Reborn in 1977

Chapter 18: Even Pigs Disdain It

“I didn’t say you couldn’t catch it.”

Accountant Liu glanced at the turtle with disgust, “This thing has too strong a fishy smell. No one eats this. When we release the fish fry in the spring, we clean the fish pond, catch them, chop them up, and feed them to the pigs. Sometimes the fishy smell is so strong that even the pigs won’t eat it.”

The warden Huang also laughed and said, “This thing was only eaten by beggars in the old days. When beggars craved meat, they would go to the water to pick up a couple to satisfy their cravings. Actually, there's no fat in it at all. No normal person eats this.”

Hearing him say this, Chen Fan also remembered vaguely hearing his grandfather say when he was a child that only beggars used to eat this thing. Ordinary people wouldn’t even look at it if they had something else to eat.

Captain Yang chuckled, “Little Chen hasn’t seen it before, so it’s understandable that he thought he caught something good. But since he caught it, and it's such a big turtle, who knows how many pounds of fish fry it ate? We can’t let it off easy. Why don’t we chop it up and cook it in a pot to feed the pigs today? We’ll slaughter the New Year pig the day after tomorrow, so it can have a meat feast.”

Chen Fan blinked blankly, finally understanding that in their eyes, this thing wasn’t for human consumption, but for feeding pigs, and even the pigs disliked it?!

He looked down at the struggling turtle, then raised his head and said softly, “Captain, then I’ll take this back to eat. That’s not against the rules, right?”

“Huh?”

Captain Yang stared at Chen Fan, then at the turtle at his feet.

If he hadn’t heard wrong, this kid, who clearly came from the city, actually wanted to eat a turtle that even pigs disdained?

He couldn't help but ask, “Why do you want to eat this thing? Are you craving meat? Just bear with it. We’ll slaughter the New Year pig the day after tomorrow and make dishes with the pig. There will be enough for you to eat then.”

Chen Fan chuckled twice, not arguing, “It’s okay, I just want to try it.”

Captain Yang was about to say something, but Accountant Liu laughed, “If he wants to try it, let him try it. He’ll understand when he tastes the bitterness.”

Captain Yang seemed to think of something, shook his head and smiled, and said to Chen Fan, “Okay, if you want to try it, go ahead. Anyway, there are plenty of these things in the ditches and ponds. If you want to catch them, catch as many as you want. No one will stop you.”

Warden Huang kindly reminded him, “If you really want to eat something, it’s better to catch loach or eel than this. Although they also have a fishy smell, you can still eat them even without oil. You really can’t eat this.”

The best time to catch loach and eel is of course in the autumn, but you can also catch these things in the winter. It’s just that the eel holes and loach holes are a bit hard to find. You almost can’t find them unless you’re an expert.

Chen Fan didn’t care about loach or eel. Hearing that the turtle was edible, he grinned and nodded mindlessly, “Thank you, thank you.”

Then he picked up the turtle and ran.

Accountant Liu got up and closed the door, turned back and smiled, “He’s just like those older kids in the village, not believing in bad omens and insisting on eating it once.”

Captain Yang shook his head with a smile, “Who didn’t go through that? We used to be like that. I still remember in the 1960s, when there wasn’t enough food and our stomachs were rumbling, we still ate turtles that we couldn’t bring ourselves to eat.”

Hearing this, Accountant Liu's face changed, and he quickly waved his hand and said, “Don’t mention that. I won’t be able to eat later. It’s all your fault.”

Captain Yang laughed, “That’s good, I’ll save you a meal.”

… …

Chen Fan carried the turtle and hurried back to the educated youth spot. He happened to see Jiang Lili putting away the tripod and couldn't help but pause, “You’re putting it away so early?”

He was thinking of coming back to put it away himself, but now the little girl had done it for him.

Jiang Lili stared blankly at the turtle in his hand, pointed to the sky, “I saw the weather was changing, and the quilt was dry, so I put it away first because I was afraid it would rain.”

Then she pointed to the turtle, “What are you catching this for?”

Chen Fan smiled and raised the turtle, shaking it, “I’m going to make something delicious tonight.”

Jiang Lili quickly said, “You can’t eat this. It has a strong fishy smell, and even the pot you cook it in will smell fishy. The year before last, an educated youth insisted on not believing it and caught one to cook and eat. As a result, the food wasn’t good for half a month. Really, I’m not lying to you.”

Chen Fan smiled, “I know, but that’s because he didn’t do it right.”

Seeing that Jiang Lili still looked terrified, he had no choice but to say helplessly, “Okay, then I won’t use the kitchen pot. Is there another pot here?”

Jiang Lili thought for a while, pointed to the backyard and said softly, “There’s a big pot in the back, but it used to be used to cook pig feed.”

Used to cook pig feed?

Forget it, as long as it’s a pot, it’ll do. At worst, I’ll disinfect it with fire.

It was a good thing Jiang Lili didn’t know what he was thinking, or she would be worried to death. Didn’t he have any basic knowledge of rural life? Which family didn’t have a big iron pot that was used to cook both food and pig feed?!

Chen Fan asked again, “Do you have an earthenware pot?”

Jiang Lili nodded, “There’s a casserole.”

“A casserole is even better.”

Chen Fan walked inside and smiled, “Help me boil a pot of hot water, and we’ll have a feast tonight.”

Jiang Lili looked at his back, her face bitter.

Chen Fan took a few steps, then suddenly turned around and asked, “By the way, do you have any green onions and ginger here?”

Jiang Lili pointed to the backyard, “There’s some in the vegetable garden.”

Chen Fan smiled, “Okay, can you also get me a large pair of scissors?”

Then, carrying the turtle, he walked to the backyard. Only then did he see the full view of the backyard. Two ridges of vegetable plots were planted with cabbage and radishes. A small area near the edge of the field was also planted with clumps of green onions, ginger, and garlic. Most of these vegetables had been harvested, and only a small part was still growing.

However, unlike the village households in front, the vegetable garden here was separated from the house by at least fifteen or sixteen meters, probably because some educated youths were afraid of the smell, so they put the vegetable garden so far away.

Anyway, this was the end of the village, and there were no houses behind it, so they weren’t afraid of taking up too much space.

In the farthest corner, there were two wooden-partitioned toilets with bamboo curtains hanging on them, on which “Male” and “Female” were written with a brush.

In another corner, next to the wall, there was a semi-open shed, which was just a roof with walls only one meter high. This enclosed space.

Thinking of what Jiang Lili had said before, he guessed that that was the former pigsty.

He walked over to take a look, and sure enough, a one-meter-high earthen wall enclosed a long space, which was deliberately divided into two rooms. At the bottom of the earthen walls of the two pigsties, there were stone troughs.

This place probably hadn’t been used for a long time. Some parts of the thatched roof on top were damaged, and you could see the sky.

One of the two pigsties was empty, and the other was used as a woodshed, with a lot of cotton stalks and thick branches more than a foot long piled up. With so much firewood, they shouldn’t be afraid of running out of firewood in the winter.

He looked inside and saw that it was cleaned fairly well, and the wooden fence was still sturdy, so he put the turtle in the stone trough of the pigsty first, then went to the front to fetch a bucket of water and poured it into the stone trough.

The turtle splashed in the water a couple of times, then half-crawled on the wall of the stone trough and stopped moving.

Chen Fan didn’t stop, and ran outside again, taking a carrying pole and two baskets. When he passed the kitchen, he greeted Jiang Lili, “I saw a few big ones in the pond just now, I’ll go see if they’re still there. I’ll be back soon.”