Chapter 473 Chapter 474: Big News
Yang Chunyan thought of Zhao Meina and her brother, "It's not hard, but at least he still has a grandfather who treats him well. Little Doctor Wang learned a lot from Doctor Wang at a young age. Following him is no worse than following those parents with bad morals."
"That's true. Compared to the three sisters and brothers of Mina, he is considered lucky!"
Yang Chunyan collected the dried pickled cabbage and put it in a colander. "Does your butt still hurt? I'll apply some medicine on you later."
"No need." Zhou Huaian said, thinking of Zhou Yi and Ding, "Ding Ding Cat is fishing by the river, and said he would come here to eat pickled fish in the evening."
"I know. He and Xuejiao came to get the fishing nets. Xuejiao also gave them two pairs of tiger-head shoes and two sets of small sweaters."
"Oh my! This little one is so lucky. She already has a bunch of clothes and shoes made for her before she even comes out." Zhou Huaian looked around and quickly touched her belly. "Is the little one well behaved today?"
"He made a fuss for a while, but now he's behaving well!" Yang Chunyan put the last handful of pickled cabbage into the colander and said, "Go downstairs and make pickled cabbage sauce."
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian held the basket in one hand and supported her lower back with the other. "Your belly is getting bigger and bigger. Come upstairs less often in the future. Every time you go downstairs, I worry that you can't see the steps below."
Yang Chunyan laughed and said, "It's not as exaggerated as you say!"
Zhou Huaian stuck out his belly and said, "Look, I'm not even as big as you, but it's already blocking your view."
"You're playing tricks again!" Yang Chunyan smiled and slapped him, "I was walking just fine, but you teased me and I accidentally missed the target and that's it!"
"Yes, yes!" Zhou Huaian stood up and asked, "Where's grandpa?"
"The straw for the pig sty is used up. Grandpa went to the old house to get some. You go and get it." Yang Chunyan supported her waist and walked down the stairs.
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Today is Laba, and there are still more than 20 days until New Year's Eve. Should we kill the New Year pig in two days?"
Yang Chunyan turned around and said, "Oh, yeah! If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten that January 24th is New Year's Eve. The 100-acre lawn is in harvest, and they may not be able to stop until the 28th or 29th!"
Zhou Huaian thought about the fact that the pigs had not been slaughtered for the New Year. "This year, there will definitely be many people in the village buying meat, smoked bacon and sausages. Killing them early will save my mother from having to work in the vegetable garden and taking care of a few big fat pigs."
Yang Chunyan thought so too. "Go and ask. While he's not busy today, set a date and make an appointment with the butcher."
"Great!" Zhou Huaian put down the basket and left in a hurry.
Yang Chunyan took the lard out of the basket, added some warm water and soaked it in a basin, cut out a piece of pork belly, washed it, and then sliced and chopped it.
I went under the cupboard and took out a handful of onions, two pieces of ginger, and a few bay leaves, washed them, and chopped them into small pieces. Then I cut the dried sauerkraut into shreds and cut the dried chili peppers into short sections.
By the time she had prepared the ingredients, the blood in the lard in the wooden basin had also bubbled out. She washed it twice, cut it into small pieces, rolled it into a pot, added a bowl of water to it, brought it to a boil, put the sauerkraut into the pot, and added other seasonings after the oil was refined.
…
Over there, Zhou Huaian just walked to the field road when he met an old man carrying straw back, "Grandpa, let me carry it."
The old man waved his hand and said, "Your mother is still pretending, go back and carry that load."
"Great!" Zhou Huaian stepped aside to let him pass, and watched him take a few steps before heading to the old house.
Zhou Yumei was holding Zhou Xiaoxi in the yard, basking in the sun. When she saw him coming, she touched the child's face and said, "Xiaoxi, look, your uncle is here."
"Little guy, aren't you asleep?"
"Asleep!" Zhou Yumei looked at him with a smile, "He eats and sleeps all day long, and only wakes up in the morning to play with us for a while."
Zhou Huaian looked at Zhou Xiaoxi, whose face was rosy from sleep, and asked, "Is mom still in the backyard?"
"Yeah!" Zhou Yumei stood up holding the child and looked at him, "Grandpa said to carry two loads of straw to your house, so you don't have to carry it before the New Year."
"I'll go pick it up, and by the way, ask mom when the New Year pig will be slaughtered?"
Zhou Yumei laughed and said, "Are you really going to kill three of them?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Kill three! This year, pickle all the fried meat, sausages, bacon, and ham."
Every year, the family only prepares a few pieces of bacon, and there is no trace of sausage, fried meat, or ham.
Yiding treats him to a meal every year, so this year he prepares more and treats him a good meal.
When Zhou's mother came out of the backyard, she heard Zhou Huaian talking about pickling the meat. "I also want to ask you, it's already the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, when are you planning to kill the pig for the New Year?"
"I didn't think about it earlier, otherwise I wouldn't be busy yesterday and today, so it would be just right to kill the pig for the New Year."
Zhou's mother rolled her eyes at him and said, "It's all in the past. Isn't what you said just nonsense?"
"We are going to collect truffles at Baicaoping tomorrow. It might be around 4 or 5 in the afternoon when we get back." Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, "The day after tomorrow? The day after tomorrow I will ask Uncle Datian and Huaiqing to go with us, and my eldest and second brothers will help at home."
Mother Zhou nodded, thought about it and asked again: "Do you really want to kill three of them?"
Zhou Huaian looked at her with a smile and asked, "Are you reluctant to part with it?"
Mother Zhou said unhappily, "Of course I can't bear to part with it. The smallest one weighs about 200 kilograms and can be sold for more than 100 yuan!"
Zhou Yumei laughed and said, "Three pigs cost four hundred yuan in total. I'd be surprised if Mom would be willing to spend that money!"
Zhou Huaian thought so too. He looked at her expression and said in a negotiating tone, "You keep the biggest one and kill it to sell in the village. We can also get a pig head and one pig's offal. How about killing the other three and eating them yourself?"
Zhou's mother had originally planned to sell these pigs at the end of the year and divide them among her children, but she never expected that the youngest son, who was a spendthrift and unpromising son, would marry a good wife, be led onto the right path, and earn so much property for the whole family.
Thinking of this, she nodded readily, "Okay! I'll go to Fangtian and find Fang the butcher to set a date."
Zhou Huaian thought he would have to talk her out of it, but when he saw her agree so readily, he said happily, "Okay! I'll take the straw back and tell my sister-in-law and the others."
"Yes!" Zhou's mother took off her apron and brushed off the grass debris on her body. She said to Zhou Yumei, "It's almost time to go back to the room and lie down. I'll take Xiaolin and the others with me."
"Well! Lock the door when you leave." Zhou Yumei said as she walked towards the room.
Zhou Huaian arrived at the backyard and saw several children gathered together. Zhou Xiaoru was holding a handkerchief, running around them while singing, "Throw, throw the handkerchief, gently put it behind the child, don't tell him, hurry up and catch him..."
As soon as Zhou Xiaolin saw him, she stood up and said, "Dad, I want to go home with you."
Zhou Huaian pulled her little hair and said, "Dad is going to pick straw, you two should go to the fields with grandma."
"Oh!" Zhou Jiakang and the others also got up, "Let's go find grandma."
Zhou Huaian returned home carrying straw, and when he walked to the backyard, he smelled the aroma of oil, "Yan'er, is the pickled cabbage sauce ready?"
"Just put the onions, ginger slices and chili peppers in and fry them." Yang Chunyan turned around and asked, "What did mom say?"
"Mom said..." Zhou Huaian repeated what he had discussed with his mother.
Zhao Huifang: "The big one has been fed for a year and a half, and it may weigh 300 kilograms."
Jiang Yu said, "A 300-jin pig can produce about 200 jin of meat. Tell your mother to leave 20 jin of rib meat and 10 jin of butt meat for my family."
Jia Chunhong and the other three took over the conversation, "We also want 20 to 30 kilograms of cured meat."
Zhou Huaian: "Look, the pigs haven't even been killed yet, but they've already sold over 100 kilograms of meat. The rest won't even be enough for Yi Ding's family."
Jiang Yu smiled and said, "Thanks to your family, everyone has some money in their pockets this year. We are reluctant to kill the pig for the New Year, but we are willing to buy 20 to 30 kilograms of meat."
Yang Chunyan poured the seasoning into the oil pan and spread it with a spoon. "Aunt Jiang, you can't say that! Our family is just like yours, thanks to Dr. Wang and the big boss in the provincial capital!"
"Yes, yes, thanks to them for giving the job to your family."
The aroma of onions, bay leaves and ginger slices was fried out, and the fragrance in the yard became stronger. After Yang Chunyan and others fried the onions until they were browned, they poured the chili peppers on the chopping board into the oil pan, and used an iron spoon to scoop the oil residue and seasoning into a big red ceramic jar.
Zhou Huaian picked up the ceramic jar and walked into the kitchen. "It's already four o'clock, why hasn't Ding Ding Cat come back yet?"
"You missed me!" Zhou Yiding came in with a bucket, "Where do you keep the fish?"
Zhou Huaian looked at the full bag and said, "There is no room here, so I'll send them to my third brother's pond first and then send a few crucian carps to my sister later."
"Wait a moment!" Zhou Yiding put down the bucket, "Youngest brother, when I was sending Xuejiao back and passing by the brigade's dam, I heard some incredible news!"
Zhou Huaian turned his head, "What happened?"
Zhou Yiding still doesn't believe it, "Cai Ermei stole the money Wang Chunhua earned from selling truffles and ran away!"
"What did you say?" Zhou Huaian looked at him with his mouth open.
"Cai Ermei stole his wife's money and ran away. It was more than 200 yuan! She didn't keep a penny. I heard that Wang Chunhua was so angry that she fainted."
"Fuck~" Zhou Huaian cursed in disgust, "What a piece of shit! When did you run away? Didn't you say you went truffle digging with us yesterday?"
Zhou Yiding pulled up a chair and sat down. "I heard that he went with us today. He said he had a stomachache at noon. Wang Chunhua saw that he was sweating coldly, so he asked him to come back and rest first."
Zhou Huaian shook his head after hearing this, "What a heartless bastard! Wang Chunhua is not very pretty, but she is really good to him!"
Zhou Yiding nodded and said, "After Cai Ermei left, she felt uneasy and went back home. When she got home, she saw that all the cabinets and boxes were open. She thought her house had been robbed."
"She hurriedly searched for the money she had hidden in the closet, but found that it was all gone, as well as Cai Ermei's better clothes and jackets. She hurried to Fangtian's gambling den to look for her, but they said they hadn't seen Cai Ermei for two days."
Zhou Huaian felt that he was really blind to be friends with such scum, "Wang Chunhua worked hard for half a month and earned almost 300 yuan, is he still a human being?
Not a cent left, how can she live with a child? This bastard has brought shame to us men."
Zhou Yiding said with disgust: "It's even more outrageous! The Wang family asked the Cai family to help find someone, and the old couple of the Cai family said that Wang Chunhua and several uncles forced him away, and asked them for their son!"
(End of this chapter)
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