Li Zhouzhou was afraid of getting the blood dirty, so he put a layer of gauze on the edge of the bowl so that the chicken blood seeped in cleanly. It got cold quickly today, so after bleeding, he quickly poured in the prepared salt water, stirred it with chopsticks, and left it there for a while before it solidified.

　　When you want to eat it, cut it into pieces with a knife and stew it with vegetables. It is as tender as tofu. The only difference is that the chicken blood has a strong flavor, so you have to stew it with pickled cabbage to cover it up.

　　Whether it is chicken blood or pig blood, the villagers have some meat all year round, and none of these things are wasted.

　　The boiling water began to remove the chicken feathers, washed it twice, cleaned the internal organs, and kept the edible ones. Li Zhouzhou carried the basin into the kitchen and began to separate the bones and meat. If it were a chicken, he and his father could eat it for ten days or half a month, but now it was over.

　　It’s just past noon.

　　Someone was visiting Aunt Wang’s yard next door, doing their work and chatting. Someone sniffed and said, “What a nice smell! What’s that?”

　　What kind of smell could it have? It smells like roast chicken.

　　No one responded. The one who had just spoken raised his eyebrows, pointed at the Li family’s courtyard wall, and said, “Is the Li family stewing chicken for us today?”

　　”Why are you killing chickens on this day?” It’s not a festival, why are you killing chickens? He’s just showing off that he has a chicken that he can’t eat.

　　The smell became more and more fragrant, and it seemed like there was multi-grain rice.

　　It was obvious that he had eaten not long ago, but the smell now made those who were talking and chatting with him feel greedy. The multi-grain porridge he had in the morning was as good as nothing he had eaten. Also, it was gone in a pee.

　　Zhang Jia^[1]one from Zhang family threw the scissors in her hand heavily into the basket, and as if she was afraid that the neighbors couldn’t hear her, she raised her voice and said, “What are you showing off for? Yesterday he was making lard, and today he’s eating chicken. He really thinks he’s a rich man. Even the village chief can’t do this.”

　　”Are you still frying lard?” someone asked Aunt Wang.

　　There was a wasteland next to the Li family, with no one living there. This side was right next to the Wang family, and next to the Wang family was the Zhang family. Even though they were separated by one house, the Zhang family could smell the lard that the Li family had fried yesterday afternoon.

　　Aunt Wang didn’t like the Zhang family, but as neighbors, the Zhang family was aggressive and powerful, and they were good at slandering others. For example, Li Zhouzhou refused to marry her distant nephew, and the Zhang family has been resentful ever since then, and will never let go of anyone who can talk to them.

　　Look, the Li family can even brag about making lard.

　　Aunt Wang didn’t want to cause trouble, especially since the Zhang family was talking about Li Zhouzhou, not her, so she nodded and said “hmm”, adding at the end, “You’re not eating my food.”

　　It means it has nothing to do with the Zhang family.

　　”Li Da didn’t realize that he had found a son-in-law for Zhou Zhou and held a grand ceremony, thinking that he would have little money left, but now you see he has to kill chickens and eat meat.”

　　”Who would have thought that the Li family had two mud-brick houses in the beginning, and now they have changed into the big courtyard they have today? Wow, they are really ahead of others.”

　　These words hurt Aunt Wang’s heart. The two families used to live next to each other, both had mud-brick houses but no courtyard walls. Now that the Li family’s courtyard wall had been built, Aunt Wang’s house looked even more dilapidated.

　　Aunt Wang glanced at the person who spoke, feeling upset.

　　The aroma was getting stronger and stronger. Those who were chatting and chatting were not paying attention and their work was not energetic. Niu Dan, the youngest son of the Zhang family, ran over from the yard and threw himself on Zhang’s lap, shouting at his mother was hungry and wanted to eat meat.

　　”Eat, eat, eat, eat shit.” The Zhang family was upset.

　　Niu Dan is only four years old. Although he can read people’s faces, he loves the smell of meat. He drank a bowl of watery multi-grain porridge in the morning. He was already hungry after running around in the yard. Now he is not afraid of death and rolls on the ground holding his mother’s legs.

　　”Mom, I’m hungry. Niu Dan is hungry. Eat some meat.”

　　Everyone was watching the fun, and some even joked, “Niu Dan wants to eat meat, so ask your mother to cook it for you tomorrow.”

　　Burning shit, who can build it like the Li family?

　　Zhang’s wife was so worried about her chicken that she glared at the person who was talking to her. She was deliberately making fun of her. She twisted Niu Dan’s ear with one hand, and Niu Dan cried in pain, still shouting for meat. Zhang’s wife suddenly rolled her eyes, loosened her hand, laughed, and said, “If you want to eat meat, go ask for it from someone who cooks meat. If you get it, you can eat it.”

　　The people doing the work were stunned.

　　The Zhang family is instigating their son Niu Dan to go to the Li family to beg for food. This is really shameless.

　　Meat is rare in every household in the village, but no one is so poor that they go to other people’s houses to beg for food for no reason. They are not beggars. They will be stabbed in the back and their backs will not be straightened. But when I think of Zhang’s family, this person is shameless and his testicles are small, so it’s okay to go there with a shameless face.

　　The main reason was the unpleasantness between the Li family and the Zhang family, and everyone knew it. The Zhang family probably didn’t expect to get the Niu Dan after all this action, so if they didn’t get it, they would find a reason to scold the Li family again.

　　They said Li Zhouzhou was stingy, mean and cruel, and wouldn’t even give her children a bite of meat to eat.

　　Niu Dan stood up and ran to the next door while wiping his nose. Zhang’s family was happy to be alone, crossing their legs to watch the show, and when Niu Dan came back crying, they were ready to roll up their sleeves and start scolding.

　　When someone in the village stews or eats meat, they always close the door and eat it secretly. Some people shamelessly visit neighbors when they smell something, so how can they not ask if they want to eat the food after it’s been cooked?

　　Especially since Zhang’s family was so loud in criticizing Li Zhouzhou’s stew, they must have heard it and probably closed the door early. Niu Dandan ran away and embarrassed himself.