My village can't be like this

Chapter 434 Two Dragon Boat Festivals

"I'm not in a hurry. Uncle Zheng, please send the others away first."

Thinking of the taste of his mother's braised beef, Zhang An bought a large piece without hesitation.

As the saying goes, you must eat something good during the holidays.

And even after coming here, if you don’t buy a piece to go back, then this trip just to buy some realgar would be a bit uneconomical.

"Okay, there is a bench here. You sit down and wait for me for a few minutes."

Butcher Zheng was not polite to Zhang An. Today's business was much better than usual.

He seemed to be a little late cutting and weighing the meat at the same time, and was so busy that he was sweating on his head.

"Business is so good today, why didn't my aunt come over?"

Zhang An looked at the meat stalls around him. Regardless of whether they were selling pork or selling frozen suet, there were quite a lot of people there.

But the other side was not as urgent as Butcher Zheng, because those stalls were all husband-and-wife teams, and some even called their children over to help.

"It's not the Dragon Boat Festival today, so your aunt got up early and went to the countryside to pick up the old man. If she had known that business was so good today, she wouldn't have been allowed to go."

Butcher Zheng never expected that business would be so good today. Otherwise, why would he be celebrating if he made money?

He has been selling meat here for so many years. Even during the Chinese New Year, there were not so many people there before.

However, this can also explain a problem. This year, everyone's conditions have become much better than before, which is why so many people buy beef, which is more expensive than pork.

"It's better for me to help you. Anyway, I'm just sitting."

Seeing that Butcher Zheng was too busy by himself, Zhang An was embarrassed to continue sitting.

However, he couldn't cut the meat accurately, so he helped bagging and collecting money, as a way to repay the favor of Lao Zheng for sending beef last time.

Although it doesn't take much effort just to pack and collect money, it really saves Butcher Zheng half of his time.

"It's really embarrassing. You finally came out and now you come to work for me."

Butcher Zheng resisted several times, but when he saw that Zhang An had already taken advantage of it, he could only say it with embarrassment.

"What's the point? It'll be fine if I go home anyway. By the way, Uncle Zheng, your black dog gave birth to puppies a few days ago."

While Zhang An was packing and collecting money, he was also giving change to others. At the same time, he also mentioned the matter of the black dog giving birth to butcher Zheng.

"I figured it should be this period of time, but that beast of mine has to stay at your house forever and ever, and it won't come back no matter how much I scream, so I just don't bother to care about it. Anyway, it has nothing to worry about and has company at your house."

After the black dog sneaked into Changqing last time, Zhang An called their home.

So Butcher Zheng was able to roughly calculate the time, so he wasn't surprised at all.

His dog was good at everything, but after bringing up puppies, he couldn't live without Zhang An's two tigers, which made Butcher Zheng both loved and hated him.

Fortunately, Zhang An is kinder to dogs, and their dog enjoyed the blessings in the past.

Dogs are actually very afraid of being alone. There are many dogs in An's home, and he used to be gregarious, which is much better than a lonely dog ​​at home.

"By the way, how many are there in this litter? There should be four or five. Last time I went over, I saw that the dog's belly was not small at all."

When the black dog was raising its cubs, Butcher Zheng visited him several times, and each time he brought a pile of cow bones.

Zhang An could only admire this kind of behavior.

In other beef noodle restaurants, beef bones are used to make soup.

This man was a good man. All the cow bones he couldn't sell were used to feed the dogs.

So every time Zhang An's big dogs could take advantage of Erhu's wife and chew the noble cow bones.

"Then you guessed wrong. There are six puppies in this group, and they are all very strong."

Although the six little guys are almost two weeks old, they haven't opened their eyes yet.

But Zhang An was not worried. He had already brought them to the space to check them.

They are all very strong, and the black dog can feed them well every day.

"There are so many. I thought four or five would be a lot. This is the first time I have seen six babies born this time."

Not only had Zhang An never seen so many butchers in one litter, butcher Zheng, who was several decades old, had seen this for the first time.

"What kind of dog is that of yours? It gave birth to so many puppies and all of them survived?"

When Zhang An was chatting with Butcher Zheng, an old man who was buying meat at the stall suddenly interrupted and asked.

"The female dog belongs to my family, a purebred wolf dog. As for the male dog, it belongs to their family. I don't know what breed it is."

I guess this old man is also a dog lover, otherwise he wouldn't ask.

So Butcher Zheng answered him with a smile and pointed to Zhang An next to him.

"A purebred wolfdog, this is really a rare and good dog, but you are also very careless. You don't know what breed the breeding dog is, so you just mix it up randomly."

Hearing that it was a wolfdog, the old man had a look of liking on his face.

However, I feel a bit regretful about Butcher Zheng’s behavior of breeding dogs.

At this time, Zhang An felt that the old man in front of him was a person who really understood dogs.

Because everyone who loves dogs and understands dogs will not breed their own dogs randomly.

It's okay to have a litter of strings, but some hybrid blood pairs are not so good.

"You're wrong to blame me. My dog ​​can't be matched with anything I want. In the past, it wouldn't let other male dogs get close to it. But then it met my nephew's dog and was taken to it. Surrendered.”

Butcher Zheng was a bit dumbfounded. If he had that ability, then their black dog wouldn't have to look for a partner anywhere.

"Oh? Then this dog doesn't sound bad. So, little one, what kind of dog is yours?"

The old man immediately asked Zhang An. He was really curious about what kind of dog Zhang An's family raised.

"It sounds like they are wolf green, but because of cross-breeding, their fur is green and black, and they are relatively tall."

Among Xiaohu and the others, the blue wolf actually has more blood, but no one would believe it.

In terms of body shape, only Langqing and Xiaohu are similar.

It's just that the color of wolf's green fur is mostly blue-grey, and the hair needles are gradient colors such as white, gray, yellow and black, which is quite different from the green-black appearance of tiger cubs.

"Oh? There is also a black wolf green? My old man needs to see this. Where are you from? Can I go to your house to see the dog some other time? If possible, give me a tiger stripe at home. kind."

Well, Zhang Angang said that he would not breed his own dogs casually, but he was immediately slapped in the face.

"My family belongs to Changqing. If you want to see it, you can go anytime. However, my dog ​​has a bit of a stubborn temper. It's not up to me whether he can take a liking to it."

However, Zhang An did not refuse the old man, just treat it as a blind date for the family dog.

Anyway, he has been thinking about the life-long affairs of those guys, otherwise he will still be a child when he dies one day.

"Then, I'll come back after the rice seedlings are planted ashore."

With Zhang An's consent, the old man went back with the two kilograms of beef he bought.

As Zhang An thought, the business at Butcher Zheng was best in the morning. At noon, there were not many people visiting.

But this is normal. In the morning, it is the peak time for everyone to go to the market. It is just the right time to buy meat and cook it at home.

By noon, most of the people who came to the market had already gone back.

However, after selling all morning, there was not much meat left at Butcher Zheng’s stall.

"Okay, Uncle Zheng, it's time for me to go back. Do yourself a favor."

It's almost time, and Zhang An is ready to go home.

"Why are you in such a hurry to go back? I will close the stall here soon. Come back with me and finish the meal before we talk."

Zhang An had come to help him for so long. How could Butcher Zheng let Zhang An leave so easily? He had to go back and finish his meal first.

"No, uncle, my mother and the others are still at home waiting for me to take the realgar back. Don't worry about it. I came here just to tell you about the puppy."

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival. Although it is not a legal holiday and it is not a big solar term, Zhang An will definitely not go to their house at this time.

"That's fine, but if you take this piece of meat back, I've already left it for you, and you can also take these bones back for the dogs to chew on."

When he thought about celebrating the festival today, Butcher Zheng no longer tried to persuade Zhang An to stay.

However, I packed a piece of beef with good quality and handed it over, as well as a bag of beef bones.

"Is this weighed? I'll give you the money."

After working for a long time, Zhang An even forgot to buy meat.

Butcher Zheng handed over the beef and was immediately ready to pay.

"You're talking about money or not. You've been working here for a long time. You can just take this meat back and eat it. Besides, as an uncle, I give my nephew a piece of meat. It would be awkward if I charge money. , hurry up and go back with the breakfast, don’t let my sister-in-law wait at home.”

Zhang An really helped him a lot today, otherwise he would not be able to sell so much meat by himself.

Because he is alone, he will definitely move slower, and the people in front of the stall will move slower.

Some people originally wanted to come over to buy, but when they saw so many people, they definitely didn’t want to come over and squeeze in.

Some people even don’t want to wait too long and leave early when they see that they can’t wait.

Morning is the peak time for going to the market, which is a good time to sell things. Without Zhang An's help, he would definitely not be able to sell so much.

Seeing Butcher Zheng chasing people away, Zhang An could only carry the beef and bones in his hands and leave.

"By the way, Uncle Zheng, among those six puppies, there are four little bitches."

The two families had already agreed that if the puppy was a female, Zhang An would keep it.

So Zhang An told Butcher Zheng in advance to save him from being too disappointed when he went to hug the dog.

"Okay, got it."

Butcher Zheng was only concentrating on closing his stall, and he didn't know if he really heard it.

On the way back, Zhang An met many villagers again, but this time he didn't see any elderly people, so he didn't take anyone on board.

Instead, they put the things on their backs into the carriage and pulled them back to the village first.

After all, if you carry people, you will definitely not be able to carry a few people, and you will always offend people, so you might as well not carry anyone.

If you want to pull goods, you can pull as much as you want, so no one will be offended.

"Why did it take you so long to come back?"

Seeing that Zhang An didn't buy anything and stayed there for such a long time, Wang Fang asked him why he was there.

Although the carriage was full of backpacks, Wang Fang knew at a glance that they were not from her family. After all, her family did not have that many backpacks.

"I went to Uncle Zheng's place. His business was very good today. Seeing that he was too busy alone, I helped him. It was almost done now, so I came back. No, this is the realgar I bought. "

Zhang An handed the realgar to his mother and then brought the beef and beef bones to the kitchen.

"Why did you buy so much? You won't be able to use it all this year, and it won't be useful next year."

Zhang An bought a lot of realgar this time. According to the amount in previous years, he will definitely not be able to use it all.

"There's not that much. I bought it based on estimates. Then I'll sprinkle it over in the old house, in the chicken pen and in the big pen, and it'll be almost used up."

A snake came to the house last year, so I gave Zhang An a heads up.

I am not afraid of other animals in the house, but chickens and ducks are more afraid of snakes.

They couldn't eat a few, but chickens and ducks were relatively timid, and some of them were scared to death before being bitten to death.

"I've made the rice dumplings. Do you want to eat rice dumplings or eat? If you want to eat, I will make some. If you don't want to eat, you can eat them after the rice dumplings are steamed."

This morning, no one in the family was idle.

Zhang Jianguo went to the mountains to cut mugwort, and Wang Fang went to pick rice dumpling leaves, and then took Su Ying to make rice dumplings at home.

"No need to bother, just eat the rice dumplings. If you still want to eat at the end, just heat them up."

Su Ying has expressed her intention to eat rice dumplings, so Zhang An will naturally not be picky about food.

"By the way, Mom, what's the filling of the rice dumplings you made today?"

"There are some with pork, some with green onion and tofu, and some with bacon. You don't like sweet ones, so I didn't make any sugar rice dumplings."

At home, she and Zhang Jianguo were the only two people who could eat sweet rice dumplings and white rice dumplings. They didn't like them, they just accepted them.

As for the young couple Zhang An and Su Ying, they didn't eat anything sweet.

When she was making rice dumplings last year, she made some, but Zhang An didn't touch any of them.

She might as well not have it this year and save herself the trouble.

"By the way, Mom, should I sprinkle realgar and make rice dumplings next month? I found out that there is another month of May next month."

When Zhang An looked at the calendar, he discovered that there were two lunar months in May this year.

This month is considered May, and next month is leap May, which means that there will be another Dragon Boat Festival at the end of next month.

For some areas where the Dragon Boat Festival is held very grandly, it is not a matter of going crazy with joy.

"No, it's just the fifth month. If we celebrate the festival every day, we won't be able to do any work."

Years with leap months in the lunar calendar are normal, but every leap month year with festivals like this only has to be celebrated for the first time.

Otherwise, if we wait until leap January in any year, we will have to celebrate the Spring Festival twice.

So what Zhang An can think of, others have already thought of.

Therefore, everyone in the local area has an unwritten custom that it is enough to celebrate all festivals in the first month, and ignore leap months.

Later, the same was true for national statutory holidays. Any statutory holiday with a leap month was not considered a statutory holiday.

(End of this chapter)