Chapter 48: Are You Selling That Wild Boar?

Only then did Xie Tian hold back her tears.

Hmph.

Second Brother would definitely believe her!

*

With over five hundred catties of river snails in the yard, every wooden bucket and water vat in the house, big and small, was filled to the brim.

They couldn’t pack too many into a single vat or bucket, otherwise they would suffocate.

“We need to buy a few more wooden basins when we go to the county seat tomorrow. Otherwise, as we collect more and more, we won’t even have anything to put them in!”

Xie Cheng calculated.

Xie Zhao nodded in agreement.

They rinsed the muddy ground a bit, and by then, Tian Xiufen had finished cooking the porridge.

“Come have some porridge before you head out. It’s piping hot and will warm your insides so you won’t freeze.”

The three walked over, ladled out some porridge, and drank. Digging their spoons to the bottom, they found two eggs resting at the bottom of each bowl.

Even Xie Tian had them.

“Thanks, Mom!”

Xie Tian’s eyes lit up. She fished out the two eggs like they were precious treasures, washed them, and stuffed them into her pockets.

Tian Xiufen chuckled and teased her, “What’s this? You’re not mad at me anymore?”

Xie Tian grinned. “My mom is the best in the world!”

Seeing this, Xie Zhao and the others burst out laughing.

After finishing the porridge and resting for a moment, Xie Youzhen stood up, rubbed his arms, and lit the hurricane lantern again.

“Let’s go, time to catch some fish!”

He said, “Fish bring in more money! We should earn whatever we can. Let’s try to get a wife for our eldest this year!”

With a way to make money, a person finally had some confidence.

Xie Youzhen stood up, let out a long sigh, and turned to Xie Cheng. “You’ve had a hard time these past few years.”

As soon as he said this, the yard fell completely silent.

Even Xie Tian stopped smiling.

Tian Xiufen’s eyes turned red. Unable to hold back her tears, she lowered her head as they began to fall.

“It’s my fault for being useless. Mom has let you down…”

Tian Xiufen choked out softly.

Xie Zhao also instinctively looked toward Xie Cheng.

He hadn’t known in his past life, but in this life, he understood everything perfectly.

As the eldest, Xie Cheng had received no special treatment; instead, he was the one who suffered the most.

In the early years, the family was poor, and their grandparents favored their uncle and aunt. Life had been incredibly difficult.

So, Xie Cheng went to work in the mines, first to earn money for the family, and second to save up for a wife.

Whether in the scorching heat of midsummer or the freezing depths of winter, he labored in the mines. Blisters wore onto his shoulders layer after layer, and he went through countless pairs of canvas and cloth shoes.

The foreman was a brutal man; even when Xie Cheng was dizzy with illness, he still had to go down into the mines to work.

Because it was unregistered labor, his daily wage was only one yuan.

He was truly risking his life for that money.

It wasn’t that Xie Youzhen and Tian Xiufen hadn’t known before.

It was that they hadn’t dared to face it.

Now, they had finally gotten through it.

“Dad, Mom, don’t worry. I’ll pay back Eldest Brother’s money, and I’ll help him get a wife and build a house. This is what I ought to do,” Xie Zhao spoke up, his voice firm.

As the favored one who had benefited, this was his duty.

He did it willingly.

Xie Cheng looked away into the pitch-black night. The knot that had been tight in his chest for so long suddenly seemed to dissolve.

“We’re family. No need for such talk.”

Xie Cheng smiled and slung the creel over his shoulder. “Let’s go. Catching more fish is what matters right now!”

Everyone in the yard smiled.

The three set off, heading straight for Dahetan.

*

Sure enough, the fish were getting scarcer.

An hour later, neither of the creels was full. Xie Cheng wanted to try another spot, but Xie Zhao called him back to the bank.

“Haste makes waste, and the same goes for making money. Health comes first.”

He changed into dry clothes and said, “Dad, Brother, let’s go home.”

They hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time. Starting tomorrow, the river snail business would be officially underway, and the volume would only increase day by day until the spring plowing.

Tonight, they needed to rest and build up their strength.

The three walked back along the narrow path.

The night was hazy, and the fog was thick.

As they approached the yard outside their house, a long shadow was curled up in the corner. Beside the silhouette lay a massive, terrifying shape, its shadow stretching out twisted and distorted on the muddy, melting snow.

Xie Youzhen’s eyes widened in fright.

He had been smoking his pipe, and a mouthful of smoke caught in his throat, making him cough violently.

“What… what is that?!”

His instinct was to pull his two sons behind him, but Xie Cheng moved faster.

Xie Cheng grabbed a stick from the roadside and rushed forward.

“What bastard is that? What are you doing lurking outside my door?!”

The figure had been dozing off. Startled by the shout, he shivered and jumped up.

“Big Brother Xie! It’s me! It’s Sanliuzi^[1]!”

Sanliuzi?

Hearing the name from a distance, Xie Zhao’s lips twitched.

How did someone end up with a name like that?

Only then did the grim look on Xie Youzhen’s face ease.

He took a few steps forward and held out the hurricane lantern. He took a look—hey, it really was him!

“What are you doing here? You didn’t make a sound. You nearly scared the life out of me!”

Xie Youzhen slapped him on the head, then lowered the lantern. “What’s this?!”

At Sanliuzi’s feet, the massive shape was finally revealed.

“It’s a wild boar!”

Sanliuzi scratched his head sheepishly. “I only heard your family was buying river snails when I got back from the mountain this afternoon. So I gathered some along the riverbank on my way back, and I brought this wild boar along too.”

His house was at the end of the village. If he carried the wild boar all the way back first, the round trip would take over an hour.

So he had simply carried it straight to Xie Youzhen’s door.

“These are the river snails, Big Brother Xie. Take a look! I just gathered them. Are you buying?”

Xie Cheng looked closer and noticed a straw basket next to the wild boar.

It was packed with stone snails, which looked noticeably different from pond snails.

“We’ll take them.”

Xie Cheng nodded and let out a sigh of relief, tossing the stick aside. “But we’ll have to put it on credit tonight and pay you tomorrow. Is that alright?”

Sanliuzi grinned, looking a bit self-conscious. “Of course it’ll work! How could I not trust Big Brother Xie?”

Xie Youzhen had already opened the courtyard gate, and the group walked inside.

Sanliuzi immediately spotted the water vats and buckets of all sizes in the yard.

They were actually filled with river snails!

It seemed the rumors were true!

Over there, Xie Cheng had already quickly weighed them and showed the scale to Sanliuzi to verify. “Twenty-two catties in total!”

As he spoke, he turned around and shouted to Xie Zhao, “Write it down! See how much it comes to!”

But after he spoke, he didn’t hear Xie Zhao reply.

Xie Cheng waited a moment, then turned to look. He saw Xie Zhao looking at Sanliuzi with a beaming smile.

“Sanliuzi, is that wild boar of yours for sale?”

What?

A wild boar?

Sanliuzi was stunned for a moment, but he quickly recovered and nodded.

“It is. I was planning to haul it to Xiangmin Town tomorrow to see if anyone wants it.”

He added, “There should be buyers in town. Whatever I can’t sell, I’ll just cure it into preserved meat!”

Sanliuzi paused, then quickly looked at Xie Zhao. “Second Brother Xie, do you buy wild boars too?”