Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 87: Rarity Is Value

Unlike Zhou Qiuyu, who was entirely focused on the pig head, Yi Chichi was greedy.

With no shortage of money, she was extremely willing to spend on food, especially since she also had to support her great-uncle and aunt.

The more meat, the better, naturally.

However, pigs nowadays weren’t like the ones later that weigh two to three hundred catties.

Without feed, pigs raised on wheat bran, pumpkins, pigweed, and other green crops could only weigh just over a hundred catties at most.

Therefore, what the villagers could get was limited,

fortunately, the wild boar meat from the last autumn hunt was not a small amount, so the villagers Yi Chichi targeted were happy to agree when they learned she wanted to buy some meat.

Aunt Ma gave her two catties of pork belly,

at 0.85 yuan per catty, whereas at the state-run meat stall, pork prices were between 0.42-0.78 yuan.

But you needed a ticket there.

Buying from villagers required no ticket, so a higher price was normal.

Yi Chichi didn’t haggle; after paying and receiving the goods, she stuffed the pork belly into her basket and headed straight to Aunt Niu.

"Auntie, what kind of meat did you get?"

Aunt Niu looked displeased, and upon hearing her, began complaining as if she’d found a trash can.

"Don’t even mention it. By the time it was my turn, there was hardly any meat left. They gave me a few catties of ribs and a piece of meaty pork."

Yi Chichi’s eyes lit up, "Auntie, you don’t like ribs?"

"Who likes gnawing on bones? I just want meat."

It has to be that fatty, juicy meat that oozes oil when you bite into it, that’s the delicious kind.

Ribs...

"Sigh, better than nothing, I guess."

These words sounded a bit trivial to Yi Chichi; she stared intently at the ribs in Aunt Niu’s basin and said longingly, "Auntie, I didn’t even get a scrap of bone."

She said this while looking up at Aunt Niu, "How about giving me a piece, Auntie?"

Aunt Niu was startled by the green light in her eyes, feeling her hair stand on end.

This child was so eager for meat her eyes were green.

"Are you foolish? What’s so good about gnawing on bones? Go find Aunt Yang, her meat is good, all three fingers wide and fatty, a bite and your mouth is full of oil. That kind of meat is exciting to eat."

Before she finished speaking, she lowered her voice and suggested, "When you talk to Aunt Yang, offer a little more money, and she’ll definitely be willing to give you two catties."

Yi Chichi looked toward Aunt Yang, who was chatting with those who got meat, her face beaming like the sun.

Even from a distance, her hearty laughter could be heard.

"I’ll go find Aunt Yang later."

When she saw Aunt Niu was about to leave, Yi Chichi pointed at the basin in her hand, "Auntie, give me two catties of ribs."

"??? You really want the bones?"

"Yes."

"...Okay, I’ll give you two catties, you can take them all if you want."

Looking at it was distressing, only this foolish child Chichi liked gnawing on bones.

"Really?"

Upon hearing she could take them all, Yi Chichi’s eyes shone brilliantly.

Aunt Niu’s mouth twitched slightly; this brainless girl took it seriously.

"Just kidding, I’ll give you two catties, no more than that."

Yi Chichi wasn’t greedy; she nodded quickly and said that was fine.

Ribs weren’t very popular in this era, not even as much as pork belly.

The price was also cheaper than pork belly.

Aunt Niu gave them to her for 0.54 per catty, a total of three catties costing 1.62, but Aunt Niu rounded it down to 1.6.

After exchanging money and ribs, Aunt Niu happily carried the money home, while Yi Chichi, after stuffing the ribs into her basket, cast her gaze around before heading straight to Uncle Liu.

She noticed this one had gotten a front leg, mostly bone with little meat, looking quite unhappy.

Seemed promising.

As soon as Wen Shi and the others, who had been somewhat distracted by her, saw Yi Chichi running towards Uncle Liu, they panicked.

"Old Wen, act quickly, or Yi Zhiqing will clean the place out like a village raid by bandits."

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to buy anything.

He Yunsong hurriedly pulled someone along, while Wen Shi effortlessly stood up using his strength to go buy meat.

Zhou Qiuyu, who was still calculating how much the pig head was per catty and whether her money was enough to buy the whole pig head, panicked when she saw everyone running, heading straight for the brigade leader who was handling the meat distribution.

"Uncle, can you sell the pig head to me?"

There wasn’t much meat left on the chopping board, and the cleaned, massive pig head was very conspicuous and quite menacing.

Pig heads were difficult to handle, lots of bones and little meat, even less popular than pig trotters.

Particularly during the division of pigs for the new year, people wished they could trade the pig head entirely for meat.

In previous years, when the team slaughtered pigs, the pig heads were basically divided among the few who liked them.

This year, those who liked them didn’t want the pig heads either because their temporary craving couldn’t withstand complaints from wives and children.

Just as they were struggling with whether they’d have to draw lots to resolve the pig head issue, Zhou Qiuyu’s words came as a delightful surprise, sweeping away all their frustrations.

"You want a pig head?"

The brigade leader smiled at her, looking at her with a loving gaze as if she were his child.

"How much for one pig head?"

"???"

This was a good question, and the brigade leader and others fell silent.

"Old Xu, how much for the whole pig head?"

Poking the pig butcher, Xu Changsheng, the branch secretary asked.

"I don’t know."

Comrade Old Xu shook his head, "I only know how much the prepared pig head meat is per catty."

"Six mao, and no tickets needed."

Wen Shi chimed in, and Yi Chichi, who had bought her meat and came over to join in, chimed in, "More expensive than pork belly."

"Rarity makes it precious!"

Wen Shi replied succinctly, "One pig only has one head, so the price is naturally higher."

Never mind the bones in a pig head; those who like it truly love it.

The brigade leader nodded and asked Zhou Qiuyu, "Zhou Zhiqing, at six mao a catty, do you want it?"

Zhou Qiuyu pondered for a moment and then shyly said, "Uncle, if it’s six mao, can I have half?"

She thought the whole pig head would at most be three yuan, considering buying it all.

But the price was double her expectation, making the whole purchase a luxury.

She couldn’t spend all her money and needed to save some for emergencies.

"That’s okay."

To the brigade leader and others, half or whole made no difference.

The pig head was split in two; Zhou Qiuyu took half, and Wen Shi took the other half.

Seeing no one touching the offal under the table, Yi Chichi had her eye on it.

As it turned out, it wasn’t for sale; the offal belonged to the pig butcher Old Xu.

He liked it, and it was part of his payment.

Unfortunately, Yi Chichi had to retreat empty-handed.

But her gains for the day weren’t bad; she had gathered nearly ten catties of meat from here and there.

Plus a piece of pig liver.

In the evening, she cut half of the pig liver for Wu Yongfei to make soup; she instructed him verbally while he handled the pot. The resulting pig liver soup was aromatic, fresh, and tender, making Wang Nan and the others feel completely satisfied.

They kept praising how delicious it was.

Yi Chichi was puzzled, "Wasn’t it good before?" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"It was fishy, tasted strange, and had a bad texture."

"How did you make it?"

Several voices spoke at once, explaining the method, and after listening, Yi Chichi suddenly understood why it was usually bad.

The method of handling was wrong, the cooking method was wrong, and the control of the heat was off.

It couldn’t possibly taste good.

"There are actually many ways to cook pig liver."

Wu Yongfei became interested, "What other methods?"

"Stir-fry liver slices, stewed liver, sautéed pig liver, sour soup pig liver, and so on."

"Teach me!"

"Next time we have pig liver, I’ll teach you."

Okay, but—