Chapter 86: Awkwardness

Bai Xi suppressed a laugh. Even she could tell that Chen Dayu was trying to curry favor with Little Black, though of course it truly was Little Black’s doing.

Little Black was still asking for credit from Bai Xi. Mistress, that wolf was no match for me at all. I meant to let it go, but it wanted to strike first, so I was not polite...

"You people don’t know this, but the wolf attacked all of a sudden and could leap that high. Little Black leaped even faster, even higher..." Though Chen Dayu had not seen it clearly, it must have been about like that. If Little Black had not been formidable, how could it have dealt with the wolf?

"Wow, that was really close."

Chen Weiguo nodded from the side. It had indeed been close!

"To be honest, I was useless. I was so frightened my legs went weak." Faced with the villagers’ concern, Fang Ya was still talking with lingering fear.

"Ah, that’s not your fault. Anyone who ran into that would have been scared stiff."

"Exactly, exactly. Luckily the old grandmother sent Little Black to meet you in advance, or the consequences would have been unimaginable..."

When Bai Xi was mentioned, there was no one who did not admire her. If not for the old grandmother’s foresight, the three of them probably would have been gnawed down to bone by now.

The old grandmother was the great blessing of Bull Luo Village. Who would not revere her, respect her?

So when Chen Dayu’s mother and wife saw him take a paper bag from his bosom and present it respectfully to Bai Xi with both hands, they did not think their son or husband was neglecting the family, even though they knew it held meat buns. Instead, they heartily approved.

One meat bun in exchange for the old grandmother saving a life—this was their Chen family getting the better end of the bargain.

Of course, the Chen family did not think a single meat bun could repay such a favor.

Bai Xi had originally meant to refuse. She had eaten braised fish for dinner, a full six fish in all, and could not eat another bite now.

But seeing Chen Dayu’s eager, sincere expression, she thought for a moment, then accepted the meat bun, though she did not eat it. Instead, she tossed it to Little Black and said, "Give it to Little Black. When your family makes dumplings for New Year, just send me a bowl."

"Yes!" Old Lady Chen answered happily.

Chen Dayu and his wife were smiling too. By then his wife was already thinking that in the next two days she should have her man go into town again to buy some five-spice powder and other seasonings back. On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month they would slaughter the pig, and that would be just right for seasoning the filling for dumplings.

No one felt sorry for a meat bun. Besides, Little Black had no idea how much meat it had fetched for the village; who would object to it eating a meat bun?

The moment they heard that the old grandmother would be eating dumplings from Old Lady Chen’s house, no one in the village was not envious. Whoever received the old grandmother’s favor was blessed indeed.

Especially since the old grandmother had recently developed a habit: if a family showed her respect, then when Little Black brought back game and the meat was divided, that family would inevitably get an extra share.

Of course, nobody was after the old grandmother’s meat. The main thing was to draw near to her and share in her good fortune.

Chen Weiguo was embarrassed. He had already finished his meat bun long ago. He had originally thought the village head had been too reluctant to eat it himself and meant to take it home for the children and old mother to taste. He had never imagined the village head was saving it for the old grandmother.

Both had been saved, but the village head had saved one life, while he and his wife had been saved twice over. Yet here he was empty-handed. As expected, without comparison there is no hurt.

Fang Ya also quietly glanced at her man. Seeing his awkward expression, she understood what was going on, so she reached out and gently squeezed his hand in comfort, whispering, "The old grandmother won’t mind this."

A lone wolf was only about sixty pounds. Bai Xi had the villagers butcher it, leave a few pounds for Little Black to eat tomorrow, and cook the rest with some vegetables, then divide it up so every household got a little.

The villagers did not all have the same number of mouths to feed. Some were young couples who had just split off to live on their own, only three in the family; others were big households with a dozen or thirteen people, young and old, living together. Aside from work points, which were used to distribute grain by head count, the fish from the communal pond, the pigs raised collectively by the village, and the meat Bai Xi ordered distributed were all divided by household.

Even so, no one rushed to split the family and live separately. They would only discuss dividing the household after all the brothers had married. Even among married couples, some still did not divide and continued to live as one large family.

Though this way of dividing things by household meant losing a little here and there, when it came time to pool things together as a household to honor the old grandmother, the village never took more from them than was fair.

This year, a young woman newly married into Bull Luo Village heard there would be meat again tomorrow and could not help swallowing silently. She felt she had married well.

She had once envied her girlfriends who married city workers and ate rationed grain, but now, thinking about it, her own life was the better one. Eating meat every now and then was far better than crowding into a tiny room in the city and going hungry.

The last time she went into the city and visited that friend’s home, she had been stunned. Though it was in the city, seven people lived in a home of less than ten square meters. There was a bunk bed with two levels; the younger sister-in-law in her teens slept below, and the newly married couple slept above. How awkward that was.

Newly married couples made a fair amount of noise even with the door shut, let alone with only a curtain hung up. The old and the young, all sharing one room—just thinking about it was mortifying.

As for getting up at night, there was only a chamber pot placed behind the door in the room. The thought that when one got up to use it at midnight, the father-in-law, mother-in-law, younger brother-in-law, and younger sister-in-law all knew about it was enough to make anyone cringe.

And those one or two meals a day? Even the rice or grain for cooking was measured level with a measuring cup; not a grain more was allowed.

They all ate the same coarse grains and depended on the fields for their fill. No one was nobler than anyone else. Marrying into the city was not even eating as well as the countryside yet. She instantly stopped envying them.

In any case, no one felt sleepy yet, so Chen Dayu took the chance, while everyone was gathered, to distribute the money according to the register.

Once the money was handed out, the villagers’ smiles grew even wider.

Last year they only dared sell a little in secret to city people who had come to the countryside looking to buy things, and even then they had been anxious and on edge. How could it compare to this time, when there was nothing to worry about?

Sure enough, having the old grandmother around was wonderful.

Some had already begun planning how to use the money. Some wanted to save it to repair their houses next spring; some wanted to keep it for their sons’ weddings and even hoped to ask the old grandmother for her blessing then; others were thinking of adding a little more to buy some cloth and make a new outfit for the daughter of the family when arranging a match...

Life was nothing more than firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. What each family lacked, what it needed to add, the one in charge knew in his heart.

After the money was distributed, he waved everyone off and told them to go back and rest early. Chen Dayu followed Bai Xi up to the treehouse, first respectfully handing over the register, then taking out a thick stack of money.

"Old grandmother, this is the money from selling your dried sweet potatoes."

Dried sweet potatoes, which did not require grain coupons, sold for thirty-five cents a pound. Bai Xi had two hundred pounds of dried sweet potatoes, so that came to seventy yuan.

A miner in town with a high wage earned only forty-two yuan a month, and because of the recent partial shutdown, their pay had been cut by one grade. One grade was six yuan, so they were only getting thirty-six yuan. Bai Xi’s two hundred pounds of dried sweet potatoes were nearly equal to two months of wages.