Celebration

Wang Xiaojing did not return with the five people who had rebelled alongside him until evening.

The village elders looked at these children they had watched grow up and, in the end, could not bear to scold them too harshly. They only gave them a token beating before preparing braziers and mugwort water.

They stepped over the braziers, sprinkled themselves with mugwort water, and then began preparing dinner.

Yet the villagers had just survived a great disaster and were still suffering through famine, so they could not bear to prepare anything too lavish. At the very least, they had not been willing to slaughter any chickens, though they did bring out several eggs.

But once Wang Fei Yin and the others returned, things were different.

One household wanted to kill a chicken, another went to catch a duck, and yet another chased after a goose with a cleaver raised.

Chickens flew and dogs leaped.

That goose's eyes blazed as it looked at Pan Yun, as though fire were about to burst from them. Pan Yun immediately stepped forward to stop them. "Don't kill them, don't kill them. Keep them all for laying eggs. I bought meat already. Tao Yanbai—"

Tao Yanbai, who had been surrounded by the crowd, immediately answered loudly, "Here!"

"Why haven't you brought over the meat we bought?"

"Oh." Tao Yanbai ran back to the ox cart, groped around in the dark, then carried down half a pig carcass.

They had bought it from Master Qian, intending to eat it up in the mountains. After all, after the flood, there were not many pigs and sheep left alive.

The villagers stared at such a huge slab of meat and exclaimed, "So much! How can we possibly finish it?"

Wang Fei Yin waved a broad hand. "There are