The moonlight from outside shone through the hole in the window, casting a long, slender shadow into the room that fell on Chuntao's slightly flushed face.
Thinking of Zhou Zhijun and everything he had done to her, Chuntao felt a sour and bitter ache in her heart, as if she had swallowed an unripe plum. Before she knew it, her tears had soaked the pillow.
She rolled over and buried her face in the quilt.
It was a sleepless night.
When she got up in the early morning, her eyes were sore and swollen, and her legs felt light and floaty, as if she were stepping on cotton.
Just as Chuntao poured the pig slop into the trough, Zhang Haiying arrived carrying a woven tray.
Yesterday, when the couple came home from the fields, Zhou Xiaobao had told them about Chuntao bringing things over.
Looking at the things Chuntao had brought, they felt quite bad about it. So, Zhang Haiying got up bright and early and came over with a few sweet buns.
"I steamed these sweet buns last night. I brought a few for you and Xiaohong to try!"
Chuntao tried to decline, but Zhang Haiying said, "I already brought them all the way here, you can't make me carry them back!"
She insisted on dumping the sweet buns into a basket in Chuntao's kitchen.
As they were talking, Zhou Zhijun arrived pulling a handcart.
Learning that they were going to Wanggang Street to sell pigs, Zhang Haiying looked at Chuntao's wrist and asked, "Chuntao, my dear, does your wrist still hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt anymore. It's almost completely healed!"
"Are you going to sell the pigs today too?"
Chuntao nodded. "There will be a lot of people on the street. Brother Zhijun definitely won't be able to handle it alone, so I'm going to watch the stall."
"Wanggang isn't close to here. Walking all that way and swinging your arms back and forth, will you be okay? How about letting Xiaowei go with him instead!"
Wang Xiaohong, who was tending the fire in the kitchen, heard Zhang Haiying's words and hurried out, saying, "I'll go with Uncle Zhijun!"
Zhou Zhijun quickly chimed in, "Xiaohong, we can't leave all the chores at home unattended. Let your sister-in-law go. I won't make her do any heavy lifting, she just needs to watch the stall!
And on the way, we can go to the Wanggang Clinic and have a doctor look at her wrist!"
"Alright then!" Wang Xiaohong looked at Chuntao again. "Sister-in-law, it's a long walk. Be careful, and if you get tired, sit by the side of the road and rest for a bit."
Zhang Haiying also offered a few words of advice before heading back with her empty tray.
Chuntao looked at the chubby little piglets, the corners of her lips turning up slightly.
They were the ones that gave her a little warm hope in these seemingly endless days of hardship.
She had already made plans. The money from selling the piglets would be used to pay for Xiaoming's tuition, and she would save the rest. Once she saved enough, she would buy a cow to make farming easier.
Zhou Zhijun grabbed a piglet, tied its four legs with a hemp rope, and placed it on the handcart.
He turned his head to look at Chuntao beside him, keeping his voice very low. "What's wrong? You have dark circles under your eyes. Did you not sleep well last night?"
"I'm fine!"
Soon, all seven piglets were loaded onto the cart. Zhou Zhijun pulled the cart in front, and Chuntao followed behind.
When they reached the front gate of his house, he set the cart down and said, "Wait here, I'm going to grab something!"
He came out shortly after, holding a steelyard scale in one hand and carrying a fertilizer bag in the other.
The bag was bulging, but it didn't look heavy. She wondered what was inside.
He put the scale weight into his clothes pocket, tied the scale rod and the fertilizer bag to the cart handle, and started pulling it along.
He had long legs and usually walked very fast, but today he walked slowly, afraid that Chuntao wouldn't be able to keep up.
In the fields on both sides of the main road, some people were cutting rapeseed, while others were pulling wild oats from the wheat fields.
Catching sight of Zhou Zhijun pulling his handcart, they couldn't help but look toward the road.
Chuntao kept her eyes fixed on the squealing piglets in the cart, not daring to look to either side.
Someone greeted Zhou Zhijun and asked where he was going. Zhou Zhijun replied that he was going to sell piglets.
A woman then shouted, "My family is just thinking about raising a pig. Can you save one for me?"
Hearing the woman say this, the people around also seemed eager to buy one.
If they sold the pigs on the street, no one would ask for credit. But selling to villagers meant they would definitely ask to buy on credit, and the earliest they would pay was when the pigs were fully grown and sold.
Doing business with acquaintances was tough. Not only did you have to give them credit, but when it came time to pay, you also had to round down the change.
If you didn't round it down, they would be unhappy.
Chuntao's life was tight on money, and she was counting on the pig sales for many things! Zhou Zhijun was certainly unwilling to sell to them.
"There's a pig farmer over in Wanggang who wants the whole litter! If I take even one away, he won't want the rest!"
Zhou Zhijun was telling the truth. There really was someone raising meat pigs near the Wanggang commune, but the price they offered was lower than selling them individually, so he didn't plan on selling there.
Saying this was just to find an excuse, which was always better than bluntly saying no.
Just as he was speaking, Zhou Zhimin chased after them, panting heavily. "Second Brother, Jieshi's wife, wait!
I've been meaning to ask for one when they were ready to leave the pen, but I haven't had time to tell Jieshi's wife..."
"If you want to raise a pig, go buy one on the street. These pigs have already been promised to a pig farmer, all seven of them, not one less!"
Zhou Zhijun stuck to his story, his tone stiff and uncompromising.
He knew very well that Zhou Zhimin coming to ask for a pig was definitely Huang Meili's idea.
With a person like her, if they really sold the pig to her on credit, collecting the debt would be harder than pulling teeth, and it would inevitably give her something to gossip and complain about.
Zhou Zhimin rubbed his hands together, looking embarrassed. "Alright, forget it then. We'll talk about it later!"
When he returned home, he inevitably got scolded by Huang Meili pointing right at his nose, and she even dragged his ancestors down to the eighth generation into her tirade.
Zhou Zhijun pulled the cart forward at a steady, unhurried pace. He didn't stop the cart by the side of the road until they were completely out of Wangjiazhai territory.
He pushed the front enclosure of the cart back a bit and placed the fertilizer bag down as a cushion.
He looked at Chuntao following behind him. "Come here and sit on this!" His tone was bossy, but the expression on his face was unusually gentle.
There were people working on both sides of the main road. Although Chuntao didn't know them and they didn't necessarily know her, she still felt self-conscious and didn't want to sit.
"I'm not tired. Walking is fine!"
"Walking will delay things. By the time we get there, it'll be noon!"
Zhou Zhijun had long legs; one of his strides was equal to several of Chuntao's. He didn't dare to walk at his normal pace, otherwise he would have left her far behind.
Chuntao also wanted to get to the street faster, sell the piglets early, and return before dark, so as to avoid being bullied by him again on the road...
Thinking of this, she obediently sat down on the fertilizer bag at the front of the cart.
Zhou Zhijun strode forward with his long legs, his steps fast and steady. Chuntao sat on the cart with her head bowed, her heart feeling both flustered and warm.
It was still early when they arrived at the Wanggang Street livestock market, and there were barely any people around.
Zhou Zhijun found an empty spot, took the enclosure off the handcart, and penned the piglets inside.
While he was busy, a bald man slowly ambled over. He wasn't tall, but he was as stout as a stone roller.
He wore a black tank top with a red floral pattern and a pair of large green shorts that hung loosely on him.
His outfit was very eye-catching, especially the scar on his arm. It was a foot long, twisting and turning like a crawling centipede, making it clear at a glance that he was not someone to be messed with.
The bald man had a messy, bushy beard, and his thin lips were pressed tightly together beneath a flat nose.
With his hands behind his back, he walked right up to Chuntao. His restless little eyes gleamed with a sleazy light, slithering up and down her body like a snake's tongue.
