Early the next morning, Ning Jie was called awake by his mother.
After three poached eggs went down, his body warmed up instantly.
With Second Uncle, he loaded the pork onto the sled, and the two of them headed out against the morning sun.
Second Aunt had gone from door to door spreading the word last night, and they had barely arrived at the production brigade square when quite a few people, hands tucked into their sleeves, came hurrying toward them.
"Oh, Second Elder, that's a mighty big pig."
"Aunty, which cut do you want?"
Second Uncle was sharpening his knife when The Old Woman pointed at the wild boar: "I'll take this piece. Cut a bit more fat on it. Didn't your daughter-in-law say it's fifty cents a catty?"
"That's right, fifty cents a catty, Aunty."
"All right, just cut me about ten catties or so."
The Old Woman's family had money, plenty of land, and lots of children. None of them were married yet, so the whole household was made up of able-bodied laborers.
Second Uncle cut a piece of meat and weighed it on the scale: ten catties and one tael, not even two taels over.
"Ten catties and one tael, Aunty. Have a look at the scale. Just give me five yuan."
"Why look? As if you'd cheat me out of anything?"
Pulling out the money, The Old Woman dropped the pork into an enamel basin and carried it away.
Their village was a large one with a lot of people, and it was wealthier than any of the neighboring settlements. Before the sun had even climbed halfway across the sky, the pork was completely sold out.
In this day and age, everyone loved fat meat, and fortunately this wild boar was plump and heavy, otherwise they probably would have had to lower the price to sell the lean cuts.
Back home, the two of them counted the money. In total, they made three hundred and ten yuan and fifty cents. Second Uncle counted out a hundred and fifty for himself and gave the rest to Ning Jie.
After the two of them had lunch, Second Uncle picked up a reserved piece of pork belly and took Ning Jie to Third-Old Liu's house.
As soon as they entered the main gate, the dog in the yard started barking fiercely. Second Uncle glared at it, and the spotted hound tucked its tail and whimpered back into its doghouse, leaving a puddle of urine on the ground.
Third-Old Liu stepped out of the house with his padded jacket draped over his shoulders and laughed when he saw the two of them: "I was wondering why my dog barked once and then stopped. Turns out it was you two. What brings you here? Is something up?"
Third-Old Liu glanced at the pork in Second Uncle's hand and ushered them both inside.
Second Uncle handed the pork to Third-Old Liu: "Sister-in-law isn't home?"
"Yeah, she went back to her maiden home. Her nephew's wife just had a baby, so she went to help out."
Taking the pork, Third-Old Liu asked, "Second Elder, if you've got something to say, just spit it out. If I can do it, I'll definitely do it. If I can't, you take your meat back—I'm not about to take a free ride."
"Listen to you. With the friendship between the two of us, even if I wasn't asking you for a favor, can't I bring you a bit of meat?"
Third-Old Liu cheerfully put the pork into a basin: "Come on inside first. Little Jie, Third Uncle roasted some sunflower seeds, help yourself."
The three of them went inside, and Third-Old Liu poured them some tea. He lived a comfortable life, and even his tea leaves were the Monkey King brand.
"So, did you take a liking to my eldest brother's girl and want my wife to play matchmaker?"
Third-Old Liu and Eldest Liu from the lumber mill were brothers, so Liu Jinhua called him Third Uncle.
Second Uncle glared at Ning Jie and said crossly, "My boy doesn't have that kind of good fortune. I'm looking for you about something else."
Third-Old Liu felt a slight twinge of disappointment. Ning Jie was good-looking and sturdy; if his eldest brother's eldest girl ended up with him, she'd definitely lead a blessed life.
"What is it, Second Brother?"
"Well, do you still have that wild ginseng you dug up before the snow? The one that was over three taels?"
Third-Old Liu nodded and said, "I still have it. We harvested late this year, and I didn't dare leave such a big piece out on the mountain. If it didn't come up next year, I'd lose several hundred."
Second Uncle got straight to the point: "Name your price. I'll take it."
Third-Old Liu frowned at Second Uncle, thinking to himself that Second Elder Ning had never dabbled in the ginseng-buying business before.
"Second Brother, you know our rules. Friendship is friendship, but I can't cut corners on the money. You know my wife—if I gave you a discount, she'd tear the roof off when she got back."
Second Uncle nodded and said, "Eight hundred. If that works, hand it over to me. If not, forget it."
Eight hundred was certainly not a low price; even if he took it to the city, that was probably all it would fetch.
"All right, since Second Brother has spoken up, I won't haggle. I'll go get it for you right now."
Third-Old Liu went up to the small loft and returned shortly carrying a large roll of birch bark. Opening the birch bark, he revealed a thick layer of moss inside. Layer by layer, he peeled back the moss to lay bare a ginseng root thicker than a thumb.
The quality of the ginseng was fine, with tight reeds and firm fine lines on its body. Especially the rootlets—even the hair-like root hairs were unbroken, instantly revealing Third-Old Liu's superb craftsmanship.
"This ginseng weighed three taels and seven before the snow. Now it's probably around three taels and six, it hasn't lost much weight."
Second Uncle nodded, wrapped the ginseng up properly, and Ning Jie hurriedly pulled out the money to hand to Third-Old Liu.
The money was all in ten-yuan bills; the Fourth Series of Renminbi hadn't come out yet, so the largest denomination was a ten-yuan note.
After collecting the money, the few of them chatted for a little while, and then Ning Jie and Second Uncle headed home with the ginseng.
Once they got home, Second Uncle brought out the ginseng he had dug up himself and said to Ning Jie with a solemn expression, "You're twenty now, and if you want to go out and make your own way, Second Uncle will definitely support you. But you have to keep your feet on the ground and not walk the crooked path, or else I will personally break your legs!"
Ning Jie nodded. In his past life, he never strayed onto crooked paths, and being able to achieve what he did was absolutely inseparable from his second uncle.
"Don't worry, Second Uncle, I definitely won't."
"Good enough. Heading to the city tomorrow?"
Ning Jie thought for a moment and said, "I want to leave shortly. I'll reach the city by daybreak tomorrow."
Second Uncle frowned and said, "You aren't taking the sled?"
"I don't know how many days I'll be in the city. Leading an ox around isn't convenient."
"Alright then, in a moment I'll have your Second Aunt prepare some perilla-seed salt and roll up two pancakes for you to eat on the road."
After packing his things, Ning Jie wrapped the birch bark containing the ginseng in two layers of sheepskin and stuffed them into a woven sack. Binding the two bottom corners of the sack with a rope and tying the mouth shut, he turned it into a backpack.
With the two ginseng roots on his back, he set off on the road, a military dagger tucked into his waist without a trace of fear.
Dahei followed behind him. No matter how Ning Jie shooed him away, Dahei refused to go back. After crossing two mountain ridges as dusk approached, Ning Jie patted Dahei on the head.
"Go back."
Dahei rubbed against Ning Jie's leg. Ning Jie sat down in a snowdrift, took out a pancake, tore it into pieces, and fed it to Dahei.
"Go back. Be a good dog, keep a good watch on the house, and keep an eye on Dahuang so he doesn't bully the other dogs."
Dahei let out a bark, ran a couple of steps toward home, then stopped and looked back.
"Go back! Stay away from people, and if you run into a big beast, run fast—run back toward the village."
Ning Jie waved his hand. Dahei looked at him one last time, bolted off at a full sprint, and vanished over the ridge a moment later.
Ning Jie took a deep breath, the icy-cold air drilling straight into his nose.
They didn't have direct long-distance buses running here yet; to get to the city, he had to go to the township and wait for one. In this era, whether the long-distance buses ran on any given day depended entirely on the driver's mood, and he couldn't afford to wait.
Ning Jie's gaze burned bright as he watched the setting sun sink low and the shy moon peek out its head.
Silver light washed over the earth. Across the snow-covered ground, only the crunch of Ning Jie's boots treading through the snow remained.