Chapter 92: Chinese New Year 1/3

On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Jin family invited a butcher to their home to slaughter a pig.

Located in the southern part of Chongcheng County, even in winter, fresh meat couldn’t be kept for long. Therefore, people were accustomed to preserving “New Year’s meat” in the early or mid-twelfth lunar month, which would often be consumed from New Year’s Eve until the tenth day of the new year.

Typically, villagers slaughtered pigs around the mid-twelfth lunar month. It was relatively rare for a family like the Jin’s to slaughter a pig as late as the twenty-eighth day. However, there was an advantage to doing so; on New Year’s Eve, there would be fresh pork to enjoy.

The reason why Aunt Jin chose to slaughter the pig on this day was because Uncle Jin was coming back that day.

As for Jin Xiaoshu… he had been busy recently, but these days he had some free time and didn’t go out on his boat.

The butcher had agreed to come in the morning, so early in the morning, the Jin family began preparations. They moved a large vat to the doorstep, fetched more water, and set it to boil.

After slaughtering the pig, it would be placed in the large vat and soaked in boiling water for a while before the hair could be shaved off.

As the New Year approached, Li Qingzhi also told Zhao Xiaodou that he didn’t need to come for a while. With both him and Jin Xiaoye at home, they could take care of Li Damao and Li Ermao.

During the past few days, Jin Xiaoye had been particularly busy, and the children hadn’t spent much time with her. Now that Jin Xiaoye had some free time, they stuck to her, not even caring much about Li Qingzhi, their father.

Early in the morning, Li Qingzhi woke up.

Since Jin Xiaoye didn’t need to go to the county today, he didn’t rush to get up either. Instead, he embraced Jin Xiaoye and kissed her affectionately.

He really loved touching Jin Xiaoye so much!

Jin Xiaoye: “… ” She wanted to sleep a little longer!

As the two were being intimate, there was a knock on the door, and Li Damao and Li Ermao shouted from outside, “Dad! Mom! Get up!”

Originally, Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye wanted to linger in bed a bit longer, but they exchanged glances and quickly got up to get dressed.

Because it was cold, they had two layers of quilts. The previous night, they had even placed their clothes between the two layers so that they wouldn’t have to put on cold clothes in the morning.

After putting on their inner clothes and cotton-padded jackets, Li Qingzhi went to open the door.

Then the two children, wearing only their inner clothes, rushed in.

“Why aren’t you wearing more clothes?” Li Qingzhi sighed helplessly.

“Dad, we’re not cold,” Li Ermao said, but he immediately climbed onto Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye’s bed and burrowed under the covers.

Li Qingzhi followed, and when he touched them, he found that their hands were as cold as ice.

He could only hold the two children in his arms to warm them up, but the restless children kept squirming and broke free from his embrace, burrowing around in the covers.

All the warmth inside the covers was dissipated by them!

Li Qingzhi couldn’t lie down anymore and could only say, “Hurry up and put on your clothes. Once you’re dressed, I’ll take you to see the pig being slaughtered.”

“Watch the pig being slaughtered! Let’s go watch!” Li Damao and Li Ermao were very excited and ran back to their own rooms to get dressed.

Rural children liked watching pigs being slaughtered. When the neighbors, the Yao family, slaughtered a pig, the two children had gone to watch.

They were probably accustomed to seeing chickens and ducks being slaughtered, so when they saw the bloody scene of a pig being slaughtered, they didn’t think it was anything unusual, just debating on how to cook the pork.

Seeing them like this, Li Qingzhi didn’t stop them from going to watch the pig being slaughtered.

After getting dressed, the whole family headed to Jin Xiaoshu’s house.

Today, Li Laogen didn’t go to the county and followed them.

In fact, in Miaoqian Village, there was nothing special. In-laws wouldn’t usually go to their daughter-in-law’s home for meals, considering it improper. But Li Laogen wasn’t one to follow such conventions.

When they arrived at Jin Xiaoshu’s new house, it was already time for breakfast.

When Li Qingzhi bought glutinous rice before, Jin Xiaoshu also bought some and had it made into rice cakes. Today, the Jin family’s breakfast was vegetable rice cakes.

Vegetables were the most commonly eaten vegetables in Miaoqian Village during the winter. They would eat them from when they were young until the vegetables flowered in spring.

Vegetable rice cakes were made by boiling rice cakes until soft and then adding vegetables to cook together. Families with the means would even fry the vegetables in lard beforehand.

With the addition of lard-fried vegetables, the vegetable rice cakes were exceptionally fragrant!

In addition to the vegetable rice cakes, there was a basin of pickled vegetables and a basin of scrambled eggs on the table.

Jin’s mother served a bowl of vegetable rice cakes to Li Laogen, who went straight to eat. If he didn’t grab it before, he might not be able to fill his stomach, leading to a habit of wanting to grab something to eat whenever there was something available.

Jin’s mother was speechless and filled a bowl full for Li Qingzhi, then smiled and asked Li Damao and Li Ermao, “Damao, Ermao, do you want more vegetables or more rice cakes?”

“Vegetables!” the two children said simultaneously, making requests. “Grandma, I want more soup.”

“Grandma, I don’t want big rice cakes.”

“Yeah, I don’t want big rice cakes either!”

“Okay,” Jin’s mother smiled and used a spatula to cut the large rice cakes into smaller pieces, then served them to the two children, along with more soup and vegetables.

The soup with the rice cakes was thick and tasty, and as for the vegetables… at this time of year, the vegetables had been frosted over, making them sweet to eat.

Li Qingzhi took a sip of the soup, closing his eyes in contentment.

He loved the taste of the vegetables and soup, as well as the rice cakes inside.

This was particularly solid food!

After the family finished their meal, Li Qingzhi took charge of lighting the fire and helped prepare the water needed for slaughtering the pig.

In the dead of winter, the happiest thing was lighting a fire.

Jin Xiaoye followed Fang Jinniang to her room to help make clothes.

By mid-morning, the butcher and his son had arrived.

Jin’s uncle hadn’t started boiling water yet, so he immediately said he would slaughter Jin Xiaoshu’s pig first.

Li Qingzhi went out with him and saw that there were many people gathered at the Jin family’s doorstep to watch the pig being slaughtered. When they saw Li Qingzhi, they greeted him one after another.

After learning that Li Qingzhi knew the county magistrate, the villagers’ attitude towards him changed, but when they saw that Li Qingzhi was still the same as before, they relaxed.

However, they were still much more polite when they faced Li Qingzhi. Yao Zuming, who used to like talking nonsense in front of Li Qingzhi, even avoided him.

At the same time, Aunt Jin came over from time to time, wanting Li Qingzhi to help teach Yao Zuming a lesson.

But if Yao Zuming really wanted to say, he only stole a bit of their vegetables, and since they didn’t complain, how could others help?

The most they could do was scold Yao Zuming for a while and then take some vegetables from the Yao family, which wasn’t very interesting.

“Xiaoye’s family, why haven’t you been to the county recently?” the village chief asked Li Qingzhi.

“Just nothing important,” Li Qingzhi said. When Jin’s mother went to see a doctor, he went with her to the county, gave the story of “Magistrate Gou Punishing the White-Eyed Wolf” to the county magistrate, and borrowed some books from him.

As for these days… he wanted to enjoy the New Year.

This was the New Year!

How many years had it been since he celebrated the New Year properly?

The end of the world hadn’t come yet. When he was in junior high school, he found celebrating the New Year troublesome, visiting relatives tiresome, and answering their endless questions annoying.

But now, if he could go back… he could chat with his own relatives for three days and nights, making those relatives want to avoid him when they saw him.

Thinking about that situation, Li Qingzhi smiled and started chatting with the village chief.