Chapter 31: Buying Wine

Back home, the whole family was working in a fever pitch!

Two massive boars, one sow, and three yellow piglets—this time, the harvest was truly enormous!

Even when the village organized autumn or winter hunts, the quotas assigned to hunters were never this high!

However, Wang An wasn't feeling much joy. Hunting those pigs had been far too intense; it wasn't even called hunting anymore—it was damn near a death match!

But seeing the smiles on his family's faces, Wang An finally felt a sense of solace.

Watching for a while, he noticed his father was handling the internal organs. There weren't even enough basins in the house to hold them all, so they were using baskets instead!

Seeing Mu Xueqing unloading meat, he suddenly thought of his father-in-law's family. With so many pigs, they had to share!

Thinking this, Wang An said to Liu Guilan, "Mom, leave one of the big yellow piglets after gutting it—don't skin it. And leave that slightly smaller big boar there after gutting it too!"

Liu Guilan stood up and asked in confusion, "What for? You're good at cleaning them; are you going to do it yourself?"

Wang An rolled his eyes and said, "After we finish the feast tomorrow, I'll send them to my father-in-law the day after. I see my brother-in-law has nothing to do all day; let him figure it out himself!"

Hearing this, Liu Guilan glanced at Mu Xueqing. Her thought had been to just send some meat directly to her in-laws!

Wang An's idea was actually better, but in front of Mu Xueqing, she still scolded him, "If you're sending things to your father-in-law, you have to clean them up properly before sending them. How can you let them do the work themselves?"

Wang An said nonchalantly, "It's fine. If you don't believe me, ask Xueqing. Besides, sending them whole makes me look even more sincere as a son-in-law! Hehehe..."

Mu Xueqing didn't speak, but she nodded, clearly agreeing with Wang An's reasoning!

While they would still need to be processed, sending them whole provided a much greater visual impact!

Liu Guilan glanced at Mu Xueqing again. Seeing her nod, she went along with it, saying, "Fine then, I'll listen to you two. It'll save me the trouble of skinning them too!"

Working together, they placed the big boar, which hadn't been brought into the house yet, onto the large wooden rack used for drying wild vegetables.

Wang An then carried out the big yellow piglet that had already been brought inside and set it down as well!

He covered them with a straw mat to prevent rats from eating them. Rural rats were notoriously rampant; if they gnawed the pigs into a mess, the gift would look pathetic!

After thinking for a moment in the house, Wang An brought out a jumping cat and a wild pheasant, hanging them in the outer shed, intending to send them to his father-in-law as well!

He then spent a long time working alongside his family before they finally finished processing the four pigs, the cat, and the pheasant!

Dinner was served very late and was quite simple. The staples were cornmeal porridge and cornmeal pancakes, with the dish being pork stewed with cabbage and potatoes, accompanied by pickled radish strips!

After the tension of the day and the life-threatening excitement of hunting the pigs, Wang An had absolutely no passion or desire for anything else. He held Mu Xueqing and fell into a deep sleep!

In the morning, the whole family woke up quite early because they had to host the feast today.

Under Liu Guilan's scolding, the two little girls dressed themselves with sleepy eyes, looking as if they might fall back asleep at any moment!

After an early breakfast, Wang Dazhu headed out to invite the guests.

Wang An had originally planned to invite Li Biao, but after yesterday's events, he decided against it. Their personalities didn't mesh; it would be unnecessary trouble!

While thinking about the preparations for the banquet, Wang An realized he had forgotten something major!

A banquet, a banquet... a banquet is nothing without wine! There was no alcohol in the house!

In this era, alcohol was a genuine scarce resource, mainly because it was distilled from grain!

Food shortages were the norm; how could you distill liquor if you didn't have grain to spare?

Mulling over the wine situation, Wang An said goodbye to his mother and Mu Xueqing and headed out.

In this era, every village had many skilled craftsmen—carpenters, blacksmiths, barefoot doctors, and so on. People who knew how to distill liquor were even more common!

Wang An was heading to a family in Kaoshan Village known for their brewing: the Han family. Han Shuisheng, about 60 years old, nicknamed "The Big Wine Jar"!

He knew how to brew liquor and, more importantly, how to drink it. It was said that because he loved wine so much but had no money to buy it, he specifically learned how to make it. He was quite a character!

Arriving at Han Shuisheng's house, Wang An saw him in the shed, tinkering with a large pile of sweet potatoes.

In the countryside at this time, every household had a private plot, usually half planted with vegetables and the other half with sweet potatoes or potatoes.

Han Shuisheng was different; he planted only a small amount of vegetables and mostly sweet potatoes, even clearing a patch of wasteland on the hillside to plant more!

The quality of the hillside sweet potatoes wasn't great—some were thin as chopsticks, some were the size of fingers, and the largest were the size of corn cobs, but they were too hairy and didn't look very appetizing.

These unappetizing sweet potatoes weren't meant for eating; they were for distilling liquor!

"Uncle Han, are you busy?" Wang An greeted him with a smile as he entered the courtyard.

Han Shuisheng was not tall, only about 1.6 meters, which made him an elderly man by the standards of rural life in this era.

When people chatted, they habitually referred to someone as "Old Man So-and-so," which carried no derogatory meaning—it was just a noun! But they certainly wouldn't say it to his face!

Seeing Wang An, Han Shuisheng knew he was there for business. He shook the dirt and sweet potato skins off his clothes and stood up with a smile.

"The eldest son of the Wang family is here!"

"Yes, I was thinking about your wine, Uncle Han!" Wang An continued smilingly.

"Hehehe, there are quite a few people who think about my wine!" The old man was very confident in his craft.

"Of course! In these ten surrounding villages, who doesn't know that your wine, Uncle Han, is the absolute best?" Wang An complimented him with a thumbs-up and a grin.

"Hahaha, this young man from the village—you're my favorite to chat with!" The old man was very pleased with Wang An's words.

"It's mainly because I'm an honest speaker; I never talk nonsense!" Wang An replied with mock seriousness.

"Haha... I won't mess around with you. How much liquor do you want?" the old man asked.

In this era, grain was scarce, so food stamps were required. Even at the supply and marketing cooperatives, white liquor required stamps and wasn't cheap—65 cents per jin!

And this kind of home-brewed liquor, because it didn't require stamps, was actually even more expensive!

"I'm doing a whole round, so I need quite a bit. How much per jin, Uncle?" Wang An asked.

"Corn wine is 80 cents, sorghum wine is 1 yuan, and sweet potato liquor is cheap at 60 cents per jin," the old man replied.

Wang An thought of the deer tendons and bones at home. It would be a waste to sell them; who knew when he'd hunt a deer again? It was better to soak them in wine!

Thinking of his father and how much he had craved alcohol the other day, he said, "Give me 50 jin of sorghum wine and 50 jin of sweet potato liquor!"

"How much? Why do you need so much liquor?" the old man asked in shock.

In this era, when people bought liquor, they usually just got a couple of jin at a time. No one bought it like this!

Wang An didn't hide anything; he mentioned hunting a sika deer and wanting to use it for medicinal wine. However, he didn't mention the "wild leopard" (the large predator)!

The value of the predator was too high; if word got out, many people would want to see its skin, which would be both a hassle and attract unwanted attention!

"Oh! I didn't expect Kaoshan Village to have another crack shot!" the old man praised with a laugh.

"What crack shot? That deer injured a large beast; otherwise, how could I have gotten it?" Wang An quickly corrected him.

He knew himself better than anyone. Crack shot my foot! Aside from his decent aim, he was a complete amateur!

After paying for the liquor, Wang An also bought two large earthenware jars to hold the 50 jin of liquor each, and two small 20-jin jars from the old man!

They were all made of fired clay; the large ones were 1 yuan and the small ones were 50 cents.

Using the old man's wooden-wheeled handcart used for moving liquor, he carefully pushed the wine back home!

He had to be careful; these earthenware jars were certainly not very sturdy!!