Chapter 80 A sentimental child
Early in the morning, Zhao Xiping got up to sweep the fallen snow in the yard. The snow was dry like sand, with loose grains, and it made a crackling sound when he stepped on it.
Sui Yu lay in bed listening to the sound of snow being swept outside. The rustling sound was like the chirping of insects. She closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
The snow inside and outside the house was swept away, and the porridge was cooked. Zhao Xiping pushed the door open and came in, calling out, "The meal is ready, get dressed and eat."
Sui Liang turned over and sat up, breathing heavily as he quickly put on layers of clothes.
Sui Yu sat up, hugged the quilt, and shivered, saying, "It's so cold."
Zhao Xiping threw the clothes on the wooden box to the bedside and asked, "Are you getting up? If not, I'll bring you food in bed."
"It's getting colder the longer I lie in bed. I'd better get up." Sui Yu picked up the woolen vest and put it on, then put on five sets of clothes on the outside, five pairs of pants as well, and a thick cloth skirt on the outside to block the wind.
Walking out of the dark house, the bright light outside made it impossible to open my eyes. The roof was covered with white, and the wind blew snowflakes into the air.
The snow had stopped long ago, but a thin layer of white was blown onto the freshly swept yard.
Walking into the warm kitchen, Sui Yu breathed a sigh of relief. The use of fire was truly a feat in history. It was hard to imagine how people in the primitive era, when fire was not yet used, survived the cold winter of 1969.
Golden millet porridge, pickled eggs with juicy yolks, and half a bowl of pickled radish strips—this is the daily breakfast for a family of three.
"It's snowing, and the sheep won't gain weight. I'll go with you to the East Market later to ask about the price of sheep." Sui Yu said.
"It's cold outside, I can go alone, you wait at home." Zhao Xiping scooped out the salted egg yolk for her and ate the egg white himself.
Sui Yu devoured the oily egg yolk in one gulp. It was soft and smooth, neither choking nor dry. She took another big mouthful of pickled radish with the porridge and said, "I'm going too. I'm a bit bored at home."
"I'll go too." Sui Liang said.
"Just don't complain about the cold." Zhao Xiping didn't force him.
After dinner, Sui Yu sat in front of the stove and lit a fire to cook pig food. Zhao Xiping was not afraid of the cold, so he rinsed the dishes and chopsticks with cold water in a few seconds, turned around and went out to fetch a bucket to scoop up the pig food.
After the pigs had eaten, Zhao Xiping threw a bundle of hay to each of the camels and sheep. He dusted himself off and said, "Let's go."
Sui Yu stuffed two thick pieces of firewood into the stove. She touched the cat who was lying on the stove to keep warm and told it not to run around. She closed the stove door and walked out with her neck tucked in.
The snow in the alley was cleared and piled on both sides of the road. There were chicken paw prints on the snow. Sui Yu walked over and left two footprints. Sui Liang also wanted to step on them when he saw them.
"Aren't you cold?" Zhao Xiping stood aside and waited.
Sui Yu trotted over and took his arm. He was reluctant, so she hit him and said, "There's no one outside."
"Let go once we get to the street." Zhao Xiping compromised.
Sui Yu rolled her eyes at him and muttered, "Who doesn't know that we sleep in the same bed at night?"
"That's different."
"It's indeed different." Sui Yu hinted.
Zhao Xiping couldn't argue with her, so he just shut up.
After leaving the military settlement, we stood on the street. There were only a few people on the street. On the snow, there were more bird claw prints than human footprints.
The East Market is close to the East City Gate. It is more crowded and lively here. There are two large earthenware pots at the entrance. Hot water is boiling in them and white smoke fills the air. People can feel the heat as they approach.
"Pluck chicken feathers, scrape sheep skins, and slaughter pigs for you." The stall owner shouted when he saw someone passing by.
"What's the price?" Sui Yu stretched out his hand to warm himself by the fire.
"Chicken feathers are two coins each, wool is free, and pigs are a hundred coins each."
"Let's go." Zhao Xiping pulled Sui Yu away.
Going further in, there is the mule market. Three mules are tied to the fence posts, one is an old mule, one is a skinny short mule, and the other is the only healthy and tall strong adult mule.
"Buy a mule?" asked the mule dealer sitting in a low shed made of wooden boards.
Zhao Xiping waved his hand and continued walking inside. Next to him was the horse market. There was only one horse in the market, lying in the snow and chewing hay.
Sui Yu bent down to look at the horse's teeth. The teeth were not very good and it looked like an old horse.
“Will anyone buy it?” she asked.
"Rich families will buy them and take them back to eat horse meat, but the horses are old and the meat is not very tasty." Zhao Xiping continued walking. There were more people in the sheep market. He heard bleating sounds before he got close.
There were many sheep in the fence, and many buyers. The sheep dealer shouted out the price at the top of his voice. The sheepskin coat he wore was so dirty that it was shiny. The pungent smell of sheep could be smelled from two steps away from him.
Zhao Xiping asked Sui Yu to wait outside. He walked into the fence, selected a goat that was about the same size as his own sheep, and asked the price: "How much is this?"
"Two hundred coins, it's a big one with thick fat. You won't be at a loss if you buy it, little brother," said the sheep dealer.
Live sheep are sold by the piece, regardless of weight, and the price is quoted for the whole sheep.
"Do you buy sheep?" Zhao Xiping asked. "How much do you charge for sheep?"
"How big is the sheep?"
"Similar to this one."
The sheep dealer made a gesture and said, "It's so cold, you have to let me make two or three taels of silver."
Someone else asked for the price. The sheep dealer passed by, and Zhao Xiping walked out of the fence. He put his hands behind his back and said, "One hundred and seventy coins, the highest we can get is one hundred and eighty coins. Or we can sell them ourselves and spread the word so that people will come to our house to ask for the price. We can get two sheep for twenty or thirty coins more."
"Can't we bring it to the East Market to sell?" Sui Yu asked.
Zhao Xiping shook his head and said, "No, the merchants in the East Market are all registered with the government. We are trying to prevent thieves from stealing sheep, mules, and camels and selling the stolen goods."
"Then let's spread the news first. If someone comes to buy it, we'll sell it. If no one wants to sell it, we'll bring it here and sell it to the sheep dealer." Sui Yu made a decision.
Zhao Xiping followed her advice. She was the one who raised the sheep, so she had the final say.
He wanted to go to the place where camels were sold, so Sui Yu and Sui Liang went with him. There were places selling dead camel meat, but no live camels. It was rare to see people buying live camels in winter, and storing grass was a hassle.
"Want to buy a camel? A big one or a small one?" The stall owner came out, puffing out white air and saying, "Tell me what kind you want. I'll keep an eye out for them when I collect them in the spring."
"What's the price?" Sui Yu asked.
"There's no specific price. Those that are five years old and have given birth are more expensive. Those under five years old and smaller are cheaper."
"What about the one that has just been weaned?" Sui Yu asked again.
"The price is for a sheep." The stall owner saw her interest and lowered his voice to reveal, "If you don't mind the trouble, I'll have some wild camel calves captured next spring. Come and buy them. I'll give you a discount."
Sui Yu nodded and said, "I'll go back and discuss it. I'll come back to you when I want to buy it."
"Okay, okay. Do you want to buy some camel meat? It was just slaughtered yesterday, so it's fresh."
Camel meat is thick in fat and has a strong taste. Zhao Xiping has eaten it twice. The oil is not easy to dissipate after taking a bite. It sticks in the mouth and makes the throat sticky. I heard that only camel hump tastes better.
"Cut off two or three pounds of fat for me, and I'll go back and refine it to treat my chilblains." Zhao Xiping pointed to the yellowish fat near the tailbone and said, "I want that."
"Okay."
Sui Yu and Sui Liang also came over. She bent down and pinched a piece of meat. Seeing that the camel meat was bright red, thinking that red meat could replenish blood, she asked, "How much is a pound of meat?"
"Eighty wen a jin."
A camel weighs over a thousand pounds, and the meat of a dead camel can be sold for sixty or seventy taels after bleeding, skinning and selling.
Sui Yu calculated that her family was quite wealthy.
"Would you like to buy two pounds of meat? It's quite cheap," she asked.
Zhao Xiping thought that she had never tasted camel meat, so she asked the stall owner to cut two more pounds of good meat.
The days are short in winter, so it's time to cook lunch when you get home. While Sui Yu was cooking, Zhao Xiping went out. He asked a few people to spread the news of selling the sheep. When he came back, the camel meat had already been stewed and smelled delicious.
Camel oil has also been refined. Three pounds of fat can produce half a can of camel oil. The camel oil has solidified and is white with a yellowish color.
"Should I sell the jar of wine at home? I was thinking that after selling the chickens and sheep, I would have more money, so I would keep the jar of good wine for our family to drink," said Sui Yu.
Zhao Xiping hesitated. When he came to his senses, he found that he had hesitated. Before last autumn, he had always treated himself well and had never been stingy with himself in terms of food, clothing and other necessities.
"We're not selling it. We're keeping it for ourselves." Zhao Xiping went to move the wine jars and said, "Let's drink some at noon today. It's cold and warms us up."
"Then I'll add two spoonfuls of wine to the pot. The camel meat is too fat."
Pour two spoonfuls of wine into the soup, and the thick smoke that comes out will have the aroma of wine. When the wine smell dissipates, the camel meat is ready.
Zhao Xiping took out a small stove for stewing medicine, shoveled charcoal from the stove and poured it in, then put a wooden basin on it to keep it warm with the residual heat to prevent the soup from cooling and becoming oily.
Camel meat is not as soft and tender as pork, nor as flavorful as chicken, but the only thing that makes it satisfactory is the price.
Sui Yu smiled.
"What are you laughing at?" Zhao Xiping asked.
"You're already being picky as soon as you're full."
After barely finishing two pounds of camel meat, Sui Yu went to dig radishes to cook pig food. The bowls and chopsticks were covered with grease and were difficult to wash, so she simply put all the bowls and chopsticks into the pig food pot to cook.
"Is anyone home?"
Zhao Xiping went to open the door, said a few words and brought people in to see the sheep.
Sui Liang stood at the stove door with an unhappy look on his face. He was reluctant to part with the sheep he had raised for half a year.
"We're buying one together, but it's still early for the New Year. We'll pay in ten days."
Zhao Xiping refused and said, "You can buy it and raise it. The sheep is at my house. If someone comes to buy it later, I will offend them if I don't sell it, and I will offend you if I sell it."
"That's true." The other party nodded. "Alright then, buy the meat sooner and eat it sooner. I want the black-headed sheep. Drag it out to me and I'll go get help."
The goat that was eating grass struggled desperately when it was dragged out by its horns. It bleated loudly, and the other sheep in the pen was so scared that it kept banging its head against the wall.
The black-headed sheep had ropes tied around its four hooves. After the buyer paid, he would string the ropes through a stick and carry the sheep away. The sheep screamed long and short. Sui Liang chased after it, but when he saw the sheep getting farther and farther away from home, he squatted on the ground and cried.
Zhao Xiping looked at Sui Yu, the silver in his hand was hot.
Sui Yu also felt a little sad, but she could control it. She raised these things to sell them for money.
"There is another sheep at home," she said dryly.
It would have been fine if he hadn't said anything. As soon as he did, Sui Liang couldn't stop crying. He sobbed and said, "That sheep needs to be sold too..."
"Raise two more next year?" said Zhao Xiping.
Sui Liang shook his head frantically, "It has to be sold anyway."
Zhao Xiping was speechless. He spread his hands towards Sui Yu, meaning that she should come and coax him.
"Buy an extra one next year. It's yours. No one can sell it without your permission." Sui Yu half-pulled, half-carried the man into the house and said, "It's cold outside. If you get caught in the cold wind, you'll get sick. If you get sick, you'll need medicine. If you take medicine, you'll spend money. If you spend money on medical treatment, you won't have money to buy a sheep."
The sheep in the pen was still bleating anxiously. Sui Liang wiped away his tears and dug out two fresh radishes from the sandpit. He washed them, cleaned them, chopped them into small pieces, and fed them to the sheep. Thinking that this sheep would be bought tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, he hugged it and burst into tears.
"Why don't you not sell it?" said Zhao Xiping.
Sui Yu shook his head. "Only when people are not starving or freezing can we maintain our compassion. For our family, money is more needed right now."
Two days later, another family came to look at the sheep. The price was ten cents cheaper than in the east market, so they took the sheep away that same day.
Sui Liang cried again and chased out of the alley.
The sheep make people cry, how miserable.
Those who heard the noise came out to watch the fun and pointed at Sui Liang and joked.
That night, Sui Yu caught a chicken and locked it up. The next day, she boiled water to scald the chicken feathers and stewed it at noon.
Sui Yu handed Sui Liang a large chicken drumstick and asked, "Is it delicious? Is the meat fragrant?"
Sui Liang nodded.
"Your brother-in-law won't be returning to his hometown for the Spring Festival this year. After the Little New Year, ask him to buy a leg of lamb. We'll stew a pot on New Year's Eve. The lamb can ward off the cold, and after you're warm, we can go out and dance the Nuo dance together." Sui Yu tested calmly.
Sui Liang showed resistance.
"It's not our sheep." Zhao Xiping added.
"Well, okay then." He could accept it as long as it wasn't his own sheep.
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