My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 338 A Well-Known Name: Badgers and Tomb Raiding

I helped out at Wang Lixian's house for two days, until Si Ni'er's grand wedding.

Three days later, it will be time for the bride to return to her parents' home.

That is, on the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Early in the morning, the sound of mincing meat could be heard coming from Wang Lixian's house.

For today's homecoming banquet, we'll use the venison given by Chen Ling to make venison dumplings.

It's getting cold, so meat keeps longer. Everyone knows that today is Si Ni'er's homecoming, so they've made venison dumplings for her. Relatives from all around have come early.

During the homecoming banquet, a meal of meat dumplings is served; that's quite a high standard.

Once someone agrees to make dumplings, regardless of the type of meat, it means that there must be enough for all the relatives and friends who come, no less than a banquet.

The dumpling filling that day was made primarily with sika deer meat, and Liu Yuzhi also chopped a lot of scallions into it when she chopped the filling.

When mixing the meat filling, instead of adding water as usual, they added bone broth that Chen Ling had brought, and mixed it into the meat filling in small amounts several times.

This bone broth was made from the bones of the two sika deer that Chen Ling had acquired.

If it's described as a skeleton, then it can't simply be a body without any flesh.

It wasn't even that clean.

It contains meat, tendons, and bones, but after simmering for a long time, they all dissolve into the broth.

When you mix the filling with this mixture, the dumplings, once cooked, are bursting with piping hot, fragrant broth with every bite. They're so hot they burn your mouth and tongue, but nobody wants to put them down; everyone just holds their bowl and eats with their heads down.

In an instant, the courtyard was filled with the sound of slurping dumpling soup, everyone eating with their mouths steaming and sweating profusely.

After finishing their meal, everyone exclaimed how delicious the venison dumplings were. They took a bite of the dumpling skin, slurped up the broth inside, and what remained was a meatball.

It's so delicious, with its mouth full of meat.

Si Ni'er's husband also ate to his heart's content.

Wang Lixian led him to Chen Ling and told him to greet him: "This is your Uncle Fugui. He's the one who gave you the venison."

This kid is from Yangtougou, where most people are surnamed Yang. This kid surnamed Yang had obviously heard of Chen Ling. When he walked up to him, he was even more nervous than when he was with his father-in-law, Wang Lixian. His hands were trembling, and he stammered as he called out "Uncle Fugui" twice.

Chen Ling thought he was cold and suggested he drink some dumpling soup to warm him up.

He was drinking in the kitchen himself, so he served the kid a bowl as well.

The broth from these venison dumplings is just as good as mutton soup, and a bowl of it in winter will keep you warm.

Later that afternoon, the boy took Si Ni back to Yangtougou. Only then did Wang Lixian's sister, Wang Lihui, tell him, "Fugui, what you've done! Si Ni's son-in-law thinks we, her family, are deliberately teasing him. Who forces someone to drink dumpling soup?"

Their custom is that during the daughter's homecoming banquet, or when she returns to her parents' home for the first time in a year, they put something in the dumplings to prank the son-in-law.

It's similar to putting a coin in a dumpling; finding it is considered a blessing.

However, this prank might involve placing chili peppers or similar ingredients, and marking them with marks, with several peppers placed at once.

Most sons-in-law are quite nervous and reserved at their mothers-in-law's house. They don't dare to say anything when they eat, and they often end up sweating profusely and panting heavily from the spiciness.

When we were having dumplings at lunchtime, that kid got really nervous when he saw Chen Ling.

Chen Ling told him to drink dumpling soup and even served him a bowl. He was too embarrassed to say no, so he drank two large bowls.

When she left, her belly was still protruding.

Now that Wang Lihui has said this, everyone is laughing so hard they can't stand up straight.

Chen Ling was also speechless. "Hey, this kid, if you don't want to drink, just say so. It seems you're still too reserved at your father-in-law's house."

Wang Lixian's younger sister, Wang Lijuan, said, "What do you mean by being reserved at your father-in-law's house? It's Si Ni's son-in-law who trembles when he talks to you. Don't you know anything? People outside are saying you're very capable, that you can hunt wolves and catch leopards, and that you're so good at making money, always driving around in a car."

If you don't believe me, go ask around outside. Who doesn't know Chen Fugui from Chenwangzhuang?

Many people probably don't even know what you look like, but your reputation is already widespread.

The county magistrate of Lingyun might not even know his name, but Chen Fugui of Chenwangzhuang is someone everyone can name well…”

Chen Ling was completely dumbfounded, thinking to himself, "Is this about him? Is it that exaggerated?"

Wang Susu was also surprised for a moment, but then she thought that the people from far away were all from her family's farm to breed dogs, and she thought that her husband might really be famous now.

None of the people who came today were outsiders. Wang Lixian's relatives were all familiar with Chen Ling. Seeing his strong reaction, they all joked, "You're not faking it, are you?"

"What do you mean I'm faking it? I really don't know. I don't go out much. I spend most of my time either in the village or in the mountains. Besides, it's nothing special..."

Chen Ling shrugged: "In the future, there will be more capable and wealthy people in our area than fish in a reservoir."

It will be 1997 soon, and more and more locals will go out to earn money and become their own bosses.

He wasn't lying.

But now hardly anyone believes him, and of course, hardly anyone thinks he's hypocritical.

This is related to the fact that the young couple are usually low-key and approachable.

I never thought of myself as superior to others.

So after a few jokes, some relatives who lived far away caught up with him and asked, "Can we come to your farm for a visit? I've been here several times but haven't been. I've only heard about it from outsiders, but I've never seen anything there."

"Come on, why not? Let's go now, and have dinner at my house tonight."

Chen Ling waved his hand and got up to lead them there. Everyone liked his generous nature, so they happily followed him to the farm.

Wang Lixian and his family also joined in the fun.

Upon arriving at the farm, everyone acted like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden, looking around curiously, finding something strange here and praising it there.

Many people who had never been here before thought this farm was like a breeding farm.

I never expected it to be built so beautifully.

I used to think that small Western-style houses were so stylish and beautiful.

As you walk into the farm, the little villa suddenly doesn't seem so impressive anymore.

But even when asked to praise them, they won't; they'll just keep saying "good."

After walking around for a while, a group of women followed Wang Susu into the house to watch TV, while a group of men continued to look around and talk outside.

"Fugui, it's time to catch the fish in this pond. I just saw one that was huge. You raise fish so well here. We can have fish for the New Year..."

Wang Lixian said this by the lotus pond.

"Yes, there are plenty of fish here. It's getting cold, and all the fish in the ditch have gone back to the pond. I'm thinking of catching some fish and pickling them when I have time."

Chen Ling did have this plan. She had even made sauerkraut fish at home these past two days. Afterwards, she discussed buying fireworks and firecrackers with Wang Lixian and others.

Men, you know, they've been playing with firecrackers since they were little, from small firecrackers to cannons and fireworks. When they have nothing else to do during the New Year, they love to set them off. Those who own factories and make money also buy truckloads of them and set them off every day, it's so much fun.

"Speaking of which, it seems the village committee is also going to buy some. They said the county allocated money to buy fireworks so that people can come and watch. Next year we'll have a temple fair here, and they'll let everyone see a fireworks display so they can know about it."

The idea of ​​setting up a temple fair in Chenwangzhuang was discussed after we watched the movie and the opera.

At that time, Chen Ling also went to make a show of things and raised his hand to vote for a better life.

The date was finally set for the eighth day of the seventh lunar month.

This was also a clever move, coinciding with Qixi Festival.

It is said that it will rain on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and if it happens to be close to that day, you might just happen to see a turtle coming out.

This is naturally just wishful thinking on people's part.

Whether those big guys in the reservoir come out or not depends on two things: first, whether Chen Ling allows them to show themselves, and second, whether the giant sturgeon in the reservoir behaves itself.

In the past two months, when Chen Ling wandered around the reservoir, he didn't notice that the big fish made any noise, because Garlic and the others reacted very calmly.

"It's not that far from the eighth day of the seventh lunar month next year. Why bother with fireworks? We might as well have a dragon boat race next year for the Dragon Boat Festival. We haven't had one for two years in a row."

"Well, fireworks are a good thing, right? Isn't it great to be able to watch fireworks? Right, Fugui?"

"Haha, that's right."

While chatting, everyone knew that the village was going to set off fireworks this year, but they still wanted to buy some for their own fun. So they agreed that if they had time tomorrow or the day after, they would go to Wangba City together to buy them.

There used to be mining there, so there are a lot of these factories, and they have all kinds of fireworks and firecrackers, which are new things that you can't find in their county.

There's one downside: accidents are common. Last year, a factory exploded, and the tremors were felt here.

Every time this topic comes up, I have to bring it up and talk about it.

These people stayed at the farm until nearly four o'clock in the afternoon before leaving one after another. Chen Ling invited them to stay for dinner, but no one actually stayed. Many relatives said they wanted to go home before dark.

For the next two days, since everyone had nothing much to do, they drove the tractor together to Wangba City to buy some fireworks and firecrackers.

After buying the fish, Chen Ling planned to marinate some fish and fry some quail the next day.

That same evening, the trap caught another deer.

Although the grass deer is also a type of deer, it is different from the sika deer. Most grass deer are solitary in winter, and both males and females prefer to live alone.

They are wild deer that are not easy to catch.

The meat was of decent quality, so Chen Ling wasn't in a hurry to stew it after killing it.

The young couple made a batch of venison buns, steaming a large pot of them.

Heiwa and Xiaojin were both there this time, and Ertuzi also flew back in the last two days. With two dogs and an eagle guarding the farm, and Chen Ling setting off some fireworks and firecrackers at night, the farm was much quieter at night.

Therefore, they handle venison very casually, and they are not afraid of the smell of blood wafting out even in the early hours of the morning.

"Uncle Fugui, your father is calling you to go and hunt down the badger..."

Around nine o'clock in the morning, Chen Ling and his wife had just finished making and steaming the venison buns when Liu Nier came looking for them.

"You've come at just the right time, kid. Come in, come on in. Your aunt and I made some venison buns early this morning. They're delicious."

Chen Ling called Liu Ni'er into the kitchen, handed her a hot steamed bun, and asked, "Why are you digging for badgers in winter? It's so cold, and it looks like it's going to snow soon. If the badgers aren't hibernating in their dens, what are they going to do with them?"

Badgers hibernate and disappear during the winter.

Liu Nier took a bite of the steamed bun, and the aroma made her squint her eyes. She took another big bite, stuffing her mouth full, before saying, "Someone dug a hole in the vegetable garden east of my house, and they dug right up to the badger's den. My dad and I got up early to check the shed, and we saw the badger peeking out of the hole, so we quickly sent me over to call you."

"Uncle Fugui, venison is delicious, and badger meat is delicious too. Can badger meat be used to make dumplings?"

"Badger meat cannot be used to make dumplings."

Chen Ling shook his head, but thought to himself, who would dig a hole in the vegetable garden for no reason? Could it be those tomb raiders again?

(End of this chapter)