Chapter 18: Seeing Sha Zhu Slaughters the Pig

Although this work looked simple—nothing more than pouring hot water and scraping hair—it was physically demanding. Squatting on the stove platform with steam rising, their clothes were soaked, whether from sweat or water vapor.

Li Xuewu returned and, along with his brothers, flipped the pig over to continue scraping the belly.

By now, it was nearly seven o'clock. Li Xuewu had only had a light lunch and was feeling hungry, so he picked up the tin box of biscuits Zhao Yafang handed him and started eating.

These biscuits must have been bought around the time of their wedding; the two of them hadn't been able to bear eating them and had saved them. Today, the eldest sister-in-law didn't feel the pinch anymore and took the initiative to bring them out for her brother-in-law.

After eating two, he satisfied his hunger, drank a cup of hot water, put the round lid back on, and returned it to the south room.

These were the eldest sister-in-law's snacks for late-night reading; he couldn't just eat them all shamelessly.

Seeing Li Xuewu return the biscuits, Zhao Yafang hurriedly said, "Xuewu, just eat if you're hungry. The meal will take a while yet."

Li Xuewu smiled at Zhao Yafang and said, "I'm not hungry anymore; the biscuits are too sweet and filling."

Liu Yin watched her daughter-in-law without speaking, instead kneading dough to steam buns, as they were keeping Seeing Sha Zhu for dinner today.

In the courtyard, every family had finished dinner by now, and many young people walked to the front courtyard, surrounding the window by the Li family's stove platform to look inside.

The brothers Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, the three brothers Yan Jiecheng, Yan Jiefang, and Yan Jiekuang, and some other older boys who were bigger than Banggeng, stood crowded in the front courtyard.

While talking, Li Xuewu and Li Xuecai moved the dining table toward the north room, cleared space, and brought out the table from under the sideboard to join it with the dining table, forming a long table.

The Li brothers then went with the grandmother to the stable to find a few wooden planks, brought them back, laid them on the table, and nailed them together with two crossbars to make a wooden rack.

This was because they would need knives and axes to butcher the meat later, and they didn't want to damage the tabletop.

By the time the grandmother and the brothers finished, Seeing Sha Zhu had already scraped all the hair off the large wild boar.

The Li family's men worked together to lift the white-stripped pig onto the prepared long table.

Now, "Brother Pig" had finally shed his outer coat and was displayed cleanly before everyone.

During the hair-scraping, Liu Yin had already poured out several buckets of muddy water, and they had scooped half a pot of mud and pig hair out of the pot, scrubbing it several times before it was clean.

The pig hair was packed into a sack and thrown in the corner of the room, to be washed and sold when they had time.

Seeing Sha Zhu was sweating profusely and decided he had to take a break. Under the grandmother's guidance, Li Xue offered Seeing Sha Zhu a cigarette and lit it for him.

Seeing Sha Zhu took a puff and said to Li Xue with a smile, "Thanks, little sister. You're in your second year of high school, right?"

Li Xue was usually chatty with classmates at school but spoke little at home. Because of Liu Yin's strictness, she had little contact with people in the courtyard. Now that Seeing Sha Zhu asked, she just nodded, said "Mm," and walked back to sit by her grandmother.

Seeing Sha Zhu didn't mind, knowing the Li family had strict discipline; the girls were raised like young ladies of the old era, and the sons were either scholars or physicians. Even if there was a Li the Second, who was like a local tyrant, he had been a high school graduate sent off to be a soldier; otherwise, he would have been a university student too.

Li Xuewu: "Brother Zhuzi, don't mind her, my sister is shy."

Li Xuewu explained to Silly Zhu with a smile and then said to his little sister Li Xue, "Li Xue, greet Brother Zhuzi proactively in the future; don't be impolite."

Li Xuewu couldn't stand people watching from outside saying his sister lacked upbringing or manners, and he certainly couldn't let Seeing Sha Zhu, who had come to help, think so. Even if Li Xue wasn't close to him, he had to look out for his sister.

Seeing Sha Zhu: "Hi, they're all like that. Girls are chirpy like boys when they're little, but when they grow up, they learn to be careful. My sister Yushui is the same."

At this point, Liu Yin took over the conversation: "Is Yushui's marriage settled? I heard Aunt Yi muttering last time that the partner is a neighborhood policeman?"

156n.

Seeing Sha Zhu finished his cigarette, picked up the kitchen knife, and answered while walking: "No news yet. Work is busy, and my sister has a mind of her own; she doesn't need me to worry."

Living in the same courtyard, everyone knew the situation in Seeing Sha Zhu's house. Seeing Sha Zhu was carefree and had been raising his sister since he was a child himself; he was hardly in a position to take good care of her.

He Yu Shui was independent, going to school, working, and finding a partner on her own. It could be said that heaven doesn't starve the blind sparrow; the partner she found was quite good, at least with a decent job.

It must be said that He Yu Shui was quite good-looking, tall enough, and although she looked thin and lacked "fortune" by current standards, she would be influencer-level in the future. Aunt Yi had once wanted to introduce her to Li Xuewen.

Li Xuewu knew about this because Liu Yin had disagreed and rejected it. Liu Yin felt He Yu Shui's family situation wasn't great and feared Yushui would have a paranoid personality after marriage, so she turned it down.

But they hadn't told anyone else. Seeing Sha Zhu and Yushui didn't know, and even Li Xuewen didn't know. Li Xuewu had overheard it while passing by.

Li Xuewu watched Liu Yin chatting with Seeing Sha Zhu and secretly glanced at his eldest sister-in-law. Compared to the He Yu Shui in the TV series, his sister-in-law's looks were slightly inferior, but her temperament was a cut above.

Perhaps it was what the books called "a belly full of poetry and books makes one's temperament elegant."

But there was a saying: "Distance tests a horse's strength, time reveals a person's heart." Life was long; let's wait and see.

If He Yu Shui married in, Seeing Sha Zhu would probably be willing, and Yushui might be willing too.

Although the Li family wasn't wealthy, it was because there were many people and they had to support students. But everyone knew that in this day and age, education was useful; Yushui had been assigned a job because she was a high school graduate.

Just as Seeing Sha Zhu was about to cut, he heard Yan Jiefang shout from outside the window: "Seeing Sha Zhu, be careful, don't cut your fingers!"

Seeing Sha Zhu looked up and cursed: "Get lost! Shout again and I'll castrate you!"

Liu Guangtian leaned against the window and asked: "Seeing Sha Zhu, how many jin can this pig weigh?"

Yan Jiefang also asked: "Seeing Sha Zhu, is wild boar meat tasty?"

Liu Guangfu glared at Yan Jiefang: "Nonsense, can meat not be tasty?"

Yan Jiefang: "Hey! You little brat, who are you calling nonsense!"

Outside the window, it was noisy, everyone arguing about the pig. Silly Zhu was furious. In the Li house, they called him Zhuzi or Brother Zhuzi, but in the mouths of that group of brats outside, he became "Silly Zhu."

"All of you, get lost! What are you shouting about? Go stay wherever it's cool!"

Yan Jiefang glared at Seeing Sha Zhu: "This isn't your house, and the pig isn't yours either. What are you acting so big for!"

Liu Guangtian: "Exactly."

Seeing Sha Zhu was so angry he grabbed the knife, opened the door, and walked out. The group of boys scattered in a panic, but they didn't run far, laughing and cursing Seeing Sha Zhu. Seeing Seeing Sha Zhu return to the house, they gathered around from a distance again.

Seeing Sha Zhu had chased away the source of the noise, and holding the knife, he butchered the four pig trotters and the pig tail.

Seeing Sha Zhu held the pig tail and said to Li Xuewu: "Xuewu, give me the pig tail later. I'll take it back to drink with." =====