"Luckily, we chopped a lot of firewood some time ago. The firewood on the mountain will definitely not be used up for a while. Dad, when can we ask the butcher to come and kill the pig?"
"I've asked the villagers to pass on the message. Tomorrow afternoon, old woman." He looked at Zhou, "If I come back late tomorrow afternoon, you can take charge. I've already told Mu Sheng, and he'll be there to help. We should be able to come back early."
"I see. Then we still have to prepare a pig-killing dinner at home tonight, right?"
"Of course we have to prepare it. When the time comes, we'll ask the village head to come along. He's been bothered several times with the land purchases recently, so we have to thank him."
"Dad, let's stew this roe deer head to entertain the guests."
"We're slaughtering a pig tomorrow. We have a pile of offal and bones at home. We don't need your roe deer head. If anyone sees it, they'll think we're showing off. Are you sure you want 100 pounds? Do you prefer fat or thin? I see you like the thin ones. Everyone else wants the fat ones."
"Dad, I don't want the fat one, I want the thin one. Mom, please leave the thin one for me tomorrow."
"You're giving others a bargain." Zhou couldn't do anything about her. "Then I'll leave the thin ones for you."
"Dad, how much is our meat per pound?"
"The regular one is 13 wen, 2 wen cheaper than outside. If you want the full fat one, it's 16 wen."
Chunxiao nodded. 100 jin was only 1 liang and 3 qian of silver. "Then go to town tomorrow and bring me another 10 jin of salt. I'm afraid we don't have enough salt at home."
"You're reminding me that I need to buy a few more pounds of salt."
After eating, the three of them sat for a long time before returning to the village.
When the butcher came on the afternoon of the second day, Yan Bingfa and his men had indeed returned, so a group of people slaughtered a pig in the Yan family yard. Chunxiao also went to help. The butcher's technique was clean and neat, the white knife went in and the red knife came out, and the pig died without even struggling twice.
After bleeding the pig, they began to cut up the meat. The pig was slaughtered in less than half an hour. The Yan family gave the butcher 10 kilograms of the best fat and lean meat. The butcher took the meat and hurried to the next house.
The house was already filled with villagers. Most of the pig farmers in the village sold whole pigs. If you wanted meat, you had to queue up at the butcher shop. The family had already borrowed a scale. Zhou first cut about 100 kilograms of lean meat and put it in a basket. Then Dashan and Dahe each picked up about 50 kilograms and brought them home. She also cut two kilograms for each of the people who helped, and sold the rest.
"Mai Niang, your family has so much meat this year. You must have made a fortune." The first person in line was a woman, staring at the meat on the table. "Weigh two pounds for me. I want the fat one over there."
Zhou then cut off two pounds of meat for her without saying anything more.
The people behind them bought meat one by one and were envious of the large amount of meat left over. "I'm afraid we can't finish all the meat even if we eat it every day."
Zhou smiled and said, "It can be eaten for more than half a year if pickled."
"It takes a lot of salt to pickle it."
Every buyer of meat had to choose carefully. Zhou was usually very patient, but this year, she felt these people were too unpleasant. They were still picking and choosing between two pounds of meat. Fortunately, there wasn't much meat, so many people bit their teeth and ordered 5 pounds. It sold out in no time, and those who were waiting in line later had to wait for the next buyer.
Some people who were craving for meat wanted to buy bones because they had run out of meat. After some bargaining, Zhou sold half of the bones for 8 cents per pound.
Zhou put a few large ribs into Chunxiao's backpack. After doing this, she and Tian began to prepare the pig-killing meal.
There were too many people in the house and the yard was small. Yan Bingfa knew that she was uncomfortable, so he asked Dahe and his wife to help Chunxiao deliver the meat. Several children also wanted to go over, but unfortunately the road was still not easy to walk on. Yan Bingfa would not let them, so they had to give up.
Zhou said she would bring her a large bowl of food later and let her cook some rice later so she wouldn't have to run around. Before leaving, she collected some of the pig hair that had been scraped off from the pig slaughtered near the yard.
Yan Dahe and his wife sent her home and then went back because they had guests at home who needed to be entertained.
Chunxiao first washed the pig hair and hung it outside, then began to marinate the meat in the kitchen. There were not enough basins at home, so she found two clean backpacks, rubbed the meat with salt and put them in layer by layer. After marinating the pork, she also marinated the roe deer meat, leaving a new piece to taste. Now there is really enough meat at home. At least she doesn't have to buy meat for a long time. After marinating it for a few days, drying it in the sun for a few days, and then smoking it, it can be kept for a long time without going bad.
After doing all this, her hands were cold. She washed her hands, lit the stove and warmed herself up, only then did she feel comfortable and relaxed.
It was already dark when Zhou arrived. As expected, she brought her a huge bowl of hotpot. Although it didn't look very good, it tasted quite good. "When I left, your father and the others hadn't finished eating yet. There were six or seven of them chatting while eating, and it looked like they were going to eat for a long time. I was afraid you'd be hungry, so I said hello to your sister-in-law and came over first."
"Is Dad happy today?"
"He's very happy. How can he not be happy now that everyone says he's capable? He also said there's no wine at home, and if there was, he'd definitely have a few drinks. I'm just afraid your dad will tell everything when he's drunk, so it's best if he doesn't."
Chunxiao was eating, "Mom, do you want to eat more? I cooked too much rice, and you must not have eaten much with them."
Zhou weighed her stomach and said, "Then I'll eat a little more with you. We can eat on our own." The mother and daughter sat by the stove to eat. "Your father said that after selling charcoal tomorrow morning, he will start preparing the land in the afternoon. The snow should be almost melted by tomorrow afternoon."
"Then I'll go to Deer Village the day after tomorrow and ask my elder brother to accompany me. You can bring the mattress back when you come back."
"Have you calculated how many seeds you want? I don't know how much a pound of cotton seeds costs."
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