Chapter 4: The Humble Old Sparrow BBQ Stall

Li Long hadn't even taken down the landing net when he heard a "flutter" sound; a sparrow not far from the edge of the net was startled and flew away.

What a pity.

Li Long glanced in the direction the sparrow had flown, then carefully took down the landing net, reached in quickly, and grabbed the sparrow inside.

The sparrow stretched its beak to peck at Li Long. Li Long tightened his grip on the little creature slightly, then felt a wetness on his fingers—the thing had defecated.

"Qiangqiang, here, hold this tight." Li Long handed the sparrow over. "Don't let go, or there won't be any sparrow to eat later."

"Uncle, I know." Li Qiang nodded solemnly and carefully took the sparrow.

Li Juan’s eyes were shining as she looked at Li Long.

Li Long smiled and took the flashlight to continue searching.

It was difficult for sparrows to survive the night in winter, so there were definitely more than just these two in the haystack.

Sure enough, he soon discovered another sparrow and successfully caught it.

Li Juan now had one in her hands as well.

In this haystack, Li Long caught a total of four sparrows; two escaped, and then there were no more.

"Uncle, there's another haystack at the He family's place in the front yard!" Li Qiang, holding a sparrow in each hand, sniffed and volunteered.

"Is it inside the yard or outside?"

"Inside the yard."

"That won't do." Li Long shook his head. Going into someone else's yard for a few sparrows, and so late at night, wasn't proper.

"Then..." Li Juan thought for a moment and said, "The third house in the back alley, Uncle, do you remember? There's a haystack on the side room of the Gao family's yard. That stack faces outward; you can see it from outside the yard."

"Alright, let's go take a look." Li Long also felt that four sparrows were really too few; they wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps in his niece and nephew's teeth.

Outside the yard, it was close to the wild fields, and wading through snow dozens of centimeters thick wasn't easy. Li Long walked in front to make footprints, and Li Juan and Li Qiang followed behind, stepping in his tracks.

Even so, by the time they reached the Gao family's haystack, all three of them had snow inside their shoes.

But no one complained of the cold, and even Li Long looked with anticipation at the stack, which was a third larger than the one at his own home.

A dog started barking in the yard, and they could vaguely hear someone shouting.

Li Long turned on the flashlight and shone it into the haystack.

In less than ten seconds, he found a target.

But this time, Li Long was smarter. He didn't immediately use the landing net to catch it. Instead, after scanning the entire haystack and counting nine sparrows, he started catching them one by one, beginning from the bottom left corner.

He successfully caught six.

He couldn't keep these sparrows in his hands anymore, so as he caught them, Li Long snapped their necks and tossed them onto the snow, planning to collect them all at once when he was finished.

"Uncle, further back, there's another haystack at the Qin family's..." Li Juan said, still wanting more.

"No more catching. Our shoes are all wet now. When we get back, your mom is going to scold you two. Come on, let's go back!"

"Well... let's go back then." The two little ones were still a bit unsatisfied.

Even if a sparrow is small, it’s still meat.

When the three of them returned to the yard, Liang Yumei heard the commotion and quickly walked out. Seeing the snow on the children's pant legs in the beam of Li Long's flashlight, she scolded

"Where did you go? Why are you covered in snow? Aren't you freezing? Hurry inside and change your shoes!"

"I won't, I want to eat sparrow!" Li Qiang stubbornly held up the sparrow in his hand. "I want to eat meat!"

"Alright, alright," Li Long said with a smile before his sister-in-law could speak. "You go change your shoes first. Even if we're going to eat them, you have to let me pluck the feathers and clean out their insides first."

"Okay..." Li Qiang thought that made sense. He and Li Juan handed the sparrows to Li Long and went inside to change their shoes.

"You just spoil them..." Liang Yumei complained to Li Long. "You go change your shoes too, they're all wet!"

"Mm." Li Long responded with a smile and turned to go into the house.

He changed into cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles—which his sister-in-law had made for him—and placed his cotton-padded rubber shoes on the fire wall to dry. Then, he began to process the sparrows.

With the experience from his past life, processing the sparrows was easy. There was no need to pluck the feathers; he just twisted off the heads, pulled the skin on the neck downward, and the skin and feathers came off together.

It might sound cruel, but for children who rarely had meat to eat, what was cruel? Not having enough to eat or not getting any meat was what was truly cruel!

After plucking all ten sparrows and setting their insides aside, Li Long used a hearth broom to sweep the iron cover on the stove, then placed the sparrows on it one by one.

Before going out, he had banked the stove fire with coal dust, so the iron cover was quite hot, but not red-hot—perfect for roasting.

The stove was built of mud bricks, with four iron rods serving as the grate. The iron cover on top was cut from a diesel drum. At this stage, few teams could afford standard iron stoves. Although the mud stove didn't conduct heat very well, it had the advantage of being cheap and convenient.

He had just finished arranging the sparrows and stood up when Li Juan and Li Qiang burst in.

Looking at the sparrows laid out on the stove cover, Li Qiang’s mouth was practically watering.

"Uncle, when can we eat?" he asked, looking up at Li Long.

"Wait a bit, I'm going to get salt and chili powder," Li Long said. "Be patient."

"Okay." Unexpectedly, Li Qiang agreed.

Li Long went to the west room and, seeing Li Jianguo and Liang Yumei talking, said

"Sister-in-law, I'm going to take some salt and chili powder."

"Sure, I'll get them for you."

Knowing the seasoning was for roasting sparrows for her children, Liang Yumei said with a smile

"Xiao Long, you're quite capable; you caught quite a few sparrows."

"Hehe." Li Long chuckled. In his past life, he would never have done these things, but now, if he could make his niece and nephew suffer a little less, what did it matter?

Taking the seasonings from two bowls and two enamel plates used for serving dishes at home, Li Long returned to the east room, closed the door, and told Li Juan and Li Qiang not to be impatient. He placed the bowls on the edge of the mud stove, then pinched the chili powder and salt, sprinkling them evenly over the sparrows.

The chili powder was produced in their own vegetable patch, and the salt was bought; not a bit could be wasted. In this day and age, waste was truly shameful, unlike in later generations where it seemed like seasonings were free and could be sprinkled recklessly during a barbecue.

After carefully sprinkling one side, he flipped them over and sprinkled the other.

Soon, the room was filled with the aroma of meat mixed with a spicy scent. Li Long felt a bit of regret; it would have been even better if he had cumin.

This time, even Li Juan couldn't help but swallow her saliva, staring at the sparrows on the stove cover without blinking.

After flipping them three times, Li Long took two sparrows, put them into an enamel plate, and said to them

"They're done. Take these to your mom and dad; they have to eat first!"

Li Qiang was a bit confused, but Li Juan was sensible. She took the plate carefully, opened the door with one hand while holding the plate with the other, and headed toward the west room.

Li Qiang was still puzzled, so Li Long asked him

"There's no meat at home, so don't your mom and dad get to eat any either?"

"Mm."

"They work the hardest, don't they?"

"Yes!"

"Then shouldn't they eat first?"

"They should!"

Hearing this, Li Long nodded with satisfaction, picked up a sparrow, and after it cooled down a little, handed it to Li Qiang.