Chapter 16. The Poor Little One Consumed by Jealousy

Cheng Songer was also killing a pig for the first time. The pig’s blood flowed all over the ground from the knife’s incision. The wild boar meat was very different from the farmed pork she had eaten before. Perhaps due to years of living in the mountains and exercising its muscles, it had very little fat, and the meat felt firm and strong just by touching it.

After removing the ribs, Cheng Songer began to work on its lower body. When she touched the wild boar’s liver, she suddenly made a confused sound.

She pinched it twice more, and inside what should have been a soft liver, there was a hard lump.

She cut open the liver with a knife and took out that hard lump, which turned out to be a goose-egg-sized stone-like object. After washing it clean in water, Cheng Songer found that this thing was light yellow all over, with two to three centimeters of small fuzz growing on its surface.

“Brother, look at this,” she brought that object in front of Cheng Qingzhi’s eyes to see: “This couldn’t be… a bezoar, could it?” Cheng Songer asked doubtfully.

She remembered that when she had nothing to do, she often accompanied her grandmother to watch social news. Once in the news, it was reported that a farming household discovered something like this inside their pig’s internal organs.

The reporter helped the farmer find an expert who discovered that this thing’s scientific name was ‘pig bezoar’, commonly called ‘pig treasure’. It was a precious ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, and because of its rarity, its price was extremely high. It needed to be sold by the gram. According to the size of that household’s pig bezoar, it could be sold for at least one million.

Cheng Qingzhi didn’t know what a pig bezoar was, but since Cheng Songer said so, he believed it.

“It should be,” he agreed.

“If it is, that would be great.” Cheng Songer found a piece of cloth and carefully wrapped it up. Such a rare treasure that fell from the sky naturally needed to be protected well.

She planned to take it to the city’s pharmacy to sell tomorrow. With luck, she should be able to sell it for several dozen taels of silver. That way, they wouldn’t have to worry about food and drink for at least a whole year.

After putting the bezoar in the house, Cheng Songer returned to the yard to continue butchering the pig. She looked at the rows of white radishes hanging in the front yard: “Did you do this?”

Cheng Qingzhi nodded: “Yes, Xu Shu taught me. Pickling these radishes with salt and then sun-drying them can preserve them longer.”

“Well done,” she casually praised.

Because of her praise, the corners of Cheng Qingzhi’s mouth lifted in a smile. It was no longer the slightly sorrowful bitter smile from before, but one from the heart, with an adorable childish youthful feeling.

“In a while, we can treat our pork the same way. First, marinate it with salt and seasonings to flavor it, then smoke it with cypress leaves and orange peels. We can make some into sausages, some into cured meat and ribs, and we can also make ham,” she said.

“Cypress leaves are easy to find, but we don’t have orange peels at home,” Cheng Qingzhi said softly.

Cheng Songer nodded. She understood that in the past, the family could barely make ends meet, let alone have extra money to buy fruits.

Her brief silence made Cheng Qingzhi’s heart flutter anxiously. He uneasily observed the expression on Cheng Songer’s face, fearing that she would despise him for not being able to do even this small task well.

His eyelashes trembled slightly, and he said in a soft voice with a hint of pleasing tone, “I can go ask Xu Shu to borrow some.”

“Xu Shu? That’s fine,” Cheng Songer’s tone paused.

The men in Cheng family village were all snobbish, greedy, and jealous. Cheng Qingzhi had never had any friends in this village. Although Xu Shu wasn’t particularly good to him either, he was one of the few people in the village willing to treat Cheng Qingzhi kindly, barely counting as Cheng Qingzhi’s friend.

She knew Cheng Qingzhi’s introverted and repressed nature. Now that he finally had a friend, they must maintain the relationship well.

She cut a piece of tenderloin from the wild boar: “Take this to Xu Shu and say it’s a gift from us.”

“This…” Cheng Qingzhi’s throat choked. Tenderloin was one of the best parts of the pig: “Why?”

“No reason, just take it over,” Cheng Songer said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

She couldn’t just tell him, I want to make them indebted to us so they’ll continue to be your friend, right? It’s understood when neighbors give each other gifts.

“Alright,” Cheng Qingzhi didn’t pursue the matter further and obediently took the meat to Xu Shu’s house.

Xu Shu was cooking when he saw Cheng Qingzhi bringing tenderloin to his house. His eyes immediately widened.

“This… Little Sister Songer asked you to give it to me? Oh my, this is too kind! Too kind indeed!” Xu Shu smiled brilliantly, wiping his hands on his apron before accepting the tenderloin without further ceremony. “Come, come, Qingzhi, come in and sit for a while!”

Having accepted the gift, Xu Shu couldn’t let him just stand outside, so he actively invited Cheng Qingzhi in.

“Dad, why are you letting this person in? It’s so unlucky!” Lin Yuxiu was embroidering at home. Seeing his father bringing in the person he disliked the most, he became angry and started scolding immediately.

“Child, they’ve come to give us tenderloin,” Xu Shu gently glared at his son, then smiled apologetically at Cheng Qingzhi. “This child is just like that, Qingzhi, don’t mind him.”

“Tenderloin?” Lin Yuxiu asked doubtfully. He had been embroidering in the room and had no idea what had happened outside just now.

Xu Shu described it vividly: “You don’t know how impressive Little Sister Songer was today. She killed that big wild boar that had been troubling our village, and as soon as she dragged it home, she sent Qingzhi to bring us tenderloin. You should quickly thank them.”

“Cheng Songer killed the wild boar?” Lin Yuxiu put down his embroidery work, opened the window to look at Cheng Songer who was still butchering the pig next door, then looked at the tenderloin in his father’s hand. He raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled: “And she even sent me tenderloin, that’s thoughtful of her.”

Lin Yuxiu’s smug tone made Cheng Qingzhi’s throat suddenly feel like it was stuck with a sharp fishbone, very uncomfortable.

Moreover, an inexplicable resentment grew in his heart, wanting to tell him directly that Cheng Songer’s tenderloin was for Xu Shu, not for him, and to wipe that smug look off his face.

But he held it all back. He still had things to do.

“Uncle Xu, we want to smoke meat at home. Do you have orange peels and such? Can we borrow some?”

Having received their tenderloin, how could Xu Shu not lend something as cheap as orange peels?

“Yes, yes, yes. You sit here for a moment, I’ll go get them for you.” Xu Shu said as he went out to get the orange peels.

This left Cheng Qingzhi and Lin Yuxiu, two people who couldn’t stand each other, sitting together. Cheng Qingzhi sat to one side, curiously observing the room’s furnishings.

Although Xu Shu had actually spoken up for him, he had never invited him to his home in all these years. If it weren’t for delivering meat this time, perhaps he would never have been able to enter Xu Shu’s door?

Cheng Qingzhi smiled bitterly to himself.

Lin Yuxiu was also unwilling to pay attention to Cheng Qingzhi and continued to embroider with his head down. But the pattern of the embroidery… Magnolia?

Cheng Qingzhi inadvertently glimpsed that the pattern drawn on his embroidery was exactly the same as the magnolia flower on his moon-white winter clothes, even down to the curve of each petal.

“This…” Cheng Qingzhi spoke softly.

Lin Yuxiu hurriedly covered the embroidery pattern on his clothes. He liked these embroidery patterns very much, otherwise he wouldn’t have secretly copied them while envying Cheng Qingzhi.

Being discovered by Cheng Qingzhi in one fell swoop, Lin Yuxiu became somewhat angry out of embarrassment: “What ‘this’? Haven’t you seen others embroider before? Well, with your shabby appearance, you don’t look like someone who could afford embroidery.”

“That’s not what I meant…” Cheng Qingzhi frowned.

“Then what did you mean? I just embroidered a magnolia flower, magnolias are all over the street, what are you shouting about?” Cheng Qingzhi’s gentle tone inadvertently fueled Lin Yuxiu’s arrogance.

“You don’t think I copied the magnolia from your clothes, do you? Huh, think about it, would I be interested in such inferior embroidery?” He arrogantly spread out the embroidery in his hand, elegant magnolia flowers falling before his eyes.

Isn’t this exactly the same? Cheng Qingzhi felt extremely uncomfortable in his heart, but he didn’t act out. It was just a piece of clothing, he didn’t care.

Unexpectedly, Lin Yuxiu persisted: “I heard you want Sister Songer to take you to the city to buy clothes and fabric to make your own? Your hands that only know how to do rough work, maybe you can roughly patch up clothes, but can you embroider? Sister Songer was right indeed.”

“What did she say?” Cheng Qingzhi, who had been enduring for so long, only spoke when he heard Cheng Songer’s name.

Lin Yuxiu sneered: “Sister Songer used to tell me that having someone like you in their family was really eight generations of bad luck. They couldn’t wait to sell you off, lest you end up like that adulterous man, doing things that would bring shame to the family in the future.”

Lin Yuxiu rested his chin on his hand, his lips curling up smugly, waiting to see Cheng Qingzhi’s pale face.

Unexpectedly, Cheng Qingzhi’s expression was calmer than he had imagined, showing no reaction at all.

“Aren’t you angry?” Lin Yuxiu frowned.

“Didn’t you say that was in the past?” Cheng Qingzhi smiled slightly, his gaze looking far away through the window at that person, his brows gentle and affectionate: “She now is not the same person she was before.”

Perhaps the emotion in Cheng Qingzhi’s eyes was too profound, Lin Yuxiu looked at him with a deep frown, and also looked towards the person in the neighboring yard.

It was the same face, yet it was full of vigor and spirit, the whole person as vivid as the blazing sun in July, so much better than the greedy and lustful look that used to be piled up between Cheng Songer’s brows.

If it were before, Lin Yuxiu wouldn’t have given Cheng Songer a second look.

But it had to be said that the current Cheng Songer was indeed impressive enough to turn heads.

Especially since he had lived next door to the Cheng family for so long, every move of Cheng Songer’s was in his full view. While hating Cheng Qingzhi, he was also often attracted by Cheng Songer who took care of Cheng Qingzhi so considerately.

Especially on that night when she held a small lamp to light the way for Cheng Qingzhi, the ink bamboo painted on that lamp, reflecting her gentle brows and eyes.

Such gentleness and delicacy couldn’t be faked. It was as soft as willow catkins floating in the spring breeze, softly falling on one’s heart, silently stirring one’s nerves, impossible to erase, even more impossible to forget.

That was the deepest dream hidden in the heart of every man.

Even if he was tougher, no matter how intense his hatred for Cheng Qingzhi was, he couldn’t resist that kind of silently invasive gentleness quietly lying in the depths of his heart.