Chapter 5 Processing Pork Offal

  The boss looked at the little girl in front of him, smiled and said "Little girl, if you want it, just take it all away. If you take it away, I'll be relieved, otherwise I'll have to throw it away later." After finishing speaking, he also gave Lin He a tattered small hemp bag to pack up these pig offal, thanked the boss, and Lin He dragged this bag to San Ya's place.

  Dabao and Xiaobao are back, Xiaobao is holding a steamed bun in his hand, Dabao also has one, Dabao hands it to San Ya, San Ya breaks half of it for her sister, Lin He smiles and says "Sister ate enough this morning, you eat it."

  Dabao looked at Linhe holding a sack and asked her where it came from. Linhe said it was pig offal, the boss of the butcher's shop had just given it to her. Dabao said "What's good about pig offal? Mom used to make it before, it smells terrible and can't be eaten."

  Lin He finally understood that people in this era didn't know how to handle pig intestines, no wonder they said it couldn't be eaten. She rolled her eyes and said "Just now I saw the butcher's boss was very busy, one person couldn't handle it all, so I wanted to help him out, these are what he gave me, then told me how to handle the pig intestines, saying it's edible." Da Bao thought she was talking nonsense like a child, smiled and didn't say much more, anyway it wasn't costing them anything, no loss.

  Everything has been bought, they plan to go home. Because they are all young children, the pork belly is very heavy without processing, and there are more than 10 kilograms of grain. It took a group of people half an hour longer to walk back home than when they came. When they returned home, several people were so tired that they panted and sat on the stool without wanting to move.

  After a short rest, Lin He took San Ya to the riverbank to deal with the pig's wastewater. In her previous life, Lin He had seen people dealing with pig wastewater before. She used to work many part-time jobs during winter and summer breaks, doing various things such as working in restaurants, hotels, and sales. So she was very clear about how to handle these things. In her previous life, they used flour or cornstarch to knead these things.

  At that time, the family couldn't afford white flour, so she thought for a moment and took a handful of grass ash from the stove. When she arrived at the riverbank, Lin He first washed the pig's large intestine, turning it inside out and washing away the dirty things inside. She then grabbed a handful of grass ash and rubbed it onto the pig's large intestine with force, rubbing until it was almost clean, before putting the intestine in water to wash it clean again. Next, she peeled off the thin white membrane on the inside, and then rubbed it together with the grass ash several times, repeating this process multiple times, before washing it clean with water once more. This way, the pig's large intestine was now clean and wouldn't have a bad smell when eaten. She then washed the pig's stomach using the same method. The pig's lower body had many parts: the large intestine, the stomach, the waist, and the lungs.

  It took Lin He a long time to clean these up, and by the time she got home, it was almost time for lunch. The weather is also quite cold now, so there's no need to worry about them going bad. Lin He decided to cut some of the large intestine into pieces to make stir-fried crispy intestine, and put the rest in a pot to blanch in water, saving it for tomorrow's meal.

  There's also stir-fried waist flower, with some lard on top of the internal organs. At home, there are dried vegetables and chili peppers. The dried vegetables are used to make a pork lung soup, just thinking about it makes me drool. At noon, Lin He made a dry-braised fat intestine, stir-fried waist flower, and steamed several buns using the black flour she bought. The whole family had a delicious meal together. Huang Shi and Lin Er Niu were both surprised, wondering how the pork large intestine, which usually smells so bad, could be so delicious. How did Er Ya learn to make these dishes?

  Lin He repeated what she had told Da Bao to the others, and no one suspected anything. That noon, a delicious meaty aroma wafted through Linjia Village, with people wondering whose family was so wealthy that they could eat so well on an ordinary day, not even during holidays or festivals. No one would have thought it was the impoverished Lin Er'niu's family.

  Xiao Bao ate with relish and burped, saying "Sister, this is delicious, let's make it again next time."

  Lin He smiled and patted his bulging belly, nodding his head. It seemed that in the future, when he wanted to eat meat, he could go buy some pork organs to satisfy his cravings.

  Dabao stayed at home for two more days before returning to the ironwork shop in the neighboring town. When he left, his family saw him off at the village entrance. Watching Dabao's frail and lonely figure walking alone on the road, Lin He secretly vowed that she would find a way to earn money as soon as possible, so that Dabao wouldn't have to go out on his own to work, earning little and becoming pale and thin from hunger. She was determined to lead this family to a better life.

  It's been over a month since Lin He arrived in this era. Every day, she takes care of her younger brother and sister at home and does some household chores during the day. At night, she learns needlework and embroidery from Huang Shi. Huang Shi's embroidery is still quite good.

  In this era, the embroidery is almost the same as the Su embroidery in her previous life. In her previous life, Lin He had learned Su embroidery for a period of time and had some foundation, so she picked it up quickly and was able to embroider with great similarity. Even Huang Shi couldn't help but be amazed, as it took her several months to learn the basics of embroidery and almost half a year to reach this level in her previous life. Er Ya's talent is indeed impressive, being able to embroider with such similarity in just a few months.

  At the same time, Huang was also very happy. A good embroidery pattern could sell for five cents, and Lin He's wasn't up to that standard yet, but one could still sell for three cents. This couldn't help but add another source of income for the family. If embroidered quickly, one could be completed in a day. Because Huang had to go out during the day to work, she could only embroider at night and it would take about two days to complete one.

  Huang Shi looked at Er Ya and felt that since Er Ya's head injury, she had become somewhat different from before. The original Er Ya was also sensible, but not as clever as now. In the past, Huang Shi had taught her embroidery, but Er Ya showed no interest in it and couldn't learn it no matter how hard she tried, so she gave up. Huang Shi thought that her daughter didn't have a talent for it, and since she was still young, she didn't restrict her.

  It's rare to see her doing embroidery at night after the head injury, and she even asked to learn it automatically. She picked it up so quickly, as if that head injury had somehow unblocked her previously blocked meridians. However, Huang Shi didn't think too much about it, after all, in front of him, Er Ya was indeed his own eldest daughter.

  The days passed by quietly and uneventfully, and before long it was early winter. The weather started to get cold, and neither Er Niu nor Huang Shi went out to work in the fields anymore. Huang Shi stayed at home all day doing embroidery, while Er Niu went to work for Xia Dizhu's family, earning ten cents a day. Because Xia Dizhu's family was building a house and needed laborers, Lin Er Niu went to do manual labor, helping people carry bricks and doing physical work. Every day he returned home exhausted, too tired to say much.

  Lin He saw his father was so tired, and also tried to persuade Er Niu and Huang Shi to stop doing this work, saying that they couldn't earn much money and it wasn't very safe. He expressed his own intention of going into the mountains to take a look, but as soon as he spoke, he was immediately scolded by his parents.

  You're saying that even a small kid like you dares to go into the mountains, but Third Uncle, a grown man, went in and didn't come back. If a seven-year-old girl like her goes in, she'll probably not even leave any remains. What's unsafe about building houses? Others are doing it too, and they get ten cents a day. Many people want to do it but don't have the chance.

  Lin He didn't dare say anything more. What her parents said was reasonable. She was still too young, only this big, and had no real skills. If the mountains were really as dangerous as they said, she might not be able to come out alive if she went in. It's better to wait until she grows up a bit more before thinking about it again.

  After a few more days, Huang Shi and Lin He planned to go out and pick up some firewood. Just then, they heard the excited voice of Xiao Bao outside the door, "Big Uncle, Big Uncle!" A middle-aged man carrying a heavy load of baskets came in, looking like he had a lot of things inside.

  Huang also smiled and called out "Big Brother", having been here for a while, Lin He had basically figured out the relatives at home. On Father's side, there were three brothers, Father was the second in line, above him was an older brother, below him was a younger brother, and two aunts, Grandfather and Grandmother lived with Big Uncle's family together.

  The great uncle and aunt moved to the town a few years ago to do business, and my grandparents also followed them. So they rarely come back. Moreover, it seems that Lin He's grandmother is not very satisfied with her mother, so she rarely comes back since moving away.

  It was Lin Er Niu and Huang Shi who would go to the town every New Year's and holidays, bringing some things over, as well as the monthly allowance for Grandpa and Grandma, and also Third Uncle. As mentioned earlier, one time he went into the mountains to hunt and never came back, leaving only San Niang with two children to live a very difficult life.