You need to raise your pet using a system [Era]

Chapter 79 Slaughtering the New Year Pig

January 22nd, the 1th day of the twelfth lunar month, means there are only a few days left until the Spring Festival.

The long-awaited pig slaughtering for the New Year has finally arrived in Shihua Village.

Hey!

I was jolted awake by the squeal of a pig just as dawn was breaking.

The village suddenly became lively.

"Sister-in-law Shufen, why are you so slow! Hurry up! We're dividing the meat! You're not being enthusiastic at all!"

"Here I am! Here I am!"

"What, you don't want to share the meat!"

"Screw you! I've been waiting for this for a year! I'm just looking forward to today when I get my share of the meat!"

"Then hurry up and move!"

"What's the rush? I was just thinking of getting the enamel mug! It'll be perfect for holding the meat."

"What are we going to do with this thing? The brigade leader already said today that we should just distribute the raw meat directly, instead of cooking it all together."

"Then I'll take it to pack raw meat too."

"Haha, are you afraid someone will see you? Everyone gets meat today!"

"Leave me alone!"

"..."

Along the way, people joined the conversation one after another. Although they all looked thin and their bodies were wrapped in bulky cotton-padded jackets and trousers with patches on them, they were all heading in the same direction and had excited smiles on their faces.

All for the meat they were about to receive.

The Lu family.

Lu Yuanbo rushed into the house and then rushed into a room without stopping. He saw a person wrapped up on the bed. The person was afraid of the cold and wanted to bury himself completely under the blanket, leaving only a little hair on his head sticking out. Just by looking at the shape of the blanket, it was not hard to tell that the person on the bed was a very bad sleeper, curled up in a ball.

Lu Yuanbo hadn't thought of that. He rushed into the room and tried to pull off the covers, shouting, "Brother, get up! The brigade leader wants you to come over! The pig's already slaughtered, and they're removing the hair now!"

Lu Yuanqing had been awake for a while, but it was too cold, and he didn't want to leave his warm bed.

Without heating or a warm kang (heated brick bed), getting out of bed is a really difficult thing!

Therefore, even Lu Yuanqing, who was the head of the family and always wanted to maintain the demeanor of an elder, had to break his carefully constructed image for a second because of the cold weather.

Forget about being a parent; he's freezing! Getting dressed in the morning feels like putting on an ice pop. After a whole night's sleep, his warm bed is about to be cruelly taken away. The bed doesn't want to agree to this either!

"Brother, are you still sleeping?" Lu Yuanbo was speechless. Why was his brother suddenly acting like an animal about to hibernate?

As Lu Yuanbo spoke, he reached for his blanket.

The blanket slid down, quickly revealing a face with closed eyes.

"Hiss!" As soon as Lu Yuanqing breathed in the cold air, he immediately pulled the blanket over his face again.

Now you can't even see that tuft of hair on the top of his head.

"Didn't you go to watch the pig slaughter? Why are you back!" Lu Yuanqing's muffled groan came from under the covers.

Lu Yuanbo wanted to pull the blanket off him again, but after thinking about it, he ultimately didn't move.

"Brother, the pig has already been slaughtered. Get up quickly, the captain is waiting for you!"

"Now the pigs are probably all cleaned up and waiting to be divided up!"

Lu Yuanqing really wanted to roll his eyes, but he kept them closed.

"Why do you need me to go? Just break up the relationship!"

Can you please stop thinking about him all the time?

He just wants to be invisible now.

Despite saying that, Lu Yuanqing still reluctantly threw off the covers and sat up.

A sudden blast of cold air from all directions swept over him.

Lu Yuanqing shivered as he put on his cold clothes.

It's so pitiful; they have to use the heat emanating from their own bodies to keep their clothes warm.

"Brother, is it that cold?" Lu Yuanbo stood to the side, looking at his impatient expression, and asked curiously.

Lu Yuanqing put on his cotton-padded trousers, glanced at him, and felt a kind of 'sadness' of not being able to find his kind. "You don't understand, the coldness of this kind of physical attack is really terrifying. I feel like my bones are ice cold."

This coldness not only froze his body, but also his soul.

"Then go outside for a run, and you won't be cold anymore!"

"Sigh!" Lu Yuanqing didn't want to talk.

Why is it just as cold inside as outside in the South?! It's torture!

He bought the yarn and knitted a sweater until his hands were almost frozen.

Do you understand the speed at which you have to knit in bed and then sit on your butt every now and then because your hands are frozen?

I can't go on about it; it's too painful to even talk about.

Lu Yuanqing was speechless; it was either so hot it was unbearable or so cold it was unbearable.

After getting up, Lu Yuanqing headed towards the brigade.

The pigs that survived to this day actually weigh more than the pigs that were sent to complete the task.

Sure enough, grass-eating pigs don't gain much weight.

After handing over the task to the pig, Zhao Zhongcai looked at the skinny pig in the Cheng family's pigsty, gritted his teeth, and cooked and fed the remaining sweet potatoes from the warehouse after another round of grain distribution to the pig he kept.

They usually can't bear to feed them.

But for the one little bit of meat that's all I get in a year, I'm willing to give it up.

In the end, they actually raised a big fat pig weighing over 180 pounds, although it still didn't exceed 200 pounds.

Each villager family can get a little over a pound.

When Lu Yuanqing arrived, he saw two large plates of pork with the internal organs removed laid out on the old desk and immediately got to work.

Nowadays, pigs don't eat any high-tech or strenuous food, so their meat tastes delicious when cooked.

Pure, natural, and pollution-free pork can be smelled as pork.

A long queue had formed in front of the table, and Lu Yuanhuan was among them.

Moreover, Lu Yuanqing could spot her at a glance, which showed how early she had arrived to queue.

The butcher in the village was very experienced and could weigh the meat precisely even without a scale.

Soon, Lu Yuanhuan arrived.

The person dividing the meat glanced at her, then turned to look at the busy Lu Yuanqing. He decisively abandoned the pork that was left with only lean meat, and with a flick of his wrist, he divided a piece of meat weighing more than a pound with mostly fat. He quickly threw it into the basket that Lu Yuanhuan was carrying.

Lu Yuanhuan's lips curled into a smile, and he happily retreated quickly, walking briskly home.

When Lu Yuanqing finally had a moment to look up and see Lu Yuanhuan, she was nowhere to be seen.

"This way of distributing meat is really good this year," Zhao Zhongcai said. "In the past, we would just boil the meat and give each family a few pieces. We would take them home, chop them up, mix them with cabbage, and make cabbage dumplings. Otherwise, there wouldn't be enough to go around, and the meat would be gone before we even got a taste!"

Now we can divide it up directly, and we can even render some lard from the fat, and the cracklings can be used to make dumplings.

Most importantly, some thrifty families will even find ways to smoke and dry the food so they can eat it slowly.

"There's still not enough meat!" Lu Yuanqing said calmly.

If there were plenty of meat, you wouldn't see such a heartbreaking scene.

“Yes!” Zhao Zhongcai nodded in agreement. “It will be better next year.”

"By the way, Yuanqing, you're going to Jiang'an City right after the New Year. Should we have Zhao Lide go with you?"

Lu Yuanqing refused: "No need, Xiao west will come with me!"

"Huh?" Zhao Zhongcai looked up abruptly, puzzled. "Who? What are Xiao west going with you for?"

"To broaden one's horizons!" Lu Yuanqing said calmly, "When I go out, I always take someone with me to see the world. This time it's Xiao west's turn!"

Of course, after the New Year, he will still be busy in the village collecting mustard greens. Someone will come to collect them, and since it involves the village's income and accounts, he, as the accountant, cannot leave in advance.

Besides, we still need the money from selling these mustard greens to buy piglets!

If this busy schedule coincides with the start of the school term, Lu Mingxi will be unable to go, and Lu Yuanbo will go with him instead.

Even if he wanted to take them out to broaden their horizons, Lu Yuanqing wouldn't let them neglect their studies!

Lu Yuanhuan, in particular, kept a close eye on her! He was hoping she would get into a good university and start a different life from then on.

As for whether it would put a lot of pressure on Lu Yuanhuan, Lu Yuanqing scoffed, saying that kids these days have experienced the pressures of life, so academic pressure is nothing to worry about.

After all, no matter how difficult things are, it's still better than almost starving to death!

"Wow, you're really something else as an older brother!" Zhao Zhongcai felt he had learned something new.

"Heh!" Lu Yuanqing chuckled lightly, "I didn't think so!"

He actually had no idea how to raise children. Before he transmigrated, he had hardly ever been in contact with his family's children. After going to university, he even developed a strong dislike for children for a period of time because of the unruly kids upstairs.

It's only because the Lu family's children aren't unruly and are actually quite well-behaved that he has such patience; otherwise, just ensuring they don't starve would be his greatest act of kindness.

Relationships between people are built through interaction.

After nearly a year of living together, he has gradually integrated into the family and truly treats them as his younger brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces.

Regardless, he had no experience in raising children and did everything according to his own wishes.

They neither raised them according to the book nor let them roam freely.

He even felt that what he was doing was quite irresponsible.

But Zhao Zhongcai didn't see it that way. "You've done better than many parents. Besides, you're just their older brother and uncle!"

Zhao Zhongcai, on the contrary, felt that Lu Yuanqing's way of raising children was special and inexplicably different.

As the village's head, he also has three sons and now grandchildren, but he has never treated his children like Lu Yuanqing has.

Sometimes, when he went to meetings at the commune, he would see several people sitting in offices, who were about the same age as his son, or even younger. But their demeanor and attitude towards work were completely different from his son's.

If he used to comfort himself with the idea of ​​city dwellers and rural people, or workers and peasants.

However, there was a man named Lu Yuanqing in the village.

Lu Yuanqing followed him to the commune, but he was not timid or hesitant. When he saw the leaders, he was too afraid to go up and talk to them.

Lu Yuanqing was no different from those city people, and even better.

He wore tattered clothes, but showed no sign of inferiority; he was poised, neither humble nor arrogant.

Even the children he was taking care of, Zhao Zhongcai felt were different from the other children in the village.

They would greet each other when they saw them, their generous manner just like Lu Yuanqing's.

When their own grandchildren see guests at home, they are all shy and dare not take the initiative to greet them.

It was through this comparison that Zhao Zhongcai finally realized that while he was somewhat disgusted with his children for not being able to go out in the heat, for being timid in the face of trouble, and for being terrified when going to faraway places, he hadn't actually trained them much.

If he had taken them out to see the world and handle things when they were young, like Lu Yuanqing did, wouldn't things have been different?

It will definitely be different!