Chapter 48 Gender Crimes 48
"It’s nothing much, I’m just curious about what you’re thinking so deeply about. I’ve called you several times and you didn’t respond. Should we smoke this wild boar and make it into salted dried meat?"
The Eldest Lady, now renamed Qin Miao, had become more cheerful living with Qin Shuang over the years. She no longer had the timid and shy demeanor she once had, always with her head down, afraid to speak loudly behind Qin Shuangshuang.
Qin Shuangshuang nodded and brought the pork back into the house, saying to Qin Miao, "Let’s make it into dried meat!" She looked around the house but didn’t see Mrs. Bai, "Has our mother gone out to dig wild vegetables again?"
"Yes, lately every household has barely any greens. It’s too dry in the fields, and nothing can grow. Even wild vegetables are very scarce." As Qin Miao spoke, she skillfully came out with a knife and a basin, ready to cut up the wild boar meat.
The boar’s head and offal were already gone, and some of the fattier belly pork had been given away by Qin Shuangshuang. In those days, having fatty meat was considered the best because cooking with it was both delicious and economical on oil.
Qin Shuangshuang first went to check the place where she stored preserved meat. It was a loft she had specially built, filled densely with smoked meat dried and baked using a clay stove, allowing it to be preserved long-term! Qin Shuangshuang had spent nearly half a year secretly accumulating this stock.
After clearing a space among the packed dried meat for the new batch, Qin Shuangshuang went out, planning to help Qin Miao process the wild boar meat. Just then, Mrs. Bai returned, carrying a basket woven from willow, which contained only a small pile of poor-quality wild vegetables.
Qin Miao was carefully washing these wild vegetables, not even willing to throw away the yellowing wilted leaves.
Whether it’s vegetables or water, they’re both rare now. Water is manageable; last year, during the drought, Qin Shuangshuang spent a full twenty taels of silver to have a deeper than usual well dug nearby.