Chapter 159: Approaching the New Year

Cao Shujie picked up Mengmeng and headed home.

But the little one wasn’t cooperating, kicking her legs in Cao Shujie’s arms while looking back at Cao Zhenghu, shouting, “Grandpa, save me!”

Cao Zhenghu followed behind with a smile, reaching out to grab Mengmeng’s little hand, saying, “Mengmeng, be good. Grandpa will take you out to play later.”

He wanted to go around the village to see how many of his old buddies were still left.

At 81 years old, there weren’t many in the village who were still alive and well at his age.

Because of this, Cao Zhenghu truly cherished these people.

After sitting at home for less than half an hour, Cao Zhenghu brought up this matter. Cao Jianguo had originally wanted his father to rest at home for the day, but his father wasn’t cooperating.

After some discussion, Cao Shujie ended up driving his grandfather around Cao Family Village all morning. During that time, Cao Zhenghu spent his time catching up with his old buddies, while Cao Shujie perfectly played the role of chauffeur.

When they returned home at the northern end of the village, Cao Shujie noticed that his grandfather’s expression didn’t seem calm.

“Grandpa, are you okay?” Cao Shujie asked him.

Cao Zhenghu waved his hand, saying, “I’m fine. It’s just that there aren’t many old buddies left alive.”

“Grandpa, our family’s life will definitely keep getting better. Why are you thinking about those things?” Cao Shujie slowly tried to comfort him.

Hearing his daughter Mengmeng’s loud shouts, Cao Shujie wondered what had gone wrong now.

Pointing towards the house, he said, “Grandpa, listen. That mischievous kid Mengmeng is causing trouble again.”

Hearing this, Cao Zhenghu became curious, “Let me go see what Mengmeng is up to now.”

Not just him, even Cao Shujie was curious about what his daughter had done to make his wife so angry.

Following his grandfather into the house, before even seeing Mengmeng, Cao Shujie heard his wife’s furious voice, “Mengmeng, why did you throw your toothbrush in the trash? You’re really wasting things. Let me see what you’re going to use to brush your teeth now.”

Cao Shujie became even more curious. When he saw his wife and Mengmeng, the little one was standing in front of her mother with her head down, looking very obedient. “Honey, what happened?”

“Shujie, look at what your daughter has done,” Cheng Xiaolin said, her anger boiling over.

She pointed at the puddles of water on the floor, “Do you see that water? Mengmeng sprayed it out with her mouth.”

“With her mouth?” Cao Shujie instantly visualized the scene: his daughter holding water in her mouth, pursing her lips, and spraying it all over the floor.

She probably didn’t stop at just one spray. Just imagining the scene made Cao Shujie so angry he wanted to spank her, let alone how furious his wife must have been as the one who witnessed it firsthand.

“What else did she do?” Cao Shujie asked curiously.

Then he heard his wife say, “What else could she do? I just bought her a new toothbrush and was teaching her how to brush her teeth. Who would have thought she’d use it to scrub her shoe soles? Isn’t that infuriating?”

Cao Shujie was so angry he wanted to spank his daughter.

But Cheng Xiaolin continued, “That’s not all. After scrubbing her shoe soles, she then stuck the toothbrush into the mop water bucket. Shujie, isn’t that disgusting?”

“Smack!”

Cao Shujie saw his daughter standing in front of her mother, head hanging low, appearing remorseful, but the sly look on her face betrayed her true feelings.

Without hesitation, Cao Shujie raised his hand and gave his daughter a smack on her little bottom.

Mengmeng was stunned by her father’s slap. She never expected that the first person to hit her would be her beloved father.

“Waaah!” Mengmeng burst into loud tears.

Cao Shujie hardened his heart and didn’t comfort her.

Cheng Xiaolin gave her husband a reproachful look but didn’t scold him. Instead, she reprimanded Mengmeng, “I told you earlier but you didn’t listen. Now look, even your dad is so angry he wants to spank you. Stop crying.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Mengmeng’s crying abruptly stopped.

Her eyes brimming with tears, she pouted while wiping her eyes, glancing up at her mother at a 45-degree angle, then at her father. Finally, seeing Cao Zhenghu, it was as if she found a new protector. She ran over to Cao Zhenghu, crying pitifully, “Grandpa, Daddy hit me.”

She cried while sniffling, looking quite convincing.

“Oh my, who dares hit our Mengmeng? Grandpa will stand up for you. Go hit him back,” Cao Zhenghu said with a chuckle.

Mengmeng coming to him for help made him particularly happy.

Hearing her grandfather’s words, Mengmeng immediately stopped crying. She sneakily glanced at her father, then at her grandfather, before finally pouting and saying, “Grandpa, I don’t dare hit Daddy.”

“Is that so? Then come play with Grandpa. Let’s go find some toys,” Cao Zhenghu said, taking Mengmeng’s hand and heading outside.

Cao Shujie looked at the orange-handled cartoon toothbrush lying on the floor, knowing it must be his daughter’s.

“Where did you buy it? Let’s get her a new one,” Cao Shujie told his wife.

Cheng Xiaolin nodded, “That’s the only option.”

She continued grumbling, “This brand of toothbrush is really expensive. Who would have thought that right after I opened the package, thinking to let Mengmeng play with it for a while, she would use it to scrub her shoes and then wash it in the dirty mop water?”

“It really made my stomach ache with anger.”

Cao Shujie chuckled, “Honey, send me the link. I’ll buy her a new one.”

“Forget it. I bought two originally, planning to alternate them. Let her use this one for now,” Cheng Xiaolin said, feeling much better after venting.

After Grandpa returned home, Cao Shujie spent less time at the orchard. Most of his time was spent accompanying his daughter and grandfather, often walking around Cao Family Village with his grandfather.

Some elderly people they met along the way looked at Cao Zhenghu with envy.

Who wouldn’t want to have a successful younger generation member when they’re old?

“Brother Hu, out for a walk again?” Cao Zhengyin, the accountant of Cao Family Village, greeted them from afar.

He was of the same generation as Cao Zhenghu but more than a decade younger.

“I had nothing to do at home, so I came out for a walk,” Cao Zhenghu replied. “Zhengyin, where are you headed?”

“Brother Hu, it’s almost the end of the year. The Village Committee is settling accounts. I’m going to check the records with Secretary Jiangang,” Cao Zhengyin explained.

When it came to money matters, Cao Zhengyin never dared to be careless.

Especially since the Village Committee had three major sources of income this year. With money coming in, the village had launched many projects. The more this happened, the more cautious Cao Zhengyin became.

After all, these three sums of money had passed through his hands before being deposited. If any problems arose later and the accounts didn’t match up, he would be the first person held responsible.

Cao Zhenghu didn’t know the details, but he could tell Cao Zhengyin was genuinely anxious. After chatting for a bit, he said, “Zhengyin, you should hurry and get to your work.”

“Alright, Brother Hu. After I finish, I’ll come find you for a drink,” Cao Zhengyin said.

Cao Zhenghu readily agreed.

The weather in December was like a child’s temper – one moment laughing and joking, the next moment throwing a tantrum on the ground, wailing and crying.

Cao Shujie never expected the second snowfall of December to come so quickly. However, this snow wasn’t heavy, stopping just after covering the ground.

With the winter cold and nothing to do in the fields, everyone stayed indoors, enjoying their leisure time.

Cao Shujie and his wife Cheng Xiaolin were busy making lamb dumplings, preparing to invite his parents over for a meal.

It’s worth mentioning that ever since his grandfather Cao Zhenghu returned, he had been staying with them.

The main reason was that their place had a boiler and constant-temperature return water for heating, whereas his parents’ place would immediately drop in temperature once the heating stopped. This fluctuating temperature was a real headache.

Afraid that his grandfather might not withstand the alternating hot and cold temperatures, potentially catching a cold and leading to other complications, Cao Shujie and his father Cao Jianguo had a serious discussion and decided to keep his grandfather with them.

After finishing the dumplings, Cheng Xiaolin said to her husband, “Shujie, call your parents and ask them to come over for dinner.”

“Alright, I’ll call them right away,” Cao Shujie replied readily.

He stood up and walked out.

His grandfather was playing animal chess with Mengmeng. Regardless of Mengmeng’s chess skills, she couldn’t even recognize all the pieces, and sometimes she would boldly move a couple of pieces based on her own logic.

Cao Zhenghu wanted to correct her, but Mengmeng covered her ears with her hands, refusing to listen and continuing to do as she pleased.

This game of chess had no boundaries, and naturally, there was no winner or loser.

When Cao Jianguo and Wang Yuelan arrived, Cao Shujie busied himself with cooking and boiling the dumplings.

Before they could even start eating, Cao Jianhua arrived with two bottles of liquor, a box of milk, and a box of eight-treasure porridge.

Cao Shujie was a bit puzzled. Why had Uncle Hua come over?

Before he could greet him, Cao Jianhua called out, “Uncle Hu, you’re back! Why didn’t you let me know? If I had known earlier, I would have made time to come see you a few days ago.”

“It’s fine, Jianhua. Just come over to hang out. No need to bring anything,” Cao Zhenghu invited him to sit inside.

These past few days, it wasn’t just Cao Jianhua who had come over. Besides him, many of Cao Jianguo’s peers from the Cao family compound had also come to visit Cao Zhenghu.

Cao Jianhua held Cao Zhenghu’s hand tightly, chatting with him about what had happened in Cao Family Village and listening to Cao Zhenghu’s stories about Anyi City.

Despite his age, Cao Zhenghu shuttled between his two sons’ homes, something that the small-town old men of Cao Family Village couldn’t compare to.

Now, Cao Zhenghu was enthusiastically talking about the construction of the viaduct in Anyi City.

However, the concept of a viaduct was completely foreign to Cao Jianhua, and he didn’t understand what it was at all.

Seeing Cao Zhenghu’s excitement, he didn’t interrupt and just listened quietly.

After Cao Shujie finished cooking, he invited Cao Jianhua to join them for dinner.

Cao Jianhua politely declined at first but eventually sat down.

“Jianhua, I heard you not only run a supermarket but also raise pigs, and quite a lot of them?” Cao Zhenghu brought up the topic.

This was something his grandson had mentioned.

Cao Jianhua had been wondering how to broach the subject, and hearing Cao Zhenghu bring it up, he quickly said, “Uncle Hu, to be honest, I have 300 pigs.”

“But I was really unlucky. When I bought the piglets, the prices were at their peak, and less than a month after I bought them, the prices started plummeting.” Cao Jianhua now looked back on that situation with a more relaxed attitude.

His words made Cao Zhenghu burst into laughter: “Jianhua, there’s an old saying: ‘A fortune in livestock doesn’t count.'”

“Uncle Hu, you’re right. I didn’t take that seriously before, and now I’ve learned my lesson the hard way,” Cao Jianhua said humbly.

“It’s almost New Year. The prices should have gone up, right?” Cao Zhenghu asked.

Cao Jianhua nodded and smiled, “Uncle Hu, you’re spot on!”

“Hey, it’s not about being spot on, just experience,” Cao Zhenghu said modestly.

Cao Shujie hadn’t been paying attention to these matters recently and asked, “Uncle Hua, how much is pork per jin now?”

Hearing this question, Cao Jianhua replied cheerfully, “A while back, it was 16.5 yuan per kilogram, which is about 8 yuan per jin.”

Hearing this number, Cao Shujie nodded and said, “Uncle Hua, that’s really not cheap.”

Cao Jianhua agreed. Each of his 300 pigs now weighed close to 200 jin.

According to his plan, Cao Jianhua was thinking of selling them before the Spring Festival next month when the prices would be good.

But he had also calculated that the daily feed costs were not insignificant. If he kept them for another ten days or so and sold them next month, the feed costs incurred during that period would also be substantial, and the increase in pork prices might not necessarily cover the feed costs.

Because of this, Cao Jianhua was very conflicted about what to do.

After much deliberation, he decided to take advantage of his visit to Cao Zhenghu today to also talk to Cao Shujie.

“Shujie, what do you think I should do?” Cao Jianhua asked earnestly.

After several twists and turns, he had no sharp intuition about the market. After selling this batch of pigs, what should he raise next?

Or perhaps he shouldn’t raise anything at all and see if he could find someone to take over the pig farm, recovering some of his investment.

But the second idea was just a fleeting thought in his mind. Unless absolutely necessary, Cao Jianhua didn’t want to go down that path.

As they drank together, Cao Shujie mostly played the role of pouring drinks, but when Cao Jianhua brought up the issue of future prices for pigs, cattle, and sheep, Cao Shujie directly said, “Uncle Hua, I can’t say for sure, but I’m about sixty percent confident that prices will continue to rise about ten days before the festival. But it’s hard to say around New Year’s Eve or after.”

This aligned with Cao Jianhua’s own considerations, and he asked, “Shujie, do you think it’s better to raise pigs or cattle after the New Year?”

“Uncle Hua, beef prices have been rising steadily. I haven’t checked the price of calves yet, but it should be high too,” Cao Shujie said.

“Also, the growth cycle of cattle is longer than that of pigs.” Cao Shujie extended four fingers: “You can raise at least three batches of pigs a year, or even four. But for cattle, it takes at least a year to reach market weight, and sometimes a year and a half. The investment during that period is also significant.”

Cao Shujie spoke from personal experience: “My plan is to buy a batch of calves after the New Year, along with some lambs and piglets, and raise them together.”

“Besides that, I’m also considering starting to grow forage grass next year to reduce feed costs.”

Cao Jianhua: “…”

He was getting more and more confused.

From Cao Shujie’s words, it seemed that after the New Year, he also planned to start raising pigs, which suggested he was optimistic about the future pork market?

But he also planned to buy calves and lambs, which Cao Jianhua interpreted as Cao Shujie being bullish on cattle farming in the future.

He began to ponder these matters, thinking about what he should do to improve his situation.

As for the idea of selling the pig farm, Cao Jianhua subconsciously dismissed it.

In essence, he was still unwilling to give up and wanted to try again.

Cao Shujie finally mentioned something crucial: “Uncle Hua, don’t think that just because I’m raising this and that, my costs are high. In fact, compared to others, my costs are much lower.”

Cao Jianhua didn’t understand and asked, “But what about the forage grass you mentioned earlier?”

“That’s right, actually, it’s not just about pasture grass, animal husbandry is also a very systematic field of study. Uncle Hua, if you really want to go further in this area, I’d suggest you take a closer look at the relevant content,” Cao Shujie said.

Cao Jianhua felt a headache coming on at the mere mention of studying. Even though this knowledge was closely related to his earnings, he hadn’t yet found the motivation to settle down and properly research it.

When he left, he was still a bit confused in his heart. There were some things he hadn’t quite figured out, but he felt too embarrassed to ask Cao Shujie again.

However, he kept in mind the words Cao Shujie had said during their evening drinking session, thinking he would find a notebook to jot them down when he got home, and study them properly after sobering up.

With less than 20 days left until the Spring Festival, Cao Shujie received a call from his younger sister, Cao Huifang.

Cao Huifang told him over the phone that Yiling University had started its holiday. Since several universities and vocational colleges in Yiling City all had their holidays at the same time, and with the year-end approaching, she hadn’t been able to get tickets after two days of trying. Feeling lazy to continue buying tickets, she wanted to ask her brother if he had time to pick her up from Yiling City and bring her home.

“Alright, just wait at the school. I’ll come pick you up,” Cao Shujie immediately agreed.

As the year-end approached, he also wanted to take his whole family to Yiling City for a stroll, buying clothes and gifts for the New Year. Unfortunately, his car was too small, and there weren’t enough seats if the whole family went together.

Cao Shujie increasingly wanted to get a 7-seater business vehicle, but it was too late to buy one at the end of the year.

“After selling the fruits after the New Year, I’ll first change to a suitable car,” Cao Shujie thought to himself.

He was determined this time.

Putting this matter aside for now, Cao Shujie drove with his wife and child towards the urban area of Yiling City.

On the way, he discussed with his wife what to buy. Mengmeng was only thinking about getting toys and didn’t consider anything else.

Cao Shujie teased her, “Mengmeng, should we also buy some firecrackers for you?”

“I don’t want them, I’m too scared to set them off,” Mengmeng shook her head.

(End of Chapter)

— Translator’s Notes —

• animal chess: Refers to ‘Dou Shou Qi’ (斗兽棋), or ‘Jungle Game,’ a popular Chinese children’s board game. The pieces are animals of different ranks (e.g., elephant, lion, rat), and the goal is to move a piece into the opponent’s den.

• A fortune in livestock doesn’t count.: A traditional Chinese proverb reflecting the inherent risks of agriculture. It means that wealth tied up in livestock is not considered secure until it has been sold for cash, due to the constant threat of disease, price drops, and other uncertainties.