Grandpa Gu Bei thought Qiao An'an's idea was very good.
No secret can stay hidden forever. Even if the people in their courtyard keep quiet, people in the neighborhood might still find out that they hunted a wild boar.
Now that it's the end of the world, their small courtyard is full of elderly people, women, and children. It might not be a good thing if they just hoard the food for themselves.
However, blindly following others is not necessarily a good thing.
Won't it make the people in the neighborhood think that they have so much food that they can't eat it all?
Grandpa Gu Bei stood up, leaning on his chair: "I think instead of giving it away, we should bring out the wild boar and have everyone eat it together. Tomorrow is the Lunar New Year, so we can cook the offal and innards together to make a 'pig-killing feast' and celebrate the New Year together."
Qiao An'an thought Grandpa Gu Bei's words made a lot of sense and agreed with his suggestion. Together with Chi Xiaoyu, they carried the wild boar to the road outside the yard: "We hunted a wild boar. Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year. We thought we could have a pig-killing feast with you all and celebrate the New Year together."
After the apocalypse, we'll live one day at a time; just surviving will be a blessing.
If Qiao An'an and the others hadn't mentioned it, no one in the neighborhood would have realized that today was actually Lunar New Year's Eve.
I saw that the people in the small courtyard had killed a wild boar.
They even carried the wild boar onto the road, saying they wanted to share it with everyone.
Everyone in the neighborhood was very happy. After all, it was a wild boar weighing two or three hundred pounds, and it was hunted by someone from the small courtyard. They could have easily chosen not to share it with them.
Even Zhou Ya, who had previously said that there were many resources in the back mountain and that the wall around the small courtyard was to prevent them from entering the mountain, kept quiet.
Everyone hadn't had a proper meat feast in a long time, so they were all very enthusiastic about participating in the preparation of the pork stew. Grandpa Li said he could help with the intestines, as he was best at making blood sausage.
Aunt Fang said she could make braised offal, and that she had a unique recipe that would ensure the offal wouldn't have any unpleasant smell after cooking.
Li Jianguo, Qi Feng, and others were responsible for tending the fire.
Shen Zhou and Fang Yuyang cut the tenderloin and ribs off the pig.
Such a big wild boar, even if everyone in the neighborhood ate it together for the New Year, they still couldn't finish it. And now that the weather is cold, it can be stored for a long time even without a refrigerator. They cut the lean meat and ribs in half, giving one half to Qiao An'an and the others, and asking Aunt Fang to keep the other half for later.
They then cut off the wild boar's head and buried it in the snow. According to custom, the pig's head is to be eaten on the second day of the second lunar month. The pork belly is coated with honey sauce, wrapped in tin foil, and roasted over a fire.
Qiao An'an took out the pickled cabbage that had been marinating for a long time, cut it into shreds, rinsed it several times to remove the excess salt, and then stewed it with the pork bones. The pickled cabbage and pork bones were paired with only two slices of ginger. After the pot boiled, the aroma came out, and the smell made the children linger around the stove for a long time.
Looking at those expectant eyes, Qiao An'an thought that if they weren't still undercooked, she would have served each of them a bowl.
Just as it was about to be taken out of the pot, Grandpa Li put the blood sausage he had prepared back in.
A large pot of sauerkraut stew with pork was ready. As he added firewood, Grandpa Li said, "It would be even better with some glass noodles."
Besides the sauerkraut stewed pork, Nan Qiao and the others also washed a lot of vegetables.
After a busy day, the children each took a bowl of pork bone soup and a piece of roasted pork belly, and went off to eat and play.
The adults, on the other hand, gathered around the large pot and started cooking hot pot.
There are two types of hot pot: one with clear broth and the other with spicy broth.
The elderly, who preferred light flavors, sat around one table, while another table was packed with young people who loved spicy food. Li Jianguo even brought out his treasured bottle of baijiu: "No feast is complete without wine! Everyone, whether they can drink or not, has to fill their glasses. We're not leaving until we're all drunk!!!"
This enthusiasm infected Grandpa Gu Bei, who loved to drink. He raised his glass and said in a very bold manner, "We won't leave until we're drunk."
This startled Qin Chengguo. He stopped Grandpa Gu Bei, who was about to down the liquor in one gulp, and began his lecture: "This is 53-proof liquor! Grandpa, you only had surgery two months ago. You can't drink liquor, and you definitely can't down it in one go. It will harm your health!"
Grandpa Gu Bei dismissed it: "It's just a minor surgery, and two months have passed. I used to drink even after being shot, and I'm still alive and well now, aren't I?"
Unable to stop Grandpa Gu Bei, Qin Chengguo could only look to Qiao An'an for help.
Qiao An'an poured most of the liquor from Grandpa Gu Bei's quilt into her own: "How old were you when you were shot? How old are you now? Don't forget you still have Xiao Bei to take care of. If your health collapses, don't expect us to take care of Xiao Bei for you!"
Grandpa Gu Bei's biggest concern is still his eldest grandson.
He had been under too much pressure since the apocalypse, and today's rare release led him to indulge in alcohol.
He had no appetite and his stomach was always hurting. He really thought he had a terminal illness, which is why he adopted that reckless fighting style and thought that Qiao An'an would help take care of Xiao Bei after he died.
Now that he knows he doesn't have a terminal illness and can live a long time, he naturally has to take care of his health. After all, it's never as good as taking care of the child himself as entrusting him to someone else. He smiled, picked up the lower half of his glass of baijiu, took a small sip, and then assured Qiao An'an, "I'll only drink this much tonight, okay?"
It's the Lunar New Year, we can't just not let Grandpa Gu Bei have a single drop of wine.
Qiao An'an nodded: "Okay."
As night fell, snowflakes began to drift down from the sky.
But that still couldn't dampen everyone's enthusiasm for celebrating the New Year.
Outside the community wall, the water channel, which had been widened several times, kept the zombies out. Chen Zhou and his team even dug up the previous bike path connecting the community to the outside, replacing it with a suspension bridge that could be raised and lowered at any time. Normally, the suspension bridge is raised, so even if the sounds inside the community attract the zombies outside, the zombies cannot cross the water channel to enter the community.
The children, who had just finished dinner, were planning to stay up all night to welcome the New Year.
But their eyelids kept drooping, and eventually the adults sent them back to their rooms to sleep.
After the children went to sleep, the adults continued their dinner, as if they intended to extend the meal into the first day of the new year.
The residents of the neighborhood ate meat with gusto, drank to their hearts' content, and chatted happily in front of the makeshift stoves, as if the apocalypse had never happened.
Qiao An'an wasn't a big drinker; before the apocalypse, she could only manage a bottle of beer. But today, she still took a sip of baijiu (Chinese liquor). The baijiu was very strong, and after it entered her mouth, it burned from her throat all the way down to her stomach, but it gave her a feeling of being alive.
At the turn of the year, she made a New Year's wish.
I hope to always be able to face these vibrant faces, and I hope the apocalypse ends soon.
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