Night Walk

"Chicks for sale! Ten coins each!"

Outside the north gate, beside the main road, Cui Hao had set up a stall with his wife to sell chicks. Beside them sat Old Man Lin, a fellow villager and military household member, selling arrows.

"You're asking too much," Old Man Lin advised. Dark-skinned and thin, he looked the chicks over. "You'd have to sell them for five coins each."

Cui Hao ignored him and kept calling out to the passing crowd. "My chicks eat less and grow faster! Only eight left! Once they're gone, I'm leaving!"

A cute-looking young woman with her hair in a bun came over. She was about six feet tall, and her clothes bulged beneath her. "Will you sell them for five coins each?"

"Miss, my chicks are different from the others. They eat less and put on more meat. Ten coins each, and the price is firm."

"Seven each. Take it or leave it."

"Wait," Cui Hao called after his customer. "Deal!"

The young woman crouched and carefully inspected each chick. She noticed that one of them had a slightly shorter toe, so she only wanted seven.

She paid forty-nine copper coins and carried them away in her own bamboo basket.

After the female warrior left, Old Man Lin clicked his tongue in amazement. "Xiao Haozi, I didn't know you had such a knack for business."

"Uncle Lin," Cui Hao said, looking at his stall, "how much are the Wolf Fang Arrows?"

"I charge other people twenty-five coins apiece. I'll sell them to you for twenty. Can't go any lower."

A jin of pork belly cost twenty coins, yet a single arrow cost just as much. Cui Hao gritted his teeth and added fifty-one copper coins to the forty-nine he'd earned from selling chicks. With a hundred coins in all, he bought five Wolf Fang Arrows.

He hadn't brought a bow or a quiver, so he wrapped the five carefully selected Wolf Fang Arrows in a rag and put them in Su Yun's bamboo basket.

He put the one unsold chick in the basket too.

"Uncle Lin, carry on. I'll take Sister Yun into town to have a look around."

"Go on, then!" Old Man Lin was glad. His old friend was gone, but it was a blessing to see his friend's child and daughter-in-law making a good life for themselves.

"Brother Hao," Su Yun said softly as they passed beneath the gate tower, "I don't need new clothes."

"Sister Yun, winter's coming. If you get sick because you don't have enough clothes, we'll end up spending more."

They had money now, and the household had enough food and supplies. With her husband so insistent, Su Yun relented.

They made a round of the town and bought cloth, soles for shoes, salt, needles and thread, coarse rice... and lime powder.

Coarse rice was rice that had been stripped of its outermost husk but still retained its bran, germ, and endosperm. Cui Hao had insisted on it; otherwise, Su Yun would have bought finely ground rice with the husks still on, which cooked into mush.

They bought three dou each of coarse rice and mixed flour.

Five jin of pork belly, for rendering lard.

At the end, they bought two bundles of thin firewood. Su Yun had taken pity on the old man selling it, and it had been cheap.

With their baskets full, Cui Hao carried the shoulder pole, his wife by his side. They walked over a mile back to the village and spotted four familiar figures in the distance at the entrance.

"Well, look at that! Xiao Haozi took his wife to market?" Zhou Menghu grinned as if he were talking to Cui Hao, but his eyes were fixed on Su Yun.

Su Yun slipped behind Cui Hao.

"Yes, Brother Zhou," Cui Hao said, looking timid. "Have you eaten?"

Zhou Menghu ignored Cui Hao and sniffed the air. He could actually smell the meat.

He tore his gaze from Su Yun and bent to look at the two bundles of firewood. Something was hidden beneath them.

When he saw the rice, flour, and meat underneath, Zhou Menghu's expression darkened. They could afford meat! That meant they weren't short on money!

Zhou Menghu straightened and made his demand. "The four of us are going into Yuanmeng Mountain tomorrow morning to hunt big game. We're one man short. You're coming too."

Yuanmeng Mountain was Second Mountain. On his previous two hunting trips, Cui Hao had only stayed near its edges. Zhou Menghu's intentions were obvious.

"Brother Zhou, I know my own limits. I'd only hold you back, so I'll pass."

"Xiao Haozi, don't you dare refuse after I've given you face."

Having decided to act tonight, Cui Hao agreed. "All right. I'll go to Second Mountain tomorrow. I'll be counting on you to look after me, Brother Zhou."

"I'll look after you..." Zhou Menghu said, greedily glancing at Su Yun.

When they got home, Su Yun voiced her worry. "Brother Hao... I don't think Zhou Menghu will leave me alone."

"Don't worry," Cui Hao reassured his wife. "Go make dinner."

Su Yun nodded and went to the kitchen.

Cui Hao cleaned the household latrine, then secretly soaked the five newly bought Wolf Fang Arrowheads in the waste liquid.

He carefully sharpened the blade of his woodcutter's knife.

After lunch, Su Yun washed clothes in the yard, hung out quilts and duck down to dry, laid out dried vegetables, and tended to a chick. There was always something to keep her busy.

Cui Hao picked up the book he'd set aside and began to read intently.

[Reading: Beginner]

[Progress: 30/300]

[Effect: Reading speed +5, memory +5]

Compared with before, his reading speed had increased by about twenty percent.

His memory was similar. He could clearly feel it had improved; his mind felt clear and his thoughts sharp, which would be a great help with archery.

Night fell. The bright moon hung in the sky, casting a fair amount of light over the land.

The wind outside wasn't strong, but frost had settled over the ground. The cold bit deep.

Su Yun had patched the hole in the window during the day. Now, the wooden bed inside creaked rhythmically.

After a long while, Su Yun lay limp and fast asleep in her husband's arms.

They held each other close, the covers warm around them. In the cold late autumn, it felt like a safe shelter.

To keep this tiny mud-brick refuge from being kicked open by bandits, Cui Hao slowly slipped his arm free and gently reminded her, "Sister Yun, I'm going to the latrine. Keep sleeping; don't come out."

Su Yun slept like a dazed little pig. She murmured a soft "Mm" in her dream, then rolled her warm, fair body over to the other side.

Cui Hao slipped out of bed and quickly pulled on his clothes. He snatched the large bow and quiver from the wall.

Once outside, he kept as much of his body as possible in the shadows cast by the moonlight as he made his way along.

When he came across someone going out to relieve himself, Cui Hao stopped and waited. Once the person had returned indoors, he continued forward along the shadows.

The panel updated.

[Stealth: Beginner]

[Progress: 1/100]

A journey that took only seven or eight minutes by day took Cui Hao about two quarters of an hour. He reached the wall around Zhou Bahu's home. An old tree stood nearby, with four or five graves around it.

They were Zhou Bahu's family graves.

The old tree was one of the village's few trees. It couldn't be cut down, or Zhou Menghu would take revenge.

As luck would have it, Cui Hao climbed the main tree using both hands and feet. From there, he could see into the courtyard.

Separated by a single wall.

Zhou Menghu was soaking in a wooden tub in the main room. A rather pretty woman was rubbing his back and kneading his shoulders while pouring him wine.

"My lord," the woman asked with a bright smile, "I heard lots of people in Xiaoshizi Village can't afford their taxes. Some even sell their wives and daughters. Is that true?"

"Of course it's true. I've bought quite a few and sold them to brothels. Made a pretty penny, too."

"How pitiful."

"Pitiful, my ass." Zhou Menghu reached out and grabbed her breast. "There are plenty who can't go on living, either. Some whole families take their own lives."

The woman giggled.