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On this winter afternoon, the sunlight reached the center of the earth, through the sparse treetops. It left behind a yellowish shadow on the staircase, shining on the people. The sun barely dispelled the strong cold wind. A sharp and terrible cry resounded through the rooms, rambling to the ears of the people.
The village invited a butcher, a forty to fifty year old man with a big head and ears. He had a red face and held a sharp scimitar in his hand. The blade was thin and shimmering. The butcher was extremely stable, and his short legs were nailed to the ground like a stake. He was shirtless and wasn’t afraid of the cold. While he carefully rubbed the blade, he commanded the sturdy men of the village to control the fat board that was constantly struggling and neighing.
Someone pressed down the legs while someone else grabbed the tail. The four or five men pressed the huge boar down on the wooden bench. Hanging from the neck up, they placed a wooden basin underneath it. As if he knew what was going to happen next, the boar on the bench screamed uncontrollably. The sound was terrible.
A large group of people surrounded the area to watch. Lin Lixuan pulled Ger Yan to stand in the crowd. Zhao Liniang said that she couldn’t stand to watch this kind of scene and didn’t come.
“Look how energetic the pig is. It must be a good one…”
“Look, they can’t hold it anymore.”
The sound of discussion was endless. Ger Yan, like the people around him, waited for the butcher to start. Lin Lixuan listened to the pig’s screams as it was being killed. His heart was full of emotion. He was someone who’d never even killed a chicken before, so he came to watch the pig killing, but it was a bit too stimulating.
The sound of the pig being killed was too sharp and harsh.
The white knife went in and came out stained in red. The bubbling red liquid flowed into the round wooden basin. The sharp sound lingered in the air, full of pain, and stopped after the last drop of blood flowed out. Ger Yan nudged Lin Lixuan, who was beside him. “What’s wrong?” Lin Lixuan’s expression wasn’t good. He had a slightly pale and green pallor.
“Oh, it’s nothing…” He was just a bit disgusted. Lin Lixuan regreeted coming to try and join in the fun. The miserable pig’s scream and the crimson blood…he wouldn’t be able to eat pork properly now.
After killing the pig, they started to cut the meat. Village chief Zhao stood by the cut up pork meat with his notebook. A thirty-something man from the rural area stood by the village chief with a scale. “Don’t push. Everyone, line up!”
“I want two catties…”
“I want meat from the front legs…”
Ger Yan also went to line up with the wooden basin. The people around him were also surprised. “Ger Yan, why did you bring a basin?” Most people only purchased four to five catties of pork. They could walk home holding it, so they all lined up empty-handed.
Ger Yan was surrounded and questioned. He tightly held the basin in his arms and blushed. Lin Lixuan, who was standing at the back, saw this. He released his stomach, the feeling of nausea came back, so he quickly walked to Ger Yan’s side and spoke to the other villagers with a smile, “We bought a lot of meat this year…”
Hearing his words, the surrounding villagers laughed. How much could they buy? So much that they needed a basin? Why didn’t Zhao Liniang come and let these two inexperienced husbands come to buy pork instead. They even brought a basin. This was the first time the villagers had witnessed this.
He must have been afraid of the pork dirtying his clothes. Xiucai Lin was a scholar, and even if a scholar was poor, they were still particular about things.
Someone in front bought the pig’s trotters. They used straw to cover up the cut meat and carried it away. He carried pig trotters with his index and middle fingers, heard the sound behind him, and turned to smile at Lin Lixuan. This person was considered wealthy inside the village. He could afford to buy pig trotters. Of course, if it wasn’t for the fact that his wife had just given birth, then he would never have bought it.
While waiting for Lin Lixuan, the others had already chosen their pieces of meat. There was a large piece of meat in the basin. It was the fatty pork belly. This pork was of excellent quality. Pork belly had the appropriate amount of fat and the layer of snow-white fat was stacked against the pink lean meat. The color was distinct and very good-looking. This was the best pork belly.
Lin Lixuan pointed to the pork rib and placed it on top. This big basin of meat shocked the people around him. “Xiucai Lin, are you helping others buy meat too?” Perhaps he was buying some for his in-laws as well. It seemed that nobody from the Ji family came today either, but they didn’t need this much. Someone from the crowd commented that the daughter-in-law from the Ji family was sent a lot of rabbit meat and pheasant from her family, so she didn’t have to worry about eating meat for the New Years. That was why they didn’t come to buy any pork.
So why did Lin Lixuan buy so much meat?
Lin Lixuan paid the money to the village chief. It cost more than two taels of silver. Such a large amount of money caused the people around him to talk again. “Although the meat from the village is cheap, you should buy so much…”
“You won’t be able to eat it all, so won’t it be bad if it gets bad? It’ll be such a pity…”
“Sigh. The piece of meat I was eyeing was stolen away.”
Although they had asked every family how much meat they wanted to purchase, there wasn’t enough pig to fulfill what everyone wanted. The village chief would always buy more, not less. Some people would want to buy more while some people would decide not to buy anything. This year’s Ji family, for example. Something happened in their family, and now they didn’t want the amount they had originally asked for. When things like this happened, the village chief would be the one to get the short end of the stick. He would have to buy all the leftover pork. When he’d recorded the dozens of catties for the Lin family, he was very worried that they would end up not wanting it. But now that he was holding on to his money, his eyes narrowed into slits as he smiled. He even gave Lin Lixuan some pig intestines for free.
“Thank you, village chief. We’re buying all these to eat ourselves…” Lin Lixuan evenly arranged the meat in the basin. The fifty to sixty catties of meat were really heavy to hold. He was worried that one person wouldn’t be able to hold it easily if they didn’t hold it steadily. It would be such a loss if the meat fell.
Eat it themselves? The rest of the villagers muttered in their hearts. There was only one man in their Lin family, plus one woman and one Shuang’er. How much meat could these people eat?
Many villagers were shocked by the Lin family’s generosity. No one else bought this much meat for the new years. They thought the Lin family had really made money this time. Could one really make that much money doing business in the city?
Although they were envious, the people in the village didn’t believe that the Lin family could make that much money selling food in the county town. If the money was so easy to make, why didn’t they move to the county town? They still lived in Jade Creek Village. Hadn’t Zhao Liniang always hoped for her son to take the imperial exam and become an official?
“To spend over one tael of silver, our family can’t afford to spend that much in a year…”
“Perhaps Ger Yan is pregnant, so he’s buying more to give him nutrition?”
“Speaking of which, Ger Yan has gained weight recently…I’ve known him since he was a child, and I can’t even recognize him.”
“Ger Yan is a very lucky child. I was worried about him when he first married Xiucai Lin.”
“Who would have thought that the Lin family would treat him so well…when he married into the Lin family, I heard they gave the Ji family dozens of taels of silver…”
“I realized the old Lin couple, Old Man Lin and Zhao Liniang, all love to spend money recklessly. Xiucai Lin was taught their bad habits…”
“That’s right. We rely on the heavens to eat. We don’t make much every year, so how could we spend so much? What if a disaster happens…?”
The surrounding villagers all thought Lin Lixuan in this way: he would show off whatever money he had and didn’t know how to save. They would have their own hardships in the future…
Ger Yan and Lin Lixuan passed through the crowd and went home with the wooden basin in their hands. Looking at the bucket of meat, Lin Lixuan, who had watched the pig being killed, couldn’t stomach it for now. He wasn’t hungry for meat anymore. Ger Yan, beside him, wasn’t happy either. He heard the other villagers say he got fatter. Did he really get fatter?
He didn’t dare eat meat now…
When they returned to the Lin residence, they quickly greeted Zhao Liniang, who was about to head out. “You’re already back…I was about to head over to help you bring the meat back…”
“This is a lot of meat.” Zhao Liniang pinched the pork with her fingers to test its elasticity. Their family had never purchased this much meat before. Their shop would buy pork normally to use to make steamed buns and rolls, but it was a very small amount. She had never eaten ribs either, so she didn’t know what to do with it.
After cutting up a few pieces of meat, Zhao Liniang took it to the fire to make bacon. Ger Yan and Lin Lixuan chopped the pork belly and lean meat and minced it. They wanted to make buns and dumplings. Lin Lixuan cut off a large piece of pork skin as he handled the meat. Instead of throwing it away, he thought it would be better to use it for soup dumplings.
Plucking the pig hair clean, the pig skin was cut into pieces. They added salt, green onions, ginger, and a few spoons of chicken broth into the pot to boil. After boiling the pig skin, they put it in a wooden basin filled with ice cubes to cool the skin jelly. The ice cubes were made by using saltpeter and water. Saltpeter could be recycled and reused. In order to make snow skin mooncakes, their family always had saltpeter in stock.
When making steamed buns, in addition to adding the meat filling and the skin jelly, the steamed buns were also filled with soup. After taking a bite, the juice overflowed. Everything was fragrant. Ger Yan was skillful, and his buns were beautiful. Lin Lixuan, who was beside him, put the finished buns in the steamer.
The two of them ate as they cooked. In front of the delicious food, they forgot their worries regarding meat.
In one afternoon, they made several steamed buns. That evening, they had six or seven steamed buns per person. They didn’t need dinner anymore. The buns were enough. Zhao Liniang said to Ger Yan, “We ate your sister-in-law’s rabbit meat yesterday. We should bring them some buns today.”
“Okay. That’s a given.” Ger Yan nodded and agreed while Lin Lixuan answered for him. The two of them went over with a basket of soup dumplings covered with a white cloth. Although the buns were covered, the aroma of the buns were still there. Along the way, a few hungry villagers stretched their neck to see what was in the basket.
After they left, Zhao Liniang also took a basket of buns to their neighbor’s house.
When Ger Yan and Lin Lixuan arrived at the Ji residence, they booked the buns for Eldest Ji and his wife. Along the way, they learned how the Ji and Zhao family dealt with Zhao Qingqing and Ji Ya’s matters.
