Chapter 142 Bai Xi Plays the Idler

They say that applying three remedies at once is the safest approach, but Great-Aunt refused. Fortunately, she was still willing to eat the ox heart. Previously, Great-Aunt had been so angry that she wouldn't even touch the ox heart.

Chen Daliu didn't know whether he should be happy or not.

Heading downstairs, he quickly relayed Bai Xi's intentions, and after much effort, finally persuaded everyone to get back to work on processing the ox.

After going upstairs, Li Jia took out the steamed ox heart, sliced it into pieces, prepared a dipping sauce, and brought everything over to Bai Xi.

Originally, she had wanted to serve it whole, but how could she let Great-Aunt hold an ox heart larger than her own little face and gnaw on it? Great-Aunt liked to eat cleanly and detested getting her hands and face sticky. After a brief hesitation, Li Jia had sliced the ox heart.

"Great-Aunt, you must eat this ox heart all by yourself. You cannot share it with anyone else."

Despite saying this, Li Jia's gaze drifted a few times toward Xiao Hei nearby.

Xiao Hei immediately knew she was talking about it and snorted angrily. What was that supposed to mean? Was she calling it a glutton?

Li Jia quickly added, "Great-Aunt, the village chief is currently leading everyone in dividing the meat. Everyone has already said they are going to save several large chunks of beef for Xiao Hei."

Upon hearing this, Bai Xi noticed a flash of satisfaction in Xiao Hei's eyes as it muttered under its breath nearby that this was more like it.

Perhaps because she had been so furious just moments before, or perhaps because the ox heart tasted quite good with the seasoning, Bai Xi graciously ate quite a lot. Leaving only a small portion at the end, she tossed it to Xiao Hei.

Li Jia saw this, but figured that since Great-Aunt was so small and had already eaten the vast majority of it, it was truly wonderful—she couldn't possibly overeat and make herself sick, as a child's stomach was very delicate.

Besides, Xiao Hei hadn't eaten or slept well lately on account of Great-Aunt, and Xiao Hei had contributed to the slaughter of the ox; without Xiao Hei, it wouldn't have been so easy. Letting Xiao Hei have just a little bit wasn't too much to ask, so she simply pretended not to see.

A little while later, while Bai Xi was leaning against the daybed, rubbing her belly to aid digestion, Li Jia emerged from the bathroom.

"Great-Aunt, that bath..."

Before she could finish, Bai Xi interrupted her, "As for that little Liu, he agreed readily enough, but the moment he went down there, he refused to come back up. So you can clean it up yourself."

"Great-Aunt, how about I give you a quick rinse then? Don't worry, Great-Aunt, it will be very fast."

Was she still not giving up?

"I'm not washing. I said I won't wash, and I won't wash. Hurry up and get it out of here, it stinks to high heaven." Bai Xi had a keen sense of smell and felt that her entire treehouse reeked of ox blood.

How could Li Jia let it go? She squatted down beside Bai Xi's daybed. "Great-Aunt, once you wash, you'll feel much better right away. Won't you listen to my advice, please?"

"Great-Aunt, once you're washed up, I'll make you honey cakes. They're sweet, so sweet." Getting Great-Aunt to recover quickly was everyone's wish; with winter fast approaching, Great-Aunt couldn't afford to stay sick.

Besides, the ox was already slaughtered, and the ox blood had been collected; it couldn't go to waste, right?

"I won't listen, I won't wash, I won't drink!" Bai Xi said, "If you keep nagging me, you can be the Great-Aunt instead!"

Seeing that Li Jia still wanted to say something, Bai Xi preempted her: "I am the Great-Aunt, the elder, so naturally you all must listen to me. Otherwise, what kind of Great-Aunt would I be?"

Li Jia was dumbfounded. Wasn't Great-Aunt just being unreasonable? Who could just choose to be Great-Aunt whenever they wanted? Wouldn't everything descend into chaos?

"Great-Aunt, what can I even say to this? Can't you just listen to my advice for once?" No wonder the village chief said Great-Aunt was throwing a child's tantrum today and wouldn't listen to anyone.

If it were Chen Daliu, Bai Xi could have scolded him, but with Li Jia speaking in such soft tones and with red-rimmed eyes, Bai Xi truly couldn't bring herself to scold her. Helpless, she said, "Li Jia, have you ever seen any elder who obediently listens to orders?"

Hearing this, Li Jia lowered her head and thought about it. It was indeed true. They always said the elderly turn back into children; once people grow old, they become as unreasonable as kids. Since Great-Aunt was both an elder and a child, naturally she would be unreasonable.

"No, Great-Aunt..." Li Jia snapped out of it. Great-Aunt was just beating around the bush to say she refused to be obedient!

"Enough, I'm not listening to anything. I'm tired, I'm going to sleep. Once you're done tidying up, head back as well."

With that, Bai Xi headed upstairs. Halfway up, she stopped, turned her head, and instructed the helpless Li Jia, "Didn't we slaughter an ox? Go get me some good ox shoulder meat. Also, make me some braised beef. Oh right, isn't there pickled cabbage? Get some pickled cabbage hearts and stir-fry some beef with them."

Li Jia was stunned for a moment, then quickly snapped out of her trance and responded crisply, "Understood!"

At that moment, Li Jia's face was brimming with smiles, and her heart was extremely excited. Great-Aunt taking the initiative to ask for food, and specifying so many dishes, proved that the method was working! It was just a pity that Great-Aunt stubbornly refused to take the ox blood bath or drink the ox heart blood water; otherwise, she surely would have recovered much faster than this.

"Oh right, don't forget to make time to whip up those honey cakes for me."

"Understood!" Li Jia called out toward the upstairs, "Don't worry, Great-Aunt, as long as you want to eat them, I'll make them for you."

It seemed Elder Li had hunted down a large batch of wild honey when he went into the mountains last month, and there should still be some left. She would go borrow some, and once she sold the eggs in the spring, she would have money to pay it back.

Actually, even without Bai Xi having to ask, the share of meat from the slaughtered ox designated for her was definitely the best portion.

The oxen in Niuluo Village were large water buffaloes weighing over sixteen hundred catties. Excluding the ox head reserved for worship at the ancestral hall and some of the offal, there were still over fifteen hundred catties remaining.

Since the slaughtering of the ox was an unauthorized decision by Niuluo Village, it naturally couldn't be sold and could only be quietly consumed within the village itself.

Bai Xi was allotted two hundred catties, while the remaining thirteen hundred-plus catties were divided equally among eighty-six households.

As usual, the offal and entrails were cooked by the villagers with cabbage and potatoes, and each household received a large sea-bowl's worth.

No one felt that Bai Xi took too much and their own share was too little. After all, the ox was slaughtered for Great-Aunt, not for everyone to satisfy their cravings for meat. Being able to get around ten catties per household was already quite good.

The next day, after finishing lunch, Bai Xi yawned and originally intended to go upstairs to sleep. Then, second thoughts hit her—she needed to go out and walk around the village. Otherwise, if the villagers felt her health still lacked color and decided to target the remaining two oxen, she would be depressed all over again.

Braised beef was delicious, but they couldn't just ruin all the oxen.

"Let's go, Xiao Hei. We're going to be village idlers today." Weren't they just idlers? Just wandering around the village doing absolutely nothing.

Thus, when everyone saw Bai Xi come out for a stroll, even if it was just for a tiny while, they were overjoyed.

Chen Daliu secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. If Great-Aunt was getting better, it meant the method worked. It was worth the village slaughtering an ox!

None of the people in Niuluo Village were present at the moment, but when Chen Daliu was slaughtering the ox, he had been thinking that if it didn't work, he would take a few men after dark, slap a sack over that Daoist priest, and give him a good beating.

Making Niuluo Village slaughter an ox for nothing and losing a labor force—giving him a beating was already letting him off light!