After much discussion, they decided to return to Shanglin Daqi for the New Year.

The main reason was the house in the countryside.

A house that has been unoccupied for a long time will become abandoned quickly, so it was necessary to return and live in it for a while.

They could already start preparing the New Year goods.

The family discussed what to buy for the New Year.

Lin Yongcheng and Bai Ji had turned in their unit tickets, as they still had to work. The task of buying New Year goods was left to Li Qiurong and Bai Zhu.

In those days, materials were scarce, so there wasn’t much that could be bought.

The list of New Year goods wasn’t long—it was mostly food.

The next morning, as Lin Yongcheng and Bai Ji were having breakfast, someone knocked on the courtyard door.

Lin Yongcheng put down his bowl, saying, “I’ll go see who’s here so early.”

When he opened the door, he saw Lin Yongcheng’s brother, Lin Yongye, standing outside.

“Bang!”

As soon as the door opened, Lin Yongcheng quickly shut it again.

It wasn’t that he had something against his brother, but he was holding a whole pig’s hind leg.

Although they were brothers, they didn’t have much in the way of dealings. Most of the time, Lin Yongye would bring over a few small fish, and they would have a meal together.

But a whole pig’s hind leg was a different matter.

Lin Yongcheng’s first thought was that his brother had come to borrow money.

He leaned against the door and said, “Lin Laoer, if you want to borrow money, you might as well turn back. We can’t afford your pig’s hind leg this New Year.”

As the New Year approached, everyone had many things to prepare.

Lin Yongcheng wasn’t lacking money, but he didn’t want to lend any out, especially not during the New Year.

Lin Yongye, standing outside, was speechless.

When the door opened, he had been about to enter, but nearly had the door slammed in his face. Was this really his brother?

“I’m not here to borrow money.”

“Then why bring a whole pig’s hind leg to my house? What do you want?”

“Are you kidding? Do you think I could bring you a whole pig’s hind leg?” Lin Yongye said, looking at him helplessly. “This pig’s hind leg isn’t mine. It’s from Lin Zhijun.

He asked me to bring it to you for the New Year.”

As the year came to a close, families in the countryside were slaughtering pigs.

They gave half of a pig as a task, and kept the other half for themselves.

In those days, the meat wasn’t plentiful, and with most people struggling to eat, pigs only ate pigweed and couldn’t get very fat.

If a pig could weigh over a hundred jin, it was quite impressive, but even then, only the hind legs had a little more meat.

Lin Zhijun wasn’t sure where Bai’s family was celebrating the New Year, but since Lin Yongye was working in the county town, it was convenient for him to bring something. So, the pig’s hind leg was brought to town.

Lin Yongye opened the door again.

After thinking about Lin Zhijun and his sister’s situation, he felt conflicted.

The two kids were showing kindness by sending over the most valuable part of the pig, the hind leg.

He couldn’t blame them for it, but he could only complain to Lin Yongcheng.

“Second brother, Lin Zhijun is just a kid. Don’t you understand?”

“Don’t blame me. I didn’t give you the pig’s hind leg.”

“True, you didn’t bring it, but you did bring it here. Do you know what’s going on in their family? You bring a whole pig’s hind leg, what are they supposed to do?”

The pig was the most valuable asset in Lin Zhijun’s family.

After killing the pig, they only kept half for themselves. Yet they sent the entire pig’s hind leg to his family. Lin Yongcheng almost wanted to grab Lin Yongye by the collar and give him a good scolding.

How could they even take something from the kids?

And it wasn’t just a little something—it was the whole hind leg!

Just thinking about eating that pig’s hind leg made him feel guilty!

“You think not accepting it is helping them?”

“Isn’t it? If you leave it with them, they could exchange it for grain!”

“You don’t know anything!” Lin Yongye glared at him. “The two of them are being excluded by the other kids in the team. They know very well who looks down on them and who really wants to help them.”

Lin Yongcheng didn’t know about this.

He hadn’t interacted with the other kids in the team, and his own children were too young to be aware of the situation.

This was the first time he was hearing about it.

“You have many children, let yours play with them.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Lin Yongye paused, then lowered his voice, saying, “When I was working, I couldn’t hold my head up without money. Do you think kids don’t have pride? When someone sends them something, you can’t refuse it, or they’ll feel looked down upon.”

Lin Zhijun and his sister were both proud children.

Even though they could have eaten at anyone’s house, they still stayed at home, living on their own.

When someone showed them pity and sent them food, the next day, Lin Zhijun would help that person with work.

He didn’t want to take advantage of others, and he didn’t want to feel indebted.

As the brothers continued talking, Bai Zhu suddenly appeared behind Lin Yongcheng.

“What’s going on at the door?”

“It’s me, Lin Laoer,” Lin Yongye smiled and showed his big white teeth, raising the pig’s hind leg. “I came to deliver something. This is from Lin Zhijun and his sister.”

“Ah, Yongye, come in,” Bai Zhu said, looking at Lin Yongye.

He immediately understood why Lin Yongye didn’t want to let his brother in—the pig’s hind leg wasn’t something he wanted to accept.

Bai Zhu added, “They are just showing kindness. If we don’t accept it, it might hurt their feelings. How about we buy them something they need as a return gift?”

Bai Zhu turned and walked toward the house, saying, “They’ve started school. I’m sure they’ll need notebooks and pens. We should buy some and stock up. And don’t forget to buy them a new Chinese dictionary.”

Now that his father-in-law had said this, what could Lin Yongcheng say?

He thought it over and realized that this made sense. Instead of returning the pig’s hind leg, it would be better to send them something they really needed, like paper and pens.

As for the Chinese dictionary, that was even more important.

So, the shopping list for the Bai family grew a little longer.

Once they finished buying what they needed, they let Li Qiurong and Bai Zhu take the children back to Shanglin Daqi first.

The house needed cleaning, and everything needed to be packed and organized, which would take time.

If they prepared it early, they wouldn’t have to rush in the last few days before the New Year.

There were too many people and too much stuff for just one bicycle to carry.

In the end, it was decided that Li Qiurong and Bai Zhu would take a car to the commune, and then a cart back to Shanglin Daqi.

They would carry a large package back.

Little Baiguo was prone to motion sickness, so she could only be taken back on the bicycle.

That afternoon, Lin Yongye strapped a package to the back of the bicycle and used a harness to secure Little Baiguo in front of him.

She was bundled up in thick clothing, wearing a knitted hat, and had a thick scarf around her neck.

Lin Yongcheng even adjusted her scarf a couple of times.

Little Baiguo instantly became a little, cute warrior.

Her face was covered except for her big, round eyes.