“Huh?” Madam Guo was confused.
“You just broke off relations with the fool and said that she was planning to live on her own. And then, in the blink of an eye, she has two men with her, and they were carrying a wild boar on their backs. Amazing! We were just saying that she would totally be starving, but now she has pork to eat! This is shocking!” Old Yang’s daughter-in-law was envious.
The other women exclaimed in envy too.
After Madam Guo heard her, she said, “What?” and then rose up from the bed-stove, dashing outside. Several people were standing at the side of the road, looking at the east end of the village. They were discussing how heavy the wild boar was.
Madam Guo knew instantly that the women were not joking. The fool had gotten herself a wild boar.
A wild boar!
After winter fell, only several people who were either skilled at hunting or had rations left got to eat meat. The other people had not even gotten to smell the aroma of meat. Them, for example, had to go hungry sometimes. Meat…
What did meat taste like? Everyone had almost forgotten.
Madam Guo had no time to head to the east side of the village to confirm it for herself. She headed immediately to her parents-in-law’s home.
“Mother? Have you heard what they were saying just now?”
“What?” Madam Wu was making clothes for her grandchildren to wear during the New Year.
Madam Guo said quickly, “They said that Qi Qingyao brought two men back home, and most importantly with a wild boar!”
“A wild boar?” Madam Wu looked up instantly.
Madam Wu looked at Madam Guo, surprised.
The two women’s gazes met for a while. Madam Guo licked her dry lips and nodded heavily.
“How is this possible?” Madam Wu got up and put her cotton robes on.
Madam Guo said, harried, “I thought so too, but Old Yang’s daughter-in-law and so many people in the village saw them! They said that they had really brought a wild boar back!”
…
Qi Qingyao had the three children come out to take a look at the wild boar after she and her two “servants” returned. The children had never seen a wild boar before. They opened their eyes wide and looked at the black-skinned animal with astonishment.
“Mother, what boar is this?” Xiaobao blinked his big eyes with curiosity.
Qi Qingyao pointed at the boar they had put down on the ground. “This is a wild boar. It is black in color and its meat tastes delicious!”
A wild boar?
The children walked circles around the boar curiously.
Erniu was more concerned with something else. “Did Mother hunt it?”
Qi Qingyao wanted to take the credit for herself, but she knew her limits. She also did not want to make herself a superwoman in her children’s eyes. So she patted Jiang Yeqian’s shoulder hard and said, “This is all thanks to our servant!”
Jiang Yeqian was speechless. If the people at the capital learned that he, the Head Grand Secretariat of the court, had become a servant, they would laugh their teeth off!
After the children finished looking at the boar, they saw a boy beside it.
The boy was wearing white clothes. He stood under the roof, silent. His clothes, however, seemed to be scraped to shreds by tree branches, making the slender boy look raggedly.
The boy had a delicate and pretty face. His eyes were like twin balls of black mercury wrapped in twin pools of white mercury, and also like two mysterious obsidian pearls.
‘This man is so young and pretty!’
This was what the children thought.
At this moment, Qi Qingyao ordered Jiang Yeqian around. “You, kill the boar!”
The corners of Jiang Yeqian’s lips twitched. He forced the words out, “I don’t know how…”
Qi Qingyao glared at him. “If you don’t know how, learn.”
Just as Jiang Yeqian was at a loss regarding how to refuse, someone spoke, “I know how.”
Qi Qingyao and Jiang Yeqian turned back at the same time, only to see the boy with an innocent smile on his face. He smiled cutely and said, “I’ll kill it.”