Only a day remained until the New Year. Perhaps to add a bit of festivity to the year-end, heavy snow had fallen over the past two days, turning dripping water to ice.
In the bitter cold, Heaven spared those villagers lying in bed waiting for death the trouble of wasting their scant grain; three died in a single day.
The families who lost loved ones only cried perfunctorily a few times, then wrapped the bodies in straw mats and buried them in the mass grave.
Poor lives are cheap, much like wild grass that dies off every winter; everyone had long since grown numb to it.
Today, however, the household of Ergouzi’s uncle was filled with warmth and joy.
The eldest cousin, who studied martial arts in the county town, had returned, and the younger cousin’s private school had long since let out for the holiday.
That big black pig Ergouzi had raised for two years finally met its end today, slaughtered for the New Year.
This pig had a gross weight of eighty-three jin. After being scraped and cleaned, with the internal organs included, it yielded fifty jin of meat—enough for the whole family to enjoy a bountiful New Year.
Ergouzi did not go gather firewood today either; instead, he busied himself running back and forth, heating water, scraping bristles, turning intestines, and shoveling pig manure.
He figured that after getting up early and sleeping late to toil over raising this pig for two years, even if his uncle lacked familial affection, he would at least consider the hard work and throw him a couple of fatty pieces to satisfy his craving.
Because of this, Ergouzi was considerably happier today.
Today was destined to be a joyous day of harvest as well. The few rice seedlings in his room had all ripened, their ears heavy and drooping, the grains plump and full.
Ergouzi plucked all these grains and left them in the room to dry, intending to keep them for seed.
Furthermore, the seedlings he had secretly planted on the mountain had also headed out and would soon be ready to harvest.
Ergouzi squatted by the earthen stove tending the fire. The pot bubbled and gurgled with white steam, sending forth an alluring aroma of meat that made him swallow hard.
Just then, his eldest cousin brought over a large platter, and Auntie used chopsticks to fish the meat out of the pot piece by piece, placing it onto the dish.
The fatty meat was white and tender, quivering like bean curd jelly while dripping with oil, its fragrance drilling straight into his nostrils.
“Enough! Enough!”
Seeing that the meat on the wooden platter was already piled into a small peak, the eldest cousin hurriedly told her to stop.
“Child, eat more. You martial artists have big appetites; how will you have the strength if you don’t eat your fill!”
With that, Auntie added several more large pieces of fat meat to the platter, pressing down on them until grease streamed out.
“You two brothers are the hope of our family. If you can pass the examinations to become a Scholar or a Provincial Graduate later on, our family will rise in wealth and rank!”
After filling the eldest cousin’s platter with fatty meat, Auntie began scooping out more chunks for the younger cousin.
“Mom, I want lean meat!”
Looking at the oily fat meat in his dish, the younger cousin actually asked for lean meat.
“What do you know as a child? Fat meat is fragrant—fat meat is the best meat. Lean meat is the cheapest part of the pig; it’s dry, lacks oil, and gets stuck in your teeth.
“Look how skinny and weak you are, like a bean sprout. You need to eat more fat meat to build yourself up.”
Auntie ignored him completely and piled the younger cousin’s dish high with greasy streaky pork.
Streaky pork was already her ultimate concession.
After dividing the meat between the two brothers, only some spare ribs, marrow bones, and lean scraps remained in the pot.
These inferior cuts were left for the old couple and the young female cousin to share.
Ergouzi looked at the bones and lean meat left in the pot; his dream of eating a piece of fat meat had been thoroughly shattered.
Still, getting a piece of lean meat or gnawing on a bone to satisfy his craving wouldn’t be bad either.
Auntie scooped out the remaining bones and meat, then looked down at the pale broth, which still had many oil droplets floating on top.
“Ergouzi!”
“Coming, Auntie!”
Watching the pork in Auntie’s hands, Ergouzi answered with exceptional brightness, his face plastered with a wide, radiant smile—after all, New Year called for a festive spirit.
“Add some more water to the pot, and then boil a big pot of dried wild vegetables.
“And look at all that pig manure on the ground; you don’t even have the sense to clean it up!”
Ergouzi could only watch longingly as Auntie carried all the meat away.
She didn’t leave him even a single bone, handing him nothing but a mountain of chores.
Ah, someone living under another’s roof could never hope to taste meat.
Ergouzi could only do as he was told, pouring more water into the broth before tossing in several bundles of dried wild vegetables to boil.
The wild vegetables cooked in the meat broth still smelled quite savory.
Once he finished his chores, he harbored a faint glimmer of hope and peeked into the main room.
Sure enough, Auntie hadn’t left him so much as a single bone.
He had to make do with a bowl of wild vegetables for the pig-slaughtering feast.
That night, he returned to his sleeping quarters and closed the door.
He took out the dried rice grains and counted them one by one.
Depending on others was never as good as depending on oneself. These seeds and the yellow gourd in his bosom were his only hope of eating meat in the future.
This harvest had yielded three hundred and fifty-five grains.
Peasants planting fields needed one or two dou of seed per mu of land, and even in a bumper year they only harvested two shi of grain. One shi equaled ten dou, and one dou equaled ten sheng.
From just four shriveled grains, he had reaped over three hundred—a return ratio that far exceeded normal farming.
Aside from the rice, there were two new pairs of straw sandals hanging on the wall and more than a dozen copper coins pressed beneath the bed frame.
Ergouzi gently shifted the bedpost and pulled out a small cloth bundle hidden underneath.
Opening it, he revealed the meager string of copper coins.
“One, two, three… sixteen!”
His fingers traced over each coin one by one. This was his entire worldly wealth, saved in secret from weaving and selling straw sandals.
From time to time, he would take them out to touch and count them, finding a rare sense of security in doing so.
Tap, tap, tap…
Right then, a faint tapping sounded at the door.
“Dogzi Brother! Open up!”
It was his young female cousin’s voice.
Ergouzi hurriedly pulled a straw mat over to cover the money and rice grains.
When he opened the door, he saw Xiao Ezi standing in the snowy night wearing a thin, unlined jacket, shivering so hard her teeth chattered.
“Xiao Ezi, what brings you out so late?”
“Dogzi Brother, look!”
With that, she rummaged inside her clothes and pulled out a small parcel tightly wrapped in tung tree leaves, thrusting it toward him.
Even from two or three feet away, Ergouzi caught the rich, tempting scent of meat.
“Eat it quickly. I have to go back to sleep before my mother finds out.”
“Thank you!”
As Ergouzi took the parcel and murmured his thanks, his cousin had already turned and hurried away.
In all his years at his uncle’s house, only this cousin treated him like family, frequently looking out for him in secret.
The parcel still carried a trace of warmth. Opening the multi-layered leaf wrapping revealed a piece of pork that had been squeezed completely out of shape.
He tore off a strip of lean meat, popped it into his mouth, and chewed slowly.
So fragrant!
Pork was truly delicious.
If he could eat a bite of pork every month, he would gladly toil away like an ox or a horse.
Bang!
Just as he was relishing the taste, the door was kicked open.
Auntie stood on the threshold, fuming with rage and brandishing a firewood stick.
“You thousand-killing wretch! How dare you steal food!”
She lunged forward, raining blows down on Ergouzi’s head and face with the stick.
At the same time, she reached out to snatch the meat from his hand.
Ergouzi clutched the pork tightly, turning his back to her as he frantically shoved the rest into his mouth.
Since a beating was inevitable anyway, he wasn’t going to take it for nothing—he’d swallow the meat first.
Thump, thump, thump…
“You thousand-killing scoundrel, give that back!”
Enduring the pain, Ergouzi forced the entire chunk of meat down his throat, choking so hard he rolled his eyes and struggled for air.
Fortunately, a few heavy blows from Auntie’s stick landed squarely on his back, helping force the large morsel down his gullet.
Ergouzi might have gotten his treat, but his actions thoroughly enraged Auntie.
“Daring to steal meat today, you’ll be stealing the family’s gold and silver tomorrow!”
She cursed as she beat him. Ergouzi didn’t dare talk back or fight a stroke; he could only dodge blindly and endure in silence.
He was long used to it since childhood—just bear it and it would pass.
If he dared talk back, the beatings would only grow harsher, and they wouldn’t even leave him table scraps.
Driven back against the edge of the bed with nowhere left to retreat, Ergouzi was still relentlessly pressed by Auntie, who shoved him down onto the mattress to continue the assault.
She wanted to teach him a lesson he would never forget, ensuring he never dared touch unauthorized food again.
Suddenly, Auntie froze. Her eyes locked onto the corner of the straw mat.
A few copper coins were protruding from underneath.
Ergouzi’s heart skipped a beat. He tried to reach out and cover them, but it was too late.
Auntie yanked the mat away, exposing the stash of coins and rice grains hidden beneath.
“Good! I feed you, I clothe you, and I raise you for over ten years, only for you to steal from me! You ungrateful wolf in human skin!”
“These are mine!”
Ergouzi threw both hands over the scattered coins and grain on the bed.
This was the fortune he had saved through painstaking effort; it was his only hope.
As he blocked her, he gave Auntie a shove, inadvertently sending her tumbling to the floor.
Her face grazed the wall, scraping a patch of skin and drawing a thin smear of blood.
Aahhh…
Murder…
Auntie let out a deafening howl—louder and more dramatic than the black pig slaughtered that morning.
The earlier commotion had already drawn attention, and hearing her shrieks, the entire family rushed to the room.
The first to arrive was the eldest cousin. The moment he stepped inside, he delivered a vicious kick straight to Ergouzi’s chest, sending him crashing to the ground.
A practitioner of martial arts possessed formidable strength; the blow left Ergouzi seeing stars, clutching his stomach as every ounce of strength drained from his limbs.
Even worse, his stomach convulsed violently, causing him to vomit up all the meat he had just swallowed.
His cousin had no intention of letting up, planting a heavy foot squarely on his head until it felt as though his skull would crack.
Then the younger cousin, steeped in literature, rushed forward and joined in with a flurry of kicks.
“Big Brother! Second Brother! Stop hitting him! I stole the meat!”
His young cousin tried to pull the two brothers away, only for Auntie to shove her violently aside.
“Beat this ungrateful wretch to death!”
“If your aunt hadn’t taken you in out of pity, you’d have starved to death years ago!”
“Hit the ingrate!”
“Give it to him!”
Auntie stopped howling, standing with hands on hips as she spewed curses.
Ergouzi felt dizzy and lightheaded, his mind slipping into a haze as memories of his past rushed before his eyes.
Both parents had died when he was five, and his only brother had followed a year later. From the age of six, he had shouldered heavy labor, living a life worse than a stray dog.
Underfed, poorly clothed, subsisting on leftovers and pig swill, he didn’t even own a complete pair of trousers to this day.
A surge of grief and fury welled up in his chest.
“The ungrateful ones are you!”
“You seized my parents’ inheritance!”
Fueled by anguish and long-suppressed rage, an unknown strength welled up inside Ergouzi, and he roared the words aloud.
The room plunged into an instantaneous, dead silence.
Auntie and the two cousins stared fixedly at him.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ergouzi knew he had blundered.
This was the secret he had buried deep within his heart, never daring to utter so much as a syllable.
All these years he had played the fool, muddle-headed and compliant, enduring every insult and blow without a word of protest.
Aahhh…
Heartless wolf!
Raised you for ten years, and now you bite the hand that feeds you!
Thump, thump, thump…
Auntie’s renewed wails served as a signal for the cousins to resume their brutal assault with fists and feet.
This time, they held nothing back, striking with intent to kill.
Ergouzi felt his ribs fracture, unable to draw breath as his ears rang relentlessly.
This time, he was surely done for…
“Stop that!”
“Enough!”
A vigorous male voice rang out, causing the cousins to halt instantly.
Through his blurred vision, Ergouzi saw his uncle step into the room.
“All of you stop. Keep beating him and you’ll have a corpse on your hands!”
“But—”
The eldest cousin started to argue, but his uncle cut him off.
“We’re all family. If someone dies, it’ll get tongues wagging. The neighbors will talk, we’ll lose face, and we’ll end up tangled in a lawsuit with the yamen.”
So his uncle wasn’t truly concerned about his life after all.
He merely feared the gossip, the loss of reputation, and the trouble of greasing palms at the official office.
“Ergouzi, I raised you from five to thirteen—a full eight years. As your uncle, I have done my utmost.”
With these high-sounding words, his uncle squatted down and motioned for the two cousins to haul Ergouzi up and drag him toward the door.
“Father!”
His young cousin grabbed her father’s sleeve.
“Father, it’s freezing out there! If you throw him out in this weather, he’ll freeze to death!”
A crisp slap echoed as Auntie struck her across the face, pulling her away.
“Family matters are decided by your father and brothers! When is it your turn to speak?”
“Father, Mother, can’t we at least wait until spring—”
Another slap cut her off, and Auntie forcibly dragged her away, locking her inside a room.
Supported by the cousins, Ergouzi cast one last look toward the locked door before being shoved out into the yard.
“Ergouzi, from now on, you walk your own path. Your life and death have nothing more to do with this family!”
Creak, clunk—slam!
The eldest cousin hurled the final words over his shoulder and slammed the main gate shut.
Amidst the vast expanse of ice and snow, only Ergouzi was left sprawled on the ground, shivering uncontrollably.