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After inviting the two old men to sit down, the village chief finally got to the point.
“Manya, we heard you brought back a big beehive? This is Village Chief Huang from the neighboring village. He came to ask if you’d be willing to sell it to him.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Man’s eyes lit up.
“Sure! Let me bring it out for you to take a look first.”
As she spoke, she carried the large beehive over and placed it on the floor.
There wasn’t a proper table in the house to put it on, so the ground had to do.
The old man examined it carefully, then dipped his finger into the honey that had leaked out and tasted it.
He stroked his beard and nodded.
“This is a fine beehive. Clear and glossy, and very full.
Little girl, are you willing to sell it?”
Wang Man nodded.
“Of course I’ll sell it. Look at our home—do we look like the kind of people who can afford to eat something like this?”
The old man chuckled and shook his head.
“With a clever little girl like you, things won’t stay like this for long—I believe that.
Take this big beehive, for example. Not even a grown man would dare to go get it, but you managed to do it.
You’re quite impressive, little girl!”
The old man was speaking from the heart; there wasn’t a trace of flattery.
“I’ll give you 5 taels of silver. Will you sell it?”
He stopped talking and named his price.
Wang Man blinked.
Five taels of silver—for just this one beehive? Wasn’t that a bit too much?
She looked over at her Aunt Ma Liu. Her eyes were full of excitement.
Then she turned to the village chief, who gave her a nod, signaling it was fine.
Wang Man thought for a moment and still asked,
“Grandpa Huang, are you sure about giving me 5 taels of silver for this beehive?
My family may be poor, but I don’t want to take advantage of others.”
She thought the old man was a decent person.
She sweetly called him “Grandpa” and then shared her thoughts.
The old man smiled so widely that his eyes became slits.
“You’re a good girl—really good! Better than a lot of grown men out there.
I’ll be honest with you—the price is fair. Ask around anywhere you like, you won’t be losing out, and neither will I.
To tell you the truth, this beehive isn’t even for me. A friend of mine asked me to help him find one.
I’ve been troubled over it for a while now—he’s been talking about it for months.
Just the other day, he reminded me again. I didn’t expect to run into you so soon after.
So, little girl, 5 taels of silver—will you sell it?”
Wang Man nodded.
“If that’s the case, of course I’ll sell it.
Just look at the state of our home—we’re in desperate need of silver right now.”
After speaking, she suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
“Um… Grandpa Huang, besides this beehive, would you want any more?
If you do, I can go pick some again.
Let me tell you, I’m pretty skilled at collecting beehives—I barely even got stung!”
Village Chief Huang glanced at her swollen eye, which had puffed up into a narrow slit, and burst into hearty laughter.
“I’ll ask my friend for you. If he still wants more, I’ll have your village chief bring you a message.”
“That’s great, that’s great!”
Wang Man clapped her hands while smiling, already planning to prepare better and go out again.
She remembered there was an old, crumbling grave on the southern hillside where a beehive had nested for years.
No one had dared to touch it.
If she went in a couple of days and brought it back to sell, it wouldn’t be much smaller than this one.
Village Chief Huang truly lived up to his title—he had silver on him at all times.
He reached into his clothes and pulled out a five-tael silver ingot, placing it in Wang Man’s hand with a teasing smile.
“Little girl, I’ve bought it now—sure you won’t regret it?”
Wang Man gripped the silver tightly, grinning so wide she nearly drooled.
“No regrets, no regrets at all! Grandpa Huang, if you don’t have anything to carry it in, just make do with my old worn-out basket.”
To think—she, someone of championship-level martial prowess, had once never lacked money.
And now? Just for a bit of money to survive, she was actually out here digging up beehives.
This made her think back to her childhood in the countryside—how she and her playmates would go up the mountain to gather beehives, ending up with their faces and heads covered in stings.
Back then, whenever someone got stung, they’d ask a nursing woman for some milk and apply it to the sting—it would be fine in no time.
But this was ancient times, and people here were far more conservative.
Even if someone had milk, they wouldn’t give it to you so easily.
If word got out, wouldn’t people gossip behind your back? Who knew what kind of rumors they’d spread?
Village Chief Huang had his son pick up the beehive and said with a chuckle,
“No need for the basket. I’ll just carry it like this—this is fine, really.”
With that, he and the village chief took their leave.
Wang Man understood well enough—he was just disliking how shabby her basket was.
She didn’t take it personally. He might find it beneath him, but she certainly didn’t.
After all, this was the only basket they had at home—there wasn’t a spare one lying around.
And she didn’t know how to weave one either. If it broke, they’d have to buy a new one.
A basket cost around ten wen. With how poor they were now, even saving a single wen mattered.
Once the visitors had gone, Aunt Ma Liu finally reminded her,
“Manya, keep that silver safe, you hear me? Don’t let Wang San get his hands on it.
That boy’s no good. If he gets it, he’ll just take it to the gambling house and lose it all.”
To be honest, Aunt Ma Liu was relieved for them too.
Five taels of silver sounded like a lot, but in a household that had nothing, it could barely cover the basics.
Buy some cotton-padded clothes and quilts for winter, stock up on a few other essentials, maybe a bit of grain—and that would be just about it.
If that good-for-nothing ended up stealing it, the whole family might very well freeze to death.
As for Wang San trying to snatch it by force—that was impossible.
Ever since witnessing how Wang Man dealt with those local thugs the other day, Ma Liu felt that Wang San’s days of ease were probably numbered.
Wang Man nodded.
“Aunt Ma Liu, don’t worry. I’ll keep it safe—he won’t even get a whiff of it.”
Aunt Ma Liu was amused by her words and chuckled, but then sighed and said,
“Your household is so poor that there’s nothing left but a thatched frame—everything needs replacing.
The weather’s already getting cold. You really need to get some supplies.
Otherwise, this winter will be unbearable.”
No one really knew why this area was the way it was—
During the hot months, the heat made you curse the heavens.
In winter, the cold made you want to burrow into the stove room.
That’s why many families started stockpiling firewood early on.
Besides cooking, they used it to heat their homes.
Those who could afford it would even go into town to buy a small stove—
so they could warm themselves on one side while cooking food on the other.
That way, they could save on firewood too.
But those small stoves were too expensive—each one cost about a tael of silver.
The main reason was that the stoves were lined with iron, and iron had always been costly in ancient times.
Anything containing iron was never cheap.
Those who couldn’t afford one would simply take an old, broken iron pot and burn firewood in it inside the house for warmth.
But such pots could only be used to keep warm—they couldn’t be used for cooking, and they consumed a lot of firewood for very little heat.
Take someone like Aunt Ma Liu, whose household was so poor she only had one tattered cotton quilt—there was no way it kept her warm.
The cotton-padded clothes she wore were stuffed with reed fluff. They looked thick but had no insulation at all.
Every winter, she would curl up under her covers, shivering, not daring to step outside.
Say what you will, but she was remarkably tough. That was how she got through year after year.
As for Wang San, that unreliable good-for-nothing—he was still out wandering aimlessly.
Every few days he’d drop by, mainly to make sure his old mother hadn’t frozen to death.
But now that Wang Man was here, things would never be the same again.
Whether Wang San came back or not didn’t matter.
Even if he did return, he’d be nothing more than decoration.