LW chapter 63

 

Zhou Yuan had been very busy in the county town lately. He had to deal with matters at the companion agency and attend various banquets in person. Fortunately, due to his injured hand, he drank less.

By the time everything was taken care of, it was the fifteenth day of the winter month. In half a month, it would be the twelfth month, and they would have to prepare for the New Year.

Before returning, they strolled around the county town. Chen Qing was worried about Zhou Yuan’s injury and insisted that he go to the clinic for another checkup.

The doctor said that Zhou Yuan’s wound was healing well and that there were no major problems.

After leaving the clinic, Zhou Yuan finally felt proud: “See? I told you I’d recover quickly!”

Chen Qing was truly relieved. He took a deep breath and grabbed Zhou Yuan’s arm. “Don’t let anything happen to you again.”

“Alright, I promise you.” Zhou Yuan reached out and hugged Chen Qing, who was a little distracted.

He had been back for quite some time, but Chen Qing hadn’t let him touch him. This lesson was enough, he would be more careful in the future.

They bought New Year goods for the family, and Qi Shuning happily tagged along. When they came out of the gate, Li Xin was supposed to give him money. Now, he followed them, wanting to buy everything he saw.

Ignoring Chen Qing’s objections, Zhou Yuan bought him two jackets and a dress each for Aunt Sun and Zhang Yin. He bought plenty of dried fruit, candy, and snacks, too. He planned to buy more things after the New Year.

In the end, they filled almost a whole cart with goods before hurrying home.

Luckily, it was not foggy on the day they returned home. When they woke up the next morning, the sun was shining brightly. However, the winter sun was not warm. Chen Qing’s hands were frozen stiff, and he got chilblains again.

Zhou Yuan felt guilty when he saw this, but Chen Qing seemed fine. “I heard from my mother that if you get chilblains once, you’ll have them every year after that. It’s not a big deal.”

Zhou Yuan looked at his red, swollen hands and felt how cold they were. He placed Chen Qing’s hands on his neck.

Chen Qing smiled and tucked his hands under his collar again. Sitting in the back of the oxcart, Qi Shuning suddenly felt lonely. He thought he could try it next time, but Xinxin would probably strangle him to death.

When they arrived home, the whole courtyard looked fresh and new.

Chen Qing couldn’t sit still, he wanted to take off the old bedsheets and wash them. The bed had been unoccupied for half a month, and the cotton was damp. Taking advantage of the sunny day, he moved them into the yard to dry.

Zhou Yuan helped him make a rack and carried all the bedding out to dry. After Chen Qing finished drying the bedding, he wanted to go to the river to wash clothes. However, Zhou Yuan stopped him. “The river water is almost frozen, and your hands are already cold. I’ll get some water, and we can boil some hot water for washing.”

“Alright.”

Zhou Yuan went to the river to fetch water while Chen Qing boiled water at home. It took a lot of time to go back and forth to wash the sheets.

While they were setting up a rack to dry the sheets on the other side, they saw Zhang Xu standing outside their courtyard looking awkward.

Zhou Yuan invited him in and saw that he was carrying a backpack with their twin daughters behind him.

Zhang Xu scratched his head. “Boss, it’s the New Year, and we don’t have anything to give your family. These are mountain goods the children gathered. They’re just small things. Don’t mind the roughness.”

Chen Qing was not good at dealing with situations like this. Before Zhou Yuan could react, Chen Qing ran back into the room. Zhou Yuan smiled helplessly and took the goods from him.

Zhang Xu was very grateful to Zhou Yuan and Chen Qing. Without them, his wife would have had to wash clothes for others in the county this winter, and his children would not have had warm clothes. They wouldn’t have been able to enjoy a proper New Year’s meal.

“It’s fine. Just farm well.” Zhou Yuan patted Zhang Xu on the shoulder.

Chen Qing came out again, this time holding some candies they had bought in the county. He handed them to the twin girls. “Thank you. I see your handkerchiefs are very beautiful. Did you embroider them yourselves?”

The older sister shyly nodded. “We just started learning, so our embroidery isn’t very good yet.”

Chen Qing reached out and touched their hair, then took two handkerchiefs out of his pocket. He had embroidered these in his spare time. He hadn’t sold them but kept them for his own use. Now was the perfect time to give them to the two little girls.

They were embarrassed to accept them, and Chen Qing didn’t know how to persuade them. He looked at Zhou Yuan for help.

“Take them.” Zhou Yuan was tall with a deep voice and a murderous aura. The two girls quickly took the handkerchiefs and ran behind their father.

“We still have things to do, so we won’t keep you.” Zhou Yuan said nothing more and escorted them to the door.

He walked in front of Chen Qing and stared at him. Chen Qing felt uncomfortable under his gaze. “What are you looking at?”

“Ah Qing is biased.” Zhou Yuan muttered.

Chen Qing looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“You never gave me a handkerchief,” Zhou Yuan said.

Chen Qing looked at him speechlessly. “There are plenty of handkerchiefs in the box at the foot of the bed. Besides, you don’t need a handkerchief. In the summer, when you sweat, you just wipe it off with your shoulder. When you eat wild fruit, you wipe it on your body. Why do you need handkerchiefs?”

“… ” For the first time, Zhou Yuan felt that Chen Qing was too clever for his own good.

After eating, they went to Aunt Sun’s house. Winter had arrived, and Aunt Sun was busy with other activities. This time, they went to discuss slaughtering the New Year pig.

It was Chen Qing’s first time participating in the slaughter of a New Year’s pig. In his hometown, only a few families could afford to raise pigs. After his family split from his grandmother’s family, they became poorer. Even if a family slaughtered a New Year’s pig, they wouldn’t ask the Chen family to help watch over it for fear that they would ask for food.

There was a butcher in the village, and Aunt Sun had made an appointment with him to come to their house and slaughter the pig.

Some families would sell half the pig to the butcher because they couldn’t finish a whole pig. Aunt Sun planned to do the same so they could save on the cost of hiring a butcher and earn some money.

Zhou Yuan and Chen Qing went to look at the pigs in the sty together. Zhou Yuan was honestly a little worried that Chen Qing would be reluctant to part with the pigs he had raised since they were young. To his surprise, however, Chen Qing disliked them so much that he pinched his nose even before entering the sty.

They had no experience slaughtering pigs. Zhou Yuan thought that slaughtering a pig just meant stabbing it with a knife, and he wondered why a butcher was needed.

Aunt Sun patted his shoulder after hearing his words. “It’s not that easy. If it were, butchers would be out of business.” Then she instructed Zhou Yuan to fetch water while she took Chen Qing outside to dig a hole.

Why dig a hole? Because the pot used for slaughtering pigs was enormous. It was placed in the village’s ancestral hall. Each time a pig was to be slaughtered, a simple clay stove had to be built first, and then the pot had to be carried back from the ancestral hall.

Zhou Yuan wanted to wait until he had finished fetching water before digging the hole, but Aunt Sun and Chen Qing wouldn’t allow it because Zhou Yuan didn’t know how to use a hoe.

By the time he finished, Chen Qing and the others had already dug the hole. After digging, they mixed water and mud to build the stove.

Zhou Yuan was amazed at how skilled they were. Then, Aunt Sun called him to the ancestral hall to get the pot.

The next morning, the butcher arrived with all his tools.

Many villagers came to watch the fun, too. Meng Qi and Meng Shuanzi had just finished their last game of darts before the New Year, so they came to help catch the pig.

Chen Qing wasn’t used to having so many people in his house, but he didn’t hide like he did before. Instead, he sat by the big stove to tend the fire.

Li Xin stood beside him. Not working as a blacksmith today, he came to join the fun. “We already agreed that I want a piece of lean meat. Qi Shuning said he learned from Tian Ji and makes a very delicious tenderloin. I’ll wait until he cooks it for me. If it’s good, I’ll make it for you, too.”

Chen Qing nodded—of course he had to agree.

“And the offal, too. Qi Shuning said it’s all tasty. There are so many delicious things in Tian’s shop.” Li Xin had also stayed in Yunxi City for a long time. Sometimes, when he went for acupuncture, Tian gave them lots of food.

“All right, let’s keep it all.”

After a while, several people carried the pig out. Aunt Sun had raised the pig very well. After Chen Qing and Zhou Yuan left, they asked someone to castrate the pig so that the meat would taste better.

The pig weighed about 200 jin and squealed so loudly that Zhou Yuan could barely hold it down.

Seeing the butcher holding the knife, Chen Qing felt a little sorry and pulled Li Xin into a room to hide.

They chatted in Chen Qing’s old room and soon heard the pig squeal. The squealing lasted a long time.

Aunt Sun used a basin to catch the pig’s blood. By the time Chen Qing came out, the butcher had slaughtered and cut the pig in half. He wanted half, weighed it, and set it aside. Then, he helped them break down the other half.

Chen Qing had seen families slaughter pigs for the New Year in his hometown. After slaughtering the pig, they would use its blood, stomach, and a pot of pickled cabbage to cook a dish called “slaughter pig.”

He had never eaten it before. His family was poor and proud, so he didn’t want to take advantage of others.

Luohe Village didn’t have the tradition of making slaughtered pig dishes for the New Year. After watching, many people left. The butcher paid for the pig and left, leaving only Li Xin and Qi Shuning behind.

Although the pig belonged to Zhou Yuan, Aunt Sun had raised it for a year. Therefore, both Chen Qing and Zhou Yuan felt that the pig belonged to her and let her decide how to divide it.

Aunt Sun didn’t hesitate. Besides giving Li Xin the lean meat he wanted, she also cut off two jin of hind leg meat and some ribs for him.

Li Xin happily accepted. The New Year was about interpersonal exchange. Since Aunt Sun gave them meat, their family had to return the favor with no psychological burden.

After sending Li Xin off, Aunt Sun called Chen Qing to help her. They couldn’t finish all the meat, so she picked out some pieces to eat soon, and she rubbed the rest with coarse salt to preserve them.

It was winter now, so the pig blood coagulated quickly. Aunt Sun had planned to stir-fry the blood for lunch and render the lard in the afternoon. Coincidentally, the lard jar was empty.

With the New Year came one household chore after another, seemingly endless. Although they were trivial and tedious, they were also joyful.

At noon, Zhou Yuan ate hot kimchi stir-fried pig blood and was sweating profusely in the winter.

In the afternoon, he sat in front of the stove, warming himself by the fire while watching Chen Qing work.

Chen Qing cut the snow-white lard into small pieces and put them into the pot. Zhou Yuan watched and asked, “Is that it? No need to add anything?”

Chen Qing shook his head. “No, nothing is needed. Simmer it slowly. What comes out now is water. After the water evaporates, oil will be left behind.”

Sure enough, after a while, the pot began to bubble. At this point, the pot was full of slightly cloudy liquid. Zhou Yuan waited patiently. Once all the water had evaporated, the liquid in the pot gradually cleared. The lard floating on top turned brown, and the aroma of oil wafted out.

Once the oil was ready, Chen Qing poured it into the lard jar. When the jar was full, he asked Zhou Yuan to go home and get his own jar, which he also filled to the brim.

Chen Qing scooped out the remaining lard and gave Zhou Yuan a piece. Zhou Yuan hesitated before eating it. He thought lard would be greasy, but he was surprised to find that it was charred, crisp, fragrant, and crunchy.

“The first time I ate this, I felt nothing in the world was more delicious.” Chen Qing also ate a piece.

Seizing the moment, Zhou Yuan lowered his head and kissed the corner of Chen Qing’s mouth. Chen Qing reached out and patted his back. “Be serious.”

 

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