Chapter 63
During his stay in the county town, Zhou Yuan was very busy. He not only had to handle matters at the escort agency, but also had to personally take care of various parties. Fortunately, his hand was injured, so he drank much less alcohol.
By the time everything was settled, it was already the fifteenth of the eleventh lunar month. In another half month, it would be the twelfth lunar month, and we needed to start preparing for the New Year.
Before they went back, they strolled around the county town again. Chen Qing was worried about Zhou Yuan's injury and insisted that he go to the clinic for another check-up.
The doctor said Zhou Yuan's wound was healing very well and there were no major problems.
After leaving the clinic, Zhou Yuan finally felt a little relieved: "See, I told you I recovered quickly!"
Chen Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief. He took a deep breath and took Zhou Yuan's arm: "Don't get into any more trouble in the future."
"Okay, I promise you." Zhou Yuan reached out and hugged Chen Qing, his mind wandering.
He's been back for so long, and Chen Qing still won't let him touch her. This lesson has been enough; he'll definitely be extra careful from now on.
They bought some New Year's goods that the family needed, and Qi Shuning happily followed along. Li Xin must have given him money when they stepped out the door, and now he was with them, wanting to buy everything he saw.
Despite Chen Qing's objections, Zhou Yuan bought him two padded jackets, as well as a piece of clothing for Aunt Sun and Zhang Yin. He also bought a lot of dried fruit, candy, and pastries. He planned to buy other things for the New Year at the end of the year.
They finally made their way home after buying almost a cartload of goods.
There was no fog on the day he returned home, and the sun was shining brightly in the morning. The winter sun was not warm, and Chen Qing's hands were a little stiff from the cold, and he also developed frostbite.
Zhou Yuan felt extremely guilty, but Chen Qing acted as if nothing had happened: "I heard from my mother that once you get frostbite, you'll get it every year after that, it's not a big deal."
Zhou Yuan looked at Chen Qing's swollen hands and felt their coldness, so he placed Chen Qing's hands on his own neck.
Chen Qing laughed and slipped his hand under Qi Shuning's collar again. Qi Shuning, sitting behind the oxcart, suddenly felt a little lonely. He thought he could try it next time, but Xin Xin might just grab his neck and strangle him to death.
When I got home, the whole yard looked brand new.
Chen Qing couldn't stay idle, so he wanted to take apart the old bedding and wash it. Since no one had lived there for half a month, the cotton was damp. Taking advantage of the sunshine today, he simply moved it all out to the yard to air it out.
Zhou Yuan helped him set up the frame and took out all the mattresses from the bed to air them out.
After Chen Qing finished airing the quilts, he wanted to go to the river to wash clothes, but Zhou Yuan stopped him: "The water in the river is about to freeze, and your hands are frozen. I'll go fetch water, and we'll boil some hot water to wash."
"All right."
So Zhou Yuan went to the river to fetch water, while Chen Qing boiled water at home. It took quite a while to wash the sheets.
They were setting up a clothes rack on the other side when they saw Zhang Xu standing outside their yard, looking somewhat awkward.
When Zhou Yuan saw him, he invited him in and then noticed that he was carrying a basket on his back and had their twin daughters with him.
Zhang Xu scratched his head: "Master, we're just thinking about the New Year, and we don't have much to give you. These are just some small things the kids picked up from the mountains. Please don't mind that they're rough."
Chen Qing wasn't good at handling these kinds of things, and before Zhou Yuan could react, he ran back to his room. Zhou Yuan smiled helplessly and took the things from his hands.
Zhang Xu was truly grateful to Zhou Yuan and Chen Qing. If it weren't for them, his wife might still have to go to town to wash clothes for others in the dead of winter, and his child wouldn't have a single warm garment to wear. They would have been able to have a full meal during the New Year.
"It's alright, just focus on farming." Zhou Yuan patted Zhang Xu on the shoulder.
Chen Qing came out again, holding the candies they had bought in the county town, and handed them to the twin girls: "Thank you. I saw a very pretty handkerchief. Did you embroider it yourselves?"
The older sister nodded shyly: "We're just learning, so our embroidery isn't very good."
Chen Qing reached out and touched their hair, then took out two handkerchiefs from his pocket. He had embroidered them in his spare time and kept them for himself instead of selling them. Now he was giving them to the two girls.
The two were embarrassed to accept the money, and Chen Qing didn't know how to persuade them, so he could only look to Zhou Yuan for help.
"Take it." Zhou Yuan was tall and imposing, with a deep voice and an aura of menace. The two girls quickly put away their handkerchiefs and ran behind their father.
"We have other things to do, so we won't keep you any longer." Zhou Yuan didn't exchange any more pleasantries and saw them to the door.
Zhou Yuan walked up to Chen Qing and stared directly at him, making Chen Qing uncomfortable: "What are you looking at?"
"Aqing is biased," Zhou Yuan muttered.
Chen Qing looked at him with some confusion: "What are you talking about?"
“You’ve never even given me a handkerchief,” Zhou Yuan said.
Chen Qing looked at him speechlessly: "So many handkerchiefs are in the box by the bed. Besides, you don't even need handkerchiefs. In the summer, when you sweat, you just shrug your shoulders and wipe it off. When you eat wild fruit or something, you just wipe yourself off. Why would you need a handkerchief?"
"..." For the first time, Zhou Yuan felt that Chen Qing was too clever, able to leave him speechless.
After finishing their meal, they went to Aunt Sun's house. Winter had arrived, and Aunt Sun didn't have much to do. They went there to discuss slaughtering the pig for the New Year.
This was Chen Qing's first time dealing with the slaughtering of pigs for the New Year. Back in his hometown, few families in the village could afford to raise pigs. After his family separated from his grandmother's family, they became even poorer. Even if there were people slaughtering pigs for the New Year, they wouldn't invite his family to watch, for fear that his family would try to take advantage of them.
There was a butcher in the village, and Aunt Sun had already arranged with him to come and slaughter a pig.
Some families would hire a butcher to slaughter their pigs because they couldn't eat all the pork from one pig, so they would sell half of the pork to the butcher. Grandma Sun had the same idea, which would save her the money of hiring a butcher separately and allow her to recoup some of her investment.
Zhou Yuan and Chen Qing went to see the pigs in the pigpen. To be honest, Zhou Yuan was a little worried that Chen Qing would be reluctant to part with the pig he had raised from a fowl. However, he did not expect that Chen Qing would dislike it so much that he pinched his nose before they even reached the pigpen.
None of them had any experience slaughtering pigs. Zhou Yuan thought that slaughtering a pig was just about stabbing it to death with a knife, and he was wondering why they needed to hire a butcher.
After hearing his words, Aunt Sun patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's not that easy. If we could just kill the pig like that, even the butchers wouldn't do it." Then she instructed Zhou Yuan to fetch water, while she took Chen Qing to dig a pit in the open space outside.
Why dig a pit? Because the pot used for slaughtering pigs is very large. This pot is kept in the village ancestral hall. Whenever someone in the village needs to slaughter a pig, they need to make a simple earthen stove in advance and then go to the ancestral hall to bring the pot back.
Zhou Yuan wanted to say that he would dig the pit after he finished fetching water, but both Aunt Sun and Chen Qing disagreed because Zhou Yuan had no idea how to wield a hoe.
After Zhou Yuan finished fetching water, Chen Qing and the others had already dug the pit. After digging it, they would use water and mud to make a stove.
Zhou Yuan was amazed by their skillful hands, and then Sun Da Niang called him out to the ancestral hall to fetch a pot.
The next morning, the butcher came to the door with all his tools.
Many villagers came to watch the excitement. Meng Qi and Meng Shuanzi had already finished their last haul before the New Year and came today to help them catch pigs.
Chen Qing wasn't used to so many people coming to his house, but he no longer tried to hide away like before. Instead, he sat by the big stove and tended the fire.
Li Xin also stood beside him. He rarely didn't work as a blacksmith today, so he joined in the fun: "It's settled then, I want a piece of lean meat. Qi Shuning said he learned a recipe for a very delicious pork tenderloin strip from Tian Ji. If he makes it for me and it's good, I'll make it for you too."
Chen Qing nodded, naturally agreeing to his request.
"And those offal, Qi Shuning said they're all delicious. Manager Tian's shop has so many good things to eat." Li Xin had also stayed in Yunxi Town for a long time. Sometimes when she went for acupuncture, Manager Tian would pack a lot of food for them.
"Okay, let's keep them all."
Soon, a few people carried the pig out. Grandma Sun had fed the pig very well, and after Chen Qing and the others left, she even hired someone to castrate it so that the meat would taste better.
The pig weighed about 200 pounds and was squealing loudly; Zhou Yuan almost couldn't hold it down.
Seeing the butcher holding the knife, Chen Qing felt a pang of pity and pulled Li Xin into the room.
They were chatting in the room where Chen Qing used to live when they heard pigs squealing. The squeals stopped after a while.
Grandma Sun collected the pig's blood in a basin. When Chen Qing went out again, the butcher was already butchering the pig. He cut it in half, took half, weighed it, and put it aside. He then helped them dismantle the other half.
Chen Qing had seen his hometown slaughter pigs for the New Year from afar. After slaughtering the pig, they would cook a pot of "pig-killing stew" with pig's blood, pork belly, and other ingredients, along with a pot of sauerkraut.
Chen Qing had never eaten it before because his family was poor, and poverty made them more ambitious, so he didn't want to take advantage of others.
Luohe Village doesn't have the tradition of slaughtering a pig for the New Year and making a "pig-slaughtering feast." After watching the excitement, many people left. The butcher also paid for the pig and left, leaving only Li Xin and Qi Shuning behind.
Although this pig belonged to Zhou Yuan, it had been fed by Aunt Sun for the past year, so Chen Qing and Zhou Yuan both believed that the pig belonged to Aunt Sun and let her decide how to divide it.
Grandma Sun didn't hesitate. In addition to the lean meat Li Xin had requested, she also cut two pounds of hind leg meat and a few ribs for Li Xin to take back.
Li Xin happily accepted it. The New Year is all about exchanging gifts and favors. Since Aunt Sun gave them meat, their family naturally had to reciprocate. There was no need for them to feel guilty.
After seeing Li Xin off, Aunt Sun called Chen Qing to work together. There was definitely more meat than they could eat, so they picked out a few pieces to eat soon, and then rubbed the rest with coarse salt to preserve it for longer.
It's winter now, and pig's blood congeals very quickly. Today, Aunt Sun plans to stir-fry pig's blood for lunch, and she also needs to render lard this afternoon, since the lard jar at home is empty.
It feels like as the year draws to a close, there are one thing after another to do at home, and it seems like there's never enough time to finish. Although they are small and tedious, they are also enjoyable to do.
Zhou Yuan ate a hot meal of kimchi stir-fried with pig's blood for lunch, and even in this wintery weather, he broke out in a sweat.
In the afternoon, Zhou Yuan sat in front of the stove, warming himself by the fire while watching Chen Qing work.
Chen Qing chopped the snow-white pork fat into small pieces and threw them all into the pot. Zhou Yuan looked at it and asked, "Is that all? Don't you need to add anything else?"
Chen Qing shook his head: "No need, just simmer it slowly. What's coming out now is water, but after the water boils away, what comes out will be oil."
Sure enough, the pot started bubbling after a while. At this point, the pot was mostly water and a bit cloudy. Zhou Yuan waited patiently for a while longer. After all the water had come out, the liquid in the pot gradually became clear, and the pork caul fat floating on top slowly turned golden brown, releasing a fragrant aroma.
Once the oil was rendered, Chen Qing poured it into a lard jar. When one jar wasn't enough, he asked Zhou Yuan to go home and bring over his own jar, which was also filled to the brim.
Chen Qing scooped up the pork cracklings and offered one to Zhou Yuan. Zhou Yuan hesitated for a moment before eating it. He thought pork caul fat would only be greasy, but he didn't expect it to be so fragrant and crispy, with a hint of oil.
"The first time I ate this, I thought nothing in the world could taste better than this." Chen Qing also ate a piece.
Zhou Yuan seized the opportunity, lowered his head, and kissed Chen Qing on the corner of his mouth. Chen Qing reached out and slapped him on the back: "Be serious."
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