At the mention of this, Jing An looked awkward, rubbing the back of his neck and remembering Jing Zhao's earlier sarcasm when asking for the money back, her pointed comments about trust. "The pigs were secured by Jing Shu. These things are all up to Jing Shu now." He deferred to his daughter, a clear shift in authority.
Jing Zhao shifted her gaze to Jing Shu as if she were seeing a platter of braised spare ribs, her eyes hungry and calculating. She bustled over to take Jing Shu's hand in a damp grip, but Jing Shu dodged, pulling her hand back smoothly. Jing Zhao was not embarrassed and pressed on, her voice wheedling, "Jing Shu, give your aunt a pig. Back when your family was in trouble, I chipped in money too." She leaned in close, the smell of sweat and dust sharp.
"Auntie, when Grandma called to remind you to stock up, you said you wanted to hoard more grain but you were short on cash. Right after that call, I transferred the money back to you. What you chipped in, we didn't use. We returned it. How does that count as helping us?"
Jing Shu spoke evenly, her tone devoid of heat, just stating facts. "We still owe Third Aunt one hundred thousand yuan, and Eldest Uncle one hundred thousand. That's exactly one pig each to settle the debts. If I give one to you, what do I use to pay them back? Besides, we don't owe you anything. Why should I give you a pig? Or what will you use to trade for it?" She held Jing Zhao's gaze, unblinking.
Jing Zhao was struck speechless, her mouth opening and closing. Regret washed over her, a bitter tide. If only she had held back then, kept her mouth shut. Now she might have a black pig worth several hundred jin of meat, hundreds of kilograms that could be swapped for thousands of jin of grain in trade. How long could that feed a family? She hadn't eaten proper meat for half a year. She drooled thinking of Dongpo elbow, the soft, gelatinous fat. What had possessed her to press for money back then? She had been afraid her own mother would be biased and that Jing An wouldn't repay, so she pushed. Look at Jing Pan. She lent one hundred thousand yuan without a word and now received a pregnant sow, a fortune.
Li Yun coughed, a dry hack. "First Aunt, when the pig has piglets, give us a couple, alright?" He tried for a casual tone, but the eagerness was there.
Jing Pan said nothing, looking away. Wei Chang replied without changing his expression, his voice practical. "Do you know how to raise pigs? If it's too hot, they die. Too cold, they die. Do you have air conditioning to keep them at constant temperature? Do you have wheat bran or grain to feed them? Do you have a bucket of water every day for the pig?" Each question was a gentle, firm barrier.
Li Yun lowered his head in embarrassment, scuffing his foot on the concrete floor. With neither side giving her a pig, Jing Zhao's face fell, her earlier hope collapsing into sullen disappointment.
Wei Chang added, a placating note in his voice, "Enough. When we do slaughter, we'll send some meat over." It was a vague, distant promise.
That finally soothed the two uninvited guests, a thin balm. In his heart, Wei Chang thought, "This pig will be worshiped like an ancestor. Slaughter it? Not likely. You can wait until your next life." He kept the thought behind a neutral face.
At the same time, Wei Chang made up his mind to cultivate a good relationship with Jing Shu's family. Next year he would need breeding stock. If there were good opportunities later, he'd think of them first. He could see it clearly today. Compared with the simple, quiet girl from a few years back, the young woman before him had become formidable, her decisions final. This household now revolved around Jing Shu, a new center of gravity.
With Jing Pan stabilized, the wound dressed and her color better, Jing Shu's family prepared to take their leave as the sky began to lighten to a dusty gray. Wei Chang brought out bundles of dried sweet potato noodles from the cellar and all the wrinkled apples they could carry, insisting. Jing Shu refused them politely but firmly. In the end, she couldn't refuse the small basket of buried frozen autumn pears he produced, each fruit black as coal from the freezing. They could be thawed and eaten, with excellent flavor, he said, a rare treat.
In her previous life there had been no choice; any food was swallowed gratefully. In this life, Jing Shu wouldn't settle. Anything that didn't taste good, she wouldn't eat. She accepted the pears with a nod, a gesture of peace.
Li Yun's eyes lit up at the sight of the energy car, clean and intact. He wanted to borrow it for a few days to drive around, maybe show off. Jing Shu refused on the spot, her "no" immediate. Then he asked Jing Shu to drive them back to the city, a lift. Jing Shu refused again, her tone leaving no room.
The pair were so filthy, their clothes stiff with dirt, that the car would stink for days, and Li Yun's athlete's foot made Jing Shu want to keep ten meters away, the smell a physical presence.
"Go back the way you came. We're in a hurry and have things to do," Jing Shu said, turning to check the car's straps.
"So, Jing Shu, you think you have skills now? Forgotten our childhood?" After being rebuffed again and again, his pride pricked, Li Yun rushed over when the adults were mid conversation by the door, determined to teach Jing Shu a lesson, his face twisted with frustration.
Jing Shu didn't turn. She simply swept out a leg in a low, swift arc and sent Li Yun sprawling face first onto the hard concrete. Thud. The impact was solid. Li Yun howled in pain, clutching his nose. The adults inside rushed out at the noise, alarmed.
Jing Shu pointed at Li Yun, her expression one of pure innocence. "He ran too fast and fell." She shrugged slightly.
"Honestly, pay attention next time," Wei Chang said, shaking his head, helping Li Yun up.
"You're old enough to know better. Learn from Wei Zheng. He's already helping with the family work," Grandma Jing scolded, though her eyes flicked to Jing Shu, knowing better.
…
Li Yun clenched his fists, the skin on his knuckles white, and said nothing, his eyes full of hot, silent hate as he glared at Jing Shu. Jing Shu, unperturbed, pulled out a bottle of Wahaha AD calcium milk from her small bag and took a long sip, the straw making a soft sound. "See, when we were kids you always snatched my AD milk. From now on, you'll never take it from me again. If you try, I'll hit you hard." She stated it as a simple fact.
Li Yun, a man in his twenties, couldn't stop swallowing, his throat working, remembering that sweet, milky taste. After six months of no meat and no vegetables, only plain white rice, even bugs looked tempting. The memory of flavor was a torture.
He stood up limping, favoring one leg. His knee was skinned wide open, raw and bleeding, and his ankle was already purpling where Jing Shu's foot had connected.
"This woman, is she a monster? Such strength," he thought, a shiver of fear cutting through the anger.
He had also seen Jing Shu shoot people earlier, cold and precise. He hadn't expected her to become so ruthless, even toward family.
In front of Li Yun's hateful stare, Jing Shu finished one bottle, then opened another from her bag, and kept drinking until she drained a third, each empty bottle placed neatly on the car's hood. Only then did the family climb into the car to leave. As they pulled away, the electric motor humming, Jing Shu tossed the last empty bottle out the window. It landed with a plastic rattle on the ground near Li Yun.
Li Yun hesitated, the memory of that sweet taste overpowering. Then he shuffled over and picked it up, bringing it to his mouth to lick the rim for any last drop. The taste was immediately wrong. A rank, foul stench hit him, acrid and earthy. Someone had smeared black pig feces inside the neck.
"Urk."
Li Yun gagged, his stomach heaving, and vomited a thin, bitter liquid onto the ground, his body convulsing.
A WeChat notification chimed on the phone in his pocket. He wiped his mouth with a trembling hand and pulled it out. It was a message from Jing Shu, just delivered: "How you treated me as a child is how I'll return it to you."
His memories unlocked in a sickening rush. Li Yun finally remembered how he and a few friends, years ago, once snatched Jing Shu's AD milk from her schoolbag and stuffed the bottle with live ants before handing it back, snickering. When Jing Shu opened it, ants poured out over her hands. She fell back in shock, crying, and skinned her knee on the playground asphalt.
Was everything paying him back today? No. It was tenfold retribution, precise and remembered.
"AD milk, such a rush of memories," Jing Shu thought, eyes half closed as the car moved down the road, the first true rays of sun hitting the cracked asphalt. A small, cold satisfaction settled in her chest.
…
Back home, the familiar walls a relief, they gave another pig to Jing Lai to settle the debt. Jing Lai refused to accept it no matter what, her hands up in protest. After a long discussion around the kitchen table, they decided to keep the pig at the villa in its pen and slaughter it when needed so everyone could share the meat, a communal asset.
Jing Lai felt grain was too tight now, the pressure constant. She and her daughter were already embarrassed to eat dinner at Jing Shu's house most nights, though invited. Even though they had bought more than a dozen sacks of rice earlier in the year and Third Aunt's husband had been bringing braised meats from the slaughterhouse where he worked for a while, it still felt like freeloading. Taking back the pig, even shared, would balance the books a little in her mind.
Wu You'ai hurried over later that day, her face serious. "Need anything lately?" she asked, getting straight to the point.
Jing Shu thought for a moment, looking at their stocked shelves, and shook her head. "Not right now."
"If you need anything, tell me. I'll ask my mentor to get it." The offer was genuine, a line to hidden resources.
They also phoned Eldest Uncle about the remaining pig, planning a day to deliver it, the call brief and practical. Just then, as if timed, chaotic Wu City finally announced new policies via the official emergency broadcast system: free food would be supplied, a central distribution.
On the 13th, the message appeared. Wang Qiqi posted in the community group, the text formal: "@Everyone, the government has canceled water truck deliveries. Every morning at 5 a.m., you can go to new government distribution points to collect a day's ration of cooked food and water.
Each person can collect one portion with an ID and facial scan. The news says free cooked food will continue until the artificial sun is completed. The nearest point to our community is still 7 kilometers away at the old Ai Jia Supermarket parking lot.
But @Everyone, note the rule: anyone with recorded robbery or homicide won't be eligible to collect. From now on, if you commit robbery or murder and get caught and recorded, you'll never receive food again. The unrest in Wu City stops here."