Southeast nodded, while Xuemei felt a little embarrassed, wondering if sending so much meat was too much.
Then I saw my father hand the rest of the meat to Southwest and send it to the Wang family, as my grandmother had told me.
Southwest nodded, picked up the meat and went out the door. North South was a little unhappy, feeling bad about giving away so much meat.
Southeast laughed, "Aren't you and Wang Erniu good brothers?" North South's eyes flickered, thinking to himself, "When there's food, you're good brothers; when there's no food, you're nothing."
Hearing his grandmother tell his mother to make another steamed bun with two kinds of dough, Bei Nanle's eyes narrowed. It seemed like he could have a full meal tonight.
Tonight's dinner was very plentiful: potato and chicken soup, stir-fried potato shreds with chili shreds, stir-fried pork cracklings with pickled vegetables, stewed radish and pork, and finally a large bowl of mixed flour steamed buns, plenty of food to fill you up.
The saying "a half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home" is absolutely true. The two from the southwest and the north were eating one bite after another like they were in a competition, and they didn't even have time to talk.
Aside from steamed egg custard, Yan Xiaonan had never eaten meat before. Today, she could finally try something new. Pointing at the pork, she exclaimed, "Eat, eat, eat! Meat, meat, meat!"
Grandma Yan lovingly crushed the tenderest part and fed it to Nan Nan with a spoon. Xue Mei smiled and said, "Nan Nan is so clean; she won't eat anything that you've chewed."
Cuihua used to have a habit of eating the food herself first before feeding it to Yan Xiaonan, which disgusted Yan Xiaonan. Even though she was his mother, she still had to be hygienic.
Unable to speak, she could only resist resolutely with her actions, even if she was starving and fainting, which frightened Cuihua, who thought her daughter had some kind of illness.
In the end, it was Grandma who noticed the problem and had Cuihua feed Yan Xiaonan directly, and only then did Yan Xiaonan start eating normally.
Grandma couldn't help but sigh, "A fairy is a fairy. She knows how to be clean at such a young age." From then on, Yan Xiaonan had her own towel and washbasin, and even a set of bowls and chopsticks was prepared for her.
After the meal, Yan Xiaoqiang put a large piece of pork into his basket, picked up a flashlight, and went to the village chief's house. The village chief politely accepted it; more than ten kilograms of pork, enough for a good New Year.
"Xiaoqiang, your family is really lucky. Several people couldn't catch such a big wild boar, but it just came to us on its own."
"And this year's grain supply is definitely not enough. The winter wheat all froze to death, and there won't be enough for next year. I don't know what to do." The village chief looked worried.
Yan Xiaoqiang was at a loss. His son and daughter-in-law would go to town every day and queue up to buy grain whenever it arrived, but even so, they couldn't buy any eight out of ten times.
Most of the seedlings in our own plot of land have died; only some cabbages and radishes remain.
Fortunately, my mother is good at managing the household. She makes sure to eat thicker food one day and thinner food the next, and we manage to get by. I'm just worried that my little girl is too young to eat coarse grains.
Seeing that it was getting late and he had to go to town to sell meat the next day, he took his leave with his flashlight, and the village chief quickly stood up to see him off.
What he didn't know was that his wife had hidden the meat away carefully the moment he gave it away. Sigh, he had originally wanted to leave some for the elderly living alone in the village, but his wife was too stingy.
The next morning, Yan Xiaoqiang, along with Nanbei, carried four pieces of meat and two pig legs and headed towards the town, while Yan Dongnan led Chen Xuemei towards her parents' home.
With the Chinese New Year approaching, meat was selling very well, especially wild boar meat. As soon as the father and son took out the pork, a crowd gathered around. Yan Xiaoqiang was very straightforward and offered to exchange it for grain, cloth, or oil.
Most people shook their heads and left. They didn't even have enough food to eat, so how could they exchange it? As for cloth, it was patched and patched all over, so there was no way they could have any. As for oil, well, even if you threw yourself into a pot, you couldn't squeeze out a ounce of oil.
An old man quietly asked Yan Xiaoqiang how to exchange grain. Yan Xiaoqiang replied, "Pork is 80 cents a pound, refined grain is 90 cents a pound, and coarse grain is 40 cents a pound. How much grain do you have if you exchange it at these prices?"
The old man thought for a moment, then said, "Ten pounds of refined grains, one hundred pounds of coarse grains. Want to trade? If so, I'll have my son come over."
Of course, they should switch, but Yan Xiaoqiang was a little confused. He couldn't do the math, and even though Southwest, who was in third grade, couldn't do it either.
The old man smiled and said, "Ten pounds of fine grains cost nine yuan, and one hundred pounds of coarse grains cost forty yuan. Forty-nine yuan can buy you sixty-one and a half pounds of pork."
Wow, Yan Xiaoqiang looked at the old man with admiration. City people are really cultured. He borrowed a scale from the cabbage seller next door.
One piece of meat weighs eighteen jin, another piece weighs nineteen jin, another piece weighs seventeen point three jin, and yet another piece weighs twenty-one jin.
The old man handed the 17.3-pound piece to Yan Xiaoqiang, saying that another 3.25 pounds would be enough.
Yan Xiaoqiang nodded. Luckily, he had brought a knife with him. He had to cut it several times to get three and a half pounds. The old man was generous and didn't care about the small change.
A little while later, a young man came over carrying two bags. He opened one bag and found it contained fine noodles and cornmeal, and the quantity was generous. He exchanged the rice bag for the meat, and the transaction was completed.
The man who wanted to borrow the scales looked at the meat, then at his own cabbage, and sighed. All his cabbage combined wouldn't even buy a pound of meat.
Another person came to ask, a middle-aged woman, who directly bought a leg with money. It weighed 34.6 jin (18.3 catties). Pork leg meat sells for 9 mao (0.9 yuan) per jin, and she gave it to Yan Xiaoqiang for more than 3 yuan without batting an eye.
Looking at the remaining piece of meat and a pig's leg on the ground, Yan Xiaoqiang shook his head. They're almost sold out. The people in town really have money and food.
A chubby old man walked over and kicked a pig's leg: "The state-run restaurant in front of me, what's the price? I'll take it all."
Southwest said crisply, "Leg meat is nine cents a pound, and chunks of meat are eight cents a pound. We don't know how to do the math, you'll have to do it yourself."
The fat old man chuckled. What kind of merchant doesn't know how to do math? What if someone cheats you?
Southwest shook his head. "He won't lie." Looking at the boy with clear eyes, the fat old man nodded. "How many kilograms? Give me a number."
Southwest is bad at arithmetic, but has an excellent memory. He knows how to count fourteen pounds of meat and thirty-two pounds of a leg.
The fat old man took out forty yuan and handed it to Yan Xiaoqiang: "I am the head chef of the state-run restaurant up ahead. People call me Fatty. Come and eat, and I will give you a larger portion."
She then whispered to Yan Xiaoqiang, "If you have any wild game, just send it over. I'll take it all."
After saying that, he picked up the pork and left. Watching the fat old man's back, Yan Xiaoqiang clicked his tongue in amazement. What great benefits the state-run restaurant had! He could eat so much and get so fat.
The father and son carried their baskets on their backs and prepared to go home. Eating at a state-run restaurant was out of the question, but they could sell wild game there in the future.
While the father and son were happily heading home, Yan Dongnan was so angry he almost vomited blood.
The two happily carried the pork into the Chen family home, but Chen's mother's face darkened when she saw the dozen or so pounds of pork: "Southeast, your family has brought a whole wild boar, how can you bring such a small amount of stuff?"
Yan Dongnan shook his head, "I don't know, everything in my family was arranged by my grandmother."
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