The Village
He was clearly still weak and only half-conscious last night. Now he was full of energy since a new day arrived.
He wrapped the wounds on his body with a new piece of gauze, then squatted at the entrance of the cave and began to cook.
Yue Jiaojiao was tired from staying up late taking care of Zhao Zhan, and it was already noon when she woke up.
Seeing Zhao Zhan crouching at the cave entrance, Yue Jiaojiao asked in a hoarse voice, “Zhao Zhan, are you feeling better?”
“I’m alright.” Zhao Zhan put down his work and walked over when he heard the commotion. “Do you want to sleep a little longer or do you want to sleep after eating? I’ve already prepared lunch and kept it warm in the crock pot.”
“Let’s eat first. ”
Yue Jiaojiao got out of bed and washed up. When she saw that there was a bright red chili in today’s dish, Yue Jiaojiao was so happy that she ate an extra biscuit.
“Jiaojiao, I’m going to the village later to sow the two paddy fields at home.
“I’ll leave the soybean and chili seeds for you to plant so that they could grow in the future. If we don’t get that land soon, it won’t be easy to get it back when they’ve plowed it and planted the things.”
Yue Jiaojiao leaned lazily on the small stool that Zhao Zhan had specially made for her and nodded her head in boredom. “Go on. Otherwise, if you rely on the mountain to feed you, who knows when you’ll be able to eat.”
Zhao Zhan’s home was not too far away from their thatched house.
The population of Willow Village wasn’t high density. The houses in the village were arranged in three rows, each row contained about a dozen households.
Zhao Zhan’s family’s old house was located in the middle of the second row of Willow Village.
From the thatched house to the two plots of land, they had to pass through half the village.
As the only hunter in the village, Zhao Zhan had always been the center of attention. Sometimes, when the villagers wanted to eat meat during the new year, they would occasionally go to Zhao Zhan to see if he had caught any prey.
If they happened to encounter Zhao Zhan’s wild chickens and rabbits, they could buy them directly from Zhao Zhan, which was a few copper coins cheaper than buying them at the market.
Because of this, other than Zhao Kuazi’s family, the other families in the village had a pretty good relationship with Zhao Zhan.
“Look, isn’t that the girl from our village beside Zhao Zhan?”
“That girl is really pretty, just like a fairy in the painting.”
“Hey, who’s that girl with Zhao Zhan?”
Under the thick willow tree in the middle of Willow Village, a group of women holding wicker baskets was gathered together to do needlework. When they saw Zhao Zhan walking over with Yue Jiaojiao, they started discussing among themselves. “Zhao Zhan, this kid is really amazing. Even if he’s poor and doesn’t even have a house or land, he still managed to find a beautiful wife.”
“Tell me, when did Zhao Zhan marry this pretty lady? How come we didn’t hear anything?”
Zhao Kuaizi was surrounded by this group of nosy people, and her expression was extremely ugly.
Ever since that heavy rain, she had been drenched and had to pay such a large sum of money. She had fallen ill and had a fever. It was only today that she had the strength to go out.
What bad luck of bumping into them on her first day out.
Zhao Kuazi pouted and thought to herself, but on the surface, she threw the needle and thread into the wicker basket. She pointed at the mulberry and scolded the nosy people, “Don’t talk nonsense in broad daylight. I cut ties with Zhao Zhan long ago. How would I know about his matters?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard the wolves howling at the mountain gaze behind our village recently. Do you know why that is?”
“What? There were wolves howling? Is that true?”
The woman closest to Zhao Kuazi looked panicked. “It’s a big deal that there are wolves here. Our village is the closest to Wangshan Town. There have been disasters there before caused by wolves.”