Chapter 30

Shen Jin stood outside the thatched hut with his two younger brothers. Shen An and his sister, who had been clearing wasteland behind the house, now stood guard in front of their door, their faces full of wariness.

Although Shen Jin was a year younger than Shen An, he was taller and sturdier. However, he was standing at a lower elevation and had not come to fight. Confident in his position—believing he was there to reason with them—he tilted his head back to argue.

"What you're doing isn't right. You’ve eaten at our house for so many years; why can't we have two pieces of your pork cracklings now?"

Shen Jin felt deeply aggrieved. For three days—the day before yesterday, yesterday, and this morning—he had practically rolled in the mud at their house, but his mother still wouldn't agree to go to the market to buy meat and render cracklings for him. Thinking back to the aroma he had smelled two days ago, he had been uncontrollably tempted. After days of trying every method to get some and failing, his craving had become agonizing. That was why he had come to try his luck with Shen Ning; what if she still had some left?

He hadn't expected Shen An and Shen Ning to refuse him point-blank, guarding against the three of them as if they were thieves. Once the door was shut, the siblings stood firmly in front of it.

Shen Jin, who hadn't been entirely sure if Shen Ning had any cracklings left, was now certain they did. Seeing Shen An standing there with a tight-lipped, silent expression, Shen Jin’s eyes darted around as he racked his brain to recall the last time they had eaten his family's pork cracklings. He traced back the timeline of his mother rendering lard, his eyes lighting up as he grew bolder. "At the beginning of the year! When my mother rendered lard at the start of the year, she gave you warm cracklings in a small bowl. You each got three pieces. Do you dare deny it?"

Shen An’s expression turned cold, his mouth pressed into a thin line. That was shortly after the news of their eldest brother’s death had arrived. He and his sister had cried every day, and their third uncle and aunt, burdened by guilt, had treated them better than usual for a while. But neither of them had touched those three pieces of cracklings; they couldn't bring themselves to eat. The third aunt had brought them over, and she had taken them back exactly the same way.

Shen An did not want to explain. Seeing his silence, Shen Jin assumed he had won the argument. "Nothing to say, right? See? Just that one time, you ate six pieces of ours. You give us two each, that’s six pieces, and we’ll call it even, right?"

Shen Ning’s cheeks puffed up, and she could no longer hold back. She retorted, "Who’s calling it even? Who owes you anything? Before the family split, that was our house, too. We didn't eat yours for free; my eldest brother farmed the land just as much."

Shen Jin was momentarily choked. Their eldest cousin didn't just farm; he hunted. Furthermore, despite his age, he had heard enough village gossip to know that their eldest cousin had been pushed out by his own father to serve in the military in his place, which was how he had died on the battlefield. Shen Jin’s fingertips trembled, and he faltered. He didn't understand everything, but he felt a subconscious sense of guilt and tried to dodge the subject.

"Fine, let’s not talk about before the split. What about after? Just a while ago, didn't you often come to my house begging for food? So what’s the harm in returning a few pieces of cracklings?"

Shen Yin and Shen Tie had also been craving them for days. Usually, children were forgetful, but because Shen Jin kept obsessing over it, they were constantly reminded whenever their older brother made a fuss to their mother. Hearing their third brother say they were going to get the cracklings, they had followed along eagerly, only to find that despite all his talk, he couldn't get any.

Shen Yin was so hungry he nearly cried, his mouth pouting in grievance. He echoed his brother, "Big Sister, my mother gave you vegetable porridge to drink a few days ago."

Shen Tie, leaning against his fourth brother, sucked on his finger, drool nearly dripping out. Only five years old, he knew nothing of the world; he only knew that in the past, his sister had always given him whatever he asked for. He looked at Shen Ning pleadingly, "Big Sister, I want to eat cracklings."

Shen Ning could easily talk back to Shen Jin, but facing two young cousins who were on the verge of tears, she didn't know what to do. Shen Jin, thinking Shen Yin had struck a nerve, gloated, "Exactly! You were eating the grain my mother gave you just a few days ago."

If he had stayed silent, it would have been one thing, but his words ignited the fire that had just begun to cool in Shen Ning. The young girl said angrily, "Two tablespoons! Third Aunt knew we had run out of grain—we didn't even have chaff left! For two days, she gave us two tablespoons of vegetable porridge. It was all soup, so thin you could count the grains of rice. It was mixed into wild vegetable broth, and when the three of us ate it, we couldn't even find the rice."

Thinking of the life they had led just a short time ago, Shen Ning’s eyes turned red. "My sister-in-law nearly starved to death."

"My second brother went to knock on your door in the middle of the night to beg for food, and your parents pretended not to hear!"

"We were so young, why did Third Uncle split us off without giving us any fields or land?"

The more the girl spoke, the more aggrieved she felt. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she began to cry, her words tumbling out in a jumble, alternating between "Third Uncle" and "your parents." Finally, she wiped her eyes and glared at Shen Jin. "You even called my second brother a beggar! I won't give you any cracklings! Don't even think about it!"

Shen Jin was stunned, while Shen Yin and Shen Tie, not knowing who had started it, let out a wail. Once one started, the other followed. The birds in the mountains were startled by the earth-shattering cries of the two children and fluttered away.

Shen Ning, still covered in tears, was momentarily dumbfounded, her own weeping stopping. No matter how harsh her words were, among the children of the Shen family, besides their eldest brother who had long since worked the fields, she and her second brother were the oldest. Before they were split off, the two younger cousins—including their youngest cousin, Shen Tian, who was too small to be brought out—had actually been raised by her and her second brother. When Shen Ning was six, she had already been chasing two- or three-year-old Shen Yin and Shen Tie with a spoon to feed them.

How could a nine-year-old girl harbor any real malice toward two tiny cousins? The older and younger ones stood there, eyes meeting through tears. The two younger ones were still bawling with their eyes closed, while the older girl was left stunned by the crying. Shen Jin was also at a loss.

Shen An watched the scene in silence, unable to fathom how the situation had turned this way in just a few sentences. He looked at his sister first, and seeing she had stopped crying, he said to the two younger cousins, "Stop crying."

"Waaaah..."

"Waaaaah..."

Who would listen to him? Their third brother and sister were arguing so fiercely. They were certain they wouldn't get the pork cracklings they had been craving for three days—how could they not cry? It was heartbreaking.

Shen An’s temple twitched. He raised his voice, "Shen Yin, Shen Tie, if you want to eat cracklings, shut up right now. No more wailing."

The mountain forest went quiet. The two little ones opened their wet eyelashes. The youngest, Shen Tie, choked on a sob, hiccuped while looking at his second cousin, hiccuped again, and then, feeling belatedly conscious, hurriedly covered his mouth with his dirty little hands.

Shen An: ...

"You want the cracklings?"

The two little ones nodded frantically, joined by an even more enthusiastic Shen Jin beside them.

Shen Ning tugged at her second brother’s sleeve, worried. "Second Brother, Sister-in-law hasn't even eaten a few pieces yet."

Shen An patted her hand reassuringly and turned to Shen Yin and Shen Tie. "If you want to eat cracklings, see that plot of land behind our house? Go help me clear the wasteland. If you do a good job, I’ll give you one piece each this evening."

The two little brothers still had wet eyes and tear tracks on their faces, looking confused. "How do we clear wasteland?"

They were six and five—did he really expect them to understand? Shen An actually intended to teach them. He beckoned them over to the back of the house. He didn't give them stone hoes; instead, he used the bamboo shards he and his sister used to show them how to dig up the soil, pile the stones into a heap, and pull out the grass roots. He even brought his own small stone hoe to show them the cleared land. "Clearing it means this: only soil, no stones or roots. You can only plant things once it's like this."

The little brothers were delighted. "Second Brother, I can do that!"

It was just playing in the mud. They did that every day. It was just that Second Brother had given them a rule: they had to pick out the stones and roots. The brothers grabbed their bamboo shards and went to dig where Shen An had taught them.

Shen Jin didn't have a bamboo shard, so he found a sturdy wooden stick. Despite how fiercely Shen Ning glared at him, he acted as if he couldn't hear, ignoring the fact that his second cousin hadn't told him to work. He scurried over to his two brothers and started working alongside them.

Shen Ning puffed out her cheeks in frustration and glared at her second brother. Shen An hadn't seen his sister’s face so expressive in a long time. He instinctively wanted to pinch her cheek, but seeing his mud-stained hands, he pulled back sheepishly and whispered into her ear, "It keeps them quiet. Besides, three pieces of cracklings to get them to help clear the land means Sister-in-law will be less tired when she comes back. We have to keep up with the planting season."

More importantly, he lowered his voice even further. "Think about Third Aunt’s cupboard."

Li’s cabinet, where she hid food, had a lock, but no matter how she hid things, Shen Jin always managed to find them. Of course, Shen Jin wouldn't steal from others, but they had grown up together—did Shen Jin really consider them "others"? Shen An was afraid that if he turned his back for a second, Shen Jin would slip inside the house. They didn't have a lock. They were making "fairy tofu" every day, leaving too many traces; he couldn't let anyone get inside, not even a child like Shen Jin. If the third aunt and uncle set their sights on it and asked too many questions, they would eventually figure it out.

Shen Ning’s eyes widened. She turned to look at Shen Jin, but Shen An pulled her back. "It’s not that he’s definitely going to do it, but it’s better to keep him busy and distracted than to exhaust ourselves guarding against him. In a couple of days, once they think the cracklings are gone, they’ll naturally lose interest."

Shen Ning was still unhappy. It wasn't that she didn't want to share with her little cousins—giving them food in exchange for work was fair, and it was better than watching them cry. She just didn't want to give anything to Shen Jin. But then she thought of her sister-in-law’s secret family recipe, and how she went to sell tofu at a stall so far away, yet still cleared land upon returning, only to be too tired to move at night and then wake up in the middle of the night to make more tofu.

Shen Ning stopped talking. She pouted and went back to clear the wasteland. Shen Jin, seeing the siblings whispering, kept staring at them until he caught Shen Ning looking right at him. Shen Ning huffed and went to clear the land with her small stone hoe. After a few digs, she checked Shen Jin’s progress and said with a dark face, "Don't think that just by playing in the mud for a day, my second brother will give you food. If you don't clear enough, you get nothing."

Shen Jin, who really had been planning to just play in the mud all day, stiffened. He stopped feigning deafness, looked up at Shen Ning, gave up, and turned to Shen An. "Shen An, how much do I have to clear to get the cracklings?"

Shen An didn't hold back. He took a tree branch and marked out a two-foot-square patch for Shen Jin. "Clear this area. It's no use if it's too shallow; you have to flip it at least a foot deep and clear out all the stones and roots inside." He used the branch to measure for Shen Jin.

A foot in the Great Qian Dynasty was about thirty centimeters, so the area Shen An marked was about half a square meter. Don't underestimate it; the mountain soil was dry and compacted, and the stones and roots were deeply intertwined, making it very difficult to clear. The size Shen An marked was what he himself could clear in a full day of work. If he could do it, Shen Jin certainly could. As for the two younger cousins, he didn't ask, and Shen An turned a blind eye.

Shen Jin looked at the marks and then at the length of the stick. He had never done farm work and had no idea how hard it was. He only cared about one thing: "If I finish, you’ll give me the cracklings?"

Shen An had given his word and wouldn't go back on it. "Once I inspect it and it’s qualified—no stones or roots, and the soil is loosened—I’ll give you one piece."

Shen Jin was excited. "Good! You keep your word, I’m going back for a second, I’ll be right back!" He turned and ran down the mountain.

Shen Yin and Shen Tie looked at their third brother, confused, but since they had work to do and would get cracklings for a good job, they didn't care where he went and went back to digging with their bamboo shards.

Shen Ning didn't care either; it was better that he left. But hearing his parting words, it didn't sound like he was giving up. Sure enough, not long after, Shen Jin returned, carrying their family’s small hoe on his shoulder. It wasn't the makeshift stone hoe Shen An and Shen Ning used, but a real, sharp iron hoe.

Shen Jin was quite proud. "Watch closely, I’ll definitely be the first one to eat the cracklings today!"

Shen An’s mouth twitched. He moved Shen Yin and Shen Tie further away from Shen Jin and warned, "Be careful not to hoe your own foot. Let’s be clear, if you get hurt, I won't pay for your medicine."

Shen Ning burst out laughing. Shen Jin took a swing, nearly missing, and glared with wide eyes. "Who are you looking down on?"

Indeed, there wasn't a child in the mountains who didn't know how to play with these, though there was a difference in strength and technique. Shen An stopped talking and went back to his own work. The patch of wasteland he was clearing was on the side of the house, allowing him to keep an eye on Shen Jin while also keeping watch over their door.

At the beginning of noon, when Sang Luo and Qin Fangniang returned to the mountain along the path, they saw five children of various sizes on the side and behind the hut—some with iron hoes, some with stone ones, and some with bamboo shards, either standing or squatting, working hard to clear the land.

Sang Luo: "???"

Qin Fangniang, who had helped carry the buckets, was also stunned.

Shen An, working on the side of the house, was the first to see his sister-in-law return. He called out, "Sister-in-law!" and dropped his stone hoe, rushing over to help unload the burden with remarkable speed. Shen Ning followed closely, and then the three brothers from the Shen family’s third branch, hearing the commotion, poked their heads out from behind the hut to look.

Seeing the three of them, from tallest to shortest, Sang Luo watched as they all instinctively shrank back.

Sang Luo looked at the three brothers in the distance, tilted her chin toward them, and asked Shen An, "What’s going on here?"

Shen An felt a bit embarrassed and nervous. He whispered, "They wanted to eat cracklings and started crying at the door, so I decided to have them clear land in exchange for the cracklings." After saying this, he carefully watched Sang Luo’s expression. "I didn't promise much, just one piece each."

Sang Luo found it amusing. "That’s fine. Just keep an eye on them so they don't get hurt. It’s too hot right now, and there’s no shade, so tell them to stop for now; don't let them get heatstroke."

Shen An knew his sister-in-law had no objections to how he handled things. He grinned. "I know, I’ll tell them to go home now and come back when it’s not so hot in the afternoon."

He helped Sang Luo and Qin Fangniang move the items under the eaves but did not open the door to put them inside, even though the person who had followed them was a member of the Chen family who had been kind to them. He moved back and forth with natural ease; at least, Qin Fangniang didn't suspect a thing. She took the piece of flatbread wrapped in lotus leaves she had brought from the bucket, bid farewell to Sang Luo, and hurried back down the mountain path to the village.

Seeing Qin Fangniang leave, Shen An told his sister-in-law to wash her face and hands quickly, whispered to Shen Ning to keep an eye on their things and the door, and then ran over to the three Shen brothers.

Shen Jin was nervous and pulled Shen An aside. "The cracklings—we’re still doing that, right?"

In his view, such precious things were decided by adults. When Sang Luo wasn't home, he dared to ask Shen An and Shen Ning, but now that Sang Luo was back, the power dynamic had shifted. He realized belatedly: could he still count on Shen An’s promise? It must be said that this wasn't just Shen Jin’s perception—it was the common understanding of most children.

Shen An had felt nervous when Sang Luo asked, but now, seeing that his sister-in-law was the best sister-in-law in the world, a sense of pride welled up in him. He looked at Shen Jin and said, "Of course it counts. My sister-in-law treats me and Ning the best. She gave me the remaining pieces of cracklings and told me I could decide what to do with them. But it’s too hot now, and she’s afraid you’ll get heatstroke. Stop for now and come back when it’s cooler this afternoon."

Shen Jin looked at the land he had already cleared and wasn't happy. "It’s not that hot." He was afraid that if he waited until the afternoon, Shen An would go back on his word. Children’s promises weren't ironclad, and changing one's mind was normal; he didn't want to leave until the cracklings were in his mouth.

Shen An glared at him. "Are you going back or not? If you don't, the cracklings are gone."

A piece of pork crackling was Shen Jin’s Achilles' heel. "Fine, fine, I’ll go! But don't you go back on your word this afternoon. I’ve been hoeing for so long, I’ve got blisters on my hands." He held out his right hand, showing the space between his thumb and index finger to Shen An. It wasn't exactly blisters, but it was red.

Shen An pressed his lips together. "Who would go back on their word?"

"It’s a deal. If you go back on it, you're a dog."

With that, Shen Jin picked up his small hoe and walked away with his two brothers, looking back every three steps. He didn't forget to shout, "Don't you try to trick me!" which earned him an eye-roll from Shen Ning.

When they returned home, Shen Jin had just stepped into the courtyard when he was caught by Li. "Where have you been running wild with your brothers all morning? Why are you carrying a hoe to play?"

"Just playing around." Shen Jin leaned the hoe against the courtyard wall and sprinted into the main room, grabbed a water jug, and poured himself a cup, gulping it down. He had been working in the sun for an hour and was dying of thirst. As for working for Shen An, Shen Jin was smart enough not to mention it; if he told his mother, she wouldn't allow it. Anyway, his mother couldn't be relied upon; if he wanted to eat pork cracklings today, he had to rely on Shen An.

Li was puzzled—what did "just playing around" mean? She turned to ask the two younger ones. Shen Yin was clever; despite no one telling him anything, he instinctively knew his mother didn't like his second cousin and his sister. He kept his mouth shut, shook his head, and ran into the room, scrambling onto a stool to pour himself water. He had been digging in mud, stones, and roots all morning and was exhausted—much harder than just playing in the mud.

Only Shen Tie was caught by Li. "Tell me, what did you do all morning?"

Shen Jin and Shen Yin, who had already slipped away, felt a jolt of alarm. They stopped drinking and ran to the doorway of the main room, signaling Shen Tie. Shen Tie, held by his mother, couldn't wriggle free and wailed, "Playing in the mud!"

"Playing in the mud." The two older brothers almost laughed. He had said it perfectly; that’s exactly what it was.