Chapter 108: Celebrating the New Year

"Brother Fang, time is tight and the task is heavy, so I'll be off first. I hope to drink to your wedding in the coming year." Before Fang Dahu could react, Zhang Ping'an pedaled the tricycle and left.

"Ahem, Xiaojun, don't talk nonsense in the future; it's not good for your Aunt Wang." A rare flush appeared on Fang Dahu's dark face.

"Oh, but I didn't say anything."

Zhang Ping'an passed by his home without entering and headed straight for his uncle's house at the edge of the village, carrying three pig legs and a number of cured wild hares and pheasants.

Zhang Ping'an had secured three hundred catties of meat in this trip, but he wasn't prepared to hand it all over at once; he would split it into three or five installments. He could take a basket of eggs from his space to handle things for now.

It was already dark when Zhang Ping'an arrived at the Rolling Mill. He weighed the items one by one and returned the tricycle.

"Today, I want to specifically commend Zhu Jianshe. He directly procured a large fat pig weighing two hundred and twenty catties. Of course, Zhang Ping'an is also very impressive, with eighty-five catties of various cured meats and thirty catties of eggs."

"And Jia Dongxu, ten wild hares and seven pheasants. Everyone, give them a round of applause." At the morning meeting, Zhu Weiguo was very satisfied with everyone's harvest from yesterday.

"I hope everyone can continue to work hard today. Meeting adjourned."

"Dongxu, I've already taken care of the three hundred catties of meat. You can rest today."

"Done." In this freezing weather, he really didn't want to go out.

Zhang Ping'an returned the tricycle and the scale, bought ten packs of cigarettes at different Supply and Marketing Cooperatives to store, and then made another trip deep into the Back Mountain of Qin Family Village. He gave some instructions and released the last of the tiger cubs.

Zhang Ping'an's initial thought was to kill the tigers for their bones, but he had developed an attachment and couldn't bring himself to do it. His space wasn't large enough for them to survive, so releasing them temporarily was a helpless choice. When he had time, he would take them to Beijiang or Changbai Mountain to release them into the wild properly.

Returning to the Rolling Mill at noon, Zhang Ping'an handed over another cured pig leg and several cured wild hares and pheasants, as well as live wild hares, totaling eighty-two catties, plus two baskets of eggs weighing sixty catties.

The first group's goal was more than half complete; handing over another cured pig leg and two or three baskets of eggs in the next few days would just about finish it.

After returning the tricycle and the scale, Zhang Ping'an had intended to spend the afternoon at the Pharmacy, but upon remembering that the Pharmacy had also entered a Public-Private Partnership, he immediately extinguished the thought.

In the blink of an eye, it was the morning of the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Zhang Ping'an prepared ten catties of fatty meat along with cigarettes, alcohol, tea, and sugar to take to his father-in-law's house, where he ate until his mouth was glistening with grease at noon.

On the twenty-ninth, he also prepared the first batch of tea from his space for his master—that's right, the seedlings from the Imperial Palace Tea Tree.

Zhang Ping'an had learned some tea-roasting techniques from books and had spent half a month learning from a Master Worker introduced by his master. Only then did he begin to put the tea leaves he had long since picked into an iron pot to stir-fry.

It was Zhang Ping'an's first time roasting; although the appearance wasn't great, the clear fragrance after brewing was definitely rare on the market.

"Master, this is wild tea I roasted myself. It's absolutely authentic and refreshing. Please try it when you have a moment."

"Done." It was, after all, his apprentice's heartfelt gesture. Even if it tasted bad... forget it, if it tasted bad, he would just spit it out.

There were two half-catty oil-paper packages. Wang Lao opened one and immediately brewed it.

"Sniff, not bad. The aroma alone is enough to beat most tea on the market."

Wang Lao took a light sip, the fragrance lingering on his lips and teeth, while he felt a sense of clarity in his mind. "Good tea!" he blurted out.

"Ping'an, did you really roast this tea?"

"Yes, it's wild tea I found in the mountains."

"Not bad, not bad. Although the quality is a bit lacking, the flavor surpasses most tea." Wang Lao was very satisfied, continuously sipping the tea.

"Hehe, as long as you like it."

On the morning of New Year's Eve, Zhang Ping'an collected his wages of three hundred and thirty thousand and put up the spring couplets. This was his first time putting them up himself at his house in Sijiucheng; previously, he had always returned to his hometown early, and San Jie Fu, Lao Jia, would help him put them up.

After saying goodbye to Wang Xiaoling, Zhang Ping'an rode his Bicycle back to his hometown. In the bamboo basket on the back of the Bicycle, he carried quite a few snacks, cigarettes, alcohol, tea, sugar, and firecrackers.

He left the tricycle for his six nephews and nieces; even if the village came to procure goods, the six of them wouldn't fit, and his four cousins had long since been picked up by his second uncle on his family's tricycle.

The couplets at home were all put up, and most of the dishes were cooked; they were just waiting for Zhang Ping'an to come home to eat.

Zhang Ping'an entered the house and parked the Bicycle, and his little brother pounced on him.

"Brother!"

"Hey! Xile, be good, don't get too close yet, Brother is covered in cold air." Zhang Ping'an patted the little boy.

The temperature inside the house was now around twenty degrees, a difference of more than thirty degrees from the outside, so the elderly and children rarely went out in the dead of winter.

"Oh, okay."

Zhang Xile could now understand most of what people said, so he was very obedient and only leaned in after Zhang Ping'an had warmed up.

Zhang Ping'an's home was his grandparents' house from before the family was divided, so it was very large, with five main rooms and three rooms each in the East and West Wing Rooms. Although they were all earthen houses, almost every household was like this in this day and age; you couldn't even find a brick-and-tile house in a whole village.

The thing earthen houses feared most was rats digging holes everywhere. Sometimes, Zhang Ping'an could hear the rustling sounds while sleeping at night.

During the New Year's Eve dinner, Zhang Ping'an thought about renovating the house.

"Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Mom, let's renovate the house after the New Year."

"Hmm, that works too. This house has some years on it; it was built when your dad and the others were young, and it's been repaired a few times since."

"Grandpa, I want to tear it down and rebuild it. This time, I'll build the house with stone." As for bricks, he shouldn't even think about it in this day and age; not only would it be high-profile, but it would also require paperwork.

"Dad, Ping'an is also going to take a wife, so it's time to fix up the house." The house was indeed old; it was rare for it to have stood for thirty or forty years.

"That's fine, but don't think about stone. Where would you get so much stone to use?"

"The Back Mountain."

"Go, go, go. You have no idea how much it costs to open mountains and split rocks. Besides, there's no gunpowder now. We'll just use stones for the foundation. When the weather gets better, everyone will pitch in to ram the earthen walls; it won't be any worse than the brick-and-tile houses in the city."

Zhang Ping'an slapped his forehead; he had oversimplified things. Forget it, he would just listen to the old man.

"Alright, then I'll listen to Grandpa."

The first day of the New Year was no exception; the morning was basically spent kowtowing, only Zhang Ping'an had a little tail following him behind.

But this year, Zhang Ping'an had to go back on the afternoon of the third day. There was no way around it; he had to go back, as he had to work on the fourth.

Returning to the Siheyuan, Zhang Ping'an unexpectedly saw Shazhu, who would normally have gone to work at the restaurant by this time.

"Zhuzi, didn't you go to work?"

"Ah, Uncle Zhang, we'll be colleagues from now on."

"Come, come, come, let's go to my place and talk about what's going on."

"What else could it be? The restaurant is going out of business."

"Xu Damao, if you don't speak, no one will think you're a mute."

"..."

"Tch."

"It's not really a secret anymore. A couple of years ago, some of the shareholders at the restaurant had a falling out with the Shopkeeper, and later it turned into a conflict between the head chef and the Shopkeeper. Both sides were at a stalemate, and the restaurant's business was affected, so my master told us to each find our own way for now and wait until the situation stabilized."

"Didn't your restaurant undergo a Public-Private Partnership?"

"Doesn't seem like it yet, but it should be soon."

It was a bit of a pity for Shazhu to leave; he could have grown faster at the restaurant, but going to the Rolling Mill was fine too—at least it would be secure for the next ten or twenty years.

"Zhuzi, have you finished your apprenticeship?"

"Hehe, Zhang Shu, you're late; we just held the apprenticeship completion banquet this morning."

During his few years at the restaurant, Shazhu only spent the first year as a prep cook; afterward, under his master's guidance, he gradually gained experience, occasionally filling in for the third chef at the stove or cooking staff meals. In any case, his master had truly treated him well over these four years.

"Yo, not bad, Zhuzi."

"Hehe."

"So, do you have anything going on tonight? I've got some top-quality venison; how about we few men have a drink tonight?"