Back to 1984: I built a chicken farm on a barren mountain.

February 17, 1985, the 2th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The last episode of Chenjiazhuang before the Spring Festival.

The market was bustling with activity.

Everyone is preparing for the final New Year's shopping.

Although the standard of living in Chenjiazhuang was still very poor at that time, people tried their best to show the best side of their lives during the Spring Festival.

Buy a new dress, buy a few yards of new fabric, buy a new pair of cotton shoes...

That day, pork sales were the highest, and Zheng Dali's lips curled up in a smile.

I'm so happy!

The soy sauce factory has started its holiday break, but Li Dahua still came to the market. In addition to buying some New Year's goods, she also brought Hou Laizi to set up a stall to sell soy sauce.

Originally, Li Dahua didn't want to sell soy sauce right before the New Year, but Han Laosi recovered his spirits and started to take charge of the household again.

He wanted to sell as much as possible before the New Year.

However, not many people at the market bought soy sauce.

That's normal, because a small village like Chenjiazhuang doesn't have that much demand for soy sauce.

In contrast to the slow sales of soy sauce, eggs at the market sold very quickly.

Everyone is short of eggs now because Chen Wenfeng bought a large batch of eggs before the Lunar New Year.

Not only that, all the eggs on Jiming Mountain were sold out, with not a single one left.

In Chen Wenfeng's words, if you want to eat eggs, you have to eat them hot, waiting for the chicken to be cooked.

Wang Guizhi was very happy. She had bought new clothes for the children well in advance, so she didn't go to the last episode to join in the fun.

Instead, she quietly cooked meat at home.

Not long ago, we asked Zheng Dali to personally slaughter the two piglets we had at home.

Wang Guizhi wanted to give Zheng Dali some money for his hard work, but Zheng Dali refused and only asked for a set of slag.

The meat has now been cut up. According to Chen Wenfeng's plan, one head will be kept at home, and the rest will be used on the mountain.

But one pig simply can't finish it all, and even in cold weather, it will spoil if left out for too long.

So Wang Guizhi took it upon herself to have Zheng Dali help sell half a pig.

The remaining half is for home use.

On the other hand, she told Chen Wenfeng to leave it on the mountain for use.

But not much is needed on the mountain, and Old Sun wants to go back to his sister's place for the New Year.

Chen Wenfeng simply gave Zhou Zhiming, Lao Suntou, Niu Da, and Niu Er each a 10-jin (5 catties) portion of pork, and also some spare ribs as a New Year's gift.

Hou Laizi and Pang Xiao each received 10 jin.

I was planning to give everyone eggs, but they're all sold out.

Chen Wenfeng kept some for use on the mountain after the New Year, and left the rest for Wang Guizhi to handle flexibly, such as for New Year's social engagements and some relatives.

For villagers celebrating the Lunar New Year, eggs are good, but pork is even better.

Niu Da and Niu Er each got 20 jin of pork.

More importantly, when Chen Wenfeng asked them whether they wanted fatty or lean meat, the two brothers both said they liked fatty meat, so half of the 20 jin of meat they received was fatty meat.

Chen Wenfeng knew that in his previous life, people liked to eat lean meat because they wanted to be healthy, which is why someone invented lean meat extract.

At this time, fatty meat is what people like. People don't have much oil in their bodies, and fatty meat can be rendered into oil, which is more economical.

Yang Xiuhua was overjoyed to see the pork her two sons had brought back. Holding Niu Da's hand in one hand and Niu Er's hand in the other, she said:

"Let's go to Guizhi's house to pay our respects on the first day of the Lunar New Year. We need to properly thank Wenfeng!"

However, Yang Xiuhua was observant. Seeing that her two sons mostly brought back fatty meat, she said:

"Why is all this meat fatty? Whoever gets the lean cuts will definitely be unhappy. We can't take advantage of that!"

Niu Er said:

"Don't worry, Mom, Feng-ge kept the lean ones. He said he likes to eat lean food."

Yang Xiuhua rolled her eyes at Niu Er and said:

"Nonsense! It's all because Wen Feng is so considerate of us, always thinking of us first. Who doesn't love fatty meat? Fatty meat is so delicious!"

(Chen Wenfeng: Auntie, I really like eating lean meat...)

Yang Xiuhua recalled that last year during the Spring Festival, she didn't have money to buy meat, so she used the white flour she had saved to mix with cornmeal and made a few dumplings with cabbage filling.

This year, she's going to wrap all this meat into dumplings!

On New Year's Eve, she wanted to chop the filling to her heart's content, so that others could hear the sound of chopping dumpling filling!

......

Zhou Zhiming also wanted lean pork. His family was well-off, so he never lacked meat growing up and couldn't eat too much fatty pork.

Grandma Zhou asked affectionately:

"Zhiming, what do you want to eat with the meat you brought back? Grandma will cook it for you!"

"Meatballs, hehe!"

Grandma Zhou makes excellent meatballs. These deep-fried meatballs are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside when they're fresh out of the fryer, making them very delicious.

When cooled, it becomes chewy and refreshing, and can be eaten as a snack or added to dishes.

However, not many families in Chenjiazhuang make this. It's not that making fried meatballs is a high-tech skill, but rather that it requires not only meat but also a lot of oil, which a family wouldn't be willing to use.

Grandma Zhou smiled and said:

"Then let's make meatballs. Once Grandma has fried them, we'll send some to Wenfeng as well."

......

"Mom, I want to eat blood tofu..."

Chen Xiaofang kept rubbing against Wang Guizhi, which annoyed Wang Guizhi to no end.

This girl keeps asking for this and that.

Wang Guizhi was busy cooking meat; there were two pots cooking meat, one inside and one outside the house.

Besides the meat used for stir-frying, she cuts most of the meat into large chunks, then cooks it to eat slowly during the Lunar New Year.

Chen Shouyi then helped add firewood to the fire.

He really enjoyed the feeling of having a full granary full of rice and meat. He didn't make any demands; he loved eating whatever was made.

Of course, he might not do it just because he mentioned it.

At this moment, Chen Shouyi, with a cigarette in his mouth, also followed behind Wang Guizhi to help.

Wang Guizhi sighed:

"Last year, our family was frugal during the Lunar New Year. Although we ate less, I wasn't this tired. This year, we can't finish all the meat, and it's really tiring."

Chen Wenfeng: Mom, do you know this belongs to Versailles?

Wang Guizhi: What's this about Versailles...?

Chen Wenfeng: It's alright...

While the two large pots of meat were cooking, Wang Guizhi finally had time to talk to Chen Xiaofang and said:

"Honey, what did you want to eat again?"

Chen Xiaofang knew that Wang Guizhi was very busy, so she said very seriously and cutely:

"Mom, I want to eat blood tofu. I've said it twenty-six times already. Hehe."

Wang Guizhi took a deep breath and said:

"Mom's been too busy, where did you put Shouyi's pig's blood?"

Chen Shouyi appeared in front of Wang Guizhi in an instant, startling her.

Chen Shouyi was carrying a basin of pig's blood when he said:

"When Dali was taking the pig offal, he also took some pig blood. He said Caifeng likes to eat it, and ours is here."

"That's plenty. We have to eat lots of meat this Chinese New Year. Everyone has to eat a lot."

Chen Xiaofang could hardly believe her ears. She remembered that her mother always said, "Eat less, eat less," but this year she was telling her to eat as much as she could. How much more could she eat?

"Shouyi, go get some pickled cabbage. Once you've cooked a pot, I'll make some lunch first. Pickled cabbage and pig's blood, and some meat that was cooked yesterday. I'll cut out a bowl and steam it for lunch. Or maybe I should steam two bowls so this greedy girl can eat her fill."

Chen Xiaofang was overjoyed when she heard about Wang Guizhi's arrangement.

Time to eat meat again!

Little did she know, she would eat so much meat during the New Year that she felt like throwing up...