Er Ya was worried that the butcher would sell off the pig offal cheaply, so she discussed it with Lin Jianguo and Jiang's mother and decided to split up into three groups, since there were only three pork vendors in the town.
After agreeing on a meeting place, Er Ya took the money and headed straight for the meat stall.
I rushed to the butcher's stall. Luckily, the pig offal was still lying on the ground and no one wanted it. The butcher was about to close up shop and was about to dump the pig offal to feed the dogs.
Er Ya hurriedly called out, "Uncle, sell me your pig offal, how much?"
She noticed a few large bones lying around on the stall, unwanted, and asked the owner to pack them up for her. The butcher glanced at her and wondered if the girl was alright. There was only a little bit of meat on the bones. He often gave them away as a favor, but some people wouldn't even take them because they were too heavy. And pig offal was even harder to give away.
Anyway, if he has money in his hands, he might as well make it. If someone wants it, he doesn't care what she does with it. He just wants to get the money.
A few bones and two sets of pig offal cost Er Ya six cents. Seeing that Er Ya was extremely happy, I thought to myself that this girl probably has some kind of problem.
Er Ya thought to herself, "With so much, my parents can buy some more later. That'll be enough for me to sell for two days. Finally, I don't have to worry about running out of money. Hahaha."
Carrying all these things, Er Ya didn't feel the weight at all. When she arrived at the agreed place, Lin Jianguo and Jiang's mother hadn't returned yet. When they were dividing the places earlier, Er Ya went to the one that was closest to them. Er Ya, who had returned too early, squatted on the ground and drew circles for a while out of boredom.
About twenty minutes later, Lin Jianguo and Jiang's mother returned. Lin Jianguo was late; the pig offal from that stall had been bought and fed to dogs. Only Jiang's mother went to the meat stall they used to frequent.
The shop owner thought that people had bought the pig offal before, so he didn't give it away this time. He figured he could make an extra two cents, just in case he ran into the little girl who bought the pig offal last time.
Just then, Jiang's mother went there, and she sold it to her for two cents. Er Ya thought that three sets would be fine, so she started making them. She didn't know if the people here would accept these things, and it would be bad if she made too many and they became unsellable.
After walking for quite a while, they were both hungry. Er Ya missed the wontons she had eaten last time, which Jiang's mother might not have even tried. So she dragged the two of them straight to the wonton stall.
Afraid of not having enough to eat, the three of them ordered four bowls of wontons. Er Ya was thinking to herself, how long has it been? Before, Lin Jianguo couldn't even bear to buy a bowl of wontons, and even after buying two bowls, he was still heartbroken. Now, he can tell the owner he wants four bowls of wontons without batting an eye. Such a big change. It's good that our family is doing well.
The wontons arrived, and Er Ya picked up a spoon, scooped up a mouthful, and put it in her mouth. It still tasted the same, so delicious that it was hard to describe. Lin Jianguo was embarrassed to say that he hadn't eaten his fill last time, but this time he could finally eat his fill.
Jiang's mother also praised the wontons highly, carefully tasting each one as she ate. Seeing how much the husband and daughter enjoyed them, she thought she could make them at home next time.
After eating and drinking to their hearts' content and paying the bill, Er Ya thought that she could start cooking meat tomorrow, but there were still many seasonings she hadn't bought. Without those things, the food wouldn't taste very good.
The three of them then went to a spice shop and bought some star anise, galangal, cinnamon, bay leaves, diced pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices.
With these things, even boiling a shoe insole would smell incredibly delicious. It's just too expensive. I bought two ounces of each and it cost me a full ten yuan. No wonder I've never seen anyone use these spices before.
Another five jin of liquor were weighed out. If we couldn't finish it, we could save it for Lin Jianguo to drink. Otherwise, we would secretly pour his liquor every time, and it would get a little embarrassing after a while.
Having bought almost everything, and with it getting dark, I needed to hurry home. I wondered if Old Man Lin was still there waiting to fetch people.
When the group arrived, panting, at the spot where the oxcart was parked, luckily, Old Man Lin was just about to head back; if they had arrived a little later, they wouldn't have been able to get a ride on the oxcart.
Lin Jianguo quickly paid the money, and the three of them found a seat and put their baskets down. A foul smell filled the entire oxcart. The person next to them moved to the side, pinched his nose, and asked, "Lin Lao Er, what's in your basket? It smells so bad."
Another woman who usually had a good relationship with Han said, "That's right, how can you be like this? It smells so bad, how are we supposed to sit here?"
After saying that, he pulled back the cloth covering the basket and exclaimed, "Ugh! What is this?!" He continued, "Lin Lao Er, is this shit in here? Throw it down right now!"
Er Ya got angry when she heard this: "Auntie, we paid for the bus, why are you telling us to get off? If you can't stand the smell, you can walk home yourself."
Upon hearing this, the woman stepped forward to hit Er Ya: "How did you raise your daughter? She has no manners at all. How can a child interrupt when adults are talking? I'll teach her a lesson today."
Just as the slap was about to land on Er Ya's face, Jiang's mother stopped her, saying with a stern face, "It's not your place to say how I should teach my own daughter. If your daughter is well-behaved, having affairs at such a young age, she would be drowned in a pig cage."
Enraged by what she had said, the woman lunged forward to grab Jiang's mother's hair. Her daughter was someone she could never stand up straight in, but there was nothing she could do; she was her own flesh and blood, and she couldn't just watch her die.
She usually hated people talking about her daughter, and this little slut dared to mention it in front of her. Seeing the strange looks from the other people on the oxcart, she felt even more determined to tear Jiang's mother's hair bald.
But in her anger, she forgot that she was on an oxcart and there was a basket of pig offal in front of her mother. She lunged forward and lost her balance, her face landing on the pig offal. The stench was so bad that she almost fainted and quickly pulled her face out.
All the people saw was that her face was covered with pig excrement and some foul-smelling blood. She was so angry that she screamed and yelled for Old Man Lin to drive her whole family away.
Why would Old Man Lin listen to her? Putting aside the fact that they paid for three people while she was alone, even if that weren't the case, Lin Jianguo's family were his regular customers. There's no way he would offend a regular customer for the sake of one person.
Old Man Lin, who didn't want to get involved, just focused on driving the oxcart and pretended not to hear the woman's cursing.
"Oh dear, it stinks! Ma'am, did you fall into the toilet?"
To be continued!
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