Wang Shitou nodded, slowly lowered his head, and said in a hushed, somewhat sad voice, "I came back late today, so Wang Shitou's Aunt and Uncle definitely didn't save any bran cakes for me."
"Alas, poor child." Wang Youcai stroked Wang Shitou's head and said, "You wait here."
He turned and went back into the house, and a moment later, he came out with two coarse flour cakes.
He stuffed the two cakes into Wang Shitou's hands and said, "Here, take them and eat, don't starve."
"Thank you, Village Chief Grandpa." Wang Shitou bowed three times before turning to leave the Village Chief's house.
He hoisted the bundle of firewood onto his back, eating as he walked, heading towards Wang Shitou's Aunt and Uncle's house.
After finishing one cake, he tucked the other into his bosom. At this point, he had also arrived at his uncle's doorstep.
There were two trees by the door. Wang Shitou walked to one of the trees, squatted down, and after digging for a while, a hole appeared at the base of the tree.
He still had a tattered cloth bag on him, filled with wild mountain fruits he had picked.
He took out more than half of the wild mountain fruits from the bag, stuffed them into the tree root hole, covered them with a layer of dirt, and then clapped the dirt off his hands before standing up.
Now, he could go home.
Compared to the wooden door and brick walls of the Village Chief's house, his uncle's door was just a wooden fence, and the walls were also wooden fences.
Wang Shitou moved the wooden fence aside and entered the yard. As soon as he closed the wooden fence and turned around with the firewood on his back, he was met with a blow from a stick.
Crack!
"You freeloading good-for-nothing, you're back so late! Don't the pigs need feeding? Doesn't the firewood need splitting?"
"Crack!"
Another stick hit Wang Shitou.
A plump woman dressed in coarse cotton clothes, holding a stick, cursed roughly while continuously hitting Wang Shitou.
Wang Shitou raised his hands to block and shouted, "Wang Shitou's Aunt, Wang Shitou's Aunt, stop hitting me! I've brought the firewood back."
The plump woman didn't listen, cursing Wang Shitou as a bastard and a money-loser while hitting him with the stick.
"Wang Shitou's Aunt, I have mountain fruits I picked for my brother! If you keep hitting, they'll be ruined!" Wang Shitou shouted while blocking.
Only then did the plump woman stop hitting. She took a couple of breaths and said, "Go put the firewood away, then go feed the pigs, and then go split firewood."
"Yes, Wang Shitou's Aunt, I'll go now." Wang Shitou nodded repeatedly, carrying a bundle of firewood to the woodshed.
He put away the firewood and then went to feed the pigs.
There were uneaten bran cakes in the pig feed. Wang Shitou also picked out two, wiped them clean, and tucked them into his bosom.
Although bran cakes were not as good as coarse flour cakes, they could at least fill his stomach, couldn't they?
After feeding the pigs, he still had to split firewood.
Before splitting firewood, Wang Shitou still walked towards the thatched hut.
He didn't step inside, but only poked his head in first.
"Wang Shitou's Aunt, Wang Shitou's Aunt? Are there any more bran cakes?"
Bang! A stinky, rotten cloth shoe flew over, hitting the door frame and scaring Wang Shitou into quickly retreating.
The middle-aged man's cursing voice came from inside the house: "Eat! Eat your %... eat, you're back so late and you still want to eat? Get out!"
Wang Shitou said nothing more, turned, and went to split firewood.
As he was splitting, a small boy in clean cloth clothes walked over, picking his nose.
This was his uncle and Wang Shitou's Aunt's child, his cousin, Wang Guzi.
But when his cousin spoke, he didn't call him brother, but instead said, "Hey, stinky Shitou, where are the wild mountain fruits?"
"Here, here." Wang Shitou quickly grabbed the bag nearby and handed it to his cousin.
His cousin took it, poured out a handful of wild mountain fruits from the tattered cloth bag, and frowned, "Is that all?"
Wang Shitou said awkwardly, "The fruits on the mountain are almost all picked by me."
"Then can't you go further?" His cousin threw the tattered cloth bag onto Wang Shitou's face, bit into a fruit, grunted, and turned to leave.
"Brother." Wang Shitou took down the cloth bag and called out to him.
"What else?" His cousin turned back impatiently.
"Brother, can you get me a bran cake to eat?"
"Pfft!" His cousin spat the fruit pit onto Wang Shitou's face and said disdainfully, "If my mother doesn't give it to you, she just doesn't give it to you. You think you can trade such a small amount of fruit for a cake? Go back to your doghouse and sleep."
With that, he kicked aside a piece of wood and went back into the house.
Wang Shitou wiped the moisture from his face, watched his cousin enter the house, was silent for a while, then silently sat back on the tree stump and continued splitting firewood.
After splitting the firewood, he was hungry again and took out the three cakes from his bosom.
One coarse flour cake and two bran cakes stained with soup.
After a moment of hesitation, Wang Shitou still tucked the coarse flour cake back into his bosom. The coarse flour cake was better, and he wanted to save it for later.
He ate two bran cakes, and a little warmth entered his stomach, so he should be able to fall asleep tonight.
He returned to his small room.
His small room was next to the pigsty, less than two meters high. It was built with wooden planks and wasn't sturdy. If he hadn't later covered the roof with thatch, it would have leaked rain.
This was the accommodation his uncle and Wang Shitou's Aunt arranged for him.
It had an entrance but no door, only a tattered cloth curtain.
The entrance was only one meter high, so even though Wang Shitou was still a child, he had to bend down to enter.
There was no bed in the small room, only a layer of thatch.
Wang Shitou lay on the thatch mat, not sleeping, and began to dig in the dirt beside him.
After digging for a while, a wooden box was unearthed.
He opened the wooden box, and inside were four cold, hard bran cakes, and one coarse flour cake.
These were his old provisions. If his uncle and Wang Shitou's Aunt were particularly cruel one day and didn't give him anything to eat, he could survive on these.
Now, he took out all these bran cakes and the coarse flour cake.
"Will things be able to be stored?" Wang Shitou felt uneasy.
He wanted to hide all these cakes in the cave he could instantly enter.
But there was nothing in the cave before, and Wang Shitou was also worried that if he put things in, they might disappear later.
He rolled his eyes, took out the coarse flour cake from his bosom, put everything back into the wooden box, and then only took out one bran cake.
He buried the wooden box back in the dirt, planning to test with this bran cake tonight.
However, he didn't try immediately. Instead, he waited until it was very, very late, estimating that everyone was asleep, before taking out the bran cake.
"I want to enter that cave." He thought to himself.
Swish! He indeed disappeared from this small wooden house. When he opened his eyes, he appeared in that cave.
"It's nice here, it doesn't feel cold here." Wang Shitou rubbed his face and took out the bran cake from his bosom.
He placed the bran cake on a slightly raised rock in the middle, somewhat reluctant to leave.
This cave was much better than his wooden house; it was neither cold nor hot.
"How about I sleep in here?" This thought popped into his mind.
But he was worried that if there was nothing in the cave, would he disappear while sleeping? After thinking for a moment, he still returned outside and fell asleep in the small wooden house.
The next day, before dawn, Wang Shitou woke up. This was a habit he had formed, and also a rule set by Wang Shitou's Aunt.
He had to get up before dawn to fetch water from the river, and when Wang Shitou's Aunt woke up, she had to see the water jar full.
Wang Shitou listened, and when there was no movement outside, he first entered the cave to check, and the bran cake was still there.
He felt a little relieved. Very good, it hadn't disappeared overnight, and nothing unexpected had happened.
He left the cave and got up to fetch water.
Braving the cold morning dew, he carried three loads of water in a row to fill the water jar, and his stomach rumbled with hunger.
Wang Shitou's Aunt also woke up at this time, looked at the water in the jar, then looked at Wang Shitou, threw him a cold bran cake, and then said, "Go light the fire."
"Okay, Wang Shitou's Aunt." Wang Shitou gave a conciliatory smile and went to light the fire.
And Wang Shitou's Aunt walked over, picked up a few clean bran cakes, and began steaming them. (Steaming: to heat cold food with steam)
"Wang Shitou's Aunt, can you also..." Wang Shitou held his bran cake and said cautiously.
"Get out of the way!" Wang Shitou's Aunt slapped Wang Shitou's hand away, and the cake fell to the ground again.
Wang Shitou picked up the cake and continued to stolidly tend the fire.
He could only place the bran cake near the fire opening, letting the heat from the escaping flames warm the bran cake.
Bran cakes heated this way were dry and certainly not as easy to eat as steamed bran cakes.
But at least, he could eat something warm.
Breakfast was ready, and Wang Shitou was sent outside to eat. After eating, he still had to go to the mountains to gather firewood.
He took his rope and axe and left the house again, walked to the tree, dug out the wild mountain fruits he had buried last night, and put them into his cloth bag.
He wasn't in a hurry to go into the mountains to cut firewood. Instead, he went to the small path leading out of the village to the west and waited by a tree from a distance.
Before long, a group of children, not very old, walked over from ahead. Wang Shitou quickly ran over.
"Ling-jie, Brother Dali, Brother Tie Zhu!"
The group of children looked over, and the Village Chief's granddaughter, Wang Jialing, was the first to speak, "It's you, Wang Shitou."