I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the Little New Year.

Early in the morning, the kitchen of the Jiang family's old house was filled with the aroma of busy cooking.

Wearing reading glasses, Wang Xiuying, the mother, sat on a small stool, holding a small notebook in her hand, muttering to herself as she carefully planned the meat dishes to be prepared for the New Year.

"Pork is 18 yuan a pound now. We have many relatives, so we need to buy 10 pounds of pork belly to make braised pork and red-braised pork."

"I'll buy five more pig trotters and braise them for the New Year."

"We also need a few pounds of pork ribs, to make soup for Lingling..."

She scribbled on the notebook with her pen, her brows sometimes relaxing and sometimes furrowing.

"Oh dear, what's going on with beef? The price has gone up again, it's over forty yuan a pound now!"

Wang Xiuying smacked her lips with heartache.

"It's too expensive. Let's buy less, just two pounds. We'll slice it up and stir-fry it with some green peppers so you can have a taste."

Jiang Chen was sitting at the dining table, slowly peeling an orange. He listened to his mother meticulously calculating the price difference of a pound and a half, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.

He could understand his mother's habit.

Having lived a life of poverty and hardship, frugality has become ingrained in my bones.

In their traditional view, being able to eat meat during the Lunar New Year was a great blessing, so they naturally had to be careful with their portions.

But that was in the past.

Now, Jiang Chen is back.

He held over six million yuan in cash in his hand, and the numbers in his bank account were so numerous that he felt somewhat numb.

If I were to make my mother worry for half a day about how much beef she could eat during the Chinese New Year, it would be a real pain.

He's such a failure as a son!

His system is so worthless!

"Mom, don't bother calculating it."

Jiang Chen stood up, threw the orange peel in his hand into the trash can, and clapped his hands.

"What era are we living in? Bringing a calculator to eat meat during Chinese New Year?"

He walked up to Wang Xiuying and took the notebook and pen from her hand.

"I don't plan to buy meat for the Lunar New Year this year from the market."

"Where else can we go if not the farmers' market?"

Wang Xiuying immediately raised her head and glared at him, her eyes seeming to say, "You're trying to squander money again."

"The meat in the supermarket is even more expensive! It's all pre-packaged, and they shortchange you on the weight—it's a rip-off!"

Jiang Chen looked at his mother's expression, which seemed to say, "I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice," and smiled mysteriously.

"I have a clever plan."

"Didn't you always say that the pork in the market these days doesn't taste good, it has a strong feed taste, and it doesn't taste like the New Year's food from when I was a kid?"

He leaned close to his mother's ear and lowered his voice.

"Today, I'll go to that ecological farm in the next town and get you some of the most authentic black-haired local pork, raised on grain!"

"We guarantee to bring back the feeling of Chinese New Year from your childhood!"

"To the farm?"

Wang Xiuying paused for a moment, then waved her hand.

"That won't work either! They're a wholesaler, they don't sell retail! If you buy ten or eight pounds, the owner won't even acknowledge you!"

Jiang Chen didn't wait for his mother to say anything more.

He took the black Audi car key directly from the coat rack hanging on the wall and twirled it on his finger.

"You can hold it then!"

After saying that, he strode out the door.

However, he did not drive the A6L out directly.

Although the car's trunk was large, it was still too extravagant to use it to store raw meat and fresh fish; he felt a little sorry for it.

Besides, driving an Audi to a pig farm to buy meat is too conspicuous.

Jiang Chen stood in the yard, took out his phone, and called "Uncle Shunzi," the village's truck driver who hauled goods for people.

"Hello, Uncle Shunzi? This is Jiang Chen, Er Gouzi."

"Yes, yes, I'm back."

"Are you free right now? Can you send a car? Yes, let's go right now. Come with me to Liu's pig farm in the next town."

"How much? Do I look like someone who's short of money?"

Jiang Chen smiled, his tone hearty.

"Two hundred yuan, one trip."

"Okay, sure! Just wait at your doorstep, I'll be there in five minutes!"

Uncle Shunzi's voice on the other end of the phone was filled with excitement.

Half an hour later.

Jiang Chen sat in the passenger seat of Uncle Shunzi's Wuling mini-truck, which was covered in the patina of time, and they bumped along the way to the largest ecological farm in the neighboring town.

At the entrance of the pig farm, a unique smell, a mixture of feed and livestock manure, wafts out.

A burly boss with a shaved head and a thick gold chain around his neck stood next to a huge weighbridge, smoking a cigarette and directing the workers to load goods.

Seeing the Wuling mini-truck stop, he glanced at it and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Buying meat, boss?"

"Front legs or back legs? How much do you want today?"

Jiang Chen jumped out of the passenger seat.

He dusted himself off, seemingly ignoring the smell, and his gaze swept directly to the rows of pigsties next to him.

Inside the pigpen, groups of black and brown local pigs were grunting and squealing as they scrambled for food, looking full of energy.

Jiang Chen's gaze swept across the herd of pigs, finally settling on the largest, most robust black boar with glossy black fur, which was energetically nudging the iron bars with its large snout.

"Hmm, this pig looks good, it seems quite energetic."

Jiang Chen nodded in satisfaction.

He turned around, pointed a finger at the bald boss, and pointed at him from afar.

His tone was calm, yet carried an unquestionable command.

"Boss."

"I don't want anything else."

"That one, kill it for me."

"What the heck?"

The bald boss was so startled that he dropped the cigarette from his mouth with a "pop."

He picked at his ears, thinking he had misheard, and looked at Jiang Chen with disbelief.

"Brother...brother, say it again? Which one do you want?"

Jiang Chen pointed it out again.

"That one over there, the strongest one."

The bald boss's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"My goodness! You're not kidding, are you? Do you know how heavy that pig is? It's a breeding pig in our area! The meat alone would weigh at least two hundred pounds! Your family... your family owns a big restaurant?"

Jiang Chen shook his head, his expression remaining calm.

"I don't run a restaurant; I just eat at home."

He took out his phone, skillfully opened the payment code, and handed it to the boss.

"I want the whole head."

"From head to toe, inside and out, including the pig's head, trotters, and offal, I want it all."

Jiang Chen looked at the dumbfounded bald boss and added casually.

"I don't like to be picky when I buy things, it's too much trouble. Let's arrange for someone to do it now and wait for it to be taken away."