The more Tian Jingui thought about it, the sadder she became, and even more sad when she thought that the black sow was the reincarnation of her ex-husband. Although there were times when my husband felt sorry for himself during his lifetime, after his death he was reincarnated as a pig, and when he was feeding it, he also felt sorry for it in many ways. In this way, what her husband owed her during his lifetime was not only equalized, but also compensated.
Now it is me, Tian Jingui, who is sorry for the black sow, but it is not the black sow who is sorry for me, Tian Jingui. In other words, it is not the husband who is sorry for his wife, but the wife who is sorry for her husband.
Tian Jingui wanted to cry and called her father-in-law and mother-in-law to the pig house to watch. Like the daughter-in-law, they were heavy-hearted, with dark clouds on their faces, and they didn't speak for a long time.
Finally, Yin Shigui whispered, preparing a truck to drag it to the back mountain to dig a hole and bury it. My wife really shed tears and just nodded without saying anything.
Tian Jingui stopped and said, "It's daytime now. I will dig a pit on the back mountain first. At night, I will drag it to the mountain on a cart and bury it in a pit."
Yin Shigui understood what she meant: If we dragged the dead black sow to the mountain to dig a pit and bury it during the day, it would alarm some people in the village, and there would be no guarantee that someone would be greedy and secretly dig the grave after we left. , and took out the black sow and brought it home, stripped it, cleaned it, disemboweled it, and took out the meat for consumption. So after hearing what Tian Jingui said, Yin Shigui followed her advice and went to the mountain to dig a hole quietly during the day. At night, he used a cart to drag the body of the black sow to the mountain and bury it quietly. In addition to not setting off firecrackers, they also burned a bunch of money paper and a few incense candles.
After Tian Jingui said this, he changed the subject to raising pigs: If you don't raise sows that give birth to piglets, you should be able to catch a boar or a sow and raise them to kill and sell the meat. It's not too tiring. Tian Ginkgo said, "Then I will listen to you and tell Ma Youneng in my house that I want him to spend some money to catch a pig and raise it, and then kill the meat and sell it for money."
A few days later, Tian Ginkgo was serving dinner. Seeing that Ma You could pick up the greasy fat pork from the bowl and eat it with relish, he mentioned the matter of raising pigs and selling them for money.
Unexpectedly, Ma Youneng disagreed. He plausibly said that I usually make money by treating people, and I don’t care about raising pigs and selling them. Tian Yingxing insisted on meeting her, saying that Sister Jin Gui also suggested that our family raise a pig. Besides, I don’t know how to check the patient’s pulse and see the doctor. Every day is boring. If you catch a pig and raise it, don’t I have something to do every day? The mother-in-law who was dining at the same table also supported her daughter-in-law, so Ma Youneng had no choice but to agree.
The next day, he asked someone to send a piglet to their home, and he kept it in a pig house that had been abandoned for many years and had been cleaned this time.
This piglet was covered in white hair, and everyone in the family called her White Pig. Only Tian Ginkgo nicknamed her Xiaobai. The piglet she called Xiaobai many times developed a conditioned reflex when she fed it food.
Whenever Tian Ginkgo calls like this, it will stand up immediately while sleeping in the pen, twitch its big ears, raise its head, and look at her with its eyes open. If she doesn't respond and doesn't give her food, Xiaobai will dig into the pig pen with a cylindrical gnawing tongue, as if asking Tian Ginkgo, what do you want me to do?
Tian Ginkgo sometimes urinates in the toilet of the pig house, and just calls "Xiao Bai" in a playful way, and then runs away.
After more than half a year, Xiaobai grew into Dabai, that is, he grew into a big fat pig and needed more and more feed. Ma Youneng decided to hire a butcher to kill it and sell its meat.
When he expressed this idea, Tian Ginkgo asked, "Youneng, are you in a hurry to kill it and sell its dried meat?" I want to raise it until the end of the year to use it as a New Year pig (to kill it), and to pickle some bacon during the New Year.
Ma Youneng said "Oh" and said, "You are still worried about not having bacon to eat during the New Year. Do you know?" During the Chinese New Year, most of the people who came to see me would bring me pickled and fragrant bacon to pay for my medical treatment, and they couldn’t finish it all. Besides, you have been feeding pigs and dealing with pigs a lot, so your body smells a little like pig shit. I don't like the smell. Listen to me, kill that big white pig and sell its meat.
Two days later, the groom hired a butcher to kill the big white pig. Ma Youneng gave the order to the butcher, you might as well do it to the end, chop a few pieces of meat and keep it for eating, and use the cart to pull the extra meat to the county town for sale. Ginkgo goes with you, you weigh the meat and sell it to customers, and she helps collect money from customers. I will give you wages when the time comes and I won't treat you badly, that's all.
The butcher raised his face, his face glowing red. He replied, OK! As a result, after selling the meat for a whole day, only half of the meat was sold. The weather was still a bit hot, so if it was not sold out quickly, it would easily go bad.
When it was sold again the next day, some customers started to be picky, saying that the meat had become heavy and the color of some parts had turned black. Tian Ginkgo said, sell it at a lower price! The butcher followed her instructions, and customers came in twos and threes, but they glanced at the pork placed on the cart and walked away quietly.
By the afternoon, as the sun was setting, not a pound of meat had been sold. Tian Ginkgo said sadly, "Master butcher, you can't sell this meat. You should go home as soon as possible!" In case we don't see it when it gets dark, the county town is still more than ten miles away from our countryside.
The butcher felt that it would be a waste of time to go out to the street today, and he was unwilling to go back like this. He looked at the bustling pedestrians on the street and shouted again at the top of his voice, but no one came to buy the remaining pork.
He had no choice but to pull the cart and walk out of the city gate with Tian Ginkgo and return home. It was still early and it was not dark yet. The groom went up to the butcher, thanked him, paid him enough wages, and sent him away.
Ginkgo was preparing to salt the unsellable, dark-colored pork and marinate it to prevent spoilage. Unexpectedly, the groom silently pulled the cart with the pork still on it to the side of the mountain behind the house, then put a coarse cloth on his shoulders and carried a small basket of pork on the cart on his shoulders. Walking along a narrow mountain road where trolleys are not allowed.
My mother-in-law followed, with a hoe on her shoulder. Tian Ginkgo closed the door and followed behind. Halfway up the mountain, Ginkgo discovered that Ma Youneng put a small basket of pork into a large pit that had been dug and buried it together.
The mother-in-law kept digging the soil with a hoe to fill the hole. Ma Youneng thought she was too slow, so she took his mother's hoe and kept filling the hole. In a few seconds, she filled the big hole and even covered it with a layer of soil. The half-rotted leaves and weeds made it impossible for outsiders to see the traces of digging holes and burying them here.
Tian Gingxing wanted to ask several times, the unsold pork is just not fresh enough and not bad. Sprinkle it with salt for a few days and it can be eaten as cured meat. Why should it be buried halfway up the mountain where people don't often go? what is the reason? This knot in her heart has never been resolved.
The reason why I wanted to ask but didn't is because during the whole process of handling this matter, my husband was serious and my mother-in-law was stern, so of course it was not easy for her to ask. Sleeping in the same bed with her husband at night, Tian Ginkgo finally couldn't hold it in any longer and asked about it. But the husband said with an old face, "Don't mind your own business."
A few days later, Tian Ginkgo finally found out from her mother-in-law that at noon on the day when she buried the small basket of pork, Ma Youneng had a strange dream while taking a nap.
He dreamed that Hu Lixin's mother said to him, the white pig you keep at home was the reincarnation of me who came to your house to pay off the debt. Ma Youneng said, I was very angry when you ran away with your daughter, but I never intended to ask you to repay the debt. As for how you were reincarnated and turned into a pig, I have no idea at all.
In my impression, you and your daughter should be hiding somewhere and still alive and well. How could the situation you mentioned happen? I can't believe it.
Hu Lixin's mother stretched out her hands and pressed them down gently, saying, Ma Langzhong, can you please let me finish my sentence? Ma Youneng remained silent and listened carefully to what she said - if you cure my eyes, it will be worth 1,000 yuan for medical treatment. This time your family hired a butcher to kill my pig and sell it for meat, and it only cost 1,000 yuan. After all, I paid off my debt. Naturally, the extra small basket of pork cannot be sold. That is because I no longer owe your family anything.
Ma Youneng said, I have emphasized that I have no intention or need for you to repay the debt, so just run away! I'm not short of money, so what debt do I need you to pay? It was just annoying at the time, but now that I've almost forgotten about it, you bringing it up again only bothers me a little bit.
