Chapter 13: The Spring of Fuli Inn (Part 2)

  It didn't take long for Manager Sun to buy everything, and the butcher was delighted to see that he had bought all the large intestines in stock. He even helped Manager Sun get rid of the pig head, which saved Wang a lot of trouble.

  After buying it, Wang looked at the large intestine and found that it was still very clean. The butcher had been worried that the large intestine would not sell well, so he had taken great care to clean it thoroughly. This way, it could be sold more easily. If it hadn't been cleaned properly, who would buy it? Tang people didn't know how to remove the odor of the large intestine, and originally few people ate it. If it wasn't cleaned properly, even fewer people would buy it.

  Let Wang Shifu, who had been playing with the geese in the yard, help find a catty of frankincense. Wang Kuang found a small pot, put the frankincense in it, and placed it on the fire to melt. He then told Zhu Si Niangzi to first scrub the large intestine with salt for about an hour, then rinse it several times with clean water, and finally scrub it with rice-washing water. Originally, using mountain powder was best, but since there was no mountain powder at the time of the Tang Dynasty, they could only use rice-washing water as a substitute.

  After a while, the pine resin had melted, and Wang Kuang had already cut the pig's head skin from the pork head. He placed the skin with the meat side down and the skin side up on a wooden board. The melted pine resin was evenly poured onto the hairy areas of the pig's head skin, especially filling the two ear holes completely. Not long after, the pine resin began to solidify. Taking advantage of this, Wang Kuang started peeling off the pine resin from the pig's head skin, even cutting open the ears to peel them off. After finishing, he looked at the pig's head skin and found that not a single hair was left, all having been removed by the pine resin. Even the ear holes, which were usually difficult to clean, were spotless. The onlookers, Sun Mingqian and Wang Shifu, were amazed, exclaiming in surprise at the unexpected use of pine resin (originally used for medicinal purposes).

  At this time, Zhu Si Niang had already washed the large intestine clean and was holding up the freshly washed large intestine. In the past when her family was struggling, she hadn't gone without eating pig intestines, but no matter how she washed them, they always had a strong odor. Unlike now, first using salt and then rice water, these two simple things made the odor disappear. Sun Mingqian wasn't wrong in having good eyesight, seeing Zhu Si Niang dazed, he also went to take a look. Good, that large intestine was spotless without any odor. Hmm, this washing method must be kept secret, from now on only Fugui Inn can make odorless large intestines, and that method for removing the hair with fragrance, both must be kept secret.

  After everything was done, Wang asked Zhu Si Niang to boil half a pot of water, add some wine and peppercorns, put the large intestine and pig head skin in to cook until they were done, then rinse them with cold water several times. He told Zhu Si Niang to throw them into the pot of braising sauce to soak overnight and braise together tomorrow.

  As for the pig's head, after handing over the bones to make soup and steaming the brain with eggs for the children to eat, Wang Kuang didn't care about it anymore. However, he specifically instructed Wang Shifu to stir-fry the two pieces of combined head meat for dinner, saying that any way of stir-frying was fine. Seeing Wang Kuang's mouth watering at the mention of stir-frying the combined head meat, Wang Shifu knew that something that could make Wang Dalang so eager must be good stuff, and he also looked forward to dinner time. Sun Mingqian originally thought there was nothing going on and wanted to leave, but just as he lifted his foot, he heard Wang Kuang instructing Wang Shifu to stir-fry the combined head meat for dinner. Upon seeing Wang Kuang's expression, he decided not to leave and would have dinner at the inn instead.

  At this time, Wang Xian also ran into the kitchen from outside, his new clothes that had just been changed yesterday were already covered in mud, and his face was also muddy. Behind him was a little girl about his height, holding a bowl, who came to the kitchen and presented a large handful of wild vegetables to Wang Kuang: "Brother, I want to drink mutton soup with jade." The little girl saw Wang Kuang and was a bit timid, holding the bowl and hiding behind Zhu Si Niangzi, but not hiding thoroughly, poking her head out to curiously look at Wang Kuang, her braided pigtails swaying back and forth.

  Wang Juan was crying and laughing, half a day without seeing Wang Xiao, it turned out that he had gone to dig wild vegetables. But then I wondered which family's child this little girl was, and she was kidnapped by Wang Xiao, it seems that Wang Xiao really has talent. However, I heard Zhu Si Niangzi scolding the girl: "San Yaotou, I told you to play with your second brother, where did you run off again? Where did this mutton soup come from?"

  That little girl called San Yaotou was not afraid of Zhu Si's scolding, her little butt swaying back and forth as she coquettishly said: "Mother, mother! Erzi brother said his brother will make a very delicious mutton soup, we went to dig wild vegetables, this soup is what Erzi brother brought."

  It's said that Tang is coming, Sun Mingqian's face was a bit unbearable, thinking that Erzi hadn't eaten enough at the inn, his face suddenly turned black and looked at Sun Zhuang. Wang Kuang naturally saw that the mutton soup was brought by Yang Yue, seeing Sun Mingqian's changed expression, he quickly explained, only then did Sun Mingqian calm down.

  It turned out that this little girl was the youngest and only daughter of Zhu Si Niangzi. Today, early in the morning, her uncle went into town to buy things and knew that Zhu Si Niangzi loved this daughter very much, so he brought her along, letting her stay with her mother for a few days. When the little girl arrived, Wang Kuang was still chatting nonsense with Zhou Gong, while Wang Rong had gotten up early. Since Zhu Si Niangzi had something to do, she let the little girl play with Wang Rong together. Who knew that when Wang Rong took the little girl strolling around the Taoist temple, he remembered the soup made by Wang Kuang and started bragging about it to the little girl, saying how delicious his brother's soup was? The little girl became so hungry that she couldn't bear it, and they dug up some wild vegetables together. There were only a few stalks of wild vegetables left in the temple, so they ran outside the city to dig more. On their way back, they also stopped by Yao Yue's stall and got a bowl of mutton soup, which led to the scene earlier.

  The little girl's round face was flushed, probably shy to see strangers. She wore a light blue short jacket and pink green pants, with a small wooden clog on her feet tied with a red ribbon and a flower. It can be seen that she is very much loved by adults, otherwise ordinary people's children would not wear shoes at ordinary times, let alone tie flowers on their clogs. Except for the mud on her clogs, the little girl was clean, it seems that Wang Xiao knew how to cherish his daughter from a young age and didn't let her dig wild vegetables herself, he did it all by himself.

  Since Wang Xian wanted to drink "Yangtang Feicui", then do it, anyway, it's not troublesome, especially now the seasonings in the kitchen have increased. So Wang Kuang used his actions to explain to Sun Mingqian and others what "Yangtang Feicui" was. This time, another reserved dish was added to the guest house, and the lamb soup that followed would be better sold later. The wild vegetables would naturally be replaced with other vegetables, and the best one is spinach.

  On this side, after finishing drinking, the iron shop on the other side also sent over the iron pot that Wang Kuang wanted. The style was basically the same as what Wang Kuang had ordered. The apprentice who brought the iron pot conveyed the boss's message: the other few things that Wang Kuang had ordered would not be delivered until tomorrow. Wang Kuang wasn't in a hurry, so it didn't matter. Originally, he had wanted to follow the apprentice back to the iron shop to order a few more things, but thinking about it, he realized that taking out too many things would be too shocking and attention-grabbing. He wouldn't even be able to avoid drawing attention to himself, so he gave up.

  In the afternoon, Wang Kuang asked Zhu Si Niang to help him sew two bags, fill them with husks and seal them to use as pillows. Zhu Si Niang was puzzled: "If you want a pillow, let Sun Zhanggui buy a wooden one for you. These cloth bags filled with husks have no shape, are soft and may not be comfortable to sleep on." Unable to refuse Wang Kuang's request and having nothing else to do in the afternoon, she agreed to sew the two bags, which wouldn't take much work anyway.

  Here is the translation:

  At dinner, the stir-fried head meat was so delicious that Sun Ming's eyes lit up. Even Sun Zhanggui gave up the opportunity to go home and educate his son after hearing that there was a dish he had never eaten before, and instead sat down early to wait for it. After taking a bite, he didn't care about the presence of others and joined Wang Kuang, Sun Ming, and Wang Shifu in a heated competition, with Wang Shifu's years of experience in the kitchen proving that his stir-fried meat was still top-notch.

  When they found out that this head meat was rare, only available in small quantities from each pig, Sun Ming had to give up on adding it to the inn's menu. However, he soon became excited again, thinking that Wang Kuang had brought so many surprises to the inn in just a few days. It could be said that spring had arrived at Fuli Inn, and he should hurry to send his two sons to work there and get them acquainted with Wang Kuang as soon as possible.

  He also needed to ask around about whether the neighboring houses were willing to sell, so they could expand the inn early on. If they waited until later when there were more customers, it would be too late, and they would miss out on a lot of money.

  The little girl was still a bit afraid of Wang Kuang, and she dared not move while leaning against her mother. Originally, the fourth daughter-in-law was supposed to be a woman, and according to etiquette, she should not have been allowed to sit at the table. However, Wang Kuang was only twelve years old and had not yet come of age, so he also could not sit at the table. In order to let Wang Kuang sit at the table, they simply ignored their identities and sat together. Sun Mingqian and the others did not know that Wang Kuang would not care about those rules and was not used to them. The little girl's timidness made Wang Kuang feel depressed, thinking, "Do I look like a monster?" But he didn't think that his thirty-year-old soul attached to a small child's body would unintentionally reveal the maturity of an adult from time to time. Sun Mingqian and the others only thought that Wang Kuang was mature and stable after going through great changes, but children's hearts are the most sensitive, so Xiaoyu could feel that Wang Kuang had some "dignity". Only Wang Xiang didn't care about anything else, and in his heart, he probably only had Xiaoyu. From time to time, he would secretly put a few pieces of meat into Xiaoyu's bowl, thinking that everyone hadn't noticed, but the adults were secretly laughing at him.

  Horizontal line---------------------

  It's a bit late, this chapter counts as yesterday's. If you have spare recommendation tickets, please vote, even if it's just collecting them, it's support for new authors, thank you!