Little children, don't crave treats; once Laba's passed, New Year's here.
Drink your Laba porridge for a few days more, and before you know it, it's the twenty-third.
On the twenty-third, sticky melon candy; on the twenty-fourth, honor the Kitchen God; on the twenty-fifth, make tofu; on the twenty-sixth, stew big chunks of meat; on the twenty-seventh, slaughter a rooster; on the twenty-eighth, put up paper decorations; on the twenty-ninth, go buy wine; on New Year's Eve, stay up all night; on New Year's Day, dance and sway.
After the twenty-third of the lunar month, the New Year atmosphere in the village grew especially strong. The whole village brimmed with festive cheer, delicious smells drifted everywhere from morning to night, and the children's pockets never ran out of snacks.
The pig Ye Second Sister-in-Law had bought partway through the year to raise was also due to be slaughtered early, around the twenty-fourth of the lunar month. It was simply too hard to book a pig butcher. In recent days, the nearby butchers had been traveling between several villages, slaughtering several pigs every day.
With New Year approaching, the pigs people had raised for a year were basically all ready for slaughter. Killing them now meant both money from selling the meat and meat to eat, giving the whole family a bountiful New Year.
Ye Yaodong got up of his own accord at two in the morning to help. Slaughtering a pig was no small matter, and once it was done, he could buy some meat to bring home while he was there. A pig raised by their own family would naturally taste better than someone else's.
Lin Xiuqing woke at the sound of him getting up. "Are you going to the Old House to take a look and help?"
"Yeah,