Your husband will show you sisters what he can do
Such were the times! Such was fate!
Heaven had truly treated the two sisters well, allowing them to meet their husband. As long as they could stay alive, anything was possible in the future.
Seeing everything here, Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian felt as though they were dreaming. How could it all seem so unreal?
At that moment, Yang Aijin said to her husband, Zhou Yao, "Husband, I'm not dreaming, am I? It's a famine year, and there's a drought! Yet our family is so wealthy. Why does it all feel so unreal?"
"Husband, I don't think any of this feels real either. It's like I'm dreaming," Yang Ailian chimed in.
Hearing the sisters say this, Zhou Yao walked over to them and spanked Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian on their bottoms, one with each hand.
Their husband Zhou Yao's sudden move left the sisters terribly embarrassed. Their faces flushed hot and red, all the way to the roots of their ears.
The sisters cried out to Zhou Yao in cutesy voices, "Husband..."
That single word nearly stole Zhou Yao's soul.
"All right... all right... To celebrate our wedding today and you sisters' birthday tomorrow, your husband will show you what he can do," Zhou Yao said with a smile.
"Let's heat some water first."
"Husband, let us heat the water!"
"All right... you heat the water. I'll go slaughter a pig and make you something delicious in a little while."
Hearing their husband Zhou Yao's words, the sisters hurriedly replied, "All right, all right... go on, husband! We'll heat the water right now."
With that, Zhou Yao went to the pigsty in the backyard, caught a pig and brought it out, then slaughtered it. Before long, Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian had heated the water.
Zhou Yao then began pouring water over the pig and scraping off its hair. After he worked on it for a while, the wild boar was scraped clean from head to toe.
The wild boar weighed forty or fifty jin and had quite a lot of meat on it. Zhou Yao cut it into pieces.
Zhou Yao also cleaned all the pig's internal organs. Of course, he wanted to eat them too, but Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian might not.
That was because nobody ate pig offal in this era; it was all thrown straight away. Although Zhou Yao thought it was a waste, he would get the sisters to accept it in the future.
After preparing the pork, Zhou Yao first singed the skin on a piece of pork belly, then washed it clean and tossed it into a pot to boil.
Then he began mixing flour into dough and letting it rest. Finally, he prepared some seasonings for the dishes he would make shortly. Zhou Yao's movements flowed like clouds and running water, the whole sequence completed in one smooth motion, leaving Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian staring open-mouthed.
In this world that valued men over women, in an era when gentlemen kept their distance from the kitchen, Zhou Yao's display had shaken Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian's entire view of the world.
That was right. Today, Zhou Yao was making red-braised pork and longevity noodles, all of it, of course, for Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian.
After blanching the pork belly, Zhou Yao cut it into pieces two fingers wide. Then he washed the wok, added oil and fried sugar until it caramelized. He added the pork belly and stir-fried it, then added soy sauce and other seasonings. Finally, he poured an appropriate amount of water into the wok and let it simmer slowly.
The water in the pot beside him had already come to a boil. Zhou Yao deftly kneaded the rested dough, rolled it into thin sheets and folded them up. Finally, he cut the sheets into thin strips and added them evenly to the pot, stirring them with chopsticks. Lastly, he added the shoushoubai greens and stirred again.
Zhou Yao gave the red-braised pork another toss and left it to continue simmering.
He then added seasonings to each of three large bowls and poured in some noodle water. By then, the noodles in the pot were cooked. Zhou Yao lifted out the noodles and vegetable leaves, divided them among the three bowls and mixed them.
The red-braised pork was ready by then. Zhou Yao tossed it a few times with the spatula, then took it out of the wok and plated it. After a busy afternoon, it was finally time for dinner.