Chapter 142: Chapter 81: The Good Life in a Farmer’s Eyes

The next day, the butcher Zheng Changhe had hired arrived. It turned out to be none other than Butcher Zhang from town. He was carrying a pole over his shoulder. On one end was a large tub for scalding the pig, and on the other was a wooden box containing his butchering knives and other tools. A helper followed behind him.

He grinned warmly at Mrs. Yang, showing off a set of large, flat teeth. “Keeping busy?”

Mrs. Yang smiled back and asked, “Not too busy. How’s business?”

Butcher Zhang laughed. “Not too bad. It’s just that these days, people are keeping the offal and head meat for themselves. Even if they do sell it, the price is a lot higher.”

Mrs. Yang said, “Doesn’t that save you some trouble?”

Butcher Zhang replied, “I still find it easier when you can just hand everything over in one go. Now I have to waste my breath haggling.”

As they spoke, he had already set up his gear. Zhang Dashuan and his son had also come over to help. The men rolled up their sleeves, ready to catch the pig.

Juhua watched her father and brother go into the sty to drive the big black pig out. The pig showed no joy at seeing the light of day. Instead, it just spun in place, not knowing where to go. Its large ears covered its eyes, and the more they tried to herd it, the more it milled about. It had grown accustomed to its small world of eating and sleeping, and now that it was being forced out, it was instinctively afraid.

Juhua looked at the gleaming butcher’s knife and the long iron rod. Thinking about the pig’s awful squeals to come, she quickly hid in the kitchen. She huddled by the stove opening, helping Mrs. Yang boil water for scalding the pig later.

When the butchering began, even though she had mentally prepared herself, the high-pitched, piercing squeals from outside still gave her goosebumps all over.

In the days prior, she had often heard the miserable squeals of pigs from around the village. Since they were far away, it hadn’t really bothered her. On the contrary, seeing the wisps of cooking smoke curling into the air had filled her with the festive atmosphere of the New Year. But now, the big black pig she had fed for so long was right outside, shrieking for its life. Hearing it made her deeply uncomfortable, and she quickly covered her ears.

Suddenly, she felt something warm at her feet. It was the little black dog. It had also been frightened by the pig’s squeals and had come running into the kitchen with its tail between its legs to hide beside her. Seeing its terrified expression as it kept glancing back outside, Juhua couldn’t help but laugh.

She stroked Little Black’s head and picked him up, setting him beside her. The girl and the dog listened as the pig’s frantic squeals outside shifted from high-pitched shrieks to exhausted whimpers, gradually fading into silence.

Only then did Juhua let out a breath and look down at the little black dog. The little thing was looking up at her, its eyes sparkling. When it saw Juhua looking back, it started to climb onto her leg affectionately.

Juhua quickly pulled it off, scolding, “Look at all the dust you’ve rolled in, and you’re climbing on me? If you keep running around like that, see if I don’t give you a smack!”

’There was nothing to be done about it,’ she thought. ’You can’t keep a country dog washed and clean like a pet, or it’ll lose its toughness. It has to be allowed to run wild to maintain that hardy spirit. The problem is, the dog is always trying to get close to me, and I find it a bit distasteful. I’m still not used to it.’

This wasn’t the first time the little black dog had been scolded like this. It knew that if it didn’t take the hint, Juhua would kick it next. Although it would only be a light kick and wouldn’t hurt much, it still didn’t want to provoke her into kicking it. So, it obediently moved to the side, lay down, and watched Juhua tend the fire.

After a little while, someone from outside called for hot water.

So, Mrs. Yang and Qingmu carried the hot water out bucket by bucket. They could hear the butcher outside laughing with Zheng Changhe and the others, praising how fat and sturdy the pig was—the fattest he’d ever seen.

When they heard Zheng Changhe say he was only selling half, they praised him repeatedly for his family’s wealth, marveling that he could afford to keep so much pork. The pig had just been weighed at over two hundred and twenty pounds. Keeping half meant over a hundred pounds! What family could afford to eat that much meat?

Listening from the kitchen, Juhua felt a pang of regret. ’We should have sold more,’ she thought. ’If we want to eat meat later, we can just buy it.’ Keeping over a hundred pounds of pork at home was just too conspicuous. Combined with the many acres of new land, she worried everyone would think their family had struck it rich.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of people coveting their wealth, just that country folk would gossip for half a day over the smallest things, and the story would get completely distorted by the time it spread. For example, her second aunt had repeatedly grilled her mother last time, trying to find out exactly how much money they’d made selling pig offal, and had thrown a huge fit about it.

But they had already made an agreement with the butcher, so it was too late to change their minds. ’Besides,’ she thought, ’everyone will be raising more pigs next year, so more people will be keeping pork for the New Year. It won’t stand out then.’

By the time two sides of white, hair-scraped pork were hanging from a thick wooden pole, it was already Noon. Mrs. Yang and Juhua had cooked a pig’s liver soup, red-braised pork, and stewed a large pot of pork with tofu and pickled vegetables. They had also cooked fish.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep