Chapter 35: Year of the Pig
Gu Ci was very glad that he brought a lot of things, as they could all temporarily improve their lives.
Thinking about how they hadn't had a single meal of white rice in the past few months, he no longer felt that his life was hard.
The reason why my uncle and aunt have been able to survive until now is that they are always thinking about the elderly and children at home.
Now the main thing is to send some oil and sugar, and two copies have to be sent, one for the team leader and the other for my uncles and others.
When Grandma Chu heard about sending lard, she said, "I heard that the village will slaughter a pig the day after tomorrow. I wonder if Xiaohong can buy some meat for us to make meat sauce. The weather is cold now, so it can be eaten by Ping'er and Axiao for a long time."
Grandpa Chu shook his head: "Don't bother her all the time, she has been good enough to us."
Gu Ci said, "Let me ask first. The pork is fresh. If it's not suitable, I'll buy it on the black market."
Grandpa Chu reminded him: "Then don't let the little girl force it."
They also asked in detail about their son and daughter-in-law's situation and how to contact them in the future.
It was not until Lao Jin came to call Grandpa Chu to go to work that they got up: "You should go back early too, and don't come here so often, so as not to make people suspicious."
Gu Ci just remembered that he forgot to tell them the good news: "Don't worry, Secretary Song asked me to come over and run errands with the leaders of the Water Conservancy Bureau."
He now tries not to call them grandpa and grandma, lest someone accidentally hears and causes trouble.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to be with them, but he can only take care of everyone if he is free.
Grandpa Chu was very pleased to hear this: "This is really a great thing. You have to be patient. It's good to learn more from others."
"Secretary Song and his family are all good people." As they walked on the road, Grandma Chu couldn't help but whispered, "Do you think our Xiao Ci likes Xiao Hong?" Grandpa Chu shook his head, "Our family is a burden, a burden to Xiao Ci. The Song family will definitely not agree."
Gu Ci grew up with them, and they understood his personality. They also noticed that every time he talked about Chu Hong, a smile would appear in his eyes.
If nothing had happened to his family, he would not have been likely to agree to Gu Ci marrying a divorced woman.
Of course, if nothing had happened to his family, his grandson would not have known Chu Hong, and there would have been no intersection between them.
Now they know that Chu Hong is a good girl and will not object to them being together, but there are six people in their family who are a burden because of Gu Ci, and Secretary Song's family knows their family's background well, so how could they agree to them being together?
Gu Ci didn't know that his grandparents had seen through his thoughts, so after he came back, he followed Chu Hong's request and knocked the long branches to the ground in the corner of the woodshed to form a circle.
While he was working, the three younger ones were there helping Chu Hong pick the beans.
It is mainly dried on yellow mud ground, so there are inevitably small stones or mud.
Chu Hong said, "I'll make tofu tomorrow, and you guys should remember to come and eat the tofu pudding."
Now that the Chinese New Year is approaching, every household will prepare some tofu, soak it in water, and it can be eaten until the next year.
Last year it was my second aunt’s family that made tofu, and this year it’s their turn.
Chu Hong doesn’t know how to cook, but she knows how to eat, and she has already arranged how to eat.
Sweet soy milk, salty tofu pudding, and fried tofu dipped in soy sauce and chili are all delicious.
Add some bacon, sauerkraut and vermicelli to the stewed tofu and it will be a delicious dish.
You can only think about making soaked tofu, because the oil in the oil can won’t last long.
Gu Ci asked, "I heard your team is going to slaughter pigs? Will anyone sell the meat?"
Chu Hong shook her head: "Not likely."
"The task pigs were handed in a few days ago, and now there are only three pigs left. Each family can only get about 7 or 8 kilograms."
"We have to eat it from the twelfth lunar month until this time next year, who would be willing to sell it?"
Especially starting from the beginning of next spring, we will have to plant rice, harvest wheat, and harvest in autumn, which are all hard work. How can we get through it without some meat dishes?
If you want to buy meat from the meat processing plant, you need a meat ticket.
There was no grain supply in their countryside, and the supply coupons were very few. Each person with urban household registration was allowed eight taels of pork per month, and they had to collect one pound of meat coupons plus 80 or 90 cents to buy one pound of meat.
In the countryside, each person is allowed to consume 4 taels of pork per month, which requires one pound of meat coupons plus 80 or 90 cents to purchase.
But now soybean oil is scarce and very expensive, and everyone is looking forward to buying some fat meat to make lard.
Therefore, every household was short of meat coupons.
When Chu Hong found out that he wanted to send some pork to his uncle and aunt on the farm, he smiled and said, "My family has a lot of meat this year, so I can leave some for you."
The meat he had sent earlier had already been pickled for three pounds.
In addition to the three pounds of bacon that their second uncle had secretly bought for them from the black market, and they had also bought more than two pounds of meat from their own family, making it almost nine pounds of bacon.
Therefore, the Song family decided to be extravagant and make braised pork with the meat they were given this time.
Now that she heard Gu Ci talking about meat sauce, she also thought that she could make some at home.
It was not until the 22nd day of the 12th lunar month that Lingxia Village invited a butcher from the meat processing factory to slaughter the New Year pig.
And Gu Ci came here yesterday and followed the water conservancy experts to take notes at the reservoir.
This reservoir does not occupy a large area and is a small project.
The expert was going to go back after staying for two days, so he told Gu Ci and Wu Bo, the son of the captain of Lingzhong Village, about the things that needed to be paid attention to and asked them to record them together.
Therefore, he had no time to watch the slaughtering of the pigs and the distribution of the meat.
Chu Hong's family of six was given 7.2 jin of pork.
Because her father was the party secretary and she herself was an accountant and warehouse manager, she was allocated more than four pounds of pork belly with alternating fat and lean meat and few bones, in addition to a two-pound pig's trotter without the pig's trotter.
Pig's trotters are delicious, but there are more bones than meat. Given a choice, no one wants them.
Chu Hong had no objection and had already thought about having pig's trotters stewed with soybeans in the evening.
There are also some pig offal and large bones left.
The captain asked Chu Hong: "Are you sure you have distributed everything?"
Chu Hong closed the account book: "Make sure it has been divided."
He looked at the leftovers piled in the wooden barrel, his eyes sparkling: "These are the ones left. If you want to buy them, you can buy them now, right?"
Captain Song nodded and shouted again: "Pork kidneys, pork livers, pork intestines, pork stomachs, pork heads and large bones are all 30 cents a pound. Come and buy if you want."
After hearing the captain's call, only a few people came to buy.
These either taste bad or have little meat, and meat is only 8.2 cents a pound nowadays.
Besides, everyone has their share of the meat, and since there is meat at home, naturally no one wants to spend extra money to buy more.
However, the educated youth who were watching the fun from the sidelines and wanted to buy some meat from the villagers at a high price heard it and rushed over.
Chu Hong felt dejected when she saw this. To be honest, she wished she could buy all the rest by herself.
But before he could act, someone got there first.
However, these educated youth all ate from the same pot, so they only picked out a little over 11 kilograms of bones.
Captain Song took three dollars and fifty cents, and Chu Hong kept the account.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around at this time, Chu Hong whispered to the captain, "Uncle, my family will take all the rest. When the New Year comes, we'll make some broth and share some with Lao Jin and the others."
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