Siheyuan: I Raised Ten Thousand Wild Boars

Zhaojia

Li Guohua shook his drunken head, then looked up at the people lying on the kang in all directions, and began to laugh.

At noon, I don’t know if it was because we were happy or the food was delicious, but five of us finished two bottles of Tongzhou Laojiao and brought half a jar of Laoshao. Only then did we have a great time.

He really drank the first two bottles of wine to accompany his father-in-law. When the jar of old liquor was brought, he could only use his secret weapon and drink it all into the space.

Seeing how much he could drink, the other four people took turns drinking with him, and finally they all lay down.

"You just drink like an idiot when you're having a meal. How can you live like this?" Mother Zhao and several sisters-in-law kept nagging while cleaning the table.

"Second sister-in-law, these men are busy all year round and rarely happy. Just let them be." Seeing that Li Guohua was still conscious, the others hurriedly persuaded her with a smile.

You guys were asked to get someone drunk, but you ended up getting drunk. The villagers will laugh at you for half a year because of this.

Li Guohua felt that it was not appropriate for him to stay here, so he talked to a few people and left the room, ready to enjoy the scenery outside.

There were low thatched houses and adobe courtyards with broken walls. Everyone was wearing tattered clothes and was busy chopping wood and cutting grass to bring home.

This is the true portrayal of rural areas in this era. The Zhao family is already living a good life.

"Wow, brother-in-law, brother-in-law, big brother and second brother are stealing my candy!"

Before Li Guohua could utter any words of regret, his sister-in-law came running over crying and accused his two brothers of their evil deeds.

"Hahaha, Yunmei, don't cry, your brother-in-law has some here!" Li Guohua hugged Zhao Yunmei in his arms, gave her two more candies, and coaxed her to stop crying.

"Brother-in-law!"

After getting the candy, the sister-in-law was so happy that she smiled and even lay in his arms.

When Zhao Yun's sister was crying, the two generals Heng and Ha hid aside and watched. One reason was that they were afraid of being beaten by their parents, and the other was that they wanted to see if their sister would cry too sadly.

"Brother-in-law!"

When they saw that the younger sister got candy from her brother-in-law again, the two of them ran over shamelessly again.

Seeing these two people in front of him, Li Guohua couldn't help laughing, mainly because their names were so cool.

"What's the matter?" Li Guohua asked with a smile.

"Brother is bad, brother-in-law, don't pay attention to them!" Zhao Yunmei said in a smart way, making Li Guohua doubt whether this girl did it on purpose.

"Brother-in-law, do you have any candies? We want to give one to Tiezhu and Gousheng each!" In the end, Zhao Yunlong, who was older, told them the purpose of their visit.

Li Guohua looked not far away and saw 4-5 children around seven or eight years old, wearing worn-out shoes with exposed heels, thin and ragged clothes, with their heads huddled in their arms, grimacing from the cold.

It turned out that he was just thinking about his little brother. He is a generous person.

"That's all I have. You can decide for yourselves!" Li Guohua took out a paper bag from his pocket and opened it to reveal 7-8 candies.

This was when I first came to this world. I didn't have many tickets, so I bought some unpackaged candies. I had been planning on using them to build relationships in the countryside, but these are all I have left.

"Thank you, brother-in-law!"

The two generals Heng and Ha happily took the candy, shook it at their friends, and then ran away with a string of little tails.

"Guohua, are you okay?" Zhao Yunxia walked out of the house holding a porcelain bowl.

This was a hangover soup she made because she saw Li Guohua drank too much at noon and was worried that he would feel uncomfortable. In fact, it was not a good thing, just bean sprouts, garlic and chopped green onions cooked together, with a light taste.

"Big sister!" Zhao Yunmei called out crisply when she saw her sister coming out, but she showed no intention of coming down.

Seeing his young wife's worried look, Li Guohua squeezed her hand and said, "I didn't drink much, it's okay!"

"Well, I'll go help mom clean up first!"

The Zhao family came at noon, and there were still many villagers watching the fun. In public, being pinched by Li Guohua, I felt a little embarrassed.

In the afternoon, several of Zhao Yunxia's cousins ​​also showed up.

Wow, my uncle has five sons, which is really scary. The pressure on my third uncle’s family is much less, as there are only two cousins ​​and one cousin.

No wonder I didn’t see them at noon. If they came here to eat, no amount of food would be enough.

They were lucky enough to have a good time, eating from a big pot and not having to worry about going hungry. When they could no longer eat in the public canteen in a few years, they would be grown up and could dig for food in the fields.

"Brother-in-law, you guys are still better off, you work for the government and get paid!" My eldest cousin Zhao Yunying was holding a big front door and knocking on it continuously with a flattering smile on his face.

At this time, most cigarettes do not have filters. If you don’t want to get a mouthful of tobacco leaves, you must knock it a few times in advance.

My eldest cousin is already 25 years old this year, but he is still unmarried. When others hear that he has five brothers, they are afraid to marry into his family.

Li Guohua now understands Zhao Qingsong a little bit. No wonder he asked about work right away.

"We are not as well off as you say. It seems that we have cash, but everything costs money, even water. Besides, there is a limited monthly ration, and we have to plan our food. Maybe the people in the city don't eat as well as you do!" Li Guohua said with a smile.

This is also a common phenomenon now. Although the countryside has little money, it has enough food. Even in the next three years, as long as there is a sensible secretary, no one will starve to death in the village.

"Well, the city is good. If we stay in the village every day, what can we achieve?"

What Zhao Yunying envies most now is Zhao Yunxia, ​​who was lucky enough to be sent to a textile factory by the commune.

His family actually helped him find a girl, but the other party asked for a huge amount of money, twenty yuan as a dowry. If he agreed, he was afraid that his family would suffer a lot of hunger and his brothers would be dragged down, so he finally refused.

“Does Zhaojia Village raise pigs?”

When talking about food in the countryside, Li Guohua remembered one thing, that is, there have never been domestic pigs in his space, only wild boars. Although they have become fatter after being raised in the space, they are still not as oily as domestic pigs.

I have asked around before, including at meat processing plants and some breeding farms.

But they rejected it outright, saying that meat was fine, but don't even think about live pigs, even if they were dead they had to be registered.

Now we have finally arrived at Zhaojia Village. If we don’t get one, we don’t know when we can get it done.

"Yes, there are two big fat pigs in the village. Someone cuts grass for them and feeds them. They gave birth to a litter of piglets a few days ago!"

Zhao Yunying took a deep puff of the cigarette, and then the smoke came out of his nostrils. Looking at his face full of enjoyment, it was obvious that he was an old smoker.

There was actually nothing for the few people to do when they came over. They mainly came to see the new son-in-law of the Zhao family. After getting to know him, they chatted for a few minutes and then went to work in the fields.

There is not much work in the village at this time of year. Winter is coming soon and there will be no work to do then. We must take advantage of this time to earn more work points so that we can get food rations at the end of the year.

In the afternoon, when Zhao Dalai sobered up, Li Guohua found him and told him that he wanted to buy piglets.

"Guohua, you are not an outsider, you are the son-in-law of our Zhaojia Village. I will speak directly to you if I have anything to say!"

"This little piglet belongs to everyone in the brigade. I shouldn't give it to you, but if you can promise me one, I can give you two!"

Good fellow, I want to buy it, but he won't sell it to me and just gives it to me for free. How big of a problem is this? Li Guohua was silent for a few seconds and then asked, "Uncle Dalai, just say it if you have something to say!"

"It's like this. Aren't you the purchasing officer of the textile factory now? In the future, if there is any surplus in the village, can you help me buy it all? But I have to pay the market price!" Zhao Dalai stated his request hesitantly.

What kind of request is this? Even if you sell it to the supply and marketing cooperative’s purchasing station, it won’t be cheaper by more than a few cents, right?

After Li Guohua's repeated questioning, Zhao Dalai finally told him the reason.

It turned out that the village had just implemented a new financial and trade system, requiring a unified submission of fiscal and tax revenues. However, the prices of materials in the countryside were different from those in the city, and there would inevitably be a lot of wrangling later, so I made this request to myself.

Li Guohua was left in tears and laughed. What kind of request is that? It will be cancelled in two years. So he agreed immediately.

Now I don’t have to wait for the pigs from the textile factory. After all, for me, time is money, and one day is equivalent to a month.