CHAPTER 403: CHAPTER 403: THE HARD TIMES ARE OVER

Because the money for buying the pigs came from Village Chief He’s house, the He Family felt entitled to eat the pork for free, so everyone in the He Family was very pleased.

However, in the end, Village Chief He still felt the pinch and only bought two pigs. Additionally, He Laotian, He Wanli, and He Wazi pooled money to buy another one, making a total of three fat pigs. These were slaughtered the day after Old Master Lu was cut in half, and they began to eat the pork.

He Dacang and others didn’t set up their stall today; after getting the goods from Gu’s Workshop, they brought them directly home to start slaughtering the pigs and preparing the feast.

The He family came early in the morning to help; they slaughtered all three pigs, made blood sausages from the pig blood, and cut the remaining pork into pieces—half of it was for eating, and the other half was for distributing to the He family.

As long as they had the surname He, each household received a piece of pork weighing three jin.

Village Chief He remembered the kindness of the Qin, Gu, and Luotian families, and gave them half of the pork, making Mrs. Chen endlessly praise Village Chief He’s generosity.

Actually, Village Chief He was quite stingy. The moment he impulsively spoke of slaughtering pigs to eat, he regretted his words as soon as the pigs were bought and couldn’t sleep, but he had already spoken and could not back out.

Now, Village Chief He sat in his own courtyard watching the He family members queue up to receive pork, feeling a heart-wrenching pain. However, thinking about how Old Master Lu had died and that the Lu family was completely gone, he felt quite relieved.

"He Liangzi, you shameless brat, each household gets only one piece of meat, and your mother has already collected her share! How dare you line up again with a basket, have you no shame? Get out of here! If you dare try this trick again, you can forget about joining the feast later!" Village Chief He barked while pointing his cane at He Liangzi, with no fondness for Cui’er’s family, seeing them as lazy, greedy, and always looking for the easy way.

He Liangzi hurriedly defended himself: "Village Chief, you’re mistaken, my family hasn’t taken any meat yet! My mother is sick today; she hasn’t even gotten out of bed and is lying at home."

It was a rare occasion for the village chief’s house to distribute meat for free, a blessing they had never seen in their lifetime. If his family didn’t try to take an extra piece of meat, wouldn’t that be a loss?

"He Liangzi, are you seeking death? Do you think we are blind? Your mother knew my uncle was slaughtering pigs and distributing meat today. She and a few other poor families were sitting at my uncle’s door before the crack of dawn, lining up before the pig was even fully dead. She was the first to get the meat. Now you say she didn’t take any, do you believe I can kill you for that?" He Dasu, who was helping He Dacang divide the meat, heard He Liangzi’s shameless words and cursed him.

"Right, He Liangzi, your family needs to have some shame. You’ve already taken it and you want more? There is only so much meat, everyone still needs to have a meal at noon. If your family takes a double share, what will be left for others? What will we eat?" Other members of the He family cursed at He Liangzi.

Village Chief He finally said, "If you really want to take another share of meat, you can, but then your family shouldn’t come for the meal at noon."

He Liangzi, hearing this, hurriedly feigned surprise: "What? My mother already collected meat? Look at my mother’s memory, taking meat without telling me and causing me to queue up again. Village Chief, don’t be angry, it’s a misunderstanding, I’ll leave now."

His family had ten mouths, each of them big eaters; one could consume two big bowls of meat in a single meal. If they took an extra piece of meat and were barred from the feast, it would be a significant loss for them.

Village Chief He glared fiercely at He Liangzi and scolded, "Lazybones, who only think of eating, I shouldn’t have given your family any meat!"

He Liangzi heard this but didn’t dare to respond, squatting in a corner of Village Chief He’s courtyard with his family’s broken basket, waiting to eat at the feast, but thinking to himself: Humph! Old fool, don’t be too proud, once Cui’er hooks up with Qi Kangping, my family will be relatives with the Gu family, and we’ll have a share in the workshop and the shop. Then you all can be envious.

Village Chief He’s courtyard was bustling, with nearly eighty percent of the He family gathered there, no one minded the heat as they all stood or squatted in the courtyard waiting to eat the feast.

Village Chief He saw the way they were all craning their necks in anticipation of food and felt distressed, shouting at them: "Why are you all squatting here? Hurry back home and get some rice or other grains, how can we cook without food?"

So many people in the He family, do they want to eat his house empty?

He continued: "Also bring your tables, chairs, platters, and bowls from home. If you don’t bring them, my house doesn’t have enough utensils for you all to eat the feast."

"Eh, eh, we’re going back to bring them now," the He family people responded, getting up to fetch grains and move furniture. However, everyone was not rich, and the grains they brought were mostly coarse, predominantly sweet potatoes.

He Liangzi was clever; he didn’t bring grains but brought tables, stools, two clay pots, and ten wooden bowls instead.

He Dacang, He Dasu, and He Dagu, three cousins, busied themselves for two hours and finally finished dividing the meat for the He family; then they cut the remaining meat into pieces and moved it to their own kitchen for Mrs. He Liu and others to prepare.

Mrs. He Liu and her two cousins were busy in the kitchen, stewing chunks of meat with various tofu products in several pots, two large pots of blood sausage with sauerkraut, and creating a dish of Fried Crispy Pork learned from Gu Jinli’s house, and using the grains everyone brought to make three large pots of mixed-grain porridge. By noon, all the dishes were finally ready.

"The feast is ready, the feast is ready!" Mrs. He Liu shouted loudly, and the He family quickly came over to help serve the dishes.

The dish types were simple, each table had a large clay pot of tofu stewed with meat, sauerkraut stewed blood sausage, Fried Crispy Pork, fried tofu stewed bones, along with two large clay pots of mixed-grain porridge.

Even though the dishes were few, the portions were generous, rich and oily. Many He family members hadn’t gotten the chance to work at the Gu’s Workshop, they were poor and craved meat, and seeing so much meat caused them to salivate intensely.

Village Chief He, seeing their greedy looks, felt weary and knocking on his cane shouted: "Don’t start eating yet, listen to the old man for a moment."

Today, after all, was Village Chief He treating the He family to a feast. Upon hearing his words, the He family reluctantly shifted their gaze from the meat dishes to Village Chief He: "Village Chief, please speak."

He Cui’er’s mother was very impatient and stealthily rolled her eyes at Village Chief He, muttering: "What’s there to talk about, nothing good to say." Hurrying to eat the meat was the real concern.

Village Chief He said: "Everyone should know why the old man invited everyone to feast today. That Lu Zhudan’s family has finally fallen! From now on, no one in the village dares to bully our He family anymore!"

It was indeed shameful. He, as the village chief, was inept and had let the He family be bullied by the Lu family for twenty years.

Village Chief He, thinking about the twenty years the He family suffered under the Lu family oppression, felt tears welling up in his eyes... It was bitter, shameful, the dignity of the He family was nearly trampled by the Lu Family.

He Dacang, knowing how much his father had suffered from the humiliations by Old Master Lu’s family, saw him cry and his own eyes reddened: "Father, Lu Zhudan has been sentenced to be bifurcated and is dead for good; the Lu Mansion has been sealed; Lu Laosan is also dead; Concubine Lu along with the Lu Family People have been escorted to the Prefecture officials, County Magistrate Zou has completely forsaken the Lu family, the Lu family is finished, you don’t need to suffer any more oppression, and we He family members no longer need to endure the bullying from the Lu family. Our days of hardship have finally come to an end, you should be happy."