After unloading the wooden poles, Li Long led the horse and cart home. He and Li Qingxia took a short rest, then helped Du Chunfang trim the meat and render the fat.
The wild boar carried quite a bit of fat at this time of year, more than around the Spring Festival. It yielded plenty of rendered fat, which looked lovely.
Pressed for time, Li Long and Li Qingxia headed back into the mountains. They unhitched the horse, and Li Qingxia went to cut poles while Li Long led the horse into the same gully as the day before.
Trees grew on both sides of the gully: pines and cypresses on the south side, shrubs and wild fruit trees on the north.
Li Long led the horse beneath some trees at the bottom of the gully and tethered it. First, he took a branch and beat around the nearby ground. Finding no "spicy strips," he went off to cut poles without worry.
When Liang Yuemei returned home, she smelled meat in the courtyard and found it a little odd.
Li Juan and Li Qiang were both back, each holding a bowl and eating meat that had had its fat rendered out. Their mouths were greasy.
Seeing her mother return, Li Juan immediately picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks and held it to Liang Yuemei's mouth.
"Mom, have some! Grandpa and the others brought this wild boar meat back today. Grandma rendered the fat out. It's delicious!"
"All right, all right." Unable to refuse, Liang Yuemei ate a piece. It really was delicious.
"Mom, have some!" Seeing their mother eat what his sister offered, Li Qiang immediately picked up an even bigger piece and pushed it toward Liang Yuemei's mouth. "It's so good!"
"Oh!"
After eating the two