A large space had been cleared around Little Ya's family, and everyone kept a distance from her. They looked at Little Ya's Mother like she was a lunatic. Had this woman's brain been chewed on by wild dogs?
After finishing his meal, Old Gu Six had cleaned up every part of the wild boar, leaving nothing behind. A group of people stood there waiting for him.
He lazily glanced around and said, "Those who want meat can exchange it for money or grain. Each family can only exchange for two pounds, at thirty cents per pound. If you're exchanging with grain, one pound of new rice can get you two pounds of meat."
According to the current grain prices in the city, thirty cents couldn't even buy one pound of pork. A pound of new rice was much more expensive than pork, worth far more than just two pounds of pork.
These refugees didn't have any new rice. Everyone was eating aged rice and coarse flour, without even white flour. Grain prices had surged too fiercely for them to afford or obtain it.
Old Gu Six knew that exchanging one pound of new rice for two pounds of pork was unreasonable and disadvantageous to others. But this was something he had risked his life to hunt - shouldn't he be compensated for his labor?
After nearly half a year of eating coarse flour and wild vegetables, everyone wanted to improve their meals a bit. Two pounds of meat for sixty cents was indeed expensive, but what wasn't expensive these days?
Sixty cents wasn't unaffordable, and he had obtained this through his own skills. Monetary exchange was reasonable.
Ah? But some still found it unreasonable.
"Why are you still charging us money? We're all refugees escaping the famine, shouldn't we be helping each other? Just distribute it for free, and you can go hunt another one later, right?"
Everyone was exclaiming, "What a character! Who is this clueless idiot?"
Before they could see who it was, people in the crowd were already retorting.
"I don't have any grain left, so send some to my family, won't you? We're all refugees escaping the famine, we should help each other."
"Chen Dahua, my pot has a hole in it, give me yours. We're from the same village, we should help each other even more."
"Old lady, I don't have enough quilts, share one of yours with me, we're fated to meet."
"My house can't accommodate my whole family, old lady, let us stay in your house?"
Chen Dahua covered her face and fled, thinking these people were too shameless. She couldn't outargue them.
She spat in her heart, "Hmph, a bunch of poor refugees. Wasn't she trying to help them save sixty cents? Every one of them is like a debt collector. No good deed goes unpunished."
Seeing her leave, everyone exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
The first to step forward and buy meat was a bearded burly man. His clothing wasn't very thick, and his lips were purple from the cold, but he had a bright smile with a roguish air.
His voice boomed, "Brother, I'll take two pounds."
"Give me two pounds too. It's been so long since I've had meat, I've forgotten what it tastes like. The journey while escaping the famine was too arduous, I need to nourish my family properly."
With someone taking the lead, others followed, and the small space was soon packed with people in a lively scene.
With so many people, the air quality wasn't great. Not everyone was like Chang'an's family, bathing and changing clothes every few days. Others didn't have such conditions.
Just being alive was already difficult enough, how could they afford such luxuries?
Chang Le was the one dividing the meat for everyone. Without a scale, they had to estimate the weights by hand, a task given to Yang Poxiao. Before escaping the famine, he had worked at a winery in the city, so he had some knack for judging weights by hand.
Chang Le had martial prowess and considerable strength. He cut the pork into roughly equal portions to avoid disputes over unequal distributions.
On the other side, Grandma Sun's family was discussing exchanging their two granddaughters for meat.
"Let me tell you two, don't think this old lady is trying to harm you. That man has great skills, and if he takes you in, you'll have meat to eat, grain to eat, and be able to stay warm."
Upon hearing they would have meat to eat and stay warm, the two little girls were tempted. In this family, they couldn't even eat more than a serving of the coarse flour porridge, leaving it for their brother.
Their parents had no worries about exchanging their two daughters for meat, and were even glad their daughters could finally be useful.
"Mother, how much meat should we exchange these two girls for?"
"Four pounds will do, two pounds per girl."
The girls' mother hesitated slightly, "Isn't that too little?"
Grandma Sun glared, "What else can these money-wasting burdens do besides eat? It's kind of them to take you in and provide food, let alone giving you four pounds of meat in exchange."
Then she turned to the two girls with a cold expression, "If they're willing to keep you two, you better be diligent, not like at home where you're completely useless."
After a couple of scolding remarks, she said no more, leaving their eldest grandson at home as she brought the two girls and their son and daughter-in-law to Chang'an's place.
The wild boar meat was almost sold out. After everyone had bought their share, around ten pounds remained. Three pounds were given to Yang Poxiao and his brothers for their help, and Mu got two pounds by himself.
Five pounds were left, and Chang'an planned to have Old Six make some fried pork bites with them.
Seeing that her own family had to pay for the meat they ate, Little Ya's Mother felt somewhat disgruntled. Weren't they considered their own people? Why were they still being charged?
Their entire family fortune was just five taels of silver, which they had barely managed to hide from the bandits looking for loot.
This purchase took away sixty cents, which pained her heart to think about.
Seeing her distressed expression, Little Ya's Father scolded her irritably, "That's enough. How much have they helped us along the way? If not for Old Gu Six, we would have starved to death long ago. One can't be too presumptuous."
"How am I being presumptuous? Aren't we considered their own people now? To charge their own people for a bit of meat?"
Seeing her mother's attitude, Little Ya was perplexed. She asked innocently, "Mother, didn't you say one should be grateful and not be an ungrateful person?"
Little Ya's Mother was momentarily speechless, but she still retorted defiantly, "That doesn't mean one should be blindly grateful either. We need to consider the benefactor's character first, or we might end up harming ourselves."
"Just shut up, you white-eyed wolf," Little Ya's Father said with a dark expression, angered at his wife for the first time in their seven years of marriage.
He squatted down and gently told Little Ya, "Little Ya, remember, in this world, no one is obligated to help others. Helping is a kindness, not helping is their prerogative. We should be grateful to everyone who has helped us."
"I understand, Father," she nodded firmly. Her mother was wrong, her father was right, so she listened to her father.
Little Ya's Mother was scolded by Yu San and looked at the father and daughter with tearful, helpless eyes, hoping they would comfort her, but the two ignored her.
Yu San's mind was not on her. He was thinking that perhaps they could no longer travel with Old Gu Six, otherwise with his wife's temperament, who knows what trouble she might cause in the future.
This was not about repaying kindness, but repaying kindness with enmity.
Suddenly, a cold, furious roar came from outside, "Get out!"
It startled Yu San so much that he almost cut his own hand with the knife he was using to cut meat. He hurriedly put down the knife and strode out of the house.
