After Shi Zhen sold the pig head meat, he went to town again to see if he could still buy pig heads.
The few times he went to the farmers’ market to buy things before were always in the morning. This time he went there in the afternoon and discovered that there were much fewer people than in the morning.
Among these people, there were some who were dressed similarly to him. They were probably from the countryside and rarely went out to buy groceries. There were also some who were well-dressed and you could tell from a glance that they lived in town and had a good family background.
The former basically only bought pork and various soy products, while the latter also bought vegetables, eggs and the like.
Shi Zhen went to Butcher Zhu. Butcher Zhu had almost sold all his meat and had no more pig heads. But he knew others and quickly found Shi Zhen a pig head.
Shi Zhen wanted to buy two pig heads, but now he only had one pot to hold the cooked pig head meat.
After buying the pig head, Shi Zhen went to Shi Xinghuo’s worksite again and waited for Shi Xinghuo to finish work so they could go home together.
”Ah Zhen, the pig head meat is so delicious.” Shi Xinghuo couldn’t forget the pig head meat that Shi Zhen gave him to taste in the afternoon, and mentioned it several times along the way.
After talking about the pig head meat, he went on to talk about lunch.
Wang Chengfa was pretty good to these small workers. He would include some meat for lunch every day. Today, he had vegetable and chicken stew with thick oil and red sauce.
Shi Xinghuo swallowed as he spoke.
”I left some pig head meat at home. We can still eat meat tonight,” Shi Zhen said.
Shi Zhen did keep some meat, but only a small amount of lean meat from the pig head and the pig nose.
He divided the meat into three parts – Shi Xinghuo ate quickly. Plus since he was a child, he had the tendency to grab the good stuff when he saw it. If he didn’t divide the meat, Guan Baiyu wouldn’t be able to eat much meat.
Guan Baiyu was really too thin.
Facing Guan Baiyu, who was a head shorter than him and skinny as a stick, Shi Zhen couldn’t think of anything else except feeding him more delicious food.
When they returned home, Guan Baiyu hadn’t come back yet, so Shi Zhen cooked the meal first.
He also asked Shi Xinghuo to grab two lettuces, peel them and cut them into small pieces, add some salt and MSG and mix it into a dish.
In fact, it tasted better if fried, but they only had one pot.
Once he made money, he would also buy a gas stove, a tank of liquefied gas, and a pot…
When the meal was ready, Guan Baiyu came back carrying a dark blue cloth schoolbag. This schoolbag was homemade. He had no money to buy a new schoolbag.
Guan Baiyu used to like to stay in school. Although there were classmates like Yan Jiangtao who liked to make trouble with him, there were also many classmates with whom he had a good relationship and could talk to.
It was better than staying in an empty house.
But now, he liked returning home every day.
When he opened the door, he saw his cousin sitting behind the stove. There was a fire burning in the stove, and his cousin’s face lit up, making him feel warm inexplicably.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
”Brother, I’m back,” Guan Baiyu said.
Shi Zhen stood up from behind the stove. “Just in time. The food will be ready soon.”
”Okay.” Guan Baiyu smiled slightly, showing two small tiger teeth.
The food would still be a little while, so Guan Baiyu took the clothes to wash.
”I’ll wash the clothes later. You rest a bit.” Shi Zhen saw that Guan Baiyu had also taken the clothes he had brought over to wash, and quickly stopped him.
”No, I’ll wash them quickly,” Guan Baiyu said, “There’s just no laundry detergent, so they won’t be very clean.”
Shi Zhen once again realized how poor he was.
Guan Baiyu insisted on washing, so Shi Zhen took out the hot water he had steamed in the pot and gave it to Guan Baiyu to wash the clothes. “I’m going to braise pig head meat later, and I can also steam some more hot water.”
Guan Baiyu didn’t refuse and started washing clothes with hot water.
He worked diligently, washed the clothes quickly, and hung them to dry on a line stretched by the door.
The clothes of the three of them were all in tatters. Even if they were left to dry outside at night, no one would steal them.
While Guan Baiyu was drying the clothes, Shi Zhen also took care of the hair on the pig head that he had just bought. The three of them cleaned up and ate together.
”This is the most delicious meat I have ever eaten.” Guan Baiyu was particularly impressed by Shi Zhen’s pig head meat and was even reluctant to eat it.
”Then eat it quickly. I will braise another pig head later. You can take some to school tomorrow,” Shi Zhen said.
Guan Baiyu had finished eating his rice, and he reluctantly began to eat the meat that he had not been willing to eat before.
As for Shi Xinghuo… he finished the meat before the meal and was now eating rice. “This rice is delicious too!”
Shi Zhen smiled when he saw this. He could understand Shi Xinghuo. Although their village also grew some rice, they usually relied on other foods to fill their stomachs.
When he was a child, he felt that being able to eat rice until full was a very happy thing.
After dinner, Shi Zhen went to braise the pig head, but Guan Baiyu took out a sewing basket from nowhere, took Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo’s clothes washed the day before and started mending them.
There was nothing in the room rented by Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo, and it was difficult to even wash clothes.
Therefore, Shi Zhen, who had never washed his clothes after leaving the village, did not wash the dirty clothes he and Shi Xinghuo had worn until he met Guan Baiyu, and then hung them to dry at Guan Baiyu’s place.
Among these clothes, the coat was new, but the shirts underneath were all tattered. If nothing else, his underwear was actually cut from worn out trousers.
His biological mother had died a long time ago, and he was too embarrassed to let his stepmother make him underwear, so he just made do with sewing, and the final product was naturally very shabby.
Now Guan Baiyu took out needle and thread, found some rags to help him mend clothes, and even took out his boxers…
The teenager sewed very carefully, giving people a sense of peace.
Shi Zhen stepped forward and picked out the clothes that belonged to Shi Xinghuo and gave them to Shi Xinghuo. “If any of your clothes are torn, you can mend them yourself.”
Shi Xinghuo responded, “Oh!” But…he didn’t know how to sew!
However, Shi Xinghuo didn’t feel that his clothes were torn, and it didn’t matter if no one mended them.
It was like how Shi Zhen planned to wash clothes today. Shi Xinghuo didn’t take his clothes out to wash because he thought his clothes were not dirty.
Shi Zhen didn’t care whether Shi Xinghuo knew how to sew. He just didn’t want Guan Baiyu to mend Shi Xinghuo’s clothes.
Guan Baiyu wanted to take the college entrance examination and had to study hard. What sewing clothes… When he made money, he would buy a wardrobe full of clothes for Guan Baiyu and let him change them every day.
When Shi Zhen and Guan Baiyu were together in his previous life, although his business was not considered big, he was no longer short of money. Guan Baiyu naturally did not have to mend his torn clothes. This was the first time he saw this scene, and he felt sour and sweet.
The smell in the air was very, very fragrant.
”Dong dong dong.” There was a knock on the door. Shi Zhen opened the door and saw a skinny old lady who was less than 1.5 meters tall.
The little old lady was actually not too old. Her hair was parted in the middle and she had two big braids on the left and right. She came up and asked, “What are you cooking? It smells so good!”
”We’re making some pig head meat.” After Shi Zhen finished speaking, he saw the little old lady pass under his arm that was propping open the door and enter the house.
Guan Baiyu had stopped sewing and called out, “Niang niang*.” People in this area called their grandmothers “niang niang”.
When watching the pig killing before, Shi Zhen followed Guan Baiyu and met some people.
The people living next to them all had the surname Guan, and the families nearby were all cousins of Guan Baiyu’s adoptive father.
There were three brothers in Guan Baiyu’s adoptive grandfather’s generation. Among them, Guan Baiyu’s adoptive grandfather was the eldest brother. He died early, leaving Guan Baiyu’s adoptive father as his only son*.
His younger brother, whom Guan Baiyu called Second Grandpa, was Guan Jianguo’s father. He had two sons, of which Guan Jianguo was the younger son.
As for Guan Baiyu’s little grandpa*, he was the husband of the little old lady in front of him. He also had two sons. Now the younger son was married, and the older son was an old bachelor. It was estimated that he would never get married in his life – this man had never been married in his previous life.
Shi Zhen knew these people, but he had not had much contact with them, and he didn’t know much about this little grandma of Guan Baiyu’s. When he saw her coming in, he went to pour her some water.
As a result, the little old lady went to lift the lid of the pot and said, “What a big pig head. It’s not Chinese New Year or a festival, but you guys are still braising a pig head.”
She muttered, saying that young people didn’t know how to live well, and then said, “Xiao Yu, your maternal cousin is very good to you. He even buys you meat to eat. The maternal cousin of my family’s Kaikai only comes to eat…”
She started to praise Shi Zhen, and while talking, she complained about her grandson’s maternal cousin and maternal uncle, and then started talking about her daughter-in-law.
Saying things such as her daughter-in-law was lazy. If her daughter-in-law didn’t wash the clothes, she had to wash them.
Or saying her daughter-in-law was nitpicky. She already washed the vegetables in the river and still put them under the faucet to rinse.
Then saying her daughter-in-law was so gluttonous that she even used eggs to make fried rice in the morning.
…
Shi Zhen: “…”
Shi Zhen really couldn’t handle such a conversation.
Putting aside everything else, he only used tap water when washing vegetables and washing rice.
After all, the river in front of their house was connected to the river in town. Now many people in town used flush toilets…
Although the river water was still clear in 1994, he was still not interested in consuming that water.
In addition to doing good deeds, Shi Zhen also insisted on other things in his previous life, such as not gossiping behind other people’s backs, so he just listened to these words without participating.
He never thought that this little old lady would become more and more enthusiastic and refuse to leave.
Shi Zhen thought at first that she just talked too much, but later he found out that was not the case.
Seeing that the pig head was almost cooked, the little old lady stood up and said, “This pig head meat smells so delicious. Give me some, and I’ll take it back to Kaikai.”
It was quite interesting that most of the cousins in the Guan family had daughters. Her Kaikai was the only son in the younger generation, so he was loved beyond measure.
Shi Zhen finally understood that this little old lady was here to ask for meat. She didn’t leave and chatted with them for so long, because she was probably waiting for the meat to finish cooking.
Shi Zhen used scissors to cut off a piece of meat and put it into a bowl. He also put in a little marinade and gave it to the little old lady. “Niang niang, I didn’t make this for myself to eat. I want to sell it, so I can’t give you too much.”
”It’s such a big pig head, so it doesn’t matter if you give me more. Don’t be so stingy… My Kaikai doesn’t like fatty meat, so you can give me some lean meat, or the pig nose is also fine. It doesn’t taste greasy, so he likes to eat it.” The little old lady kept talking.
This old lady was even choosing the cut of meat…Shi Zhen was speechless. “These parts are the best to sell…otherwise you spend money to buy them?”
The little old lady left unhappily.
When she left, Shi Zhen felt relieved.
Guan Baiyu saw this and said, “I’m sorry.”
”What are you apologizing for?” Shi Zhen asked.
”She took your things,” Guan Baiyu said.
”That’s it? It’s nothing.” Shi Zhen smiled. He didn’t take such a little bit of meat seriously, but… “You don’t like her?”
Shi Zhen noticed that Guan Baiyu didn’t seem to like the old lady very much.
Guan Baiyu was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
***
T/N: This old lady is so shameless…
*嬢嬢 (niang niang) – this is not the same niang niang used to address the empress, consorts, etc. in ancient China (which is 娘娘). This is just what people call their grandmothers in the local dialect. Usually grandmother (and what is used in the text) is 奶奶 (nainai).
*Guan Baiyu’s adoptive grandfather’s only son is his adoptive father, but his adoptive grandparents should also have another child (a daughter) because the adoptive mother has mentioned a sister in law and an aunt is mentioned in future chapters.
*The third (and youngest) son in Guan Baiyu’s adoptive grandfather’s generation is called little grandpa instead of third grandpa and his wife (the shameless old lady) is called little grandma.
Thank you for translating. This story is very interesting and change of the billionaires tropes and such. Coming from an impoverished rural place myself (not in china though), it is very bittersweet
Ahhh I binged it!! Please update…!! It’s been a long time since I was this invested in a novel and such.🥺😩🤭🤭🤩🤩🤩
Shameless old hag.. You want meat? Pay for it!!