When there's no food, they're quite well-behaved. After all, the first priority is to fill their stomachs. When they're hungry, everything else is a problem, and they don't have the energy to think about anything else.
However, he might not be able to eat when he has enough to eat, or even eat well.
Now that he no longer has to rack his brains all day to find food, he has a lot of free time, which allows him to think about this and that and make wild guesses.
For example, looking at the wild boar meat, he might wonder, why does that educated youth have such strength to kill a wild boar? She's young and strong, which is what's striking and puzzling. Why is she so strong? Did she train? Who did she train with?
They couldn't even get enough to eat, so how could she, a mere educated youth, manage?
They couldn't find any food, so how could she, an educated youth, find food on their mountain?
There might also be some malice involved. If she were so capable, wouldn't all the benefits belong to the righteous family? Wouldn't she, a young girl who hadn't even reached adulthood, be at their mercy, to be manipulated and abused at will? Especially in this small mountain village so far from home, where one could hardly call for help, what difference would it make even if there were connections? By the time they made contact, it would be too late.
Jian Dan grew up in an environment of suspicion and intrigue, influenced by various TV shows, movies, and novels. There are countless examples of this, which serve as a good warning.
She wasn't arrogant enough to think she was invincible just because she was strong and had some fighting skills.
Right now, she's useful to the village, so naturally, everything is good for her. But when it comes to relationships, she's self-aware. These villagers have been there for decades; what weight can she, someone who's only been here for a few days, possibly carry? It'll all come down to action eventually. By then, it'll probably be too late to say anything.
She didn't want to test human nature with something like this.
"They've mailed me quite a few things, and I can't help with anything else, so it's just a coincidence that they've sent me more."
Send the meat first, and then send the bean buns a few days later when they're all packed. Otherwise, I'll feel embarrassed, since they always send me things, and I only send them a little bit of mountain produce. I know what I'm doing.
Even though I'm young, I know that relationships need to be reciprocated, otherwise they'll fade away sooner or later.
The old man nodded repeatedly.
"You're right, that makes perfect sense."
It's fine once or twice, but over time, everyone will realize the true feelings involved. While it's not about the quantity of the gifts, but the sentiment, having more of them shows you value them, and that will only make the other person more comfortable.
"Yes, my sister is married now, and it's not just the two of them. I also have to consider what her in-laws and relatives think. I can't let people say that my sister only knows how to subsidize me. What kind of person would I be then?"
"You're right to think that way. If it were someone else, they might not be able to part with such old things."
With a simple, embarrassed smile, the oxcart arrived at the village entrance. The people waiting for the cart were all carrying things on their backs or in their hands, and when they saw the cart coming, they swarmed forward, quickly filling the small oxcart to capacity.
The old man cracked his whip, and the old ox slowly set off.
It was still early, the sun hadn't risen yet, and the temperature was quite low. Jian Dan was wrapped tightly in a thick coat, and the basket was between himself and the old man, with the others squeezed in behind.
As the car moved, the voices behind it gradually became clearer.
"Hey, sister-in-law, are you... going back to your parents' home?"
"Yes, I haven't been back all year. With the harvest this year, I'm worried something might happen."
"That's right. When I go out, I'm afraid of running into my neighbors from my mother's side, but I also want to. I'm afraid they'll say something bad about them, but I'm also thinking about asking if my dad's leg still hurts and how my mom is doing."
"That's right. Before, we could only think about it but couldn't help. Thanks to Xiao Jian, we have food and meat now, so we're thinking of going back to see them as soon as possible, so that my parents can also have a good meal."
"Your family is doing alright, but my family... my sister-in-law is no good. She's always thinking about her own family. I don't even know if my parents will ever get a hot meal."
It's better not to talk about it, because once I start talking about it, my heart aches terribly. If we lived closer, I could at least keep an eye on them a little, and even just help with the laundry would make things easier for my parents, right?
Now, it's difficult to even catch a glimpse of it.
"There was really no other way. We have Xiao Jian, an educated youth, which is much better than other villages. A few days ago, right after the autumn harvest, I took advantage of the darkness to go back to my mother's house to visit. Several people have starved to death there this year."
The oxcart couldn't fit everyone, so the men who were with the cart walked alongside, talking amongst themselves.
"Are you going to your father-in-law's house too?"
"Yes, go take a look. My family ran out of food back in the summer, and my mother was on the verge of death. My mother-in-law asked someone to bring her two handfuls of cornmeal, which helped her survive until Xiao Jian, the educated youth, came."
"That's something to remember. Why is my father-in-law's family the same? They wish my wife would move her whole house back to them. They don't care about our well-being at all."
"It's really not easy for my sister-in-law to have done what she has done."
"Isn't that right? My wife is really great, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of delivering things to her."
Of course, there were also some discordant voices.
"They distributed so much meat, more than ten pounds, and only gave this much to my family. How can so many people eat this much? How can they even present it to us? That old hag, she's still wary of me."
The person next to her gave her a strange look and quickly looked away.
The young wife, oblivious to her own nagging, continued her incessant chatter.
"Hey, you guys think that young educated youth, who got two pigs by herself, could she eat them all? Wasn't she afraid of getting diarrhea after eating them?"
Unable to stand it from two bodies away, he couldn't help but confront her.
"Why are you so concerned? Would you even be able to eat meat if it weren't for them? You eat their food while gossiping behind their backs. Can't the meat shut your mouth?"
The young wife flinched, but remained stubborn.
"I didn't say anything wrong, that's exactly right. Our whole family only gets such a small share, and she's taking two pigs by herself. How can she be so shameless? If she can't finish them, she should just share them."
"Why don't you share your own? You don't even know if you'd be alive without them. Is this how you treat the kindness of someone who saved your life?"
"What life-saving grace? It's all her own words. I don't believe it. She's just a little girl, she's not even as heavy as a wild boar, how could she have killed a wild boar?"
"You guys believe everything people say, even if they say she killed them? And that she killed them all? You're the kind of people who are easily fooled. I don't believe it."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
