mtl008 Chapter 139 The Dead Pig Runs Away
Chapter 139 The Dead Pig Runs Away
When my dad came out of the backyard, he found that my two younger brothers were missing. He cried anxiously and looked everywhere for them. He followed the road to the pond and found my two younger brothers floating in the water. He cried and tried to pull them into the water, but he also slipped in.
Just as he was struggling in the water, his grandfather came back. His father was saved, but his two younger brothers were no longer breathing.
Faced with grandfather's beating and scolding, grandmother was powerless to refute. She was wrong and she shouldn't have left three children alone at home.
She was heartbroken. The departure of her two children changed the once harmonious family into another world.
Grandpa started to speak ill of grandma, often calling her a witch and a disaster star, and would beat her at any time. Grandma endured it silently because she felt she was wrong.
No matter how badly my grandfather treated her, she always treated my father as her own son and loved him very much.
From then on, grandma put away her magic tools and never went out to read fortunes for people again.
The famine was over the next year and life became a little better, but my grandfather's face was still full of gloom. The house was dead silent and he was still smoking in silence.
Since we didn’t have money to buy good tobacco leaves, we just bought some pretty bad ones and rolled them with paper. That’s how we smoked cigarettes at that time.
Although life is not as hard as before, grandpa's health is getting worse and worse. Grandma tries to persuade him to take care of his health, but grandpa always sneers.
I don't know where he heard it from, but it was said that grandma's bad identity would bring bad luck to her husband and children. Gradually, he became more and more distant from her. No matter what went wrong at home, he would blame it on grandma.
Fortunately, my father is very obedient and attached to my grandmother. When people in the village say in front of him that my grandmother is not his biological mother, he scolds them for talking nonsense.
That winter, after my grandmother's careful feeding, there was still a pig to slaughter at the end of the year.
At that time, people were not able to eat enough, and my grandmother and my father were required to collect grass to feed the pigs.
Another problem is the lack of medical care and medicine. Many of the pigs raised by villagers die of illness when they are half grown.
In order to prevent the pigs from getting sick, my grandmother never fed them raw grass. She would cut the grass into pieces, boil it, and let it cool before feeding it to the pigs.
Seeing the pig jumping around and growing to 100 kilograms, my grandfather's gloomy face finally relaxed. At that time, pigs were as thin as humans, and it was considered good if they could grow to 70 or 80 kilograms after feeding them for a year.
As soon as the twelfth lunar month came, my grandfather arranged to invite a butcher to come to our house to slaughter a pig.
There were no slaughterhouses in those days. People would set up a big pot at home to boil water and invite the village butcher to come and kill the pigs.
The day before, my grandfather invited everyone, including the butcher, three or four young men to help.
The next morning, grandma got up early to boil water. Everything went smoothly at the beginning. Several people worked together to press the pig onto the bench, and the butcher killed the pig with one cut of the knife.
They then carried the pig to a large wooden basin filled with hot water that grandma had prepared, and the men chatted and laughed as they poured the boiling water on the pig with an iron ladle. This was done to remove the pig's hair.
When the watering is almost done, they use special depilatory tools to remove the pigs' hair.
After all the hair was shaved off the pig, when my grandfather was shaving the last bit of hair left on the pig's head, something strange happened.
The dead pig, which had been dug into pieces, grunted, rolled down from the big wooden basin, stood steadily on the ground, and ran away, knocking my grandfather to the ground with his buttocks.
Everyone was stunned. Grandpa was furious and hurriedly got up from the ground and chased the pig. Others also reacted and followed Grandpa to run outside.
Several people chased the pig for several rounds, and finally the pig ran out of energy and fell down again. Several people hurriedly carried the pig back into the yard.
After the butcher came back from the pig stand, my grandfather noticed that the butcher's face was livid, so he asked.
"Master Zhou, what's wrong with you?"
Master Zhou looked at grandpa meaningfully and said.
"Old Liu, I've been slaughtering pigs for decades, and this is the first time I've encountered something like this. After all the hair was shaved off, it was still able to get up and run. I'm afraid it's not a good thing!"
"Is there any explanation for this?" Grandpa asked puzzled.
"Oh! It's hard to say." Master Zhou sighed and continued to help cook the pig.
After finishing the work, Master Zhou was about to leave. My grandfather tried to ask him to stay, but he just kept shaking his head, saying that he had something to do at home, and then left.
Generally, when other families in the village slaughter a pig, they will invite relatives and friends to their home for a big meal. The butcher will also stay and eat with everyone. When he leaves, the host will give him a piece of the best meat to take away.
But this time, Master Zhou didn't even eat, and left in a hurry after saying a few words.
Seeing that Master Zhou didn't want to eat, the other helpers also left. Grandpa saw that he couldn't keep him, so he had to cut a small piece of meat for each of them to take away.
After everyone left, Grandpa and Grandma cleaned up the meat. During the process, Grandpa said nothing and his face was ashen.
The original plan to invite friends and relatives to come and listen to the pig dinner was cancelled. In the evening, after grandma prepared dinner, he kept smoking and didn't eat. Grandma had to eat a little with my dad and let my dad go to bed first.
As soon as grandma finished packing and entered the room, she received a loud slap from grandpa, who also yelled in anger.
"You are such an unlucky person. You have ruined all the good luck in our family."
Grandma covered her face and looked at Grandpa in disbelief. This was the first time that Grandpa had been so cruel to her. After so many years of marriage and the departure of their two sons, their relationship had faded and Grandpa had never beaten her so hard.
"You, what's wrong with you?" grandma asked with tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong? If it weren't for you, such a jinx, would the dead pig run away?" Grandpa roared again.
Grandma now understood that Grandpa had blamed her for everything that happened today.
"How can you blame me for this? Wasn't it because Master Ji Zhou didn't cut the pig hard enough and the pig wasn't completely killed?"
Grandma was also very angry. Normally, it would be fine if grandpa just spoke badly to her, but today, no one knew what happened, but grandpa blamed her without any reason.
"If I don't blame you, who should I blame? Marrying you has brought me bad luck for eight lifetimes."
Grandpa got angrier and angrier as he thought about it. He threw the cigarette on the ground and went up to grandma and started beating her again.
Grandma had no choice but to fight back, but a woman is no match for a man and she was beaten all over.
My dad was awakened by the noise. When he saw grandma being beaten, he rushed over, used his small body to protect grandma, and asked questions in a harsh voice.
"Dad, why did you hit my mom?"
"Humph, why are you hitting your mother? She is not your mother. She is a disaster. Sooner or later, she will kill us. Get out of the way and let me beat her to death today to prevent her from harming others."
After saying this, grandpa reached out to pull my dad who was protecting grandma.
My dad held my grandmother and refused to let go. “If you want to kill my mom, kill me first,” he yelled at my grandfather.
My dad, who was already ten years old, still had some strength. After trying to pull it open for a while without success, grandpa gave up, turned around and lay down on the bed.