Besides being ground into tofu, soybeans can be used in many dishes, like soybeans stewed with eggplant, beef shank, or chicken feet, and soybeans braised with pig’s trotters.

Li Xiang used to work in a big city and cooked for himself. He had made soybeans braised with pig’s trotters before; it was nourishing, moisturizing, and good for the skin, and the taste was absolutely divine.

Pig’s trotters are rich in collagen, and eating them often can increase skin elasticity. You can also add peanuts, red dates, and yams to cut the greasiness and create a more balanced nutritional profile.

This time, he bought front pig’s trotters, also known as "pig’s hands" in Cantonese. In Cantonese, "pig’s hands" (front trotters) and "pig’s feet" (hind trotters) refer to different parts.

Southerners might be more particular and make the distinction, while northerners don’t care as much. ’It’s all just pork hock, isn’t it? Just get to cooking.’

But Southerners believe that the front trotters have more lean meat, making them suitable for dishes that are a feast for the senses, like red-braised, soy-braised, or sauce-braised pig’s trotters. The hind trotters, on the other hand, are bonier with thinner skin and are usually used for soups, like pig’s trotter and corn soup.

Li Xiang preferred the front trotters, which could also be used for soup.

Additionally, he bought sweet potato vermicelli, high-gluten flour, yeast, tube-packaged dried noodles, three small red-clay stoves, and matching small iron pots. These stoves could be placed on the dining table for some personal hot pots, letting everyone eat something nice and warm.

He saw some good-looking preserved vegetables and bought some of those, too—five and a half pounds of each different kind.

Sichuan Province has four famous preserved vegetables: Fuling Pickled Mustard, Nanchong Winter Vegetable, Neijiang Da Tou Cai, and Yibin Mustard. In truth, the geographical limitations weren’t that strict. Other places produced them too, like the area where Li Xiang lived. All four types were produced there with an authentic flavor; it was just that those other places were the most famous for them.

Of course, the original recipes might have been passed down from those regions.

The preserved vegetables sold at the market probably had too many additives. Li Xiang planned to pickle a few jars himself next year. As a bona fide country boy, he knew pickling vegetables wasn’t exactly rocket science. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

’He’d learned how just by watching long ago.’

Then he bought some melon seeds, peanuts, large dates, walnuts, oranges, apples, pomelos, pears, and bananas. He also bought a table designed for brewing tea over a stove. The shopkeeper said it was made of old elmwood, with an iron stove embedded in the middle and a stainless steel grill on top. The owner even threw in a dedicated iron kettle for boiling water and a tea set for free.

Li Xiang felt the complimentary tea set wasn’t high-end enough, so he rode his tricycle over to the street specializing in tea sets. He picked out a Ru-ware-style blue-and-white porcelain set for just over five hundred yuan. It included a Xishi-style teapot, two lidded bowls for appreciating the aroma, a tea strainer, a fairness pitcher, and six tasting cups.

Where there were tea sets, there were bound to be tea shops. ’It’s a whole supply chain,’ he thought. ’They might even be owned by the same person.’ So, he went into one and bought a few tins of Pu’er and black tea.

For brewing tea over a stove, you naturally need a highly fermented, large-leaf tea so the aroma can be fully released. Teas like green tea, West Lake Longjing Tea, or Biluochun are made from tender buds. They have a lighter flavor, are demanding about water temperature, and are only suitable for steeping.

He had to admit, now that he had money, he had achieved "small-item freedom." This kind of ordinary spending on food, drink, and fun wouldn’t bankrupt him. The real dangers were playing the stock market, gambling, or starting a business with ambitions of "making it big."

He used to have a colleague who had worked for many years and earned a good salary. He’d heard the guy had saved up seven or eight hundred thousand yuan and was planning to make a down payment on a small apartment in the suburbs. He was very frugal in his daily life, but he never ended up buying the place. When Li Xiang asked about it later—damn—the guy had lost it all in the stock market and was even several hundred thousand in debt from credit loans.

’What do you call that? Throwing money around like dirt in the stock market, but pinching every penny in real life.’

’He could have had such a great time spending that seven or eight hundred thousand on food and drink.’

Li Xiang wasn’t sure why he’d suddenly thought of that colleague. In any case, *he* was having a great time now. He kept loading up his three-wheeler until it was piled high, then slowly headed for home.

Having experienced the hardships of the Apocalypse, where he couldn’t even fill his stomach, looking at the tricycle now, overflowing with food, made him feel incredibly happy.

When he got home, his grandmother had already made dinner—a simple meal of four dishes and a soup, with three meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. The weather was getting colder, so Li Xiang used a ladle to scoop out twelve to fourteen ounces of the Snake Wine. He poured it into a small ceramic wine pot, warmed it in hot water, and then poured a small cup for his grandmother and himself.

He had drunk this Medicinal Wine before; it was very safe. His grandmother was getting on in years, and her "old cold legs" would act up whenever the weather turned cold. She had seen an old traditional Chinese doctor about it before, who said it was rheumatoid arthritis.

The Snake Wine was known to invigorate blood circulation, expel wind and dampness, dispel cold, nourish yin and strengthen yang, and relax the muscles and collaterals. It also contained wolfberries and astragalus root, and drinking some warmed the whole body.

The wine ladle wasn’t store-bought. It was made from a piece of bamboo about five or six centimeters in diameter, utilizing the bamboo’s natural shape. One end was sealed, and the other was cut to form a handle thirty to forty centimeters long. It was very simple, also known as a "bamboo wine scoop."

His grandmother only drank a small cup, about two ounces’ worth. The remaining ten to twelve ounces all went into Li Xiang’s stomach.

Li Xiang still didn’t feel satisfied, so he drank over a pint more. And he didn’t deliberately use his Spiritual Power to control the alcohol. If he wanted to, he could, like Duan Yu, use his Spiritual Power to force the alcohol out through his little finger. Or, he could circulate his Spiritual Power, gather the alcohol near his mouth and nose, and then vaporize it, expelling it as an invisible vapor or letting it silently dissipate from the pores all over his body.

But Li Xiang didn’t do that. ’If I did that, what would be the point of drinking?’

The homemade sorghum liquor was a potent 58% ABV. After downing nearly a quart, Li Xiang savored the pleasant buzz. ’When you drink, this is the state you’re after. It’s not like he was in a drinking contest.’

Then, still feeling the effects of the alcohol, he went to get to work.

Seeing that he was a bit unsteady on his feet, his grandmother said, "You should rest a bit before you do that."

Li Xiang shook his head, let out a boozy hiccup, and said, "I bought a little too much meat today, and it won’t all fit in the fridge. I’m afraid it’ll spoil if I don’t process it soon."

The refrigerator was already stocked with a lot of food, so there really wasn’t much room left. Li Xiang was even considering buying a large freezer. It’s just that the tricycle was full today, so there was no way to transport a freezer. That’s why he hadn’t bought one yet.

Besides, a heavy snow was forecast in a few days. ’This winter is going to be exceptionally cold, so maybe it’s not that urgent.’

He salted half the pork, half the beef, and the ribs to preserve them. Then he sliced some beef, put it in the fridge, and planned to turn all the remaining pork and beef into meatballs.

As for the pig’s trotters, he stuffed three into the fridge and planned to red-braise the rest for dinner that evening.

Whether meatballs turn out delicious or not depends not only on the meat used but also, to a large extent, on the knife work.

Li Xiang had chosen pork shoulder, pork belly, and beef shank—all with a good fat-to-lean ratio, making them excellent materials for meatballs. The rest was up to his knife skills.

You could use a meat grinder, but the result would be too soft and lack that springy, chewy texture. Most home cooks preferred to mince the meat by hand with a cleaver.

The two cleavers he had prepared earlier could finally be put to use!

Li Xiang washed the meat, cut it into small pieces, and then began to chop. He had never minced meat like this before, so at first, it felt a little "off."

However, for a Tier One Transcendent proficient in Body Techniques and Force Manipulation, a technical task of this difficulty was nothing. After a few tries and a little thought, he got the hang of the rhythm, and the sound of horse hooves gradually began to ring out.

"TAK-TAK-TAK, TAK-TAK-TAK~"

It sounded like a small pony running lightly, a pleasant and melodious sound.

Li Xiang practiced for a few minutes until he had mastered the technique. Then he set up his phone and started recording a video.