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Lu Qiniang helped with deboning the meat, swiftly and skillfully. A whole cow skeleton was stripped clean, with almost no meat left to be found.
The crowd was lively as they drew lots to divide the meat.
After all, everyone wanted the prime cuts, so in the interest of fairness, Li Zheng decided to use a lottery system.
Daya went to draw the lot for the family and ended up with number twenty-three.
It was quite a favorable position.
However, after those in front of them had chosen their cuts, Lu Qiniang pointed at the cow’s shank and said, “Our family will take this beef shank. Five people, three pounds. I came early this morning to slaughter the cow, and then…”
“You have five people?” Zhao Shi jumped out.
She was Houtou’s mother, Xiao Dashan’s wife. She still harbored resentment over the broken engagement from before.
Although she had received twenty taels of betrothal money, not a single coin was returned, she still felt like she had been at a disadvantage.
At the time, when she was planning for Houtou to marry into the Zhang family, she thought the Zhang family at least had a hundred taels of silver in assets. With her son marrying in, everything would belong to him in the future.
But now, everything was gone. Could she not be angry?
“My husband paid the heat Tax for a head count, and those are my people. Otherwise, if you don’t want the beef, go get the bride price back for me!” Lu Qiniang retorted.
Zhao Shi couldn’t care less about those details. “You two didn’t complete the formalities, so it doesn’t count! You married someone into the family—did the head of the Zhang family agree? Without completing the formalities, why should you get any meat?”
The crowd fell silent.
Although it was just six jin of meat, if Lu Qiniang’s family got less, wouldn’t everyone else get a bit more?
Beef was a rare and precious commodity…
Lu Qiniang looked at Li Zheng.
Li Zheng cleared his throat. “Well, this is a tricky situation, there are valid points on both sides…”
As soon as Erya heard this, she got angry. “When you made us pay the head tax, you didn’t say it like this! If we’re not going to get any meat, then return the head tax to us! How much meat could we buy with that money!”
So when paying the fee, we were considered a person, but when it comes to dividing things, we’re not?
This was clearly bullying.
Li Zheng’s expression darkened.
Lu Qiniang took a deep breath. “Then fine, I won’t take the six jin of meat.”
“Mother!” Erya was furious.
“Mother, I want to eat meat!” Sanya also shouted.
Even Daya, who was usually composed, now had an expression of dissatisfaction on her face.
These people were clearly bullying them.
“Enough, everyone be quiet.” Lu Qiniang said, pointing at the clean skeleton. “I don’t want the six taels of meat, but this set of bones is worth six jin of meat.”
Someone, unable to watch this any longer, spoke up.
“There’s not even three jin of meat on that skeleton, let alone six!”
“How can there be none? Look at the size of that skeleton!” Zhao Shi retorted, “I think there’s at least three jin of meat there!”
“Well, since you think so, then the skeleton is yours. Consider it worth six jin of meat. No, three jin of meat will do,” Lu Qiniang said with a cold smile.
Zhao Shi turned her head, refusing to respond, clearly unwilling to accept it.
Li Zheng, probably feeling that the scene had become too ugly, spoke up. “Since Qiniang has agreed, then the skeleton goes to her, worth six jin of meat. If anyone disagrees, they can present six jin of meat, and the skeleton will be theirs.”
No one spoke up.
Lu Qiniang then moved the skeleton to the other side of the flat cart and even had Xiao Yan steady it for her. She also threw the cow’s tail onto the cart.
No one said anything in response.
She went to ask for the cow’s blood, “I was the one who slaughtered the cow, so the blood should be divided to me. I don’t want more, just two blocks will do.”
According to the rules, the blood of the cow was indeed given to the person who helped with the slaughter. Though each block weighed more than half a jin, taking two blocks wasn’t something anyone could complain about.
Having “suffered a loss,” Lu Qiniang didn’t want to deal with the distribution of the rest of the meat. She took her family’s 2.4 jin of beef, two blocks of blood, and a cow’s skeleton. Pushing the flat cart with Xiao Yan’s help, she led her three daughters, their eyes red from holding back tears, back home.
Once at home, Lu Qiniang immediately shut the door, her face beaming with a smile.
“Mother, have you gone crazy from anger?” Erya asked.
She secretly swore to herself that she would marry the strongest man in the future and beat up all these bad people!
“Foolish Erya, we’ve gained a great bargain today!” Lu Qiniang rubbed her frozen red hands with excitement. “What your mother did today was pure wisdom and bravery!”
“Mother, there’s no meat on the cow’s bones,” Daya said. “You scraped it too clean. If we had left some meat, we wouldn’t have lost out.”
“I did it on purpose,” Lu Qiniang replied, “That way, no one will fight us for it.”
If there had been any meat, would they, the orphans and widows, have had a chance to get any? Well, now that Xiao Yan was around, it was almost the same as if he weren’t. After all, to everyone else, he didn’t even exist.
“Mother, you really wanted the bones?” Er Ya pouted. “But there’s no meat on them!”
“You don’t understand, you’ll see later. Come on, go fetch some water for me. Leave the rest alone, I’ll do it myself!”
Lu Qiniang moved the cow’s bones off the cart, but the cart lost its balance, and Xiao Yan rolled off the other side. Fortunately, he was wrapped in a quilt.
Seeing this, Lu Qiniang couldn’t help but laugh. “Wait a moment, let me wash my hands with soap berries before I come and carry you.”
She washed the greasy hands clean, then took off her blood-stained clothes and walked over to lift him up, quilt and all, heading inside. “Have you frozen yourself? I’ll call Sanya to boil some water.”
“No need, I’m not cold. I want to see you finish dealing with the cow bones,” Xiao Yan said.
Today, Lu Qiniang’s skills had truly amazed him.
At this moment, Xiao Yan couldn’t shake the image of Lu Qiniang wielding the knife against the cow. Her movements were swift and clean. The crimson blood spilled across the snow, resembling small plum blossoms in bloom. She wiped her face with a hand, smearing the scattered bloodstains, like a wounded yet still valiant wolf. But as soon as she smiled brightly, it was as if the sun had melted the ice, warming everything in its path.
In that moment, Xiao Yan saw a beauty he had never witnessed before.
He was eager to see how the “intelligent and courageous” Lu Qiniang would transform such a set of cow bones into something extraordinary.
Lu Qiniang placed Xiao Yan on the chair, concerned that he might slide off, so she thoughtfully tied him, quilt and all, with a hemp rope to secure him to the chair.
Xiao Yan could only stare in silence.
Every day seemed to bring a new level of bewilderment.
Lu Qiniang took out the axe she used for chopping firewood and began sharpening it on the whetstone, making it shine brightly. Then, she pulled out a rolled-up old mat.
To Xiao Yan, the scene before him seemed more and more like Lu Qiniang was preparing to sharpen the knife, about to commit murder, and then dispose of the body.
Lu Qiniang started scrubbing the mat with water. In the cold winter, the water quickly froze into a thin layer of ice on the mat. But she didn’t seem to care. With a few quick strokes, she brushed off the ice and kept washing, over and over again.
It was as if she had an endless reserve of energy.
She had nearly used up an entire tub of water by the time Daya and Erya returned with more.
Lu Qiniang placed the cleaned cow bones onto the mat, and then took the well water Daya and Erya had brought back, washing the bones again.
“Now there’s not even a trace of blood left. It’s cleaner than clean. Even a dog would shake its head at this.” Erya muttered, clearly upset.
Six ounces of meat had been traded for this. Just thinking about it made her feel miserable.
That was a whole 0.6 jin of meat!