Chapter 159: A Woman Tied Down by a Bunch of Pigs
The sky was gradually darkening, the north wind howled, and the snow from above grew heavier and heavier. Yet Uncle Dajian, together with five other uncles from the team, continued working tirelessly on the roof despite the storm.
The brigade leader had come by several times after hearing the news from Aunt Yangliu to check on their progress. He promised that the team would cover all repair costs and only left the educated youth courtyard when the work was nearly finished.
He said he was going to remind the other villagers to inspect their houses as well — if a situation like that of the educated youth courtyard occurred elsewhere, they’d need to make preparations early.
Ning Xiyue walked out of the communal kitchen of the educated youth courtyard and looked up at the rooftop. Uncle Dajian had just placed the final tile, sealing off the fierce wind and snow outside.
“Alright, done!”
At that moment, Uncle Dajian and the other uncles cheered with joy, their faces glowing with smiles — happy for the fruits of their hard work, and relieved that the courtyard had avoided disaster.
In the end, they had managed to complete the major roofing project before the full force of the blizzard arrived.
Seeing that the work was finished, Ning Xiyue beamed and ran to the kitchen to fetch a basin of hot water. Carrying it out, she shouted:
“Uncles, come wash your hands and have some hot tea to warm up!”
Comrades Zhao Jianshe and Wang Jiandong came over carrying cups and bowls, serving hot tea to the uncles.
Meanwhile, Xia Zhipeng used a feather duster and towel to brush the snow off their clothes as they put their tools away.
Once the snow was brushed off and their hands washed, each of the six uncles held a steaming bowl of ginger tea. Their fingers, frozen red and stiff, slowly regained warmth and sensation.
“Uncles, come have dinner! The food’s ready — come inside where it’s warm,” Wu Guifang called out, stepping out from the side kitchen and gesturing toward the dining room.
“Come on, uncles, let’s eat. We really have to thank you all today. If not for your help, we’d be in real trouble this winter.”
Ning Xiyue chatted warmly as she led them toward the dining hall.
Tonight’s meal was put together by all the educated youths in the courtyard, each contributing a bit of grain and vegetables. It wasn’t an extravagant feast, but it was more than enough to properly host their guests.
Although the variety of dishes wasn’t large, they made up for it with quantity.
With Uncle Dajian’s group of six and all the educated youths, there were fifteen people in total. The table held five dishes — two meat and three vegetable. Though there weren’t many dishes, each portion was enormous, served in large basins only slightly smaller than a washbasin. It was more than enough.
Ning Xiyue had even brought out all the leftover pork cracklings from before. She didn’t lack meat, so she hadn’t eaten them yet — but today, she decided to contribute them all.
The others in the courtyard were very grateful when they saw that.
There was also a piece of cured bacon — wild boar bacon that all the educated youths had chipped in money to buy from Ning Xiyue, and she had given them a “friends’ discount.”
The rest of the ingredients and grain had been pooled together by the others.
This was how they managed to make the two meat dishes: stir-fried cabbage with pork cracklings and stir-fried dried mushrooms with cured bacon.
The three vegetable dishes all had a sprinkling of pork cracklings as well. With even that small addition, the flavor of the vegetable dishes was far richer.
Since the uncles had braved the bitter cold to help them speed up the work on the roof, it was only right to offer them a proper meal.
When they entered the dining hall and saw the generous meat portions on the table and the sweet potato rice, the smiles on the uncles’ faces deepened. Their hearts felt warm.
Their hard work in the freezing snow had not been in vain.
Zhao Jianshe, as the representative of the educated youth courtyard, stood up holding a bowl of ginger tea and expressed their gratitude: “Uncles, thank you for your help. I offer you this tea as a substitute for wine.”
“There’s no need to thank us — it’s what neighbors do,” Uncle Dajian said with a smile, raising his tea as well.
The meal was a cheerful and lively one.
Every dish on the table was eaten clean — even the leftover broth was mixed with rice and finished off, leaving the bowls so clean they could have been mirrors.
Ning Xiyue had thought there would be leftovers, but clearly, she had underestimated how much people of this era could eat.
After seeing the guests off, it was time to clean up.
The men tidied up the wood shavings in the yard, while the women cleaned the dishes and bowls. Only after everything was done did everyone relax.
They each washed up and went to rest.
Ning Xiyue noticed the snowfall getting heavier and heavier. By the second half of the night, it was bound to get freezing.
She went back to her kitchen, fed Little Gray, and stoked the fire under the kang bed. On such a cold night, you couldn’t sleep unless the kang was thoroughly heated — or you might freeze to death in your sleep.
Chen Yechu brought over a bundle of firewood from her kitchen to help fuel the shared kang bed.
She hadn’t lit a fire in her own place, worried that her little white dog might freeze to death. So, she brought the dog over to sleep next to Little Gray.
Ning Xiyue didn’t say anything — she knew Little Gray would “handle it.”
The little white dog trembled as it walked out of the nest beside Little Gray, pawing at Chen Yechu’s pant leg and whining, too scared to approach.
“Hey, Little White, why are you shaking? Don’t be scared, Little Gray won’t bully you. It’s warmer over there,” Chen Yechu said soothingly, crouching down to pet its back.
Little Gray gave the dog a haughty glance, then buried its head back into its warm nest, ignoring everything.
Ning Xiyue couldn’t help but notice the “Don’t mess with me” aura radiating from Little Gray.
The thought made her laugh.
She suppressed her smile and looked at the weak, helpless little thing at Chen Yechu’s feet. Of course, she knew why Little White was afraid — it was an instinctive suppression of bloodline. All animals had their own territories.
And clearly, the kitchen was Little Gray’s domain.
“How about moving its nest a bit farther? Maybe it’s just scared of animals bigger than itself.”
“Alright.”
But even after moving the nest far from Little Gray, the little white dog was still scared. Chen Yechu had no choice but to take it back. As soon as they left Ning Xiyue’s kitchen, the dog stopped trembling — but once inside, it started shaking and whimpering again.
Helpless, Chen Yechu took it back once more, deciding to make the nest thicker and warmer later.
Little Gray rested its chin on the edge of its nest and stared coldly at the doorway, shifting slightly before continuing its nap facing the entrance.
“You little rascal,” Ning Xiyue said, tapping Little Gray on the head and signing in on its back. “Sleep — no one’s going to steal your home.”
After receiving another wolf fang charm from the system, Ning Xiyue took out a piece of dried meat from her storage space and gave it to Little Gray as a reward. Once it had eaten, she washed up and soaked her feet before bed.
Before sleeping, Ning Xiyue entered her spatial dimension to feed the sow. Recently, the sow’s belly had been getting bigger and bigger — with the due date approaching, its appetite had increased. She was feeding it more frequent, smaller meals, and now it was time for another one.
If she didn’t feed it on time, it would scream endlessly in the space.
She used up her last sign-in opportunity for the day by giving the sow and the piglets behind it some mashed sweet potato to store.
Standing nearby and watching the sow eat, she asked the little turtle anxiously:
“System, how many piglets do you think she’s carrying? Her belly’s huge — it’s scary. I’m worried I’ll go broke feeding them all.”
[Host, don’t worry. No one — not even a sow — could ever eat you into poverty. Rest easy. I’m here,] the little turtle said confidently, patting its chest with its front paw.
Ning Xiyue’s worries eased. “With you saying that, I feel much better.”
That was exactly what she needed to hear.
She smiled bitterly.
After all, she was now a woman tied down by a sow and an unknown number of piglets.
Right now, she was tied down by one. In the future, she’d be tied down by a whole herd.
She had no choice but to plan ahead for the piglets.
“System, keep a close eye on the sow for me. We can’t afford any mistakes at the critical moment — we can’t let all our hard work go to waste.”
[Understood, host.]
