Chapter 20: A Taste of the Wild Mountains
Setting the cold platter aside, Jian Xingxia took out a few more eggs.
The new pot had been properly seasoned. She had coated it with oil, stir-fried a couple of handfuls of discarded, mature wild vegetable leaves, and washed it clean again, rendering it ready for use.
First, Jian Xingxia used a generous amount of oil to fry four sunny-side-up eggs. The temperature of the oil fried the edges of the egg whites into a crispy, golden web of lacy threads.
Once the fried eggs were scooped out, she sliced them into several pieces and returned them to the pot along with the wild green onion segments. Then, she used soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and water to mix a bowl of fish-fragrant sauce. Pouring it into the pot to simmer, she tossed in a final handful of scallion segments right before plating.
A bowl of fish-fragrant fried eggs was ready.
With one meat-style dish and one vegetable dish, paired with corn, it made for a simple yet cozy dinner.
Once the food was prepared, Jian Xingxia cradled the corn and went outside to find Da Hei.
“Da Hei, is it almost time for you to go back?”
Da Hei’s shift length was two hours longer than Taoya’s, so his time was just about up.
Da Hei swung his hoe down, his face a mask of utter bewilderment. “Master… wants me to leave?”
“No, no, no. I mean, is it almost time for you to return to where you came from?”
Jian Xingxia was hesitant in her heart. If it were a matter of keeping Taoya for a meal, she wouldn’t have the slightest issue. But no matter how gaunt and simple Da Hei was, he was still a physically massive young male. Coupled with his foreign appearance as a Kunlun Slave, Jian Xingxia wasn’t entirely at ease.
That was why, after Taoya left, she had handed the field chores entirely over to Da Hei and returned inside to cook by herself. She didn’t want to keep Da Hei for dinner.
But Da Hei couldn’t care less about food right now. His mind was consumed by the terrifying shock that his master didn’t want him anymore.
His immediate reaction: “Master, did I eat too much?”
He turned around to look at the land he had cultivated. “Was my labor not efficient enough?”
Da Hei deeply regretted his actions now. If he had known, he wouldn’t have inhaled that sweet potato in two massive bites. It must have been the way he rolled his eyes while choking just now that disgusted his master.
In the past, as he was passed around among multiple human traffickers, he had been rejected by everyone because of his massive appetite and terrible table manners. It was only with great difficulty that he met a good man like his late master. His late master had come to him in a dream after dying just so he could find a new master, yet within a single day, he had disgusted her.
At the thought of returning to the deep, desolate mountains to guard a lonely grave and keep company with birds and beasts, a wave of bitter sorrow washed over Da Hei.
“Master, I won’t eat. I will labor.”
Da Hei anxiously used the words he had just learned to express his loyalty.
But Jian Xingxia was currently on the verge of being scared out of her wits—
No one had told her that a Black person turning transparent would look so much more terrifying! That state of being semi-dark yet not dark, on the verge of dissolving into the sunset shadows, leaving behind nothing but a pair of stark white eyeballs and a row of teeth opening, closing, and muttering incantations… it was far too horrifying!
But what was even more horrifying was that Da Hei wasn’t as perceptive as Taoya. He hadn’t realized that the biggest issue right now wasn’t whether Jian Xingxia would let him stay, but that he was about to completely cease to exist!
Jian Xingxia didn’t have time to explain so much, asking Da Hei in a frantic rush, “Quick, quick, quick! How much do you want for your wages?”
Just grab your things and get out of here!
Tears streamed down Da Hei’s face as he clutched his hoe and wailed aloud, “Master, I beg of you, I can farm, I can hunt, I can…”
“Oh, goodness! You can, you can, I know! But right now, grab your things and get out of here!”
Seeing that she couldn’t extract anything coherent from Da Hei’s mouth, Jian Xingxia hastily turned to the system for help. “What is Da Hei’s wage standard?”
[The temporary worker’s status is a slave, so there is no standard wage. However, this system recommends that based on slave treatment and bounties, the wage standard should be 1.5 yuan per hour, and must not be lower than 1 yuan per hour.]
Jian Xingxia: “……”
Da Hei’s labor was easily worth two or three normal men, yet she hadn’t expected his wages to be this low.
“One-fifty, right? Then six hours comes to nine yuan. Rice and flour won’t work since he can’t process them in the mountains, so let’s go with sweet potatoes—they’re large and filling.”
Jian Xingxia calculated rapidly. Rating sweet potatoes at two yuan a jin, nine yuan could fetch four and a half jin. She single-handedly picked out four massive sweet potatoes and forcefully shoved them into Da Hei’s arms.
By this point, she couldn’t care less about being afraid. Grabbing Da Hei’s semi-transparent, frosted-glass arm—which felt exactly like a stretchy gummy—she dashed rapidly toward the mountain paths.
Da Hei’s face was dead as ash, filled with nothing but the agony and numbness of being abandoned and driven away.
The gummy arm in Jian Xingxia’s hand grew even softer, feeling like jelly now! But she still hadn’t found the cave. Left with no choice, she came to a halt, grabbed a handful of Da Hei’s messy hair that dangled down to his chest, and forced him to listen to her words properly.
“I’ll look for you to work again tomorrow! But you head back first today, clean up your late master’s grave properly, and tell him that you’ve found a new master.”
Seeing that Da Hei was still completely dazed, Jian Xingxia barked with a thread of anger, “Da Hei! I command you right now to cross through the cave, go back to sweep the grave, and report back into the mountain for labor first thing tomorrow morning!”
A jolt went through Da Hei.
He couldn’t quite comprehend the garbled things Jian Xingxia had babbled earlier, but this fierce, tyrannical command to enslave him… this he was entirely familiar with!
Da Hei answered instantly, “Yes! Master, I will go sweep the grave right now!”
With that, cradling the sweet potatoes, he bolted into a sprint. Da Hei ran barefoot over the sharp gravel and tree branches along the mountain path, completely impervious to pain as he sprinted away.
Jian Xingxia couldn’t keep up. Resting her hands on her knees, she panted heavily as she watched Da Hei’s figure completely dissolve into the depths of the grass.
Does the cave refuse to appear as long as I am present? Jian Xingxia hypothesized.
However, she had no heart to test it further. It was seven o’clock and darkness was falling. Taking advantage of the remaining twilight, Jian Xingxia nimbly cut through the weeds and wasteland to return to the back courtyard.
Dahua had perched on top of the back courtyard gate at some unknown point. The moment she spotted Jian Xingxia, she delivered a resounding “cluck-cluck-clack” from afar. Then, as if she could fly, she spread her wings and lunged right before Jian Xingxia, pecking down a small snake that was trailing behind her.
Jian Xingxia spun around just in time to see Dahua execute a few rapid peck-peck-pecks, snapping the chopstick-length small snake into two segments before swallowing it straight into her belly.
Jian Xingxia wasn’t particularly afraid of a snake this tiny; if she encountered one in the fields, she would simply pinch its neck and hurl it far into the brush or a pond. But with Dahua rushing over to escort her, Jian Xingxia felt incredibly secure.
She bent down to scoop Dahua up, carried her into the house, and locked both the front and back courtyard gates securely. Then, carrying her dishes, she went inside to eat.
The fish-fragrant fried eggs were still lukewarm, perfectly suited for the sweltering July weather. The chilled salad lacked a bit of sesame oil fragrance, but the natural flavor of the wild greens compensated for the missing touch.
Jian Xingxia hadn’t paused all afternoon, so her stomach was thoroughly hollowed out. After devouring an ear of corn, she peeled a sweet potato. Feeling like she could still manage a bit more, she took the final two eggs boiled that afternoon, dipped them into the remaining sauce from the salad and fried eggs, and stuffed them into her mouth.
Once she had eaten her fill, she used the lamplight to wash the dishes, take a shower, and wash her clothes. After bustling about until past eight, Jian Xingxia locked the doors and windows tight, brought Dahua into her bedroom, and began her blissful phone-browsing time.
Although the old house didn’t have broadband internet installed, Jian Xingxia had lived a highly fulfilling life over the past few days, barely spending any time on her phone, leaving her with plenty of data.
She began filtering through the items she had wanted to purchase during her morning market trip. Comparing prices across three different shops on the shopping app, she carefully inspected the reviews to confirm the cost-effectiveness before placing her orders one by one.
“Buy an electronic platform scale, forty-eight yuan, for use next market day. There are still several old peach trees on the back mountain; I’ll harvest and sell them together when the time comes.”
“Taoya mentioned that they have never eaten refined rice, let alone seen flour this white… Buy some cheap rice and flour, roughly processed, to make it convenient to distribute as wages.”
Jian Xingxia’s fingers tapped rapidly across her phone screen, thick-skinnedly asking a seller: “I’m buying a large volume, and I will continue to buy long-term in the future. Can you make it a bit cheaper?”
Simultaneously, she scavenged for coupons everywhere, calculating various discount thresholds. Comparing prices across shops and utilizing discounts skillfully was a mandatory course for impoverished university students. Although Jian Xingxia was a manor owner now, the development progress of the manor was slow, so she still thoroughly needed to budget tightly.
However, once the shipping fees for the online grain were factored in, the price ended up slightly higher than what Auntie Lu charged. Jian Xingxia thus decided to buy from the village first, which would also generate income for the left-behind elderly residents.
With these thoughts in mind, Jian Xingxia harvested some peaches the next day and went down to the village.
The villagers were highly delighted to hear that she wanted to purchase grain.
“We all grow grain here. Your grandmother used to buy from the village frequently too.”
Jian Xingxia distributed the peaches to the elderly residents, saying, “I don’t need a massive amount. Just a bit for myself, and some to mail to my classmates.”
Jian Xingxia smiled and said, “They simply love these all-natural products. They say they want to eat brown rice and whole-wheat flour.”
The elderly residents were a bit blank. “We know about brown rice—just mill the rice one or two fewer times.”
“But this whole… whole-whatever, what on earth is that?”
It just so happened that Fangfang had heard Jian Xingxia was in the village. The moment she walked over and caught these words, she helped explain, “It means grinding wheat into powder without removing the husks.”
Fangfang said, “A lot of people nowadays dislike refined rice and flour for health reasons; they insist on eating coarse grains.”
“Goodness, grinding wheat without removing the husks? That’s going to scrape the throat terribly!”
The village elders were utterly perplexed. “We did eat that when we were young, but we stopped later on. Even when we mill flour for ourselves, we’re willing to remove the husks. The city folks all eat rich-and-strong flour, construction flour…”
With snow-white, silky flour available to eat, who would want to swallow something containing bran? The village elders couldn’t comprehend how, after several decades had passed, the young people were living further and further backward.
With Fangfang serving as witness, Jian Xingxia’s fabrications didn’t cause any waves. Instead, Old Chai, who ran the village’s small mill, was ecstatic. “There are people who want it milled two fewer times? That’s perfect, it saves me electricity!”
Everyone jeered and told Old Chai to make the processing fee a bit cheaper, and simultaneously agreed to Jian Xingxia’s requests. Jian Xingxia thus reserved one hundred jin of brown rice and one hundred jin of whole-wheat flour.
There was plenty of land in the mountains, and the residents of Lu’an Village were well-accustomed to growing their own grain. If a household didn’t stockpile two or three thousand jin of grain, they were considered thoroughly lazy. Jian Xingxia’s minor volume wasn’t worth fighting over, so everyone let Grandma Hu supply it.
Grandma Hu was a lonely, widowed elderly woman in the village, though fortunately she had a few relatives around to help look after her normally.
Jian Xingxia inquired about the price: “Grandma Hu, how much do you sell your rice and flour for?”
Grandma Hu forcefully yanked Jian Xingxia to the side.
“The unhusked rice and wheat aren’t worth much; the outside dealers only pay one-thirty to collect them. You can take them to be milled yourself, but can Grandma entrust you to buy some things for me instead?”
Grandma Hu’s heavily wrinkled face lifted slightly, carrying a trace of an expression that made it difficult to speak.
