Chapter 29: It’s Just Beginning

Chapter 29: It's Just Beginning

"Eat quickly, this is a reward for you."

Lin Heng made a small bowl of dog food by mixing the cooked internal organs with some flour and cornmeal.

"Woof woof~"

Xiong Ba barked and eagerly came to eat, chomping down while making satisfied noises.

"Eat up, eat up, people are starving here! Let's have a couple of drinks later."

Lin Heng's father shouted, bringing the dishes to the table.

There were over a dozen people in the family, so they had to set a round table on top of the square table.

Thanks to Lin Heng's uncle's insistence, dinner included another dish: braised bamboo rat.

In total, there were nine plates of food, with rabbit and bamboo rat meat being the most eye-catching, as they were the only two meat dishes. The rest were vegetable dishes, but they weren't bad, especially the cold mixed gray vegetables and fiddlehead ferns, which contained purple basil that Lin Heng really liked. To him, the taste was even better than ordinary meat.

Lin Heng's father poured wine, and Lin Heng took a glass to drink with the others, while Xiulan and the others drank yellow wine.

Yellow wine is made from rice, has a lower alcohol content, but is precious and only brought out on special occasions for guests.

"Come on, let's drink a toast, Third Brother, hurry up, raise your glasses..."

Lin Heng's father raised his cup and urged everyone to drink. Everyone quickly took a sip.

"Now, eat the dishes, try the stir-fried rabbit meat with yellow and spicy sauce."

Lin Heng's father urged them to eat.

"Mm, it's really good," Uncle Li Baiquan praised after trying a bite.

"This bamboo rat is also pretty good, a bit better than the big rats," Lin Xutao, the third uncle, nodded in agreement.

"Hey, rat meat is still rat meat. I ate it last year, and it was also quite tasty..."

The table was full of laughter and chatting, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

In this time of scarcity, people were easily satisfied. Just having a meal with meat could bring joy for a long time. Relatives didn't compare as much; there was more mutual help, and everyone looked forward to a better future.

Lin Heng laughed and chatted while eating some gray vegetables. Occasionally, he would joke with everyone.

Xiulan, sitting next to him, watched for a while, then grabbed a big bunch of gray vegetables and put them in Lin Heng's bowl, smiling at him: "Eat more vegetables."

"Xiulan, have some rabbit meat."

Lin Heng remembered what she had said earlier, smiled, and put a piece of rabbit meat in her bowl before quickly eating a few big bites himself.

When Xiulan saw that Lin Heng ate the meat, she was satisfied and fed a piece of boneless rabbit meat to their daughter, Xiaoxia.

Creak!

Just as everyone was enjoying their meal, the door to the courtyard suddenly creaked open, and a middle-aged man walked in.

"Smells great, there's meat! Second brother, you really made money from selling ginseng, huh? You must be rolling in it!"

The man was Lin Heng's eldest uncle, Lin Xuping.

Upon entering the house and smelling the rich aroma of meat, he was shocked. He then noticed the dried grass carp, rabbit skins, and bamboo rat skins hanging nearby. His gaze shifted to the kitchen, where smoked pheasant and rabbit meat were hanging.

In just a few days, how did his second brother's family become so rich? Where did all this meat come from?

Could they have bought it with money? How much did that cost? Why didn't he find the wild ginseng himself?

He couldn't help but feel jealous.

"What does that have to do with you, Big Brother? What are you doing here?" Lin Heng's father spoke coldly, his tone uninviting.

The lively dinner table immediately became tense with the arrival of Lin Xuping.

"How can you talk to me like that? I'm your brother. Can't I come to eat?" Lin Xuping snapped back, walking into the main room on his own, but no one offered him a seat or invited him to join the meal.

Clearly, his past behavior had earned him little respect.

"Big Uncle, please go home, don't start trouble," Lin Heng immediately understood why his big uncle was here.

"Lin Heng, how dare you talk to an elder like that? If it weren't for your father, I'd beat you up right now!" Lin Xuping shouted angrily.

"Go ahead, try it!" Lin Heng responded with a cold sneer.

The entire family turned their gaze toward Lin Xuping, and he quickly took two steps back, intimidated.

"Tell me, why are you here? If you don't have anything important to say, just leave. We don't welcome you here," Lin Heng's mother said in an even colder tone than Lin Heng.

"Don't talk about brotherhood. If you really treated Xuan as a brother, things wouldn't have ended up like this," Lin Heng's mother added with a mocking smile.

Even though everyone despised him, Lin Xuping remained unfazed, grinning as he said, "Whether you welcome me or not, I'm here to discuss something."

"My mother is sick. You two need to each contribute five yuan for her treatment," he said, trying to sound legitimate. In the countryside, not being filial was a serious accusation, and he was confident that his second and third brothers wouldn't dare refuse.

"What's wrong with her? What medicine did she buy? She was fine just a few days ago, now she's sick?" Lin Heng's mother frowned and questioned.

This was a difficult situation. It was normal for elderly people to have small health issues, but if they refused to give money, they would be labeled as unfilial.

"She hasn't seen a doctor yet, but if she keeps coughing, you'll need to decide whether to help or not," Lin Xuping chuckled coldly.

"No, get out of here. If we go, we'll go ourselves, not just give you money. If anyone hears about this, they'll think we're not filial," Lin Heng said firmly.

Lin Xuping was angered by this response, and he shouted, "You don't get to speak!"

"Is that so? Did I say something wrong?" Lin Heng stared at him.

"Big Brother, just go home. We'll go see her ourselves in a couple of days. We're not going to let you do that," Lin Heng's father quickly interjected.

Lin Heng's father gave Lin Heng a couple of appreciative glances, noting how quick-witted his son was, as if he had learned well in his studies.

"Yes, Big Brother, we'll go visit her ourselves in a couple of days. It's not proper to have you come here for that," Lin Xutao, the third uncle, also quickly said.

At this point, Lin Xuping was at a loss for words. He angrily glared at Lin Heng.

"Fine, I've notified you. If you don't go, don't blame me for what others say," he spat, leaving in a huff.

After he left, Lin Heng's father turned to him and said, "Good thing you spoke up, otherwise we would've had to give him a few bucks."

"Yes, Lin Heng, your quick thinking saved us. We wouldn't have known what to do. Let's drink to that," the third uncle said, raising his glass to Lin Heng.

"Third Uncle, you're too kind," Lin Heng said helplessly as he took a sip.

If his big uncle had insisted, they would've had to give him some money, but the man was shameless and only cared about appearances. He was easy to deal with.

Elsewhere, seeing her husband leave, Li Ping, hiding under a tree, called out, "Well? Did you get the money?"

"No, they said they'll go see her themselves," Lin Xuping replied roughly.

"Hmph, you useless fool! You couldn't even get this small amount of money. I must've been cursed to marry you," Li Ping's face turned cold as she scolded him.

"Why don't you go yourself, then?" Lin Xuping snapped back angrily.

The two of them exchanged words, and Lin Xuping started complaining about Lin Heng's family and the new clothes hanging on the door, which made Li Ping widen her eyes.

"How much did that ginseng sell for to have so much money to waste? Heaven must be blind!" she grumbled, angry at her husband's incompetence.

"Maybe they got it from hunting. Why are you complaining?" Lin Xuping said, his patience running out as he got more and more irritated.

"Hmph, it's definitely bought. No one in their house knows how to hunt. You couldn't even find any ginseng. Just watch, soon enough, all that money for building the house will be gone, especially since Lin Heng is just a lazy bum. They won't have it easy."

Li Ping kept cursing her husband and wishing ill on Lin Heng's family. Watching others live better than her made her feel even worse than death.

The couple, living together, had grown increasingly bitter toward one another.

Lin Heng, unaware of all this, was happily serving food to his wife.

Had he known, he would've chuckled, for the day when his big uncle and his family would envy him was just beginning.

(End of Chapter)