Counting Yan Xi and her two nephews, there were six people in all. Five big rabbits didn’t divide well, so they decided that Yan Xi would have one rabbit to herself and the others half a rabbit each. Yan Xi had a sickle in her back basket, she took it out and cut them in half and gave each of them half. As for the remaining one and a half rabbits, Yan Xi decided to use what was on hand and go find firewood right now and roast them. Even with no seasoning they could be eaten, meat was meat, after all.
Then the group went to the bank of the Chun River and skinned the rabbits, each putting away his own, and dressed the rabbit meat and wrapped it in leaves and carried it up the mountain. She sent the boys to find thicker sticks and pick up firewood along the way, while Yan Xi took the knife and scored the rabbit meat so that it would cook faster, roasting meat on the mountain wasn’t safe, after all, and the sooner it was in their bellies the better.
Many hands make light work, and the preparations were ready. The boys went first, since they were all used to running wild in the hills and had roasted little birds more than once, roasting a rabbit would be no problem.
Yan Xi watched them expertly turn the rabbit over, and before long both sides were dripping fat, and the smell of the rabbit meat kept boring into her nose.
Everyone started swallowing constantly. There was no seasoning, but nobody minded so long as there was meat. Six people, and there happened to be six legs, Yan Xi tore one off for each of them. And say what you like, though there was no seasoning the rabbit was roasted tender and smooth, and one bite of it sizzled with fat.
When Yan Xi had finished her own rabbit leg she didn’t go on. She had a whole rabbit anyway, so let them eat a few more mouthfuls, since chances like this didn’t come often.
When they had eaten they put the fire out so as not to set the mountain alight by accident. It was summer now, and one slip and you’d be in prison to the end of your days.
They put their own things in order, and the group of boys helped Yan Xi and her nephews cut some pig grass and cover the rabbits up before they all went down the mountain together. When they got home the whole household was already back, the three women were cooking and the men were outside cooling off. Seeing the three of them come back, they came up one after another to take the baskets, and the moment they had them in hand they found the weight was wrong, normal pig grass wasn’t this heavy. But none of them made a sound. They went into the front room and poured the pig grass out, and seeing the two rabbits underneath they were all astonished!
What sort of good days were these, meat two days running? They had just finished the chicken in the morning and here were rabbits in the evening. Besides the big ones there were several little ones, not a month old, with no meat on them if you ate them, so they could only be kept. From now on, when the little ones cut pig grass they could put aside some leaves for the rabbits too, and when they grew up they could have baby rabbits of their own. Thinking it over, Yan Shan laughed out loud, and coming to himself he found everyone looking at him, so he rubbed his head and lowered it in embarrassment.
Yan Xi’s mother and the others had the meal nearly ready, so they decided not to kill the rabbits tonight, keeping them one night wouldn’t matter, since the rabbits were still alive and wouldn’t spoil.
That day the smell of meat came out of a number of different houses in Yanjia Village. The village children cried and made a fuss without stopping, everywhere there was the sound of children crying for meat and parents scolding and beating them.
At the end of the shen hour a lot of people brought their rice bowls to the old locust tree at the village entrance, eating and chatting about household matters. In these years people liked to gather in a crowd to eat, everybody’s circumstances were about the same anyway, and if you really had good food you’d certainly eat it in hiding, since nobody was willing to share out something good.
Talking on, they came to the smell of meat in the village that evening, all guessing which household was so free with it, stewing meat with no festival or holiday. You said this family, I said that family, and in the end it turned out there were actually four households eating meat. Now the rice in everybody’s bowl didn’t taste so good, and they sighed with envy.
It was only when night fell that the crowd broke up. You didn’t have to think to know that today’s business would be talk for several days more.