"Let go!" Xiao Mandong slapped Lu Hong's hand as it gripped the bamboo basket. Lu Hong yanked her hand back, her eyes reddening, and raised her voice: "How dare you hit someone! Xiao Mandong, you're a divorced capitalist's daughter—what right do you have to bully me, a third-generation poor peasant? And how can you afford to buy this much meat? The rule is two jin per person max, but you've got at least ten-odd jin in that basket."
At once, the people queuing for meat turned to look, murmuring among themselves. A middle-aged woman who hadn't gotten any meat chimed in: "That's right, she must have pulled some strings."
"Maybe she's hosting a banquet at home?"
"Impossible—her whole family's been sent to the countryside; she can't have relatives," Lu Hong said, sounding quite logical.
"We didn't get any, but you bought this much. You should share it with the crowd. Otherwise, you're hoarding scarce goods and sabotaging the ration system."
"Exactly. The supply cooperative's meat is for everyone. If you take ten-plus jin, what are the rest of us supposed to buy? Hoarding at others' expense is unacceptable."
The sharp-faced woman kept stirring the pot: "She definitely bribed the butcher—textbook capitalist behavior."
The butcher, who was just cleaning his cutting board, slammed his cleaver into the board with a loud thud that silenced the crowd. His brows knitted tight: "Nonsense. This comrade has a banquet certificate from the brigade, and her cash and ration tickets are all accounted for. As for you two—you cut in line just now, and because you missed out on meat, you're slinging accusations. Shameless, the both of you."
Lu Hong's future mother-in-law's face went pale, then flushed red at the butcher's scolding. But she didn't care what others said—all she knew was that her own family was hosting a one-month-old baby's feast tomorrow, and if she didn't get meat, her mother would never let her hear the end of it.
So she twisted the truth and craned her neck: "Her certificate might be fake. If the brigade was buying, why would they send a woman?"
With that, she reached out to grab the basket, but Xiao Mandong was ready and sidestepped.
Seizing the woman by the wrist: "Let's go. We're going to the Revolutionary Committee to see if my brigade certificate is real or not."
And with that, she tugged the woman forward. But the woman had seen the certificate Xiao Mandong had shown earlier—how could she dare go to the Revolutionary Committee? If things blew up, her job would be at risk.
"No! I'm not going! You're hurting me! I need to go to the hospital. You'll have to compensate me!"
Lu Hong also shoved at Xiao Mandong, backing up her future mother-in-law.
That's when the supply cooperative's manager walked over. After hearing the full story from the butcher, he whispered a few instructions to a nearby clerk, who hurried off.
Then he turned to Lu Hong and her mother-in-law: "You've seriously disrupted the order of this supply cooperative. I've called the police. You can wait for them to deal with you."
If it had been just a minor quarrel, the manager wouldn't have called the police. But now that someone was questioning Xiao Mandong's brigade certificate and accusing the cooperative's staff of taking bribes—well, if this weren't handled properly and rumors got out, the manager himself would be implicated. So the matter had to be settled today.
Only now did Lu Hong feel real fear. She and the manager both apologized repeatedly, begging him to let them go. The sharp-faced mother-in-law hadn't expected things to spiral like this either—it was just a shouting match, so why was the police involved?
But the manager insisted on waiting for the police, determined not to let any rumor of bribery stick to the cooperative.
About ten-plus minutes later, four police officers arrived. One of them called the Red Flag Brigade to verify, and a number of bystanders also came forward to testify, confirming that Lu Hong and her mother-in-law had been slandering both Xiao Mandong and the cooperative staff the whole time.
In the end, Lu Hong and her mother-in-law were made to apologize publicly to Xiao Mandong and the cooperative workers.
Lu Hong thought that would be the end of it. But instead, she and her oh-so-wonderful future mother-in-law were both taken to the police station. They had to write self-criticisms, which would be filed with the brigade archives. Sentence: disrupting order at a state-run supply cooperative and defaming others, fined ten yuan each.
The police issued a signed, stamped written notice of the violations, to be circulated by the Revolutionary Committee to both their work units.
Lu Hong was scared to tears. She hadn't expected it to be this serious. Back in the village, they cursed people out all the time without a second thought. How was shouting at the cooperative suddenly slander?
Her future mother-in-law nearly collapsed in terror. With a notice going to her workplace, she wouldn't even keep her current position, let alone hope for a promotion.
After the two were taken away, Xiao Mandong continued shopping. Eggs were too expensive—and more importantly, they required food coupon ration tickets—so she decided to buy from the villagers when she got back to the village instead.
Sorghum liquor wasn't rationed: thirty cents per jin. They needed twenty jin for the guests, but she had no container. The clerk reported this to the manager, and he agreed to have the goods delivered to her door as an apology. Hearing that delivery was possible, Xiao Mandong went all in: white sugar, sesame seeds, peanuts, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, star anise and other spices—she bought everything in one go.
Xiao Mandong rode back to the village on the supply cooperative's truck. When the big Liberation truck rumbled into the village, plenty of villagers chased after it—many had never seen a four-wheel vehicle, and they all wondered where it was headed. Nobody expected it to pull up right at the clinic gate. Xiao Mandong stepped off the truck.
Zhou Qichuan knew Xiao Mandong had gone shopping for food, but he didn't expect the cooperative's own truck to bring her back. How much had she bought?
A big basket of meat, plus a barrel of liquor. Xiao Mandong asked Zhou Qichuan to borrow some canteens or flasks to decant the alcohol, since the barrel had to be returned.
Zhou Qichuan went to Song Xiangjun, who was floored by Xiao Mandong's largesse. He lent eight water flasks—only then did they manage to bottle all the liquor.
Zhou Qichuan called in his own younger sister, and together with Song Xiangjun and Xiao Mandong, the four of them started prepping the ingredients.
Zhou Qichuan had bought six big grass carp for Xiao Mandong—one yuan and thirty-five cents in total—and they were already cleaned and dressed.
Xiao Mandong then bought thirty eggs from a villager, plus greens, potatoes, and chili peppers, costing one yuan and eighty cents total.
Song Xiangjun went home to fetch a basket of stove ash, then took the pork offal down to the river to scrub it.
As he washed, he grumbled to himself. The ten jin of meat should've been plenty, but no—she insisted on the pig innards. Who eats that stinking stuff? Still, when you're helping out, you do whatever the host says.
Once Song Xiangjun finished, Xiao Mandong inspected the offal. It was very clean, and she was satisfied.
Zhou Qichuan handled the knife work, and Song Xiangjun went around borrowing plates, bowls, chopsticks, and tables and chairs.
Counting the village leaders, there were about forty people in total—eight per table, so five tables were needed.
Xiao Mandong cut the pork leaf lard into small pieces and simmered it over a low flame until the cracklings turned golden and crispy. Then she ladled the rendered lard into an earthenware jar to save for later use.
