The weather is getting colder and colder, and the smell of the New Year is getting stronger and stronger.

Walking in the city, whether on the street or in the shops, there are more than twice as many people than usual. Everyone, you squeeze me, I squeeze you, one after another, it's very lively.

Some foods that are barely sold on weekdays have been selling exceptionally well since the last few days, and sometimes the business can even be doubled. Take the pork on the horse butcher's stall as an example, it sells at most twenty or thirty catties on weekdays, but in the past few days, several pigs need to be killed almost every day.

Like the braised pork in Boss Wang's shop, the osmanthus wine and daughter red in Yuan Ji's shop, and the pastries in Li Ji's shop, because they are time-honored brands and carry the memories and tastes of many people, they sell better.

Needless to say, the guys in the store are busy with their feet not touching the ground, even the bosses are also spinning, sometimes as a buddy, sometimes as a shopkeeper, sometimes going to the back kitchen as a technical guide, and there is no rest at night.

Without him, this is the annual market day in Qingshan County.

The so-called "market day" refers to the time before the Chinese New Year, when the large and small markets in the town and city are open every day, and there is no time when the market is closed. Of course, the closing of the market is the name of the government, and most of the villagers regard the opening day of the market as the market day, and the closing day as the cold field.

On weekdays, whether it is in the county or in the town, this market does not dare to open every day. It's okay in the city, even on a cold day, there are always people who need to buy something. But it's different in the town, and there are very few people who need to buy and sell.

As a result, the town's markets are generally not open on cold days.

But these days are different, even if it is open every day, there are many people shopping, watching the excitement, selling some food, and buying some food.

Without him, at the end of the year, the housewives and men who can live will make a rough count of the grain and silver stored in the house, and keep enough food for the months after the beginning of spring, and sell the rest.

One is to ensure that you can eat the new food, and the second is naturally to have a good year. The family has worked hard for a year, and no matter how poor they are, they are willing to eat a few good meals.

Of course, there is another important reason, that is, almost every household will sell pigs and chickens and ducks, which is more or less income. Especially those pigs that are well fed, this income is almost equivalent to one-third or even more than half of the family's income.

Take Chenjia Village as an example, perhaps under the influence of Ye Feng, many families have followed Chen Jixing's family to learn, and the pigs in the family are very good, round and fat, very lovely.

Under the guidance of Ye Feng, many families not only began to learn to fish, shrimp, screws, river mussels and even crabs dried and mixed with pig food, but even had concepts such as "green fodder" and "fattening feed".

A few days later, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, after discussing the matter of holding the piglet with Chen Jike's family, and discussing with Chen Jixing, the two decided to sell the pigs at home on the second day.

The four pigs in the circle are extremely fat and strong, Ye Feng has never seen how big the pigs raised by the Ye family before, but according to the Ye family, this year's pigs will weigh at least thirty or forty catties, and Chen Jixing said that they will weigh at least fifty catties.

Hearing this, Ye Feng just smiled and didn't speak. Anyway, no matter how many catties it weighs, it must be a lot heavier. In this way, you can sell more silver.

The couple didn't really want to quarrel, but after arguing for a while, Ye Shi put down a sentence, "I'll know when the horse kills the pig tomorrow, so I'm too lazy to fight with you." I'm going to find Sister Zhou, you go and ask someone to come and buy pigs tomorrow. ”

After speaking, Ye Shi pulled the courtyard door from the outside.

In this regard, Ye Feng asked curiously: "Brother-in-law, do you still need us to come to the door to tell each other in person about this pig sale?" ”

Chen Jixing was sitting on a stone pier under the eaves changing his shoes. Although he has not had much work in the field lately, he is an idle man, and he will go to the field to pull weeds and fertilize when he has time, so he still wears straw sandals on his feet.

In such weather, Ye Feng was cold just looking at it, but Chen Jixing said that he had been working, and his body was hot, so he was not afraid of the cold. But Ye Feng knew in his heart that Chen Jixing just didn't want to spoil the cloth shoes made by the Ye family.

"You kid, of course you need to come to the door to invite, otherwise how will the other party know that we are going to sell pigs?

"Then why do you have to go to the house where the horse kills the pig? There should be more than one of his family killing pigs near our village, right? ”

"It's true that it's not just his family, Lijiacun, Wangjiawan and Dongjiageng. However, these pig killers are all black-hearted, like to not talk about the whole scale, and keep the price very low. That is, the price given by the horse killing the pig is the most appropriate, and the scale is also fair. ”

The whole scale is also the dialect here in Chenjia Village, which means that when weighing the weight, try to weigh it less. In other words, people only recognize the scales they brought, even if you happen to have a scale at home, he doesn't use it.

Naturally, this scale was done in advance.

"Then brother-in-law, go quickly, I am at home."

Listening to Chen Jixing's justice of horses killing pigs, Ye Feng recalled the conversation with Chen Qianliang a few days ago.

According to Qianliang, his family's pigs last year were also sold to horses to kill pigs, but in the end, I heard from a young man who was responsible for killing pigs under Ma Killing Pigs that this horse killing pigs is not a good person, and he also likes to make whole scales.

Therefore, as soon as Ye Feng heard Chen Jixing say that it was fair for horses to kill pigs, he had some plans in his heart. The so-called justice is nothing more than the result of comparison. In that case, don't blame him for "making things bad".

Chen Jixing didn't mention that he went to ask the horse to kill the pig, but the Ye family went to Chen Jike's house alone to see the piglet.

Chen Jike's family lives near Da Niu's house, but there is an apricot forest there, the road is not easy to walk, and it is winding and round, and you need to go around to get there, so the Ye family did not ask Ye Feng and Qianyan to follow.

And the family really needs someone to guard it now, not to mention that there are land deeds, silver and pork at home, even the pigs in the pen also need to be watched. In the past few nights, from time to time, there are thieves who specialize in stealing pigs outside the house.

In the end, it was Chen Jixing who yelled a few times in the courtyard through the door with a stick, and these people were afraid and didn't know where to go to continue looking for opportunities.

Chen Jike's family fed two sows and is a well-known "big farmer" of pig raising. And his family's sow breeding is brought to the county to complete, so the quality of the piglets is very good, and they grow bigger.

Under the shade of several slanting apricot trees, there is a wooden door that looks "old" at a glance. After the baptism of time, this wooden door looks quite mottled, and it is full of traces left by rain or sand.

And through the door, Ye heard the noisy pig crying in the yard.

Chen Jike's family now has twenty-seven or eight piglets, all of which are ready to be sold. Therefore, this roar is really a bit panicked.

Ye reached out and knocked on the door, but the door was not closed. As soon as Ye knocked, the door opened by itself with a "squeak".

was thinking about whether to go in, but Zhou's eyes were sharp, holding a scoop in one hand, and he yelled at Ye with a smile: "Big sister, you come in first and sit for a while, I'll feed the pig and then talk to you." ”

Hearing this, Ye had no choice but to walk in, quietly picked up the clean underground foot, and finally moved to the eaves and sat down on the stone pier with a straw mat.

Now that it's cold, the villagers weave wheat straw and straw into a round mat and place it on the stone pier so that they don't cool their buttocks when they sit.

Chen Jike's family fed a lot of chickens, ducks and pigs, so the yard was smelly, and there were a lot of chicken feces and duck feces on the ground.

It stands to reason that Zhou should be diligent after raising so many chickens, ducks and pigs, because this pig and chicken food alone require a lot of energy to prepare. But again, she seems to be blind to these things.

This made Ye very confused.

As Ye Feng said, clean up the dirty things in the pigsty regularly every day, take a flush, but the matter of a stick of incense is very simple, and the pigsty does not stink after flushing, why can't this Zhou Shi do it.

After feeding the pigs, Zhou washed his hands with the remaining water in the wooden barrel, and dried his hands on the apron, then sat down on another stone pier and said to Ye: "How many heads are you going to hold this time?" ”

As he spoke, he used water to floss his teeth. I don't know what their family eats at noon, and at a distance from a door, Ye can still smell a strange smell.

"This time we are going to buy six," Ye said, "The child is getting bigger and bigger, and next year we will feed two more heads, and there will be more inputs." ”

"Yes, the older the child, the more he can eat. By the way, your mother's brother, well, it's called Ye Feng, right? He should be able to eat by now, right? ”

"It's okay, it's okay, this kid doesn't eat much, sometimes it's about the same as a thousand words."

Zhou said a word, and Ye echoed a sentence. Although I don't know why the Zhou family wants to talk to her, the Ye family doesn't break it, anyway, there is time now.

After chatting a few more words, Zhou got to the point: "It stands to reason that they are all from the villagers, and this should not be said." However, Qianqin's father said that when the New Year is over, he wants to look for it in other places. You don't know, these days he always dreams of Qianqin's girl, saying that she is still wearing single clothes in the winter, shivering with cold, and blames us for not going to look for her. ”

Listening to this, Ye's tears flowed. Zhou knew that she was thinking of the girl Qianyu.

"Hey, look at me, what are you talking about? and caused you to cry. Anyway, this time to sell piglets, we don't pay on credit, we need cash, we need you not to be angry. As you know, our family is not wealthy, so we are counting on selling this piglet and going out to find a child. ”

When he said this, Zhou's face was full of hope, but there was no sad expression. Actually, it's not that Zhou doesn't like Qianqin, it's that she's almost numb. In addition, he gave birth to two sons one after another, and slowly stopped thinking about Qianqin.

But Chen Jike has always been obsessed with his daughter, and has been clamoring to go out to find it.

A few years before Qianqin was abducted away, he and Zhou only felt that the sky had fallen, and they couldn't live this day, so they searched for a few years. Later, the family's savings were spent and he fell ill, so Chen Jike followed Zhou back to Chenjia Village and began to feed the sows to earn some money.

And now, he has saved up for seven or eight years, so he has some money, and he wants to find his daughter.

Zhou quarreled with him a few times, but he couldn't resist him, so he agreed. It's just that the Zhou family only agreed to give five taels of the twenty taels of silver in the family, so that Chen Jike would come back after spending all the silver.

For the rest, she has to plan for her two sons.

In this regard, although Chen Jike was unwilling, he had no choice but to agree. After all, Zhou is right, there are still two cubs in the family, and they are getting older day by day, not to mention that they still need to start a family in the future, just to survive now, they also need these silver.

Ye wiped his tears, and then said: "Okay, cash silver is cash silver, remember to leave six lively jumps for my family, we will sell pigs tomorrow morning, and come to your house in the afternoon or the day after tomorrow to hold piglets." ”

After saying a few more words, Ye said goodbye to Zhou and walked out with a full stomach.

As a result, as soon as I walked to the door, I heard Zhou Shi say: "Qianyan Niang, what are you and Brother Xing going to do?" ”

"What else? As you know, we've been looking for a few years, but we haven't heard from anything. My family is not as good as yours, and when I save some money, I will look for it again. ”

After saying that, with a sigh, Ye left in despair.

Seeing this, Zhou walked over and closed the door, and sighed. Originally, she had a good relationship with Ye, but since the child was abducted, she was reluctant to contact Ye.

Without him, when two people meet, they are talking about children. And the final ending can only be to support each other and cry.

But Zhou was unwilling to live such a life.

Gradually, she became "estranged" from Ye. It's just that when the Ye family comes to hold the piglets every year, the Zhou family gives the Ye family credit. And the Ye family will not be polite, anyway, it is not that he will not pay it back, he will pay it back after selling the fat pig.

Later, Zhou gave birth to two sons one after another, and the two tacitly stopped contacting. Zhou was afraid that Ye would feel that he was showing off his son, and Ye was afraid that Zhou would misunderstand, so they came and went, and the two couldn't see each other a few times a year.

On the way home, Ye adjusted for a long time before adjusting his emotions. She was a little envious of Chen Jike's approach, and at the same time, she was also a little ashamed, feeling that she didn't love children as much as he did.

It's just that Ye also has her own plans, and she wants to wait a few more years. When the family's money is almost saved, when Qianyan is a few years older, and when she gives birth to a son for Chen Jixing, at that time, she has her own plans.

Since Ye couldn't tell that he had cried when he went home, Ye Feng and Chen Jixing didn't care.

Seeing that Ye was back, Chen Jixing said, "What's the matter, what did Chen Jike say?" ”

"Well, no problem, they'll leave us six piglets. That is, this year, there is no credit, and you need to buy it with cash. ”

"That's no problem, you'll have money as soon as you sell the pig tomorrow morning. By the way, the horses and pigs will come to the door early tomorrow morning, so we will feed a little more tonight. ”

Hearing this, Ye Feng said: "Brother-in-law, according to me, don't feed too much tonight, just feed half full." Wait until tomorrow morning to feed it, so that you can get it. ”

In this regard, Chen Jixing has a different opinion: "Hey, you think too simply. If you feed it again tomorrow morning, the horse will kill the pig and put the scale. If it's a bad dressing, it's better not to feed it. ”

The meaning of the scale is that many farmers will try to feed the pigs as much as possible before selling them, so as to increase the weight. Those who kill pigs are naturally unhappy, and generally the size of the pig's belly and the degree of hunger will be removed from a certain number of catties per pig.

"Brother-in-law, do you think, let's feed half full tonight. In the middle of the night, we get up and feed again. When it was dawn they came to the door and weighed it, and it was not very noticeable. Even if it's a three-pound dress, then we will earn it. ”

Ye Feng's words stunned Chen Jixing, and after thinking about it carefully, this is not the reason. If you are fed in the middle of the night, you will wake up in the morning and look at your stomach almost wilting. According to convention, such a pig is only three or two catties.

High, really high.

Seeing this, Ye Shi sneered and laughed, feeling that Ye Feng had the potential to be a profiteer at a young age.

In this way, under Ye Feng's "guidance", Ye and Chen Jixing really cooked the pig food after dinner, and made a big pot. In the middle of the night, the two got up to feed the pigs, and then went to bed.

Early in the morning of the second day, as soon as the family had breakfast, Ma Dazhuang came to the door as promised.

This Ma Dazhuang is the elder brother of the horse butcher who sells pork in the city, and the brothers work together to do pork business, one is responsible for buying pigs and the other is responsible for selling them in the city, which is very famous in these ten miles and eight towns.

This Ma Dazhuang doesn't say much, his face is cross-faced, and his small eyes are shining shrewdly. didn't talk much to Chen Jixing, and went directly to the pigsty to see the pigs.

After a look, Ma Dazhuang said: "Ho, Chen nerd, what are you feeding, this pig is really fat." In my opinion, this year's pig is much fatter than in previous years. How's it going, did you get up in the morning and feed it? ”

At this moment, the four pigs in the pen are all lying down, but they can't see whether there are "goods" in their stomachs and how many "goods" there are.

Ye Shi drove up the sleeping pig with a bamboo pole, and said with some weakness: "Master Ma, you can see for yourself, this pig's belly is deflated." When I heard that you were here to buy it, I didn't even feed it. You'll have to give us the best for the price. ”

Seeing that there was pig feces in the pigsty, he circled around a few pigs, and saw that the stomachs of several pigs did not look like they had just been fed, so Ma Dazhuang said boldly: "Okay, just say this to you, I will believe in your family today." This time, you can put two catties on each of these pigs. ”

One head or two catties is indeed very little. Thinking of the pig food he fed in the middle of the night last night, Ye was both weak and happy. The weak heart is afraid that Ma Dazhuang will find out, and he is happy that he can get back a game now, and he will have more scales and more silver later.

Now it seems that a few pigs are indeed worth a lot, but they are sold for hard money. The meat on this pig was raised by her, Ye Feng and the pigweed of a basket on their backs, and they also raised a screw, a mussel, and a handful of fish and shrimp.

And such persistence is a year.

Chen Jixing was in a pound circle, and the pig began to howl. They who were usually dull and ate and slept seemed to realize something at the moment and began to struggle desperately.

However, Ma Dazhuang and Chen Jixing are both experienced, and they put the circular bamboo weaving on the pig's body, and as soon as they pulled the rope tightly, they were tightly controlled. When they were driven out of the pigsty, and then carried over the scales with a flat pole, both sides were in a hurry to count the pounds.

It's just that this time a thousand words can't help, after all, the addition and subtraction within a hundred is already very difficult, and now there are four pigs, and Ma Dazhuang reports the number quickly, she can't remember it at all.

However, the Ye family quickly wrote it down, and Ye Feng was there.

These four pigs are also powerful, although they have been howling in the weighing process, they have not pooped. When the money was calculated, Ma Dazhuang drove them out of the door with a few canopy and urine. This can make Ma Da Zhuang angry.

Could it be that these pigs can still understand the Chen family?

After getting the silver, Ye and Chen Jixing were very happy. Not surprisingly, this year's four pigs did exchange a lot of silver.

handed over the silver to the Ye family, and Chen Jixing hurried to the Zhao family's house again. Chen Jiwan just asked Da Niu to come over with a letter, and the Zhao family also wants to sell pigs. However, there are no adult men in her family, so she can only ask their neighbors to help.

After some hard work, the four pigs of the Zhao family were also driven away by Ma Dazhuang.

I have to say that although Ma Dazhuang gave a lot of silver, these pigs are indeed growing well this year. Ma Dazhuang is confident that he will go back and kill these pigs, and they will definitely be sold out tomorrow when they are taken to the city.

As soon as Ma Dazhuang left, Ye and Zhao began to whisper.

"How much do your four pigs weigh?" Ye asked Zhao, "I just looked quite fat and strong, and I think it's a lot heavier than last year." ”

"But isn't it, last year's four pigs were only 600 catties, and this year there are 840 catties, which is more than 200 catties."

"Yes, my family too, a total of eight hundred and sixty pounds."

"I look at that, the green fodder and the feed mixed with fish, shrimp, crab and mussel meat are good. It's just a pity, now there are fewer and fewer fish and shrimp in the lake, and I told Qianliang in the morning, without these fish and shrimp, what can I do next year? ”

"You don't have to worry about this, Ye Feng's kid said, since we don't have it here, other villages do. When the farm is free, we will carry the bamboo basket and drive the ox cart to other places to fish. ”

"Okay, you'll have to call me then."

After chatting for a while, Ye said: "I'm going to go to the city to sell chickens and ducks the day after tomorrow, will you go?" I've already asked Da Niu's mother, and she's going to her house too. If you want to go, let's go together, it just so happens that she has an ox cart at home. ”

Hearing this, Zhao readily agreed.

The next night, Ye still fed the chickens according to what Ye Feng said, and got up early in the morning on the third day to drive fifteen roosters and ten ducks into the cage prepared in advance, and then sat down one by one with straw ropes and tied their feet.

The big cow mother also got up early in the morning, but in addition to tying the chicken's feet, she also carefully laid a thick layer of straw on the ox cart. Later, these chickens and ducks will definitely poop, and they will be cleaned up with these straws.

When the two families of Zhao, Ye and Da Niu Ma worked together to carry their respective chickens, ducks and cages onto the ox cart and put them away, they let Qianliang drive the cart and walk slowly in front, and the three women followed behind.

The smell of the car was so strong that they preferred to walk to the city. Anyway, the road is not far, and it will be there soon.

Da Niu and Qianyan didn't take the ox cart, but ran all the way, you chased me, so it was not lively. Although the two of them are young, they also know that the family has just sold pigs, and they are going to sell chickens and ducks today, which can be exchanged for a lot of silver, anyway, today's snacks are indispensable.

So walking or something, they weren't dissatisfied at all.

"Qianyan Niang, do you think it's better to sell our chickens and ducks to Lao Zhang or Xiao Fan?"

Lao Zhang and Xiao Fan are both engaged in the chicken and duck business in the market, and almost all the chickens and ducks used by the people in the Yaya Township Kitchen are bought from the stalls of two people.

"According to me, it's better to sell it to Xiao Fan." Ye said directly.

"Why?"

"You don't know yet, do you? My second sister told me a few days ago that Lao Zhang had recently started selling sick chickens. I don't know what he did with it, those chickens look good when they're on the stall, but they die when they get home. Some died on the way. ”

"Why is he like this! Now those who buy chickens are bought to kill for the New Year, and they are festive. It's good for him to deceive people with sick chickens. ”

"So, our chickens can't be sold to Lao Zhang. Otherwise, others will think that we sell sick chickens. ”

"Yes, if something happens to someone's family and they come to the door, then it won't be clear."

In this way, several people unanimously decided to skip Lao Zhang directly and sell the chickens and ducks to the vendor named Xiaofan.