Xiaonuan knew that it was her superhuman strength that had saved her. If it had been the old her encountering a wild boar, she would undoubtedly have been gored to death at the very first encounter.
She had also thought about entering her spatial dimension to hide, but then she remembered the rusty iron pot at home and her own circumstances, and felt it was better to take a gamble. If she could kill this wild boar, her situation would improve significantly.
She rested for a moment, but didn’t dare stay seated for long because wild boars usually don’t travel alone; there were definitely other wild boars nearby. Once discovered by others, although she wasn’t afraid, she ultimately didn’t want to engage in another life-or-death duel with wild boars.
She stood up, grabbed the wild boar’s hind legs, and threw it into her spatial dimension. Then, looking at the firewood scattered all over the ground, she didn’t feel like picking it up anymore and headed straight home empty-handed.
Upon arriving home, she took the wild boar out of the space, dropped it on the ground, and lit the stove pit, intending to go find the village head. After taking a few steps, she stopped.
Xiaonuan came out into the courtyard and took a large amount of firewood out of her space, stacking it neatly against the wall. She knew everyone saw her chopping wood every day, and water would definitely need to be boiled later to remove the pig bristles. If someone came by and not a single piece of firewood was in sight, not only could she not do any work, but others would also start to wonder.
This wild boar had to be cleaned out tonight; otherwise, it would freeze solid by tomorrow and become very difficult to process.
She then thought of water, but she truly didn’t have a water vat, leaving her with no other choice. She would simply have to go borrow water from her eastern neighbor, Xu Wenbin, and figure out how to repay this favor later.
Having organized the firewood and figured out the water situation, she pushed open the courtyard gate and went to find the village head.
Upon hearing that she had killed a wild boar all by herself, the village head was so startled he almost lost his words:
“Xiaonuan, is this true? How could this be possible? A wild boar weighs several hundred cattieshow could you kill it by yourself?”
“I not only killed it, but I also carried it back. Right now, the wild boar is lying in the outer room of my house. I’d like to ask Uncle Village Head to help me process it, since I don’t know how to handle this myself. However, it seems we’ll need to find a couple more people, otherwise one or two people won’t be able to move it. Uncle, what do you think about asking Xu Wenbin from the east courtyard and his son to help? Would they be willing? Of course, we can give them some of the meat afterward.”
“As neighbors, why wouldn’t they be willing? There’s no need to give them meatjust stew a big pot of it so everyone can have a good meal. You can take the rest to the town market to sell, and with the money you make, you can buy some food.”
After saying this, the village head led his eldest son, Zhao Feng, and followed Xiaonuan back.
Arriving in front of Xiaonuan’s courtyard gate, the village head said, “You two go inside first to start the fire and boil water. I’ll go over to Xu Wenbin’s house and let him know.”
Xiaonuan agreed and led Zhao Feng inside to open the house. The fire was already lit; all they needed to do was add more firewood.
Soon, Xu Wenbin arrived with his son, Xushan, followed closely by his wife, Yang Manzhu.
Upon stepping inside and seeing an actual wild boar lying on the floor, they were so shocked they almost fainted and fell right onto it.
Looking at them, the village head said, “Stop staring in shock and get to workXiaonuan has plenty of firewood here.”
At that moment, he turned around and caught sight of the iron pot. Surprised, but realizing there was no time to ask questions right now, he added, “There’s a pot, but no water, and no containers to carry water with. Yang Manzhu, please lend your water-carrying buckets to Xiaonuan, and have Xushan and Zhao Feng take turns fetching water from the main well.”
Hearing this, Yang Manzhu hurriedly replied, “Our water vat is full. Let’s fetch some from my house first; if it’s not enough, we can go to the main well.”
With that, Yang Manzhu led Xushan back home to fetch water.
By the time everything was finished, it was already the deep hours of the night. The large pot of meat stewed by Xiaonuan was thoroughly cooked, but since there weren’t enough utensils, Yang Manzhu went home again to fetch bowls and chopsticks.
Xiaonuan scooped a full basin of meatusing her only basinand served it, placing it at the foot of the kang because the head of the kang had been heated so thoroughly it was too hot to sit on.
Gathering around the basin, everyone tore off large chunks of meat into their own bowls and dug in heartily. That meal of meat tasted beyond delicious.
The six of them finished the entire basin. For the remaining meat in the pot, Xiaonuan used her own basin to pack a large piece of cooked meat for the village head, and used Xu Wenbin’s basin to pack another large piece for their family. On top of that, she gave each of the two families thirty catties of raw wild boar meat, sending both families off to sleep with profuse expressions of gratitude.
In their not-so-wealthy village, thirty catties of meat was an immense favor, so both families repeatedly thanked her before carrying the meat back home.
After everyone left, Xiaonuan saw that dawn was already breaking, so she decided not to sleep just yet and got everything cleaned up first.
The village head, being a highly responsible person, helped direct Xiaonuan and Yang Manzhu in scrubbing the pig bristles while working, and had Zhao Feng carry the waste outside to dump it. This was done so that Xiaonuan wouldn’t have to clean everything alone until dawn after they left.
The head, trotters, and offal were all properly processed as well. Xiaonuan didn’t want the internal organs, so the two families cleaned them up and split them between themselves.
By then, Xiaonuan still had over two hundred catties of meat and two racks of pork ribs left. The village head had left them out in the courtyard for the better part of the night, and upon touching them, he found they had already frozen solid.
She picked up the meat and ribs, placing all of them into her spatial dimension, along with the leftover cooked meat and several tens of catties of lard. Yang Manzhu had given Xiaonuan a grain sack, into which she packed the lard and tossed it all into her space.
Seeing that nothing else was left, Xiaonuan finally lay down at the foot of the kang and fell into a sound, peaceful sleep.
Xiaonuan woke up after sleeping for just a short while. Getting up, she thought it over and decided to skip chopping wood for the day; instead, she prepared to make a trip into the city.
Since she happened to have wild boar meat, whether she could sell it or not, she could use it as an excuse to buy a water bucketotherwise, her neighbors would inevitably start questioning her water supply situation over time.
Xiaonuan washed her face, put on her new cotton-padded jacket and trousers, and stepped out of her home, heading into the city to sell the pork and buy supplies.
Having never sold pork or anything else before, she had no idea how to go about it. After hesitating in the city for a long time, she ended up going back to the money shop where she had previously exchanged her gold.
The same young clerk happened to be there that day. Seeing her standing outside the door, he hurriedly came out: “Miss, why are you back again? Do you want to exchange more money?”
Xiaonuan shook her head. “Do you know where they buy pork? Wild boar meatI want to sell some wild boar meat.”
Hearing this, the young clerk looked at the empty-handed Xiaonuan and asked, “Where is your pork?”
Lowering her head, Xiaonuan replied, “It’s on a cart from the village. I came over to ask first; if anyone wants to buy it, I’ll go get it.”
The clerk thought for a moment, then pointed to the restaurant right next to them and said, “Their place should buy wild boar meat. Shall I go with you to ask?”
Hearing this, Xiaonuan nodded quickly.
After asking around, the restaurant manager said they could buy it, but they had to inspect the meat first to make sure it was fresh.
Delighted, Xiaonuan borrowed two baskets and a shoulder pole from the clerk at the money shop, claiming she was going to fetch the meat from the cart. Walking to a secluded spot, she entered her spatial dimension, took the meat out, placed it in the baskets, and carried it back on the shoulder pole.
By the time Xiaonuan left, her two hundred catties of wild boar meat and rack of ribs had turned into twenty liang of silver. Clutching the silver tightly to her bosom, she returned the baskets to the money shop clerk and handed him a piece of wild boar meat weighing about two catties. Overjoyed, the clerk repeatedly told her that if she ever came back to town and needed help with anything in the future, she could always come find him.