Chapter 205: Slaughtering the New Year Pig

As the saying goes, even the most patient person will go crazy raising kids.

Especially with a whole pack of little troublemakers like these.

Yun Jiao hugged Cat Boss and quietly kept her distance.

Shen Yunlian’s gaze swept the area. When Yun Xiaowu and the others approached, she suddenly snapped off a tree branch.

Yun Xiaowu might not have been the most perceptive, but his legs reacted faster than his brain when he saw what his mother was doing. He took off running.

"Mom, what are you doing? I fell down, and not only do you not comfort me, you’re going to hit me instead? Am I even your real son anymore?!"

The other boys also ran off, screaming and shouting.

Shen Yunlian gave chase, brandishing the branch.

"I told you to slow down! Stop running! Clothes are hard enough to wash as it is, but you all had to go roll around in the mud. You won’t listen when I’m nice about it, so I guess I’ll have to teach you a lesson the hard way!"

Yun Xiaoqi shouted as he scrambled away, "No, Auntie, it’s not our fault! Fifth Brother tripped us!"

Yun Xiao Ba nodded furiously. "That’s right, Auntie! It wasn’t our fault!"

Yun Xiaojiu cried out, "Sister, help me! Mom, don’t hit me! It’s all Fifth Brother’s fault!"

Yun Xiaowu turned and yelled at his spineless younger brothers, "Are you guys my brothers or not? Brothers are supposed to stick together, for better or for worse!"

Yun Xiaojiu shook his little head frantically. "No, no! I want the good fortune. Fifth Brother can have the hardship all to himself."

Yun Xiaowu was so angry he rolled his eyes.

Distracted for that one moment, his foot slipped, and he fell down again.

The moment he was caught, he let out a shriek worthy of a pig at slaughter.

"Jiaojiao, save me!"

Yun Jiao hugged Cat Boss, using him to hide her face, only daring to peek out every now and then to watch the scene.

’Yikes... how brutal.’

’Oh, brother. It’s not that I don’t want to help, but... I don’t want to get a beating either.’

’Mom’s really angry right now.’

After their spanking, the little rascals finally settled down. They walked along obediently with their heads hung low, no longer running, jumping, or fooling around.

But the moment Yun Jiao went over to them, they all whimpered and tried to hug her.

But one sharp glare from Shen Yunlian sent them shrinking back, and they quickly withdrew their filthy, muddy hands.

Shen Yunlian looked at her sons and nephews. They were an absolutely filthy sight.

And it wasn’t just from their recent fall in the mud—the rascals had been plenty dirty even before that.

Heaven knows where they’d been rolling around; they looked as if they were covered in a layer of grime.

The mud from their fall had merely added a bit of extra color.

When she asked, they said it was from cleaning up at school.

After Shen Yunlian threatened them again with the branch, Yun Xiao Liu timidly confessed the truth.

It turned out that instead of cleaning properly, they had been fooling around with their classmates, rolling on the ground and lying on the floor to play with marbles and flip-cards.

Shen Yunlian: Blood pressure skyrocketing!

Unsurprisingly, they got another round of punishment.

Yun Xiaowu rubbed his backside. ’Heh, my clothes are thick. It doesn’t even hurt.’

The smug look on his face was impossible to hide.

Yun Jiao gave her Fifth Brother a sympathetic look.

’You’re so dead now!’

Sure enough, Shen Yunlian grew even angrier. She suppressed her fury, however, waiting until they got home to unleash it.

Together with Wang Mei, she had the little rascals take off their outer clothes and gave them another thorough spanking.

This time, they were thoroughly subdued.

Yun Xiaowu clutched his bottom, grimacing in pain. This time, it really hurt.

"OUCH... My dear old mom... she really went too far this time."

Yun Jiao handed him a piece of a spicy chip.

"Eat this, brother. It won’t hurt anymore after you eat."

Yun Xiao Liu was clutching his own bottom, his eyes welling with tears, but he was quickly placated by one of Yun Jiao’s spicy chips.

As the youngest, Yun Xiaojiu had gotten off the lightest.

He was already back to his lively, bouncing self.

The children gathered around. Seeing the gifts Yun Jiao had bought them made them ecstatic, and they immediately forgot all about the pain from their spanking.

"Oh, sister, I like you so much! You have no idea how many kids in my class are jealous of me. Of course, some don’t believe that I have such a pretty and wonderful little sister. When the weather gets warmer, I’ll take you to visit my school."

Yun Jiao nodded meekly. "Okay."

Aside from the little episode of the brothers getting spanked, the family enjoyed a warm and happy dinner together.

In the days that followed, Yun Jiao spent her time studying ancient, traditional script.

The days passed in a rather monotonous fashion, and in the blink of an eye, the Little New Year arrived.

On the day of the Little New Year, before the sun was even up, the family went to their aunt’s parents’ home to fetch the pig they would be slaughtering for the holiday.

They had even borrowed the village chief’s tractor for the occasion.

For rural families, slaughtering the pig for the New Year was a major event.

Whenever a family was slaughtering their pig for the New Year, any fellow villager who got wind of it—man, woman, or child—would inevitably come over to join in on the excitement.

They might not be able to wrangle an invitation to the feast, but they could surely count on getting a handful of crispy pork cracklings.

As for the feast itself, only close friends and relatives of the host family would be invited to eat.

Otherwise, even the wealthiest family couldn’t possibly afford the extravagance of feeding the entire village.

The fact that the Yunmu Family had brought back a fat pig weighing over two hundred pounds was an especially eye-catching event.

Those who saw it for themselves and those who heard the news all started heading toward their house.

Unafraid of the cold, they all stood in the chilly wind to watch as the able-bodied men grabbed the fat pig by its ears and hauled it off the tractor.

The pig’s squeals were incredibly loud.

Yun Jiao stood with her brothers, watching with wide, curious eyes. The joyful excitement of the crowd was infectious.

The surrounding chatter also reached her sharp ears.

"The Yunmu Family must have really struck it rich, buying a pig to slaughter for the New Year."

"They hunted a lot of valuable game this year. It must have sold for a fortune."

"A big, fat pig like that... I wonder how much it cost."

Many of the comments were tinged with jealousy.

But no matter what anyone said, the family was going to slaughter their pig. They couldn’t let a few jealous remarks ruin their New Year celebration.

When the pig was about to be slaughtered, someone covered Yun Jiao’s eyes, saying they were afraid it would frighten her.

Yun Jiao: ???

’Frighten who?’

’She wasn’t convinced. She wanted to see.’

Shen Yunlian picked her up and carried her inside. "Be a good girl, Jiaojiao. You can come out and watch later."

Yun Jiao pouted and huffed, "I’m not scared at all."

Shen Yunlian said in a placating tone, "Yes, yes, you’re not scared. But it’s too messy over there. In a bit, they’ll have to pull out the intestines to clean out the manure, and that really doesn’t smell good."

Yun Jiao considered this. ’Pig manure does smell terrible.’

’In that case, I’d better stay inside.’

’I’ll go find Grandma.’

Grandma was by the stove, boiling a large cauldron of water.

The water was for scalding the pig’s hair off.

She sat on a small stool, the firelight from the furnace bathing her fair little face in an orange-red glow.

It was very warm here.

Granny Yun was chatting with people. True to the saying that good fortune lifts the spirits, the smile on her face was exceptionally bright.

These people were all relatives, here to help slaughter the pig and prepare the subsequent feast.

The men were in charge of slaughtering the pig and butchering the meat, while the women took care of the cooking. The division of labor was clear.

Shen Yunlian, Wang Mei, and the other women who had come to help bustled back and forth in the kitchen.

The pig’s squeals had long since died down, replaced by the sounds of children cheering and villagers laughing outside. It was a scene of bustling excitement.

This was the warmth and liveliness of the mortal world, something Yun Jiao, as one of the Merfolk, had never experienced before.