Chapter 41: An Equal Split, Very Fair
"I made an agreement with Doctor Lu yesterday. I’d ask him to help me sell the herbs once I found them, and he promised he would. He’s a doctor, so not only does he know about medicinal herbs, he’s also familiar with the pharmacies in town. He can definitely get a good price for them. If we tried to sell them ourselves, we probably wouldn’t get as much."
Uncle Hu nodded. "You’re right, that makes sense. Doctor Lu is a good man. If he says he’ll help, he’ll definitely help. Zhi, I can’t believe you were able to think of all this, especially after what happened yesterday. You’re really something else."
Bai Zhi grinned. "It was just a spur-of-the-moment idea. Please don’t praise me, Uncle Hu. It’ll go straight to my head."
After another round of laughter, Bai Zhi placed the wild ginseng back in the basket. She turned to Uncle Hu. "Uncle Hu, even though I was the one who dug up this wild ginseng, I never would have found it without Hu Feng’s help. I might have even lost my life in those mountains. So I’ve decided that whatever we sell it for, our two families should split the money fifty-fifty. What do you think?"
Uncle Hu was never one to take advantage of others. He immediately waved his hands in refusal. "Absolutely not. This wild ginseng is incredibly valuable, not some common item. We couldn’t possibly take half. That would be too great a loss for you."
Zhao Lan chimed in, "Brother Hu, you’re treating us like strangers now. If Hu Feng hadn’t protected her today, she would have been killed by that poisonous snake. Forget about finding any wild ginseng! If you ask me, giving you half isn’t even enough."
Uncle Hu looked to Hu Feng. "What do you think?"
Hu Feng looked nonchalant, his gaze sweeping coolly over Bai Zhi. "Fifty-fifty. It’s fair. We’ll do it that way."
Now that Hu Feng had spoken, Uncle Hu no longer objected. He smiled. "Alright then. Our two families will split it, half and half."
The thought that they would soon be getting fifty taels of silver made Uncle Hu’s heart bloom with joy. He had never seen so much money in his entire life. How could he not be thrilled?
The four of them rested for a bit before finishing the work in the fields together. With the day still young, they quickly packed up and headed home.
As they reached the entrance to the village, Bai Zhi pulled Hu Feng along with her to Doctor Lu’s house. ’I can’t risk taking the wild ginseng home right now,’ she thought. ’If I run into any of those awful people from the Bai Family, I’ll never be able to keep it safe.’
"Uncle Hu, if you have a moment later, could you dress that big gray rabbit? I’ll make braised rabbit for everyone tonight!" Bai Zhi called back, turning around after taking a few steps.
Uncle Hu readily agreed. He watched Bai Zhi and Hu Feng walk off into the distance before he and Zhao Lan started toward home.
——
「The Bai Family Home」
The old matriarch and Liu were sitting in the shade of the rear courtyard, cooling off and chatting, when they heard a stir in the front yard. It sounded like the voices of Bai Dazhu and Bai Erzhu. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo immediately tossed aside their cattail fans and dashed to the front yard to welcome the great heroes of the Bai Family.
"Dazhu, Erzhu, you’re back? Where’s the white flour? Bring it over! If we start the dough now, we can still have steamed buns for dinner." The old matriarch yelled to her sons the moment she entered the courtyard, her voice deliberately loud and clear, as if she was afraid the rest of the village might not hear her.
Eating steamed buns was a luxury few in the village could afford. Now that Dazhu was bringing home a free bag of white flour, she naturally had to let the entire village know and show off how capable her sons were.
But who could have known that when she finally stood still in the courtyard and got a clear look at her two sons, her booming voice would die in her throat.
Her sons’ clothes were torn to tatters, their faces bruised black and blue. Dried blood caked the corners of their mouths, and their hair was a complete mess. They looked as if they had just fled a catastrophe.