On the official road, a donkey cart with gray curtains leisurely entered through the city gate of Yanting County. Its wooden wheels creaked as they rolled over the bluestone-paved streets, passing through the bustling marketplace before stopping in front of an elegant, antique-style inn.
The driver called out “Whoa!” and shouted to the passenger in the back compartment, “Madam Qian, we’ve arrived.”
Soon, the dusty gray curtain was pulled aside, and out emerged a woman of about thirty-some years, wearing pearl flowers in her hair, silver combs, and round pearl earrings. She glanced at the inn with her phoenix eyes, seemingly satisfied as she picked up her bundle and stepped down.
After paying the cart fare, this Madam Qian entered the inn, reserved a mid-grade room, then turned and asked the young waiter to run an errand for her and deliver a visiting card on her behalf.
The waiter accepted her five wen and cheerfully reported to the innkeeper before tucking away the card and running off happily.
…
It was now nearly the Hour of the Monkey (3-5pm). Summer days ended late; the sun was slanting westward, but daylight still remained. The ox cart returning from the outskirts stopped outside the county gate. The passengers disembarked one after another, bidding farewell to Xu Yi, who remained seated on the cart.
Xu Yi didn’t get off. He paid the driver separately for an extra trip into the county city, asking him to take him to Butcher Duan’s shop.
Butcher Duan ran a small meat shop in the western marketplace. He opened for business almost every day before dawn and didn’t close until the end of the Hour of the Monkey.
When Xu Yi arrived, Butcher Duan was bare-armed, swinging his cleaver to chop meat. With each swing, the sturdy biceps on his arms flexed, causing the maidservants waiting to buy meat to blush.
“Fresh meat for sale! Freshly slaughtered meat every day!”
While calling out, Butcher Duan strung the chopped meat on hemp rope and handed it to a red-faced maidservant.
The maidservant, her face flushed, took the meat and hurried away.
Seeing this scene, Butcher Duan grinned broadly. At that moment, an ox cart carrying a wild boar conspicuously appeared at his shop entrance.
The young man sitting on it jumped down, grabbed the wild boar, and dragged it before him.
Butcher Duan was startled.
Xu Yi spoke up, “Uncle Duan, do you buy wild boar here?”
Before Butcher Duan could respond, people crowded around to watch.
“It smells so strong. Is this a wild boar you hunted? How did it get so mangled? It looks bloody and gruesome, and smells terrible.” The neighboring shop owner covered his nose, speaking with disgust.
His shop sold hand-held trinkets. He was already quite dissatisfied that the adjacent shop was rented to a meat-selling butcher, but this Butcher Duan also frequently bought these pungent wild game, making it difficult for his business to thrive.
He seized every opportunity to complain.
Others around him chimed in, all finding the wild boar terrifying to look at.
The cart driver spoke up in defense, “The young gentleman hunted it alone. His technique may have been lacking, but most of the meat is still good.”
“Really? Is that true?”
“Is the young gentleman truly so brave? He could kill such a large wild boar?”
The driver insisted, “Why wouldn’t it be believable? I saw with my own eyes that he went up the mountain and came down dragging the wild boar!”
“You hunted this?” Butcher Duan was astonished. He looked the youth up and down again, and seeing the wounds on his body, he was eighty percent convinced.
Xu Yi nodded and said, “Butcher Duan, take a look. If you want it, I’ll sell it to you. If not, I’ll take it away.”
“All right, let me have a look first.” Butcher Duan strode boldly out of his shop, not at all disgusted as he lifted the wild boar onto the cutting board.
Usually, when hunters caught wild boar, they targeted the small ones, set traps to capture them alive, then brought them to sell, trying as much as possible not to kill the pig.
Even if they died, it didn’t matter. There were plenty of wealthy people who loved eating them, and high-end taverns would also buy this meat and make it into delicious delicacies for those wealthy families to sample.
This was the first time he’d seen a wild boar with its belly so thoroughly destroyed. The abdominal area had hardly any good meat left; it had all been hacked into a bloody mess, smelling foul and frightening.
Several people who had come over to watch the excitement covered their faces in fear when they saw this scene.
Butcher Duan had been slaughtering pigs for over twenty years and had seen all kinds, so this was bearable. He just wondered how this young man wasn’t frightened.
He suppressed his curiosity and stated his terms plainly for the youth to hear, “I can buy this pig, but the price won’t be good. I can only give eight wen per pound, and the pig’s head must be excluded before weighing the rest.”
Xu Yi asked, “What’s the normal price?”
Butcher Duan was caught off guard, not expecting the young man to ask this. He conducted business with integrity, never shortchanging anyone, and seeing that this person was introduced by a regular customer, he spoke honestly, “Normally I only buy small wild boars. The meat is just right, neither tough nor gamey, and sells for the highest price—twenty-eight wen per pound. But yours won’t work. The meat is too old, and all the good meat has been hacked to pieces by you.”
Xu Yi nodded, agreeing with what he said, then considered, “Can I keep the damaged meat?”
Butcher Duan replied, “…All right.”
After some busy work, Butcher Duan cut off the pig’s head and the mangled chunks of meat, putting the rest on the scale. According to the current weight measure, it came to one hundred thirty-nine pounds. At eight wen per pound, that came to one string and one hundred twelve wen.
One string of cash was exchanged for a small silver ingot, and the excess copper coins were strung together and tucked into his jacket.
Xu Yi picked up the pig’s head and meat and got back on the ox cart.
The driver took Xu Yi to Stone Well Lane on South Street. Seeing the additional bloodstains on the cart, Xu Yi paid the driver double to compensate for the trouble of having to wash the cart when he returned.
“The young gentleman is as generous as ever.” The driver smiled as he accepted the money, then asked Xu Yi what he planned to do with the pig’s head.
Xu Yi frowned, “I haven’t thought about it yet.”
He didn’t know how to process a pig’s head, nor how to eat it.
The driver hesitated, then asked, “How about selling it to me, young gentleman? My wife is good at cooking. If she makes this pig’s head, it’ll be delicious.”
Xu Yi observed his expression. From years of driving carts, his skin was dark and gleamed with a layer of luster. “Uncle, you’re too kind. You were willing to make an extra trip into the city to guide me. Why wouldn’t I give you this pig’s head?”
Moreover, if the pig’s head stayed with him, it would only go to waste. Giving it to the uncle could be considered making a good connection.
The driver didn’t stand on ceremony. In the past, these pig heads were kept by butchers to eat themselves. If others wanted to buy one, it would cost at least a dozen wen.
After bidding farewell to the driver, Xu Yi shouldered his bamboo basket, picked up the remaining wild boar meat, and hurried home.
As he neared home, Xu Yi saw Madam He waiting outside his house, twisting her handkerchief in her hands while gazing toward the lane entrance.
Seeing Xu Yi, she hurried over. When she got close and saw the wounds on his body clearly, she cried out in alarm, “Brother Yi, what happened to you? How did you injure your arm? Did you run into trouble on the road?”
Xu Yi blinked sheepishly and briefly explained with a smile about encountering the wild boar on the mountain, then reassured her, “The injuries aren’t serious. They just look frightening.”
Before Madam He could fully digest this, Xu Yi asked if she had been waiting for him.
Madam He remembered her business and said, “Not long ago, a young waiter came running to deliver a visiting card. When he saw you weren’t home, he brought the card to my place instead.”
Xu Yi was puzzled.
Madam He continued, “The waiter only explained that a madam surnamed Qian had sent him to deliver the card. I don’t know the details of what’s inside.”
With that, she took out the folded red paper and handed it to Xu Yi.
Xu Yi took the card with one hand and glanced at it briefly. This Madam Qian turned out to be the aunt by marriage from the Wang family to whom Xu Yi was betrothed. She had been entrusted by the Wang family and was passing through to visit Xu Yi.
Xu Yi couldn’t help but frown. This wasn’t a gift-giving holiday. Why had the Wang family sent someone?