Chapter 3

Eat meat?

Li Long was a bit surprised, looked at Li Juan, and asked:

"Did the family not kill a pig this year?"

He remembered that his brother and sister-in-law's family was raising a pig.

The household contract responsibility system had not been implemented yet, but every household was still allowed to raise pigs, just not too many.

His brother and sister-in-law were diligent people. Two years later, after the household contract responsibility system was implemented, his brother Li Jianguo became a professional pig farmer in the team, and the team specially allocated a piece of pig feed land to the family.

Every winter before the heavy snow, every household would kill a pig, and then the meat could be frozen in the snow, so it could be eaten until spring.

Although his brother and sister-in-law's family was not rich, they could occasionally eat pork, right?

Li Juan didn't speak, just looked at the glutinous rice paper that had almost melted and didn't make a sound.

Li Qiang grabbed and said:

"Uncle, the pig at home... is a superstitious pig, can't be eaten, buried."

Superstitious pig? Li Long suddenly reacted, yes, he remembered.

In his previous life, this year, the family raised a pig, and when they slaughtered it in early winter, they found that the meat was full of insect eggs like millet grains.

This thing naturally couldn't be eaten, so it had to be buried.

And this winter, basically, they didn't eat much meat.

When he looked up at Li Juan, he happened to see a trace of guilt on Li Juan's face.

Li Long quickly reacted. When Li Juan came home from school, she would go to the fields to cut pig grass, then carry it back, chop it up, mix it with some bran and chaff, and cook it for the pig to eat.

She might feel that the reason their pig became a superstitious pig was largely caused by herself?

"Juan, don't overthink it. There are many reasons for a superstitious pig. Drinking water and eating things are of course one of them, but it's also possible that some bird pooped into the pigsty, and the pig rooted it and got infected."

"Uncle, is this true?" Li Juan spoke to Li Long for the first time, and Li Long could clearly see the crystal-clear light flashing in her eyes.

His niece had a heavy heart; how much pressure was she under!

"Of course it's true. Your uncle, I came back from Wucheng and worked in a food factory; the experts in that factory talked about this knowledge."

"Then..." Li Juan felt much more relaxed all of a sudden, "Then it's not all because of eating things?"

"Of course. Flies can carry insect eggs and bacteria; these are hard to say." Li Long understood Li Juan's thoughts and enlightened her, "Besides, if there's no meat to eat, isn't there fish? Tomorrow I'll go smash the ice hole to catch fish, I guarantee we'll have plenty of fish to eat for the New Year!"

"I want to eat today..." Li Qiang said in a low voice.

Li Juan's perception of Li Long had changed greatly, and she scolded her younger brother:

"What are you thinking about? You won't die if you don't eat meat! It's getting dark, go back and prepare to sleep!"

It was indeed getting dark in the room. In this day and age, the team hadn't pulled electricity yet, and kerosene lamps were used for lighting at night. The Li family had a relatively high-end kerosene lamp with a thin glass cover on it. When Li Long came back, Li Jianguo brought the other lantern from the house for him to use.

Li Long looked outside and said to Li Juan and Li Qiang with a smile:

"You wait a moment, I'll catch a few sparrows for you to roast and eat."

"Really?" Li Qiang sniffed his nose and wiped it with his sleeve again, "Uncle, can you really catch them?"

"Yes." Li Long looked at Li Qiang's green clothes, the sleeves were already greasy and shiny, and said helplessly:

"Qiang, go blow your nose, look at your sleeves, they've become like that..."

"It's okay, Uncle, when will you catch the sparrows?"

"Catch them now, you wait."

"I'll go with you." Li Qiang said excitedly. "No, it's too cold outside."

"I'm not afraid. I played with a spinning top outside all day."

Playing with a spinning top, also known as hitting an old cow. Toys made by children in the village, the standard ones, the big ones used a steel ball the size of a pigeon egg smashed into a nut from a truck tire, the small ones used a spark plug, knocked off the porcelain, the ignition head inside was punched down, and then smashed into a small steel ball.

The whip used to hit the old cow, the better ones were made of three strands of thread pulled from a tractor rubber belt twisted together, the worse ones were made of nylon rope or cloth strips.

In winter, besides skating and cockfighting, this was the only thing children in the team could play with.

"Then you go wear a hat." Li Long thought for a while and said.

Children in the countryside were frozen big, and they were really not afraid.

"Uncle, I want to go too." Li Juan said in a low voice.

"That's fine, you follow too. Go put on thick clothes first."

Li Long took out his only household appliance—a flashlight—from his satchel, then put on a leather hat and walked out.

!.

The leather hat was a military style, which cost him more than half a month's wages, looking much more spirited than what the people in the village wore.

So when Li Juan and Li Qiang came out dressed, as soon as they saw him, their eyes lit up immediately.

The cotton rubber shoes on his feet were also much better than the cloth cotton shoes on Li Juan and Li Qiang's feet; his wages were basically spent on these.

"Juan, where is our family's landing net?"

"It's in the shed." Li Juan pointed to the grass shed built on the east side of the east room. Some tools that didn't need to be brought into the house were kept here.

Li Long went over and found the landing net with the flashlight—it was already dark, and now was the right time to catch sparrows. Sparrows, people here called them sparrows, because Li Long didn't know why.

At this time, there was no animal protection law. And sparrows in winter only ate grain and grass seeds, which were edible in the eyes of people in the countryside. By summer, sparrows ate insects, and they couldn't be eaten then.

"Uncle, how to catch them? Can't see anything?" Li Qiang wore a cotton hat one size too big, almost covering his eyes. He adjusted his hat, wiped his nose on his sleeve again, and asked.

Li Juan also looked at Li Long curiously. Li Long's explanation just now successfully eliminated the pressure in her heart, so her perception of this uncle was much better.

"Follow me." Li Long pointed to the haystack stacked on the shed and said:

"Sparrows don't build nests in winter, they all hide in here. Just shine the flashlight, and you can catch them with a landing net. You guys help hold them later."

As he spoke, he took the flashlight and began to search on the haystack.

The haystack on the shed was neat and tidy, all used for lighting the stove in winter. And if they borrowed the production team's livestock, they also needed to use this forage to feed them.

"Uncle, did you see it..." Li Qiang saw Li Long shining the light, was impatient, and asked.

"Don't talk!" Li Juan patted him, "Didn't you see Uncle is looking for it!"

Li Long hadn't done this work for a long time, and he was extremely glad that his eyes were really good after being reborn!

Soon, he discovered a pair of sparkling eyes, found it!

"Come, Juan, you shine the light where I'm shining now." Li Long turned his head and said to Li Juan, "I'll come and cover it with the landing net."

"Okay." Li Juan took the flashlight, shook it, then aimed it at the haystack, and asked:

"Uncle, is it this place?"

"Hmm. Don't move, don't talk." Li Long picked up the landing net, took two steps forward, carefully raised it, slowly approached the place where the flashlight was shining, and when he was about to reach it, he suddenly covered it up!

"Flap, flap, flap!"

A sparrow flew up in a panic and drilled into the landing net.

"Caught it!" Li Qiang clapped his hands and said excitedly.

(End of chapter)