CH 470

Lin Lan tapped at his forehead, “Your Eldest Brother is sitting still now, so I will deal with you exclusively in the future.”

This kid couldn’t sit still even more than Dawang. It almost seemed like the child was a monkey who just couldn’t remain seated for even a short while.

Sanwang, “…” Am I not your son?

“Hurry up, the brigade is going to slaughter the pigs!” Dawang shouted outside.

As soon as they heard that pigs were going to be slaughtered, Maisui and Erwang, who were reading recipes and listening to the radio on the kang in the room, hurried along. They hastily wore the earmuffs that Lin Lan designed and was made by Han Qingsong.

Xiaowang also put the harmonica into its own instrument case, ran to place it on the table and obediently put on his fur lined trapper hat.

Sanwang, who was drooling while listening to the recipe, wiped the corners of his mouth and grabbed his younger brother’s hand, “Let’s go first.”

Lin Lan hurriedly said, “Don’t let Xiaowang watch the pig being butchered. Otherwise, it will scare him.”

Children were like this— the more afraid they were, the more they wanted to watch something. But when they returned, they were going to have nightmares again.

For example, Sanwang, who watched a chicken being slaughtered once, was so frightened that he had three days of consecutive nightmares. He always dreamed that the chicken that had its throat cut was flying all over the garden.

All the children in the village were like this and Lin Lan didn’t particularly hold them back either, but Xiaowang was a special case, so she naturally had to pay more attention.

Maisui said, “Mother, I’ll cover Xiaowang’s eyes.”

Lin Lan let them go first as she cleaned up and took a basin. She might as well obtain a bit of pig’s blood during the distribution.

Not just the children, the entire village had been looking forward to the pork distribution for half a year.

Because of the slaughter of pigs, it was even a school holiday. Han Qingping was also afraid that if he went late, only the bad parts would be left.

At this time, the Commune members were only given a fixed amount of rations and since the families did not have much surplus food, the pigs and livestock were collectively raised by the Production Team.

A Production Team that raised less pigs would amount to less than a dozen whereas those who raised a higher number of pigs could go up to 30. In addition to the task of handing them over to the Butchering Team, the remaining members of the Commune divided the pork several times a year. Once when the wheat was harvested, once at the end of October and once more during the Chinese New Year.

Naturally, pork was also divided according to 40% labour and 60% by the amount of people.

The people in charge of slaughtering the pigs and dividing the meat were a few regular men in the village. Before the Production Team took over, their families butchered and sold pork. After working collectively, they could no longer kill pigs by themselves, so they had to quit this business.

When Dong Huaihua saw Lin Lan and the others, she immediately ran over and stomped her feet, “It’s cold today. It’s not yet the 12th lunar month yet but my ears are going to freeze off.”

Lin Lan pointed to her head, “Why aren’t you wearing a hat?”