Chapter 212 – Meat Delivered to the Door

“How do you want to sell your goats? By weight or by the head?” Li Xuemei began negotiating as soon as Granny Rong gave her a nod.

The boy finally snapped out of his daze and cautiously replied, “Madam, we weighed them before coming. Both goats are a little over sixty jin, but not quite seventy. If you’re buying, we’ll go with three qian five per goat—seven qian for both.”

Li Xuemei did a quick mental calculation. The price was reasonable.

Cheaper than buying them in town—and they’d delivered them right to the door.

“Alright, we’ll take them. Wait here.” Li Xuemei turned to go fetch the silver.

“Granny, why isn’t there anyone in your village?” the little girl asked curiously.

Granny Rong pointed at her mouth and waved her hand.

They understood—she couldn’t speak.

Li Xuemei soon returned and handed over seven qian silver. The two rams now officially belonged to Yan Family.

Granny Rong led the goats away and tied them with the family’s ewe.

The three goats began bleating the moment they saw each other.

The two visitors heard it, and the girl’s eyes lit up.

“That’s our ewe! She didn’t get butchered? Auntie, your family kept her alive?”

Li Xuemei nodded with a smile.

“Charge! Let’s race to the big rock!” A wave of children came charging down from the north.

The two outsiders were stunned as the kids came pouring in.

Each one carried a wooden stick and wore a similar basket on their back. The moment they saw two unfamiliar faces, their first reaction was intense—alarming, even.

They surrounded the strangers in a tight circle, eyes sharp and alert. Their grips on their sticks visibly tightened.

“Y-you… what are you doing?” The girl’s little uncle trembled as he shielded the silver they’d just received, clutching it in a death grip.

“What are you doing, surrounding people like that!” A familiar voice came from behind.

The girl looked up. The noisy one from last time was striding over, holding an even longer stick.

Kids made way for her as she passed. She looked impressive.

“It’s you again? Selling goats?” Yan Yu turned to her mother. “Mom, did we buy the goats?”

Li Xuemei nodded. “They brought two. We bought them both.”

Yan Yu lit up with joy, her smile bright as sunshine.

“Alright, scatter! Everyone back to your homes!” she began shooing them away.

The Young Scouts usually obeyed a dismissal order in an instant, but the moment they heard “bought goats,” none of them wanted to leave.

“Xiao Er, your family bought goats again? Two this time? Are there any males? Can they start breeding?”

“Auntie Yan, can we come look at them?”

“I want to see too!”

“Me too, me too…”

The children were all intensely interested in the Yan Family’s goats.

Li Xuemei waved a hand. “Go on, all of you. Madam Rong, keep an eye on them—make sure no one gets hurt.”

Granny Rong nodded and followed.

A large group of children entered the Yan Family courtyard in orderly fashion.

To be honest, this was their first time stepping into the leader’s home.

Their footsteps automatically quieted.

On the way in, the children murmured to one another.

“When Yan Family’s goats start having kids, and those kids grow up and have more, and there’s a whole bunch of goats… do you think we could each take one home to raise?”

“That’ll take forever. Better we figure out how to buy an adult goat together and raise it like we do the rabbits.”

The rabbits currently belonged collectively to the Young Scouts.

Their leader had said once the rabbits had a few more litters, they’d butcher a few for meat. After that, the cycle would continue—more births, more meat.

“Do you think the Work Points we earn are enough? We should ask Yan Xiao Er later how much a goat costs, and see if the Young Scouts can afford one.”

“Hey, what if we catch some wild ducks from the reed marsh? We could raise those too.”

“Great idea—let’s go after this.”

The three goats stood quietly, each casting a wary eye on the crowd of human cubs, frozen in place.

“The ones with horns are males, the one without is a female.”

“Looks like the rams are bigger—more meat on them.”

Xiao Gouzi pulled a handful of grass from his basket and tentatively held it out.

One of the rams stared at him for a moment, then lowered its head to eat.

The children let out an excited chorus and began digging through their baskets.

When they went up the mountain, they often picked fresh grass for the rabbits. Over time, they’d learned exactly which types the rabbits liked best. Now, every time they went, they gathered some to bring back.

They hadn’t expected the goats to like it too.

The children’s enthusiasm startled the goats, who began backing away as they chewed.

Granny Rong collected the grass from their hands and piled it in the feeding trough.

The three goats walked over and began eating obediently.

After they’d had their fill of goat-watching, the children rushed off toward the river.

They were ready to mount a duck-hunting operation in the reed marsh.

“You went into the mountain?” the little girl asked quickly. “You can’t just go in there—there are tigers! They eat people!”

Tigers?

Yan Yu turned her head. “Really? Has anyone actually seen one?”

The girl replied solemnly, “If someone had, would they still be alive?” Then she added, “But both our village and my grandma’s village have always said so.”

She continued, “Besides tigers, there are wild boars too. When food gets scarce in the winter, they even come down from the mountain and break into villages. Super scary!”

Yan Yu’s mouth began to water.

That good? Meat delivered to your door?

“Are there any hunters nearby?” Yan Yu asked.

She needed to know—wasn’t worried about wild animals, but she didn’t want to fall into a hunter’s trap.

The girl’s uncle replied, “There used to be, but I heard they’ve all been called down from the mountain. Hunting’s dangerous. Once winter comes and everything ices over, it’s even harder to move through the forest. You can only really hunt a few months a year. You’re better off just farming properly—it’s much more reliable.”

Yan Yu understood.

Even hunters had to pay taxes—sometimes even more than regular farmers.

Families like these might say a few people went into the mountains together, but nothing like their village—where it seemed like the whole place was ready to charge up there at once.

And yet, all this time, they hadn’t seen even a single large animal.

It seemed the wild creatures were clever, sensing that there were too many two-legged beasts to mess with, and kept far, far away.

They agreed that if there were more goats in the future, they’d keep delivering them to her house. Yan Yu watched the two figures disappear down the road out of the village.

“Ma, should we butcher one today?” Yan Yu asked, seeking her mother’s opinion.

Li Xuemei hesitated, then nodded. “Let’s do it. We don’t have much meat left, and one goat will feed us for several days. Better than making a trip to town.”

“We don’t have to. We still have plenty of pork scraps. Granny Rong’s braised meat is delicious—I noticed Master Lu and the others love it too.”

Yan Yu changed her mind because she thought of her father. She wanted to wait a few days and slaughter the goat after he returned, so they could eat the meat together.

Li Xuemei guessed what her daughter was thinking. “We can’t serve people pork scraps every day. Tasty or not, it just doesn’t sound good.”

It’d make people think they were too stingy to buy proper meat for the workers—might even become a joke.

Once or twice was fine, but if it became an everyday thing, that wouldn’t do.

“I wonder how my dad’s doing now?”

Yan Yu gazed toward the river.

Her father had been gone for several days. If he’d only gone to nearby villages or towns, he should’ve been back by now.

Still no sign of him—he’d likely gone farther afield, maybe all the way to Longxing.

(End of chapter)