Chapter 158: Lao Li, the bamboo craftsman
After dinner, his parents went to work. Li Jia put down the bowl and returned upstairs.
For such a long time, Li Jiayi has not had a good day's rest at home.
Of course, except for the first few days when it started snowing, but even in those days, he was busy at home!
Snow shoveling.
It's Laba today. I don't want to go out. I just stay at home and have a good sleep all day.
Because he will be busy again in two days, yes, today is Friday, and he will bring back a wild boar on Sunday.
But this time the wild boar is not for sale, but is kept for the New Year.
To be honest, Li Jiayi likes this era very much, especially the New Year atmosphere.
Although everyone is very poor and doesn’t even have enough to eat, every household will try their best to get some good things back during the Chinese New Year.
If the conditions are good, some crispy meat will be fried, and if the conditions are not good, some meat will be brought back to make dumplings during the Chinese New Year.
The happiest thing is the children, because the Chinese New Year means having delicious food.
Chinese New Year means having new clothes to wear. Of course, this is very rare, so it can be regarded as a wish!
In the afternoon, Li Jiayi, who was about to go shopping, walked in the yard and looked at the neighbors who were all smiling and beaming with joy, and shook his head inwardly.
Everyone seems to be beaming now. The New Year is coming soon. They probably never thought that after the New Year, their suffering will begin.
How happy you are now will be how sad you will be in the future.
The tenth day of the lunar month was Sunday. Li Jiayi brought back another wild boar, and Liao Kai took care of it with his two apprentices.
Li Aimin and Ye Xin took action, and they also knew that the wild boar was not for sale, but that Li Jiayi was going to use it to celebrate the New Year.
Of course, it is not for their family to eat. Li Jiayi plans to ask his father to send some back to his grandparents and uncle’s family.
In addition, his master’s family also wants to send some. Meat is hard to buy now, so he will ask his mother to send some to Director Xu’s family.
As for the rest, he sold some to Liao Kai's two apprentices at a reasonable price, and kept the rest for his own family.
As for Liao Kai, he was alone and needed to do a lot of things during the Chinese New Year, so Li Jiayi discussed it with his family and asked Liao Kai to celebrate the New Year with their family.
Having a chef cooking at home will definitely lead a comfortable New Year. The most important thing is that there will be delicious food this New Year.
Because it’s the New Year! Li Jiayi was very busy for the next period of time. He basically went out early in the morning every day and didn't come home until dark.
Although roads in rural areas are basically open now, pigs raised in rural areas have gradually entered meat processing plants.
But because this connection is not stable, although the roads are open, they are not very easy to walk, and transportation is still a bit troublesome.
In this case, the meat cannot be delivered to the butcher shop on time. The butcher shop has no meat. The Chinese New Year is coming soon, so the shortage of meat can be imagined.
Li Jia took turns going to four pigeon markets. Basically, he went to Deshengmenwai this morning and Jianguomenwai in the afternoon.
Tomorrow we will go to Fuxingmenwai and Yongdingmenwai again, one for two days. It is very busy.
Of course, the imperial capital's meat supply mainly relies on the meat factory, and Li Jiayi can be regarded as a supplement at best.
Some families with good conditions feel that they don't have enough meat, so they go to Pigeon Market to buy some.
As for supplying the entire imperial capital, that is definitely a joke.
Even if he took out all the meat in the space, it would probably not be enough for a family.
Yes, this is one family, not everyone, there are millions of people in the whole city.
How much meat does he have in his dimension!
Assuming that he slaughtered fifty pigs in three days, it would be less than six months since he started slaughtering pigs.
Based on one hundred and eighty days, it is equivalent to sixty slaughters.
Calculating a little more, one pig can produce 300 jins of meat. One time is 15,000 jins, and sixty times is only 900,000 jins.
Not to mention that there are not so many at all, he usually sells a lot! It is estimated that including other meat in the space now, it will not exceed one million kilograms.
This little meat has no effect on the entire imperial capital.
You must know that some large factories can supply several thousand kilograms or even tens of thousands of kilograms a month.
As for how many large factories there are in the Imperial Capital, let alone selling to the common people, it is estimated that he will not even be able to supply these large factories for one month.
After all, he is just making a small fuss and absorbing the wealth of some wealthy families.
Time passes day by day, and in a blink of an eye it is the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month, which is the Little New Year in the north.
Speaking of this, it is quite interesting. In the north, it is twenty-three to celebrate the off year, but in the south, it is twenty-four.
This country actually has two small New Years. Fortunately, the Spring Festival falls on the same day.
Because Xiaonian has to do some general cleaning, so after dinner early in the morning, the whole family is ready.
First, everyone cleans their own room, and then cleans other rooms.
As soon as Li Jia folded a triangular hat with newspapers and put it on the era, he began to climb up and down in the room, cleaning every corner.
After cleaning the room, Li Jiayi went to the empty room above the living room and cleaned it too.
Because there was no one living there, there was a lot of dust in the room, and it took a long time to clean it up.
By the time he came downstairs, the entire house had been cleaned, including the kitchen and the east wing where he lived before.
The next day, the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, which is the Little New Year in the south, Li Jia’s family began to produce oil.
It is fried things, first fried crispy meat, and then fried dough sticks. Many people may not understand what fried dough sticks are, but they are actually similar to fried dough sticks, except they are round.
It is called this here in the imperial capital, but I don’t know what it is called in other places.
Anyway, there were a lot of things that needed to be fried today, but it had nothing to do with him. The father and the second sister were lighting the fire, while Liao Kai, the mother and the eldest sister were busy frying.
So there was nothing wrong with him. He stayed alone in the living room drinking tea and eating peanuts and melon seeds.
There are a lot of peanuts and melon seeds in the space now. Just fry some in the space and take them out. They are all good things for the family.
And he also fried more than one kind, including original flavor and spiced flavor. Of course, this is just melon seeds.
The same goes for peanuts, available in original, five-spice and garlic flavors.
Li Jiayi took some out and put them in the living room to eat as he pleased.
He just took a little, but it was a bit too much for his family. He probably wouldn’t be able to finish it even after the Chinese New Year.
It doesn't matter, as long as the moisture does not recede, it can be left for a long time at this time.
In the north, the most fearful months for speculators are summer and autumn, because there is a lot of rain and it is easy to get damp.
After drinking a large enamel jar of tea, seeing that it was still early, he went upstairs to rest.
Yes, starting from the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, Li Jiayi has no plans to go to the pigeon market.
He has sold a lot of meat since Laba! Now that I have enough money, there is no need to go out and sell meat.
The family had a meal at noon. The meal was cooked by Liao Kai. Liao Kai didn't feel anything wrong about spending the New Year with Li Jia's family.
Anyway, he is alone, so it is good for him to spend the New Year with Li Jiayi and his family.
At least it’s fun!
Li Jiayi went out in the afternoon and started to buy things from various supply and marketing cooperatives. Now he has money.
I plan to use all the tickets in my hand before the Chinese New Year. Anyway, he has some static space.
I’m not afraid of things getting damaged if I put them in a space. As for wine, there’s no need to put it in a static space.
Just place it directly in the living room of the small space courtyard. Even if it cannot be placed in the living room, it can also be placed in the yard.
In a blink of an eye, it was the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. Li Jiayi had visited many supply and marketing cooperatives in the past few days and finally used up all the tickets in his hand.
Of course, this only uses those that can be purchased at supply and marketing cooperatives.
He also has a lot of special tickets, which need to be purchased at the service agency in the military compound.
No, Li Jiayi prepared his things early in the morning and went to the military compound with them.
When he came to the gate of the military compound and saw that it was him, the guard let him in directly without even stopping him.
This is mainly because he has been here many times during this period and the doorman already knows him.
And knowing that he is a relative of Lao Li's family, even if he calls to tell him, he still has to be let in.
So there is no need to do anything extra.
Li Jiayi first arrived at the door of Lao Li's house carrying his things.
Go up and knock on the door. The door opens quickly. The person who opens the door is Zhang Ma, a childless woman who works as a nanny at Lao Li's house.
Because she came from the countryside, she did not have rations. It can be said that all she has eaten in these years has been the rations of Lao Li's family.
Fortunately, Lao Li and his wife are not low-level, and their rations are much higher than ordinary people, otherwise they would not be enough to eat.
But the good times will not last long. Starting next year, even Lao Li and his wife's rations will be reduced a lot. By then, there will probably not be enough to eat.
"Hello, Mom Zhang."
"It's plus one! Okay, okay, come in quickly."
He comes so often that even the nanny Zhang Ma is already familiar with him.
“Okay Ma Zhang, by the way, is Lao Li at home?”
“Yes, it’s holiday now, and I’ve been staying at home all the time.”
“Yes. !”
When I came to the living room of the small building, I saw Lao Li pretending to read the newspaper.
"I'm talking about Lao Li, do you understand?" Li Jia said as soon as he came up.
Hearing what he said, Li Jian and Li Kang, who were sitting next to them, wanted to laugh but did not dare to laugh. It could be said that they were feeling very uncomfortable.
The first person to exchange tickets with him was Li Jian, Lao Li's eldest son.
"You little bastard, can you die without insulting me with a few words?" Lao Li asked, putting down the newspaper.
"Who hurt you? I just asked you if you can understand?"
"Who said I can't read! I also went to study classes and military schools, how could I not be able to read newspapers."
"Oh! Really? Didn't you always say that you are a mud-legged person who makes baskets? Craftsman?"
"What is it? Basketmaker? That's called a bamboo craftsman."
"Okay! I'm a bamboo craftsman, but what does this bamboo craftsman do?"
"Basketmaker? I don’t even know, of course it’s basket weaving!”
"Oh! So we are still weaving baskets!"
"Poof!"
Li Jian endured it, but Li Kang was younger and could not endure it.
(End of this chapter)