It was only a little past ten when Zhu Ah Da closed up his stall. He was a very decisive person. When he didn’t know how to sell meat, he boldly took a few knives and learned how to slaughter pigs from an old butcher in the village. Then, he went to town by himself to attend school. When he heard Zhu Yun Xuan’s suggestion, he thought about it for a moment and felt that it was a good idea!
In the past, he hadn’t thought of this because, on one hand, there weren’t many people buying meat these days, and he was also being sidelined. He felt the work was tiring, and the profits weren’t that great. But, even if it wasn’t a big profit, it was still better than his eldest son doing small odd jobs, right? Now, his eldest son’s family was entirely dependent on his daughter-in-law’s wages, and it was often hard for them to even buy meat. Whenever he wanted to help, Wang Feng Er would stop him…
Because he closed his stall early, there were still pig lungs, a piece of pig front leg meat, and some bones left.
A few years later, the price of these large bones would skyrocket, but at this time, although spare ribs were expensive, large bones were cheap and no one wanted them. In the past, when Zhu Ah Da sold meat to familiar customers, he would sometimes give away the bones for free. Some people didn’t even want them because they didn’t want to waste firewood cooking them.
However, after Zhu Yun Xuan started helping, he made sure to save the bones. Every time they closed the stall, he would ask Zhu Ah Da to chop the bones with a large knife, and then he would send them to his uncle’s house. Even though his grandmother didn’t get along with his uncle’s family, sending a little bone wouldn’t be a problem. The bones, once stewed, made a delicious and nutritious soup.
Pig lungs were cheap as well. People in this area didn’t eat pig lungs, and if he was lucky, he could sell them for a few cents. Otherwise, they would be thrown away or given to familiar people to feed to their dogs. However, Zhu Yun Xuan, who had once eaten stir-fried pig lungs in a big restaurant for sixty-eight yuan a small plate, felt it was a pity to waste them.
Zhu Ah Da gave the pig front leg meat to his grandmother to cook, and Zhu Yun Xuan took a big bag of bones and the pig lungs home. Today, his aunt was on the day shift, from 8 AM to 4 PM, and wouldn’t have time to cook lunch, so Zhu Yun Xuan was happy to let Jiang Yue Xiu make bone soup!
“What’s this?” Seeing that Zhu Yun Xuan had been staying at home instead of going out to play with his friends lately, Zhu Qiu Yue stuck close to him. She saw the pig lungs in his hands and looked at them curiously.
“This is a toy!” Zhu Yun Xuan smiled, attaching the pig lung’s trachea to the faucet. When he turned on the tap, the water flooded into the pig lung, causing it to puff up instantly, filling every small tube inside with water. Zhu Yun Xuan almost couldn’t lift it.
When he turned off the faucet and poured out the dirty, foamy water from the pig lung, Zhu Qiu Yue was already eager to try!
Pig lungs were usually not eaten around Wende Town. If people really wanted to eat them, they would first flush them with water to clean them. Then they would cut open the larger tubes of the pig lung and boil them in plain water, cutting them up and dipping them in soy sauce to eat.
Zhu Yun Xuan knew how to process pig lungs. After all, his grandfather and uncle both sold meat, so he had eaten them many times. However, the method of boiling them in plain water never got rid of the strange smell of pig lungs. On the other hand, he remembered the stir-fried pig lung slices he had once eaten… just thinking about it made his mouth water!
Zhu Qiu Yue was very serious. When Zhu Yun Xuan asked her to clean the pig lungs, she did it very thoroughly. Even when she was using scissors to cut open the pig lungs, she tried her best to find small holes and almost cut the pig lungs into pieces.
Jiang Yue Xiu placed the large bones and pig lungs into water to boil. After skimming off the foam, she rinsed them and put the large bones into the pressure cooker to make bone soup. The pig lungs were then prepared to be boiled until cooked.
“Mom, can you put the bones and pig lungs in the pressure cooker together?” Zhu Yun Xuan asked.
“Okay.” Jiang Yue Xiu agreed. She didn’t like pig lungs and didn’t have much fondness for bone soup either. But since it was something her son wanted to eat, she was fine with whatever he wanted. Perhaps the pig lungs cooked with the bones would taste good?
Zhu Yun Xuan peeled two garlic cloves from the bunch hanging on the balcony. It was summer now, and in addition to eggplants, long beans, and water spinach planted in front of their house, they had also grown a few chili peppers, so he picked a few.
People from Jiangnan also eat spicy food, but not too spicy. The large chili peppers grown in their family garden weren’t very spicy, but they were just right for them.
“Mom, can you chop the pig lungs into smaller pieces and stir-fry them like last time when you made stir-fried meat slices? Please?” Zhu Yun Xuan said as he returned with the chilies, immediately beginning to ask Jiang Yue Xiu.
Jiang Yue Xiu always unconditionally fulfilled Zhu Yun Xuan’s small requests, so she quickly agreed, knowing that the most it would cost was a bit of oil and salt.
The stir-fried pig lungs turned out to be unexpectedly delicious. Even Jiang Yue Xiu, who usually didn’t like offal, ate several bites. After finishing, Zhu Yun Xuan took a small bowl, filled it with the stir-fried pig lungs, and went next door to his uncle’s house.
Sure enough, his aunt wasn’t home, and all Zhu Qiu Yue could eat was pickled vegetable soup and stewed eggplant. Of course, when his uncle had time, he might fry an egg.
Zhu Qiu Yue wasn’t picky. Compared to the picky Zhu Yun Xuan of his childhood, Zhu Qiu Yue ate just about anything. She was quite satisfied with the small bowl of pig lungs Zhu Yun Xuan brought her, and she even ate an extra bowl of rice.
However, Zhu Qiu Yue was eating alone. She had moved a stool to the stove to serve herself rice, but her uncle was absent.
“Qiu Yue, where’s Uncle?” Zhu Yun Xuan still insisted on not calling her “sister.” To him, the Zhu Qiu Yue in front of him seemed like a child with yellow hair, far different from the older sister who had once lent him money and comforted him in his previous life.
“Dad was called away by Grandpa, and he had already eaten earlier.” Zhu Qiu Yue answered Zhu Yun Xuan’s question, feeling even more enthusiastic when she realized she was eating the food she had previously washed.
“Qiu Yue, do you want to go to the town to study?”
“Why would I go to the town? Mom said I’m going to the countryside to attend the senior class next semester.” Zhu Qiu Yue answered, slightly puzzled but also a little excited.
“Going to the town would help you learn Mandarin. If you’re going to attend the senior class, you can go to the town’s school, and then we can attend school together!” Although people from the town looked down on those from the countryside, the educational conditions were definitely much better there. Even though children in the countryside sometimes attend primary and middle school, teachers wouldn’t always speak Mandarin, let alone in kindergarten! In his previous life, Zhu Qiu Yue had attended kindergarten for a year in the countryside before going to the town’s primary school with him. As a result, she couldn’t even speak Mandarin and was often bullied.
“I also want to go to the town’s kindergarten. It has a slide!” Zhu Qiu Yue’s eyes were full of envy. The kindergarten in the town had slides, seesaws, and many toys, while the one in the countryside was combined with the primary school and had only a muddy ground in the rain and dusty dirt in sunny weather. Naturally, she yearned for the town’s kindergarten.
Zhu Yun Xuan actually wished Zhu Qiu Yue could directly go to primary school, just like him. But now, the town’s primary school only accepted children who had attended kindergarten for better management. He had at least attended two years in the countryside, but Zhu Qiu Yue didn’t even know how to write her name.
“I’ll go talk to Grandpa!” Zhu Yun Xuan patted Zhu Qiu Yue’s shoulder confidently.
In the afternoon, Zhu Yun Xuan’s uncle, Zhu Cheng Cai, and his grandfather moved a stool and started sharpening knives under the shade at the eaves. Zhu Yun Xuan took this opportunity to discuss with his grandfather about sending Zhu Qiu Yue to the town’s kindergarten. He also mentioned that he planned to take Zhu Qiu Yue to the town for breakfast tomorrow. He hoped that Zhu Qiu Yue, who had hardly ever left the house, could see the outside world.
Zhu Ah Da wasn’t like Wang Feng Er, who favored sons over daughters. He liked his granddaughter very much. Actually, sending Zhu Qiu Yue to kindergarten in the town wasn’t a big deal, although it was a bit expensive. Because of the school meals, one semester would cost around 700 to 800 yuan.
He could afford the money, but if he gave it to his eldest son, he would have to give the same amount to his second son, which would be a burden. He looked at his eldest son, Zhu Cheng Cai.
Zhu Cheng Cai was very fond of Zhu Qiu Yue. After all, she was his only daughter, and because he had no education or skills, he couldn’t even find a decent job. He hoped his child could study well. After hesitating, he nodded. Even if the family’s money was only enough to cover half a year’s tuition, in six months, he could earn that money back, right?
Once he got his grandfather’s approval, Zhu Yun Xuan couldn’t help but smile. Zhu Cheng Cai reached out and patted his head, “You little rascal!”
“Uncle, I’m a rabbit!” Zhu Yun Xuan smiled at his uncle. His grandfather was a good person, and so were his uncle and father, though his grandmother’s way of thinking was a bit strange. Only his aunt could get along with her.
Zhu Cheng Cai smiled as he watched Zhu Yun Xuan walk away. He loved Zhu Qiu Yue, but he also liked his nephew, who had become much more obedient lately. When he got old, his daughter would take care of him, but if he passed away, he would probably need his nephew to help with the funeral arrangements.
He had registered Zhu Qiu Yue as a single child and received the single-child allowance every month. Since she was his only daughter, he gritted his teeth and decided to let her go to the town to study, hoping she could have a better future.
Zhu Yun Xuan had saved up more than ten yuan. In the afternoon, he carefully counted it and then exchanged it with his father for a ten yuan note.
In the future, ten yuan wouldn’t be able to buy much, but back then, many people worked hard all day and only earned ten yuan.
It was supposed to be a peaceful day, but when Zhu Yun Xuan was joking with his cousin, asking her to call him “little brother” so he could buy her a doll tomorrow, his aunt, Feng Xian, returned home.
The shift at the factory was a rotating three-shift schedule, with a four-day cycle. The morning shift was from 8 AM to 4 PM, the evening shift was from 4 PM to 12 AM, and the night shift was from 12 AM to 8 AM. Sometimes, when switching shifts, they could only rest for 8 hours at home. But in the countryside, women had to wash clothes, cook, and still take care of farm work, which was very exhausting.
Zhu Yun Xuan remembered that after no one hired his mother to make clothes, Jiang Yue Xiu also started working at the textile factory. Unfortunately, at that time, even though he knew his mother worked hard, he didn’t pay much attention… In this life, he would never let Jiang Yue Xiu work such a hard job again!
“Did you come up with this idea? Taking advantage of the old man!” Wang Feng Er suddenly came out of the house. She had married young, giving birth to her eldest son when she was only seventeen, and she was not yet fifty.
“What advantage did I take?” Feng Xian had a bad temper and immediately got angry.
“Hmph! Didn’t you send Cheng Cai to sell meat with the old man? How much can one person make by selling a pig? Now that two people are going, they’ll have to split the earnings! You’re sucking our blood!”
“Sell meat?” Feng Xian was surprised. Not many people had mobile phones back then, and their house didn’t even have a telephone. She didn’t know about this at all!
“Grandma, I told Grandpa to let Uncle go sell meat!” Zhu Yun Xuan immediately stood up. His grandmother didn’t get along well with anyone, not even her two sons. She was only a little nicer to him.
Wang Feng Er continued to complain, and Zhu Yun Xuan thought she was done arguing, but unexpectedly, she jumped up again: “Didn’t you say you couldn’t afford a second child? Now you have money, so aren’t you going to have a second one?”
Feng Xian and Zhu Cheng Cai both had rural household registrations, and since their first child was a daughter, they were allowed to have a second child. But Feng Xian had always been unwilling, which was one of the reasons Wang Feng Er didn’t like her.
Feng Xian didn’t say anything, just went into the house. She had fought with Wang Feng Er before, and when Wang Feng Er accused her of stealing, she even pulled her hair and fought back. But over time, she realized that her husband always believed in her, and no one helped Wang Feng Er. She learned to ignore her.
Zhu Yun Xuan secretly sighed with relief. He knew his grandmother well. Like most rural women, she was illiterate and lacked experience, yet her temper was strange, and she liked to be suspicious. She was hard to figure out. However, at least she was better than his second grandfather’s wife, the second grandma. She was the type who walked around just to gossip about her son’s wife and granddaughter! His grandmother would at least not spread family matters to the whole world.
The next day, Zhu Yun Xuan woke up early. When he got up, the house next door was already brightly lit. He opened the side door and found out that his uncle and grandfather had just returned after slaughtering a pig.
His grandfather was in a good mood, repeatedly saying that youth was great. It turned out that his uncle had dragged a whole pig out by holding its ear, saving his grandfather quite a bit of effort.
Zhu Yun Xuan couldn’t help but click his tongue. He had seen pig slaughtering before, and usually, it took two people, one in the front and one in the back, to handle a pig. But his uncle… he was probably afraid his grandmother would accuse him of sucking the old man’s blood again?
It was Zhu Cheng Cai’s first time selling meat in the town. He didn’t have his own stall and had to squeeze in with Zhu Ah Da. Fortunately, the stalls at that time were quite large, and with two big men, they could manage with two pigs on the counter. However, Zhu Yun Xuan ended up being quite unnecessary.
“Grandpa, I won’t help anymore. I want to study hard and go to university!” At that time, university students were still quite rare in the countryside. Even when Zhu Yun Xuan went to university, there were plenty of university students everywhere, but the countryside still didn’t have many. Zhu Cheng Cai had even held a banquet for him when he went!
“Good, my Yun Xuan is going to university in the future!” Zhu Ah Da smiled and handed Zhu Yun Xuan five yuan, asking him to take Zhu Qiu Yue to breakfast.
More than ten years later, people wouldn’t even think twice about eating KFC, but for Zhu Qiu Yue at that time, going to the town for breakfast was a luxurious treat. When she heard this, she smiled widely, not knowing that there was even more to come that would make her even happier.