Chapter 37 No one else would be so poorly written...
Other people wouldn't be so fussy; they'd eat with their hands still covered in mud.
He watched as Xie Pei rubbed the mud off his hands before opening the lunchbox.
"Stir-fried bamboo shoots with cured pork and braised pork, eat them while they're hot."
The two of them sat on the edge of the field and started eating. When the others saw Zhu Mingyue coming, they all rushed to the big tree behind them and didn't come near them.
A dozen or so people sat around under the shade of the tree, all ready to eat. Plowing the fields was physically demanding work, so at times like this, regardless of whether a family was rich or poor, those with money would go to town to buy a couple of ounces of fatty pork, steaming a couple of slices for the person who had been working. Those without money would even add extra oil to their pickled vegetables, so they would have the energy to eat them.
When men sit together to eat, comparisons are inevitable. The one who eats the best is the most envied, and if lucky, might even get a few compliments. The one who eats the worst, on the other hand, will be ridiculed behind their back.
The eldest and second sons of the Wang family hadn't separated their households, so their meals were delivered by the children together. Each of their bowls contained two large, greasy slices of fat, with a few pieces of pickled vegetables underneath. Neither of them touched it immediately, but instead proudly held their bowls high, hoping to "inadvertently" let others see the meat inside.
As expected, someone immediately said, "Wow! You two have good food! This fatty meat looks delicious."
"Old Huang, what's wrong with you today? Your wife even added meat to your meals yesterday, and you said you had so much meat you couldn't finish it all. How come it's turned into pickled vegetables today?"
"Bullshit! When did I say there was so much meat we couldn't finish it?" Old Huang, his face flushed from the ridicule, retorted gruffly, "I've been eating this for days on end, I'm really sick of it, can't I even have some pickled vegetables to cut the grease?"
Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing this, taking Old Huang's words as a joke without exception.
Let alone the fact that farmers are starving, even if they had plenty of meat, given how much Old Huang eats—only two or three slices a day—it would take forever before he got tired of it.
"Haha, Lao Huang is really good at joking."
Old Huang's face burned even redder. He took a big bite of the pickled vegetable and chewed it fiercely as if to vent his anger. His teeth were sore from the sourness that he cursed his wife for not giving him any face. He had been pampered for several days and was so happy that he was practically out of his mind. But because of this meal of pickled vegetables tonight, he was brought back to his original state.
He was feeling uneasy and wanted to drag someone worse off than himself down with him, but after scanning the room with his cunning little eyes, he couldn't find anyone whose food was worse than his.
He turned his attention to Xie Pei and Zhu Mingyue, who were sitting side by side on the edge of the field eating, and chuckled, "I added a lot of oil to my pickled vegetables, so they're definitely better than some other people's."
"Achoo!" Zhu Mingyue blew her nose and put two pieces of braised pork into Xie Pei's bowl. "You've worked hard, eat more meat."
"You can't say that. Xie Pei's family is not well off. After Xie Hong left, he still has to support his sister-in-law. It's good enough that he can have food to eat."
"Soon we might not even have enough to eat. The Xie family only has two acres of land left this year..."
"If you ask me, Xie Pei is really good to his sister-in-law. He can barely take care of himself, but he still wants to keep his sister-in-law in the Xie family to support her."
"Hehe," Old Huang shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth, his words filthy: "How could Xie Pei treat his sister-in-law badly? That face, if it were you, would you be willing to let her go?"
"Hiss! That's true." If a beauty like Zhu Mingyue weren't a jinx, they wouldn't be willing to let her go. They would keep her fair and tender, keeping her at home to serve them. Just thinking about it would be incredibly pleasurable.
"Xie Pei is just benefiting from his brother's fame!"
The crowd understood each other implicitly, their eyes revealing lewd thoughts.
"Xie Pei, Xie Pei?" Zhu Mingyue waved her chopsticks in front of him twice, asking curiously, "Why did you suddenly stop eating? What are you thinking about?"
Xie Pei shook his head, concealing the unfathomable darkness in his eyes.
Zhu Mingyue ate a few more bites and then felt full. Her eyes darted around aimlessly: "Why hasn't anyone plowed that big plot of land in front of our house?"
Xie Pei looked in the direction he was pointing, and after a long while, said calmly, "I don't know."
Zhu Mingyue had only asked casually, not expecting Xie Pei to give a proper answer. She assumed he was like her, invisible in the village, knowing nothing. She pursed her lips and turned her gaze elsewhere.
Xie Pei had to go back to work in the fields after finishing his meal, while Zhu Mingyue tidied up her lunchbox, dusted off the straw dust on her bottom, and prepared to go home first.
As he walked out of the field and passed a large tree, he could still feel many malicious gazes upon him as he looked ahead.
Zhu Mingyue lost her grip, and the food box fell to the ground, spilling some oily sauce and a few pieces of fatty meat.
The fatty meat was something Zhu Mingyue had secretly hidden at the bottom of his bowl while he was eating. He preferred lean meat to fatty meat, so when eating braised pork, he would secretly eat the lean meat and leave the fatty meat.
Zhu Mingyue quickly picked up the food box and left as if nothing had happened.
What fell out of his box?
Old Huang scoffed, "Pshaw! What else could it be but pickled vegetables and stalks?"
"That's true!"
Some people, driven by curiosity, inexplicably ran over to take a look.
Oh my god, this is a terrible thing! This isn't some kind of pickled vegetable stalk; it's a solid block of fatty meat!
Even though it fell on the ground and got a little dirty, it couldn't hide its tempting appearance.
The man picked up the meat piece by piece, carefully rubbing off the bits of grass stuck to the surface.
"Look at this! It's all meat that's fallen off, big chunks of fat!"
"What!" Old Huang's eyes widened, completely disbelieving the other person's words. This was utter nonsense! Who would be so extravagant as to throw away meat?
He was the first to get up and walk over, grabbing the man's hand. His palm was covered with several square pieces of fat, enough to make one's mouth water.
Old Huang was completely speechless.
"Hey, I picked this meat up, don't touch it!"
"So what if I touched it with my hand? Are you going to eat it?"
The man curled his lip and said, "I don't care to eat it. Can't I take it back for my big yellow dog?"
The crowd burst into laughter again.
He even fed it to the big yellow dog. I've never seen him feed his dog anything good before. The dog is so hungry that it's just skin and bones.
What big yellow dog! It's just an excuse to hog all the meat.
Everyone knew this perfectly well, but they chose not to confront them directly. After all, even they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't take the meat home and eat it all by themselves.
The man was overjoyed to have found meat for no reason!
He put on an indifferent expression, pretended to cough twice, said he was going home to ask for a drink of water, and then ran off.
"He picked up a few pieces of meat, look how proud he is."
“He just drank a big bowl of water, I saw it.”
"Are you stupid? You believe him just because he says so?"
Everyone was talking about the meat, but Old Huang was lost in thought. He remembered how he had previously mocked the Xie family for not eating as well as he did, which was a complete joke.
The Xie family was eating so well that Zhu Mingyue dared to throw away meat carelessly.
When did the Xie family become so wealthy? The thought of being outdone by others made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
I can't figure it out, I really can't figure it out.
Huang Zhongyi's family owned a full twelve acres of land. Apart from a few other households, his family could be considered a large family, envied and resented by others.
In contrast, Xie Pei's family, though consisting of only two people, had no other source of income besides their two acres of land.
No, Xie Pei knows how to hunt.
Hunting isn't exactly a lucrative business. If hunting could turn the poor into the rich, then Tiger Head Mountain would be full of men from Gouhe Village.
Huang Zhongyi silently concluded that the Xie family must have made a fortune through some shady business.
He pondered for a long time without finding a solution, then the image of Zhu Mingyue's radiant beauty appeared in his mind, and he slowly chuckled.
"Old Huang, what are you laughing at? That's creepy."
Huang Zhongyi came to his senses and said confidently, "Do you know why the Xie family can eat so well?"
Why?
"Why else? Don't forget Xie Pei is an excellent hunter."
"Old Huang, are you jealous because the Xie family eats better than you? Haha!" someone said, half-jokingly and half-seriously.
This struck a nerve with Huang Zhongyi, causing him to break down. He stiffened his thick neck and said, "Me, jealous of him? What a joke! Why would I be jealous? Even if I, Huang Zhongyi, eat pickled vegetables, I earn it all honestly with my own hands."
"The Xie family is so poor, yet they can still afford to eat meat. It's impossible that they earned the money themselves. They must have done something shady behind the scenes."
"What kind of shady business are you up to?" someone asked.
Huang Zhongyi didn't know either, but he could guess. Xie Pei and his sister-in-law often went to town in the morning and didn't return for several hours. He used to suspect that the two of them were having an affair. Now he not only suspected that, but also suspected that Zhu Mingyue was making money by using her body.
He wasn't sure if it was entirely as he thought, but since someone had asked, he just shared his thoughts.
He not only spoke, but he spoke with absolute certainty, as if he had witnessed Zhu Mingyue doing that thing with his own eyes.
Unfortunately, every single one of these people was incredibly filthy; they not only believed it but also continued to utter lewd remarks.
Unbeknownst to anyone, in the afterglow of the setting sun, a man with a terrifyingly gloomy face and a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes stood out.
A week later, Zhu Mingyue's dumpling shop was fully on track.
Because of its delicious taste, it attracted many customers. As for the noodle shop not far away, it was affected by the dumpling shop and had far fewer customers. It was almost deserted.
This confirms Zhu Mingyue's guess at the time: the reason why people still go to that noodle shop, which is so bad, is simply because there are no competitors and they are spoiled.
Now that a competitor has emerged, the noodle shop owner could be caught off guard with just a slight mishap.
I heard they've already lowered the price once.
When Zhu Mingyue met him again, she saw that he no longer had his usual arrogant demeanor, and she immediately felt refreshed.
Once Xie Pei finishes today's work, he'll have almost finished the work in the fields, and tomorrow he won't have to come to town alone.
After Xie Pei comes over, he can help him light the fire and roll out the dough, which will reduce his stress a lot and give him more free time to serve as many customers as possible.
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