Chapter 95: The Reserved Beef

Yet a single popsicle had moved them so deeply. Weren’t they always bringing her food and drink?

Bai Xi paused, only then realizing that little by little, she had already begun to hold the people of Niu Luo Village close to her heart.

Touched and cheerful, Chen Xiao Cong carefully finished the popsicle, then wiped the red from the corners of his mouth. Worried that Bai Xi might get bored, he began telling her stories and amusing little things.

It was also Chen Xiao Cong’s first time spending the day with a child, and this child was, after all, an elder in the family by generation, so he was nervous. He kept racking his brains, determined not to let the elder feel bored or restless.

Bai Xi could sense his concern. She had walked quite a long way and her feet were still sore. Besides, the city was more or less what she had expected; she had already seen enough of it, and had no desire to keep wandering. So she sat back against the ox cart, wrapped herself in her cotton coat, and listened to Chen Xiao Cong chatter on.

By the time noon finally arrived, Chen Xiao Cong pulled an oiled paper bag from his chest and opened it. Inside were three wild-vegetable steamed buns and one cornmeal steamed bun.

The wild-vegetable buns were brown, rough enough at a glance to scrape the throat, and the texture went without saying. The cornmeal bun, by contrast, seemed to contain a little egg. Though it could not compare with white-flour steamed buns or meat buns, it was still a rather good thing.

People passing by on the road craned their necks to look at the contents of that paper bag, their eyes full of longing.

At a time when even wild-vegetable buns were a treat, such things were enough to make many people envious. Riding in an ox cart, these were likely villagers from the countryside below. These farming folk still seemed to be living a little more easily than the people in town.

Chen Xiao Cong opened the paper bag, wiped his hand on the back of his clothes, and quickly handed the cornmeal bun to Bai Xi, saying gently and respectfully, “Elder, you’ve been walking for a while. You must be hungry. Here, have a bun.”

The buns had been made early that morning, so by now they were already cold, but because they had been tucked in Chen Xiao Cong’s arms all this time, they still carried a trace of his warmth.

Bai Xi looked at the bun in her hand, then at Chen Xiao Cong, who had already picked up a wild-vegetable bun and was eating it with a bite of bun and a sip of water. A complex feeling rose in her heart, impossible to describe.

She did not eat the cornmeal bun. After waiting until Chen Xiao Cong had finished one wild-vegetable bun, she placed the cornmeal bun into his hand and turned back to rummage through the bamboo basket, taking out a paper bag.

When she unfolded the square packet, it revealed half a pound of egg cake.

“I don’t want wild-vegetable buns. Let’s eat this instead.”

The fragrance of rich egg and milk wafted out the moment the paper bag was opened. Chen Xiao Cong’s nostrils flared slightly. He looked at the cake, then at the cornmeal bun in his hand, and without a second thought said, “Then Elder can have the pastry. I’m already half full. One more wild-vegetable bun will be enough for me.”

“Eat it together.”

“Elder, I don’t like this. You should eat it.”

No matter how Chen Xiao Cong refused, Bai Xi still made herself half a pack. The rest she had him wrap up and put away.

With nothing else to do, Bai Xi took the whip and idly tapped the ox’s rear now and then, using very little force and making its tail flick back and forth.

She even grew playful about it. Sometimes she would give it a light lash just to see whether the tail would flick in the direction she had struck. If it did, she would have Chen Xiao Cong feed the ox a handful of grass. If it did not, she would mutter in disgust, “As stupid as Xiao Hei.”

Chen Xiao Cong, hearing this, could not help muttering inwardly. Xiao Hei was obviously very clever and formidable—it could go into the water and hunt too. Why was Elder calling it stupid?

At that very moment, Xiao Hei had just finished lunch and was lying beneath the treehouse. It suddenly sneezed, then lifted its head and turned toward the sky over the mountain peak, wondering whether the black shadow it had seen before had really existed.

After playing for a while, Bai Xi tossed the whip aside and asked idly, “Congzi, have you ever eaten beef?”

After having called Chen Da Liu and Xiao Liu by their names, she could hardly keep calling someone else’s son “Xiao Cong,” so she casually used another name instead; that way it was easy enough to tell them apart.

Chen Xiao Cong looked at the ox ahead, then at Bai Xi. A flicker of hesitation crossed his face, and he shook his head. “No.”

“Elder, our village only has three oxen. They’re all collective property of the village and have to be kept for plowing and tilling the fields. These three are all in their prime, strong and able-bodied. Our village’s farmland depends on them.” He spoke cautiously, his expression growing more and more troubled.

Hearing this, Bai Xi rolled her eyes at him impatiently. “You talk too much.” Did he think she wanted to slaughter the ox for meat?

Feeling dismissed, Chen Xiao Cong scratched his head. He was just a little worried that if the elder got a craving for meat and set her sights on this ox, the villagers would be terribly put in a bind.

As though she could read his thoughts, Bai Xi sniffed. “Xiao Hei hunts every day. I’m not short of meat.”

In other words, she had no intention of laying claim to the village’s ox.

How could Bai Xi know that, though she said so today, before long the villagers truly would slaughter an ox for her. But that was a story for later.

Chen Da Liu returned in the afternoon carrying a bamboo basket on his back and two large baskets in his hands, all filled with things he had bought for the villagers.

Not long after, the others who had gone off separately to shop or visit relatives also came back, each loaded down with bundles and parcels.

They had bought quite a lot, so once the goods were loaded onto the ox cart, there was only one seat left for Bai Xi. The others would have to walk back.

Bai Xi had not slept at noon, and on the way home, rocking gently on the ox cart, she dozed off against the bamboo basket.

Seeing that she had fallen asleep, Chen Da Liu slowed the cart even further.

Even so, a passing wild rabbit smashed into a wheel of the cart and knocked itself unconscious.

Chen Da Liu and the others were dumbfounded. They looked at the rabbit still twitching its legs in a daze, then at Bai Xi, who was still half-asleep and groggy, and their faces were full of admiration.

See? Who would dare say the elder wasn’t blessed?

Everyone from the nearby villages had traveled this mountain road countless times, and none of them had ever heard of such a thing happening. Yet the elder had merely gone into town once and ended up with a wild rabbit delivered right to her door.

No one woke Bai Xi. They tied up the rabbit and loaded it onto the ox cart, and the cart set off once more.

By the time they returned to the village, the sun was just setting.

From far away, Xiao Hei sensed Bai Xi’s return and immediately ran from the treehouse to meet her at the village entrance.

It was fortunate this place was remote. Otherwise, with a tiger lying in wait by the roadside, glaring hungrily, anyone who was not from Niu Luo Village would surely have fainted on the spot.

Bai Xi got down from the ox cart and patted Xiao Hei on the head, asking casually, “How’s the village? Anything happened?”

Master, everything is fine. No one came to cause trouble. Xiao Hei whined softly, rubbing its head against Bai Xi’s leg in a spoiled, affectionate way. Master, you were gone all day. I waited for you for so long.