Chapter 46 Returning to the Farm
Spring plowing has temporarily come to an end, but the busy farming season is not over yet. After another week of rain, the fields began to flood, and the production team had to arrange for experienced elderly people to cultivate rice seedlings.
This was none of Molly's business; as soon as the rain stopped, she was going to start harvesting corn. Her corn was ripe, but no one knew except her sister and Moan. Molly pulled the corn stalks up by the roots. She didn't dare leave the stalks outside—she couldn't explain it—so she piled them under the eaves to dry and use as firewood.
Although the area planted with corn is not large, almost every corn stalk has two ears of corn growing on it. The corn ears are big and long, and Mohe has never seen corn like this before.
“Something’s not right.” Mo He had felt for a long time that something was wrong with her sister, and that the things she was growing were also wrong, but she didn’t dare to think about it in detail, nor did she want to.
She stared into Molly's eyes. "Although we're destroying the Four Olds now and can't mention superstitious things, that doesn't mean they don't believe in them. It's not right for you to grow such good corn this season."
Molly said calmly, "I won't let anyone know."
“But you’re not home all the time. If someone tries to take advantage of the situation, you can’t stop them,” Mo He said, still worried.
Molly knew this too. "I want to get a dog. Sister, can you ask around and see if there are any dog owners around here?"
“It would be good to get a dog.” Mo He frowned. “But I’m afraid it will be hard to find a puppy. I’ll have someone ask around for you.”
The corn cobs filled three baskets and two sacks. For the next few days, Molly stayed home, tending to the vegetable garden, drying the corn, and picking the kernels.
After the corn kernels dried, she replanted them. She scattered corn kernels wherever there was even a small patch of open space in the vegetable garden.
After replanting the corn, Molly went up the mountain, picked and chose, and brought back a few large stones. She then carved a stone mill herself.
Corn kernels are coarse, boiling corn is time-consuming, and it doesn't taste very good. Molly plans to grind it into corn flour, which can be used to make pancakes or steamed buns. The stone mill in Molly's house ran for four days, grinding all the corn kernels into corn flour, weighing about three or four hundred pounds.
Molly had Mo An deliver five jin to Mo He, just the right amount, so as not to arouse suspicion from Li Xiaoju and Zhao Shangxun.
These past few days, Molly has made cornbread buns, steamed cornbread cakes, and cornbread pancakes, changing the recipe every day.
By mid-March, Molly's family had run out of cured wild boar meat.
The commune issued a notice to the brigade, instructing the brigade to purchase poultry and livestock from the commune in five days.
Molly thought for a moment and said to Mo An, "We'll slaughter a pig tomorrow."
From December of last year to mid-March of this year, those wild boars stayed at her house for more than four months. They grew from 40 to 50 pounds when they first came back to 160 to 170 pounds now, which is faster than domestic pigs.
Molly planned to kill the two castrated boars, keeping the two sows to breed with the boars sent by the commune. She remembered that the commune's pigs weren't castrated every year before being put on the market.
Castrating pigs is risky, and the commune was not keen to take that risk; selling uncastrated pigs was the usual practice.
Mo An also felt that the pigs in the house should be slaughtered. There were currently thirty-four chickens at home, including three hens and thirty-one half-grown chicks. These chickens alone consumed a bucket of pig feed every day. Now, the pigs and chickens were eating the same food.
In addition, these chickens also eat two baskets of vegetables.
Their home is at the foot of the mountain. These chickens go out after eating every day, come home several times a day to eat, and then go out again after they're full.
The pigs eat even more; every day, a whole iron pot is filled to the brim, and they also consume two extra baskets of pig feed. Soon, another batch of piglets will be brought home, and without slaughtering the adult pigs, his family can't afford to raise them anymore.
The chicks are still small, so no one is saying anything now. But if they grow up, their family will definitely get complaints.
Molly was reluctant to sell the chicks; they already weighed a pound or two, and in another two or three months, they would grow to three or four pounds and be ready to eat. Having grown tired of wild boar meat, Molly now craved chicken.
The next morning, before Mo An even got out of bed, Molly killed the two pigs without making a sound. When Mo An got up, he saw two pig carcasses in the yard, along with a large wooden basin of pig blood.
Mo An: "......" He got up early on purpose, but he still couldn't help.
Molly burned the pig hair and skin with corn stalks, then brushed the ash off the pig skin with water. "Go prepare breakfast, eat it and then go to school. Come back at noon for the pig-slaughtering feast."
"Sister, what are you going to do with all this pork?" The weather is getting warmer, and it won't last long. If you smoke it, it might spoil.
"Make it into braised pork." This was something Molly had already decided on. Her own pigs didn't have the gamey smell of wild boar, and the meat wasn't as coarse, so she didn't plan to sell them. She intended to make braised pork, which could be preserved for a year without any problem.
Besides her family, some supplies will also be sent to the Ji family at the farm.
After dealing with the two pigs, she will go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a few large earthenware jars, which will be bigger than the ones she bought last time.
By the time Molly finished processing the two pigs, it was already afternoon. She hurried out to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought two large earthenware jars that could hold fifty catties of water and three large earthenware jars that could hold thirty catties of water.
Back home, she immediately washed and dried the earthenware pot. Then she began cutting the pork into pieces the size of an adult man's fist. She only removed the large bones from the pig; the smaller bones, such as ribs, she chopped up along with the meat, and soon put them all into the iron pot to fry.
Because Molly was too busy, she was too lazy to cook dinner and asked Mo An to ask Mo He to come and help.
For dinner, they ate pork offal and similar dishes. Mo He stir-fried a plate of pork offal, and then cleaned the rest and braised them.
"Your wild boar is really fat, with lots of fat." Mo He knew that Molly raised wild boars, but he didn't know that Molly's wild boars had grown so big.
"The food was good," Molly said. "Sister, take some braised pork and pig's blood back with you later. I went to town today, so if anyone asks, just say I bought them there."
Mo He didn't refuse. She had worked too hard during the spring plowing season and her body was severely depleted. She suffered excruciating pain during her periods and worried that she wouldn't be able to conceive if she didn't take good care of herself.
Thanks to her sister's occasional extra meals, her condition would have been much worse.
“I’m going to visit Ji Hefeng’s family tomorrow. I’ll leave my family in my sister’s care for the next few days,” Molly said.
"Going again?" Mo He frowned.
"Hmm. I won't have time once the whole team's pigs come back. I'll go over there before these pigs return."
"Be careful on the road."
"Don't worry, sister, I know."
After dinner, Molly asked Mohe to fry some meat for her while she went to the brigade leader's house. She didn't go empty-handed; she brought half a basket of yams.
The captain didn't make things difficult for her. "The pigs will arrive in a few days. Don't be late."
Molly smiled, pursing her lips. "No."
The captain waved his hand, "Go."
As soon as Molly left, the brigade leader's wife couldn't help but praise, "Molly is so good at handling things. She never comes empty-handed. Look at these yams, tsk tsk, they're growing so well, they're as thick as your little grandson's arm."
"That's because she's capable. She raises her young brother all by herself and lives a better life than anyone else." The captain admired Molly from the bottom of his heart. It's rare for a woman to do something like this, with her loyalty, compassion, and strength.
After finishing his meal, Zhao Shangxun still hadn't seen his wife return. He moved a stool outside and started twisting straw rope in the dark, glancing down the mountainside every now and then.
"What good food does Molly's family have? Why do they always only invite Mo He and never you?" Li Xiaoju was very dissatisfied with this, feeling that Mo He didn't care about her husband and never invited her son when they went out to eat good food.
Zhao Shangxun didn't mind. "Molly has given us plenty of things too. Mom, you know, aren't the things Molly and Mo An always give us the best? Even if we don't reciprocate, they don't get angry. They still give us what they need to give. Where can you find relatives like that?"
Li Xiaoju choked. Her son was right. There was no better relative than Molly. "But I just wanted you to have a nice meal too."
“Mother, stop talking, Mohe is back,” Zhao Shangxun said.
Li Xiaoju turned her head and saw Mo He walking back carrying a wooden basin. She immediately smiled and went to greet her, "Oh my, what is this? Are you tired? Let me help you carry it."
Mo He let Li Xiaoju take the wooden basin, as her arm was getting tired.
"It's pig's blood, and some fried pork from my sister. She went to town today to buy some meat, and because she felt sorry for me working so hard during the spring planting season, she gave me some to bring back," Mo He said proudly.
The wooden basin contained congealed pig's blood, and there was also an enamel basin filled with large chunks of meat, all soaking in fragrant lard.
Li Xiaoju swallowed hard, stammering, "So many?"
She hadn't seen anything so oily in a long time.
Mo He was quite pleased with Li Xiaoju's demeanor and said calmly, "My sister is generous. It's getting hot, and this pig's blood won't last until tomorrow. Mother, why don't you cook it? If it's cooked, it can be kept for a couple more days."
Li Xiaoju readily agreed, "Yes, we have to cook it. It would be such a waste to let so much pig's blood go bad. Son, are you hungry? Pick some greens, and I'll cook you a bowl of pig's blood and greens soup in a bit."
"Mother, cook three bowls, one for each of us." Zhao Shangxun said helplessly. It was clearly Mo He who brought the food back, so why did his mother forget about Mo He again?
Mo He didn't care. If she wanted to eat, she would try to get it for herself even if Li Xiaoju didn't give it to her. But she wasn't hungry right now. "You guys eat. I've already eaten at my sister's house."
When I woke up in the morning, the house was still filled with a greasy, oily smell.
Molly made corn tortillas, which she paired with freshly picked lettuce from the garden and offal that Mohe had braised yesterday. They tasted quite delicious.
After breakfast, she took out a carrying pole. At one end hung two earthenware pots stacked together, weighing about 100 jin (50 kg) in total, and at the other end was a burlap sack containing 100 jin (50 kg) of cornmeal. The pots were wrapped with straw rope several times, making them look very sturdy. She also carried a burlap sack on her back, filled with dried mushrooms. In her hand, she carried a smaller burlap sack containing two boneless pig heads. The two pig heads had been salted; one was cut in half and tied with straw rope, while the other remained whole.
Molly timed things perfectly today; the car arrived just as she reached the commune gate.
"Oh, it's you, Molly!" Ticket seller Sister Sun greeted Molly warmly. "Are you giving away something again this time?"
“I’m going to visit some relatives,” Molly said.
Sister Sun helped Molly load her things into the car, let her sit next to her, and said enviously, "Girl, you're living such a good life."
Molly shook her head repeatedly, "Country folks, manual laborers, can't compare to Sister Sun and Uncle Qian."
Uncle Qian was the driver.
When Uncle Qian heard Molly mention him, he smiled at Molly and then turned back to his car.
Molly brought over the bag containing the pig's head meat and whispered to Sister Sun, "Our team hunted a wild boar, and I brought a pig's head meat with me. Sister Sun, you and Uncle Qian can each have half. But I don't have enough bags at home. Do you have any bags to put it in?"
Upon hearing that there was meat, Sister Sun's eyes lit up. Taking advantage of the fact that there were few people on the bus, she found a cloth bag and said, "Give me the meat first, and I'll share it with Uncle Qian when we get to the station."
“Okay.” Molly picked up the straw rope and put the two pieces of pig’s head meat into Sister Sun’s cloth bag.
"This wild boar is really big," Sister Sun exclaimed. Half a pig's head with an ear attached looked to weigh five or six pounds.
This girl is so generous; she just gave away these succulents like that.
Sister Sun hid the meat, grabbed a handful of hard candies from her pocket, and stuffed them into Molly's hand. "I don't have anything good, so take these candies and eat them."
"Thank you, Sister Sun." Molly unwrapped the candy in front of Sister Sun, popped it into her mouth, and smiled so much that her eyes narrowed. "So sweet."
Seeing that she liked it, Sister Sun was also happy. "Silly child, how can candy not be sweet?"
Uncle Qian tossed something to Molly, "Chicken cake, you should try it too."
"Thank you, Uncle Qian. I'll eat it when I get hungry at noon." Molly had never eaten sponge cake before. The supply and marketing cooperative sold it, but she didn't have the coupons and had never had the chance to try it.
After getting off the bus and transferring, Molly arrived at Xu Xia'an's house after dark.
Upon seeing Molly, the entire Xu family surrounded her, their enthusiasm making Molly feel somewhat uncomfortable.
In the end, it was Xu Xia'an who saved Molly. "Sister-in-law, you haven't had dinner yet, have you? We're having dinner now, come sit down and eat with us."
Molly was indeed starving. She handed the sack with the remaining pig's head to Xu Xia'an, saying, "This pig was slaughtered yesterday and salted. See if it has any flavor."
Seeing that it was another pig's head inside, Xu Xia'an's lips twitched. "Why do you bring us this every time you come?"
"Just what's left." Molly said without the slightest hint of guilt.
Xu Xia'an: "......."
"You're lucky to have anything to eat, why are you being picky?" Xu's mother slapped Xu Xia'an on the back. "Aren't you going to thank Molly?"
“Aunt Molly, my uncle also likes to eat pig’s head meat. He always picks out the fatty parts.”
"Aunt Molly, I also like to eat pig's head meat, thank you."
"I like to eat pig's snout."
"I like pig ears."
The children chattered amongst themselves, drooling as they looked at the big pig's head.
"Eat, eat, Grandma will cook for you right away," Mrs. Xu said with a smile, then looked at Molly, "Molly, sit for a while, I'll add another dish, it'll be ready soon."
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