There were two small pig pens. In the soft mud of one of the pig pens, a spotted and white sow was lying, with a dozen spotted and white piglets surrounding her belly.
Spotted pigs are a specialty of Anhui Province. There are also pure white pigs, but they are not as common as spotted pigs, and black pigs are becoming less and less.
Pigs sleeping in the mud look very dirty, but only the pigs themselves know that they have almost no sweat glands. In summer, they roll in mud and water to dissipate heat from their body surface. In winter, the pigsty should be kept dry and kept warm by using things like sawdust.
The man opened the pigpen and walked in. "Miss Zhou, I'll hold some piglets for you to choose from."
Zhou Xiang looked at the mud on the side of the pig trough. It was so thick that she probably wouldn't be able to pull her shoe out if she stepped in. Besides, she didn't know how to catch the piglets, as they were very fast. "Okay."
The man quietly approached the sow and caught two suckling piglets, one in each hand.
The screams of the piglets made the sow, who was lying comfortably, unable to help but get up and hum at its owner.
The man handed the two spotted piglets to Zhou Xiang and said, "Miss Zhou, these piglets are struggling hard. Just watch them."
Zhou Xiang nodded and looked at the piglets' noses. Both of them had completely black noses, which were not good-looking. Pig noses were beautiful only when they were pink.
Seeing Zhou Xiang shaking his head, the man put the piglet in his hand into a cleaner pigpen on the side and started catching other piglets.
With the example of the two piglets that were caught previously, it was no longer easy to catch the piglets. They ran around the pigpen, and the sow even grunted from time to time to block the male owner, making it difficult to catch them.
"Brother, you catch the piglets with pink noses, not the ones with black noses. Just deny them directly."
The man bending over to catch the pig nodded, "Okay!"
Pigs were no match for humans after all, and the man soon caught one of the piglets.
This time it has a pink nose, black ears and eyes, white fur and red skin from nose to forehead, black hindquarters, and a white fur and red skin on its tail.
Zhou Xiang nodded and said, "I want this one."
As she spoke, she stretched out her hand to take it, and Chen Er held out his hand, "Let me do it, let's put it in the basket."
"Okay, I forgot to prepare the basket."
"They're everywhere in the countryside. Which family doesn't raise a sow? Every household has a piglet basket."
"I'll have to pay them later, and knitting it myself takes time."
"OK."
The man quickly caught another one. This one also had a pink nose, a black forehead, eyes and ears, and a black butt and tail.
Zhou Xiang nodded, "I want this one too."
There were only five pink-nosed piglets in this family, and Zhou wanted them all.
The piglets were not very big, weighing about ten pounds. The man said one yuan per pound would be fine, so Zhou Xiang gave him 150 yuan.
"I told you to raise the price appropriately. After all, no one has ever seen me select piglets like this. I'm sure every piglet is scared, right?"
The man waved his hands repeatedly, "No, no, just one yuan per pound, seventy or eighty yuan will be enough."
Zhou wanted to hand the money to Chen Er, "Uncle Chen Er, you take care of it."
Chen Er stuffed the money directly into the man's pocket and said, "Next, it's given by Miss Zhou, why are you refusing?"
The man's hands were covered in mud, so it was difficult for him to pay, and the money-pushing war had to end.
When they reached the front yard, the woman came out of the main house and pointed to the basin on the stone platform in the yard. "Miss Zhou, wash your hands. There's hot water in this porcelain basin."
The brand new towel in the brand new porcelain basin made Zhou Xiang feel a little embarrassed, "I'm sorry for causing trouble to my sister-in-law."
"No, no, we are very happy that you can come."
Zhou Xiang said no more, lowered his head and washed his hands in the hot water. After wringing out the towel and wiping his hands, the woman reached out to take the towel and said, "I'll hang it up."
Zhou wanted to hand the towel to the woman. She hung the towel on the rope on the east side of the yard, and then took another old towel on the rope, whose original color could not be seen, to the side of the porcelain basin.
"Miss Zhou, come in and have some water."
Zhou Xiang followed the woman into the main house. The main house had obviously been cleaned up. Although it was a little dim, the things were neatly arranged according to categories. There was also a boy of three or four years old in the room.
"Erwa, this is Miss Zhou, calling for help."
Erwa opened his mouth and called out softly, "Hello, Miss Zhou!"
Then he shyly fell to his mother's legs. The woman straightened the child's body and said, "My second child is too introverted."
Zhou Xiang smiled, took out two yuan, bent down and handed it to Erwa, "Here, use it to buy some candy."
The woman refused, "No, no, the child won't give him money to spend."
Zhou wanted to avoid the woman's hand and put the money into Erwa's hand, "This is for Erwa. It doesn't matter if you refuse. Besides, boys make their own decisions. Take it."
Erwa stretched out his thin, dark paw and took the green banknote that was handed to him. "Thank you, Miss Zhou."
"You're welcome."
Zhou wanted to touch Erwa's head. Although this child was introverted, he was very smart.
The woman invited Zhou Xiang to sit down at the square table, "Miss Zhou, please sit down and have some tea."
After Zhou Xiang sat down, Lu Zhaochong also sat down. The old lady who had been following them sat down on the other side of Zhou Xiang. "Miss Zhou, why did you choose the piglet with the pink nose?"
"Pink nose, looks cute."
"Is it that simple?"
Zhou Xiang nodded, "It's that simple."
When Chen Er and Chen San put the pig basket into the pickup truck and came over, Zhou Xiang put down the tea bowl in his hand and said, "I should go now. Thank you for your hospitality, sister-in-law."
"Sit down for a while!"
"No! We have to go somewhere else."
The man had just washed his hands and saw Zhou wanted to leave, so he quickly followed him out the door.
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