“PaPa, what shall we have for dinner?” At about four o’ clock, Mengmeng was already tired of playing. The little girl ran to Zhang Han and asked in a childish tone.
“What does Mengmeng want to eat?” Zhang Han asked.
“Hmm… what to eat?” Mengmeng pondered for a while but still did not know what she wanted. She muttered and said, “Well, Mengmeng doesn’t know what to eat.”
“Ha-ha.” Zhang Han shook his head and smiled. He looked over at the livestock area and finally settled on the Tai Lake Black Swine. “We’ll kill the pig tonight. Zhao Feng, take a pig and bring it back.”
“All right.” Zhao Feng nodded and marched toward the livestock area. He kicked the pig a few times to stun it, then carried the pig to the bottom of the mountain.
Zhang Han followed with Mengmeng in his arms.
The Tai Lake Black Swine weighed about 100kg when they first bought it. Generally, more than 100kg of pigs would be slaughtered on the farm.
But in just a month, the Tai Lake Black Swine on Mount New Moon weighed more than 150kg.
Coming down the mountain, Zhang Han and Mengmeng went to Martha Lahti. Zhao Feng placed the pig in the back seat of the panda car. Before boarding the vehicle, Zhao Feng thought for a minute, ran to the Maserati, took Zhang Han’s cell phone and dialed Ah Hu’s number.
“Ah Hu.”
“Brother Feng! You finally got in touch with me! Haha, it’s great that you’re all right. We were so worried about you…” Ah Hu cried with joy at the other end of the line.
Zhao Feng’s expression was solemn when he heard those words. Over the years at Forever Harmony a.s.sociation, Zhao Feng had more than 50 trusted followers. They joined the Forever Harmony a.s.sociation either because they were forced by circ.u.mstances; they had been bullied or because they longed for this kind of life. However, although they were thugs, they all had good personalities and they were not evil natured. They gradually converged under Zhao Feng.
After several years, Zhao Feng had grown attached to them.
“Alright,” Zhao Feng chuckled and said, “Ah Hu, I need a favor. Can you come to Mount New Moon? I need you to get rid of a van; destroy it.”
“Yes, Brother Feng. Well, when will you come back to see us? I heard that Lord Tang has died. Now the a.s.sociation is in chaos. Without you, we may not be able to defend the territory of New Moon Bay.”
“Let’s talk about that later. That’s all for now. I’m using my boss’s phone. You don’t have to call back. I’ll contact you again in the evening.” After Zhao Feng finished speaking, he hung up.
He returned the cell phone to Zhang Han,went back to the panda car and sighed softly.
He couldn’t go back to the a.s.sociation as he didn’t intend to live that kind of life anymore. But he was a little reluctant to part with Ah Hu and the others.
Shortly after Zhang Han and others left Mount New Moon.
“Haha…”
Dahei laughed heartily. Its laughter lasted about two minutes.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…”
Dahei was very happy. It put out a fist and pounded it against its chest. Then it looked greedily at the livestock area and pointed to Little Hei.
The gesture meant “Brother, let’s eat whatever we like tonight.”
“Ow…”
Little Hei was also excited. It was very fond of eating meat, but initially it dared not. It was not until Dahei came that it began to enjoy meat. The tasty barbecue and crispy bones were delicious.
It was solely for this reason, Little Hei admitted that Dahei was the big brother.
“Ow ow ow…”
Little Hei was asking, “What are we eating?”
“Whoa, whoa!”
Dahei thought for a few minutes. It extended its fist and made a few gestures, which meant that it would be the one to go this time. It then rushed to the livestock area.
It punched a Tai Lake Black Swine hard enough to stun it, then carried the pig by one leg into the dense forest.
“The host will eat pig tonight, and we will have one too.”
…
In the restaurant, the piano had been delivered. The restaurant had been refurbished entirely and was filled with customers. There were no signs of fighting at all.
Zhang Han took Mengmeng into the restaurant but Zhao Feng didn’t follow. He thought for a while and marched to the restaurant next door.
“Manager! Manager! The man who collects the protection fee is here again.” Xiao Mei saw Zhao Feng coming over and was shocked. She rushed to the manager and whispered.
“Ah?” The manager was nervous. When he saw that it was Zhao Feng, he was relieved. Zhao Feng was a regular and quite an easy-going fellow whenever he was in the restaurant.
“Welcome. I wonder why Big Brother is here…” The manager asked with a smile, as he opened the door to welcome Zhao Feng in.
Zhao Feng glanced at the manager’s and Xiao Mei’s nervous expressions and said with a smile, “Relax, I’m not here to charge you. I came to ask if you slaughter pigs here.”
“Slaughter pigs?” The manager was a little stunned. He asked hesitantly, “Is the pig raised by the restaurant owner next door?”
Although they could slaughter pigs here, they had never taken on this kind of work. If it was someone else asking, the manager would refuse. This pig,however, belonged to the owner of the restaurant next door, so that would be another story.
“Yes.” Zhao Feng nodded and from the manager’s expression, knew that pigs could be slaughtered here. Zhao Feng took out several hundred-dollar bills from his pocket and put them on the counter. He said, “This one thousand yuan is payment for the slaughtering service. I’ll bring the pig over.”
“Okay, then I’ll get some guys to help you.”
“No need.”
Seeing Zhao Feng’s refusal of help, the manager thought Zhao Feng had several men to help bring in the pig. However, when he saw Zhao Feng easily carrying in a pig weighing about a few hundred kilograms, his expression changed.
“How powerful is he? Could any regular person carry a pig weighing about hundreds of pounds so easily?”
Zhao Feng brought the pig to the kitchen, surprising the chef and his staff.
“Boy, this is a Tai Lake Black Swine!” One of the chefs came over and prodded the black pig.
“Whoever is free now, please come over and help slaughter this pig” The manager clapped his hands and said, “Anyone who helps to slaughter this pig will receive one hundred yuan each.”
As soon as he said this, all those who were free, gathered around. This made the two chefs a little depressed because they wanted the extra money too!
“Wait a minute. I’ll go back and check with the boss first,” Zhao Feng turned and left.
Zhao Feng returned to the restaurant and saw Zhang Han and Zhang Li sitting on the sofa playing with Mengmeng. Zhao Feng went straight in and asked, “Boss, how do you want to slaughter the pig?”
“Just the normal way.” Zhang Han answered casually.
“Oh, ok.” Zhao Feng nodded.
“Put the trotters and tenderloin together. The rest should be handled in the usual way. Take a portion of the pork back and for the balance, mince half of it and make sausages out of the other half,” Zhang Han said.
Zhang Han was quite detailed about the preparation of the pork.
Apart from ribs, trotters and viscera, pork can be divided into four grades.
The super grade was tenderloin. The tenderloin was a thin piece of meat under the spine that is connected to the large ribs. It was also the tenderest portion of the pork.
The first level was the loin pork and hind leg pork.
The second level was the front pork legs and the streaky pork.
The third level was the pork neck, underbelly pork, fore and hind elbow pork.
There were different cooking and eating methods for different qualities of pork. The pork tasted different, depending on the cuts of meat. On the pig, the tenderest part was the tenderloin and the back hip of the pork was relatively tougher. The fore and back hip pork were suitable for stir-frying. Streaky pork tasted better when stewed. The loin pork was perfect for stir-frying lean meat. For dumplings and steamed buns fillings, fore hip pork was the best.
Of course, the ribs and pork liver were also very delicious. Especially ribs, they were everyone’s favorite.
Needless to say, Zhang Han would reserve the most delicate parts for Mengmeng, such as trotters and ribs.
Livestock on Mount New Moon could now be eaten without any rationing. There was so much Yang Qing Water that it could fully meet the needs of the people. However, Zhang Han didn’t plan to eat meat every day, because a diet of meat and vegetable was more nutritious.
“Okay.”
Zhao Feng nodded and walked out. He had to supervise the killing of the pig personally and the cutting up of the meat.
“Brother, Brother, you slaughtered the pig? We are having pork tonight?” Zhang Li’s eyes lit up when she heard this.
“Yes, aunt. We’re going to have pork tonight. The pig was a big and black one ” Mengmeng answered, her big bright eyes blinking.
“Wow! Cool!” Zhang Li’s spirit rose. She knew that her brother’s livestock were not the ordinary kind. The chicken and goose meat were super delicious.
“By the way, I will ask Anna to join us tonight. And I will also call Xiao Qing, let her taste the delicious food cooked by my brother! Hum, I guess she’ll become another of your super fan after eating the food!” Zhang Li then took out her cell phone, called her two good friends and invited them over.
Besides Li Anna, there was another person named Luo Qing. Luo Qing was the ace bartender at a night bar. When Zhang Li first came to this city, she always went there for a drink and they eventually became good friends. They had a good relations.h.i.+p.
“You are shameless.” Zhang Han shook his head and smiled.
“Why should I be polite with my brother? Am I right, Mengmeng?” Zhang Li smiled and asked Mengmeng..
“Uh-huh, uh… yeah, you’re right. You don’t need to be courteous,” Mengmeng answered, waving her little hands.
Mengmeng’s words made Zhang Han laugh.
“By the way, brother, what are we having for dinner?” Zhang Li asked curiously.
Braised Ribs, Roast Pork Trotters, Dongpo Elbows, Stewed Newly-butchered pig, Double Cooked Pork Slices, Braised Pork, Cuc.u.mber with garlic sauce and Egg and Tomato soup,” Zhang Han recited, while looking at his cell phone, without even raising his head.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.”
Zhang Li’s eyes almost turned green. She swallowed three times in antic.i.p.ation of the feast and was already a little impatient.
“So much delicious food? Wow, this is a lucky day,” Zhang Li said in surprise.
“Wow, lucky day. Lots of yummy food. A lot.” Mengmeng jumped up and down on the sofa with a giggle.
Soon it was six o’clock.
Liang Mengqi’s group, Sun Dongheng’s family and other non-member diners arrived one after another.
Pearson sat alone in the members only section at the far end of the restaurant. w.a.n.g Qiang and Wu Liying had not arrived yet.
At 6:10, they were served egg-fried rice and noodle soup, one dish after another.
Just as Liang Mengqi got up and entered the kitchen bar, the door opened. Zhao Feng hurried in with a group of five people.
They had platters in their hands. There were pork trotters, ribs, tenderloin and other types of meat dishes on the platters.
“What is happening?”
The eyes of the restaurant crowd suddenly zoomed in on the variety of meat dishes. Especially Yu Qingqing, whose eyes were alert and asked continually, “What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?”
“Is it…?”
“Mengqi.” Zhao Feng looked at Liang Mengqi with a smile and said, “There are pork dishes tonight. I think you guys should stop eating the egg-fried rice now. Could you please wait a minute?”
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