In times like these, life wasn't easy. But for that very reason, the mountain folk, who toiled year-round, always looked forward to a good New Year's celebration.
Typically, around the twenty-fifth of the twelfth lunar month, rural families that raised pigs would begin butchering them for the New Year.
Butchering a pig was an occasion to call on friends and relatives, inviting them over for a meal to strengthen their bonds.
In the past, when Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong were still hunting in the mountains, their families never raised a New Year pig, but they never lacked for meat to host guests.
But ever since the two men started focusing on their regular jobs, the Zhao and Li families were no longer in a position to host a pork feast.
For the past few years, it had always been their relatives and friends who did the butchering, inviting them over for the festivities.
