Chapter 13: Borrowing grain from house to house, and winning the heart of a beauty...
Although he was mentally prepared, he still couldn't help but make a face of toothache when he heard that he needed four bushels of rice.
It's no wonder he did that. One shi of rice in this dynasty was equivalent to 100 jin in later times, so four shi of rice would be 400 jin. If they ate it sparingly, it would be more than a year's worth of food for the Xie family.
Not to mention the Xie family, even ordinary, fairly wealthy families in the village couldn't possibly produce so much grain all at once.
Xie Hong has become so poor that he has started selling his land. Apart from the money he had from selling two acres of land not long ago, his family's grain reserves are almost depleted.
Big Yellow Teeth was still waiting for a reply, but at this moment he showed a hint of embarrassment and awkwardness.
Looking at him like that, Big Yellow Teeth understood perfectly well that the man in front of him was a genuine pauper.
This time, he really didn't want to waste any more time with this kind of person. There was a living person hiding in the wild, and if he went back too late, he was afraid that someone would find out and take him away, or he would really lose both his money and his person.
"Wait! I didn't say I wasn't going to buy it, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
"Okay, I won't leave. I'll wait for you to think about it for another 15 minutes."
Big Yellow Teeth felt like he was entangled in a pile of dog poop, sticky and smelly. When he was so entangled that he couldn't get away, he couldn't help but regret that he had been blind or bewitched to waste so much time on this person.
Xie Hong was so anxious that he scratched his head and his forehead was covered in cold sweat.
He knew very well that if he missed this business opportunity, he would most likely never encounter it again.
He thought of all his relatives and his usual cronies, and secretly planned to borrow from them and put up his savings so that he could raise enough money.
Big Yellow Teeth had long lost patience, his eyes constantly darting towards the direction of the neighboring village.
Xie Hong felt a sense of foreboding. There was a bachelor in the next village who was about his age and much more capable than him. Even if he couldn't produce that much grain, he could probably make up the difference with money.
The most urgent task is to keep Big Yellow Teeth in check and prevent him from finding someone better.
Xie Hong made up his mind and said firmly, "I've thought it through. But no one can produce four shi of grain all at once. To show my sincerity, I'm willing to pay you a deposit first. Take me to see that person. After you see him, give me three days, and I guarantee I'll gather the grain for you."
"I need to see the food by tomorrow night, within a day and a half."
Xie Hong hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement.
"You're not here..." Xie Hong wanted to tell him to wait here while he brought the grain, but he quickly stopped halfway through his sentence and changed his words, "Come with me to my house and wait. I'll weigh it for you. I have a scale at home. You can see it in front of me and I'll make sure you don't get shortchanged."
Although Xie Hong said this entirely out of fear that he would escape while he was at home, this suggestion was exactly what Da Huangya wanted to hear.
"Then let's go." He swaggered behind Xie Hong with his hands behind his back.
Xie Hong dared not walk too fast at this moment, and almost every two steps he turned back to welcome Big Yellow Teeth home.
"Xie Pei, pour tea for our distinguished guest!" Xie Hong called out as soon as he opened the door, but there was no answer and the house was completely silent. "Xie Pei?" he called again, but still no response.
He sighed calmly, turned around and explained with a smile, "That bastard, all he does is run around outside, he's never home. I'm going to give him a good beating when he gets back."
In fact, Xie Pei usually didn't bother with him. He did this only because Xie Pei wasn't home, and he wanted to show off in front of others to demonstrate his superior status at home.
If Xie Pei were home, he wouldn't be able to call out to her.
"You have a son?" Big Yellow Teeth asked in surprise. Didn't he say he didn't have a wife yet? How come he already has a son?
Xie Hong quickly denied it, "No, he's my half-brother." He thought for a moment and then added, "He's usually quite afraid of me."
"Hehe." Big Yellow Teeth chuckled dryly, completely uninterested in this kind of thing; he just wanted to get the grain as soon as possible.
Xie Hong wanted to chat with him a bit more, about how Xie Pei was afraid of him, but seeing that he was distracted, he understood and rubbed his hands together before going to the bedroom.
In a moment, he brought out two sacks of rice and weighed them one by one.
One bag of two jin and another of two jin were still short. Xie Hong went back into the house, opened the grain jar, scooped out a full spoonful of rice from the rice container, put it into the sack, and weighed it again to make it complete.
"Here is a bushel of rice, to be used as a deposit. Now, can you take me to see the person?"
Big Yellow Tooth weighed it again and, finding no signs of shoddy workmanship, readily agreed.
"Wait here, I'll bring the person over for you to see. Don't worry, I've taken your deposit, I won't run away halfway."
Even if Xie Hong was unwilling, what could he say? After all, the initiative was in the other party's hands, and he had no choice but to agree.
Big Yellow Teeth hadn't lied to him; Xie Hong waited and waited, and finally, half an hour later, he saw Big Yellow Teeth.
He should have arrived earlier, but Zhu Mingyue kept making a fuss on the way, affecting his movements. He got impatient and remembered that he still had some of the sleeping pills left, so he gritted his teeth and used them all on Zhu Mingyue.
Xie Hong stared at the sack, which glowed green like a hungry wolf, wishing he could just grab it and open it to see its contents.
Big Yellow Teeth got tired and plopped down on the ground, panting.
Xie Hong didn't dare to act rashly and could only watch. After watching for a while, he realized something was wrong: "Brother, why isn't my wife moving? Is she suffocating?"
Big Yellow Teeth almost sneered out loud. He hadn't even paid the final payment yet and he was already calling his wife. He was shameless.
He cleared his throat and explained casually, "He's not dead, just a bit temperamental and noisy, which was affecting my journey, so I drugged him."
"I see. Is your temper too fiery...?"
Big Yellow Teeth was worried that he would use this as an excuse to bargain, so he quickly interrupted him, "The ones with a strong temperament are the best, they're more fun to play with! You don't know, city people especially like this kind. The ones that are too docile are bland and tasteless. They might seem okay at first, but you'll get tired of them after a few days."
Xie Hong found this advice quite reasonable. Putting everything else aside, most of his cronies were married, yet they still wanted to go out and find something new every now and then, claiming that their wives were uninteresting and lacked passion.
If Zhu Mingyue could hear his thoughts, she would probably be so angry she'd laugh. What a scumbag! He's a womanizer, fine, but he even tries to find an excuse to blame his wife. He's so arrogant, doesn't he even fear being struck by lightning?
"Brother, can you show me what it looks like now?" Xie Hong asked cautiously.
"Oh, go untie it yourself!" He had walked such a long way and carried a person weighing a hundred pounds, and now he was really exhausted.
Once Xie Hong received permission, he immediately rushed over to untie the sack, his haphazard movements revealing his eagerness.
The sack was finally untied.
When Xie Hong saw the exposed face, his mind went blank. He was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses. At this moment, his heart reacted and began to pound violently.
At the same time, he couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had seized the opportunity.
His inability to find the right words to describe the person before him left him, Xie Hong, with nothing but the knowledge that this beautiful, ethereal person would belong to him alone from now on.
Men and women are all irrelevant in front of this face; living a happy life is the only important thing.
Seeing his dazed look, Big Yellow Teeth knew he had been lured away by the devil in the sack. He was used to this; the madam hadn't been much better looking at him when she first saw him.
"See? I wasn't lying to you!" Big Yellow Teeth said smugly. "You could search the entire Kangyang County with a lantern and you still wouldn't find a single one like this."
Xie Hong was speechless, only nodding frantically. Let alone four shi, after seeing this face, even if the price was ten shi, he would sell his pots and pans and steal and rob to agree.
After taking Xu Lingguang's medicine, Zhu Mingyue not only recovered, but the red spots on her face also faded considerably.
The red dot on his face wasn't unsightly, but Big Yellow Teeth still pointed at Zhu Mingyue's face and offered a brief explanation.
"This is the symptom I was talking about. When it flares up, red pockmarks will appear on your face; otherwise, you wouldn't have gotten away with it. Other than that, there's nothing seriously wrong."
Xie Hong was even more pleased to hear this. Although having red pockmarks on one's face was still attractive, it would certainly be better if one didn't have them.
He gripped Big Yellow Teeth's hand tightly, his excitement overflowing, and said incoherently, "Brother, wait for me, I'll be right back. I guarantee I'll bring the grain over to you today, so please don't leave."
Upon hearing this, Big Yellow Teeth realized that the previously agreed-upon tomorrow was now being put on the agenda. What else could he say but to comply with his request and get the grain as soon as possible?
After Xie Hong finished speaking, he looked at Zhu Mingyue with lingering affection. His eyes seemed glued to her, unwilling to look away.
Seeing this, Big Yellow Teeth advised him, "Alright, this person will be yours sooner or later. If you give her all the food sooner, you can win the beauty's heart sooner."
Xie Hong thought to himself, "That makes sense." After making a firm decision, he turned around and disappeared in a flash.
He was going to Sunjiazhuang, where his second and third uncles' families lived.
It's winter now, and there's not much work to do in the fields, so most families are staying home to hibernate, reducing physical exertion and food consumption.
So when Xie Hong banged on the door so hard it was deafening, several people inside immediately responded to him.
Who is this?
"Uncle! It's me, Xie Hong!"
Xie Hong? Oh no, this is terrible, a debt collector has arrived.
Xie Hong's second uncle and his family lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), looking at each other in bewilderment.
The people outside seemed determined to keep him inside until they opened the door, while inside, the second uncle sighed with a tearful face.
Just then, his wife nudged him with her elbow and asked, "What should we do?"
What else could he do? He glared at his wife and said, "What are you dawdling for? Go open the door!"
As soon as the door opened, Xie Hong rushed past his aunt to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and got straight to the point: "Uncle, lend me some grain quickly, I promise to pay you back next spring."
“It’s not that your uncle doesn’t want to lend you money, but there’s a whole family waiting to be fed. The children haven’t had a proper meal in ages, and it’s going to be a struggle to make it to the start of the new year.”
"Uncle, I'm begging you. My mother always helped you out, both openly and secretly, when she was alive. If it weren't for her financial support, you wouldn't be single now!"
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