Ji Qiuyang couldn’t help but say, “At a time like this, you’re still thinking about eating?”
Looking at the wild boar, Jiang Jingyi seemed to see a multitude of prepared meat dishes. She couldn’t help but smile. “Well, it’s dead now, isn’t it? Since the boar is dead, we’ll have to eat it, right? Otherwise, we’d just leave it here?”
That made sense, sort of. Ji Qiuyang nodded. “Let’s get it out of here quickly. If it attracts other wild animals, it’ll be dangerous.”
Strictly speaking, this mountain wasn’t very tall, and creatures like wild boars rarely ventured out to the periphery. Whether encountering one today was lucky or unlucky was hard to say.
Ji Qiuyang said, “You carry the basket. I’ll drag the boar.”
As he finished speaking, Jiang Jingyi pointed at the fallen tree. “Make something to put the boar on and drag it.”
Ji Qiuyang nodded, took his sickle, and cut a few branches. Using the rope originally meant for tying vines, he hastily constructed a dragging sled. Together, they managed to heave the boar onto it, and also placed the basket on top. Ji Qiuyang said, “I’ll drag it.”
Jiang Jingyi assented, happy to take it easy. As they walked out, she mentally ran through recipes for cooking the wild boar meat.
Wild boar was different from domestic pork, which was tender. Wild boar meat was drier and gamier, and stir-frying it wouldn’t really taste that good. Besides, it was summer now; if they kept too much, it wouldn’t keep. It would be better to make it into a braised delicacy and sell it in the county town.
By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, Jiang Jingyi had already figured out how to cook the wild boar meat. As they approached the bottom of the mountain, they encountered other people. Seeing them dragging out a wild boar, they were stunned. “Is that a wild boar? You guys are really lucky.”
“Nonsense. Wild boars are fierce. Try your luck encountering one and see.”
Hearing that Ji Qiuyang had killed a wild boar, many people ran over to see, asking him in a flurry of questions how he had done it.
Ji Qiuyang glanced at Jiang Jingyi, who had now resumed her delicate and weak appearance. Meeting his gaze, her eyes held a teasing glint, and she silently mouthed: It’s up to you.
Ji Qiuyang gave a helpless smile and turned to tell the villagers about the boar.
Apart from hunters, few people actually went deep into the mountains to hunt. Ji Qiuyang was a scholar, so naturally he wouldn’t go looking for a wild boar on purpose; it must have been a coincidence. But everyone was still curious how Ji Qiuyang had subdued the beast. Ji Qiuyang casually said the boar had run into a tree and he happened to finish it off. No one seemed to suspect anything.
Aunt Cui, whom they had met that morning, even clutched her chest in a mix of fear and awe. “The Literary Star in heaven must be protecting the Scholar. The Scholar is sure to come first in the imperial exams and have a brilliant future!”
A flush of embarrassment crept onto Ji Qiuyang’s face. His gaze drifted to Jiang Jingyi, whose expression was barely containing her laughter.
Just then, Ji Dongyang and his wife Lady Yun, along with their two children, arrived. “You really killed a wild boar? I heard someone say it but couldn’t quite believe it. My brother is truly impressive!”
With Ji Dongyang there, things became easier. As the brothers loaded the boar onto a cart, someone asked, “Are you selling the meat?”
Before Ji Qiuyang could answer, Jiang Jingyi spoke up with a smile, “We’ll sell it after it’s cooked.”
Sell it after it’s cooked? Someone was displeased. “Wife of Qiuyang, that’s not right. This wild boar came from the mountains behind our village. Technically, it should belong to everyone.”
Jiang Jingyi followed the voice and saw it was Aunt Lin. As soon as she spoke, the crowd fell silent, suggesting quite a few people shared that sentiment.
Seeing Jiang Jingyi hadn’t responded, Aunt Lin grew even more smug. “Your family is so wealthy, and you brought back so many good things the other day. You don’t really need this, do you?”
Jiang Jingyi smiled. “Aunt Lin, are you upset we didn’t give you meat yesterday? If you want some meat, just say so. There’s no need to claim that everything on the mountain belongs to everyone. As the saying goes, ‘Under heaven, every place is the king’s land.’ This whole world belongs to His Majesty. Aunt Lin shouldn’t speak so carelessly.”
Ji Qiuyang couldn’t help but look at her. Even if Aunt Lin wasn’t well-educated, she had heard that saying. Her expression shifted. “Then… then how come you can eat it?”
“Because I killed it.” There was no warmth in Jiang Jingyi’s eyes as she turned her gaze in another direction. “So, according to Aunt Lin’s logic, does that mean everything Hunter Xu hunts also belongs to everyone?”
No one dared to speak anymore.
Hunter Xu was the village butcher, around twenty years old, tall and broad with a fierce temper. Two years ago, someone provoked him, and he directly broke their leg. Since then, no one in the village dared to cross him.
If everyone claimed the wild boar belonged to the community, then by the same logic, everything Hunter Xu hunted would also belong to everyone. That would be asking for trouble.
Aunt Lin immediately fell silent. Jiang Jingyi softened her tone and said, “I just think that if everyone took the wild boar meat home to stir-fry or stew, it wouldn’t taste very good. But I have some culinary skills. Once I’ve cooked it, you can all come and buy it. The price will only be a little higher than raw meat, and everyone gets a treat. Wouldn’t that be simpler?”
This offered everyone an easy way out. Aunt Cui smiled and said, “Qiuyang’s wife makes sense. When you’re done cooking it, I’ll come get a piece.”
Jiang Jingyi rather liked Aunt Cui and nodded to her.
“Let’s head back,” Jiang Jingyi said to Ji Qiuyang.
They pulled the wild boar back home, drawing exclamations of amazement from everyone along the way. The Ji family lived in the western part of the village, some distance from the mountain. As they neared the west end, they spotted a tall man in the distance, carrying a bow and a large chopping knife, approaching from afar.
Several villagers who had been following to watch the excitement caught sight of the figure and promptly fled, forgetting all about the spectacle.
Jiang Jingyi was astonished. Just then, the man drew near. His gaze swept over the wild boar, nodded to them, and then continued on his way, aloof and silent.
After he had gone a good distance, Jiang Jingyi asked in a low voice, “Was that Hunter Xu?” She had only heard a mention of him from Ji Linxia the day before; this was her first time seeing him in person.
Ji Qiuyang hummed in affirmation. “That’s him.”
Jiang Jingyi nodded knowingly. “He’s quite good-looking.” But Hunter Xu had a scar on his face, about three centimeters long just below his left eye. It didn’t look ugly; instead, it gave him a kind of wild, rugged appeal.
Hearing her praise Hunter Xu, Ji Qiuyang couldn’t help but glance at her. Unexpectedly, a flicker of discomfort stirred within him.
By then, they had arrived at the Ji family gate. Old Lady Ji came out and was overjoyed at the sight of the wild boar. “You really did kill a wild boar! Qiuyang is so capable!”
The capable Ji Qiuyang was already at a loss for how to explain things.
Once inside the courtyard, Ji Qiuyang went to invite the village butcher to help with dressing the boar and preparing the hide. Meanwhile, Jiang Jingyi shared her plan with Old Lady Ji and Lady Yun. “I’m thinking we’ll make all this meat into braised pork and then sell it. We can sell it a bit cheaper to the villagers, but with a limit. The rest we can take to the county town to sell for cash.”
Neither Lady Yun nor Old Lady Ji objected. With such a large boar, they naturally had to sell it. Selling it in the village would be convenient, but the village was small and couldn’t absorb that much meat, nor would the price be high. Going to the county town was the better option.
Over the past couple of days, Jiang Jingyi had roughly figured out what was available at home. It was enough for their own consumption, but insufficient if they wanted to sell. She went back to her room, took out a brush pen, and prepared to write a list for Ji Dehong to buy and prepare. At this point, she couldn’t care less about how poor her calligraphy was; she just painstakingly wrote out the list, stroke by stroke.
The Ji brothers took the list and headed to the market town to buy the items. In the yard, the village butcher had nearly finished dressing the pig hide. Lady Yun asked Jiang Jingyi, “What should we do now?”
Jiang Jingyi smiled. “While we wait for the things to arrive, let’s chop the pork into pieces.”
With the men around, the women naturally didn’t need to get involved. The Ji brothers, each wielding a cleaver, chopped the wild boar meat into pieces as Jiang Jingyi instructed, then soaked the meat in cold water to draw out the blood.
“What’s next?” Lady Yun looked at the pork as if she were already seeing the money it would bring, her heart filled with joy.
Jiang Jingyi patted her stomach. “Eat. I’m hungry.”
They had eaten breakfast before going up the mountain and returned around midday. It was now well past the usual lunchtime. Fortunately, the Ji family didn’t follow the custom of some other families who only ate two meals a day; otherwise, she really wouldn’t have been able to hold on.
Old Lady Ji personally went to the kitchen and cooked noodles for everyone. She also made a fried sauce using cured meat, chili peppers, and their homemade broad bean paste. Mixed with the noodles, the flavor was incredibly delicious.
Jiang Jingyi exclaimed with delight, “Mother, the noodles you made are really tasty!”
Old Lady Ji beamed. “If you like them, I’ll make them for you often.”
What Jiang Jingyi was really thinking was that when she eventually opened a restaurant, she could include these noodles on the menu. She wouldn’t need the old lady to do the work herself; just preparing the sauce ingredients in advance would be enough.
They had just finished eating when the Ji Dehong and Ji Deyuan returned. Jiang Jingyi rolled up her sleeves and, together with Lady Yun and the others, entered the kitchen. Yingtao and Linxia each took charge of one stove. The two men fetched water and brought it to a boil. Jiang Jingyi briefly blanched the pork in the two pots to prepare it for cooking. However, since the wild boar meat weighed over a hundred jin, the two pots weren’t enough to hold it all. They had no choice but to put half of it into a bucket and lower it into the well to keep cool, to be cooked the next day.
Next, Jiang Jingyi took over. She heated some oil in a pot, added scallions, ginger, garlic, and sugar to caramelize. Once the sugar had melted, she added the meat and stir-fried until evenly coated. Then she put all the pre-prepared spices into the pot and finally poured in enough water to submerge the meat. With that, this pot was done.
After finishing the first pot, she repeated the same steps for the second. Both large pots simmered away on the stoves, bubbling and steaming.
After a long day, Jiang Jingyi was covered in sweat. She instructed Ji Qiuyang to fetch water for her bath. Ji Qiuyang glanced at her without arguing and went to get water that had been heating in the sun in the backyard.
Taking her time, she bathed. When she came out, she saw Lady Yun and Old Lady Ji sitting in the yard. Upon seeing her, they smiled and said, “This meat smells so good. We can already smell the aroma from here. Aunt Lin has peeked over the wall several times already.”
Jiang Jingyi glanced toward the wall. As luck would have it, Aunt Lin’s head popped up again. But when she spotted Jiang Jingyi, she quickly ducked back down, perhaps remembering what had happened at noon.
“It seems like she’s afraid of you?” Old Lady Ji was somewhat surprised.
Jiang Jingyi blinked innocently. “That can’t be. Someone as universally adored as me? Who could possibly be afraid of me?”
Old Lady Ji couldn’t help but laugh and nod in agreement. “Right, universally adored.”
Ji Qiuyang, who had just come out of the main house, overheard this and couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Jingyi. Here she goes again.
**