Chapter 101 It's New Year's Day! Slaughtering Pigs
Seeing Yu Cai's expression, Ye Li felt a pang of anxiety.
It's really pathetic that a grown man would be thinking about hooking up with a rich young man.
In today's parlance, they're unambitious and spineless.
Moreover, Yu Cai had never been interested in Peng Ximing.
So he explained, "Brother Cai, don't look down on him. He's been beaten down by life. Do you know how hard it is for him to make money?"
"His little private school only charges five hundred coins per student per year!"
As he spoke, he raised his hand, spread his fingers, and waved them at Yu Cai.
"...Five hundred coins?"
Yu Cai was incredulous and somewhat stunned.
This amount of money is equivalent to Peng Ximing's previous monthly allowance.
In the countryside, how could a scholar be hired to teach for a year?
Looking at him, Ye Li sighed, "Even so, many people wouldn't be willing to part with him! Daqiao Town is poor, and he serves as a negative example."
"With his example as a case in point, who would be willing to spend more than ten years supporting a student?"
Yu Cai: "..."
So tragic...
Seeing that he remained silent, Ye Li continued, "In order to attract students, he not only lowered the tuition fees but also taught according to their individual aptitudes."
"If someone wants to learn accounting, then he will teach them bookkeeping."
"If someone wants to learn certain words, such as the words on the menu that the semi-idle workers must know, then he will teach them according to their needs."
"Anyway, it's based on the students' needs. Even so, he can't get many students. The most he's ever had is twelve."
"Twelve of them would only cost six taels of silver, which is about the tuition for a year at the county school."
Yu Cai: "..."
He came from a well-off family and rarely went out, so he only knew about the hardships of ordinary people.
But he didn't know that it would be such a painful experience.
Ye Li continued, "Not only is it difficult for him to make money, but his chances of passing the imperial examination are also slim. After all, he spends little time on his studies."
"What troubles him even more is that his family and relatives, in order to support him alone, are not only burdened to the point of being unable to stand up straight, but also unable to handle important life events. He feels guilty and especially ashamed!"
Yesterday at noon, Peng Ximing was also constantly wiping away tears.
Men don't easily shed tears, but when it came to that, he truly couldn't hold them back.
"But money is so hard to earn, and there's no hope of advancement through the imperial examinations. With no other options and limited human resources, what else can he do but pray to gods and Buddhas?"
“Brother Cai, he didn’t want to take shortcuts from the beginning. He only resorted to praying to gods and Buddhas after he was powerless to do anything else.”
Yu Cai: "..."
He bit his lip, a look of frustration flashing across his face.
He did feel a bit of disdain just now.
Even in dire straits, a fine man should not be spineless enough to have such thoughts.
Unexpectedly, Peng Ximing was left with only one option: to pray for divine protection.
He felt embarrassed to look at Ye Li for a moment because he had wronged her.
but……
He said, "Now that you've stepped in to help, his family will soon be able to get out of their predicament."
“No, no, no…” Ye Li shook his head hurriedly upon hearing this: “Brother Cai, his family is too poor, and his schooling will cost money. He has done the math, and it will take at least three years to settle his younger siblings in a proper manner.”
"But by then, what kind of marriage can a man in his thirties find?"
"...How come you're already an old man at the age of thirty?"
Yu Cai couldn't help but refute.
Seeing this, Ye Li laughed and said, "It's self-deprecation, but it's also the truth. The little bit of profit from turning into eggs can't solve the Peng family's predicament all at once."
"You have no idea how pitiful it was to see the whole family crying their hearts out yesterday at noon."
"...Since he really has difficulties and is a good person, I'll give him a raise."
Yu Cai thought for a moment and then said this.
"A raise?"
Ye Li hurriedly shook her head: "He's just a temporary worker. What excuse do you have for raising his salary? He's unmarried and single. If other people find out, they'll definitely start to speculate."
"...Never mind then."
As Yu Cai spoke, she picked up her teacup and took a small sip.
He acted as if it had nothing to do with him.
Ye Li blinked, then placed his arms on the table, leaned towards Yu Cai, and asked, "Brother Cai, do you really have absolutely no good feelings towards Peng Ximing?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Cai paused for a moment before saying, "He is a good person, but there are many good people in the world. I can't just fall in love with every one I meet, can I?"
"Of course not!"
Ye Li quickly shook his head and explained, "Brother Cai, I just think it's a good match. He doesn't want to be ambitious, while you're worried about him being ambitious. Isn't this just a coincidence?"
"...That's true."
Yu Cai nodded.
He brought the teacup to his lips and took another sip.
Peng Ximing's image appeared in my mind.
In fact, Peng Ximing has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and his features are well-proportioned. At first glance, he seems ordinary, but after looking at him for a while, he is quite pleasing to the eye.
He looks quite sturdy.
Unlike some scholars who are powerless and unable to even kill a chicken.
He was still a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the lowest level of the imperial examinations) – despite Peng Ximing's poor performance, he knew how difficult it was to obtain the Xiucai degree.
More importantly, Peng Ximing was not the kind of bookish, pedantic scholar who was ignorant of practical matters and human relationships.
Once Peng Ximing left the county school, it would have been quite easy for him to find a job in the county town that paid two or three taels a month.
The Peng family members seem reasonable.
All things considered, this is far better than his father's requirements of "educated, from a good family, and a good person".
Isn't this better than those bodyguards and military households?
More importantly, the other party has lost the will to improve.
What he fears most is that the other person is too ambitious and will change their attitude in the future.
It's not that Li Ge'er was the one who brought them together; he also thought it was quite a coincidence.
However, as he said, while they may be a good match, he has not yet developed any romantic feelings for Peng Ximing.
He only felt sympathy.
Besides, having been rejected last time, he would rather die than take the initiative first.
What if Peng Ximing doesn't think much of him?
In short, let's observe further.
Yu Cai's idea left Ye Li at a loss.
For the sake of Yu Cai's reputation, he couldn't reveal the truth to Peng Ximing.
What if Peng Ximing was just talking nonsense or had his own aesthetic sense and considerations?
So, when Jiang Ji returned with the dried fruit, he still had no clue whatsoever.
It was getting late, so the two got into an oxcart and headed home.
Once outside the city, he told Jiang Ji about the matter. Jiang Ji was quite open-minded and advised him, "Peng Ximing won't get married for the next two or three years anyway. Given time, Manager Yu might change his mind."
"……Too."
Ye Li nodded.
Since Peng Ximing has no money to get married.
Then there's no need to rush this.
He is definitely on Yu Cai's side, taking Yu Cai's feelings as the standard.
But he didn't mistreat Peng Ximing either; thanks to the transformation of eggs, the Peng family's life improved.
With that thought, he immediately put the matter out of his mind.
He grabbed the basket on his back, which contained dried longan that Jiang Ji had bought.
He grabbed a handful of dried longans, peeled one, and fed it to Jiang Ji. This stuff is really perfect except for being expensive.
It tastes sweet.
It's also quite chewy.
He always felt that fresh longan had a grassy smell, but dried longan didn't have that strange smell.
Honestly, apart from being expensive, it has no flaws.
Even though he earns over a hundred taels a month now, he doesn't dare to buy things often.
After all, we always have meat and walnut powder at home. If we add such expensive dried fruit, the monthly expenses would be too high.
Ultimately, it's because I don't earn enough money.
But there are no new ways to make money for the time being.
Moreover, taro paste is a seasonal product.
Once this batch is sold out, the next batch will only have 40,000 jin (20,000 kg), and once that's gone, we'll have to wait until next autumn.
After thinking for a moment, he said to Jiang Ji, "After entering the village, go to Uncle Jiang's house first to see if there is any progress on the land purchase."
You still have to be a landlord.
With Jiang Fuzheng's connections, he hasn't found out anyone who wants to sell land recently.
However, this is actually a good thing during the Lunar New Year – those who have reached the point of selling land usually have experienced a family crisis.
Ye Li then suppressed his impatience.
Forget it, let's talk about this after the New Year.
He talked to Jiang Fuzheng about the New Year's gifts.
He wanted to buy a few pigs to slaughter and distribute the meat to the workers in the workshop. He wanted the pig's head, trotters, and offal.
Honestly, he's tired of eating pork belly on ordinary days, let alone during the Chinese New Year.
He would rather prepare more pig's head meat, pig's trotters, and pig offal.
Anyway, there are five stoves in his shed.
If five stoves are used to stew meat at the same time, the aroma will be so enticing it will make people dizzy.
Moreover, during the Lunar New Year, everyone gathers together to watch the pig slaughter in a lively atmosphere, which is more festive than simply buying meat.
Ye Li’s suggestion received strong support from Jiang Fuzheng.
Jiang Fuzheng also praised him for his good taste and enjoyment of food, saying that compared to pork belly, pig's head and pig's ears are definitely better for drinking!
However, Jiang Fuzheng had ordered a pig's head.
He planned to use it when paying respects to his ancestors during the Lunar New Year.
In previous years, the village was poor. When worshipping ancestors during the Lunar New Year, everyone would pool their money to buy a few pounds of meat, gather together on the first day of the Lunar New Year to kowtow to their ancestors, and then divide the meat among themselves. That was the end of the ceremony.
The whole village made some money this year, so he offered a big pig's head to his ancestors.
At that time, the meat that the villagers bought with their money was divided together.
Upon hearing this, Ye Li immediately declared that he would also offer a pig's head.
Anyway, he doesn't need that little bit of money.
So, on the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Jiang Fu took advantage of the employees working to conduct a survey.
Look at this gift; which part does each family want?
Anyway, the budget for one employee is five hundred coins.
This can be seen as an early announcement of the good news regarding the triple festival gift and the 300-cash year-end bonus.
The employees were overjoyed.
Wow, that adds up to 800 coins for each person!
Li Ge'er's generosity is truly beyond words!
Because it's Chinese New Year, people no longer just focus on the fatty parts of the meat. Large slices of meat are satisfying to eat, but gnawing on big bones is also delicious!
After discussing it at home, the employees gave Jiang Fuzheng a reply on the 18th day of the twelfth lunar month.
The answers were varied, so Jiang Fuzheng did some coordination and spent two busy days finalizing the result.
During this time, Shi Yi and his son, Old Man Shi, arrived.
Nowadays, every household is preparing for the New Year, and preserved eggs are selling very well. Old Man Shi got a batch in early December, and it sold out in just half a month.
With only a few days left before the Lunar New Year, they planned to buy another thousand.
This made Ye Li also concerned about the Peng family.
Unfortunately, there were no telephones at that time, so Peng Ximing had no idea how his preserved eggs were selling.
On the 21st day of the twelfth lunar month, Jiang Fu was going to another village to buy pigs and find a butcher.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, the butcher's schedule was fully booked, so he paid extra to secure the job.
Excluding Jiang Ya, the little guy who was cashed out, there were a total of twenty-nine people in the workshop—the extra one being Jiang Shun, who sold drinks in the county town.
If each person consumes 15 jin of pork, then 435 jin of pork would be needed.
Pigs in this era grew up eating grass and grain, and their weight was just over 100 pounds, with a meat yield of 60-70%.
In other words, a pig weighing 100 jin (50 kg) can yield 60-70 jin (30-35 kg) of meat after slaughter—including bone-in parts like ribs, but excluding the pig's head, trotters, and offal.
Jiang Fu carefully selected and bought five large, fat pigs weighing over 140 jin each. On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, they were slaughtered at the workshop and distributed to everyone.
On this day, Ye Li also distributed the wages for the twelfth lunar month and the year-end bonus to everyone.
The village was bustling with activity that day. Every employee in the workshop received fifteen catties of meat. If it were according to the standards of the past New Year, then the family would not need to buy meat anymore.
There are also fifteen catties of wheat flour, so now we have enough flour to make dumplings and buns.
As for rice, it's a good thing too. Cook it into a thick paste, add some sugar, and wow, it's no wonder it's a grain that can be priced the same as wheat. It's delicious!
Of course, there's also this month's wages of nine hundred cash and the year-end bonus of three hundred cash.
After receiving these two sums of money, some more frugal families would hardly need to spend any more money during the New Year.
We have meat and noodles, and we'll slaughter two more chickens ourselves.
This 1200 coins is enough to buy some melon seeds, peanuts, and snacks for our own consumption and for visiting relatives and friends—as for New Year's money, well, a few coins as a token will suffice.
Everyone was overjoyed and kept thanking Ye Li. It was true, they never thought that there was such a wonderful thing as celebrating the New Year without spending money.
But with Ye Li, something I never dreamed of actually came true!
Unable to read or write, they couldn't utter any elegant words. They simply kept telling Ye Li to ask for their help whenever needed.
You absolutely must speak up!
Aunt Lü held Ye Li's hand and kept saying: "I was born to be Ye Li's person, and I will die to be Ye Li's ghost," which made Ye Li both laugh and cry.
Aunt Lü and the others were so happy with just one New Year's gift; Jiang Dahe, who received four, was even happier than ever.
His family is the only one that truly doesn't need to spend a single penny.
Sixty catties of meat, and four taels and eight mace of cash.
They also received extra pay for making taro paste.
In addition, Ye Li bought fabric early on and asked Liang Erxiang, Jiang Liu, and Jiang Yu to make new clothes.
She truly has everything.
Therefore, when Ye Li asked who would be on duty at the workshop on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, he raised his hand without hesitation.
This kind of thing should definitely be left to him.
He was extremely dedicated to the workshop.
He also refused triple pay.
Honestly, I'm too ashamed to accept it.
Ye Li, her nephew-in-law, has already given her enough.
Since there's nothing else to do in the village, I might as well make tofu puffs and taro paste.
With the matter settled, Ye Li was relieved.
He used an oxcart to bring the pig's head, trotters, and offal home and started stewing the meat.
These are all good things; they need to be prepared properly.
We washed what needed washing, stewed what needed stewing, and were busy until the evening of the 27th of the twelfth lunar month before we were finally done cleaning up.
The meat is stewed, now it's time to steam the buns and dumplings.
According to the custom of Beiyang County, some staple food is steamed before the New Year so that there is no need to be busy during the New Year period.
This task was to be done by Ye Li and Jiang Ji.
Jiangmai and Jiangya, the two little ones, assisted.
Jiang Ji took on all the heavy work, such as kneading dough and chopping meat.
Actually, this wasn't considered heavy work, but after getting into bed at night, Jiang Jifei said his shoulders and arms ached, and asked Ye Li to massage them for him.
So Ye Li took the opportunity to play a massage game with him.
During the two weeks that Jiang Ji was on vacation, the two of them were actually inseparable every night.
It wasn't that the two were indulging in pleasure.
When a relationship reaches this stage, it's natural to want to be together all the time.
They had too few days together, and once they were on the kang (a heated brick bed), they unconsciously embraced each other.
Or they might chat about everyday family matters.
Or it could just be eye contact—there's no awkwardness in eye contact between two people.
But no matter what you do, kissing is always a must.
They kissed and things got out of hand.
After having sex regularly for a while, Ye Li wanted to try something new.
The winter temperature limited their performance; if it were summer, they would have been even more romantic, naked, given their figures.
On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, the workshop was closed for the holiday.
In the morning, I delivered the fried tofu puffs from yesterday and the taro paste I made this morning to Banxianju, and then I had nothing else to do.
The Jiang family of four conveniently prepared twenty catties of tofu puffs and one hundred catties of taro paste for tomorrow.
Ye Li didn't have time to go to the county town. He steamed some buns and dumplings yesterday, and today he has to fry some chicken pieces, meatballs, and fried dough sticks.
In the morning, Ye Liang drove his oxcart over to pick up Liu Yi and Ye Adie and take them home.
The two of them will be back after the New Year, so they don't need to bring their clothes back.
Ye Li loaded the twenty catties of taro paste he had just made that morning onto the oxcart and told them to take it back.
Anyway, Liu Yi and Ye Adie both knew how to make drinks and snacks with taro paste, and twenty catties would be enough for the Ye family to eat for several days.
Actually, Ye's father wanted to stay at the Jiang family's house for the New Year, but now Ye Li's only job was frying things, so Ye Li persuaded him to go back.
Having toiled all winter at home, Ye Li wanted to give him ten taels of silver as a token of his respect, in addition to a new set of clothes.
But he refused to accept it, no matter how much Ye Li tried to persuade him.
Fortunately, Ye Li had anticipated his reaction, so she took out the dried fruits such as peanuts, melon seeds, and longans that she had prepared for the New Year and told him to take them home.
Previously, when Jiang Fu was selecting fat pigs for the workshop, he and Jiang Ji ran to the county town every day and had already purchased all the dried fruits needed for the New Year.
Although half of the dried fruit has been consumed in the past ten days, there are still more than twenty catties left.
It wouldn't be right for my own father to come home with only a set of clothes and some taro paste.
If word gets out, he'll be the subject of gossip and criticism.
This time, Father Ye didn't refuse.
He happily accepted the dried fruit.
Snacking on a snack or peeling a piece during your free time is truly a great pleasure.
Well, after staying in the Jiang family for so long, he has become somewhat assimilated by Ye Li.
They also developed a "love of good food" habit.
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