Chapter 254: New Year! (Two in One)

As the Chinese New Year approaches, every household in Tuanjietun starts to get busy.

Under Jiang Weiqun’s management, the Dai family’s breeding farm, although currently just a simple fenced-in area, already looks very much like one that is functioning properly.

A simple shack was built at the entrance of the “farm”. Inside, Jiang Weiqun set up a big pot, which was bubbling from morning to night every day.

These pastes are the crystallization of Jiang Weiqun’s wisdom accumulated from taking care of livestock for so many years.

At first, the wild animals were “ungrateful” and disdained the sticky paste. They would rather scratch in the snow and starve than eat from the trough. Soon, their ribs were exposed from hunger and they looked limp.

Jiang Weiqin was not surprised by this situation. She completely changed the status quo with just one trick:

It snowed lightly that day.

The roe deer and wild boars, having not eaten for a long time, huddled listlessly in their dens made of firewood and dry grass. The animals thought they would have to endure another day and night of hunger and cold, but at this moment, the excited noise of the woman was heard at the entrance of the farm.

Jiang Weiqun walked in front with a happy face. The two brothers followed behind her, one holding a T-shaped iron hook in one hand and a lasso in the other. Behind them was a group of villagers with expectant faces.

“The New Year is coming soon. Thank you all for helping us with so much work these days!” Jiang Weiqin waved her hand proudly, “Today we will pick two big guys, kill them and share the meat with everyone!”

As Jiang Weiqun’s voice fell, the two brothers raised the weapons in their hands and ran quickly into the cattle kennel.

The roe deer and wild boars in the den had not eaten for several days, so even if they wanted to struggle, they had no strength.

Faced with Dai Song holding a hemp rope stained with Big Claw’s blood, everyone trembled like a sieve. Even the stubborn wild boars that were scared and ready to fight to the death, after being poked by Dai Song with the tip of the hook, they all came out of their dens obediently and scattered in the snow, allowing everyone to choose.

“Eh? Why don’t these animals look as strong as when they first came to the farm? Is this land not good and not suitable for raising animals?”

“You look a lot thinner~”

“Wei Qin, what happened to these animals? Why do they look so listless? Are they sick?”

“No!” Jiang Weiqun raised her head, then squinted at the livestock, pointed at the fattest sow among them, and hooked her finger. The two brothers immediately understood and used the iron hook to drag the sow towards the crowd.

Jiang Weiqin continued, “These animals are unwilling to eat anything except the food buried in the snow. It’s obvious that they are moving around!
Since you are determined to go on a hunger strike, why not kill it early and reward everyone? Instead of waiting until the Little New Year when you will be even thinner and less fat, why not do it today!

Bai, tie up the pig and let everyone move the bench.

The old man said, go, there is an old sow over there.

Correct!
Just hold its head high and look at us!
Quickly, it turned its head and wanted to run back to its nest, go quickly!
Once it lies in the nest, it will be very difficult to get the hook out.”

When the villagers heard this, their worries immediately disappeared. It turned out that Dai’s family was so kind that they wanted to give more benefits to the villagers!

So they rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward to help.

Dai Bai responded, and under Dai Song’s control, tied up the old sow’s three legs, leaving only one hind leg so that it could kick when it was bled. Then he cooperated with other villagers to move the old sow onto the bench.

In rural areas, slaughtering pigs before the New Year is a very important matter, and people usually ask a professional butcher to help.

But today the incident happened suddenly, and even the villagers were notified to come and divide the meat, not to mention hiring a butcher.

Fortunately, Dai Bai had some experience in hunting in recent days and was very experienced in slaughtering and disemboweling pigs.

He was originally a fisherman’s boss, and he cooked raw fish all year round. In his eyes, the wild boar was the same as the fish, except that it was bigger and hotter. He just needed to find the right spot and stab it with one knife.

As Dai Bai’s white knife went in and the red knife came out, the old sow howled one after another like a wave, and its hind legs kicked hard, causing the long bench under it to rise and fall. If Dai Bai hadn’t been holding it in front, it would have almost fallen over.

After the old woman nearby reacted, she hurriedly pushed the basin over to collect the pig’s blood.

Pig blood is a delicacy in Northeast China.

The famous Northeastern dish, blood sausage, is made by adding pig blood and salt to the large intestine, and then slicing it after the blood solidifies. Whether it is boiled in soup or steamed and dipped in sauce with green onions, the taste is unique. Many families have not been able to eat it for many years, so you can imagine how excited everyone is when they see the pig blood.

Dai Bo’s knife hit the pig’s aorta, and the old sow kicked and struggled frantically. After a while, it could no longer howl, and the blood flow from the wound on its neck lost its original arc and began to drip into the basin. At the same time, Dai Song bared his teeth and dragged another old sow to his side.

Upon smelling the blood of her companion, the old sow was immediately frightened and became incontinent. Her buttocks loosened and all the dry and wet things slipped out.

“Oh my god! It scared me!”

“This is great! It saves me the trouble of cleaning up the intestines later!”

“Quick! Baizi, give me a hand, let’s untie the pig and let it come up!”

People were busy with activities in high spirits, and the second victim pig was tied to the execution bench while screaming miserably.

Having witnessed the tragic fate of her companion, the old sow was already frightened out of her wits. She burst out with the strength to give birth and struggled hard.

Fortunately, Dai Bai had enough rest and recuperation during this period, otherwise he would not have been able to cure it.

The old sow, unable to break free, howled desperately. Before she lost her life, her loud howl echoed throughout the entire farm.

It was after this day that the livestock in the farm suddenly became well-behaved, as if they had suddenly become enlightened.

They eat whatever Jiang Weiqin cooks and they are all very obedient.

The villagers who came to help from time to time were very curious and asked Jiang Weiqun the reason. Jiang Weiqun, who was at the farm, would often grin and continue to work on his work. Only after leaving the farm would he tell her the reason.

“These animals are actually very smart.

When we first moved them to the new place, we were worried that they would be stressed, so we learned from the wild environment and buried food in the snow and let them scratch in the snow by themselves.

But after they got used to it, they all became ungrateful and refused to eat the ready-made food that was poured into the trough in front of the nest.

Isn’t this just thinking of yourself as a superior and not being able to tell the difference between right and wrong?
I killed two sows in front of them, firstly to tell them who is the boss in this place, and secondly to warn them that this is the fate of not eating.

Don’t think that not eating will save you. Not eating will make you die faster!”

“Can they understand what we say?” The villagers were shocked.

“I don’t understand, but I found that they can understand our tone, and I think they can guess the general meaning from our tone…”

Jiang Weiqun followed the conversation and began to talk about the experience she had accumulated over the years.

And on the farm, the situation was exactly as she had described. The animals were scrambling to eat the food in the trough, fearing that they would not get enough if they were slow.

The only difference from Jiang Weiqin’s vernacular is that these animals did not understand the truth that “not eating will lead to death faster”, but they understood their own situation and completely accepted their own fate;

Since you’re going to be ripped off anyway, you might as well eat your fill.

As a result, under Jiang Weiqun’s wonderful management methods, the livestock on the farm began to gain weight at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the following days, the atmosphere of the New Year in Tuanjietun became more and more intense.

The Dai family is busy every day.

In the room, the sewing machine was almost smoking from Nan Chunwan’s stepping on it.

Her latest task is quite a big one, as the New Year is approaching and so many people in the family are relying on her to use her sewing machine to make the outer covers for their new clothes.

In addition to new clothes, new bedding was also needed for both families.

In Jiang Weiqun’s words, the changes this year have been too great. During the New Year, it is time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and they also have to prepare bedding for Dai Song’s new house. So the two brothers made several trips to the town just to collect cloth and cotton.

The two brothers secretly prepared not only cotton and cotton cloth, but also a lot of things like fireworks.

Because of this, Dai Bo, an honest man who didn’t know the amount of his brothers’ private money, was cheated by Dai Song, and all his years of savings were spent on those baskets of flowers.

And on a recent trip to town, Dai Song saw a familiar figure in a state-owned store.

The man was short and only reached a little above his belly.

He was not a big man. He was standing in front of the counter, putting piles of things into a sack.

Dai Song blinked his eyes, but the familiar name came to his lips but he couldn’t call out. He pulled Dai Bo up to him, looked at him for a long time, and then patted him on the shoulder.

The man turned around and was also stunned when he saw Dai Song clearly.

“Brother Song!”

“Little schoolbag!”

After not seeing him for a few months, Xiao Shubao looked much more energetic, his hair was trimmed neatly, and his face had some flesh on it. He was no longer as skinny as before with a pointed mouth and pouting cheeks. He said that all these changes were thanks to Fei Junming.

Fei Jun knew that his family was in financial difficulty, and was afraid that he would not be able to get along in the team, so he simply brought him with him, providing him with meals and lodging. The teacher and student lived in the same dormitory.

And the little backpack did not disappoint Fei Junming. Although he was light in weight and small in weight class, his strength was comparable to those of the larger players.

At first, some of the old-timers in the team couldn’t stand him as a newcomer, were jealous of him, and felt that he didn’t deserve special care from the coach.

But after the competition, they found that this kid was really capable and he was not at a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight.

As a result, jealousy of Xiao Shubao’s treatment turned into jealousy of his talent.

The little backpack was not stupid. He knew that when he was alone outside, the only person he could rely on was Fei Junming. He reported the situation immediately after noticing it. After Fei Junming listened, he was silent for a moment and did not say anything. He just said that it was normal to have some minor frictions between team members and they just had to be careful about the degree.

This sentence of being careful about the limits finally opened the little schoolbag’s eyes.

On a dark and windy night, he was standing outside the dormitory building with a sack in his arms.

When he saw his enemies coming back from the bathhouse carrying foot basins, wearing slippers, talking and laughing, he went up to them, covered their heads, and started kicking them.

This time, the little schoolbag became famous.

In addition to the players of the national team, all the teachers and students in the sports school knew that Fei Junming had such a person under his command. He was not tall, but his skills and strength were great, and the key was that he was ruthless. Although the teacher and the student refused to admit that they were the ones who put the sack on the man, the size 37 shoe marks on the faces of the three troublemakers would not lie.

At this point, Little Schoolbag couldn’t help but smile. Compared with the past, his smile was full of sunshine and confidence. Even Wang Potato couldn’t help but praise Little Schoolbag for his great change when he saw it.

When he returned to Tuanjietun during the holidays, Xiao Shubao came to the Dai family breeding farm to help, and even his mother came to help.

Without the pressure of survival and with the economy gradually becoming better, Little Schoolbag’s mother is in much better health than before.

Jiang Weiqun knew that it was not easy for this mother and son, and she was even more aware of the friendship between Xiao Shubao and his older son. She immediately waved her hand and assigned the position of head chef of the farm to Xiao Shubao’s mother. From then on, whether all the livestock in the Dai family farm could have enough to eat depended entirely on her.

The day before New Year’s Eve, Dai Song went to the military camp.

Qi Shunli was writing materials. When he saw Dai Song, he smiled and greeted him.
“Song! What’s going on? Come and sit down. I’m preparing a report on your breeding farm. I didn’t expect that it has only been a few days since the land was allocated, and you have already set up a breeding farm!
I have made a statistics of the animals inside. Take a look and see if there are any mistakes or omissions. The leader will definitely be very happy to see the results!

Song, to tell you the truth, it’s not that we are petty, it’s just that your father-in-law’s orchard is a great idea to drive the economic development of everyone!
The leaders specifically said that the economy will be opened up in the coming years and that they will strongly support these things, so our village is completely counting on your farm!”

Dai Song smiled and nodded, jokingly saying,
“We’ll try our best. If that doesn’t work, we can join Wynn Village and start an orchard!”

“Hey~” Qi Shunli quickly walked to Dai Song’s side and held his forearm.
“We have to be more ambitious!

It’s not like you don’t know what to do, right? We have such a large piece of land, we have Aunt Jiang, a breeding expert, there are wild animals everywhere outside, and we have Xiao Erhan to help you. We have so many advantages, it’s such a big land, it would be a pity not to do breeding!”

Seeing that Qi Shunli was about to get angry, Dai Song stopped joking and comforted Qi Shunli with a few words before saying he wanted to use the phone.

Qi Shunli was very happy to be coaxed, and happily agreed and left the office.

Dai Song first called Jiang Zhanhua. After a few pleasantries, the two brothers mentioned the matter of the breeding farm.

Jiang Zhanhua immediately became excited when he heard this, and he asked Dai Song three questions in a row:
What are you raising?
how many?
When can it be marketed?

Dai Song answered one by one. Although he was not sure how the wild animals would grow if they were raised at home, as long as Jiang Zhanhua dared to place an order, he would dare to accept the order. If the farm could not deliver the animals, he could go directly to the mountains to pick up the ready-made goods.

When Jiang Zhanhua heard Dai Song’s assurance, he was immediately delighted. He clapped and cheered on the other end of the phone and sighed, saying that in less than half a year, he had already set up a breeding farm.

Dai Song was filled with emotion when he recalled the past six months, and immediately praised Jiang Zhanhua and his mother.

After all, Jiang Zhanhua’s mother was the first benefactor after his rebirth.

The phone call with Jiang Zhanhua ended with mutual flattery, and then Dai Song called his uncle Jiang Haohan.

As expected, it was my aunt who answered the phone.

Dai Song wants to invite his uncle and his family to come to Tuanjietun to celebrate the New Year tomorrow night. The Dai family has grown so fast this year, and his uncle has helped a lot, but his aunt has refused with regret.

Firstly, my uncle has had too many social engagements these days. Not to mention where he is going to celebrate the New Year, he is still outside now and I don’t know whose house he is attending the social engagements at.

Secondly, the two boys in the family were too noisy. They caused a lot of trouble when they came to Tuanjietun last time. This time, she heard that there was a breeding farm in the village. She was afraid that the two boys would go there and sneak into the breeding farm and cause trouble for their family.

Dai Song smiled and nodded in agreement. Those two boys were a real worry. The old aunt spoke tactfully, saying that she was afraid of causing trouble for them. In fact, she was worried that the two kids would get into trouble. It would not be fun if they were picked by a wild boar during the New Year.

After agreeing with his aunt on the time to visit her after the New Year, Dai Song called Li Qinghai again.

There are only two reasons to call him.

I haven’t contacted them since I came back from the border, and I don’t know what the situation in Xiazhutun is like now. I’d like to show my concern for them.

The second thing is to ask the old man if he would like to come to Tuanjietun to celebrate the New Year and then live here to make it lively.

The old man fell silent after hearing this. He let out a long sigh after a while and said that Dai Song was more filial than his son. His son didn’t tell him these things. It was his daughter-in-law and grandson who called him and told him that they would come back to see him during the Chinese New Year.

Dai Song was also amused when he heard this, thinking that this father and son were both too concerned about their reputation. They obviously cared about each other in their hearts, but never said anything soft.

After complaining about his son, Li Qinghai readily accepted the invitation and patted his chest on the other end of the phone, saying that on the first day of the Lunar New Year, he would let his grandson come to Tuanjietun to pay New Year’s greetings, so that they could get to know each other.

The old man’s tone became serious when he said this.
“Although he doesn’t get along with me, my son is a good person. If you two get to know each other, it will definitely be mutually beneficial in the future.”

It was the first time that Dai Song heard Li Qinghai say this, and he couldn’t help but feel a little excited. After hanging up the phone, he went to Xiao Shubao’s house and invited the mother and son to have New Year’s Eve dinner together the next day. After that, he went home and prepared for the New Year’s Eve the next day.

New Year’s Eve and the Spring Festival are the most important festivals in the hearts of every Chinese. On this day in the Dai family courtyard.

The Dai family slaughtered pigs, roe deer, and trapped chickens and geese. For good luck, Dai Laohan and Dai Bo specially led the fishing gang, which had rested for a long time, to Songjiang to pull a big net.

This net is not for selling for money, but for bringing good luck to everyone, so whatever is caught is shared among everyone.

The Dai family took two of the fish, a big carp and a bighead carp.

The carp is braised, and the bighead carp’s tail is chopped off, flattened and placed on the stove, symbolizing abundance every year.

While the Dai family was busy, Li Qinghai came to the Dai family on Old Man Xie’s tractor.

The old man brought two clay-sealed jars and said mysteriously that they contained fine wine that he had not even taken out for his son’s wedding. When the wine-wearing Dai Laohan heard this, he immediately put his arm around Li Qinghai’s shoulders. The two old men limped into the main room, sat cross-legged on the kang, and started peeling peanuts while watching the show on TV, preparing for the evening’s side dishes in advance.

After taking care of the livestock and poultry, Jiang Weiqin began to prepare the dumpling fillings.

People in Northeast China make dumplings during every festival.

No matter how hard the vegetables are, they cannot be the staple food, and dumplings are the leader among the staple foods.

The Dai family’s dumplings are even more exaggerated. Jiang Weiqin specially made two kinds of fillings: wild boar meat and cabbage, and roe deer meat and green onions.

When the dumplings were cooked, they were served steaming hot on the kang table, and everyone in the room was drooling at the delicious taste of the dumplings.

At the same time, the 86 Spring Festival Gala also started.

Having learned from the painful lessons of the 85 Spring Festival Gala, this year’s Spring Festival Gala returned to indoors.

The outstanding lighting and music were brought out to the fullest by the large color TV. The beautiful songs made the little girl sitting at the table on the kang so busy that she had no time to eat the dumplings her grandmother fed her. Instead, she danced on the kang with her big belly, a wonderful dance she had written and directed herself, which made everyone watching very happy.

This happiness reached its peak when the sketch “Mutton Skewers” was broadcast.

The bald guy’s performance without props was so magical that the little girl in front of the TV also imitated the tone and shouted “Mutton skewers, Xinjiang lamb skewers”. The other adults couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Li Qinghai and Dai Laohan were now drinking so much that their faces were red and they looked intoxicated.

In his words, his two jars of wine are the essence of the spiritual energy of the world of Greater Khingan Range.

One of the cans contains water fish penis and stag blood, one yin and one yang. Drinking it can strengthen your body and keep you healthy.

The other jar is even more amazing. The material used in it is said to be the imperial tribute at the time, a mountain treasure worth ten thousand gold coins – the Emperor Ganoderma Lucidum.

It is said that eating this thing can keep you healthy and free from disease.

This aroused Dai Song’s curiosity. He stretched his neck to look at the contents of the jar and saw some black lumps.

Li Qinghai did not hide the treasure. He wiped the chopsticks carefully and picked out the things inside to show everyone.

Then, something dark and that looked like a lump of coal was picked up by Li Qinghai with chopsticks.

Unlike coal, this thing has sparse and porous edges, like a sponge.

But Daisong recognized it at once. The scientific name of this thing is Inonotus obliquus. It grows on poplar, elm and birch trees. It can delay aging, regulate the stomach and intestines, lower blood pressure and blood sugar, and improve body functions. It can be said that the price of this thing is not exaggerated at all, but its efficacy is worthy of matching it.

When the little schoolbag saw that thing, his eyes widened.

Dai Song, who was standing by, knew what he was thinking, and knew that Xiao Shubao was too embarrassed to ask for it, so he asked Li Qinghai for a glass of wine and gave it to Xiao Shubao’s mother. Xiao Shubao was so grateful that he toasted him with two glasses of liquor and almost vomited. If Dai Song had not assigned him a special task before, he would have crawled under the table and passed out by now.

As the evening show went on, time slowly approached twelve o’clock.

Everyone was extremely excited as they stayed up on New Year’s Eve.

When the countdown on TV ended, the two brothers took everyone out of the house, including Erhan, who was admiring his three small medals in his nest.

The little schoolbag was staggering as he walked, but he still found the place where he had hidden the fireworks. He slowly squatted down and lit them with Dai Laohan’s pipe.

The fuse shot out sparks of fire in the snow and quickly penetrated into the huge firework box.

After a brief silence, a fiery red meteor, with a long tail, whistled across the dark sky.

Whoosh——bang——!
The meteor exploded like a hydrangea, and tiny points of light slowly drifted from the sky, illuminating everyone’s face.

In the arms of her parents, the little girl opened her mouth with a look of surprise on her face.

The Dai Bo couple hugged each other,

Dai Xiaoqian, who was eager to try and get some sex,

Jiang Weiqin, with her hands on her hips,

Dai Laohan and Li Qinghai, who were arm in arm with Li Qinghai and boasting wildly under the influence of alcohol,

There was also the silly little waiter who didn’t care about the flower mushroom being humiliated and just squatted in front of everyone, stretching out his two stupid paws, trying to catch the fireworks in the sky.

Everyone has achieved far more wonderful things this year than ever before.

There is a strong love for life in every pair of eyes.

Dai Song tightened the hands of his wife and the maid, his eyes full of tenderness.

“Happy New Year!”

(End of this chapter)