Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Eating meat? You really don’t know how to live.
As the sun grew hotter, the adults who had been working in the fields returned home to take a short rest.
Grandma Gu could smell the aroma of meat from a distance. "Oh, who's so generous? They're cutting meat and eating it before the busy farming season even begins? They really don't know how to live!"
My aunt also twitched her nose, took two deep breaths, and was almost dizzy with the fragrance. I wondered whose daughter-in-law this was? Her cooking skills were quite good. Just smelling the smell made me very greedy. "Mom, it seems to be coming from our house."
Second Aunt took over the conversation. "It must be the Sun family. I saw her selling a basket of eggs today."
Grandma Gu shook her head repeatedly. She said disapprovingly, "Even if she had money, she shouldn't have wasted it like this. Her family is already struggling, and the money from cutting a palm-sized piece of meat could buy three pounds of cornmeal!"
"Who says it's not? I heard that her eldest daughter is getting worse and worse. She coughs all day long. We can hear it in our room. Hey, maybe she wants to nourish her daughter."
The neighboring Sun family was also a pitiful family. Old Mrs. Sun had only one son and one daughter. When her daughter was a teenager, she was sold to a trafficker for half a bag of wheat due to a severe drought. Her life or death is still unknown.
Five years ago, his only son died of exhaustion while doing labor service to repair the city wall, leaving behind an orphan and a widowed mother of four.
Mrs. Sun felt guilty towards her daughter and missed her son so much that she cried herself blind. Now she can do nothing.
Of my two grandchildren, the eldest granddaughter was born with a deficiency. She would get sick and need medicine at the slightest change of season. My grandson, although normal, was only five years old and couldn't help much.
Therefore, the livelihood of the entire family depends on Sun's daughter-in-law alone.
Fortunately, the daughter-in-law was also a hard-working person and did not abandon the children and the elderly and leave alone.
Three years ago, her family came to persuade her to go back and remarry, but she made a request: she could remarry, but she had to take her children and mother-in-law with her.
Who would agree to such a request? Everyone lives in poverty. Marrying a wife would not only have to help raise children, but also take care of the elderly. Who would be willing to do that?
The matter was dropped at that point.
The Sun family's daughter-in-law managed the family's farmland alone and also raised dozens of chickens and ducks for eggs. Although life was hard, it was not without hope.
While everyone was talking, the family had already arrived at the gate of the courtyard.
"No! It's our family that's cooking meat!" Grandma Gu slapped her thigh and quickened her pace.
After entering the yard, he rushed straight into the kitchen without even putting down the hoe on his shoulder.
Immediately, Grandma Gu's full-throated curses could be heard from the kitchen. "God, God! You unlucky kids, you're just going to die, right? Are you all going to hang yourself tomorrow? You're going to stew all this meat in one pot?"
Gu Zhigeng's weak voice came: "No...no, there is still half a basin in the cupboard."
Recalling the incident of buying meat in the morning, Gu Zhigeng still felt like a dream.
In the morning, she took Sister Hua Chao to the butcher Zhang's house. Sister Hua Chao took out a silver coin and asked for half a piece of pork. She was so shocked that she couldn't recover for a long time.
If she hadn't tried her best to stop it, Sister Hua Chao would have given up this bold idea and bought the hind leg meat instead.
"How dare you talk back! Oh my God, why did I support these debt collectors? They are not eating meat! They are clearly drinking my blood!" Grandma Gu was so anxious that she picked up the spatula in the pot and wanted to hit them.
Gu Zhi knew his grandmother's temper well, so he ran out in fear. But he was worried that the meat in the pot would burn, so he thought again and again and finally ran back.
Anyway, grandma won’t beat her to death. The meat in the pot is more important.
The others hurried to the kitchen. The overbearing aroma of meat filled their noses, and their mouths were drooling uncontrollably, almost unable to contain it.
"Oh my god, am I seeing things? Such a big pot full of meat?" The aunt wondered if she was so hungry that she was hallucinating.
The uncle, who followed closely behind, lay on top of the aunt and also swallowed his saliva. "It can't be an illusion, I saw the ribs tumbling in the pot, and the radish, oh my, it's stewed to a pulp!"
"Mom is so angry, will she overturn the pot?" Uncle Er was a little worried.
"No, my mother may be old, but she's not crazy yet. She knows what's in the pot."
"Grandma, please don't scold my sisters. I asked them to buy this and cook this. I thought about how hard you work and how you come home to eat only a sweet potato and a bowl of porridge. How can that be? So I want to improve your diet."
Gu Jiayue had been watching her father weaving bamboo baskets in her room when she heard her grandmother's scream. She knew something was wrong. When she ran out, she was still a step too late, and her sisters took the blame for her.
"You! You!" Grandma Gu pointed at Gu Jiayue, thousands of words stuck in her throat, difficult to speak.
After all, she was not raised by me, and Gu Jiayue just came back, so some things are really not easy to say in front of the whole family.
"Okay, Jiayue means well. Now that we've done it, it's too late to say anything more. Marinate the meat in the cupboard with salt and eat it during the New Year." Grandpa Gu, as the head of the family, stepped forward and stabilized the situation.
What? It's only April now, and it's still a long way to go before the Chinese New Year. Does that mean I can't eat meat anymore?
Although Gu Jiayue might not live to see the New Year, she still felt that her life had suddenly become dark and gloomy.
Life without meat is incomplete!
"Salt doesn't cost money? How much salt is needed to marinate such a big piece of meat?" Grandma Gu opened the cupboard and saw a big piece of hind leg meat in the basin. She felt that the past few decades of her life had been in vain.
"Then what do you think we should do? Eat it all? Then we can't live anymore?" Grandpa Gu was at a loss as to what to do.
He only knew how to farm, and everything at home had always been managed by Grandma Gu. "Forget it, you can do it yourself."
After saying this, he put his hands behind his back and walked away.
He was afraid that if he didn't leave, someone would hear the rumbling sound of his stomach.
Seeing Grandpa Gu leave, the eldest and second uncles also hurriedly followed. Although I wanted to stay and continue to smell the meat, my mother was too fierce. If I stayed, I was afraid of being scolded without distinction.
The eldest aunt, the second aunt and Mrs. Li also wanted to leave, but they didn't dare.
The eldest aunt rolled her eyes and stepped forward to take the meat. "Mom, why don't you hang the meat in a well-ventilated place? You can make it into wind-blown meat."
Grandma Gu rolled her eyes at her aunt. As soon as anyone in this large family raised their butt, she knew who was about to fart.
This old lady is good in every way except that she is cunning and greedy. If it's hanging under the eaves, she'll have to tear off a little bit and put it in her mouth every day, right?
Humph, forget it!
After putting the meat in the cupboard, Grandma Gu took out a large bowl and scooped out most of the ribs from the pot. Originally, the pot was full of ribs and radish stew, but now only radish was left.
No one dared to speak, and Gu Jiayue could only watch as Grandma Gu put the large porcelain bowl filled with ribs into the cupboard and locked it.
"Come with me!" After locking the meat, Grandma Gu looked at Gu Jiayue seriously.
Gu Jiayue followed Grandma Gu into the room, not even daring to raise her head. She could only look down at Grandma Gu rummaging through boxes and cabinets looking for something. "Here!"
Oh my God, she didn’t expect Grandma Gu to hand her a silver ingot!
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