Chapter 70 pt 1

Zhao’er said that she wanted to do a big job and it was not just empty talk. The next day she called Jiang Wu, Gao Sheng and others.

Jiang Wu and others were responsible for going out and selling in various villages and towns in Huyang Township while Xue TingRang and others wrote at home. As for Xue Taoer, Sun shi Zhou shi, and others are in charge of logistics at home, and Zhao’er is in charge of deployment.

From the nineteenth of the twelfth lunar month until the twenty-fourth, they finally ran out of nearby villages and sold more than two thousand sets of couplets. There were also countless blessing characters and scattered spring couplets. Xue TingRang and the others were the most tired, almost always writing from early to dark, resting for a while when tired and then continuing after rest. Everyone is in a hurry because this is all money to be made.

Zhao’er can’t do anything else, so she can only make it up for the few people by cooking at home.

During this period, the other members of the Xue family were also curious about what these people were doing in the second family house every day. They rushed in curiously to take a look only to realize that the spring festival couplets that were raging outside were actually made by the second family.
Recently, couplets are popular. In the past, if anyone wanted the couplets, they had to ask the scholars in the village to write them. Every year by writing Spring Festival couplets, Xue Qingshan can get a lot of wine and meat. When you ask for something, you always have to give something in return, usually a jar of home-brewed wine or a piece of meat.

But this year was surprising. No one asked. Xue Qingshan was still wondering about this. Later, after inquiring about it, he found that some people in the village sold Spring Festival couplets this year, and the person selling Spring Festival couplets was the Jiang family.

Xue Qingshan was annoyed and curious. What he was curious about was where the Jiang family got the Spring Festival couplets. There were no scholars in their family. He specially found a pair to see that the calligraphy was just as good as his. Naturally, he was so angry that he couldn’t get the benefits this year. With Widow Xue, he also promised to give the other party New Year’s goods.

Now that the wine and meat are gone, can’t it be bought with the silver? But he has no money. The purse is cleaner than his face.

Whoever thought that the one who made trouble to the end and robbed him of his own business turned out to be his own family.

Okay, you second family!. Those two little bastards are always going against him!

It’s a pity that no one helped Xue Qingshan this time. It goes without saying that the third family and fourth family stood behind the second family. As for them, Father Xue and Zhao shi did not ask for money but for the harmony of the family. Although Zhao shi is biased, this time her favorite grandson is also included in this. Naturally, she will not turn against her grandson. Not to mention Yang shi, who seems to have given into Xue Juncai.

Especially when Xue Juncai came back with money. He did a day’s work, and the next evening, Zhaoer allocated the money to him. The next day, because of the abundant manpower, they ran around a lot of villages, and everyone was given two liang.

This was the first time Xue Juncai made money. Needless to say, his excitement was self-evident. He also knew that his mother had a prejudice against the second family, so he showed it to Yang shi when he got the money.

Regardless of how complicated Yang shi’s mood is, she never objected to her son going to work for the second family anymore. She didn’t ask for Xue Juncai’s money either. No matter how badly she needed it and even though the Chinese New Year was about to come and the family hadn’t bought anything yet. After all, this was her son’s first money.

However, Xue Juncai forced it on her. He knew that there was no money in the family, and all the money in the family had been spent on him. Of course, his father had taken a lot of it too.

“Mother, you take the money to buy things for the Chinese New Year. You can’t always let grandma give us money. After all, grandma doesn’t have any money.” Yes, the old couple are almost drained of money in their hands now even though the harvest was good this autumn and they also collected a lot of grain, but once the taxes were paid, there was only enough left for seeds and rations the next year, and there was not much left.

Especially this year’s harvest, the price of flour is cheap. They finally sold their harvest for two taels of silver, but Xue Qingshan took it saying it was needed for Xue Juncai’s tuition next year.

This was told to Xue Juncai by Yang shi, just to save him from worrying about tuition, but Xue Juncai knew that Xue Qingshan must have been lying, and the money must have been spent on Widow Xue. Therefore, this year’s eldest family’s New Year’s goods have not yet been organised. Only when the pigs are killed to divide the meat and keep some for their own food, the rest can be sold for money in order to buy other New Year’s goods.

Seeing that Yang shi was still talking about waiting to kill the pigs, Xue Juncai said, “Just take it, and the next time I get the salary from Sister Zhao’er, I will save it myself.”
Yang shi only accepted it then.

From the 24th onwards, people in the village started to kill pigs, and the ice and snow outside could not stop the villagers’ enthusiasm for killing pigs. It’s not easy for country folks to eat meat, so they can only eat it when they kill pigs during the New Year.

But this big feast is actually only a saying. Next year’s money for meat, children’s clothes, and needles and cloth will be taken from this pork money. Therefore, even if people kill the pigs, they will only keep enough for the New Year, and the others will be sold to the villagers who do not raise pigs at home.

Father Xue had long been to the neighboring village to make an appointment with the butcher. By this day, the Xue family got busy early in the morning.

The butcher only kills the pigs and doesn’t care about anything else. The pigs have been buried for a winter, and now they are going to be eaten, so they have to be cleaned. The first job is to bathe the pigs.

The two big fat pigs were washed clean, and the butcher came.

He took Xue Qingbai and Xue Qinghuai and tied the pig together. Usually, the big fat pig didn’t want to move and was too lazy to move. At this moment, he was struggling so hard, yelling, utterly miserable.

Mao Badou wanted to go out to watch the killing of pigs, but he didn’t dare to go out when he heard the movement, so he squatted on the window and looked out.

Li Datian laughed at him saying he is a coward. Mao Badou couldn’t stand this taunt, so he immediately got off the kang, and with a heroic air, squeezed out Li Datian at the doorway to go out. But he immediately saw the butcher holding a sharp knife and then stabbed the knife into the pig’s neck.

With this stabbing, the pig screamed even more miserably, and at the same time a large amount of blood flowed out. Zhou shi took the basin to collect the pig’s blood. After receiving the basin, Xue Taoer hurriedly changed the basin and handed it over. At this time, Zhao’er passed by carrying a small basin, poured the contents in the small basin, and then kept stirring with a corn stalk to prevent the pig’s blood from clotting.

Mao Badou, a child from town, had never seen such a scene before and immediately retracted his head, his fat face pale in fright. Li Datian laughed straightly: “And you say you aren’t a coward.”

Mao Badou, who has always been sharp-mouthed, finally lost this time.

After a while, he eased up and asked, “What did Zhaoer Jie do with that blood?”

“Make blood sausages. It’s delicious.”

“Can you still eat that? I won’t eat it!”

But he was slapped in the face soon.

The two pigs kept the Xue family busy for more than an hour before they were finished.

It is easy to kill pigs but difficult to shave pig hairs.

Here the butcher left with two trotters and a piece of pork, and immediately villagers came over after hearing the wind.

“Huaizi, I heard that your pig is going to be sold. How much do you plan to sell for?”

Xue Qinghuai was stunned. At this time, Father Xue had already come out of the house and said, “I don’t want to sell too much. Keep most for ourselves and sell the rest for 50 catties.”

Lai Rendao: “Why sell so little this year? But it is true, you can eat a lot since you have a lot of family members.”

Old man Xue laughed with others. How could he say that the family has been divided, and when the two pigs had their internal organs and bones taken out, there were only more than a hundred catties of meat left. Divided into five parts, one family gets 30 kilograms. The fifty catties he sold was half the share from the eldest family and the old couple’s share, and only ten catties was left for the New Year.

Xue Qinghuai has already gone to weigh the pork for the customers. He usually sells pork for fifteen wen a catty, but it will rise to twenty wen during the Chinese New Year, but they are all folks from the same village, so the pork was sold at eighteen wen a catty.

Fifty catties of pork sold for nearly a tael of silver. Xue Qinghuai handed the silver to Father Xue and said, “Father, why do you sell so much? What do you eat during the New Year?”
“Eat what eat? There will be meat every three to five days, so do you have to eat for the New Year.” Father Xue said stiffly.

Xue Qinghuai didn’t speak, but when he turned his head, he discussed it with the third family. The family carried five catties of meat to the main house and two jars of wine as a new year gift after the separation of the family.

The second family naturally agreed to this too. Zhao’er never falls behind others when doing this kind of thing. Especially since the second family has few people and can’t eat much meat, so she cooked sha zhu cai. There is no one who kills pigs but does not cook sha zhu cai. In the past, it was left to the public, but now it is whoever takes the lead makes it.