Chapter 58: Never Challenge Human Nature!

Sanliuzi felt a bit awkward.

He took a step back, rubbing his hands against his clothes over and over.

“Auntie, I-I’m not hungry!”

“I ate before I came this morning, there’s no need…” Sanliuzi’s voice grew quieter and quieter as Tian Xiufen approached, carrying a large, steaming bowl of wontons.

“Eat first! You can work once you’re full. You’re still growing, so don’t go hungry!”

Tian Xiufen had always felt sorry for Sanliuzi.

When he was ten, she had gone with Xie Youzhen to deliver food.

Such a tiny child, crawling on the ground to pick up fallen grains of rice, stuffing them raw into his mouth when he was starving, coughing as he chewed.

Her tears had fallen instantly.

Unfortunately, she had been dirt poor herself back then. With three kids of her own to feed, money was tight, and they hadn’t gone through the household division yet. Even the two steamed buns mixed with rice bran she gave him had to be smuggled out in secret.

Now, times were getting better.

Tian Xiufen had also heard yesterday that they had made several hundred yuan in a single day.

She could finally bring herself to be generous.

With money to spare, she could treat this poor child a little better.

Sanliuzi’s eyes grew red. He reached out and took the wontons. The piping hot bowl warmed his hands, making his nose sting with unshed tears.

Holding the bowl, he sat down at the table and popped one into his mouth.

Shepherd’s purse wontons, packed with meat. They tasted absolutely delicious.

He couldn’t help but look up at the sky.

Mom, do you see this?

Your son is eating meat wontons!

*

By the time Xie Zhao and Xie Cheng got up, the river snails in the yard were already half-loaded.

Sanliuzi wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to grin at them.

“Just one more cart and it’s all loaded! Second Brother Xie, take a look. Is there anything else we need to bring along?” Sanliuzi asked.

Xie Zhao couldn’t help but give him a mental thumbs-up.

He shook his head, walked down, and patted Sanliuzi on the shoulder. “Thanks for your hard work! Have you had breakfast? If you haven’t…”

Sanliuzi quickly nodded. “Auntie already fed me. Shepherd’s purse wontons, they were delicious!”

He scratched his head, walked over to the donkey cart, and lifted a string of wild rabbits. At a glance, there were at least seven or eight of them.

“Second Brother Xie, do you buy wild rabbits? They’re hard to sell, but there are plenty on the mountain. I caught quite a few with snares over the last couple of days,” he said. “If you don’t buy them, I’ll just give them to Auntie to cook. I can’t eat this many by myself.”

Wild rabbits?

Xie Zhao spat out his mouthwash, walked over in a few strides, and took them.

They were indeed wild rabbits.

And plump ones at that.

Their legs were bound with hemp rope. Hanging upside down, they were frozen stiff, but their brownish-gray fur was still incredibly smooth and soft.

His eyes lit up slightly.

This fur… was truly good stuff.

“I’ll take them.”

Xie Zhao nodded. He lifted the rabbits to examine them closely. Once he confirmed the pelts were intact, he looked at Sanliuzi with a smile and asked, “Do you know how to skin them? Can you remove the rabbit pelts in one piece?”

Sanliuzi paused. “You want rabbit pelts, Second Brother Xie? Sure, I know how. I have a bunch at home!”

He walked over, took the rabbits from Xie Zhao, and asked Tian Xiufen for a handy pair of shears.

Skinning a rabbit wasn’t difficult.

First, slit the rabbit’s throat, thread a piece of hemp rope through the slit and out of its nose, and then hang the rope from a bamboo pole.

The rest was easy.

Slice down vertically from the neck, peel the skin back bit by bit, and finally pull the whole thing off, ears and head fur included.

In this way, a complete, beautiful rabbit pelt could be separated cleanly.

Xie Zhao reached out to take it, examined it for a moment, and then carried the pelt back inside the house.

“I’ll buy these rabbits at one yuan and twenty cents each too. I’ll take as many as you have, but they’re best with the fur still on. If you have clean, intact pelts to sell me, I’ll buy those too, at fifty cents a piece,” Xie Zhao said with a smile.

Sanliuzi’s eyes lit up.

“Deal! Once we get back from the county seat, I’ll bring the pelts over!”

He had saved up nearly a hundred of them!

With the deal struck, Xie Zhao brought out the scale and weighed all eight rabbits.

They averaged a little over three jin each, totaling twenty-six jin and four liang.

Xie Zhao took out his ledger and quickly wrote down: Shen Zhinian, rabbit payment: thirty-one yuan, sixty-eight cents.

Sanliuzi was in the middle of skinning a rabbit when the familiar name hit his ears, making him freeze instantly.

Almost as a reflex, he whipped his head around.

“S-Second Brother Xie? What did you call me?”

Xie Zhao smiled, holding up the ledger to show him the three written characters.

“Shen Zhinian. It’s a very nice name.”

Sanliuzi stared blankly, his eyes rimmed with red. Fearing he would be noticed, he quickly turned back to continue skinning.

But his heart was already a tangled, aching mess.

He had almost forgotten the name himself.

Shen Zhinian.

That was the name his father had given him.

To know affection, to know gratitude, to know the years.

He was supposed to remember it.

*

“One thousand three hundred and sixty jin! Tsk! You’ve got some real skill, kid!”

Zhao Wuyi clicked his tongue and had the accountant settle the bill.

“One thousand four hundred and ninety-six yuan. Here you go.”

As usual, the accountant paid in Da Tuanjie bills.

Xie Zhao counted the money carefully and put it into his cloth bag. Then he smiled at Zhao Wuyi and said, “It’s all the villagers’ money. I’m just transporting it for them.”

Zhao Wuyi narrowed his eyes.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and popped it between his lips. He offered another to Xie Zhao, asking as if in passing, “Your cost price shouldn’t be too high, right? You must be making a tidy sum off these two carts.”

Xie Cheng was about to speak, but in the next moment, Xie Zhao’s hand, hidden behind his back, gave a gentle wave.

He immediately shut his mouth.

“It’s just hard-earned money to help make ends meet,” Xie Zhao said with a chuckle.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back. I’ll bring more river snails tomorrow. I’ll let you get back to work.”

With that, he climbed onto the donkey cart and waved to Xie Cheng. The two carts rolled out of the alley.

The moment they turned the corner, the smile faded from Xie Zhao’s face.

He turned his head, glanced at Xie Cheng, and called out softly, “Brother.”

Seeing Xie Zhao’s solemn expression, Xie Cheng tensed up as well. “Is something wrong?”

“When we transport river snails in the future, we need to be careful. Keep our wealth hidden, and don’t mention to anyone that this business makes money.”

Xie Zhao said softly, “Human nature is ugly. Even if someone didn’t originally have bad intentions, they will still be tempted when faced with the opportunity.”

The human heart.

He had seen too much of it in his past life.

“Never challenge human nature.”

Xie Cheng nodded.

“By the way, you and Sanliuzi head back first in a bit. I’m going to the State-Owned Restaurant. Only a few wild rabbits are left; I’ll head back as soon as I sell them.”

Over the past few days, collecting river snails at home had gradually gotten on track. His younger sister and Xie Youzhen were handling the collection for now, but Xie Zhao still couldn’t put his mind at ease.

Because of Lin Muyu.

She was raising two children on her own. If there wasn’t anyone to spare to help her, how exhausted would she be?

Xie Cheng didn’t make a fuss. He nodded and hopped onto Sanliuzi’s donkey cart.