning placed the wild chickens in a basin and added water to the pot, instructing Xu Mo to keep the fire going.

After they finished eating, Xu Ning started to clean the wild chickens. Meanwhile, Lu Xiaotang laid out an oilcloth on the ground, placed the wild boar on it, and began to skin it with a knife, cutting the meat into small pieces and cleaning the intestines.

Once everything was cleaned up, it was already time to prepare dinner. Xu Ning rendered the fat from the wild boar, filling a small jar with about five or six pounds of it, planning to have Lu Xiaotang take it to the cow shed later. She then chopped all the spare ribs into small pieces, sliced a few radishes, and made a dish of braised ribs with radishes. She also set a pot of rice to steam on the stove.

When dinner was ready, it was still not dark outside. Xu An went to check on the cow shed and saw that some young people were still fetching water from the well.

After a busy afternoon, everyone was quite hungry, so Xu Ning served up four bowls of rice and a basin of braised ribs with radishes for them to eat first, planning to take the rest to the cow shed later.

By the time they finished eating, it was completely dark. Lu Xiaotang carried the dishes while Xu Ning took the jar of rendered boar fat to the cow shed. She returned home first, while Lu Xiaotang stayed behind to chat with his parents.

Back at home, Xu Ning went to the kitchen to think about what to prepare for Lu Xiaotang since he was leaving the day after tomorrow. The roe deer meat had been salted, and she planned to cut it into thin strips tomorrow to make jerky.

She also pulled out two large pieces of wild boar meat, cutting them into strips and marinating them with salt and soy sauce for jerky. Then she went to sew two bags to pack some pine nuts and hazelnuts for him tomorrow.