With a large sum of money and two valuable treasures in his pocket, Li Xiangdong's heart was practically soaring to the heavens.
Looking back, I was twenty-four years old when I earned my first pot of gold.
Now that it's been brought forward by a full ten years, we need to carefully plan how to make the best use of this money.
As his thoughts wandered, his stomach rumbled. Li Xiangdong turned around and smiled at his younger sister, who was sitting obediently in the car, "Want some meat?"
"Eat! I want to eat meat!" The little girl clapped her hands with a smile.
The two arrived at the state-run restaurant, took out the grain coupons and money they had previously exchanged at a high price, and quickly bought a plate of stir-fried pork with scallions, ten meat buns, and a bowl of minced meat and egg custard.
After feeding his younger sister a bowl of minced meat and egg custard, Li Xiangdong devoured a plate of stir-fried pork with scallions and three meat buns in a flash.
A long-lost sense of happiness welled up from his mouth to his heart, and Li Xiangdong vowed to make sure his family could eat delicious meat buns every day.
Unlike the imported white pork that was fed feed for three months to accelerate growth and then slaughtered, the pork nowadays comes from local pigs that have been raised for one or two years. Nowadays, pigs are not fed feed; they are fed pig feed and swill, which is rice water and leftover food.
Because the pigs are fed limited nutrition, they grow very slowly and are only ready for market after one or two years.
The little girl's belly was round from eating, and she reached for a meat bun. Li Xiangdong was afraid she would overeat, so he tore off a small piece of the soft outer skin, which was soaked with meat juice, and let her suck on it.
Li Xiangdong packed the remaining seven plump white meat buns in straw paper and planned to buy some things for his third sister's family. He would give the money to his third sister's husband's mother when he returned the money. Firstly, it was to save face for his third sister; secondly, it was to repay the 100 yuan favor; and thirdly, it was because he felt sorry for his sister and niece.
Thinking of Daxia calling him "Second Uncle" repeatedly, Li Xiangdong felt a surge of tenderness in his heart. Suddenly, he remembered that the two children he had cherished for over thirty years in his previous life were not his own. His heart clenched, and his blood rushed to his head.
Li Xiangdong clenched his fists and swung them twice into the air, yelling, "You bitch, I hope I never run into you again in this lifetime!"
"Brother, brother, who did you run into?"
The little girl held the bun wrapper in her right hand but stopped eating, staring at him with her big, adorable eyes.
Li Xiangdong snapped out of his daze, realizing that his sudden aura of menace had frightened his little sister. He looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, quickly picked up the paper bag, carried his little sister, and left the restaurant.
As the saying goes, "Even if there is a drought for three years, the old man who tends the fire won't starve to death."
It means that no matter if there are natural disasters or man-made calamities, the chefs will not starve.
In this day and age, the most lucrative profession than being a chef is working at a slaughterhouse.
The commune's slaughterhouse now holds two major powers: purchasing live pigs and supplying pork. They first buy live pigs from farmers, slaughter them, and then sell the meat.
The slaughterhouse controlled the pork supply for tens of thousands of people in the entire commune, making it a highly lucrative and powerful department.
You need meat coupons to buy meat. You get one coupon per month, and one coupon can buy one pound of meat.
Because the grain store only supplied three ounces of oil per person per month, people generally preferred to buy more fatty meat to render into lard for cooking. Lean meat and offal, which later became very expensive, were simply not popular in those days.
The supply of pork at slaughterhouses is unpredictable, and the quality varies. Sometimes, you might queue up early in the morning, only to find that there's no meat left by the time it's your turn. In such cases, you can only accept your bad luck. If you're in a real hurry, you'll have to buy expensive pork on the black market.
It was already noon, and Li Xiangdong didn't think the slaughterhouse would still have pork available. He thought to himself, "I'll go take a look around first. If they don't have any, I'll go to the black market and buy some expensive meat. Although it's more expensive, I can choose the quality myself."
Before even reaching the entrance, they saw a large crowd, with a long queue forming in front of the pork counter at the slaughterhouse.
Some people were carrying baskets, others were carrying nets. They were exchanging information in hushed tones while keeping an eye on the meat on the counter. When they saw a piece being pulled away, they would hiss as if their own meat had been pulled away.
"Have you heard? Today's meat was just delivered, slaughtered and sold on the spot!"
"Of course! Look at that slice of white pork fat, it's still steaming hot, and it's as thick as a jujube! It's wonderful!"
"Why are you buying so much?! Is there an unlimited supply today?!"
"Didn't it say on the blackboard in front of the door? Special pork supply, unlimited quantity, while supplies last. But how much we can buy depends on how much money and coupons we have."
Watching the people in front of them happily buy a large piece of pork hindquarters with more fat than lean meat, someone in the line said sourly.
When the group reached Li Xiangdong, all that was left was five catties of pork belly, two catties of pork tenderloin, and half a pig's head; there wasn't a single piece of fat left.
"Give me about four pounds of pork belly and one pound of pork tenderloin."
After thinking it over, Li Xiangdong decided against ordering the pig's head. He missed the taste of pig's head meat, but he knew that without enough seasonings, the pig's head would be fishy and unpalatable, so he decided not to bother.
Old Huang, the pork seller, was covered in greasy clothes. His obese figure stood out from the gaunt crowd around him. He raised his hand to cut the meat and then threw it onto the scale in one smooth motion, exuding an awe-inspiring domineering aura.
With a clang, a jet-black, snow-white meat cleaver was plunged onto the cutting board. "How much do you want?"
When Li Xiangdong uttered the words "four catties of pork belly and one catty of pork tenderloin," the already noisy crowd fell silent, as if they had heard something extraordinary. Then, there was an even louder uproar, but then Lao Huang said something that silenced the scene again.
"Um, four jin...isn't it unlimited?"
"Unlimited is fine, but do you have that many meat tickets? Are you kidding me?"
Old Huang simply couldn't believe that this tall, thin, half-grown boy could have so many meat coupons and money.
Li Xiangdong suddenly realized how outrageous it was for him to buy five pounds of meat at once, in an era where one could only buy a maximum of one pound of meat per month.
This moment of hesitation made Lao Huang even more convinced that the young man in front of him was joking.
"If you're not going to buy it, then go play somewhere else. Next one."
"I'll buy it, I'll buy it." Li Xiangdong took out half a jin of meat coupons from his pocket, a total of ten coupons, and then took out four yuan.
Old Huang glanced at the money and tickets, and deftly weighed out four catties of pork belly and one catty of pork tenderloin.
The people behind him weren't having it, and someone shouted, "If he buys it all, then we won't have anything left to buy! We can't let him buy so much!"
"That's right, we can't sell them all to him!"
"We've been waiting in line for ages!"
"Where did this brat come from? Did you steal the money?"
Hearing the commotion, Old Huang's face darkened. "Didn't you see what it says outside? It says no limit, and that means no limit! You deserve it if you can't buy anything, it's your own fault for being late! We still have a pound of pork belly and five pounds of pig's head, anyone want them?"
The crowd, no longer able to condemn Li Xiangdong for buying the meat, quickly gathered around the meat stall.
"Give me half a jin!"
"I want three ounces and five cents!"
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