Qian Juhua stood proudly in front of several large, fat pigs, basking in the exclamations and gasps of the people around her.
And weren’t they fat pigs indeed—each one looked to weigh at least over 200 jin (approximately 100 kg).
“Wow, Juhua is really capable!”
“How did she feed them? To get them this heavy all at once!”
“Hahaha, my family will be able to get more meat this year!”
“More than just a little! I reckon it’s twice as much as last year!”
“This is great—we’re going to divide the pork three times this year!”
“And there are sheep too! The team leader said two will be handed over, and the last one will be divided at the end of the year.”
“How do we divide the sheep? We have people in the team who can slaughter pigs, but isn’t slaughtering sheep different?”
“Probably not that different, right? Doesn’t matter! Let’s go see how heavy these pigs are. Heh heh, I’m going home later to make pork stew with potatoes!”
…
Even Wang Ying was surprised. The fat pig she had raised in the spring had grown quickly at first, but later hit a plateau—no matter how much spiritual spring water she fed it, it just wouldn’t grow anymore. In the end, the pig only weighed about 160 to 170 jin when they sold it.
But the pigs raised by Qian Juhua, though she used less spiritual spring water, were all fat and strong—each one weighed at least over 200 jin.
Upon thinking it through, Wang Ying understood: the spiritual spring water was meant to maintain good health, with its biggest benefit being the balance of the body. But for pigs, the fatter the better, so naturally her water didn’t help much. A pig weighing over 200 jin couldn’t really be considered “healthy”—just look at the ones Qian Juhua raised; they were so slow they could barely walk!
Even Cheng Yu said that Qian Juhua woke up before dawn every day to cook pig slop. She’d rather her own family eat later than let the pigs go hungry. The sisters Mai Miao and Mai Sui also went into the mountains every day to gather pigweed, carrying back at least two or three large baskets of it daily.
As for the plan to grow sweet potatoes and feed the pigs with the leftover pulp—that had only been put into use in the past two or three months. Before that, Qian Juhua had been cutting sweet potato vines to feed the pigs.
With such meticulous care, of course the pigs got better and better.
Qian Juhua also frequently went to the livestock station—whenever she didn’t understand something, she went to ask. From six piglets to now, she had raised them all successfully. At this point, if anyone had a question about raising pigs, Qian Juhua could answer confidently and knowledgeably.
Even Tian Youfu was stunned when he saw the pigs. He remembered that the last time he checked, they were already in good shape, probably around 170 to 180 jin. But it had only been two months—how had they grown even more?
“Juhua, you really did a great job raising these pigs!”
Tian Youfu looked at the pigs with a profound expression. “This year, we’re definitely getting more pork to go around.”
The whole team gathered noisily, surrounding the pigs, until the people from the livestock station arrived to collect them.
Seeing a large crowd of villagers eyeing him intently, the young man who had come to collect the pigs was startled: “Our truck broke down on the way here, so we’re a bit late…”
“…Who cares about that! Hurry up and weigh the pigs from our brigade—we’re waiting to divvy up the meat!”
The young man let out a sigh of relief, but when he saw the fat pigs, he was stunned: “Whoa!”
Pigs raised at the livestock station could certainly be grown to over 200 jin (100 kg), but the ones raised by individual households for the brigade’s quota rarely got that big. For one thing, villagers didn’t raise pigs as scientifically as the station did, and for another, many families didn’t even have enough to eat themselves, so they wouldn’t use good feed for the pigs. In past years, some struggling households received pigs for the quota—many of those pigs died or were even eaten halfway through.
When they put the pigs on the scale, the numbers made everyone envious.
“209 jin.”
Over 200 jin!
The villagers around them instantly grew restless, their eyes practically glowing green with envy.
This was the first year the brigade had done collective pig raising, so they couldn’t use the old method of simply giving money to the pig raiser after handing in the required weight. For the extra weight beyond the quota, it was up to Tian Youfu to decide—whether to exchange it for cash or meat.
Tian Youfu understood exactly what everyone was hoping for. Once they finished weighing the pigs that needed to be handed in, the gap became even more obvious. Pigs raised by other households for the quota were only about 100-plus jin, with none exceeding 160.
In contrast, each pig raised by Qian Juhua was over 200 jin—the heaviest one was over 210!
After thinking for a moment, Tian Youfu made a decision: for the pigs raised collectively for the quota, half would be converted into money, and the other half would be kept as meat.
With this decision, everyone would get more pork this year.
The livestock station staff did a quick count and separated out one pig: “Here—this one matches the weight of the half we’re converting to pork. I’ll calculate the cash value later.”
“Huh? That means our brigade is essentially getting an extra pig this year!”
“That’s great! The basin I brought is too small—I need to run home and grab a bigger one.”
Once all the quota pigs were handed over, Tian Youfu looked at the hopeful faces of the crowd and finally spoke: “Today we’ll divide up two pigs. Right before the New Year, we’ll divide one more pig and a sheep. But let me say something upfront…”
“Our brigade’s pigs and sheep were all raised by Comrade Qian Juhua. I said before that she’d get full work points for raising the pigs. But considering how well the pigs turned out this year, I propose giving her an extra ten yuan as a reward!”
He had originally thought it was just a favor for Wang Ying, but he hadn’t expected Qian Juhua to raise the pigs so well. Tian Youfu now felt that just giving her full work points wasn’t enough.
She deserved a reward!
In a few days, he would apply to the commune to have her recognized as an outstanding worker!
Most people wholeheartedly supported Tian Youfu’s proposal.
“Of course—Juhua raised the pigs well, and we all benefited from it!”
There had never been this much pork to go around in previous years.
“Juhua is raising three kids—she deserves a little extra.”
“Exactly. Raising pigs takes a lot of effort. She earned it.”
Everyone agreed—except for one or two who responded with sarcasm.
“Hah, what’s so hard about raising pigs? It’s just feeding them grass.”
“If it were me, I could do it too.”
The ones speaking were Tian Dazhu’s mother and Tian Erzhu’s wife.
They were feeling bitter. Seeing everyone praising Qian Juhua and her getting an extra ten yuan for free made them jealous and upset.
Back when Qian Juhua was still married to Tian Dazhu, they’d never seen her feed pigs. So how could she be raising them so well now? Hmph—it had to be because she got lucky with the piglets. Everyone said that if you pick good piglets, raising them is smooth sailing.
She just got lucky, like a blind cat stumbling on a dead mouse!
But their snide comments were quickly shut down by others.
“What do you mean ‘you could do it’? Didn’t you see that the pigs at Widow Sun’s place didn’t even hit 170 jin? They all came from the same litter. Juhua just raised them better!”
“Tsk, tsk. I think you two are just nasty. She’s not even part of your family anymore, and you’re still slinging sour words.”
Qian Juhua paid them no mind. Her face was flushed with joy, and many people were surrounding her, asking all kinds of questions—and none of them were about Tian Dazhu. Everyone was focused on how she raised the pigs.
“Do you have any secrets or tricks?”
There weren’t really secrets, but Qian Juhua had gained a lot of practical experience. She enthusiastically discussed her methods with the others, completely ignoring her former mother-in-law and ex-sister-in-law’s bitterness.
Tian Dazhu stood not far away. Widow Yu hadn’t come with him. He looked at Qian Juhua, surrounded by people, and for some reason, he felt a deep emptiness inside.
Ever since their falling out earlier in the year over changing the children’s surname, he hadn’t seen her again.
Looking at her now, she had gotten thinner compared to before—but not the frail, sickly kind of thin. Her cheeks were rosy, her voice strong—she looked healthier and younger.
Tian Dazhu’s gaze dimmed. He couldn’t describe what he was feeling, but he could clearly sense that Qian Juhua was drifting further and further away from him.
This year’s pork distribution was more festive than ever. Tian Youfu called each household up to make their selections.
The first to choose was Qian Juhua’s family. As the person with the greatest contribution and full work points, she was allocated over ten jin of pork.
She picked a cut of pork belly with both fat and lean, a big pork knuckle, some offal and pig’s blood, and took front leg meat for the rest.
The front leg meat would be used for making dumplings. Last year, she could only afford to make vegetarian dumplings for her daughters. This year, she planned to make lots of meat dumplings—enough for her, her daughters, Cheng Shufen, and Cheng Yu to eat from New Year’s Eve to the fifth day of the New Year!
Wang Ying didn’t have many work points, but she and Xu Shuang had already agreed that any missing work points would be covered with money. So it wasn’t long before it was her turn.
Old Lady Xu’s share was combined with Wang Ying’s family’s, so they were also able to get over ten jin of pork.
Wang Ying said, “Give me half a rack of ribs, one pig ear, one jin of pork belly, one jin of pork shoulder, one pig trotter, and the rest I want from the hind leg tip, plus pig blood and pig stomach.”
Last year, some people still said Wang Ying didn’t know how to run a household, but this year when pork was distributed, everyone became much wiser—no one dared show off or complain.
What a joke. Wang Ying had a husband who was a chef—of course she could afford to eat whatever she wanted.
By this point, Wang Ying was already calculating how to prepare the meat.
First, she wanted to make steamed ribs with pumpkin. The pumpkin seeds she had scattered by the courtyard wall had grown into vines and produced a few pumpkins. When they ripened in the summer, food was abundant, so after tasting a bit, Wang Ying pretty much left them alone. When she checked on them again, she discovered the pumpkins had grown huge—one old pumpkin weighed over ten jin! So recently, her household had been eating pumpkins in all kinds of ways. Wang Ying thought pumpkin paired with pork belly was just so-so, but with ribs, it was perfect!
Whether it’s northeastern-style one-pot stew with ribs, pumpkin, potatoes, and corn, or simply steaming ribs with pumpkin on the bottom—it’s all delicious.
Especially when the fresh ribs are steamed—tender and juicy, with sweet pumpkin underneath—rich, soft, sweetly fragrant!
She also wanted to make sweet and sour ribs. Wang Ying had asked Xu Shuang earlier to prepare an empty canning jar. During the summer tomato season, they had made tomato sauce and sealed it up to last until New Year. This year’s sweet and sour ribs could be made with that sauce—tangy, sweet, and richly flavorful, with the meat falling off the bone.
The hind leg tip was for making crispy fried pork—perfect for hotpot during New Year celebrations.
The pig ear would be served cold and dressed—Xu Shuang’s homemade grape wine, if ready by then, would make a perfect pairing.
…
While Wang Ying was busy planning meals, Xu Shuang was already handling his leave arrangements for the winter.
Xu Shuang went to find Xie Yuejin first and asked, “This winter I’ll probably go back to the brigade again—should we sign the same agreement as last year for the shop?”
Xie Yuejin, with dark circles under his eyes, was silent for a while before finally responding, “Okay.”
He hadn’t been doing well lately. Divorcing Li Ying wasn’t turning out to be easy, and the rented house was now overcrowded with people.
Caught between both sides, Xie Yuejin’s condition was worsening by the day.
He wanted to divorce Li Ying, and it wasn’t until recently that he learned Li Ying’s family had been involved in the notorious hoarding grain case.
That only strengthened his resolve to go through with the divorce.
Hoarding grain? Clearly, their brains were kicked by a donkey.
It was now obvious that this family was both stupid and malicious.
Xie Yuejin wanted a divorce. Li Ying hesitated for a few days before her fourth brother came forward with a demand—
Li Ying wanted 300 yuan in exchange for the divorce.
