Two Liang of Meat a Month
After hearing the team leader's surprise, Liang Xin was so shocked he nearly broke out in a cold sweat!
But there was nothing he could do. People these days acted with the speed and force of a thunderclap in everything they did.
The work assignment had already come down.
Tomorrow, he would have to go back whether he wanted to or not.
Forget it. When soldiers came, he would send generals to block them; when water came, he would pile up earth to stop it. What had to come would come sooner or later.
This body and its family were bound by ties of blood that could not be severed.
They would have to meet sooner or later.
How much difference could a few days make, one way or the other?
So he might as well eat dinner tonight before worrying about it!
He had been thinking about it all day and all night.
Liang Xin comforted himself, then went home after work.
He started preparing dinner.
It was also a way to distract himself from going home tomorrow.
He had originally planned to have four dishes tonight.
But on second thought, that might not be appropriate.
It wasn't New Year's or any other festival, so what was he doing eating four dishes?
If he cooked and ate by himself, that would be fine. Never mind four dishes-even if he made eight, no one would care.
But having someone else eat four dishes with him wasn't appropriate in the current environment.
Other people might not even manage four dishes for New Year's!
Eating like that was simply far too extravagant!
It didn't fit the core values of the era!
"Then I'll just keep it simple and make two!"
"A mix of meat and vegetables, so it won't be too rich."
"I have to have red-braised pork! It's in my top three favorite dishes."
"And a cold salad to cut the richness... but tomatoes seem to be all I have."
"Wait, I almost forgot. I wanted stuffed eggplant fritters!"
"Ah, this is so hard. I want both fried stuffed eggplant fritters and red-braised pork."
"What should I do?"
"How about three dishes?"
After a while, Liang Xin heard Sister Xiao Zhu greeting someone in the courtyard.
A smile immediately appeared on his face. My dear sister, you're finally back!
He quickly gathered up a pile of things wrapped in paper and trotted over to Sister Xiao Zhu's home.
There were too many people and too many prying eyes in the compound. These were all good things, and he couldn't let people see them so easily!
Otherwise, if they pressed him with questions, he would have trouble explaining where the things came from!
"Xiao Liang, why did you come so early?"
"You don't have to be so impatient. I'll call you when dinner's ready."
"Huh, what are you carrying in your arms?"
Liang Xin chuckled, set down the paper packages, and said proudly,
"Two jin of pork, one jin of eggplant, and two jin of tomatoes."
"One jin of rice, and then there's some white sugar!"
"Sister, could you make me some stuffed eggplant fritters and red-braised pork tonight? And some tomatoes with white sugar too!"
"What? Two jin of pork?"
As soon as Sister Xiao Zhu heard about the two jin of pork, she subconsciously ignored everything else.
It couldn't be helped. Pork was the most expensive, and the hardest to come by!
And two jin of it?
At seven mao a jin, that came to one yuan and four mao!
Money was secondary. The problem was that the meat supply was so limited now that even with coupons, you might not be able to buy any!
And they didn't issue many meat coupons these days, either.
How many?
Two liang per person per month.
Yes, two liang! Two liang a month!
It took five months to get one jin of meat!
The two jin of meat Liang Xin had brought amounted to one person's share for ten months!
How could Sister Xiao Zhu not be shocked?
Sister Xiao Zhu opened the oiled-paper package containing the meat, and when she saw the three-layered pork belly, half fat and half lean, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
She froze on the spot.
After a long while, she swallowed and managed to tear her eyes away.
"Xiao Liang, this is too valuable. Take it back, hurry and take it back!"
"If you don't take it away soon, I'm afraid I won't be able to stop myself from taking a bite of it raw!"
You really couldn't blame her for that reaction, because she hadn't eaten meat in a full two months!
The couple had saved up eight liang's worth of meat coupons over two months and used them all to buy meat to render for oil a few days earlier.
Some might say the pork cracklings were meat too, but to get more oil, she had rendered them so dry that they didn't taste of meat at all!
Bite the meat raw? Sister Xiao Zhu's words amused Liang Xin.
"Sister Xiao Zhu! What am I supposed to do with this meat if I take it back?"
"You know what my cooking's like. If I take it back and put it in the pan, I might end up having to throw it out."
"Nonsense! How could you possibly throw meat away?"
Sister Xiao Zhu remembered that Liang Xin really didn't seem to know how to cook. After thinking for a moment, she said, "How about this? I'll render the meat into oil for you, and then you can take the oil. We can use the leftover cracklings in a stir-fry. What do you think?"
"Sister Xiao Zhu, I don't want oil! I just want to eat meat!"
"Just tell me whether you'll cook it or not!"
"If you don't want to, I'll take it away and ask Aunt He to help me cook it!"
"Don't!"
After hearing Liang Xin's words, Sister Xiao Zhu finally agreed to help him cook.
Since someone was bound to benefit from it, why let someone else have the benefit?
Just look how thin her husband had gotten!
How could she not feel sorry for him?
So, with immense heartache, she followed Liang Xin's instructions, cutting off a little under half the meat, mincing it, and stuffing it between pieces of eggplant to make stuffed eggplant fritters.
Then she cut the larger remaining portion into chunks and made red-braised pork with all of it!
At Liang Xin's request, she also sliced up a plate of tomatoes and mixed them with white sugar to cut the richness!
When she heard Liang Xin say it was to cut the richness, Sister Xiao Zhu couldn't help laughing aloud.
What kind of family ate richly enough to need that?