Chapter 56 Hitting Where It Hurts

The next morning, Young Master Wu, who had already displayed a pig’s head at his meat stall, eagerly anticipated the arrival of Bao Hande’s daughter. Yet, as the morning wore on, she was nowhere to be seen.

From time to time, customers pointed at the pig’s head, asking to buy it, but Wu repeatedly declined, saying it was already reserved.

In his heart, however, he thought: If Little Bao does not come this morning, she probably won't come in the afternoon either. It will be soon enough to deal with it then.

Just as he was repeatedly guessing whether Little Bao would come or not, a pretty young woman appeared before his stall—the very same captivating girl who had visited the day before.

Wu remembered what Aunt Liu, the matchmaker, had told him: she was indeed Bao Hande’s daughter.

At that moment, Little Bao looked at the pig’s head resting on the meat stall and asked, "Ah! I’ve already given you a ten-yuan deposit. How much more do I need to add? I’ll pay you."

"Little Bao," Wu greeted her warmly.

She looked surprised and asked, "How do you know my surname is Bao?"

Wu smiled and said, "Don't ask about that." With that, he pulled a ten-yuan bill from his pocket and handed it back to her. "Little Bao, I don't want your ten yuan. I'm giving you this pig’s head as a gift."

"How can that be?" Little Bao said, pushing back the ten yuan he was trying to thrust upon her. "If you don't take the money, I won't take the pig’s head."

Panic flickered in Wu's heart. Fearing his attempt to curry favor was failing, he quickly said, "Alright, alright! I'll calculate it at wholesale price—one hundred and fifty yuan in total."

Little Bao handed him another one hundred and forty yuan, took the pig’s head, and inspected it closely. She noticed that fine hairs still remained around its snout, eyes, and ears.

Glancing at a sharp, gleaming razor lying on the long counter of the meat stall, she asked Wu, "Could you help me shave the hair off the pig's head?"

"Certainly, just a moment." As Wu spoke, a customer walked up, pointed at the pork on his stall, and politely asked him to chop two catties.

Realizing how busy he was, Little Bao changed her mind and said, "I shouldn't take up your time and affect your business. Can you just lend me that razor? I'll bring it back to you in a few days."

"Of course! Take it." Wu briskly picked up the razor and handed it to her. "You don't need to return it. It's a gift."

"Then thank you," Little Bao said with a smile. "After I use it, I'll still bring it back to you. You know my name, don't you? I am Bao Furong. If I don't return it to you, you can come looking for me."

"What are you saying? I can afford to give away a knife," Wu said with a beaming smile. "My name is Wu Haoshuang. Everyone doing business in Yulin Town, and even many customers, know me. I'm not that petty."

"Chop the meat for me, or I'm leaving!" A customer grew impatient, casting a sideways glance. Meat stalls were everywhere—where couldn't one buy meat?

"Right away, coming up!" Fearing he might lose the sale, Wu Haoshuang swiftly used his cleaver to hack a piece of fresh pork from the cut the customer had specified, placed it on the electronic scale at the side of the stall, and found it was precisely two catties. The customer paid and left.

Standing to the side, Bao Furong praised, "Wu Haoshuang, people always say you don't need a scale to chop meat—that whatever weight a customer asks for, you can chop it right on the mark without the slightest error. Seeing it for myself today, it's truly better than hearing about it a hundred times. I'm truly enlightened; your reputation is well-deserved."

"Oh, come on, really!" Flattered by Bao Furong’s praise, Wu Haoshuang was clearly thrilled and wanted to chat a bit more. However, Bao Furong picked up the palm-fiber loop attached to the pig's head, flashed a bright smile, made a parting gesture, and turned to leave.

She had originally intended to ask Wu Haoshuang for a bag or something to wrap the pig’s head in, but seeing that he had nothing suitable on hand, and unwilling to trouble him further and disrupt his business, she dropped the idea.

Wu Haoshuang watched as she walked to the corner of the vegetable market, where her mesmerizing figure vanished from sight. While still immersed in the thrill of their conversation, Wu Haoshuang suddenly calmed down, an inexplicable sense of loss washing over him.

At that moment, Aunt Liu somehow reappeared before the meat stall and asked with a smile, "Little Bao was just here, wasn't she, Xiao Wu?"

Wu Haoshuang nodded.

Aunt Liu continued, "I saw her from afar talking with you for quite a while, and you seemed to be getting along rather well. Did she take a pig's head and leave?"

Wu Haoshuang nodded again.

Aunt Liu pressed on, "Did you take her money?"

"I did." A wry smile appeared on Wu Haoshuang's face. "I didn't want to take her money, but she insisted on paying. She made it clear that if I didn't accept it, she wouldn't take the pig's head."

"Oh dear, you shouldn't have taken her money. She was just saying that; if you had genuinely insisted on giving it to her, she wouldn't necessarily have refused."

"I suppose I can just give her another pig's head next time."

"Didn't you give her anything at all this time?"

"To be honest... she borrowed a razor to shave the hair off the pig's head and said she'd return it in a few days. I told her she didn't need to return it and that she could just keep it."

"That's no good. Giving someone a knife as a gift is bad luck."

Aunt Liu shook her head, feeling that Wu Haoshuang giving a knife to Bao Furong was ominous, though she kept that thought to herself.

Instead, she stated her intentions: "I will pick a day to visit Little Bao's home and sound her out to see what kind of impression she has of you."

Wu Haoshuang felt that Bao Furong's impression of him must be decent, since she had even complimented him. Yet he kept this feeling to himself, merely smiling quietly and listening as Aunt Liu excitedly outlined what he should do next.

"Next time, I'll arrange for the two of you to meet somewhere," she said. "If she fancies you, you should give her a token of affection—a necklace, a bracelet, a ring, anything will do. Just make sure you never give her a knife..."

"She was the one who borrowed the knife this time, I couldn't help that," Wu Haoshuang argued. Even as he spoke, he realized that Bao Furong borrowing a knife—or rather, his gifting one to her—did indeed feel rather inauspicious. A wave of discouragement washed over him.

When Bao Furong returned to her braised meat shop in the city, she braised the pig's head, but her heart remained heavy and unsettled. She repeatedly called Wu Zhenri's phone, but it was switched off.

Filled with intense anger and nowhere to vent it, she closed the shop door, hailed a taxi once more, and headed out of the city toward Mianhua Village in Mianhua Town.

The taxi stopped right outside Wu Zhenri's front door. Before Bao Furong even stepped out of the car, old man Wu Xiaofeng spotted her and hurried over. "Little Bao," he called out, "you're looking for Zhenri, aren't you? He just got married and went on his honeymoon with his new bride. If you need him for something, you'll have to wait a bit longer."

"How much longer?" Bao Furong asked.

"Hard to say, maybe ten days or half a month. How about this? Let me take down your phone number. When he gets back, I'll let him know you called and ask him to return your call."

"He already knows my number. Just tell him to call me back."

While Bao Furong and Wu Xiaofeng discussed Wu Zhenri's whereabouts, Gong Yawen, who was busy with chores nearby, heard every word clearly.

Seeing that Bao Furong had returned, Gong drew closer and said, "Little Bao, you must have some urgent matter with Zhenri. Can't you tell us? When he gets back, we can pass the message along."

These words seemed to strike a raw nerve in Bao Furong. A surge of agitation washed over her, and she pulled a slip of paper containing her gynecological examination results from her handbag. Her eyes turned red, threatening to tears.

Choking back her emotions, she glared at the two elderly people and said, "Your son is utterly despicable! He cohabited with me and promised to marry me, yet he avoided me, came back home to marry another woman, and went off on his honeymoon! It makes my blood boil!"

The old couple remained silent. In their hearts, they knew their son had genuine feelings for Little Bao; the problem was that Little Bao had worked in the red-light district and had a tarnished reputation. It was they, as parents, who had forced their son and Little Bao apart.

Of course, "forced apart" wasn't entirely accurate. Their son had been betrothed in the cradle since childhood. Who could have known that the boy would be so disobedient as to find another girl outside? And finding another girl would have been one thing, but he had chosen a girl who had once worked as a prostitute in the red-light district, bringing shame upon the family name. No respectable family could ever accept such a thing.

Wu Xiaofeng stroked his snow-white stubble and said to Bao Furong, "Little Bao, my son is already married. If things were like the old days where he could take multiple wives and concubines, we could discuss it. But now, under a monogamous system, marrying more than one is illegal, so there's no way around it. Since the rice is already cooked, I advise you to let my son go!"

"No way!" Bao Furong's mouth turned down as she fought back tears, her eyes welling up with aggrieved fury.

Seeing that old man Wu Xiaofeng remained silent and seemed entirely unimpressed by her threat, Gong Yawen chimed in, "Child, you need to look on the bright side. You're so pretty; you can easily find someone far better than our Xiaofeng."

Bao Furong ignored her words entirely. She waved the slip of paper bearing her medical results right in front of old man Wu Xiaofeng's face and demanded, "Do you know this? I've had a medical checkup, and I'm carrying your son's flesh and blood in my belly. If your family refuses to acknowledge this and handle it properly, I'm taking this to court!"

"What did you say?" Wu Xiaofeng was momentarily stunned.

Bao Furong repeated herself. Wu Xiaofeng's mind raced. He figured that whether the child Bao Furong was carrying was truly his son's was highly questionable, given that this woman was loose morals and had likely been involved with multiple men.

Hearing this, Gong Yawen grew nervous. Not knowing what to say, she could only pace back and forth across the courtyard.

At that moment, the sound of a car horn pierced the air, followed by the taxi driver urging, "Are you leaving or not? If we stay any longer, there'll be an extra charge."

Bao Furong turned her head and shouted, "Coming now!"

Before leaving, she reiterated to the old couple, "If this matter isn't resolved properly, I will sue!"

"Little Bao, don't rush to sue," Wu Xiaofeng placated her, trying to stabilize the situation. "When Zhenri gets back, I'll have him come find you and sort this out properly."

Bao Furong nodded, slipped the medical report back into her handbag, wiped away her tears with a tissue, and got into the taxi.

As the taxi drove out of the courtyard, the old couple began to discuss the matter, realizing their son had stirred up a massive trouble.

Gong Yawen said, "If Little Bao really is carrying our Wu family's bloodline, shouldn't we let her give birth to it?"

"The child hasn't even been born yet—how do we know it's our Wu family's bloodline?" Wu Xiaofeng retorted. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and continued, "Even if it is, we can't keep it. Little Bao was a whore; the seed she bears is no good. It's best to have our son trick Little Bao into getting an abortion. That way, the matter can be settled once and for all, cutting through the mess and avoiding even bigger trouble down the road."

Wu Xiaofeng flicked a clump of ash off his cigarette, as if the trouble his son had brought upon them could be flicked away just as effortlessly.