Chapter 43: Not A Pig’s Hair for You
Translator: Flying Lines
Proofread by Claire.KK
That night, the second household were having a pork leg.
Baoshan brought the pork leg home which was also bought from his friend. A whole pork leg which weighed around 2.2 pounds.
Li Hongmei was cooking while Xiao Baofeng and Xiao Baozhu were practicing writing Chinese characters and naturally Ye Xiaoxian was going to cook dishes.
She was about to pick up the pork leg and clean it up when Xiao Baoshan took it over ahead of her. He scalded the fine hairs off the pork leg with fire, sc.r.a.ping them off, then cleaned it and finally chopped them into chunks before they handed them to Ye Xiaoxian.
He said, “You’re skilled in cooking so thank you for all your efforts.”
“Don’t mention it,” Ye Xiaoxian smiled. She took the chopped pork leg and it didn’t take an hour before they had done the braised pork leg.
…
The second household was having juicy pork leg while Wong Mudan was making a big fuss again at the side of Old Mr. Xiao.
“Pa, do you know that the second household is having pork leg tonight. I was just seeing that Baoshan was dealing with the pork leg. Lord, the pork leg was huge and fat. It looks just fine.”
“What? They’re having pork leg?” Old Mr. Xiao was opening his eyes wide.
Different from pig’s offal, a pork leg is even dearer than fat pork. Only a well-off family can afford it.
Old Mr. Xiao’s household would have pork legs several times a month because his elder and third sons were working as attendants in the government office and they had fixed wages.
“I’ve seen it clearly this time, so pa, don’t wrong me this time. Third Sister-in-law has seen it too. Ju, right?”
Chen Ju was not quite that straightforward as Wong Mudan but she was oily-tongued as well and was good at stirring up troubles. So she nodded. “That’s right, pa. I saw it too. I remembered that the second household has promised that they’ll share every goodies they have with you. But how come they only remembered to share pig’s offal with you but not pork legs?
Old Mr. Xiao was losing his temper and decided to go and ask the second household what was going on.
Still, he didn’t forget to appropriate all the minced pork on the table to himself, in case all the meat would be gone after he came back.
Wong Mudan and Chen Ju was enraged by Old Mr. Xiao’s behaviour.
You’re already so old and can’t you eat a less bit of meat? There are several kids who are in need of meat to grow properly staring at the scattered minced pork but they can’t even take one bite.
How unprecedentedly selfish this grandpa is.
Old Mr. Xiao was about to get up when Xiao Baofeng suddenly came over carrying a bowl of pork leg. There were five or six chunks in the bowl which were cooked well through and looked juicy, and with some white sesame sprinkled on them, they looked very inviting.
“Grandpa, this is for you!” Xiao Baofeng poured everything into the bowl in front of Old Mr. Xiao and in the blink of an eye he walked away.
It always freaked Xiao Baoshan out to have meals with the elder and third households. He had to in the past but now that it was rare that he didn’t have to eat together, of course he had to slip away immediately.
“There are only several chunks, aren’t they? They are not even enough for everyone each…”
Chen Ju hadn’t finished her sentence but became silent.
The reason was that she saw Old Mr. Xiao was cramming all the pork leg chunks into his own bowl and started to eat it without a word.
He actually wanted to eat all the pork leg chunks alone!。
“Pa…” w.a.n.g Mudan tried to remind Old Mr. Xiao in a low voice.
But Old Mr. Xiao seemed not to hear anything as if he was sealed in a magic enchantment and separately from the whole world.
All the kids were staring at the pork leg chunks in a miserable way but their grandpa pretended not to see it and ate one and two and three…The grandpa swallowed all the six chunks into his stomach.
After he finished eating, Old Mr. Xiao wiped his mouth with his sleeves, putting down his bowl and returned his room.
And Wong Mudan and Chen Ju exchanged glance with each other and became more furious.
They didn’t expect that their pa was so selfish. They were thinking to have a try of the second household’s cookery but they didn’t even get a pig’s hair in the end.