After hanging up, I picked up my phone again.
I hesitated for a moment before opening the shopping app.
I placed an order.
One kilogram of smoked meat from “Zhang’s Western Hunan Flavors.”
198 yuan.
The shipping address was my parents’ home.
I wanted to see with my own eyes whether what she sent was actually the meat I had made.
### Chapter 4
On the third day after I returned to my parents’ home, the package arrived.
A kraft paper bag printed with the four Chinese characters for “Zhang’s Western Hunan,” with a string of red chilies in the bottom-right corner.
Inside was vacuum-sealed smoked meat, a little over one kilogram.
When I opened the package, my hands were perfectly steady.
The moment I cut open the vacuum-sealed bag, that familiar, bone-deep smoky aroma immediately rushed out.
My mother poked her head out of the kitchen.
“Where did you buy the smoked meat?”
“Online. Mom, take a look for me.”
She took it from me, turning it over and over.
She pressed the meat with her fingers, then brought it close and smelled it.
“This is good meat. The preparation is very particular. This smell… don’t tell me… it’s quite similar to the way Grandma used to make it.”
I said nothing.
“It’s not just similar.”
Mom smelled it again, her voice becoming certain.
“This is your method. Su Tang, did you make this?”
“Cut some up and stir-fry it.”
Mom looked at me suspiciously but didn’t ask anything else.
She carried the meat into the kitchen.
At lunchtime, when the plate of smoked meat stir-fried with garlic shoots was brought to the table, Dad took one bite and stopped his chopsticks.
“This meat is good. You can’t buy something made this well outside. Tangtang, did you make it?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then who did? This method is obviously the same as your grandma’s.”
I picked up a piece of meat and put it into my mouth.
I chewed slowly.
I had made it.
I knew this flavor far too well.
The ratio of pepper, the way the chilies had been prepared, the amount of salt, the smoking time.
Every single piece was telling me:
This is yours.
I swallowed it and put down my chopsticks.
“Dad, Mom, there’s something I want to tell you.”
I told them everything from the beginning: how I discovered Zhang Ying had opened an online shop selling the smoked meat I made, earning more than 100,000 yuan a month.
I also told them how my mother-in-law had sent the meat away without asking, urged me to make more, and even said that my womb wasn’t trying hard enough.
Mom slammed her chopsticks down on the table.
“What did she say? That your womb isn’t trying hard enough? Why doesn’t she say something about her own son…”
“Mom.”
“Let me tell you, Su Tang. From the very beginning, I didn’t approve of you marrying that Chen Beicheng. The moment I saw his mother, I knew she wouldn’t be easy to deal with…”
“Mom, don’t get worked up.”
“How can I not? The food you worked so hard to make was taken away and sold for money, and your mother-in-law still insulted you! What kind of behavior is that?”
Dad didn’t say a word from beginning to end.
He was a man of few words.
He had worked as a carpenter his entire life.
He didn’t talk much, but every word he said went straight to the point.
After Mom finished venting, Dad slowly put down his chopsticks.
“Tangtang, what are you planning to do?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Think it through before you act.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t act on impulse, but don’t just swallow it either.”
After saying that, Dad didn’t speak again.
He continued eating.
Mom was still trembling with anger, muttering that she would go find Liu Xiulan tomorrow and demand an explanation.
I stopped her.
“Mom, don’t go. I’ll handle it myself.”
“You’ll handle it yourself? Can you really deal with this alone?”
“I can.”
I stayed at my parents’ home for five days.
During those five days, I did several things.
The first was to archive every page of Zhang Ying’s shop, including the product pages, reviews, and sales data.
Anything I could screenshot, I screenshotted.
Anything I could record, I recorded.
The second was to keep half of the smoked meat I had bought.
I put it in a sealed bag and stored it in the refrigerator.
If I needed it for testing or comparison later, I would still have physical evidence.
The third was to look into the relevant legal regulations.
My grandmother’s method of making smoked meat was a proprietary family technique.
Although it had never been registered as a patent or trademark, Zhang Ying was using the phrase “my mother-in-law’s family secret” to advertise it, while that “mother-in-law” referred to Liu Xiulan, who had absolutely no idea how to make smoked meat.
This showed signs of false advertising.
And the meat she was actually selling had been made by me, without my ever giving her permission.
She owed me an explanation for this debt.
The fourth was also the most important.
I messaged Chen Beicheng.
“When are you going to your parents’ home for the Lunar New Year?”
He replied immediately:
“The twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Why?”
“I’m going this year too.”
“Huh? Didn’t you not want to go?”
“I want to go this year.”
“That’s great!!! Mom will definitely be so happy!”
He sent another message:
“How about you make some more smoked meat this year? Mom still mentioned it last time.”
I stared at that message for ten seconds.
Then replied with two words:
“Sure.”
Chen Beicheng probably thought I had finally come around.
How naive.
I really was planning to make smoked meat.
But this time, it wasn’t for his younger brother to eat.
It was so the entire family could see everything clearly.
After returning to our little home, I got busy.
The early-winter weather was perfect.
I went to the market and picked out twenty kilograms of pork belly, then bought another ten kilograms of hind leg meat.
Pepper, chilies, coarse salt, baijiu—nothing was missing.
The strings were hanging on the balcony again.
When Chen Beicheng came home from work and caught the smell, his eyes lit up.
“You’ve started making it again?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s great.”
He came over, intending to taste a piece of the meat that was still marinating, but I slapped his hand away.
“It’s not done marinating yet. Don’t touch it.”
“Okay, okay.”
He happily ran back to the living room to play games.
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