Eight pig legs, four of them were marinated. When we leave, Shanyan and the others will take two with them. Of the remaining four, two will be kept for today and tomorrow, and the other two will be given to Jiang Baichuan.
The two pig hindquarters are also included; one will be kept for them to eat, and the other will be taken to school by Jiang Baichuan to add a meat dish for the students and teachers tomorrow.
Two pig heads are more troublesome, as they take a lot of time to process. Jiang Xiaoman is currently harvesting soybeans at home and doesn't have time to process them. She can only remove the hair and marinate them with coarse salt, intending to make cured pig head meat later.
"I also want to eat cured pig's head meat..." Jiang Yu looked longingly at the two pig heads.
"Then take one back~ It's very simple. Marinate it for a few days, take it out, hang it under the eaves to air dry, and then cook it in a big wood-fired pot. Take the meat off and stir-fry it with chili peppers, or simply make a dipping sauce and make a cold dish, it's delicious." Jiang Xiaoman taught him.
"Forget it! It's too much trouble. I'll just come to your place for a couple of meals instead." Jiang Yu thought for a moment and then decisively gave up.
Jiang Xiaoman looked at him speechlessly, thinking that Jiang Yu and Jiang Xia were too much like brothers.
Because the pig slaughtering took up most of the day, it was almost evening by the time he finished. Jiang Youliang was both happy and upset. He was happy that he had gained so much free wild boar meat for the family, but upset because he couldn't go to collect soybeans today.
However, Shan Yan and Jiang Yu were very loyal to Jiang Youliang, and for the next three days, the two of them helped Jiang Youliang harvest soybeans.
The four of them, being big men, worked quite quickly. The Jiang family's soybean field looked large, but it was actually scattered here and there, so it didn't add up to much.
It took three days to finally harvest all the ripe soybeans before the rain.
Jiang Youliang was very grateful. Before leaving, he gave Shan Yan and his men two of the largest wild boar legs, plus a large bag of freshly harvested dried soybeans.
There are more wild animals in the old mountain valley, so almost no one grows soybeans there, because even if they did, no one would get a chance to eat them. Various wild animals would take turns eating them, and they would probably be devoured before the soybeans even matured.
When Jiang Youliang heard that they couldn't grow miscellaneous grains, he brought them a lot of mung beans and red beans that he grew himself. In addition, Jiang Xiaoman bought them wireless network cards, hot and sour soup base, and spicy hot pot base, filling the two big baskets to the brim.
"Brother, let's bring more things next time, okay? Uncle Liang and Xiaoman have been too kind to us." On the way back, Jiang Yu couldn't help but say to Shan Yan.
"Okay! After this batch of rock honey is harvested, I'll take them for a walk in the mountains." Shan Yan also felt a little embarrassed.
On their first visit, the family wanted to bring them all the best things in their house. If they hadn't already run out of space, Jiang Xiaoman would have even made them two pots of meat buns to take with them.
The two of them hadn't had many relatives to visit while living in the mountains, and they were both thinking that they could visit the Jiang family more often in the future.
However, to Jiang Yu and Shan Yan's surprise, the moment they had this thought and arrived home, Jiang Xiaoman's phone rang urgently—
"Little Fish Bro! Quickly ask Brother Shanyan if you want to adopt children? I have two children here, no, three children!"
What?! A child?!
Jiang Yu's heart started racing instantly.
At that moment, in the principal's office of Langshan Elementary School, Jiang Baichuan was slamming his fist on the table in a fit of rage: "This is utterly lawless! This is a crime!"
“Principal Jiang, please calm down. That’s the gist of the matter. Right now, the most important thing is to find a relative’s house for these two children to stay with. Given their situation, we can’t send them to an orphanage.” The police officer handling the case also looked bitter.
Who would have thought that in this day and age, people would still be selling their children? This is utterly ignorant of the law!
The story begins about two weeks ago.
As the only primary school within a radius of dozens of miles, Langshan Primary School has taken in almost all the children in the vicinity who are poor and have no means to attend boarding school in town. Among them is the second sister of Chen Sao, who started a business with Jiang Xiaoman.
In Langshan, the preference for sons over daughters has always been very strong. If a girl gets married and can't give birth to a son, she has to keep having children.
This woman named Shan Qiaoqiao gave birth to three daughters for her husband. Her husband's family pressured her to have a son. Her youngest daughter was not even a year old when she became pregnant with her fourth child.
Unexpectedly, half a month ago, Shan Qiaoqiao, who was heavily pregnant, went up the mountain to harvest soybeans and accidentally rolled down the hillside. She was taken to the hospital but died, and she also lost her baby boy who was already in her belly.
What if my grandson is gone?
If Shan Qiaoqiao's daughter were as old as Jiang Cancan's eldest sister, that would be great. She could marry off her eldest granddaughter and immediately receive a dowry, and then find a wife for her son.
The problem is that Shan Qiaoqiao's eldest daughter is only in sixth grade, and her youngest daughter has just been weaned.
Who would have thought that Shan Qiaoqiao's mother-in-law was so vicious? She kept Shan Qiaoqiao's family at home while sending her son and two young daughters to the county town to buy things.
Shan Qiaoqiao's husband is also a ruthless man. He listened to his mother and secretly found a buyer to sell the two little money-losing girls.
When we get back, we'll just say they got lost in the city. Even if my sister-in-law goes to the police, they'll have already taken the two little ones somewhere without anyone noticing!
Once the hundred-day period is over, and you have money in your hands, it won't be difficult to marry a wife and continue the family line.
The reason the mother and son chose to sell the two smaller ones instead of the largest one was mainly because Shan Qiaoqiao's eldest daughter, Shancha, was already in sixth grade and not easy to fool, and she wasn't as valuable as the smaller ones.
Unexpectedly, Shancha had received anti-trafficking training from a student teacher during the summer vacation. Seeing her father acting suspiciously, it seemed strange that he was taking two such young children to the county town to buy things.
People in the mountains are used to being frugal. They rarely go to the city to buy things, so they will definitely bring a few adults with them so that they can carry back more things. Who would bring two little children who can't even walk properly?
Taking advantage of the chaos of the funeral at home, Camellia secretly ran to the school and found Jiang Baichuan.
Jiang Baichuan knew immediately that something bad was about to happen!
However, in cases where a father brings his daughter into the city and the child is not lost, it is generally not possible to report the incident to the police, as such cases would not meet the criteria for acceptance. Going through the proper channels is definitely not an option.
Fortunately, their education system and the public security system had some "business dealings," so Jiang Baichuan immediately reported the situation to the local police station, hoping they could contact the county public security bureau through their internal system.
If it really involves child trafficking, then it's a huge case!
The police station was alarmed upon hearing this and quickly contacted the county.
Fortunately, Camellia ran fast. I heard that by the time the comrades from the county public security bureau arrived, the two children had already been released!
The police officers handling the case were instantly covered in sweat!
There's no need for secret investigations now; just set up checkpoints throughout the city!
Finally, at a checkpoint on the provincial highway, they stopped the van carrying the human traffickers. Besides Shancha's two younger sisters, there were three other children inside! They were all about the same age as Shancha's sisters, and were also girls sold from the mountains…
Holding her two younger sisters, whom she had lost and then found again, Camellia was filled with both hatred and fear. She trembled all over and huddled in Jiang Baichuan's office, refusing to leave even for a moment.
I was terrified that as soon as I got home, my grandma and dad would sell my sisters again.
Jiang Baichuan was also trembling with anger. Although the child who was almost sold was not his student, he still called the county women's federation. The police station was also terrified because they had intervened in the timely interception of this premeditated child trafficking case.
The reason is simple: the other three girls in that van who had been sold by their families were also from their village.
This means that there may be a criminal gang that specializes in buying and selling children, and has long been targeting these large families in impoverished mountainous areas.
Especially in Langshan, many families will keep having children if they can't have a son, and some have so many daughters that they can't afford to raise them all, so there's a real need to sell one or two of them...
Human traffickers have seized upon this, and they may have already been operating in the countryside for some time.
This kind of child trafficking is different from abduction.
Parents whose children have been abducted are extremely difficult to deal with; they will fight tooth and nail to find their traffickers.
But people like Camellia's grandmother and father are different. They actively sell their children and not only do they not confront the traffickers afterward, but if they are caught, they will try their best to cover up the traffickers' whereabouts, fearing that they will ask for a refund if the child is found...
The local police station is now extremely busy, cooperating with the special task force to search for and arrest the "informants" and "intermediaries" that human traffickers have planted in the countryside, based on clues.
Due to a shortage of manpower, only one person from the office could be sent to help bring the two rescued children back.
Moreover, they dared not send her home, but only left her at the school, fearing that if they sent her back, Camellia's grandmother would sell her again—Camellia's father, on the other hand, didn't have the chance, because he was arrested for suspected child trafficking.
The case is easy to solve, but what will happen to these three children in the future?
Chapter 102
With one hand holding her second sister Shan Guo's hand and the other arm tightly wrapped around her third sister Shan Hua, Shan Cha refused to leave Jiang Baichuan's office or eat or drink, no matter how the police tried to persuade her.
I was afraid that if I ate too much and needed to use the restroom, someone would drag me into a car and take me home.
She's not a child anymore.
Children from poor families often mature early. Chacha, a sixth-grader, already knows a lot and has a slight understanding of the law. She knows that children need guardians before they grow up.
Now that her father has been arrested by the police, she can't imagine what will happen to the three sisters if they are sent home and end up in her grandmother's hands.
Fortunately, the incident caused quite a stir. Upon hearing the news, Shan Qiaoqiao's older sister, Chen Sao, rushed to the school.
Upon seeing her aunt, Camellia burst into tears, and for a moment, the principal's office was filled with the deafening cries of adults and children.
The police officers and Jiang Baichuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, these three children still had elders who genuinely loved them!
The problem is that Mrs. Chen's family is not well-off. She has two children and two elderly people at home. She can take care of her three nieces temporarily, but she definitely cannot raise three children for a long time.
To put it bluntly, her own family was already struggling to make ends meet, let alone having three children at once. Even adding one more person would be a struggle.
Moreover, with her son arrested, her cruel and selfish mother-in-law would definitely not give her a monthly allowance just because she helped raise her three granddaughters.
This means that if she has to raise three nieces, her family might really not have enough to eat.
Holding her three nieces in her arms, Aunt Chen simply couldn't bring herself to give the children up for adoption to other families.
Jiang Baichuan was also in a dilemma. He knew about Chen's family situation; they simply couldn't afford to raise these three children. But sending them back to their grandmother would be tantamount to pushing them back into the fire.
Just then, Jiang Xiaoman called and asked him to stop by her house to pick up some wild boar meat when he dropped his child off at school.
His nephew was always a clever and cunning fellow. In a flash, Jiang Baichuan didn't know what he was thinking, but he briefly told Jiang Xiaoman about it.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Xiaoman actually had a solution!
His solution was to immediately call Jiang Yu and his wife, who were desperate to adopt a child.
You should know that in order to (legally) adopt a child, Jiang Yu once had the wild idea that by frequently going to the market down the mountain, he might be able to pick up a child for free.
Of course, I haven't found it yet ┓( ??` )┏
After all, what normal person would abandon their own child for no reason?
"Children? Three? Give them to me! I want them all!"
Jiang Yu went crazy when she heard that there were children available for adoption.
However, Jiang Xiaoman had also given them a heads-up. Although the child's biological mother was gone and the biological father was likely to serve at least ten years in prison, the biological grandmother was still alive, and relatives on the maternal side were still around. They might not necessarily send the child to be raised in the mountains. She told them not to have too high hopes from the start.
However, Jiang Yu said he didn't want to hear anything, because these were three children!
Even if I only give him one, this trip will be worthwhile.
So both sides decided to set off immediately and meet up at Langshan Elementary School.
At the school, Aunt Chen hugged her three nieces and cried for a while. After wiping away her tears, she decided not to trouble the school any longer and said she would take the three children to her home for a few days.
As for what to do a few days from now, we can only take it one step at a time.
Anyway, there's absolutely no way we'll send it back to that old bastard!
Jiang Baichuan nodded and secretly slipped five hundred yuan to Aunt Chen.
He knew that Chen's family was not well-off. Suddenly having three more mouths to feed would be fine for a day or two, but if it went on for too long, her husband would probably be unhappy.
Aunt Chen left with tears in her eyes. No sooner had they left than Jiang Xiaoman arrived with Shan Yan and his wife.