Chapter 12: Pork

After breakfast, Jin Xiaoye and Li Laogen went back to cutting rice stalks. It wasn’t until almost noon, when the sun was scorching hot, that they returned home.

Both of them were dripping with sweat and exhausted. When Li Laogen sat down at the doorstep, he said to Jin Xiaoye, “You promised, today we’re buying meat!”

“I keep my word,” Jin Xiaoye replied.

Li Laogen suddenly smiled, wrinkles appearing on his face. “Since Qingming Festival, I haven’t had meat…”

There were plenty of rivers and streams in the village, and occasionally he would catch some fish or shrimp to eat. Sometimes they would also have eggs from the chickens at home. But pork… they only bought it for special occasions or during busy farming seasons.

Hearing this, Li Qingzhi spoke softly, “I haven’t had meat in several years…”

Li Laogen fell silent. Li Qingzhi had it even worse than him!

Jin Xiaoye glanced at Li Qingzhi and gave him ten coins, telling him to go to the riverbank and watch out for two coins’ worth of tofu and eight coins’ worth of pork.

She specifically instructed him to choose fatty meat since they were lacking in fat!

Without Jin Xiaoye saying it, Li Qingzhi also knew he needed to buy fatty meat; he was also lacking in fat.

Before the apocalypse, he used to avoid fatty meat, but now? If given the chance, he’d want to drink pig fat!

After Jin Xiaoye gave her instructions, she lay down to rest.

She had been up since five in the morning, working for five hours straight!

Li Laogen went back to the room to sleep, and the two children also needed their afternoon nap… only Li Qingzhi didn’t feel like sleeping. Instead, he put the ten coins in his pocket, grabbed a basket, and leaned on a cane as he went outside to bask in the sun.

He was very thin now, so he didn’t mind the heat much. As he basked in the sunlight, feeling the scorching sun on his body, he surprisingly found it quite comfortable.

Li Qingzhi was in a very good mood. He walked slowly towards the riverbank, smiling at anyone he encountered along the way.

Jin Moli, who was wearing a straw hat and delivering water and snacks to the hired workers in the fields, looked at him with a complex expression.

Some people in the village said Li Qingzhi had gone crazy, and looking at him… they might be right.

Jin Xiaoye not only had to take care of the children and Li Laogen, but now he had another burden!

Their family was fortunate; her father-in-law was wealthy, and they hired people to harvest the crops in their fields. She only needed to provide food and water for the workers.

Li Qingzhi recognized Jin Molan, knowing she was Jin Xiaoye’s cousin. Although she looked at him strangely, there didn’t seem to be any ill intent, so he just smiled at her.

When Jin Molan met Li Qingzhi’s smile, she lowered her head and hurried away.

Firstly, Li Qingzhi was too thin now, looking somewhat frightening. Secondly… upon learning that Li Qingzhi had been forced to work in the stone quarry for several years and realizing that they could have saved him if they had paid a doctor, she felt somewhat uncomfortable.

If she had reminded someone, would Li Qingzhi have avoided being taken away?

Li Qingzhi: “…”
Was he really that frightening?

For rural people, a good harvest was the happiest thing. At this time, everyone was willing to spend money on food.

With demand comes a market, so the people selling pork and tofu would go from village to village in their boats, calling out their wares.

Li Qingzhi went to the riverbank and sat down in the shade of a large tree.

This tree was a jujube tree with jujube fruits growing on it, but unfortunately, they weren’t ripe yet.

The jujube tree had grown quite tall. When a jujube tree grew too tall, it would produce fewer fruits and would be difficult to harvest.

Li Qingzhi swallowed and lowered his head.

There were some grasses under the tree, most of which were non-toxic and edible even in the post-apocalyptic world… Li Qingzhi sat down and picked some dandelions to put in his pocket, planning to eat them secretly later when no one was around.

The river water was clear, and there were minnows swimming around. These fish were small, often swimming together in groups.

If he could catch one… he could eat it all, bones and all!

Li Qingzhi, if he were from before the apocalypse, would surely find everything here unsatisfactory—difficult to eat and live. But he came from the apocalypse.

Right now, all he wanted was to quickly regain his health so he could go fishing.

It was difficult to catch fish with bare hands, but having experienced the apocalypse, his skills were excellent!

He had managed to escape from a group of zombies; catching a fish would be a piece of cake!

Li Qingzhi drooled over the fish in the river for a while, then saw a small boat slowly approaching.

Several kids around ten or so years old immediately climbed ashore from the river and ran to their respective homes, shouting as they ran, “The boat’s here! The boat’s here!”

Soon, villagers began streaming out of their houses towards the riverbank.

But Li Qingzhi was one step ahead and had already stood on the steps.

Most of the boats around Chongcheng County were small, making it easier to navigate the river.

At the moment, there was a boatman and a butcher selling pork on the boat.

The butcher saw Li Qingzhi and lifted the wet white cloth covering the meat, asking, “How much meat do you want?”

In the summer heat, butchers slaughtered the pigs early in the morning to keep the meat fresh. But by now, the color of the meat wasn’t quite right.

But it was meat!

Li Qingzhi said, “Master, your meat looks great! I’ll buy eight coins’ worth. Can you give me some fatty meat?”

Li Qingzhi looked at the meat, his mouth watering.

“Which family are you from? Why haven’t I seen you before?” The butcher didn’t rush to cut the meat, waiting for the boat to stabilize first.

“My wife is Jin Xiaoye,” Li Qingzhi’s gaze remained on the meat, “Master, I haven’t eaten meat in many years. Please give me some fatty meat.”

The butcher was from a nearby village. He didn’t know everyone from Miaoqian Village, but he knew Jin Xiaoye. After all, Jin Xiaoye had been running around looking for work these past two years.

Plus, news of Jin Xiaoye’s man returning had already spread to their village… he knew who Li Qingzhi was.

“So, you’re the Li family’s kid! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely give you a fatty piece!” he said, and with a swift motion, he chopped off a piece of pork with more fat than meat. After weighing it, he cut off a little more for Li Qingzhi.

When many villagers bought meat, they would often criticize the quality brought by the butcher, saying it wasn’t fresh. They did this to try to lower the price.

But the butcher didn’t like hearing such things. Li Qingzhi’s praise of the meat actually made him happy, and considering Li Qingzhi had been forced to work in the stone quarry for several years, he felt sorry for him and gave him a little extra.

Satisfied, Li Qingzhi took the meat, and seeing this, another villager who had just arrived immediately said, “Give me a piece like his.”

The butcher said, “Sure, thirteen coins per pound.”

“Your meat doesn’t look fresh…” and thus, bargaining began.

At this moment, Li Qingzhi also bought two pieces of tofu from the boatman.

The price of pork ranged from ten to fifteen coins, depending on the part of the meat. Even though the butcher gave Li Qingzhi a little extra, the meat in Li Qingzhi’s hands didn’t even weigh a pound.

As for tofu, it was sold by the piece, one coin per piece.

After buying, Li Qingzhi carried the basket and slowly walked home.

Whether it was meat or tofu, they had to be dealt with immediately, or they would spoil easily.

With this weather, the tofu would definitely go sour by evening.

When Li Qingzhi returned home, Jin Xiaoye was already up.

She didn’t let Li Qingzhi handle the meat but instead asked him to start a fire and then put the sliced fat into the iron pot to render lard.

There wasn’t much meat, so there wouldn’t be much lard either. She carefully scooped the oil into a small bowl with a spoon and then disposed of the residue.

“Xiaoye, let me taste a bit!” Li Laogen smelled the aroma of the oil and had already come out of the house.

Jin Xiaoye gave him two pieces of oil residue and then gave the rest to Li Qingzhi. “You take this and share it with Damao and Ermao.”

After saying that, she added water to the pot with oil residue, then poured in the remaining lean meat and tofu.

She made a large pot of pork stew with tofu and then started cooking rice, making dry rice again.

After finishing breakfast and working for another two hours, Jin Xiaoye was very hungry. They ate dinner relatively early that day, around two o’clock.

Whether it was the oil residue or the pork stew with tofu, it brought tears to Li Qingzhi’s eyes as he ate.

He felt like he could eat everything himself!

Unfortunately, he couldn’t indulge himself. In the end, he only ate the portion that Jin Xiaoye gave him.

Li Laogen was someone who didn’t know how to be modest. After Jin Xiaoye discovered this about him, she would often divide the food in advance to prevent him from taking everything.

Li Laogen had no objections to this. If he dared to object, Jin Xiaoye would lock the door on him!

After eating, Jin Xiaoye took Li Laogen back to the fields.

They were busy all day until evening, harvesting all the rice from their two-acre plot. For a time, both inside and outside the house were filled with rice.

The yield of grains varied depending on the era and region. In recent years, with good weather and being situated in a fertile area, everyone took great care of their crops…

If there were no natural disasters, the yield per acre (approximately 0.16 acres) would probably range from 250 kilograms to 300 kilograms of rice, with some households achieving even more. Planting twice a year, the annual harvest per acre would be at least 500 kilograms.

Their family’s two-acre plot could yield around 1,000 kilograms of rice per year.

However, they had to pay taxes, and after the rice was dried and husked, there wouldn’t be as much left. There were also other expenses at home… If their family relied solely on these two acres of land, life would be very difficult.

That day, Li Laogen and Jin Xiaoye went to bed early. The next day, they brought back a rice barrel from outside and started pounding the rice.

In the households of Miaoqian Village, there were basically rice barrels made of wood, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, with dimensions of about one meter by five meters.

They placed a ladder-shaped bamboo device in the rice barrel, and vigorously struck the rice stalks on the ladder. The grains from the rice heads would fall down one after another, dropping into the rice barrel. This process was known as “threshing rice” and was necessary after harvesting rice.

In fact, most people would thresh the rice directly in the fields after harvesting the rice yesterday. Afterwards, they would also sun-dry the bundled straw in the fields and retrieve it after a couple of days.

However, since their family didn’t have a rice barrel, Jin Xiaoye was worried that the rice would be stolen or eaten by rats if left in the fields. So, she carried it back and threshed it today.

This task was also very labor-intensive. Therefore, in the afternoon, she had Li Qingzhi go buy two pieces of tofu again and made a pot of egg and tofu soup.

They didn’t buy meat this time; their family was really poor right now.

After Jin Xiaoye had threshed all the rice from the rice heads, the remaining task was to dry it!

Li Qingzhi thought that the harvest, which had lasted for three or four days, was already complete. But Jin Xiaoye told him, “Today, we need to go back to the fields and retrieve the rice roots.”

Li Qingzhi was a bit puzzled, “What for?”

Jin Xiaoye explained, “We’re short on firewood at home.”

The households with mulberry trees could use the branches trimmed each year as firewood, but their family didn’t have any mulberry trees.

Their family never had enough firewood to burn each year. If it weren’t for her younger brother sneaking some to her, she might have had to spend money to buy firewood.

Of course, their family wasn’t the only one short on firewood. After harvesting the rice, many households would retrieve the rice roots, dry them, and use them as fuel for burning.