Chapter 5: The Expert

After finishing everything, Li Lan casually grabbed a handful of pine needles from the firewood pile to wipe the grease off his palm, then eagerly picked up his chopsticks and put a slice of meat into his mouth.

He chewed slowly, and the more he chewed, the brighter his eyes became. He thought to himself, “You wouldn’t expect it, this kid usually lazy as a lump of dog dung, but the cooking isn’t bad at all.”

So he took a second slice, then a third...

Unnoticed under his watchful eyes, he had already eaten six pieces.

Sensing something was wrong, Li Heng, who was stir-frying the Chinese cabbage, twitched his face and couldn’t help but speak up:

“Hey, there are only about twenty slices of meat in total. Can you wait until dinner to eat them?”

Li Lan seemed not to hear, didn’t even glance at him, and kept eating.

“Wow! Brother, are you guys having cured meat today?” At that moment, a dull voice came from the doorway. Eldest sister Li Yan, with her big belly, had caught the scent and came over.

He half-turned and asked, “Big sister, have you eaten?”

Li Yan stared at the cured meat, her eyes shining with greed, shaking her head vigorously, “Not yet, not yet.”

Dinner consisted of two meat dishes and one vegetable: smoked bamboo shoots with cured meat, a large bowl of Chinese cabbage, and a bowl of spicy pickled chili.

There was also enticing white rice.

For the Li family in 1987, this was already a very lavish meal.

Usually, such a feast was reserved only for festivals or when guests came.

But the rest of the cured meat all went into big sister’s mouth. She ate with grease dripping, polishing off three big bowls of rice in one go.

Li Heng and Li Lan watched silently without interrupting, tacitly only picking the dried bamboo shoots and cabbage to eat with rice.

When there was only one last piece of cured meat left at the bottom of the bowl, the belatedly aware Li Yan scratched her head and laughed awkwardly, feeling a bit embarrassed as she invited:

“I’m almost done. Brother, sister, you two should eat too.”

Just one piece left, why bother eating it?

How could they eat it?

Should they share it with second sister?

Li Heng grumbled silently but showed no trace of blame on his face.

Li Lan glanced at big sister’s pregnant belly, then at Li Heng sitting across the table, picked two sour red chilies, put them into her bowl, and got up to carry the bowl outside under the eaves.

Even Li Yan was afraid of second sister’s fiery temper, her heart pounding nervously as she whispered:

“Brother, is second sister mad at me? Because I ate all the meat?”

Li Heng picked up the last piece of meat in the bowl and gave it to her, smiling to reassure:

“No, big sister, don’t overthink it. We’re blood siblings; how could she be angry at you?

When you came in, second sister and I had already eaten quite a bit. You should have seen that when you came in.”

Li Yan covered her head and recalled the scene of entering the house earlier. It seemed second sister really was eating meat. She immediately stopped feeling annoyed, lowered her head, and put the last piece of meat into her mouth.

---

“That was delicious. This meat is really tasty and fragrant.”

Watching her greedily chew on the cured meat, Li Heng felt a wave of sadness. He picked out all the little scraps of meat from the bowl and gave them to her.

Big sister had married into a decent, honest family. Her husband was still an apprentice, learning carpentry in Huaihua next door, barely earning enough to support himself.

Last year, her mother-in-law was disabled after being attacked by a wild boar while gathering herbs in the mountains. She was still undergoing treatment and had piled up heavy debts.

That was why big sister often came back to her maternal home. Because Tian Run’e felt sorry for her, she always made some nourishing food to help her recover.

After dinner, full and satisfied, big sister voluntarily took on the task of washing dishes and chopsticks. Li Heng tried to stop her, wanting her to rest, but she stubbornly pushed him out of the kitchen.

Big sister was like that—stubborn to the bone. Having eaten all the meat, she always wanted to find something to make up for it, so her conscience could be at ease.

Li Lan swept the left corner of the room clean with a broom, laid a pig straw mat on the floor, and began chopping pig fodder.

They raised four pigs at home—two big and two small. The big ones weighed nearly three hundred jin, the small ones around seventy or eighty.

They also had a yellow ox used for spring plowing.

Despite second sister’s fierceness, she was a diligent person. Whenever she was home, the pigs and ox were all well taken care of—more nimble and efficient even than Tian Run’e, looking every bit like an old farmer.

Interestingly, the pigs she fed always grew faster and better than others’, often ready for market in just half a year.

Because of this, she earned the nickname “Pig Raising Expert.”

Several well-off families had taken notice of her and repeatedly came to persuade Tian Run’e, hoping to arrange a marriage between her and their sons.

But Li Lan had no interest in those mediocre suitors, rejecting them outright with the words, “I want to be a city person.”

Of course, her persistent admirers kept trying, and her beauty was a major plus.

She and Tian Run’e looked almost identical in their youth—both beautiful enough that anyone in the nearby villages would praise, “This girl is so pretty.”

While the two elder sisters worked, Li Heng didn’t rest either.

He first burned a pile of half-wet, half-dry firewood in the stove, then blocked the stove door with a board. On top, he placed an iron wire mesh, spread the fish and shrimp they had caught today on it, covered them with several old newspapers, and finally weighed down the edges with firewood.

That was the final step.

The fish and shrimp would be smoked overnight, becoming mostly dry. He had to check every hour or two to prevent them from burning.

…

At dusk, cold wind howled through the broken window cracks, chilling the skin painfully.

Damn it!

The treacherous sky had turned foul again without warning.

He grabbed two intact old newspapers and found about ten thumbtacks from a drawer corner, grumbling as he began patching the window.

Carefree Li Yan ran over to the Chen family across the street, joining the crowd to watch the fun, all the while, like everyone at the crossroads, eagerly anticipating the bowl of “Shaozhi noodles” at midnight.

According to local custom, for such a joyful occasion, the host family would provide free “Shaozhi noodles” at midnight to share with the village neighbors.

In those days, with little entertainment and everyone struggling with scarce food and clothes, such a treat was a grand event for the entire family, young and old alike, who would eat as much as they could without restraint—some eating as many as three big bowls.

Even the little kids didn’t have the refined tastes of later generations; one bowl was more than enough.

Besides, the Chen family was a well-known wealthy household in the village. That afternoon, they had slaughtered pigs and cattle and generously bought four goats. The “Shaozhi” feast was incredibly abundant, so no one felt like sleeping, all eagerly awaiting the event.

Seeing big sister’s joyful expression among the crowd, Li Lan twisted his face, wanting to call her back. But glancing at her prominently rounded pregnant belly, he swallowed his words several times.

Finally, Li Lan muttered angrily, “Another spineless one,” and returned inside.

The three-room mud house was home to six people. Grandma had now been taken away by the eldest sister.

When they were younger, Li Jianguo and Tian Xiao’e shared a room with Li Heng, while Grandma lived with the two granddaughters in another.

Later, as they grew taller, Li Heng and Li Lan were forced to move to the cramped second floor, each taking one side, separated by a wooden board, forming makeshift single rooms.

Between the two rooms lay a pile of firewood and straw, along with a blackened, eerie coffin.

The coffin was Grandma’s.

Li Heng bent down and crawled into the makeshift room, sitting on the hard wooden bed, feeling very stifled and unable to sleep. Having become used to a comfortable middle-aged life, he found it difficult to readjust to this old era of hunger and cold.

He felt the task was daunting: to improve their living conditions, earn money to treat his father’s illness, restore his mother’s lost dignity at the Chen family, and bring his entire family to a better life. All of this required money—lots of it. His heart was restless, unwilling to wait even a minute.

This dismal poverty was so ugly that even a second’s glance felt unbearable.

Time waits for no one; every moment counts.

With this belief, he began scrabbling through his memory for all the novels and magazines he had read.

In his previous life, he had been a civil servant, later working in education with plenty of free time. Influenced by his father, his greatest hobby was reading books and newspapers.

Of course, he also occasionally played badminton, basketball, and practiced boxing.

To win over Song Yu’s favor, he had even learned to play the piano halfway through.

It could be said that he was well-read, having gone through at least a thousand classics and literary works from ancient and modern times, both domestic and foreign, filling his study.

Yet, considering the current social conditions and his living environment, he found himself at a loss, unsure where to start.

He didn’t even consider submitting articles to newspapers.

In his previous life, he had millions in savings. Now reborn, the meager fees of a few tens of yuan for submissions felt trivial and uninspiring. Li Heng simply couldn’t muster any enthusiasm.

No famous works, no thanks.

They say fame must come early. Knowing the prosperous and flourishing era that lay ahead, with his family’s desperate plight needing urgent change, he didn’t have time to waste.

After much thought, three novels finally stood out in his mind:

“废都” (“Abandoned Capital”), “人生海海” (“Life is a Sea”), and “活着” (“To Live”).