The old man had work points in the production team, but they were barely enough to scrape by and provide some grain; he had the money to buy meat, but having been frugal all his life, he never indulged in it. When the production team slaughtered pigs, he didn't join in, and he didn't let Zheng Long join either. His reasoning was that having bought so much grain, buying meat as well would be too expensive.
In the old man's eyes, being able to eat white flour was already a tremendous blessing. If they were to eat meat too, life would be too comfortable, and it would make him uneasy.
Thus, even though they didn't have meat for the Spring Festival in the seventies, they were still very happy.
