Chapter 26: Wulipu Grows Envious
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As Yang Zhang led Qiushui Lin home, another piece of news was already spreading like wildfire through the nearby villages.
Five-Li Hamlet.
Several militiamen in their mid-forties sat around Qian Weiguo’s earthen stove, rubbing their hands and warming themselves over the firewood.
“Have you heard? The militia squad in Zhang Family Hamlet has been reorganized.”
“Of course we have. I ran into a few people from their village this morning, and they smelled of meat! It was wonderfully fragrant!”
Qian Weiguo raised his brows and drawled lazily, “Smelled of meat? You must have still been half asleep. Their squad has only been reestablished for two days at most. They may not even have guns yet, and you think they managed to bring down game?”
“Captain! It’s true!”
A strapping young man entered from outside, a Five-Li Hamlet militia armband fastened around his sleeve.
“Zhang Family Hamlet brought down a wild boar last night!”
He smacked his lips, his face full of lingering delight.
“My mother heard it from somewhere and said that my third sister, who married into Zhang Family Hamlet, had gotten hold of a pound of wild-boar meat. She took me over to eat at once!”
The young man sat down beside the others, his eyes shining.
“My third sister sliced that wild-boar meat so thin it was almost like strands of hair! Even so, the whole lot of us managed to eat our fill with it and some shredded potatoes!”
He was still lost in the memory of the flavor.
“Fragrant. Truly fragrant…”
The others tilted their heads, listening intently to every detail.
The cravings in their bellies began to stir.
Meat!
Who in these times did not long for a bite of meat?
The more they thought about it, the angrier they became.
“Why should Zhang Family Hamlet be the one to bring down a wild boar?”
“We’ve been patrolling the mountains for so long, and all we’ve caught are old hens and a few undersized rats. A wild boar? We haven’t even seen one!”
“Can that bunch of fools from Zhang Family Hamlet even use guns? You can’t bring down a wild boar with a knife! Those beasts have thick hides and solid flesh. They’re not so easy to kill!”
Smack!
Someone suddenly slapped the bench, like a magistrate striking his courtroom block.
Qian Weiguo glared at his fellow militiamen.
“Damn it! We haven’t even got a scrap of grease in our bellies, and those bastards from Zhang Family Hamlet have already had meat!”
His furious outburst instantly awakened everyone’s anger and resentment.
That was right. What gave Zhang Family Hamlet the right?
Back when the two villages had quarreled over some disagreement, those people had still had the nerve to strike first, injuring the old marksman from Five-Li Hamlet.
Afterward, they had forced Five-Li Hamlet to spend a long time training replacements.
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Although Zhang Family Hamlet’s militia squad had been disbanded after that clash, every one of them had worn a long face and turned a cold eye, claiming that they had no need for Five-Li Hamlet’s militia to look after them.
Someone began cursing.
“Every last one of them from Zhang Family Hamlet is an ungrateful wretch, rotten to the core!”
“When they didn’t have a militia squad, they relied entirely on us for protection! Now that they’ve got a new squad, not only do they fail to thank us, they’ve secretly gone and hunted the wild boars in our mountains!”
That only deepened everyone’s indignation.
“The ravine and the other hills bordering Zhang Family Hamlet have always been the poorest in game! Even if new wild boars appeared in the mountains, they couldn’t possibly have gone over there. There’s nothing to eat in that direction!”
“If you ask me, they must have broken the rules, gone to someone else’s hills, and killed another village’s boar!”
Qian Weiguo was the first to rise.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and demand an explanation!”
Qian Weiguo was not only captain of the Five-Li Hamlet militia squad; he was also Wang Jie’s maternal uncle.
A few days earlier, he had overheard his family discussing the matter on the heated brick bed. They said that the wife Wang Jie had married from Zhang Family Hamlet had run away.
She had even stolen eggs before leaving!
She had given birth to a worthless girl. No wonder she had no face to show herself.
And that woman had actually stolen eggs to eat!
As if stealing the eggs were not bad enough, she had dared to take the child and run back to her parents’ home. Supposedly, when Wang Jie’s family had gone there to demand an explanation, the people from Zhang Family Hamlet had beaten them and sent them back!
It was utterly lawless.
Qian Weiguo had never paid much attention to family affairs. Whenever the younger men needed something, they would naturally bring over good food and drink and ask for his help.
But this time, Wang Jie had not come to him.
Qian Weiguo cursed Wang Jie inwardly for being spineless and useless.
Yet when he turned and saw the desolate fields buried beneath the snow, he felt that he could understand his cousin after all.
His whole family had waited and hoped for so long, only for that woman to give birth to a girl.
If she had borne a boy, they could at least have looked forward to him joining them in the fields after a few years. The family would have gained another pair of working hands—someone who could earn work points and claim a share of grain.
But what use was a girl?
After raising her with all that effort, she could only be exchanged for ten pounds of white flour.
Wang Jie’s entire family had surely been dragged down by that woman from Zhang Family Hamlet who could not produce a son.
And as a result, even he, her maternal uncle, had one less mouthful of meat to eat.
The more Qian Weiguo thought about it, the angrier he became.
In the past, he had despised the people of Zhang Family Hamlet for being petty, spiteful, and terribly unlucky to deal with. He had never liked going there.
But today, he had no choice.
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Old grievances and new grudges would all be settled today!
The men from Five-Li Hamlet stormed toward Zhang Family Hamlet in a great commotion.
Before they had even entered the village, a breeze swept toward them.
There was indeed the fragrance of meat!
Who could smell that on such a bitterly cold day and not lose their mind?
And they could smell it before they had even reached the village entrance…
Did that not mean that every household in Zhang Family Hamlet was eating meat?
Why should they get to?
How could that useless bunch have meat before them?
Qian Weiguo quickened his pace.
He became even more certain that those wretched people from Zhang Family Hamlet had stolen the meat that ought to have ended up in his own mouth.
…
At that moment, Yang Zhang had no idea that a group of men had come looking for trouble outside the hamlet.
He deliberately walked slowly, chatting with Qiushui Lin along the way and gaining a rough understanding of her circumstances.
She came from Linchuan City in the south and had grown up on the Nanhu Plain, a girl accustomed to eating rice.
She had a younger sister and a younger brother, and as the eldest child, Qiushui Lin had always been the responsible one.
“When I first came to Zhang Family Hamlet this summer, I truly couldn’t get used to it. But I’m much better now!”
When Qiushui Lin smiled, her eyes curved like two poetic moons.
Amid this season of famine, it was the first time Yang Zhang had seen such a quality in anyone.
Clear and cool as water, calm and unhurried. Without probing any deeper, he could already imagine the refined and courteous family in which she had been raised.
“Don’t look at me like that. I know what that look means… You city girls can’t endure hardship, is that it? Don’t underestimate me!”
Qiushui Lin patted her left arm with her right hand.
“After nearly half a year of hard work, I’ve already proven myself through my actions! Girls from the city aren’t physically weaker than people born and raised here!”
Yang Zhang smiled warmly.
“I never thought you couldn’t handle it. I only thought you seemed a little different from the others.”