Back To The 80s-Chapter 233 - 243: Lunar Month_1

"Different people have different tastes, don’t worry about it. Believe in your soldiers, most of them are good people," Gu Xiaobei said, leaning into Lu Zhanguo’s face for comfort.

Lu Zhanguo squeezed Gu Xiaobei’s hand and said, "No problem, but be careful when anyone wants to send things home."

Gu Xiaobei nodded, acknowledging that the holiday season was a peak time for gift-giving.

Spring Festival in 1984 fell on the 2nd of February, meaning it was only a few days away.

The advantage of celebrating the New Year in the military was that there was no need to visit relatives and friends and drink all day.

By the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month, the regiment began to slaughter pigs. Because many family members were coming for New Year, Lu Zhanguo and others decided to kill an extra pig and distribute a few pounds of pork to each family.

Early in the morning, Li Fengmei called for Gu Xiaobei to collect their share of pig meat with a basin.

Gu Xiaobei was wearing a new, red, down coat and a long scarf knitted with white wool. Li Fengmei admired, "The clothes in Capital City are so nice, I haven’t seen such a style in the city. Must have cost a lot of money, right?" They chatted while heading downstairs.

"It was sent by my family, I don’t know how much it cost." Gu Xiaobei saw Sun Aiqin, Wang Ping, and several other military wives downstairs and became cautious. If she were to say it cost over a hundred yuan, it could be misconstrued by some.

"Sister-in-law, wearing red in winter is great. Matched with the snow, it’s like looking at a flower." Wang Ping praised with a smile.

In winter, everyone preferred darker colors like navy blue and black, mainly because they were stain-resistant. However, a sudden pop of bright color was indeed refreshing and eye-catching.

Gu Xiaobei blushed from the compliment, "You’re exaggerating." She said, glancing at Sun Aiqin standing behind Wang Ping.

Sun Aiqin was holding her child, with a red and swollen wound behind her ear. Seeing Gu Xiaobei looking at her, she slightly smiled back, but appeared less lively than usual.

Everyone greeted each other and headed towards the place where the pigs were slaughtered.

When they arrived, they found four or five pigs had already been slaughtered and were lined up on a makeshift wooden platform. More than a dozen soldiers were busy dismembering the pigs and cleaning the innards.

Ding Guihua and Ge Chunling, along with Ge Chunling’s mother-in-law, were already waiting there.

Ge Chunling’s mother-in-law was propped up by a crutch and told Ge Chunling, "When the meat is divided, you must watch carefully. Don’t accept pieces with too many bones."

Ge Chunling wanted to roll her eyes. How can anyone complain about too many bones in free pork?

Ding Guihua, of course, heard the comment and snorted, then turned back and saw Gu Xiaobei. She smiled and greeted her, "I heard you came back yesterday. Why did you rush back instead of staying home for the festival?"

"Zhanguo is busy at work, so we came back," Gu Xiaobei answered politely.

Ding Guihua sighed upon hearing this, "You’re so lucky to be daughters-in-law these days. Back in my time, I had to take care of my mother-in-law while my husband was out working..."

Gu Xiaobei didn’t react when she heard Ding Guihua’s complaint. She just smiled and nodded.

After talking for a while and realizing she wasn’t getting a response, Ding Guihua lost interest and left to smoke a cigarette.

The pigs they were rearing had been raised for over a year and each weighed more than 200 pounds. Additionally, the fat layer on these pigs was almost four fingers thick.

Gu Xiaobei eyed the large chunks of fat pork and had her own worries: ’Please don’t let me end up with all the fat.’

As the meat distribution began, Ge Chunling’s mother-in-law pulled Ge Chunling and staggered forward while everyone else naturally queued up. Though some had their little plans, they just muttered to themselves.

Even the poorest and hungriest people still valued their dignity.

"Trim off this piece of bone, and that’s a cervical lymph node, we don’t want that. When you’re cutting the meat, don’t cut into it, you’ll slice off all the fat. How can we eat such dry lean meat?" Ge Chunling’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Wu, babbled and left the young soldier with the knife at a loss.

"Mom, the meat is fine. Just take a piece because everyone else is waiting," Ge Chunling said, feeling embarrassed, and tugged at Mrs. Wu’s clothes.

"What’s so good about it? You’re so silly, we can render quite a bit of lard from the fat," Mrs. Wu scorned Ge Chunling, then told the soldier, "Cut it like I showed you." Mrs. Wu’s demonstration included nearly all the fat on the piece of meat being cut off.

The soldier looked uneasy and said, "Auntie, everyone wants some fat for the New Year. If you cut it like this, it’s difficult to manage," implying what a problem it would be if everyone followed suit and only wanted the fat and not the lean meat.

Gu Xiaobei watched from the side and stepped in, "Auntie, how about this? We’ll give you our fatty piece, and you give us your lean piece. That should be fine, right?" She didn’t want the fatty piece anyway.

Hearing this, Mrs. Wu, feeling like she’d caught a big break, nodded happily, "Ok, cut it like that."

After distributing the meat, Mrs. Wu glanced at the tub of pig blood and said, "There’s so much pig blood here, aren’t you going to distribute it?"

The soldier looked troubled as the executive officer had ordered to save the pig blood for the Sichuan soldiers to cook a dish of pickled pepper pig blood on the thirtieth. The dish was already on the menu, what would happen if they distributed the blood and the dish had to be removed? This wasn’t something he could decide.

Ge Chunling understood the soldier’s dilemma and was extremely embarrassed. She quickly laughed and told the soldier, "We don’t want any, my mother-in-law was just speaking casually."

Mrs. Wu gave her a disapproving glance and muttered, "Just look at you," not daring to ask for more.

After the meat was distributed and they were about to leave, they saw a woman in her twenties carrying a basin coming towards them.

Li Fengmei leaned over to Gu Xiaobei and said, "That’s Xiangyang’s wife, Qu Yan."

Hearing this, Gu Xiaobei looked at Qu Yan carefully. Medium height, skinny, short hair, quiet, and delicate-looking.

From physical appearance alone, Gu Xiaobei couldn’t figure out how Sun Aiqin could have lost out to Qu Yan.

Qu Yan came over, greeted Li Fengmei, and then smiled at Gu Xiaobei, "You must be the platoon leader’s wife. You’re really beautiful."

Gu Xiaobei just smiled politely without uttering a word. On the side, Sun Aiqin snorted, carrying her child in one hand and a piece of meat in the other as she stomped off.

Qu Yan didn’t seem angry and kept smiling at Gu Xiaobei, "When I arrived, you and the platoon leader had already returned to Capital City, so we didn’t meet each other. I’m Qu Yan, I’m married into the Xiangyang family. We’re all here together now, so please take care of me in the future."

Gu Xiaobei felt that Qu Yan was very smooth in socialising. She laughed and said, "We’re all in the same compound, so let’s all look out for each other." She subtly distanced the relationship, and due to Xiangmin’s sake, she couldn’t help but be wary of Qu Yan. After all, they were family.

Qu Yan just smiled and didn’t say anything further, heading straight over to collect her meat.

Gu Xiaobei noticed among the crowd a military wife with a three-year-old boy. She was standing quietly on the outside of the crowd, politely smiling at everyone. Gu Xiaobei didn’t recognize her, so she assumed the woman was also one of the military dependents who had come for the New Year.