Having learned her lesson during the day, Jiang Yan didn’t take the main road into the mountains. Instead, she climbed over the wall at the back of the courtyard and took a shortcut into the mountains.
Unfortunately, the shortcut passed behind Auntie Zhao’s house. From a long way off, Jiang Yan could already hear Old Madam Zhao and her niece, Zhao Xiaomei, cursing her late into the night instead of sleeping.
She had almost forgotten that it was Zhao Xiaomei who had tricked the two little ones into going into the mountains!
And at noon, it was Old Madam Zhao who had stirred up trouble and caused everyone to misunderstand her!
Not only were they cursing her, they were even plotting how to drive her out of the residential compound?
Hah! She hadn’t even gotten around to settling accounts with them yet.
Since that was the case, why wait for another day?
Jiang Yan raised the sleeping-pill pellet in her hand. She had made it during the day from herbs she had found in the mountains.
She had originally intended to use it on wild boars!
Well, consider this a bargain for you two!
Jiang Yan quietly climbed into Old Madam Zhao’s backyard.
Old Madam Zhao and Zhao Xiaomei shared a room. Since the weather was hot, the window was wide open, which made things convenient for Jiang Yan.
Keeping her body low, Jiang Yan quietly crept beneath the window. She crushed the sleeping-pill pellet and let the powder disperse into the air.
Before long, the people inside who had been cursing at the top of their lungs fell silent.
To be safe, Jiang Yan waited a little longer before climbing through the window.
Once she reached the bed, Jiang Yan raised the laundry beater she had just picked up from the washing area in the backyard and brought it down on the aunt and niece’s faces.
Jiang Yan deliberately targeted their faces. After a rapid barrage of *thwacks*, both their faces had swollen into a mess.
She tossed the laundry beater aside and slipped away without making a sound.
Following the route she had scouted during the day, she sprinted straight into the deep mountains.
The moon was bright enough that she didn’t need a flashlight. Jiang Yan found a herd of wild boars and drove them away, then grabbed the hind leg of the last wild boar and dragged it back.
She had already used the sleeping medicine on Old Madam Zhao and her niece, so she simply beat the wild boar to death with brute force and easily hoisted it onto her shoulder.
During the day, she had already discovered that crossing these two mountains would make the trip to the county town much shorter—but only if she could actually make it over them.
For Jiang Yan, that was no challenge at all.
Carrying the wild boar, she moved through the forest at a brisk pace.
The wild boar weighed more than six hundred jin, completely obscuring Jiang Yan’s small frame. From a distance, it looked as though a gigantic wild boar were running through the mountains all by itself.
Huo Zhanting was leading a team in pursuit of enemy agents, chasing them deep into the mountains. When they saw the wild boar, they didn’t pay much attention to it. To avoid running into it, they deliberately took a detour.
They were too far away, so Jiang Yan didn’t notice them at all.
When she finally carried the wild boar to the county town, Jiang Yan remembered that she hadn’t found a buyer yet.
There was no way she was going to carry it all the way back after hauling it this far, so she decided to try her luck at the black market.
Her luck was pretty good. When she arrived at the black market, she happened to run into Shao Qing and his group unloading goods.
During the day, Jiang Yan had bought expensive grain from Shao Qing and had also taken the opportunity to ask around about job opportunities.
This was the guy!
Jiang Yan checked the large beard on her face. She had made the fake beard from wild-boar hair that afternoon.
Hmm. It was stuck on firmly, with no edges peeling up.
The wig made from wild-boar hair on her head was rough as well, but it was firmly secured.
Jiang Yan hefted the huge wild boar on her shoulder once more and strode toward Shao Qing.
“Brother Shao Qing, do you buy—”
“Holy crap!”
When Shao Qing suddenly saw a wild boar’s head thrust right in front of his face, he was so frightened that he dropped straight onto the ground.
The corner of Jiang Yan’s mouth twitched. Looking down at Shao Qing on the ground, she finished what she had been saying.
“Do you buy wild boars?”
Only then did Shao Qing realize that the wild boar was dead.
But this guy was seriously impressive. He was carrying such a huge wild boar without even looking flushed or out of breath.
Shao Qing awkwardly got to his feet. “Y-Yes, we buy them. The food distribution station sells pork for seventy cents a jin. I, I’ll pay one yuan twenty per jin!”
Shao Qing had originally intended to offer one yuan per jin. Since the internal organs had to be removed and there would be losses during processing, a whole pig naturally sold for less.
But seeing Jiang Yan carrying the wild boar without even breathing hard, he somehow added another twenty cents.
“Brother, I really can’t go any higher. If I pay more, I’ll lose money.” Although he was intimidated by Jiang Yan’s strength, there was no way he was going to agree to lose money!
Pork at the black market only sold for around one yuan seventy or eighty per jin. After accounting for processing losses, labor costs, and everything else, one yuan twenty was already a high purchase price.
“Fine. One yuan twenty it is. Come with me.”
Shao Qing led her to a small one-story house.
Jiang Yan wasn’t worried about getting cheated. She trusted that Shao Qing wasn’t stupid enough to try anything shady with her.
If it came down to a fight, it was still anyone’s guess who would rob whom!
Sure enough, Shao Qing didn’t dare.
He was reasonably decent at heart. More importantly, seeing Jiang Yan’s terrifying strength—carrying a wild boar and still moving as though it weighed nothing—he wouldn’t dare try to rob her.
He didn’t even dare shortchange her on the weight.
The transaction went smoothly.
The wild boar weighed a total of 630 jin, which came to 756 yuan.
Money changed hands, and so did the goods.
Once she had the money, Jiang Yan left immediately and hurried back without stopping.
In this era, even making a little money required hiding it from everyone.
What a hassle.
Huh?
Why were there signs of a fight here?
On her way back along the same route, Jiang Yan noticed a patch of vegetation deep in the mountains that looked strangely disturbed.
Could there be other people in the mountains?
Then she had better hurry home. She absolutely couldn’t run into them!
Jiang Yan sped up and sprinted all the way down the mountain. Fortunately, she didn’t encounter anyone else and arrived home at four in the morning.
Jiang Yan removed her disguise, hid the money in her little private stash, and climbed into bed.
At eight in the morning, Jiang Yan was awakened by Zhao Erniu knocking on the door.
“Sister-in-law! Sister-in-law! This is bad! Commander Huo was hit by a wild boar!”
Zhao Erniu’s voice was incredibly loud.
Jiang Yan opened her eyes irritably.
“He’s that useless? He actually got hit by a wild boar?”
She muttered it under her breath, so Zhao Erniu didn’t hear her.
Jiang Yan hurriedly threw on some clothes and went outside.
“Where is he?”
Zhao Erniu swallowed. “A-At the infirmary!”
Jiang Yan said nothing and headed straight toward the infirmary.
As she passed the large banyan tree, several middle-aged women were sitting beneath it, gossiping.
“Did you hear? Old Madam Zhao’s house was robbed last night. She and her niece both got beaten black and blue.”
“Really?”
“Of course it’s true! The wife of Battalion Commander Du saw it with her own eyes. Old Madam Zhao’s face was swollen so badly…”
At this point, Old Madam Wang looked around furtively before lowering her voice.
“I also heard that it was enemy agents who did it.”
“Those enemy agents were planning to cause trouble throughout the entire family compound, but Commander Huo and the others discovered them in time, so they fled into the mountains. Commander Huo was even injured by a wild boar while trying to catch them.”
“Oh! Did they catch the enemy agent?” someone asked Old Madam Wang.
Old Madam Wang put on an air of mystery.
“That, I don’t know!”
Jiang Yan happened to hear the gossip as she passed by.
She suddenly remembered the signs of fighting she had seen in the mountains last night.
Could it have been Huo Zhanting and his men chasing the enemy agents?
And last night, when she was taking a shortcut, she had driven the herd of wild boars away.
Could she have accidentally driven the herd straight toward Huo Zhanting and the others?
She suddenly felt a little guilty.
Lowering her head, Jiang Yan quickened her pace toward the infirmary to check on Huo Zhanting’s injuries.
Just as she reached the hospital room, she heard a woman’s voice.
“Brother Ting, I went to the mess hall and got you some breakfast. Hurry and eat it while it’s hot.”
The woman’s tone was very familiar, with a hint of coquettishness.
Jiang Yan’s hand paused on the door.
But she pushed it open anyway.
Inside the hospital room, Huo Zhanting was just taking the lunchbox from Lin Weiwei and getting ready to eat.