When the two of them walked through the market entrance, there were only a few scattered stalls set up.
Most were selling vegetables, with an occasional fruit vendor or two.
They didn’t even glance at the vegetables, but they stared at the fruit for a long time, almost boring holes through them with their eyes—but they couldn’t afford any.
” Sis, I smell meat! Someone must be selling meat! Let’s go ask about the price and then figure out how to make some money.”
Xiao Gu was full of energy, wrinkling her little nose and sniffing around like a puppy.
Lin Xiaohe imitated her sister, inhaling deeply, then frowned in confusion. “Are you a bloodhound or something? I can’t smell a thing.”
“Hehe, I’m sure of it, Sis. Just follow me.”
Xiao Gu tugged her sister along as they searched, and finally found a small cart selling meat a little ways from the main stall area.
The cart had all kinds of meat already cut and portioned out, with a few people gathered around picking through them.
They weren’t buying, so they didn’t feel bold enough to push forward. Instead, they pricked up their ears and listened to what others were saying, and soon enough, they had a good idea of the prices.
Fully fatty meat was 10 yuan per jin, streaky pork was 15, lean meat was 18, and various trimmings were basically all 10 yuan per jin.
“Sis, that’s not expensive at all! If we buy one jin of fatty meat, it’ll last us a long time.” Xiao Gu’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She hadn’t expected meat to be so cheap—one jin of wild greens could be traded for a whole jin of glistening fatty pork!
Lean meat doesn’t keep well, but once fatty meat is rendered into lard, it can last a very long time. Even the cracklings can be stored for ages.
“Why is lean meat so expensive? What’s so good about it? It’s dry and bland with hardly any meat flavor—fatty meat is where the real taste is.”
As they talked, the two of them were practically drooling over the raw meat.
Lin Xiaohe felt the money in her pocket. Adding the 5 yuan left from yesterday, she now had 33 yuan. She’d spent 2 yuan on salt earlier and 50 on medicine.
“Maybe… we could buy half a jin of meat?” She wanted to save the rest to buy more grain to stock up. Not only was there no sign of the drought letting up, but even if it did, it would be at least six months before new crops came in.
Having more grain stored at home was the only way to feel at ease.
With their parents in this condition, it would take at least three to four months for them to recover. At the very least, they needed enough food to get through that time, or she wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly at night.
Xiao Gu’s eyes were bright, and her little head bobbed with joy.
She hadn’t expected her sister to actually buy any—she’d thought they wouldn’t.
“Half a jin of fatty meat?”
The meat-seller auntie thought for a moment. “How about I give you some trimmings instead? All my meat is already cut up, and if I split a piece in half, the other half won’t sell as easily.
These are still proper meat—just the odds and ends I trimmed off while cutting. If you want them, I’ll give you 50% off.
Only 5 yuan per jin.”
With that, she pulled a plastic bin out from under her tricycle, filled with assorted small pieces of meat, none of them large chunks.
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes lit up. “Great, we’ll take this. Give us one jin, and pick the fattier pieces for us.”
“Sure thing. Here, take the bag and pick them yourself.”
These trimmings were usually only sold to bun makers, and they’d lowball the price—3 yuan at best.
Selling them for 5 yuan was still a decent profit.
Other people might turn their noses up at the messy, scrappy pieces, but Lin Xiaohe didn’t mind! Bringing these home meant she wouldn’t even have to chop them up herself—which was good, since she didn’t have a proper knife anyway. The one at home was duller than her own teeth.
After picking through and choosing a bag of the fattier pieces, they weighed in at one and a half jin.
“Just give me 7 yuan.” The meat-seller auntie casually weighed it and named the price.
On the way back, the sisters were grinning from ear to ear. This was meat—the kind they couldn’t even get during festivals. Back in the brigade, they only slaughtered pigs for the New Year, and the meat was divided up according to family size and work points.
Their family had enough people that they could get some decent meat—too bad it never made it to their table.
Passing by the grain and oil shop, they saw that the rice from yesterday was still available at one yuan per jin. Lin Xiaohe bought another 20 jin worth, leaving her pockets pinched again.
With the few yuan left, there wasn’t much else they could buy. The two of them packed up and headed home—their parents were still waiting for the medicine.
The first thing they did upon getting home was administer the medicine.
After taking it, the couple fell back into a drowsy sleep.
“Second Sis, keep an eye on things. I’m going to go render the meat. We’ll make some lard crackling congee tonight and get some grease in everyone’s bellies.
Also, listen for any commotion outside. If Second Sister Yaya comes by, give her two of the boiled potatoes and tell her to share one with First Sister Daya.”
In these times, no one dared to render lard inside the house—they were too afraid of the smell wafting out.
Lin Xiaohe planned to do it in the cellar.
“Okay, I’ve got it all,” Xiaogu agreed obediently.
“Good girl! When the cracklings are done, I’ll let you have a couple.”
The meat was already in small pieces, so there was no need to chop it.
Not that the dull, chipped knife at home could cut anything anyway.
After thoroughly washing the clay pot inside and out, she could start rendering. This was the only container they had at home—they really did need a proper pot.
But using a clay pot had its advantages too; the smell didn’t dissipate as quickly.
The cellar was in the back courtyard of the ancestral hall. This used to be someone else’s house, so they’d dug a cellar out back.
Rumor had it that the owners later became big shots and moved the whole family away.
At first, no one touched the empty house, but over time it mostly collapsed, leaving just a few rooms. The village patched it up and turned it into an ancestral hall—though that was many years ago.
But the original owners must have been truly wealthy, because even after a hundred years, the house was still habitable—much better than the thatched huts most villagers lived in.
They said the house used to be enormous, but only these few main rooms, built with the best materials, had survived to the present day. Everything around them had crumbled.
Even the current educated youth compound had some connection to that family. When they’d moved away en masse, they’d left a junior steward behind to look after the ancestral property.
That two-courtyard grand house had been theirs too. Later, during the land reforms, it was confiscated and fell into similar disrepair. The brigade patched it up and let the educated youth move in.
The advantage of cooking in the cellar was that the smell couldn’t escape. The downside was that she herself was getting marinated in it. Lin Xiaohe couldn’t resist either—she’d eaten several pieces of crackling while rendering the lard.
From one and a half jin of meat, after rendering, only a small half-bowl of cracklings remained.
But there was plenty of lard—two full bowls’ worth, both packed to the brim.
From now on, they’d have to eat out of bamboo bowls.
“Sis~ are you done yet? Second Sister Yaya came by just now, and I gave her the potatoes.
At first she refused to take them, so I just stuffed them into her arms and shut the door.”
Xiaogu quietly lifted the cellar door panel and poked her head in—only to be nearly knocked over by the rich aroma.
In case anything happened inside the cellar, Lin Xiaohe had left a small gap open. Earlier, you could barely catch a whiff of meat in the back courtyard, but now—with the door open—they were completely engulfed in the smell of lard.
Lin Xiaohe picked up a piece of crackling and popped it into her sister’s mouth. “All done, all done!”
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