Chapter 6: Craving Meat? You Don't Deserve It!

Wang Peng was busy beyond measure. He picked out two watermelons, sliced them up, and laid the pieces out on a snakeskin bag.

"Kids, come over here and have some melon!" he shouted.

The two melons were perfectly ripe, and the children rushed to eat them, clearing the area around his cart and making room for the adults. Seeing their children treated with such generosity, the parents felt respected and pleased. While they had originally only intended to buy two jin of melon, they now felt compelled to buy four.

In the distance, a family of three was taking a stroll. A five-year-old girl, seeing the other children enjoying the melon, let go of her parents' hands and ran over.

"Uncle, can I have a piece? Just one?" she asked timidly, holding up a finger.

"You're calling me uncle? Am I really that old?" Wang Peng gestured toward the snakeskin bag. "Go ahead and eat. Every child gets a piece."

The little girl picked up a slice and began to eat. Her parents, feeling embarrassed that their child had taken the man's melon for free, felt they could not leave without buying one themselves.

As time passed quietly, the watermelons dwindled, and the customers thinned out, leaving only one man and one cat.

"The residential compound is only so big; whoever wanted to buy has already bought. Time to move on."

Wang Peng unscrewed his canteen for a sip of water, placed the white cat on the cart, and opened his fanny pack to organize his earnings—mostly small change and worn-out bills. He sorted them by denomination and counted them twice. There was a total of 120 yuan, meaning he had sold about 410 jin of melon.

"This is pure profit." He couldn't hide his grin as he reached out to stroke the cat's head. "Once I sell the rest of these melons, I'll buy you some beef."

The people here bought several melons at a time, enough to last a week, so he wouldn't be able to return for another week. He pulled his cart toward the pig market, where the Textile Mill residential compound was located.

In Wang Village, at the Wang household, Wang Song grabbed two piglets and tossed them into a handcart. "Sanni, come with me to the county town to sell these pigs."

"Dad, my hand still hurts. Let my second brother go with you instead," Wang Xia said, holding up a finger she had cut with a kitchen knife.

Selling the pigs was to pay for her second brother’s tuition, and the money would never be spent on her; she had no desire to walk over ten li for nothing.

"Move!" Wang Song glared at her. His eldest son hadn't returned home all night, and he was brimming with suppressed rage, his words laced with anger.

Knowing that if she talked back again she would become his punching bag, Wang Xia didn't dare argue. She pushed the cart behind him, sullen and unhappy, walking the ten-plus li to the Ping'an County pig market. As they crossed the railway bridge, they were stopped by road bandits, but the local bully, North Tyrant, let them pass; he only collected tolls from melon and vegetable carts.

The pig market was packed with handcarts, and the stench of pig manure was everywhere, nauseating Wang Xia. She left the market to wander outside, wishing she could bite Wang Peng to death; if he were still at home, she wouldn't have to do such dirty, smelly, and exhausting work.

Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth to keep from crying out. Outside the gate of the Textile Mill residential compound, a middle-aged man was carrying a bag of watermelons into the compound. The melon seller was stuffing a ten-yuan bill into his fanny pack while stroking a white cat on his cart.

The melon seller was none other than her own older brother, Wang Peng.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. Where could he have gotten watermelons?"

"Our relatives don't grow watermelons. Did he steal money from the house to wholesale them?"

"Hmph, you’ve caused me so much misery."

Wang Xia decided to go tell on him to Wang Song, but just then, more people arrived to buy melons, so she paused to continue watching. The customers were a young couple; the man picked out the melons while the woman held the white cat. They haggled, the man bought four watermelons, handed Wang Peng ten yuan, and Wang Peng took out change for him.

The stack of money was thick. Wang Xia’s eyes grew hot, and her breathing quickened. "Good heavens, how does he have so much money?"

She turned to look at a nearby beef stall, licked her lips, and then stopped in front of a shoe stall, gazing greedily at a pair of white sneakers. She looked down at her own patched, multi-layered sole cloth shoes and imagined what the sneakers would feel like on her feet.

"Miss, these are genuine Double Star sneakers, twenty yuan," the female vendor said.

Wang Xia turned and left, hiding under a tree by the side of the road to secretly observe Wang Peng.

"He has to buy me those shoes, or I'll tell Dad and have him confiscate all his money," she thought, clenching her fists.

Wang Peng, unaware that he was being watched, had only two small watermelons left on his cart. He planned to give them to Old Duan, who sold shao-bing, hoping to find out from him where he could rent a room. He crawled under the cart with the white cat to count the day's earnings.

He had started with 500 jin of watermelons at a cost of 50 yuan, and his income was 148 yuan, with an average selling price just under three jiao per jin. This was because he always rounded down the weight or the price for his customers. Added to yesterday's 15 yuan, he now had 163 yuan in savings. The high school life he had dreamed of was beckoning to him.

"Better fill my stomach first."

Wang Peng went to the shao-bing stall and ordered two shao-bing, a bowl of chicken blood soup, and a jin of beef.

"Brother Duan, I'm looking to rent a small courtyard for two months. Do you know of any?" he asked, offering the two watermelons.

"Why are you being so polite, brother?" Old Duan beamed. "I'll ask around for you; there's bound to be something nearby."

"Thanks, Brother Duan. Take these melons home for the kids. I grew them myself, so it's no trouble."

"Even if you grew them yourself, they're worth money." Old Duan used his ladle to scoop an extra half-ladle of pork blood into Wang Peng's bowl. "Don't worry, the room rental is on me."

Friendships were built this way; as the saying goes, having more friends means more paths, while having more enemies means more walls.

Meow...

The white cat meowed at the beef, and Wang Peng fed it a few pieces, both man and cat eating to their hearts' content.

Old Duan watched with a pained expression. "Persian cats are valuable, but you shouldn't feed them beef. Cats have picky palates; if you spoil it now, it'll only want to eat meat from now on."

Wang Peng smiled. This was a "lucky cat" that could attract customers, and since his future life would surely be lonely, the little white cat would be the family to keep him company.

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared and reached out to grab the beef from the plate. Wang Peng was stunned; he hadn't expected to run into his third sister, Wang Xia, here.

Though his mind was stunned, his hands were quick. He grabbed Wang Xia’s wrist and demanded sharply, "What do you think you're doing?"

"What are you doing? Trying to rob us?" Old Duan snapped, ready to pull Wang Xia away.

"He's my big brother, my own big brother!" Wang Xia quickly explained, smiling at Wang Peng. "Big Brother, so this is where you were!"

Seeing that Wang Peng didn't deny it, Old Duan pulled up a stool to sit and watch the show.

"Big Brother, I didn't eat this morning, and I had to come here to sell pigs with Dad. I'm starving," she said, trying to flatter him. "Good brother, let me have some beef, won't you?"

Her voice was soft and pitiful. Wang Peng felt his heart soften for a moment. But in the next second, he remembered the heartless things she had done in his previous life, and his heart stung like a needle prick.

He gripped her wrist tightly with his right hand and used his left hand to feed two pieces of beef to the cat. "Wang Xia, I'd rather feed this beef to my cat than let you have a single bite."

Wang Xia was stunned, and tears began to flow. "Big Brother, I've been worried about you every day for the past two days. It was Dad who kicked you out of the house, not me!"