Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

After seeing off the township head and his entourage, Brother Wang also bid farewell and turned to leave. As they departed, the atmosphere grew even more lively, for the long-awaited meat distribution was about to begin! People flocked to the site of the old banyan tree. A simple tent had been erected in the center of the area to provide shade. Father and several uncles were busy counting the supplies, ensuring that every piece of meat was accurately distributed to the villagers. Chief Zhao, Chief Wang, and several respected elders of the village sat quietly to the side, patiently awaiting the results. Despite their age, they remained calm and composed at this crucial moment. Meanwhile, the villagers spontaneously formed a circle, whispering and discussing the upcoming distribution. Some excitedly talked about which piece of meat they hoped to receive, while others worried about getting a less desirable portion. Everyone was incredibly excited; after all, this was a rare feast once a year.

Time ticked by, and Dad carefully counted the amount of wolf meat and other related supplies. Finally, he finished the tally and informed the village head, head of the village committee, and elders present.

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately began discussing how to distribute the supplies. The surrounding villagers also quieted down, ceasing their whispers and straining their ears to hear every word.

Not long after, Zhao Baozhang stood up. He cleared his throat and then said loudly, "Fellow villagers, listen to me. Our village's hunting operation this time was very successful, and the harvest was plentiful! Apart from the two wolves that were sent to the township, our village still has more than 800 catties of wolf meat, 35 wolf heads, and 10 steel forks left."

Zhao Baozhang paused for a moment, then continued, "After discussion among myself, Wang Jiazhang, and the village elders, we have devised a distribution plan. First, each member of the wolf-hunting team will receive five catties of wolf meat and two bones, as a commendation for their bravery in this hunt."

As soon as he finished speaking, the members of the wolf-hunting team cheered. Zhao Baozhang smiled and waved his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, then continued, "The others who participated in the hunt will each receive a pound of wolf meat and a bone as a small reward."

Finally, Zhao Baochang mentioned those impoverished households without able-bodied young adults. He said, "We will distribute the remaining bones to these impoverished households so that they too can taste wolf meat."

"Regarding the distribution of the wolf heads, each of us here will receive one; we previously borrowed ten forks from our neighboring village, and now we are giving each of us two wolf heads as a return gift; the remaining wolf heads will be given to the village that came to help to take back as a token of our gratitude."

"The distribution plan for the steel forks is as follows: I will keep two, Wang Jia will keep one, Dawei, as the hunting team leader, will receive one, Chunsheng, who killed the most wolves, will receive one as a reward, the three team members injured during the hunt will each receive one, the Long family, whose roof was trampled and whose children were frightened by the wolves, will receive one as compensation, and the last one will be given to Liu Laogen's family. If it weren't for their pig attracting the wolves, this hunt would not have been successful. As for the half pig lost by Liu Laogen's family, it will be compensated according to the market price after the township's reward is issued. Do any of you villagers have any objections to this distribution plan?"

As soon as Zhao Baochang finished speaking, a noisy commotion arose among the crowd as everyone calculated their share of the supplies they and others were entitled to. Even farmers without able-bodied men in their households were given work and meat as a reward.

As the commotion subsided, Zhao Baozhang raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet and said, "Since everyone has no objections, let's read out the names on the list. Those whose names are called, please come and collect your supplies."

Afterwards, Wang Jiazhang took the allocation list and began reading the names one by one, while his father led several uncles to take charge of distributing the supplies...

Xingbao stood there, gazing at the scene before him, a wave of emotion washing over him. He thought to himself, "Today might just be the happiest and most lively day for this village in the next ten years!"

As the distribution of supplies concluded, the crowd that had gathered began to disperse. People wore satisfied and joyful smiles, carrying their belongings as they hurried home. Most families were eager to get home quickly so they could visit relatives and friends and share in the joy.

Xingbao and his four siblings were no exception. Carrying eight pounds of meat, five bones, a wolf's head, and a fork, they walked briskly home with joy in their hands. Each of their steps seemed light and powerful, as if their hearts were filled with anticipation for a bright future.

As they approached their doorstep, they saw their mother standing there, eagerly awaiting their return. Guixiang spotted her mother immediately, and a radiant smile bloomed on her face. She quickly turned, snatched the two pounds of meat from Xingbao's hands, and then, like a joyful little bird, ran to her mother.

Gui Xiang held up the meat in her hand and excitedly said to her mother, "Mom, our family got eight catties of meat, a wolf's head, and a fork!" Her voice revealed undisguised joy and pride.

"Guixiang is such a good girl, she even helped your father bring the meat back." Mother happily took the meat from Guixiang's hands, then turned to her eldest brother and instructed, "Eldest brother, divide the meat in half and take Tianding back as soon as possible. This child has been with our family for several days now, it's time to go back and visit him."

"Yes, Mother," the eldest brother quickly replied.

"Thank you so much, Auntie!" Tian Ding thanked her excitedly, then pulled his older brother to pack up in a hurry, ready to set off.

When Guixiang heard that they were going to her second and third uncles' houses, she immediately insisted on going along. This time, her mother didn't indulge her and gave her two light taps on the bottom! But to Xingbao, the gesture looked more like his mother brushing dust off Guixiang! Afterward, Xingbao silently followed the others into the house.

Upon arriving at the kitchen, the eldest brother quickly divided the meat, carefully wrapped it in taro leaves, placed it at the bottom of the basket, and then covered it with a layer of loofah and green beans. Seeing that Tian Ding had finished preparing, the eldest brother picked up the basket, put on his straw hat, and said to his mother, "Mother, let's go back to the old house now."

"Yes, take the main road, don't waste time, go early and come back early." Mother pulled Xingbao and Guixiang, seeing them all the way to the door. The little girl was still secretly competing with her mother, one of her little feet already stepping out the door.

Helpless, the mother could only drag Guixiang back to the kitchen before letting go and saying, "Guixiang, I'm making twice-cooked pork for lunch. If you go to the old house with your eldest brother, then your share of twice-cooked pork will all go to Xingbao." After saying that, she ignored Guixiang and instead called her second brother to help them clean up the remaining wolf meat and the wolf head.

Gui Xiang glared at Xing Bao, then glanced at the large piece of pork her grandfather had brought on the cutting board. In the end, she obediently found a small stool and sat down, watching her mother marinate the wolf meat. Her second brother, meanwhile, was boiling water, preparing to process the wolf's head. Xing Bao, having nothing to do, turned and walked towards the backyard.

The backyard was not yet tidied up, and a flock of chickens were pecking at the scattered bits of meat. One of the hens was lucky enough to find a relatively large piece of meat and immediately started clucking and showing it off around the yard, attracting the other hens to chase after it and fight over it, creating quite a lively scene.

"Are the chickens laying eggs so early?" Hearing the hen's clucking, Guixiang ran happily to the backyard, wanting to collect fresh eggs. But as soon as she got to the backyard, she was captivated by the scene of the chickens fighting over food, and immediately lost her interest in collecting eggs. She watched with great interest, cheering on one hen, shouting for another to run faster, and muttering about which hen was useless. Xingbao couldn't even tell which side she was on! During this time, she also complained to Xingbao from time to time that he hadn't told her about such an interesting thing.

Xingbao sat with Guixiang under the eaves, watching with great interest—every time the chickens found a slightly larger piece of meat, it would spark a fierce fight. But his mind was quietly drifting into his spiritual spring space. In that space, the grapevines, pumpkin vines, loofah vines, and bean vines had grown quite long, and flower buds were even sprouting from their branches! A couple of days ago, Xingbao had searched the entire house, finding only a small wooden fork his mother used to fetch things; not a single piece of firewood in the woodshed had a fork! He couldn't even build trellises for the grapevines, loofah vines, and bean vines; in the end, he could only stick a few sticks in the ground and wrap the vines around them, making do with what he had.

The tea and orange trees in the space had already branched twice, beginning to take on an umbrella-like shape. As for the sweet potato vines, Xingbao would turn them over every day, both to prevent them from taking root and to train his mental strength. After testing and comparing for a period of time, he discovered that the flow of time in the spiritual spring space was twice that of the outside world, the soil had an acceleration effect of twice as much, and the spiritual spring's acceleration effect reached five times. With the three combined, the growth rate in the space could reach fourteen times that of the outside world.

However, Xingbao discovered a problem during his experiments: the spring water level was slightly decreasing, indicating that the spiritual spring space was unsuitable for large-scale cultivation of water-intensive crops. The thatched hut in the space was empty, and he had nothing to store; he hadn't been inside since his first visit. At this moment, Xingbao was managing the space in his mind while watching the chickens in the yard scrambling for food, quietly passing the time.

When their father returned carrying the freshly washed door panel, he saw the siblings intently watching the chickens scrambling for food and asked, "Guixiang, did you two practice calligraphy today?"

Gui Xiang and Xing Bao were enjoying their leisure time when they suddenly heard their father's voice, which startled them both. Xing Bao reacted faster and quickly replied, "Dad, let's go practice our writing right away." With that, he pulled Gui Xiang along and ran quickly towards the classroom.

Xingbao is no stranger to traditional Chinese characters. In his past life, his grandfather had beautiful calligraphy skills and taught him to read and write the *Three Character Classic* and *Elementary Learning Classic*. Unfortunately, he was too young and lacked the strength at the time, so his calligraphy wasn't very neat. After starting school, he rarely wrote traditional characters again until he went south to work in Hong Kong and Japanese-owned factories, where he frequently came into contact with them again—especially in the Japanese-owned factories, where almost all the documents and signs were in traditional characters. To be honest, Xingbao doesn't have a good impression of the Japanese, but he has to admit that their precision manufacturing technology is indeed commendable (this is just from the perspective of an ordinary person, based on daily experience, and does not involve any other stance; please don't criticize if you disagree).

In this life, nourished by the spiritual spring water, Xingbao's strength is now comparable to that of an eight- or nine-year-old child. To make up for his regret of not being able to write calligraphy well in his previous life, he practices calligraphy with extra care, writing each stroke carefully in the sandbox, afraid of making even the slightest mistake.

But Gui Xiang, seeing Xing Bao so focused, became unhappy and soon started to interrupt: "Xing Bao, I'm thirsty, can you get me a bowl of tea?" Not long after, she shouted, "It's so hot, Xing Bao, bring me a fan." A little while later, she called out, "Xing Bao, I'm sweating, can you get me a face cloth?" In this way, Xing Bao's calligraphy practice was interrupted by Gui Xiang from time to time until their mother came to call them for lunch, and this intermittent calligraphy practice finally stopped.

After washing their hands, the siblings followed their mother into the main room. Their father had already neatly arranged the wolf's head, a square piece of boiled pork belly, and a bowl of tofu on the table in front of the ancestral altar. Their second brother had also already served and arranged the rice. Seeing that the whole family was present, the father lit incense sticks, held the bundle of incense, and softly prayed, recounting the events of the day when the villagers had surrounded and killed the wolves. He was making a special offering to their ancestors, praying for their protection: that the family would be peaceful and undisturbed, that the family members would be healthy and safe, and that their descendants would be intelligent, sensible, and successful in their studies.

After the worship ceremony, Guixiang pulled Xingbao to the stove to watch her mother make twice-cooked pork. Her mother sliced ​​the pork belly into thin pieces, heated the wok, poured in some cooking oil, and then stir-fried the pork slices until they turned slightly yellow and the edges curled slightly. She then moved the pork slices to one side of the wok and skimmed off the excess oil into a bowl. Next, she added ginger, garlic, and fermented black beans, sautéing them over low heat until fragrant. Then she added green peppers and stir-fried them quickly until just cooked. She then returned the pork slices to the wok with the green peppers, sprinkled in some salt, and continued to stir-fry for a few moments. A fragrant plate of twice-cooked pork was ready.

As for garlic sprouts, no one in the village was growing them at that time—in those days, resources were scarce, and there wasn't enough grain and vegetables to fill one's stomach, so who would bother growing garlic sprouts, a kind of seasoning? However, the ginger and garlic used in the cooking were specially bought back from Yongfeng City by the father, which were considered rare seasonings at the time. Even such a simple dish of twice-cooked pork had already made Guixiang and Xingbao's mouths water, their eyes fixed on the plate, not even daring to blink.

Since many villagers had gone to visit relatives that day, and Brother Dashan wasn't home either, his parents took turns watching over the family during meals—one would eat first while the other kept watch in case guests arrived. Sure enough, a guest passed by and, seeing the wolf head displayed in the main room, inquired about it out of curiosity and even ordered a dish of wolf head meat. During their conversation, they talked about the wolf hunt in the village, their words still filled with emotion and sighs.