Chapter 35 Someone is eyeing her pig

Amidst the admiring and envious gazes of the crowd, Molly walked onto the stage and accepted the prize and certificate with both hands.

“This is indeed a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery,” the young police officer said.

Molly agreed, "That's true."

The young officer chuckled. "You're different from them."

As for what was different, the other party didn't mention it, so Molly didn't ask.

The two policemen left after delivering the prize and certificate, declining the captain's invitation to stay for dinner.

Several commune cadres stayed behind and verbally praised Molly, which Molly humbly accepted.

"Does the leader have anything else to do?" The brigade leader felt uneasy when he saw that the people from the commune showed no sign of leaving. He didn't have anything good at home to entertain these people.

"No rush, we have other things to discuss with Comrade Molly." The speaker looked familiar. Molly went through her memory and suddenly remembered that this was Zhang, the cadre in the commune who sold her piglets.

Molly had a bad feeling, and sure enough, the next second the clerk said, "Back in late summer, your brigade's Comrade Molly bought three piglets. We've come to see how her pigs are doing and whether they're still alive."

"........"

The shock of the crowd at that moment was no less than when they heard the police officers from the local station come to commend Molly.

They raised three pigs!!!

People can't even get enough to eat, and she's raising three pigs!

Is it true or false?

Zhao Xiaoyong nudged Mo An with his elbow and whispered, "Did your sister really raise three pigs?"

That day, he heard pigs squealing at Molly's house. He knew Molly raised pigs and assumed she had one, but it turned out she had three!

Mo An nodded. "It's true."

Li Xiaoju and Zhao Shangxun were also extremely surprised. They both looked at Mo He, seeking confirmation, "Your sister raised three pigs?"

Mo He answered irrelevantly, his face serious, "No matter how many she raises, that's her business. It has nothing to do with me, and nothing to do with you either."

At this moment, Molly on the stage also spoke up, "She's alive and well, and quite energetic."

Officer Zhang then asked, "Would it be convenient for us to go and take a look?"

Molly rolled her eyes inwardly. Did she have the right to refuse?

"Let's go take a look together," the captain said.

Molly led the way, followed by several commune cadres, then the brigade leader, and behind the brigade leader was a bunch of members watching the spectacle.

Molly gave Moan a wink, and Moan took off running down the path home.

When Molly led everyone back home, everything that needed to be packed away had been packed away and the doors that needed to be locked had been locked, leaving only the vegetable garden and pigsty open; all the other doors were closed.

Molly didn't invite anyone into the house, or even open the door. She went straight to the pigsty, opened the door, and said, "They're all inside. Look."

The first few staff members crowded around the doorway. The pigsty was very clean, and the pigs were clean too, white and shiny.

"Was it really one of the piglets from the commune?"

"It must weigh about 100 pounds, right?"

"More than expected."

"Let someone with experience take a look."

Several officers made way for the team leader and a few older members to come forward. "Look at these three pigs, how big are they?"

Haha!

Such a fat pig is a rare sight these days!

People are starving to death, yet they can still raise such fat pigs. Pig farmers are no ordinary people.

The elderly people looked at Molly with admiration in their eyes.

"Can you estimate the weight of these pigs?" Officer Zhang asked.

“It should weigh 130 jin (65 kg),” one of them said.

"I estimate it weighs over 130 pounds, at least 120 pounds."

In previous years, it was not uncommon for pigs weighing 120-130 jin (60-65 kg) to be delivered for quota purposes, 150 jin (75 kg) was considered normal, and 170-180 jin (55-65 kg) was rare. As for pigs weighing over 200 jin (100 kg), those were pigs that had been raised for more than a year.

Upon hearing the weight, the eyes of the officers lit up.

Molly's bad premonition grew stronger.

Sure enough, the next second, Officer Zhang said, "Comrade Molly, it's time for you to hand in your task."

Molly: "........ Wasn't it supposed to be due next year?"

"When did I say such a thing?" Officer Zhang showed no sign of guilt for lying.

Molly disagreed, "My pigs can still grow, I won't hand them over."

Officer Zhang narrowed his eyes. "Whether you pay or not isn't up to you. How about this, we'll let you raise it for another month. On the day before the Lunar New Year, when you slaughter your pigs for the holiday, we can come and collect the pigs for our mission. How about that?"

Molly pursed her lips, remaining silent. Her plan was to raise the pig to over 200 pounds, at which point the thick layer of fat would be perfect for rendering lard. She also planned to render the lard and send some to the Ji family at the farm.

“Comrade Molly, please have some understanding of us. This isn’t a year of famine; everyone is starving. We had no choice but to take your pigs.” Zhang, the cadre, began to complain, pointing to the commune members behind him. “Because there’s no grease, everyone is pale and thin, dizzy and unable to see clearly after dark. Please have some compassion for everyone and slaughter the pigs so everyone can have a good New Year. Don’t worry, the commune won’t take yours for nothing. I’ll apply to the commune and get you a good price, along with subsidies for industrial and cloth coupons.”

Molly felt like she was on fire; she was annoyed, but she couldn't vent her frustration.

She looked directly into Officer Zhang's eyes and asked, "Is the task pig one and a half?"

Officer Zhang wanted more, but the rules were there and he couldn't change them. "Yes."

Molly nodded, "Okay, I'll sell two pigs to the commune. I don't want money or coupons. We'll weigh the two live pigs later, and you'll send me the same number of piglets next year."

Officer Zhang's eyes lit up. "Is there a requirement for the number of piglets?"

Molly: "No."

Officer Zhang clapped his hands excitedly, "Okay, I'll grant your request."

The piglets brought back each year vary in size. Some are well-grown and energetic, while others are thin and listless. He has already decided to give Molly the piglets that others have rejected next year.

They are guaranteed to make a profit from this business.

The commune's cadre left, but the brigade's people didn't.

The captain looked at Molly, hesitating to speak, but finally, seeing the hopeful faces of everyone, he mustered his courage and asked, "Molly, when do you plan to kill the last pig?"

“The day before New Year’s Eve,” Molly said.

Upon hearing this, the captain breathed a sigh of relief and then asked, "What about the pork?"

Molly: "Everyone can buy from me with money, no tickets needed."

The captain thought for a moment, "What if we don't have any money?"

Molly: "You can pay on credit, but you'll be responsible for collecting the debts, Captain."

The team leader then smiled, "That's no problem. If anyone tries to renege on their work points, I'll just deduct it from their work points. You won't suffer any loss."

Molly nodded. "There's only one pig, not enough for our brigade. I need everyone to keep quiet about me raising pigs. You all know my family used to live in Mo Family Village. If people there find out I raise pigs and come looking for me, I can't just refuse to give them to them."

Upon hearing this, the captain's face hardened as he looked at the others. "Did you hear that? This matter cannot be told to anyone, or you'll all be in trouble."

"No, no, don't worry, Captain, we absolutely won't tell anyone."

"Yes, anyone who tells anyone will be the public enemy of our brigade."

"We won't say anything in order to eat meat."

"......."

After the crowd dispersed, Mo An asked Molly, puzzled, "Second Sister, why didn't you want a ticket?"

They clearly lack all kinds of tickets.

"I'll eventually have to keep my pig farming a secret. Once I get the money and ration coupons, I'm afraid I won't have any peace. Not to mention the people from the village coming to borrow money and ration coupons, there's also the Mo family, my dad and stepmother, they'll come running after they find out. I'm not afraid of them, but I hate dealing with all this trouble." Molly said helplessly, "It's just a pity for our pigs, they're still in the stage of rapid growth."

Mo An also felt it was a pity, "We still have so many dried vegetables."

Molly thought for a moment, "How about I catch a few wild boar piglets to raise after we sell these three pigs?"

The commune's piglets usually don't arrive until late spring, which is three or four months in between. It would be a waste not to raise pigs.

Mo An was somewhat worried, "Are there still wild boars in the mountains? Besides, wild boars have a strong odor and are not as good as domestic pigs."

“I’ll go look for it in the next few days.” Molly thought it wasn’t a big problem. “As for the smell, we can just castrate the pig.”

Mo An still had concerns: "We need to hire people to castrate the pigs, and then everyone will know that we raise pigs. Wild boars are public property, and I'm worried that once the pigs are grown up, the commune will just come and take them away."

“We don’t need to hire anyone, I can castrate pigs myself. We can raise them secretly and not let anyone know.” Molly thought it was feasible. “Don’t we still have a storage room? We can keep the wild boars we catch there for now, and then move them to a different place after we kill the three big ones.”

Molly's confident demeanor led Mo An to mistakenly believe that she would be able to bring back a few piglets tomorrow.

Instead of discouraging Molly, he said, "Then I'll tidy up the storage room tomorrow."

"Okay. You can put the clutter in my room."

"I can put it in my room too."

"If anyone comes to our house tomorrow, just close the door and ignore them."

"good."

Molly went into the mountains again the next day, and when Mo An woke up, she was no longer at home.

As Molly expected, quite a few people did come to the door today, but Mo An didn't open the door for them. His reason was that his sister had gone to the mountains to chop firewood and had told him not to open the door.

Mo An feeds pigs and chickens at home and waters the vegetable garden, like a hardworking little bee.

Those people stood at the gate of the vegetable garden for a while, but when they didn't see Molly, they left.

When Zhao Xiaoyong came to see Mo An, Mo An gave the same reason and didn't open the door for him. If Zhao Xiaoyong came in, refusing to let anyone else in would make the reason seem weak.

Zhao Xiaoyong wasn't angry; he simply said he'd come again next time.

That evening, Molly returned, but she didn't bring back the baby wild boar; instead, she brought back several pheasants and twenty or thirty wild eggs.

After that, Molly went into the mountains every day, and people visited her house every day, but no one was able to get in.

The team members also learned that Molly's family did not welcome guests. They would talk about Molly and her brother Mo An behind their backs, but in front of others they would only say good things, such as how good Molly was at raising pigs.

Finally, on the fifth night, Molly brought back four live wild boar babies, two males and two females, as well as two dead adult wild boars.

Molly put the baby wild boar back into the old storage room, dragged the two wild boars, each weighing about 100 pounds, home, closed the door, and collapsed to the ground.

"Second sister, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Mo An was startled.

Molly forced a smile. "I'm not injured, I'm just exhausted. I need to rest for a bit. Go get me a bowl of hot water."

Mo An went over excitedly, poured Molly a bowl of hot water, and after Molly finished drinking it, he took the bowl from her.

"Get some hot pig feed for those piglets," Molly instructed. "Don't give them too much; they've been frightened and probably won't eat much."

"Okay, I'll go right away." After getting busy, Mo An gradually forgot about the fright he had just experienced.