Chapter 92: Chinese New Year 2/3

While they were chatting, the butcher knocked out the pig with the back of his hoe, then hung it on a stool and slaughtered it, collecting all the blood in a bucket.

Then, he put the pig into a large tub and soaked it in hot water to scrape off the hair.

It took quite some time to slaughter a pig, and it was quite laborious. Normally, the butcher charged thirty cents, but nearing the New Year, he charged forty cents.

Jin’s grandmother complained about the price while collecting the scraped pig hair.

Pig hair could also be sold for money, as some people bought it to make pig hair brushes.

When the butcher slaughtered pigs for people, he often encountered difficult people who didn’t take Jin’s grandmother seriously at all. Instead, it was Jin’s father, Jin Liushu, who couldn’t stand it anymore: “Grandma, please stop talking.”

Their family could afford this amount of money anyway! Jin Liushu felt that his grandmother’s incessant complaints were embarrassing him.

Jin’s grandmother immediately shifted her attention and began to scold Jin Liushu.

Jin Liushu ran away in a hurry.

Li Qingzhi watched Jin Liushu run off into the distance and couldn’t help but comment, “Jin Liushu has gotten much darker.”

When he first arrived, these three brothers from Jin’s family were fairer than Jin Xiaoye. But now… the second brother, Jin Sangshu, had been working hard to earn money by sailing for a long time and had turned as dark as charcoal. Jin Liushu had also become especially dark.

“Working too hard!” the village chief said. “This Jin Liushu really isn’t like anything. He’s too lazy. Even with his tall stature, he’s turned pale. He probably won’t even be willing to go build a dock next year even if it’s his turn!”

When the government officials were selecting people, Jin Liushu was the first to be brushed aside.

“He probably wouldn’t want to even if it was his turn,” Li Qingzhi said. 

“That’s true,” the village chief agreed, recalling Jin Liushu’s past performance.

Once Jin Xiaoshu’s pig was slaughtered, they began slaughtering Jin’s uncle’s pig. At this point, Jin Dajiang also began preparing various pig offals to make pig-killing rice.

Pig offal is coated with some fat, which can be collected and rendered into lard.

Both pig intestines and pig small intestines need to be washed several times. At this time, people certainly wouldn’t use flour to wash them; they would use wood ash instead.

Pig lungs need to be cut open along the lung tube to be cleaned thoroughly.

Jin Dajiang and his wife were very experienced and handled things exceptionally quickly. After processing the offal, they started cooking.

The boiled pig lungs were cut open and served with soy sauce for dipping; the pig intestines were stir-fried with garlic leaves after boiling; and the pig blood was used to make soup…

They didn’t borrow a table from anyone; they took the door off their house and placed it on a stool. Then, they put the cooked dishes on top and let the invited guests stand and eat.

No one minded, and everyone ate happily. After eating, Jin Xiaoshu even gave them some pig blood and pork to take home.

Aunt Jin’s didn’t want to invite the butcher to dinner, so the butcher ate at Jin Xiaoshu’s place. While eating, he praised Jin Xiaoshu generously.

Li Qingzhi saw Uncle Jin when he was on his second bowl of rice.

Uncle Jin looked a lot like Jin Dajiang, but he seemed much younger than Jin Dajiang, and most of his teeth were still intact.

He was a bit fat, with a kindly face. Carrying a bundle, he looked a bit dusty and weary, but he smiled whenever he saw someone.

This wasn’t the first time Li Qingzhi had seen him. He usually came back once a month, sometimes once every two months.

In the month Li Qingzhi had just arrived, he had come to see Li Qingzhi once. In the month when something happened at the Yao family, Aunt Jin jumped up and down, wanting to buy the Yao family’s land at a low price. After he came back that month, he even went to apologize to the Yao family.

Li Qingzhi didn’t have much contact with him, but he had a rough idea of what kind of person he was. If he had to evaluate him… Uncle Jin was a clever person.

For example, when it came to the matter of Jin’s family splitting up, Aunt Jin had been worried that Uncle Jin would be angry when he found out, but Li Qingzhi thought he wouldn’t be too angry. However, he should come to apologize to Jin Xiaoshu.

Before the split, Jin Dabo wouldn’t bring it up on his own for the sake of his reputation, but if they really split up, he would definitely be happy.

However, Li Qingzhi was wrong.

In the past, it was true that Uncle Jin wouldn’t be angry if he found out about the split.

He wouldn’t bring up the split on his own, but if they really split up and his family still gained such an advantage, he would definitely be happy.

But now…

“If Li Qingzhi knows the county magistrate, why did you still split up?” Uncle Jin was about to be driven mad by the people in his own family.

Aunt Jin was aggrieved. “So what if he knows the county magistrate? He’s only going to cheat us! Liushu originally didn’t have to go build the pier. It’s because he knows the county magistrate that Liushu was forced to go…”

“I’ve always told you to be nicer to Jin Xiaoye. Why don’t you listen?” Uncle Jin added.

“You only said it once when Jin Xiaoye just got married, right? When did you keep saying it?” Aunt Jin retorted.

Indeed, Uncle Jin had only said it once at that time. At the time, he thought Li Qingzhi would have a bright future, so he showed favor to Li Qingzhi, learned that there were people looking for shopkeepers in the county, and even introduced Li Qingzhi to them.

But Li Qingzhi disappeared!

After that… he indeed never said such words again.

Although he would come back, his visits were infrequent, and he would only stay at home for a day each time, so he never really understood Li Qingzhi’s situation.

If he had known that Li Qingzhi knew the county magistrate, he would have surely reminded him many times!

Actually, when he came back for Jin Xiaoshu’s wedding, he had already realized something. He had tried to get his wife to treat Jin Xiaoshu’s new wife better. Who would have thought that not long after, their family would split up?

The couple had a quarrel behind closed doors. Uncle Jin was helpless at this point. He could only take the food brought by his wife from the army and go find Jin Dajiang to maintain their brotherly relationship.

Li Qingzhi didn’t bother with these matters. After eating at Jin Xiaoshu’s place, he took half a pig home.

Jin Xiaoshu insisted on giving him half a pig, and he didn’t refuse.

After all, Jin Xiaoshu had eaten a lot at his place.

They cut the half pig open. They left some for consumption over the next few days and carefully rubbed salt on the rest before placing it in a large jar for preservation.

“Is that enough for curing?” Li Qingzhi asked Jin Xiaoye.

Jin Xiaoye had been rubbing salt into the pork all along, seemingly trying to work the salt into the meat. Hearing this, he said, “If you want to preserve it for a long time, just doing this won’t be enough. After a few days when the water comes out of the meat, you have to pour out the water in the jar and rub salt on it again. After curing for a while, you can hang it up to dry. Also, don’t actually throw away the saltwater. Mix it with mud, and you can use it to pickle duck eggs.”

Li Qingzhi nodded in understanding.

Chongcheng County wasn’t far from the coast, and the price of salt here was acceptable, but people were still very frugal.

And so, the day passed like this. The next day, Jin Xiaoshu took them to clean the inside and outside of the house again.

Then came New Year’s Eve.

Early in the morning, Jin Xiaoye started slaughtering chickens, while Li Qingzhi was in charge of cooking the meat and fish.

On this day, every household would cook meat, and fish was also a must. Then, for those who could afford it, they would slaughter a chicken. If there were no chickens, ducks would do.

A rooster was preferred for the chicken.

Jin Xiaoye slaughtered a brightly colored big rooster, and then they made offerings to the Bodhisattva and the ancestors.

This whole process was quite cumbersome, but Li Qingzhi accompanied them happily.

It was New Year’s, after all!