Chapter 75 Selling Pigs (Part 1)

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Xie Yun's life has become very regular.

Things were delivered to the Li family every ten days, including various grains, eggs, game, beggar's chicken, braised pork, cabbage, radish and potatoes, and he could receive more than ten yuan each time.

About thirty or forty yuan a month.

In fact, her income is higher than Zhang Ruifeng's.

She feels her life is pretty good now. If she can hold on until junior high school starts, she won't have to work in the fields anymore, and her life will be even more comfortable.

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As the New Year approached, Xie Shen's gaze was fixed on the pigpen for longer and longer periods of time. "Sister, did you say it weighs 120 kilograms?"

Xie Yun observed it carefully and said, "I think it should be there. I think it's a lot bigger than last year's."

These days, the minimum purchase weight for live pigs is 120 jin (approximately 120 kg). Pigs weighing more than 120 jin are then classified and priced accordingly. Food stations simply won't accept pigs under 120 jin (approximately 120 kg).

Last year, her pig luckily hit the 120-jin mark and made it through the inspection without incident. A member of another brigade, who was waiting in line behind them to sell his pig, had diarrhea and urinated in the queue, perhaps because his pig was frightened or because he had overfed it. The pig weighed 119.5 jin.

Just because of this half-pound difference, the “iron-faced and impartial” buyer at the purchasing station refused to compromise. No matter how hard the cooperative member tried to persuade him, he still let him take the pig back and told him to “go back and feed it before coming back.”

The member was about to burst with anger, his eyes were empty, and he kept muttering to the pig, "Why can't you hold it in for a while? Even if you weigh it first, you can pull it out..."

Actually, even if the pig held it in for a bit, the buyer probably wouldn't let it go. This is because the weighed pigs have to be "stomach-cut," removing the weight of the food they ate that day. As for how much to remove, it's all up to the buyer. If the pig has finished defecating, the buyer will remove 10 pounds. If it hasn't, the buyer will remove about 12 pounds...

They will decide how much weight to remove from each pig based on the pig's condition and the size of its belly. Every pig is different, so there is no fixed number.

This is the power of the buyer.

It's not like someone complained that the food collectors were taking too much. At that point, the food station leader stepped forward and said, "If you think you're taking too much, just stay here with the pigs. Let them starve for a day, and then weigh them again tomorrow at this time. Then you won't have to take any more food. Whatever's on the scale is what you get. Okay?"

That's definitely not the way to go. If you go hungry for a day, not only will your stomach be empty, but your meat will also be dehydrated. That's not just a matter of emptying your stomach.

The Xie family’s pigs had been underweight before, but hers was much worse, so they were not sent to the food station at all, and had to be fed for another six months before they were weighed enough.

Before selling the pigs, the brigade had an experienced weigher who would go door to door to weigh the pigs. His eye was very accurate: if he said it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough, and if he said it was enough, it definitely was. He said it was about right, so we could give it a try, and it would hover around 120 kilograms, depending on our luck.

Those two years almost drove me to death.

Because raising pigs is a task, every household must submit a quota pig every year, and failure to complete the task will be criticized. You didn't complete the national task, are you dissatisfied with the policy?

Fortunately, the Liushutun Brigade was relatively humane and, considering the difficult situation of the orphans and their widowed mother, did not hold a criticism meeting for them.

Now, it’s almost time to sell the pigs, and Xie Shen is a little nervous.

Even though he had just finished feeding it, he said, "Let me feed it a little more, it's safer this way."

"Don't push it too hard. Just keep it the same as before. We're feeding it more this year, and it's growing well. It's definitely big enough to be 120 pounds, maybe even a second-class pig."

Pigs weighing 120 to 130 are third-grade pigs, priced at 40 cents per pound; pigs weighing 131 to 150 are second-grade pigs, priced at 48 cents; pigs weighing 151 pounds or more are first-grade pigs, priced at 54 cents.

Most people's pigs are third-grade pigs, very few can be rated second-grade, and first-grade pigs have not appeared for several years.

When Xie Shen heard her say this, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"If it were a second-grade pig, it would sell for an extra 8 cents per pound. At over 130 pounds, that would be 8 yuan plus 382.4 yuan, a little over ten yuan!"

Xie Yun patted his brother's head and said with a smile, "How much money have you made from the turtledoves you hunted recently? Relax, we are not as miserable as before."

Xie Shen chuckled and rubbed his head against his sister's hand. "That's different. The money from selling turtledoves is money, and the money from selling pigs is also money. Every extra cent counts. Sister, you must wear new clothes during the New Year. I see that Sister Hongxia's clothes don't have patches. Clothes without patches look better. Sister, you should wear clothes without patches too."

"What's the matter? Does patched clothing look bad on me?"

"She looks good. My sister is the prettiest. She looks even better in clothes without patches."

Xie Yun smiled and said, "Okay, then I'll make one for the New Year. Before the New Year, let's go to the county town. There's a department store there, much bigger than the supply and marketing cooperative. Let's go in and take a look."

Xie Shen nodded vigorously: "Yeah, yeah. I haven't been to the county town yet."

"Sister will take you there. We'll go to a state-owned restaurant and eat there. I'll buy you fried dough sticks, soybean milk, and sesame cakes. Let's go together when Mom is on vacation. Fried dough sticks are best when they're freshly fried."

Xie Shen slurped his saliva and said, "Okay!"

Xie Yun rubbed his head again. The original owner had gone to the city with Xie Tan when she was a child and had eaten fried dough sticks, but her brother had never eaten them.

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On the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, the weighers would weigh the pigs of every household.

He estimated that the Xie family's pig weighed 140 kilograms, and Xie Shen jumped up with joy.

The estimator was also happy and said with a smile, "Now you don't have to worry at all. The pigs are doing well this year. How did they do so well? Do you have any tips?"

Xie Shen said, "Feed it more food. My mom, sister, and I all live frugally, eating only coarse grains and vegetables. We feed all the good food to the pigs. Alas, the pigs have a better life than us."

The young man spoke with great emotion.

Xie Yun lowered his eyelids and pursed his lips tightly.

The weigher looked at Xie Shen, who had grown taller and gained weight, and then looked at Xie Yun, who had become much rounder than before. Although the two children were still thin, at least they were not as thin as matchsticks as before.

Eat worse than pigs?

But it's not impossible. In the past, their family was skinny monkeys and their pigs were skinny pigs. Now, the pigs are fat, and the people are fat too, but the pigs still eat better than people, maybe that's it.

The estimator uttered a word with difficulty: "Hmm..."

Xie Yun was almost broken by the complex tone revealed by this word.

She rubbed her face and rubbed her eyes hard, until she felt like she was about to cry. Then she smiled and said, "My brother is right. Our family has put a lot of effort into raising this mission pig. My brother goes to pick grass for the pig every day, picking only the grass that the pig likes. My mother chops and cooks it every night, and she is busy until very late.

We were reluctant to light oil lamps at home, so my mother would light a wooden stick. Sometimes she was so tired, sleepy, and couldn't see clearly that she almost hurt her hands.

I don't even want to grow vegetables on the small piece of land in my yard. I only grow sweet potatoes and potatoes to feed the pigs.

From the beginning of the year to the end, our family of three couldn't even afford to order vegetables. We would occasionally trade with others for food, but most of the time we ate wild vegetables. It was only after autumn, when we couldn't grow food, that we planted cabbage and radishes.

Scale clerk: “…”