Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 66

Chapter 66

In Ye Xi’s courtyard, a fat pig had been slaughtered, the offal filling a basin. Li Xi washed his hands with soap pods, and Li-ge’er handed him a cloth to dry them. Ye Shan and Lin Jiangshan washed the bloodstains off the courtyard ground with water, sweeping back and forth with brooms.

Looking at the two basins of sliced pork, Ye Xi smiled. “We’re having a pork feast tonight!”

Li-ge’er said happily, “That sounds great! I haven’t had your cooking in a while!”

Ye Xi took a piece of pork belly, a piece of leg meat, and some pig intestines and went to the kitchen.

After a while, the stove was lit, and the sizzling sound of meat being fried filled the air, the aroma making everyone’s mouths water.

Lin Jiangshan asked Li Xi, “When are you building your house? Let us know if you need any help.”

Ye Shan nodded. “We’ll be neighbors soon, just let us know.”

Li Xi was touched. After separating from his family and coming to Shanxiu Village, the Ye family and the Lin family had helped him a lot, while his own parents and siblings hadn’t even asked about him.

“Alright, you two treat me like a brother, I won’t stand on ceremony. If I need any help, I’ll ask.”

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “You’re an honest and hardworking man, butchering is tough work, and now you’re finally building a house and starting a family.”

They chatted for a while, and then Ye Xi called them for dinner, setting up the table in the main room.

The snow was still falling, the temperature dropping sharply in the mountains. The kang in the main room was warm, and they sat around the table, enjoying a delicious meal.

Ye Xi made braised pork belly, stir-fried pig intestines with chili peppers, stewed radish with pork ribs, crispy fried meatballs with mushrooms and carrots, and also stir-fried minced meat with pickled sour beans, a perfect dish to go with rice.

The food was so delicious that they couldn’t stop eating, everyone’s mouths oily and shiny, home-raised pork was truly flavorful.

After chatting and laughing for a while, Ye Shan and Li Ran went home, and Li-ge’er and Li Xi also left, they had to work tomorrow.

After they left, the courtyard became quiet. Ye Xi finished cleaning the kitchen and came out, and Lin Jiangshan carried the meat into a jar to store it.

Ye Xi, looking at the jar full of meat, felt a sense of satisfaction and security, knowing they had plenty of food. He smiled. “We have so much meat, even if we eat meat every meal, we won’t be able to finish it all during the New Year. We can cure some with salt and spices tomorrow and store it until next year.”

Lin Jiangshan nodded. “My husband worked hard raising the pigs, that’s why we have so much meat to eat.”

Raising piglets into fat pigs wasn’t an easy task, requiring three meals a day, cooking pig feed, chopping pigweed, and cleaning the pigsty, a tiring and time-consuming chore.

Ye Xi smiled. “There’s no such thing as free pork. There are wild boars with tusks in the mountains, but who can hunt one? We have to work hard to enjoy delicious pork. We’ll raise two more next year and also raise more chickens and ducks. We can clear more land next to the house and build a fence to let them roam freely, that will save us some work.”

Lin Jiangshan teased him, “It’s winter now, time to relax and enjoy the New Year, and you’re already planning for next year? Come to bed, let’s sleep.”

Ye Xi yawned, “Yes, we should go to bed early, we have to cure the meat tomorrow.”

The lights in the small courtyard went out, and Shanxiu Village was enveloped in darkness, the snow falling silently, covering everything.

Today was New Year’s Eve, and Ye Xi had to prepare the New Year’s goods and food. The couple started working early in the morning.

Lin Jiangshan cleaned the jars and pots, swept the courtyard and the house, a New Year’s tradition called “sweeping the dust,” symbolizing a clean start to the new year and praying for good luck.

Ye Xi cured meat and made sausages in the courtyard, enough for the whole year.

“Husband, I’ve finished cleaning, time to paste the couplets and window decorations. I’ve made the paste, it’s on the stove.”

Lin Jiangshan was meticulous in his work, sweeping the eaves and windows clean and bright, a pleasant sight.

He took the couplets and window decorations they had bought at the market. Few people in the village could write, so they had to buy them. A scholar would write a pair of couplets with a few strokes of his brush, charging ten wen. Illiterate villagers would think to themselves how fortunate those scholars were, earning money so easily, and although they found it expensive, they could only pay, as they couldn’t write themselves.

“The calligraphy on this year’s couplets is good. Although I don’t understand it, it looks powerful and elegant,” Lin Jiangshan said, examining the couplets carefully.

Ye Xi filled pig intestines with meat and replied, “They were written by a scholar who had a stall at the market, seems to be from the private school in Qingfu Village. His family is poor, so he sells calligraphy at the market. I thought his calligraphy was better than others’, so I bought two pairs.”

Ye Xi had cut the window decorations himself, patterns of good fortune, prosperity, longevity, abundance, and auspiciousness. He only knew how to cut simple patterns, for more complex ones, he had to rely on the older women in the village, who could create intricate designs with just a pair of scissors and a piece of red paper.

Lin Jiangshan pasted the couplets and window decorations on the doors and windows, then went to hang lanterns at the courtyard gate. This was their first New Year as a married couple, and they had to celebrate it properly.

He hung two large red lanterns with the character “福” (fortune) on them at the gate.

“I’ve cleaned the pig’s head, we can boil it and offer it to your parents in the main room, how about that?” Ye Xi asked, looking at the pig’s head in the basin.

Lin Jiangshan agreed. “I’ve married a good husband and am living a good life, I should offer something good to my parents and ask for their blessings.”

Ye Xi went to the kitchen and started preparing the New Year’s Eve dishes. Tonight’s dinner couldn’t be sloppy, it had to be a proper feast, with fish and meat, and there had to be leftovers, a symbol of abundance for the coming year.

He minced a whole basin of meat for making meatballs, coated the fish in starch and fried them, and also prepared chicken and duck.

Lin Jiangshan slaughtered two chickens and two ducks in the courtyard, plucked them clean, and brought them to the kitchen. Ye Xi smiled. “We’ll coat them in flour and deep-fry them later, crispy skin is the best, and we can blanch the rest and make a cold dish.”

The kitchen filled with smoke as Ye Xi worked busily since noon. This was his first New Year as the head of the household. In the past, his mother would take charge, and he would only help. Now, he was responsible for preparing everything.

By dusk, he had fried several plates of meatballs, fish, chicken, and duck, and also candied sweet potatoes, made with plenty of malt sugar, the syrup forming long, glistening strands.

He gave Lin Jiangshan a piece of deep-fried rice cake, made with glutinous rice and filled with red bean paste, puffed up and golden brown, the crispy skin giving way to the sweet red bean paste inside.

They arranged the fried dishes on plates and placed them on the main table in the main room, they had to offer them to the ancestors before dinner.

In the center was the large pig’s head, surrounded by fish, meat, and pastries.

Ye Xi and Lin Jiangshan poured two bowls of wine, offered them to his deceased parents, and lit incense.

Just as they were about to set the table for their New Year’s Eve dinner, there was a knock on the door. It was Ye Shan.

“Brother?”

Ye Shan smiled. “Father and Mother thought you two would be lonely at home on New Year’s Eve, so they asked me to come and invite you back for dinner, it’s more lively with more people.”

Ye Xi said, “We’ve already prepared our New Year’s Eve dinner, but Father and Mother are so thoughtful.”

“Don’t delay, we still have to stay up late tonight, don’t miss the auspicious time.”

Ye Xi and Lin Jiangshan tidied up, packed some of the prepared dishes in a basket, and followed Ye Shan back to the village.

Liu Xiufeng had also prepared many dishes. Seeing Ye Xi and Lin Jiangshan, she said happily, “It’s New Year’s Eve, our family should be together. Although married sons usually stay at their husband’s home for the New Year, your husband is from another town and has no parents, so there’s no need to follow those customs, come back and celebrate with us!”

Ye Xi was happy that he could celebrate the New Year at his parents’ home, it would have been lonely staying up late with just Lin Jiangshan, now they could be with their family!

The New Year’s Eve dinner was served in the main room, fish, meat, the fried meatballs and cold chicken Ye Xi brought, smoked duck, so many dishes they couldn’t all fit on the table, some plates even overlapping, they didn’t know where to start!

“A year of hard work is all for this night, eat your fill, everyone!” Liu Xiufeng said happily.

Ye Xi smiled. “Even if we eat until we burst, we won’t be able to finish all this delicious food.”

Ye Shan, Lin Jiangshan, and Father Ye had already opened a jar of wine and started drinking.

Liu Xiufeng naturally wouldn’t spoil their fun, it was New Year’s Eve, everyone could relax and enjoy themselves. She only reminded them, “Don’t get too drunk, we still have to set off firecrackers!”

Li Ran’s morning sickness had subsided, and her appetite had returned, so Ye Xi kept giving her meatballs. The family chatted and laughed, enjoying a lively New Year’s Eve dinner.

Shanxiu Village was bustling tonight, every house lit up, children carrying lanterns, going from door to door, asking for New Year’s money.

Soon, a group of children knocked on the Ye family’s door. Liu Xiufeng put down her bowl and smiled. “Those little rascals are here.”

Ye Xi took out a dozen or so copper coins and went to the door with Liu Xiufeng, giving each child a coin as a lucky charm. The children were overjoyed, collecting coins from every house, they could buy sweets and snacks with their savings, they loved the New Year!

Ye Xi also gave them some of the deep-fried rice cakes he made, and the children loved him, giving them both money and treats.

Their auspicious greetings filled the air: “Wishing you prosperity! Peace and safety! Good luck and great profit! Many children and grandchildren!”

Ye Xi and Liu Xiufeng couldn’t stop smiling. The children, eager to visit other houses, quickly ran off.

Ye Xi smiled. “In half a year, Sister-in-law will have such a cute baby, our family will be even more lively then, and he can also carry a lantern and ask for New Year’s money.”

Li Ran playfully scolded him, “Don’t just talk about me, you should hurry up too, it’s better for two children to play together!”

The sound of firecrackers gradually filled the village, one family after another, deafeningly loud, scaring the dogs, which started barking.

Liu Xiufeng brought out the firecrackers and called out to the men inside, “It’s the New Year, come and set off firecrackers to welcome the new year! May next year be prosperous and successful!”

Lin Jiangshan and Ye Shan came out of the room, their faces flushed from the alcohol. Liu Xiufeng asked where their father was, and Ye Shan, hiccuping slightly, put his arm around Lin Jiangshan’s shoulder and smiled. “Father can’t handle alcohol, he’s already passed out drunk.”

Liu Xiufeng playfully scolded her son and son-in-law. “No rules tonight, you got your father drunk, see if he won’t scold you tomorrow. Alright, hurry up and light the firecrackers, other families have already started!”

Ye Shan and Lin Jiangshan each lit a string of firecrackers, the crackling sound echoing through the courtyard, and Ye Xi and Li Ran covered their ears, standing under the eaves, smiling.

Life in the mountain village was simple and happy, rustic and peaceful. A new year had arrived, and next year would definitely be a good year!