Reborn in 1985, starting from the mountains of Northwest China

Chen Feng handed her the money: "What secret stash? This was taken from my old clothes. I forgot to give it to you."

Whether it's a secret stash of money or not doesn't matter; as long as my wife is happy, that's all that matters.

Lin Xiu took it, counted it, and added the nine yuan and fifty cents, making it exactly ten yuan.

Clutching the ten yuan, the smile returned to her face.

"Alright, that's enough now!"

She folded the money neatly, tucked it into her clothes, and pressed it down before feeling at ease.

"What about the cigarettes? Were they delivered?"

Chen Feng recounted the story of delivering the cigarettes, mentioning that Li Zhi praised him for being "both bold and shrewd," and that Li Zhi said, "If you work hard in the future, you'll succeed."

Lin Xiu's eyes lit up as she listened, and after he finished speaking, she suddenly reached out and patted his arm.

"Wow, Chen Feng, you've really got a knack for getting things done now!"

Chen Feng smiled and said, "Didn't you teach me? Don't keep all the money after you sell it; buy cigarettes for the seller first."

Lin Xiu blushed, but stubbornly retorted, "I told you to buy cigarettes, not Blue Golden Deer. Those cigarettes are so expensive, they cost 38 cents!"

Chen Feng looked at her and said, "We should spend money when necessary. If we get on this bandwagon, we can earn even more in the future."

Lin Xiu nodded, then suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right, time to eat. The food's warming up in the pot, I'll bring it to you."

She turned and went into the kitchen, and soon brought out a bowl of corn porridge, two cornbread buns, and a dish of pickled vegetables.

Chen Feng took it and ate it in big mouthfuls.

Lin Xiu sat beside him, watching him with a smile on her lips.

"Fengzi, do you think Li Zhi will actually accept our goods from now on?"

Chen Feng swallowed a mouthful of cornbread: "Yes. He said it himself, as long as it's this quality, I'll take as many as I can."

Lin Xiu thought for a moment and said, "Then we should go deeper into the mountains. We can still dig for winter bamboo shoots for a while, and then there will be spring bamboo shoots. There are lots of wild things in the mountains, we can look for them slowly."

Chen Feng nodded, took another bite of the cornbread, and chewed slowly.

Lin Xiu sat beside her, sewing shoe soles and chatting idly.

"Time flies! It's already the New Year!"

Chen Feng did the math: "Today is the seventh day of the month."

"It's already the seventh day of the Lunar New Year?" Lin Xiu was taken aback. "Then the Lantern Festival is in a few days. Shouldn't we buy some glutinous rice and make some tangyuan (sweet rice balls)? Xiaoshan and Xiaoyue have been talking about it for ages."

Chen Feng nodded: "Okay, I'll buy some."

Lin Xiu inserted a few more needles, then suddenly sighed.

"We spent all our savings over the New Year. If it weren't for the fact that you sold the winter bamboo shoots for nine and a half yuan, I really wouldn't be sure what to do."

Chen Feng didn't say anything and continued eating his cornbread.

Lin Xiu counted on her fingers: "I gave you eighty cents for cigarettes that day, and with the ten yuan you gave me today, I have forty-two yuan left. I need to keep thirty yuan for Xiaoshan's tuition, and that's not much left..."

"It's the dead of winter. You were lucky the last few times you went up the mountain. I'm really worried about you going again in the spring..."

Lin Xiu looked at Chen Feng and said hesitantly, "Why don't you try doing odd jobs this month?"

This wasn't just Lin Xiu's doing; it was common for villagers to take odd jobs when they weren't working in the fields, to supplement their income.

Chen Feng swallowed the last bite of cornbread and put the bowl aside.

"How much can you earn doing odd jobs? Eighty cents a day, and you only make about twenty dollars a month. It all depends on whether God is on your side."

Lin Xiu looked up at him: "Then what should we do? We can't just sit around and do nothing."

Chen Feng remained silent for a while before suddenly speaking.

"Xiuer, what do you think about us starting our own business?"

Lin Xiu was taken aback: "Doing business? What kind of business?"

Chen Feng looked at her: "Didn't you say last time that you could braise pig intestines?"

Lin Xiu paused, her needle still in her hand. "Braised large intestine? That stuff can be sold for money?"

Chen Feng nodded: "Why not? There are so many factories in town, and the workers like to buy some ready-made snacks to go with their drinks after get off work. And those bachelors, they don't cook for themselves, they eat out whenever they have a little money. If we make good braised dishes, we won't have to worry about selling them."

Chen Feng still remembered that in his previous life, there was a peddler outside the village.

The man pushed a broken bicycle with a wooden box tied to the back seat, and wandered around the village every few days.

The peddler sold all sorts of things—needles, thread, candy, and biscuits—but what the villagers remembered most were the few packets of braised food in his box.

Pig's head meat, pig's trotters, and pig's large intestine.

Wrapped in oil paper, the aroma could waft across half the street when unwrapped.

Besides, braised large intestines aren't cheap either, costing 1.2 yuan per jin (500g), making them more expensive than pork!

You should know that when pigs are slaughtered in the village, the large intestines are usually given away for free, and they only cost three or five cents a pound if you buy them separately!

But those in the village who had worked on construction sites, if they had a little money, were willing to buy it.

Why?

Because I ate it at the construction site.

The head chef at the construction site canteen would braise a pot of offal every few days. When the men who did heavy labor came back from work, they would buy two ounces of cheap liquor, slice a plate of braised large intestines, and eat until their mouths were dripping with oil.

Those who have tasted it will never forget it once they return to their village.

But the villagers themselves don't know how to make it.

Firstly, they couldn't bear to part with those braising liquids.

Star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves—everything costs money. Raising them in a pot of braising liquid costs no less than raising meat.

Secondly, I felt that the thing was dirty and troublesome to clean up.

The villagers rarely eat meat, so why would they bother to prepare pig offal?

Chen Feng had tried it a few times before when he went south.

That smells fucking good!

After listening, Lin Xiu frowned and thought for a moment.

"Braised large intestines... my mother taught me how. It's just that those things are hard to clean. You have to wash them several times and scrub them with salt and vinegar to remove the smell."

Lin Xiu's mother was the most skilled cook in the surrounding area.

It is said that Lin Qingfeng insisted on finding Lin Xiu's mother because he had eaten Lu Dan's snacks with his drinks!

Chen Feng hadn't held out much hope, but he hadn't expected Lin Xiu to know even this!

"You can?"

Lin Xiu nodded: "Yes, I can. It's just that I haven't done it for many years, so I'm a bit rusty."

Chen Feng leaned forward: "Then think about it, if we're going to do it, what do we need to buy? What do we need to prepare?"

Lin Xiu put down the shoe sole in her hand and thought about it seriously.

"The large intestines need to be bought fresh. As for seasonings, we have salt, soy sauce, and sugar at home, but we're missing a few spices. We'll have to go to the market to buy star anise, cinnamon, and bay leaves."

Chen Feng nodded: "Anything else?"

Lin Xiu thought for a moment and said, "We also need a big pot. Our pot is too small; it's barely enough to braise a whole set of large intestines."

Chen Feng made a mental note of it.

"Anything else?"

Lin Xiu shook her head: "That's about it. The key is the braising liquid; that stuff needs to be aged slowly, the older it gets, the better it tastes."

After listening, Chen Feng felt more confident.

He recalled the videos he had watched in his past life, such as "the sugar should be caramelized until small bubbles appear," "the longer the braising liquid is aged, the more fragrant it becomes," and "the large intestine should be turned inside out and washed three times"...

All those bits and pieces of knowledge suddenly surfaced.

"Xiuer, when braising pork intestines, do we need to blanch them first?"

Lin Xiu nodded: "Yes, blanch them once to remove the odor."

"After blanching, do we need to caramelize it with sugar?"

Lin Xiu nodded again, but there was some doubt in her eyes.

"Fengzi, how do you know all this?"

Chen Feng paused for a moment, then casually said, "I've heard people say that."

Lin Xiu didn't think much of it and continued to ponder the matter of braised large intestines.