Seeing his granddaughter's delicate appearance, it made Mr. Chen laugh "haha", the children's obedience, sensibility and filial piety are like drinking a bowl of honey water just now, and their hearts are sweet.

Old Man Chen stood aside with a bowl and watched Xiaoxi and Chen Yubin work neatly, knowing that this was a habitual job. Alas~ The eldest of the two children is only ten years old, but they all work neatly, they are all forced by life, and the children of poor families are in charge early.

From the beginning of the two children's road to be able to walk neatly, they helped the family pick up a grass handle, and then made a small back, and began to help carry things when they were busy with farming, regardless of anything, carrying corn cobs, rapeseeds, pea vines, soybean vines, seedlings, rape seedlings, from a few catties at the beginning to more than a dozen catties, and now fifty or sixty catties.

Time has entered the wax moon, and every household has begun to have hairy pigs. Old man Chen thought that his pigs had grown big enough, and if he stayed for a few more days, he would be sorry for the food he would eat, although there was a lot of food at home, but it could not be wasted, so he discussed with several nearby families, inquired about the price of pigs, and determined the time before letting the pig dealers pull the pigs.

The pig dealer came in advance and said hello, which is also an unwritten rule that the pig cannot be fed food on the morning of the pig. Because it was pig food that was fed, it couldn't grow meat at that time, and it was gone when it was pulled, which was a cheating scale.

Although this is an unwritten rule, everyone knows it, but some people will feed some pig food in advance in order to sell more money, and they will feed less for fear of being seen. After a few times, they also developed a pair of fiery eyes, and they could see at a glance whether you were feeding or not, so everyone gradually realized that they were no longer smart.

On this morning, as soon as Mr. Chen had breakfast, the pig buyer came in a car, and the first to go to the innermost Da Laozi's house. It's also very lively when the pigs are passed, so most of the people in the neighborhood will go to watch and help.

The pig dealer came alone, he was responsible for weighing, and his family was also a middle-aged laborer (after all, the aunt is a woman, and her strength is limited), so the grandfather, Grandpa Chen and uncle all help each other, and they will also help their own family later, which is called au pairs.

"Ah...... Ah...... "A thick hemp rope is folded through the belly of the pig, and a live buckle is made twice at the back, and a thick wooden stick is passed through, and the pig comes out of the pigsty as soon as the old man and the old man Chen lift it." Although the pig is only two or three hundred catties, it is not easy to lift, probably because he knows that he is going to be sold, and he can no longer enjoy this kind of food to open his mouth, and he eats and drinks all day long, so he struggles desperately.

The two worked together to lift a pig to the yard dam and put it down, and then pulled out the thick stick, and the pig dealer hooked the hook of the big rod scale to the rope, and then passed the thick stick through the rope buckle of the big rod scale, and the two also lifted it together, and the pig dealer held the scale rod and moved the scale.

The large rod scale, with a length of about 120 centimeters, a diameter of three or four centimeters, a thick hook and a thin back, is about 250 kilograms of load.

Flatten the scale rod and "Okay...... Brother, this pig can be raised, a little bit of scale, one hundred and twenty-one kilograms. Motioning to put the boil down and replace it with another scale.

The pressure scale refers to the slight downward pressure of the scale rod, that is, the pig dealer puts some water for the seller and gives more catties.

"Look at ......" gave the scale rod to the big man and the big guy, "too, press the scale a little, one hundred and twenty-one kilograms, everyone is optimistic." ”

The reason for using a two-bar scale is that some pig dealers do some tricks and feet on the scale in order to spend less money to collect pigs, and they lack some pounds, and the use of two-bar scales is to avoid these tricks.

The big scale was put on the car by the pig dealer and brought it with him at any time, after all, not every house has a big scale to collect pigs, and the other scale was brought by Mr. Chen just now.

There is only a big scale in Mr. Chen's house nearby, and it has been a few years, and the catties are also very accurate, like which family wants to weigh grain or something, they have to go to his house to borrow a scale. Like today, I knew that I had to use my own big scale, so I brought it with me when I came.

"Hey~ You have to come to us to buy pigs every year when the New Year is coming, and we all know each other in the same township, and we are afraid that you will not be able to deceive us?"

"Yes, yes, if anyone else lies to us, you won't lie to us. The people in the circle all agreed, but they all stretched their necks, widened their eyes, looked carefully at the scale rod in the pig dealer's hand, and then counted it several times, and then made sure that it was right, and then smiled reassuringly.

You know, the money from the sale of pigs is a lot of income for farmers, all year round, three meals a day carefully served, just waiting for these few days, can have a considerable income.

"That's right, one hundred and twenty-one kilograms, put it in the car. The pig dealer took out the small notebook he had with him, and wrote on it how many catties of pigs were collected by which family in which year, month, and year.

Da Lao Tzu and Old Man Chen worked together to carry the boiled food to the car and untie the rope. This cart loaded with pigs is the kind of blue-skinned cart loaded with sand, and a railing is welded in a circle, and the pigs can't run away in it.

The two turned around, and the eldest man came to the pig dealer, and saw that the pound of his own pig was accurately recorded, so he stood aside and waited for the next one, and his family had a total of two pigs to sell.

The second head should be a little thinner, with one hundred and fifteen kilograms, for a total of two hundred and thirty-six kilograms.

After the two pigs were loaded into the car, the pig dealer kept the account, collected the pen, and said to the big man: "In the past two days, the pig (price) has risen a little, seven yuan five (per kilogram), and your total is 236 kilograms, a total of 1,770 yuan." ”

As he spoke, he took out a stack of red tickets from his handbag, counted eighteen and handed them to him, he took them, counted them twice again with spit, and when he saw that it was right, he smiled and put it into the inner pocket of his shirt against his chest, and took out thirty yuan of change from his trouser pocket and handed it to the pig dealer.

At this point, this family is finished, and they drive to the next house, and the crowd follows to the next house. Anyway, in this winter, there is not much work to do, and idleness is idle, so I will join in the fun, and by the way, learn about everyone's income this year.

As soon as the people arrived, the young woman at home opened the pigsty door, and the pig dealer had to go in to see the quality of the pig. Although this pig is a precious thing, everyone is carefully served, but most of the pigs still have to be looked at when they are collected.

"I can't take you pig. The pig dealer said in a deep voice to the little creek master who was accompanying him.

"Huh?" As soon as he heard that this pig was not collected, Xiaoxi's heart panicked, this own pig is fine, why don't you accept it, and asked in a trembling voice: "What's wrong?

The panic in the eyes of the woman on the side flashed, and her feet involuntarily moved back a small step, holding her hands tightly. The group of people blocking the door was also very puzzled, this family is notoriously diligent, 365 days a year, 360 days are busy working outside. Either they were waiting for crops in the fields, or they were grazing cattle in the mountains to gather firewood, and their feet did not touch the ground for a day. If it were said that his pigs were not well served, they would not believe it.

Because the pig dealer was watching the pigs inside, Xiaoxi's grandfather and grandmother were accompanying them, and a few people who helped carry the pigs also stood aside and waited for the order to start working. The space was only so large, and all the rest of the people were crowded in the doorway, unable to see the situation inside, so they could only look in wonder.

The pig dealer looked at the pig trough in the pigsty again, then at the pig's belly, and said with some anger: "You pig, have you fed it in the morning?"

"How can it, you ordered it a few days in advance, besides, even if you don't tell it, we still know this rule, and we fed it yesterday evening. "Knowing that this is the reason, the old man hurriedly packed the ticket, the croppers are honest people, and they don't use that deceptive method.

"But look at this pig trough, it's still wet, and it looks like it's only fed in the morning, am I still lying to you?" said the pig dealer, pointing to the pig trough.

"Where can I be, the pig was fed by me last night, and I came to see it in the morning, the pig trough is dry, how can it be ......" As soon as the pig dealer gave up, the old man came to the pigsty railing to take a look, but no, the pig trough was still wet, and it was just fed not long ago, and the next half of the sentence was blocked back, why couldn't he say it.

I remembered that when I left just now, I took a look, it was still dry at that time, why did it take a while, this pig trough became wet, and there was only one person in the family, and I couldn't help but look at my mother-in-law with anger.

Seeing her husband looking at her with anger in her eyes, the mother-in-law stood up and whispered, "I...... I just heard the pig crying so badly that I couldn't bear to pour two scoops of water, it's true, just two scoops of water, not much ......" Seeing that her husband's anger became more and more obvious, she couldn't help but stop talking.

Knowing that it was his own fault, the old man smiled wryly and said to the pig dealer: "You see that my family is indeed fed...... Then I won't sell it today, and you will come back in two days to collect it, and when the time comes, it will definitely not be like this again, I watched. ”

The pig dealer didn't want to make a lot of trouble, after all, everyone knew each other, so he nodded, said that he would come back next time, and walked out.

"No......" I heard that I would come to collect it next time, and my wife was anxious, to know that the pigs in the past few days are a price a day, and in two days, who knows whether the pig price will rise or fall. If you wait for the pig dealer to come in two days, you will only accept your own family, who knows if the price he said is true.

"That, Boss Wang (pig dealer), you see I fed two scoops of water, and I didn't feed the others, you just collected it today, and you will come here alone in two days. The woman rubbed her hands and stepped forward with a shy face.

The old man also looked at Boss Wang, although he said that he agreed to come to collect the pigs in two days, but he still wanted to sell it today, one is that the reputation is not good, and the other is that his thoughts are still the same as his mother-in-law's thoughts, and he is afraid that the price of pigs will fall in two days.