The next day, when the weather was bright, people rushed to the town in twos and threes to visit the market during the cool morning hours.
"Heizi, have you thought it through? Are you still planning to stay working at the cattle farm and not leave?" Yan Fei asked Heizi, who was helping Ma Chao push the cart, on their way to deliver wine to his future father-in-law.
"Why should he leave? When he’s idle at home, he just wanders aimlessly. The unfriendly looks he gets at home aren’t much fun anyway. Might as well stay with us where there’s work to be done and he can relax once he finishes," Ma Chao, who was pulling the cart in front, laughed and answered for Heizi.
"Well, aren’t we going to buy piglets later? Once the number of pigs increases, it’ll be busy. I’m afraid he can’t handle the workload, so I was thinking that if he wants to leave, I can find some help in advance," Yan Fei explained.
"In any case, as long as you don’t kick me out, I’ll stay here and work." Heizi, leaning over to hold the cart pole, muttered in a muffled voice.
"That’s settled then. From now on, I’ll pay you the same salary as Aunt Yu Mei. Let me know in advance if you ever plan to leave. I’ll find someone else," said Yan Fei. He didn’t ask Heizi about his reason for staying but promised him the wages straight away.
"Exactly! At least we have something to do here. If he goes home, he’ll be idle all day, without even a girlfriend. I’ve heard that a lot of matchmakers have been introducing potential females to your brother; has there been anyone for you?" Ma Chao asked him.
"I’m too young..."- upon mentioning the matter of the wife, Heizi didn’t smile anymore, his face full of expectation. "I’m not going to just settle, but wait till I save up some money and find a woman myself, like Boss Ma’s wife."
"Ahem..." Ma Chao’s foot faltered and he almost choked. He stopped the cart and turned around, with a surprised look at him. Yan Fei was puzzled too, curious about how this guy’s mind worked.
Could a regular person endure a wife like Ma Yongming’s? They say there are three things that make a woman unattractive: being gluttonous, lazy, and vain. This woman embodies them all. Although she’s pregnant, the way she dresses up is indeed strange. Let alone her makeup, she always wears tight pants and high-heeled shoes, which are unbearable for people with a more traditional mindset.
In popular terms, she seems to have a strange aura around her. Though her natural looks are not bad, her overly done makeup gives the impression that if cleaned off, no one would recognize her.
Being stared at by the two made Heizi uncomfortable. "What’s up? Why are you staring at me like that?" he said, trying to save face.
Ma Chao cleared his throat and turned his head to carry on walking. After walking for a while, he turned around and said, "You’re still young. When you get older, you’ll understand what kind of woman is a good woman!"
Indeed, Heizi was still pretty young. After finishing middle school, he loafed around for a few years. Thinking about his elder brother who was not yet married, Heizi surely wasn’t even twenty. No wonder his thinking was a little peculiar.
But it wasn’t really strange because he was still a young lad after all. In an era when it was common for girls to use vanishing cream for makeup, seeing a woman dressed provocatively was quite usual; especially if the woman had an urban identity and always put on airs, it was normal for a bumpkin like Heizi to be fascinated by her. Wasn’t this how Ma Yongming brought her home?
After being rebuked by Ma Chao, Heizi disagreed again: "It’s not like you have a lot of experience. Your wife hasn’t even entered the family yet. Have you ever held her hand? Have you kissed her?"
Ma Chao started coughing again.
They were now entering the town and there were more people. He simply ignored Heizi’s provocation.
Yan Fei certainly had no say in this matter. After all, he had nothing to do with whom others chose as wives. His main concern was the big jar of wine on the cart!
Calling it a jar was actually out of habit. Basically, it was a big barrel used for storing wine, but since it was a tad bit larger, standing over a meter high, and they needed to differentiate it from smaller barrels, they referred to it as a jar.
It wasn’t filled to the top, but it was filled with good-quality wine. Yan Fei had used most of the cheaper wine to produce medicinal wine. The stocks were low now, so he could only gift these.
Pulling the barrel was difficult, so they could only take the main road. When people saw them pulling such a large barrel, those who knew Yan Fei would ask him about it. Yan Fei was too lazy to answer, so Ma Chao and Heizi answered them instead.
Fortunately, the road wasn’t too long and they reached their destination very quickly.
Diagonally across from Xu’s house was Old Ding’s Braised Meat stall, with tight rows of vegetable stalls on either side. There was barely enough space between the stalls for one to place a foot, and even then, one had to sidestep.
As for Yan Fei, his ’mission’ was assigned by Xu Xiaoyan. He was responsible for asking the old man located to the east of Old Ding’s stall to create some space, to shatter his years of arrogant attitude, and ideally, to drive him away completely.
In the town, stalls that regularly sold vegetables were generally fixed. This old man’s stall had been there for more than a year or two.
The old man wasn’t a local. He was from the village to the west of the town. The same village where the two men who blocked the bridge hole came from. Not only did he place a flat cart as the vegetable stall, but one end of the cart was against Old Ding’s Braised Meat cart, another end had many vegetables displayed on the ground, exactly blocking the entrance to the Xu Family’s door.
There had been a dispute between the old man and the Xu Family in the past. But that was a considerably old issue that Yan Fei barely remembered. Apparently, this old man had three sons. A day after the dispute, they all came to set up the stall. Though they didn’t cause trouble, they defiantly set up the stall for a day to show off.
There was another vegetable stall east of the old man. But that person was honest. Yan Fei knew well. On usual days at his door, the stall, covered with two tattered snake skin bags, was small. Back when Yan Fei’s family also had an ironware stall, this man set up a tiny stall under the ironware one. Now that the ironware stall was gone, he had expanded his stall but still left a path for the door.