"What?" Shen Qing didn't hear clearly.
However, Lianou did not continue the conversation, but turned around and continued frying meatballs. The group had dinner in the courtyard at the foot of the mountain that night. They had a handful of meatballs and fried tofu in the stewed pork ribs with pickled cabbage, and everyone ate without even raising their heads.
"If it weren't for the New Year, who would eat like this?" Aunt Lian picked up another piece of pickled cabbage with chopsticks. There was a lot of meat, and the pickled cabbage was even more fragrant than the meat!
"Is your family still short of food? Your family is one of the richest families in the village." Aunt Guixiang said with a smile.
Second Aunt Lian shook her head. Seeing that everyone at the table was really close to her, she said, "To be honest, it's not that we don't have any, but my mother-in-law lives a very careful life. Not to mention such delicious food during festivals, even an egg for a child is not something she can get every day."
But this is as it should be. If the elderly do not save money on a daily basis, how can they save up a fortune for their children and grandchildren? The two brothers of the Lian family married women, and they were able to become a wealthy family in the village, all thanks to the thrifty old lady Lian.
But if you say she is thrifty, there are times when she spends a lot of money to save face. The Lian family chose to kill the New Year pig on the second day of the Little New Year. In fact, with the quarter of a wild boar given by Shen Qing this year, the Lian family does not need to kill the New Year pig. But this is not entirely a question of whether the family has enough meat to eat, it is also a manifestation of whether they are respectable in the village.
The Lian family was one of the wealthier and more respectable families in Lantang Village. They had originally planned to sell the whole pig, but after a long discussion, the old couple decided that they would kill the pig every year to entertain guests and set up a banquet, but they would not kill it this year. It would not look good if they told others about it, and people would easily gossip about it behind their backs. So they finally gritted their teeth and decided to kill it.
Many things in the village are like this, people want face and trees want skin! Even if they don't need it, they still want to save face. Fortunately, there are families in the village who can't afford to kill the New Year pig, so they will come to buy meat, so they don't have to worry about not having enough meat. As soon as the Lian family released the news that they were going to kill the New Year pig, many people ordered pork in advance.
It's not just the Lian family, the village chief's family is the same, except that the date is set two days later than the Lian family.
Miao thought for a moment and said to Second Aunt Lian, "Have you ordered all the meat? We didn't raise any pigs this year, so we raised some chickens."
"Are you still buying? Is your family still short of meat?" Aunt Lian was very surprised.
"Isn't this the fat one? Please leave me some of the good pork belly with big fat." There is meat at home, but the wild boar is all lean meat. It's New Year's Day and for good luck, you have to eat a lot of greasy food, so how can there be no fat!
That's true. When it comes to good luck, Second Aunt Lian is silent. The villagers believe this the most: "Okay, I'll keep it for you - but these ten kilograms are too much."
Shen Qing listened to it and thought of the recipe of a dish stored in Tang's mother's video. His mouth kept secreting saliva. Unfortunately, the supplies were scarce in the end times and it was difficult to gather enough. At this time, Shen Qing had a chance and said, "Aunt, has anyone ordered the pig's trotter? If not, please keep it for me."
"Why, Qing Ge'er likes to eat pig's trotters?" The trotters are not very valuable parts of the pig, especially during the New Year, when everyone wants to eat meat. Who wants something that is hard to chew? It is usually the same as the offal. On the day of slaughtering the pig, it is either given to the butcher as a small amount of money, or given to the people who come to help as a gift. "No one wants that thing, so I keep it for you."
Aunt Guixiang also said: "Why do you like to eat this? If you want, when we kill the pig, we will save the trotters for you."
Shen Qing nodded quickly. Although his family had many wild boars, the trotters were dry and tough, not what Shen Qing needed. He had heard that wild boar trotters were also a medicinal ingredient, but his family didn't know how to prepare them, so they were just wasted.
On the day of the Little New Year, Shen Qing and Miao went to Shiqu Village to spend it with the Miao family. This festive day would be more lively with more people. Now Shen Qing and Miao were truly the Miao family's guests. Liu Yue'e and Li Yanzi were too busy to handle it. People who wanted to buy tofu lined up in front of their house! They called Qiao Niang and Xue Niang: "Take out the freshly fried peanuts and fried bean curd for your aunts to eat. If you need anything, just shout at the window!"
The two little girls responded quickly. These snacks were not allowed to be eaten freely by their family, so this was a good opportunity for them to eat more when their aunt came.
Peanuts are fried with coarse salt and dried chilies, and the freshly fried soybeans are sprinkled with salt and pepper. Once you take a bite, you won’t be able to stop eating!
"Don't be busy, sister-in-law. How can I be polite in our house? Don't bother the child." Miao said as she got on the kang and sat next to Old Lady Miao. Seeing people coming and going outside the window, she asked, "Do they do this every day? Don't they take a break? How long do they plan to do this?"
"That's right! You two brothers get up before dawn to grind the millstones. You sweat all over in this cold winter! You work all day and don't rest until the sun is about to set. It's addictive!" Mrs. Miao said her son worked hard, but who wouldn't like the family to make more money? She still had a satisfied smile on her face: "If it weren't for the bad luck of working during the Chinese New Year, they wouldn't want to stop. They said that relatives would visit on the second and third days of the New Year, so business would definitely be good. There's nothing we can do about it. We decided to rest on the 29th and reopen on the sixth. It's considered a comfortable New Year and a good rest."
They earned a lot, but everyone in the family lost weight, which made Old Mrs. Miao feel very distressed.
Shen Qing took this opportunity to visit Miao Tongsheng's home and visit Miao Xiucai. Miao Xiucai asked him to start with the Three Character Classic and read it to Shen Qing several times. Shen Qing memorized it carefully. Now he also didn't care about being able to write, as long as he could recognize it by looking at it.
But this time when he went to Miao Tongsheng's house, the smell of medicine in the yard was even stronger, and there was a burning medicine stove outside the kitchen. Shen Qing looked around curiously, but didn't ask, but came back to ask Mrs. Miao.
This was a bit disappointing to say during the New Year. Old Mrs. Miao also sighed when she mentioned it: "Alas, that is the wife of the boy. The doctor said that she will be fine after this winter. I don't think it's possible."
She shook her head. When doctors say this, they don't mean that the patient will survive and be fine from now on. Instead, they mean that the patient will probably die this winter, and your family should prepare for the funeral. "The scholar's family has already ordered a coffin and funeral clothes, but there is no improvement. The children in the family are seven and two years old, pitiful."
That is to say, Miao Xiucai's family is rich. Miao Tongsheng's wife has been ill for a long time. The family has been giving her medicine to keep her alive, but no matter how much money they spend, she still can't get better. When Mrs. Miao said this pitiful thing, she was referring to Miao Tongsheng's wife and his two children.
Miao Tongsheng is only 27 or 28 years old this year. He has been known as a child prodigy in the village since he was a child. Everyone thinks that it will be a matter of time before he passes the imperial examination. His family is also well-off, so such a family will definitely remarry. When the time comes, it will be difficult for the two children to live under the care of their stepmother.
Shen Qing was lost in thought. He thought of the magical healing power in the other world, looked at Mrs. Miao and then at Mrs. Miao's legs, but he didn't say anything. His own affairs hadn't been resolved yet, so how could he have the ability to help others?
***
On the second day, Miao waited a little longer before leaving for the Lian family: "I hate watching pig slaughtering the most. Many people like to gather around to watch, and they seem to enjoy it very much, but I really don't know what's so good about it. As soon as I hear the pig screaming, I feel very uncomfortable." It turned out that when she was at the old Shen's house, they also had to slaughter the New Year pig every year, but she couldn't hide from it and had to watch the pig die.
This person is strange. Miao cooks every day. She doesn't mind the bloody pork. She can cut open a dead wild boar without changing her expression. She just can't stand the process of killing the pig. "It's a good thing you told Second Aunt Lian that we should go to the banquet. It's okay to go later."
If you want to help, you have to go early, and you may even have to carry a bucket to help collect the pig's blood.
When the two of them arrived, the pig had indeed been killed and the blood had been drained. The butcher was pouring hot water on the pig while shaving its hair. The old lady saw Miao and Shen Qing from a distance and greeted them enthusiastically: "Oh! You are here. We have been waiting for you. Come in and sit down!" She personally took Miao's hand and led her in.
Are you kidding? This is the family that gave their family a quarter of a pig! Just for this pork, even the old lady was willing to give Miao this honor!
The seats were separated for men and women, the men sat in the main room, and the women and boys also had two tables in the inner room. The pig had just been killed and the cooking had not started yet. There were some peanuts and melon seeds on the table, and everyone was eating while chatting. When they saw Miao and Shen Qing coming, they greeted them warmly again - no matter what they thought, they were visiting the old Lian family today, and the host family respected Shen Qing and Miao, so naturally others would not deliberately do anything weird.
Shen Qing was not used to this kind of atmosphere: he had never been treated so warmly in the village, not to mention being despised by others since he was a child. After a while of greeting, someone glanced at Shen Qing and said with a strange smile: "Did you hear? The old Shen family is also slaughtering a pig today."
The others looked at Shen Qing and then at Miao, feeling a little uncomfortable, wondering if they could bring up this topic. Shen Qing didn't care, but judging from the man's expression, he didn't think it was a good thing to say.
Someone else looked at the people in the room and counted their heads: "Almost all the people in our village have come to Lao Lian's house today. Lao Shen's house is probably empty. I'm afraid it won't look good."
"How can it be empty?" The first person who spoke was very excited. "You don't know. I've lived for more than 30 years and I've never seen anything like this in their family. They didn't invite anyone at all. The family of Mr. Shen's husband asked about it and even got a good scolding from the old woman! How can it be like that?"
Everyone was surprised. Zhao Aiye's family and the old Shen family were formal relatives, and they didn't have any bad intentions, so they asked, why did they exclude them?
"She leaned against the door and cursed for a long time, saying that the Zhao family was thinking about their meat before the second day of the New Year, and they couldn't wait to ask for the New Year's gift in advance. Oh, what a harsh thing to say, I don't know how she said it! Old lady Shen was annoying before, but I've never seen her like this. In the past six months, she has been a little crazy. I think," the person who spoke nodded his head, "I think she is a little abnormal."
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