Chapter 53 Quest Turn-in Pig
When Molly asked Zhao Weiguo for a letter of introduction, Zhao Weiguo was a little confused. "You're going to hand in the mission pig now?"
"Um, can I pay now?" Molly didn't quite understand.
“It’s possible, but don’t you plan to keep raising them and let them grow bigger?” Zhao Weiguo was still regretting last year that Molly’s pigs didn’t reach 200 jin (100 kg).
“They eat too much, we can’t afford to feed them,” Molly said, half-jokingly.
Zhao Weiguo didn't try to persuade him further. "Alright, I'll give you the certificate. You can borrow the village's oxcart tomorrow to take the pigs to the commune."
Molly agreed and left Zhao Wei's house. She went to her second great-uncle's house to tell him that she would need to use the oxcart the next morning.
Second Uncle didn't ask any further questions, only asking, "How early?"
Molly: "Ten o'clock. I have to go cook pig feed and feed the pigs first, it won't be until ten o'clock at all."
After leaving her second great-uncle's house, Molly went to her third uncle's house to borrow two pig cages.
Around 10 a.m. the next day, Uncle Er appeared at Molly's house in an oxcart. Molly carried out a 200-pound pig by herself, and another person lifted the pig onto the cart.
She raised both pigs by herself, without asking her second uncle for help at all.
"The pig you brought back back was the thinnest and smallest, but now your pig is the biggest in the whole brigade." Uncle Er's wise eyes looked at Molly. "You're quite something."
Molly smiled and said, "Of course I have some skills, otherwise the brigade wouldn't have made me feed the pigs."
Second Uncle shook his head; that's not what he meant.
Second Uncle drove the cart, and Molly followed behind. When they arrived at the commune, it was already noon, just as they were about to get off work.
Second Uncle drove the car into the commune gate, attracting a crowd of onlookers. Molly, holding the letter of introduction, went straight to Officer Zhang's office.
"You're going to hand in a task pig?" Officer Zhang asked in surprise. Seeing Molly nod, he asked again, "How big is the pig? Let me make it clear from the start, we don't accept pigs under 100 pounds."
“Two hundred pounds, no less. You can go downstairs and take a look now.” Molly said calmly.
"Really?" Officer Zhang gave her a deep look, his eyes filled with disbelief, and he quickly walked downstairs.
The oxcart was surrounded by a large crowd, all staring at the two pigs as if they were some kind of exotic object.
"Don't just stand there, bring the scale over here," Officer Zhang shouted.
Immediately, some people went to get a scale, while others worked together to carry the pig off the truck. They began weighing, calling out the number, and counting...
“One weighs 214 jin and the other 223 jin. These two pigs are quite heavy and deserve an excellent rating.” Officer Zhang was calculating something on a piece of paper when he looked up and asked Molly, “This year is different from last year. Last year was a year of famine, food was scarce, and everything was expensive, so the purchase price of pigs was also high. This year is different. The price of pigs has dropped, and we only receive meat coupons when we sell pigs.”
Molly remained calm, quietly observing Officer Zhang. Officer Zhang felt inexplicably pressured, but he still had to say what needed to be said: "Live pigs cost 50 cents per pound, and meat coupons only replenish one-fifth of the pork's weight."
"What if I don't want the meat coupons?" Molly didn't want to run to town to buy meat every day, especially since she had meat at home.
“You can trade with me, or with my colleagues. I think they would be very happy to do so,” Officer Zhang said with a friendly smile.
Molly nodded. "Okay, please change it for me."
"What kind of tickets do you want?" Secretary Zhang had already calculated how many tickets he had and how many meat tickets he could exchange for.
"Any ticket will do." She wasn't picky.
Molly took 218.05 yuan and a stack of tickets from Zhang, stood up to go downstairs, but Zhang called her back, "I remember you brought back five pigs, but you should have handed in two and a half pigs for the mission."
“One of them died.” Molly said expressionlessly. “That pig was thin and weak; it died on the third day after we got home.”
Officer Zhang: "..."
The tone sounded like he was blaming or complaining.
Molly and her second uncle left the commune. Molly walked in front, and her second uncle led the oxcart behind. When they passed the state-run restaurant, Molly went in and bought ten steamed buns made from two kinds of flour. She gave five to her second uncle and also gave him fifty cents.
"The steamed buns were my treat. Now that I've made some money, I'd appreciate it if you could keep the weight of my two pigs a secret," Molly said with a smile.
Her second uncle knew she was generous, so he accepted the steamed buns, saying, "Someone in the team saw your pig on the way here."
“It’s alright, they don’t know the exact number. If they ask, just say you don’t know.” Molly said, giving the remaining five steamed buns to her second uncle. “Could you please deliver the pig cage to my third uncle’s house? These five steamed buns are a token of my gratitude.”
"Fine. You're not going back?"
"I'll go to the supply and marketing cooperative for a look, no rush."
Besides the tickets she had just exchanged, Molly also had tickets mailed back by Ji Hefeng. Some of them were about to expire, and she needed to use them.
Molly went to the supply and marketing cooperative and used her soap coupons—five in total—to buy soap, since she could keep them anyway. She also bought towel coupons and toothbrush and toothpaste coupons. Next came cloth coupons, sugar coupons, and industrial coupons. She didn't have many cloth coupons, only a few feet in total, and bought fine cotton cloth with them all. She had two jin of sugar coupons and bought white sugar; they didn't sell brown sugar. She had more industrial coupons and bought a kitchen knife and a pair of scissors. Most of all, she had grain coupons and bought flour, rice, and several bundles of noodles.
Having used up all her coupons, Molly left the supply and marketing cooperative with a basket on her back. However, before she even left the town, she was blocked at a fork in the road.
"Molly, I've been waiting for you for so long!" Sister Qian, who hadn't seen Molly for a long time, looked at Molly with a wronged expression.
Molly: "......."
Most of her meat was given to the farm, and they forgot about her.
"Hey girl, I saw you taking the pigs to the supply and marketing cooperative," Sister Qian said, leaning closer to Molly. "You didn't sell all the pigs at home, did you?"
Molly shook her head. "The pig is big; you probably can't eat it."
“Two hundred catties, I heard that outside the commune. My family can’t eat it all, but I have a lot of relatives. I’ve been saving up for a long time to wait for your meat.” Sister Qian was afraid that Molly wouldn’t believe her, so she wanted to take out her money to show her. “The money is at home. You can come home with me to see it.”
"No need." Molly still trusted Sister Qian to some extent. "Live pigs are free, 80 cents a pound."
"Isn't this price a bit too high?" Sister Qian hesitated.
"I'll sell it to the commune for 50 cents a pound, but it'll only be more expensive on the black market." With only one large pig left, Molly wasn't keen on selling it; she had originally planned to save it for the New Year. If she sold it, she'd only be able to slaughter the sow for the New Year.
"Six cents a pound, plus six extra rolls of flawed fabric. Don't worry, it's all good quality, fine cotton. There aren't many flaws, just some color bleeding. The cyan and blue are mixed together, but it looks quite nice. I saved these especially for you." Sister Qian looked at Molly expectantly.
Molly immediately became interested. "Okay."
She glanced at her watch. "I'll be at your house around four o'clock tomorrow morning. Please prepare the scales in advance."
The next day, when Molly carried the pig to Sister Qian's house, Sister Qian and her family were stunned. How could she carry such a big pig like that?
Molly put the pig down. The pig's limbs and mouth were tied with rope. It struggled a few times on the ground, but didn't make much noise.
“This pig is so fat.” The speaker was a young man Molly had never seen before.
"This is my younger brother," Sister Qian introduced.
Molly nodded, ignoring the young man, and simply said, "Let's weigh it."
This pig was the biggest, bigger than the two from yesterday, weighing 232 jin (approximately 161 kg). Sister Qian counted out 139.2 yuan for Molly, then went back to get six rolls of cloth for her, earnestly instructing, "Molly, next time don't keep your sister waiting so long, okay?"
Molly didn't agree, saying, "It depends on fate."
Sister Qian's lips twitched, and she could only watch Molly leave with resentment before slamming the door shut.
"Sister, who is this? She's so beautiful!" Sister Qian's younger brother exclaimed. He had never seen such a beautiful person before.
"Don't even think about it." Sister Qian said seriously.
"How could I dare? I can't carry two hundred pounds by myself, I'm afraid she'll beat me up." He still had some self-awareness.
"Then don't ask too many questions. The less you know, the safer you are."
Molly got home after 5 p.m. She put the money in the box in the wardrobe and roughly calculated that she had nearly a thousand dollars.
Molly plans to open a savings account at the bank in a while and deposit the money in it.
She put the returned Bumolly into the closet, as she didn't have time to make clothes recently.
On the third day after Molly sold the pigs, both of her sows went into labor at the same time during the night.
Molly got up in the middle of the night to give the two sows extra food, cooking a mixture of cornmeal, pumpkin, and vegetables. Moan was woken up and, upon learning that the sows were giving birth, nervously stood guard at the door.
The sows didn't successfully give birth until 6 a.m. One sow gave birth to six piglets, and the other gave birth to eight, for a total of fourteen piglets.
Molly wiped her face and suddenly realized that she wasn't quite up to the task. How could she possibly raise so many pigs?
"How many months old is the roast suckling pig?" she asked Moan.
Mo An shook his head. "I don't know either."
Molly sighed, "Fine, let's keep them for now. If we can't afford to keep them, we'll kill them."
In early November, the brigade will begin the autumn harvest. First come soybeans, corn, and peanuts, then sweet potatoes, potatoes, and finally rice.
Molly still didn't participate; she was busy raising pigs—the team's pigs and her own family's pigs—and was too tired to speak every day. Mo An tried her best to help every day, rushing home after school to water the vegetables and feed the chickens, pigs, and rabbits.
At the end of December, after the farm work was finished, the brigade dried the rice, tallied work points, and prepared to distribute the grain. They had already delivered the grain to the state and distributed it once during the summer.
This time, the brigade was to hand in the task pigs. The brigade leader and accountant decided to hand in five pigs, and the brigade would keep the remaining four for themselves to slaughter.
On the day the task pig was handed over, the whole brigade came to watch the spectacle.
The pigs were weighed at the brigade first, and the number was announced after each pig was weighed. The first pig weighed 252 jin.
Upon hearing this number, the team members were thrilled. The animal had grown to 252 pounds in less than a year, something that had never happened in their brigade before.
However, this was just the beginning; the numbers that followed were all bigger than the last, with the largest weighing 270 jin (approximately 135 kg).
The captain and the accountant laughed so hard their eyes were practically slits.
"How much money and tickets can these five pigs be exchanged for?" someone asked.
"I don't know, but there are a lot."
"Then we'll definitely get a lot of money this year."
"We can still get a lot of meat; there are still four pigs left in the sty."
"Molly said she'd let us eat a big fat pig at the end of the year, and she kept her word."
"She's really something, we'll let her raise pigs again next year."
"Yes, let her raise pigs. I wouldn't agree to it if it were anyone else."
Molly, who no longer wanted to raise pigs: "........"
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