Chapter 3: Satisfy the craving first

Eat meat?

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

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

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

The household responsibility system hadn't 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, and two years later, after the household responsibility system was implemented, his brother Li Jianguo became a professional pig farmer in the team, and the team even specially allocated a piece of pig feed land to the family.

Every winter before the heavy snow, every household would slaughter 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 wealthy, they could occasionally eat pork, right?

Li Juan didn't speak, just looked at the glutinous rice paper that was about to melt and didn't make a sound.

Li Qiang rushed to say:

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

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

In this year of his previous life, 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 they had to bury it.

And that winter, they basically 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 reacted quickly. When Li Juan came back 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 pigs to eat.

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

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

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

His niece had a heavy heart, how much pressure was she bearing!

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

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

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

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

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

"What do you want? Not eating meat won't kill you! It's getting dark, hurry back and prepare to sleep!"

It was indeed getting dark in the room. In this day and age, the team hadn't been connected to electricity, and kerosene lamps were used for lighting at night. The Li family had a relatively high-end kerosene lamp with a thin glass cover. When Li Long came back, Li Jianguo brought the family's other horse lamp over 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 sleeve was already polished and shiny like it was covered in paste, and said helplessly:

"Qiang, go blow your nose, look at your sleeve..."

"It's okay, Uncle, when are you going to catch sparrows?"

"Catching 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 the spinning top outside all day today."

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

The whip used for hitting the old cow, the better ones were made by twisting three strands of silk thread pulled from a tractor rubber belt, the worse ones were made by twisting nylon rope or cloth strips.

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

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

Rural children were all frozen up, so they really weren't very 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, put on his 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, seeing him, their eyes lit up immediately.

The cotton-padded rubber shoes on his feet were also much better than the cloth cotton-padded 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 taken into the room were kept here.

Li Long went over, turned on the flashlight, and found the landing net—it was already dark, and now was the right time to catch sparrows. Sparrows, people here called them sparrows, why, Li Long wasn't clear either.

At this time, there was no Wildlife Protection Law. And winter sparrows only ate grain and grass seeds, in the eyes of rural people, they were edible. When summer came, sparrows ate insects, and at that time they couldn't be eaten.

"Uncle, how to catch? Can't see anything?" Li Qiang wore a cotton hat one size too big, almost covering his eyes. He adjusted the 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 little uncle was much better.

"Follow me." Li Long pointed to the grass stack piled on the shed and said:

"In winter, sparrows don't build nests, they all hide in here. As long as you shine the flashlight, you can catch them with a landing net. You need to help hold them later."

Saying this, he started searching on the grass stack with the flashlight.

The grass on the shed was piled neatly, all for lighting the stove in winter. And if borrowing the team's livestock, these forage were also needed for feeding.

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

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

Li Long hadn't done this work for a long time, he was incredibly fortunate, his eyes were really good after rebirth!

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

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

"Okay." Li Juan took the flashlight, shook it, then aimed at the grass stack, 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, approached the place where the flashlight was shining from below, and when it was about to approach, he covered it fiercely!

"Flutter!"

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

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

(End of chapter)