Redwood Village

At close to ten o'clock, Lin Yuan got home.

The front door was locked tight. Clearly, no one was home.

When he had come back just now, he had passed by his family's fields and hadn't seen his mom there either. Where could she have gone at this hour?

Lin Yuan didn't think too much of it. For all these years, whether he had been in college or working away from home, his mom had stayed at home by herself. She had her own social circle and habits too. At this time, she had either gone to visit a friend or headed to the market.

He hadn't changed clothes once during these past few days in the city, so Lin Yuan quickly went upstairs, took a hot shower, and changed into clean clothes.

He had just been about to dry his hair when, suddenly, his phone rang.

The call was from his mom, Li Xiuqing.

"Hello, Mom, where did you run off to? How come I don't see you anywhere?"

"You're back now?"

"Yeah, I just got back this morning."

"Good that you're back. Come over to Redwood Village next door. I'm at your aunt's place."

"Why'd you go to Auntie's place?"

"Don't ask. Hurry over. There's something I need you to do."

"Fine, fine, fine. I'm coming right away."

"I rode the electric scooter away. Go to your uncle's place and borrow his motorcycle. It'll be faster."

"Okay, okay, got it."

That was what Lin Yuan said, but he let it go in one ear and out the other.

Redwood Village was only five or six li from their place. If he ran straight there, it wouldn't even take him long, so why would he go borrow anything from his uncle's family?

Besides, his aunt-in-law had always been petty, the textbook kind of snob. When he was little, she had bullied his mom plenty. Though her attitude had improved a lot after he got into college, Lin Yuan still didn't want much to do with that family.

Redwood Village lay northeast of Songping Village. It was called Redwood Village because there were many redwood trees there, which also made Redwood Village wealthier than the surrounding villages.

Lin Yuan left the house, took a shortcut, and pushed his running speed straight to the limit. About ten minutes later, he arrived at his aunt's house in Redwood Village.

On the open patch of ground in front of his aunt's house, a crowd had already gathered.

At the center of the crowd was a wooden frame about two meters tall, with a pitch-black wild boar hanging upside down from it.

By now, the pig had already been gutted.

Blood ran down the boar's body into a stainless-steel basin below, where it congealed into clots.

Judging by the boar's size, it had to weigh at least two hundred kilograms.

Lin Yuan immediately grew interested and grabbed an old man nearby who was sitting on a chair smoking a dry pipe. "Uncle, where'd this wild boar come from?"

"Caught it in the mountains, of course."

"Didn't they say you can't just hunt wild animals anymore?"

The old man narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at Lin Yuan, and smiled. "Whose kid are you?"

"From the Old Lin family in Songping Village next door."

"No wonder. Kid, you don't know. Last year, a herd of wild boars came out of nowhere on the mountain slopes of our Redwood Village. Those wild boars wouldn't eat anything else. They went straight for the redwood saplings in the mountains. After a while, they'd ruined every last redwood seedling up there."

"You should know too, every household in our village depends on those redwood trees for a living. How could we let those wild boars ruin them? So at the end of last year, our village secretary reported the matter to the county."

"And then they agreed to let you hunt them?"

"How could it be that easy? Our village secretary made several trips to the county government, but they just wouldn't approve it. Said these wild boars were Class III protected animals."

"Then why did they agree now?"

"According to our secretary, the country changed the policy this year. Wild boars aren't Class III protected animals anymore, so only then were we allowed to go into the mountains and hunt those beasts."

After Lin Yuan got the story straight, he squeezed into the crowd watching at the front. As soon as he got in, he spotted his mom.

"Mom, what was so urgent that you called me over for?"

When Li Xiuqing heard her son's voice, she quickly turned her head.

"A Yuan, you came just in time. I bought fifty jin. Take it back later."

"Why did you buy so much?"

"Much? Did you forget how much you eat? I was afraid I hadn't bought enough. Even if we can't finish it, we can make cured meat."

Hearing that, Lin Yuan felt warmth rise in his heart.

She really was his own mom. Though these days, with him doing Martial Arts Practice at home, she inevitably nagged him, she was always thinking of him.

"Got it. Where's the meat? I'll carry it back now."

"It hasn't been cut yet. Wait a bit."

"Old Han, hurry it up. We've been waiting ages."

"Right away, right away." Han Housheng laughed heartily.

Then he raised his voice and shouted, "Those in the back who didn't get to buy any, stop squeezing in. All the Wild Boar Meat's been reserved. Everyone, go do what you need to do. Come back at noon, and I'll treat you all to pig-slaughter rice noodles."

"Han Monkey, wasn't there still some left? How's it gone already?"

"Heh, sorry about that. My own family doesn't even have enough to eat. It wasn't easy catching a wild boar, so we've got to keep some for ourselves. This is already less than we meant to keep."

"Then can you sell the pig's blood?"

"Selling, selling, of course. We're all from the same village, so I'll sell the pig's blood to you at the normal pig's blood price."

"We're all from the same village, so just treat everyone. With such a big wild boar, how much money are you going to make?"

"Yeah, yeah. Old Han, treat everyone." The crowd chimed in one after another.

When Han Housheng heard that, he immediately glared at the person who had first started stirring things up.

"Wang Liuzi, believe it or not, I'll rip that lump off the side of your mouth. I already said I'm treating everyone to pork-butchering noodles at noon, and you're still making trouble here."

"Come on, Old Han, don't mind him. I'll reserve five catties of pig's blood."

"Sure thing. Brother Shu, you're the one who knows how to talk. I'll throw in another two catties for you later," Han Housheng said with a smile.

After that, he turned back to everyone and said, "Anyone here today who wants to buy pig's blood, except for Wang Liuzi, who gets none, everyone else gets an extra catty."

When the crowd heard that, they immediately burst into laughter again and kept praising Han Housheng for being generous, leaving only Wang Liuzi with an ashen face.

Lin Yuan watched Han Housheng handle the whole thing and had to admit the man was a good sort, and had high emotional intelligence too.

With just a few words, he had made the villagers shower him with praise.

"All right, the knife's sharpened. Sorry to keep everyone waiting."

Not far away, someone came jogging over with an oily black, gleaming butcher knife in hand.

It was different from the usual kitchen knives at home. The blade was curved, about a foot long and half a foot wide. The edge was white as snow, while the body of the knife was pitch-black and glossy. The handle was a piece of black wood, with a length of red ribbon tied to the end.

Lin Yuan didn't know knives, but just from its appearance, he faintly felt that this knife was extraordinary.

Han Housheng took the knife and began cutting up the pork.

In his hand, the butcher knife seemed to become part of his body. His hand rose and the blade fell, and before long, the once-whole pig had been divided into more than thirty pieces of various sizes.

His butchering technique was extremely clean and efficient. Every cut followed the softer parts of the pork, so his movements flowed like clouds and running water, smooth beyond belief, as if he were not cutting up a pig but slicing through a sheet of paper.

Han Housheng picked up a large piece of hind leg meat, a piece of foreleg meat, and several big racks of ribs, packed them into a sack, and handed it to Li Xiuqing.

"Sister Li, your fifty catties of pork."

Li Xiuqing glanced at Lin Yuan, and Lin Yuan very sensibly picked it up at once.

Then Li Xiuqing counted out twenty-five red bills for him.

"Let's go. We'll stop by your aunt's place first."

At that moment, his aunt had just returned from the fields, carrying a large bucket of vegetables in her hand.

His aunt was named Lin Fengjuan. When he was little, every year he came here, he could always wheedle some good food out of her. His aunt had treated him extremely well since childhood, so back when he was still in school, whenever winter or summer vacation came, he would inevitably spend some time playing at her house.

"Auntie, your strength really hasn't dropped at all. You're carrying such a big bucket straight by hand?"

When Lin Fengjuan saw that it was Lin Yuan, she was startled at first, but immediately after, delight filled her face. She hurriedly asked, "A Yuan, when did you come back?"

"A while ago."

"You came back a while ago and didn't come say hello to your aunt?"

"I'm here now, aren't I?" Lin Yuan forced out an explanation.

After saying that, Lin Yuan quickly stepped forward and took the bucket of vegetables from her hand.

"Come on, let's go inside first."

"Sure."

The few of them had just entered the house when Han Fei, who had been watching TV in the inner room, also came out.

Han Fei was his aunt's son, two years older than Lin Yuan.

The two of them had also played together since childhood.

"Lin Yuan, how come you're back?" Han Fei said, pleasantly surprised.

"Feigu, entertain A Yuan and your aunt-in-law. I'll go inside and make something to eat."

Feigu was Han Fei's childhood nickname, one he had been called since he was little.

"You're home too? Where's your dad?"

At this moment, Li Xiuqing spoke up. "Your uncle was at the pig-butchering place with me this morning. Later, I think he went off drinking with someone from the village committee."

"Don't worry about him. Let's have a good chat." Han Fei pulled Lin Yuan down to sit.

"Oh, right. Wait a second."

Han Fei immediately rushed into the kitchen and carried out a big jug of Rice Wine.

"Let's have some."

Before Lin Yuan could open his mouth to refuse, Han Fei had already poured him a cup.

"You're still the same as before, love drinking just as much."

"Anyway, it's not that strong. My mom brews so much every year. If I don't drink more of it, am I supposed to wait for it to grow mold?"

"I've never heard of wine growing mold."

"Quit whining. We barely get to see each other once all year. We've got to have a few cups. I was just worrying I had no one to drink with me."

"I'll drink, all right?"

"Come on, let's down one first." With that, Han Fei tipped the small half bowl of wine in his hand straight down his throat.

Lin Yuan followed right after. How could he not know what kind of person Han Fei was? If he dared nurse the wine in his bowl, Han Fei would definitely make him drink several more.

Beside them, Li Xiuqing wasn't very happy about Lin Yuan drinking like this, but she couldn't really say anything, or she would embarrass him.

So, out of sight, out of mind. She simply got up and went to find Lin Fengjuan.