Riding the wind of rebirth

As the car drove here, more people greeted Zhou Zhi. Many also curiously peered into the car because Liang Hong was sitting in the passenger seat, while Mai Xiaomiao was unusually sitting in the back. This made the villagers uneasy, but they smiled and waved to welcome everyone after seeing Mai Xiaomiao in the car.

Many children were playing on the riverbank, engaging in large-scale games similar to "eagle catching chicks." Along the roadside, some villagers were herding sheep, while others were herding pigs, making the journey quite lively.

The pigs had been kept in a pigpen for a long time, and they became somewhat disobedient after being let out. In order not to be affected by the car, Zhou Zhi had to slow down and even stuck his head out of the window: "Er Ye, are you going to slaughter a pig again?! Didn't you just slaughter one?"

"Hai Lai's relatives from the township are here! They brought Amizai with them! We can't neglect them!" Hai Lai, holding a long bamboo pole to herd the unruly big black pig, greeted Zhou Zhi, "You've picked up your friends? Get out of the car, get out of the car, come and have some pork stew at our house!"

“We can’t come today. We have to go back to the grain station to see the Grand Bimo first.” Zhou Zhi laughed. “Besides, the Adu in the car all have ‘Seni Quebo’ (a type of Buddhist prayer), so there’s no point in going. We’ll come back tonight when we’re dancing.”

“I’m counting on you to help me catch the pig,” he said, shaking his head. Then he shouted towards the riverbank, “Azimu! Azimu! Come and help!”

A young man in his early twenties ran over from the riverbank: "Brother Elbow is back! And Brother Ye, what's up?"

"Why bother playing around with those kids in Qinggouzi! Come with me and herd the pigs home, then have some fun with Amiz, maybe Seni will get pregnant!"

Zhou Zhi's car then started moving forward again. Yan Xiao turned his head and watched the two of them frantically trying to herd the pig, and laughed, "This is so much fun! I almost got out of the car to help just now. That big pig is quite large."

"That's a Yazhou black pig. Don't let the fact that Lianhe Town isn't wealthy fool you; the people here are quite picky and don't like pork from other places."

"You said the Yi people like to eat piglets?" Yang He said.

“There’s a famous Yi dish called Tuotuo meat, which uses suckling pig,” Zhou Zhi said. “However, it’s not entirely accurate to say they like to eat piglets. More often than not, pig farming isn’t large-scale, families can’t raise too many pigs, and limited medical resources lead to a high number of piglet deaths…”

"They eat dead piglets? Aren't they supposed to bury them deep?"

"Hahahaha..." Zhou Zhi laughed, "That's standard procedure for dealing with swine fever in farms. But you can't expect the villagers to do it the same way at home, especially in times when meat is scarce."

“That makes sense. Even dead pig meat is still meat.” Yang He, who had experienced hardship, said, “As long as there’s meat to eat, who cares whether it’s from a dead pig or a live pig!”

The car soon arrived at the entrance of the grain station. Everyone had seen the beautiful earthen building from afar, and only after getting out of the car could they see its scale clearly, which amazed them.

The grain station was bustling with activity, with two long lines: one for people carrying loads of grain and the other for people buying liquor. Everyone was trying to get things arranged before the festival.

When they saw Zhou Zhi enter with his entourage, they all greeted him.

Fortunately, most of the town's officials have arrived. During busy times like this, the town officials have an obligation to come and help, and also get to know the villagers, laying the foundation for future work.

The people who come here are all young people who have just started working. They are energetic and enthusiastic. Another important reason why they like to hang out at the grain depot is that there are computers and internet access here. The attraction of this is self-evident for young people.

Jike Azi and Jilie Abi did not wear the traditional Yi square scarves, but instead wore headscarves. Even in the late autumn, the edges of the headscarves were damp with sweat from their exertions.

"You're back? Hello everyone!" Gilles Abbey said with a smile. "It's too messy here, let's go upstairs and play for a while. Elbow, you take good care of the students!"

"Let's go to the kitchen first; lunch is our responsibility today," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "You all go ahead and get busy." "Luckily, Brother Zhouzi prepared the steamed and braised dishes yesterday, otherwise we'd all be eating cold rice today," Azi said with a smile, wiping her forehead with her elbow. "Hello, brothers and sisters!"

"Hello, hello," Yan Xiao said, "Don't worry! Leave lunch to us!"

"You can cook now?" Zhou Zhi asked, turning his head.

"Aren't you and Xue Shan here?" Yan Xiao said matter-of-factly, "How can you let such a pretty young girl get tired?"

"You..." Zhou Zhi was speechless, but Feng Xueshan smiled and said, "Let's go, let's go to the kitchen and take a look."

Because the grain depot's kitchen needed to cook for an increasing number of children, an adjacent room was demolished and converted into a larger space.

To welcome his friends, Zhouzi prepared most of the dishes the day before, following the traditional "Nine Bowls" style of cooking in the countryside. This was, in fact, the first time he had fully showcased his culinary skills in Lianhe Town.

Braised dishes include salted vegetables with pork belly, steamed potatoes with rice flour and pork, taro with braised pork knuckle, salted duck, braised pork in a jar, and crispy pork with fern stems and oak mushrooms.

These are all steamed in large steamers; you just take them out and invert them into bowls.

The cold dishes included cured sausages, duck liver from Huili, cold pig's ear salad with sliced ​​bamboo shoots, and cold sliced ​​mutton, all of which had been steamed yesterday.

The remaining hot dishes included bear paw tofu, the tofu of which had been fried last night; tripe strips, crispy pork, fried meatballs, and three delicacies, all of which were semi-finished products prepared last night; tuo tuo fish, the fish pieces of which had already been fried; and tremella soup, which had been simmering in several thermos flasks last night. These dishes were all quick to prepare.

Many of these dishes rely heavily on broth, and therefore also on chicken broth, which is used in Zhouzhi as a substitute for broth.

The remaining dishes were a chicken blood and small intestine soup, a stir-fried pork with green peppers and celery, and a stir-fried cauliflower with cured pork.

Feng Xueshan was about to laugh when she saw this: "You've basically done everything you need to do, even steaming the rice. Your cooking skills haven't gotten any worse, Zhouzi."

"Zhouzi's cooking is so delicious!" Mai Xiaomiao said proudly. "He has many other signature dishes too."

Liang Hong thought Mai Xiaomiao was too cute, so she took her arm and said, "We know his cooking skills all too well, there's no need to praise him like that, you're making him proud."

Mai Xiaomiao then realized: "He used to cook for everyone often, right?"

“He and Xue Shan are our head chefs,” Yan Xiao said, picking up a piece of half-finished crispy pork and popping it into his mouth. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such skillful braised pork knuckle.”

Feng Xueshan looked around the kitchen and said, "Xiao Miao, Zhouzi, show us around this big earthen building first. It looks quite interesting. There are only two dishes left to cook before the meal, and the remaining four will be cooked after we've eaten half of them. There's basically no work to do."

So everyone began to tour the Tusi Building. (End of Chapter)