Two or Three Events in the Last Days 018
Chapter 18: Lotus
The chicken coop smelled terrible, and as soon as Jing Lin and the others went inside, they all covered their noses. The roof of the coop was not very high, so for tall people like Jing Lin and Yan Fei, the cramped space felt somewhat oppressive.
In reality, small-scale chicken farms like this one usually worked in partnership with poultry companies. The two sides would sign contracts: the company supplied the chicks, vaccines, and feed, while the farmer provided the facilities. Once the chickens reached market weight, the company would collect them and pay the farmer.
The chicks inside the pens were all fluffy, but they lacked energy. The farm owner said that out of three thousand chicks, fewer than three hundred remained. Every day during the past several days, hundreds had died from the heat, leaving him so worried that it had caused painful blisters to break out all around his mouth.
After enduring the pungent odor and looking around for a while, everyone went outside to negotiate the price with the owner. In the end, they agreed on two yuan per chick.
There was a scale at the farm, so everyone weighed the grain they had brought in front of the owner, calculated the value, and stated how many chicks they wanted.
Jing Lin exchanged his fifty-odd catties of grain for twenty-six chicks. Zhou Yu traded for eighteen. Since Yan Fei’s family had no experience raising chickens, they only took twenty. The other households took similar numbers. All of the chicks were hens, and if they wanted fertilized eggs and home-hatched chicks in the future, they would need to find an uncastrated rooster.
After handing over the grain, Jing Lin placed his chosen chicks into the cargo bed of the tricycle. He opened the sunshade umbrella to block part of the sunlight, and the chicks instinctively huddled in the shade.
As they were leaving, they were stopped by a middle-aged couple when they passed the collapsed house near the village entrance.
At first, everyone felt a little tense, but after the couple explained why they had come over, they realized it was a false alarm.
Two or Three Events in the Last Days (TELD) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
The couple turned out to be the owners of the collapsed house. The part that had fallen was their kitchen and pigsty. During the earthquake the previous night, the sow had been crushed to death, leaving more than a dozen piglets behind. In recent years, fewer people in the countryside farmed the land, and even fewer raised pigs. Most people did not want the trouble of raising them. These piglets had originally been promised to a hog farm in the county town, but because of the power outage and transportation problems, the buyer backed out. Now the family was stuck with the piglets. They had already been worrying about how to sell them when the earthquake not only destroyed the pigsty but also killed the sow. They no longer had a place to keep the piglets, had no vehicle, and all their money was trapped in the bank. They could not even afford feed.
The villagers naturally noticed the commotion caused by Jing Lin’s group arriving in the village. Seeing that they had come to trade for chicks, the couple wondered whether they might also be willing to trade grain for piglets.
Jing Lin was tempted by the idea of raising pigs, but his family had no pigsty. When their house had been built, both he and his sister were still in school, and his grandfather was busy managing the fish pond and lotus pond. There had been no extra energy to raise livestock, so no pigsty had been built.
Zhou Yu was tempted as well. Although people were not necessarily rich, their standard of living had improved greatly compared with the past. Meat was no longer a rare luxury. Even if they did not eat it every day, they usually had some every other day. Zhou Yu loved food and had even dreamed about eating meat the previous night.
Yan Fei also craved meat. His family had stocked up on a lot of dried meat, but it never tasted as good as freshly cooked meat. His late grandfather belonged to an older generation; the fact that he had insisted on returning from the city to build a house in the village showed that clearly. When the house had been built, they had constructed two large pigsties. So Yan Fei was the first to ask about the price of the piglets. Chen Xuefang and the others asked as well. Her family lived more comfortably than many villagers, and they were accustomed to having meat.
The couple wanted to sell the piglets as quickly as possible and were willing to accept any price that did not leave them at a major loss. The husband named a price, Zhou Yu took the lead in bargaining, and the others pushed it down a little further. Eventually, they settled on a price that satisfied both sides, and the deal was halfway complete.
Two or Three Events in the Last Days (TELD) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
The husband then asked whether they wanted to buy the sow’s meat. After the sow had been crushed to death the previous night, he had asked neighbors to help butcher it at daybreak. However, old sow meat was considered inferior and less desirable, so no one had bought any. He had given a few catties away to neighbors and hung the rest in plastic bags inside the well to keep it cool.
Zhou Yu and the others knew that sow meat was generally considered poor quality, so they declined. They decided to return home first and come back later with more grain to trade for the piglets.
When they got home, the door was closed. Zhao Chenghuai, Zhao Zhiwen, and Le Le had probably gone to the fields. Zhou Yu unlocked the door with the key she carried, and she and Jing Lin settled the chicks in their new enclosure. Then they packed two more sacks of grain, weighed them, loaded them onto the tricycle, met up with the other villagers at the village entrance, and headed back to Jade Light Village.
This time, only four households wanted piglets. Zhou Yu’s family traded for two pigs, and Yan Fei’s family took two as well. The Ma brothers’ household took one, and Doctor Zhao’s family took another. The owners explained that all the piglets had already been castrated, so they could be raised without concern. They also tried to persuade everyone to take some pig feed, but nobody was interested. Aside from Yan Fei’s family, the other three households all had experience raising pigs. In the past, people had raised pigs successfully on pigweed and kitchen scraps alone. During this special period, no one wanted to waste grain on commercial feed.
After spending the entire afternoon making repeated trips, the weather had finally cooled by the time the two pigs were brought home.
Two or Three Events in the Last Days (TELD) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Seeing that Zhao Zhiwen and the others still had not returned, Zhou Yu prepared to carry a basket to the fields to cut wild amaranth for pig feed. She asked Jing Lin to go look for the three of them. Jing Lin agreed, drank some water, rested briefly, and then headed toward the fish pond.
He did not find them at the fish pond. Instead, he came across them beside the lotus pond on the way there. The three were squatting on the embankment, facing a pond filled with green lotus leaves and lotus blossoms that appeared and disappeared among the foliage.
“Le Le,” Jing Lin called.
Le Le turned around. On his head was a childlike lotus-leaf hat, resting loosely atop his curly hair and making him look even more adorable. Pointing in front of him, he said proudly, “Uncle, a black flower.”
When Jing Lin came closer, he noticed a small paper box beside Le Le. Inside was the gosling they had named Duckie, along with some shredded bokchoy leaves.
When Zhao Zhiwen saw Jing Lin arrive, he quickly said, “Ah Lin, come look. This lotus flower turned black.”
“Black?” Jing Lin asked in confusion. He knew lotus flowers came in white, pink, deep red, and pale purple, but he had never heard of black lotus flowers. He stepped closer and looked where Zhao Zhiwen was pointing. A lotus flower swayed gently in the water. From the bottom of the petals upward, the color gradually changed from pink to black. The black portion was about the length of a finger joint, and the color was so dark and abrupt that it did not fade gradually enough to soften the transition. The result was striking and unsettling to behold.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Two of two for the week.
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomKnight73
Proofreader: Yume
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