Chapter 22: Sharing the Meat is Not Quiet (Catching Bugs, Minor Repair) Chen Yin is angry...
Chapter 22: The meat is divided but not peaceful
Uncle Guo has always been in charge of distributing meat in the brigade. He has a steady hand and will never charge more than 9.29 for a pound.
He looked at Yan Jiuru and asked, "Boy, which one do you want?"
The fattiest fat had been taken by the two families ahead, but with two pigs, there was still plenty of fat for him. However, Yan Jiuru ran his finger over the top-quality pork belly and said, "Uncle Guo, give me all this pork belly."
This was discussed in advance at home.
Pure fat can only be used to make oil.
It’s better to have a proper meal of braised pork. The kids at home haven’t had the chance to eat it yet.
"Have you thought about it?"
"I've thought it through."
Uncle Guo cut off a piece of top-quality pork belly with two quick strokes and threw it onto the scale. It was just the right weight, two and a half kilograms!
"Uncle Guo, you are amazing!" Yan Jiuru gave a thumbs up.
Uncle Guo poked a hole in the meat, strung it with a straw rope, and handed it to him, saying with a smile, "Work hard, and it'll be fine once you're good at it. I envy your dad for throwing bricks and tiles. That guy can catch them just fine no matter how long or short his arms are."
After praising each other, Yan Jiuru carried the meat back home.
"Jiuru, wait a minute, this is urgent."
The team leader and the secretary stopped the man.
His father-in-law announced to the group, "Jiuru has caught a thief in the county, bringing honor to our brigade. The province, county, and commune have all rewarded him, and the brigade should also reward him. However, we're not as wealthy as others, so after discussion, the brigade has decided to reward him with half a pig's head. Do you think this is feasible?"
Yan Jiuru: It’s feasible, it’s absolutely feasible!
He didn't mind at all. He hadn't thought about getting any reward when he caught the thief. Now these were all unexpected surprises.
He said politely, took two steps back, pointed at the smaller pig's head that had been shaved, and said, "Just chop this smaller one."
The captain gestured to Brother Guo, "Since you asked for the small one, give him the mouth strips and pig brains."
Brother Guo was not vague either. He aimed the machete at the back of the pig's head and slashed it straight in the middle. After splitting it open, he cut off the tongue and put the pig's brain directly into a large wooden basin.
Yan Jiuru thanked everyone politely and took the meat home.
The team leader sighed and said to everyone, "Jiuru has won such a great honor for our team. Our team is poor and can't even give him 30 yuan as a reward. He even had to chop a pig's head in half. It's really not worth it."
***
Chen Yin was busy working in the two vegetable plots in the front yard, carrying Zhuangzhuang on her back.
"Where's Ruyue? Did she go out to play again?" As soon as Yan Jiuru entered the yard, he saw Chen Yin busy in the vegetable patch in the front yard with Zhuangzhuang on her back.
Chen Yin straightened up and shook the vegetable roots in her hands. "I just left. I asked them to go. Children of this age are watching the fun."
Seeing the meat basin in Yan Jiuru's hand, he was surprised: "So much?"
Yan Jiuru raised the corner of his mouth and said, "Ah, the reward is half a pig's head. I didn't feel comfortable asking for a big one, so I picked a small one."
"That's something others don't have. Brother Jiuru, you're better than others!" Chen Yin praised him.
Yan Jiuru put the meat away and took the dish from her hand. "If you need any work, tell me to do it. It's not convenient for you to carry him on your back."
Chen Yin was indeed afraid to bend down too deeply while carrying her child on her back, for fear that the child would fall.
"Mom went to pick some tofu and said she'd pick some more to dip in pickles. I picked some water radishes, and I also need to pick some lettuce, cilantro, green onions, and cabbage. Grandpa likes to eat stinky vegetables, so I have to pick some too."
The vegetable patch in the front yard is full of small vegetables that we eat every day. We don’t have to wait for them to grow. We can plant them one after another. When they grow to half a foot tall, we can eat them cold, make soup, or eat them raw with pickles.
Locals love to eat it this way.
Yan Jiuru quickly picked a basket of vegetables, shook off the dirt, picked off some yellow leaves, rinsed them with well water, and placed them on the rack of a small basket to drain.
"Go call dad and second brother to come back for dinner~" Chen Yin saw that the food was ready and sent him away.
***
Breakfast was multi-grain porridge and a bowl of leavened corn pancakes, which were soft on top and golden and crispy on the side that touched the pan.
The dish consisted of a large basket of miscellaneous side dishes, a bowl of fried egg sauce, a dozen boiled eggs, and a bowl of tofu mixed with green onions.
Grandpa Yan ate his fill first and said, "After Tieniu finishes his meal, he should clean up the pig's head first and trim the folds properly so that his family can eat it cleanly."
"Okay, just give this job to Jiuru. It's time for him to learn." Dad Yan passed the message to his son.
Grandpa Yan glanced at his son and said nothing.
He orders his son around, and his son orders his son around, there's nothing wrong with that.
Yan Jiuru pursed her lips and agreed without raising her head.
So that people wouldn't see him holding back his laughter.
***
After dinner, Yan Jiuru followed his father's instructions and took a stool to sit under the eaves, with a scraper, tweezers and a bowl of strong liquor in front of him.
He took a sip of wine and sprayed it all over the pig's head, covering both the front and the back. Then he struck a match and set it on fire!
Nowadays, strong liquor is very pure and will catch fire as soon as it touches the fire. Soon the whole pig's head was covered with blue flames and a burnt smell emanated. Yan Jiuru held his breath and burned all the hair on the pig's head.
After the flames are extinguished, use a scraper to scrape the surface clean, especially the folds that his grandfather emphasized, which must be scraped clean.
After scraping, burn it again until the skin turns a little golden and no hair can be seen.
"Master, do you think it's okay?"
His grandfather came over to take a look and said, "Well, OK, your cooking skills are better than your father's."
Inside the house
Chen Yin gestured outside and whispered to her mother-in-law, "What's going on?" The old man and his wife started arguing at the dinner table.
Grandma Yan said disdainfully, "Tsk, you're just bored because you're full."
Aunt Yan smiled and said, "Don't worry, it will be ready by noon."
Chen Yin felt itchy in her heart, so she took the opportunity to ask Yan Jiuru quietly.
Yan Jiuru smiled and said, "It's nothing. My father is proud to have such a promising son like me."
His grandfather's son was not promising, but his father's son was promising. Therefore, the old man was dissatisfied with his father and would find faults or give him orders.
However, since his father had such a promising son, of course he would take the opportunity to trick his son.
His grandfather is just slandering his father.
***
After dinner, Yan Jiuru was called away, and even Grandpa Yan and Grandma Yan went to chat with acquaintances.
Chen Yin was changing her son's diaper when she saw her father-in-law coming back. She asked, "Dad, how did you divide the meat?"
"It's quite fair. Besides the work points, we give the families of military martyrs a few more pieces of meaty bones, and the five-guarantee households get some fat-filled large intestines and pig livers. The rest is used to make the pig-killing dish."
"Who will be the chef this year?" Aunt Yan was mending clothes.
Chen Yin also said: "Yeah, don't let it be like last year, where good meat was wasted."
Yan's father also thought of this. "Don't worry, the chef this year is Mr. Wang, the master chef from the old days when we ate big pot rice. He came from a big banquet background before liberation, and his big pot dishes are delicious."
That's fine.
Father Yan wanted to take his grandson to the back garden to play.
Aunt Yan said to Chen Yin, "You can go for a walk too. Your father and I will be at home."
Chen Yin had wanted to go a long time ago, since her son was full and had already urinated.
"Mom, I'll go take a look and come back."
***
Before she even reached the yard, she heard a bustling commotion mixed with a few sudden shouts.
Chen Yin happened to see Chen Ping from her second uncle's house also craning her neck to look, so she pulled her and asked, "What's wrong?"
Chen Ping turned around and saw that it was her cousin. "They're arguing. Let's go inside and take a look."
"Who's arguing with whom?"
"I don't know."
The person in front saw that it was the two sisters and replied, "They have been quarreling for several times. This time it's the Wei family."
There was obvious dissatisfaction in his words.
Chen Yin squeezed to the front and saw that the second daughter-in-law of the old Wei family was tearing the basket in her hands with her two children, and Wei's mother and eldest sister-in-law Sun Xing'er. A piece of meat and several bones with thick meat on them in the basket fell to the ground.
The two children cried and struggled to pick up the meat, and kept shouting: "Don't steal my meat, don't hit my mother~"
Chen Yin frowned, "Why is there no one taking care of this?" Where is her father and the team leader?
Someone replied, "Your father has been standing with the team leader all morning and has just gone to the team headquarters."
"This old woman is a bitch. If we try to stop her from fighting, won't she be the one to cling to us?"
Chen Yin was furious. She grabbed Wei Lao Niang by the collar and pulled her back. "I'm warning you, Wei Qianshi, if you bully military families again, the militia will send you to the Revolutionary Committee."
Chen Ping, who had been eager to try, immediately went up and grabbed Sun Xing'er's arm, shouting as she pulled, "Militia, are you still just watching the fun? Why don't you come and help?"
The man who had wanted to take action for a long time but was afraid of being blamed immediately rushed over and controlled the two women of the Wei family.
"Third brother, go to the brigade headquarters and call my father, the brigade leader, and the women's director!"
The third brother was also watching the fun. When he saw his sister-in-law got angry, he quickly ran to deliver the letter.
Zhu Fengqin, the women's director, was called over. Seeing the situation, she was furious and asked coldly, "What's going on with your Wei family?"
Someone complained to him: "It's the Wei family again. The old woman and the eldest son's wife are bullying the military family again."
Zhu Fengqin glared at Wei Lao Niang and hurried to comfort Wei Er's wife and the two children. "We've split up the family business, so we should eat our own meat. Don't listen to her."
He also said to the Wei family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, "Don't rely on your seniority to make trouble. If everyone behaves like you, the cadres won't have to do anything else but clean up your messes."
Chen Yin looked at him and shook her head. A few words of scolding like this would only treat the symptoms and not the root cause, and would only make people lose their fear.
***
"It's my son's flesh. I'm his mother. Why can't I take it?"
"I am also a military dependent! I am a mother-in-law, and I should respect my elders, don't you know?" Old Lady Wei shouted in dissatisfaction.
"I say you're not worthy of this piece of meat!" The captain's voice reached him before he even arrived. He and the secretary were rushing to get there, and they hadn't even left for half an hour, and something was already wrong!?
The third brother whispered to his sister-in-law, "I met him on the way."
The captain was really angry, "You're just eating meat and you can't stop!"
"You split up three years ago, and the clerk is still at the brigade headquarters! I think you just don't learn your lesson and can't get enough of taking advantage!
And you, Sun Xing'er, are you Wei Lao Er's mother or father? Who are you? You're always making trouble and have no good intentions all day long!
You should be sent back to Sunjiatun. Our brigade doesn't want people like you."
After he finished shooting, Sun Xing'er turned to Wei's mother and continued to scold her, "You are a military dependent. Is the sign of 'Home of Glory' on your door or someone else's? What's wrong with you? I think you are a piece of shit.
Do you really think the brigade can’t do anything to you shrews?
Because of what you did today, from now on, you won't get any meat when the brigade distributes it!"
"Why? Why don't you give me some meat? Are you so great as the captain?
Why am I not a military dependent? My second child was born from my belly, so he should respect me as his mother! "Mrs. Wei sat down on the ground, slapped her legs and started to make a fuss.
Secretary Chen asked someone to call Wei Er's wife and children over. The meat was covered with dirt and grass stems, and the two children were crying with snot and tears.
Secretary Chen said to the crowd, "This old Wei family has bullied military families more than once or twice. They not only don't support the military but also try to sabotage military marriages.
He has no awareness and refuses to change despite repeated warnings!
When Wei Laoer became a soldier, he was dedicated to the country. He was a member of the Party and the country, a soldier of the army.
He is fighting on the front lines, and you are bullying his wife and children in the rear. This is hindering the army and provoking national and state policy."
"Last time I said I would send you to the commune, but the team leader pleaded for you, and your old man Wei also promised at that time, but it seems it was useless.
At a meeting a while ago, I said that anyone who bullies the families of military martyrs will be held accountable.
Captain, you don't need to be merciful this time. There's already a gangster out there. Now that the root of the evil has been eradicated, you can save yourself the trouble in the future."
Old Lady Wei and Sister-in-law Wei were stunned.
Old Man Wei and Boss Wei who were mixed in the crowd were also dumbfounded.
You know, in the brigade, it is usually the brigade leader who gives orders. Although everyone is afraid of him, they can still seek advice and bargain with him.
The secretary is afraid of affecting the team leader's authority so he doesn't say anything easily, but once he speaks, it is irreversible.
The captain smacked his lips and thought, it's time to make an example of someone.
"Make a fuss, grab and grab. Now it's good. From now on, you people from the Wei family will have to stand behind others and pick up the leftovers in the team."
You're still eating meat, but you're starving.
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