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墨書 Inktalez
As Zhao Yang carried a large wild boar to the village entrance, the sun was setting, casting long shadows across the ground. The villagers were astonished to see such a small-framed boy managing to carry such a massive creature. Even his younger sister, Zhao Yu, who was playing in the mud by the river with some children, gaped at her brother as he skipped and hummed a tune while making his way home.
"Isn't that child just recovering from a serious illness?" one villager wondered aloud. "Indeed, I heard from Mu Tou's mother that Zhao Yang has been lying at home for two months. I haven't visited their house during the busy farming season. How could a child have such strength? My husband can't even lift a boar this size. Could it be that he's possessed?"
"Come on, that's just superstition. I heard from my husband that He Qing's man is from a martial arts family in Zhao County. He used to live there but was driven out for some reason and ended up in our village."
"Oh, so that's how it is! This boy must have learned martial arts from a young age to have such strength. Maybe when my son Big Zhuang grows up a bit more, I'll spend some money to send him to the city to learn some martial arts too."
The villagers had no idea what cultivation meant; they simply thought it referred to mundane martial skills. Zhao Yang was only focused on getting home quickly to make his mother happy and didn't pay attention to the gazes of others. The wild boar had delicious meat that could be sold in town if they couldn't finish it all, but unfortunately, its hide was too tough to fetch a good price like other animal skins. Otherwise, it could have provided extra income and eased his parents' burden.
Upon reaching his yard, Zhao Yang tossed the wild boar onto the ground and brushed off the dust from his shoulders, calling out, "Mother, come out and see what I've caught!"
There was no response from inside the house. Zhao Yang called out three or five more times but still received no answer. He muttered to himself, "Today is market day; according to logic, Mother should have delivered her embroidery work to the weaving shop in town yesterday and wouldn't be out now. Could she have gone visiting the neighbors?"
Thinking of this, Zhao Yang walked over to another fenced yard nearby and shouted, "Aunt Li! Aunt Li! Are you home?"
The woman tending her vegetable garden looked up upon seeing Zhao Yang and exclaimed, "It's Zhao Yang! I was just thinking about checking on you this morning. Your mother said you went playing on the back mountain; I thought I'd come see you tonight. Look at you, so lively! Kids recover quickly."
"Thank you for your concern, Aunt Li. Have you seen where my mother went? She's not home."
"She might have gone visiting someone else. Your mother took on two embroidery jobs by herself; it's not easy for her. You need to be more filial to her as you grow up!"
Hearing that his mother was doing the work of two people made Zhao Yang feel uneasy. Although he didn't know how to embroider, he understood that it required not only skill and vision but also patience and dedication—an exhausting endeavor. In his previous life, he had read a story about a powerful king who collected famous embroideries. Each time he acquired one from a renowned artist, he would secretly send someone to kill them so that his collection would be unique in the world until he had eliminated all famous embroidery masters. Eventually, he displayed these works in his palace and proclaimed that whoever could find something more beautiful would be rewarded: men would become high-ranking officials while women would be taken as consorts.
At that moment, a palace maid stood up and revealed that the queen of a small kingdom was not only the sole disciple of the most famous painter of her time but also the owner of the renowned embroidery house in the capital city. The maid had once served this queen and accidentally set fire to a masterpiece she was working on. Though she should have been executed for this mistake, the queen spared her life due to her years of service and merely banished her from the capital. Years later, she still remembered that piece called "Embroidered Rivers and Mountains." Upon hearing this, the king decided to invade the small kingdom unless its queen could replicate "Embroidered Rivers and Mountains" based on his kingdom's map within ten days.
With no choice left, the small kingdom's queen worked day and night to create an exquisite version of "Embroidered Rivers and Mountains," which ultimately led to her death from exhaustion.
Remembering this story and thinking about how hard his mother worked day and night for their family—earning deep wrinkles and strands of white hair by just over thirty—Zhao Yang couldn't help but clench his fists tightly.
At that moment, Zhao Yang happened to see Uncle Li San returning from the fields and asked, "Uncle Li San, have you seen my mother?"
The middle-aged man, Li San, wiped the sweat from his forehead and replied, "Oh, it's you, Zhao Yang. I hope you're feeling better now. Just a while ago, I saw your mother rushing towards town with two people. They looked like workers from the Rice Shop in Qinghe Town. When I asked what was going on, they ignored me."
Zhao Yang's heart sank at Li San's words. "Could something have happened to Dad at the Rice Shop?"
Before he could think further, his younger sister, Zhao Yu, had already returned home. The little girl spotted Zhao Yang standing at the neighbor's door and glanced at the Giant Pig in the yard before happily running towards it, shouting, "I want to eat meat! I want to eat meat!"
A dark line appeared on Zhao Yang's forehead; it seemed that his little sister found him less appealing than a pig. Looking at the wild boar that was supposed to be skinned and cooked tonight, he turned to Li San, who had entered the yard, and said, "Uncle Li San, since you've just finished working, would you like to have some pork for dinner?"
Li San chuckled, "In these times of poor harvests and with my family being so broke, where would I find silver to buy pork?"
"I happen to have a big wild boar in my yard. I hunted it this morning from the back mountain; it weighs about five or six hundred pounds. If you help me find a few people to skin it and put it in a pot to cook, not only will I guarantee you and Auntie can eat your fill of meat, but I'll also let you have half of a thirty-pound pig leg!"
"Wow! You may have trained in martial arts for a few years, but that's quite an exaggeration! Half a pig leg weighing thirty pounds? That pig must be bigger than half a house!"
"It's not that big, but it's close enough."
"Hey! If I call you fat, you get all defensive."
"You'll see for yourself when you come out."
"You little rascal! I'm just going out to see how big your wild boar really is. If it's just a newborn piglet, don't blame me if I get hungry and take it home to cook." With that, Li San set down his hoe and stepped outside. When he looked into Zhao Yang's yard, he was immediately shocked. "Goodness! It can't be true!" He had never seen such a large wild boar in his life and hurried towards Zhao Yang's house to see for himself.
When Li San saw the giant wild boar in Zhao Yang's yard, he couldn't help but glance back at Zhao Yang. Noticing that the boar had no wounds, only clear marks around its neck, he was taken aback and thought, "Could this kid have strangled it to death?" The realization struck him that this young man from the Zhao family was quite ruthless for his age. Without thinking, he changed his address to, "You’re quite accomplished for someone so young, my brother!"
Zhao Yang chuckled and replied, "Oh, come on, Uncle Li San, you flatter me. Just make sure to take care of the arrangements for the kid. Later, you can choose which part of the pig leg you want to cut. Gather three or five people to help out; anyone who comes to assist will not only get a meal tonight but also five pounds of pork to take home. I’ll head to the market in town to fetch my parents so they can enjoy some pork for dinner tonight."
"Sure thing, you go find your parents. Leave everything here to me," Li San said.
At that moment, Zhao Yu, the little girl in the house, ran over and said, "Brother, I want to go find Mother too."
Zhao Yang snapped back, "Go back inside and stay there; your hands are all dirty—don’t you know to wash them?" He then turned to Li San and added, "I’m sorry to trouble you with keeping an eye on my sister. Also, we don’t have much salt left at home, so please bring some when you cook the meat."
Li San waved his hand with a smile and said, "Alright then. There’s plenty to do. I’ve watched Yuer grow up; I won’t let her get hurt. Just don’t take too long; if you come back tomorrow morning and find all the pork gone, don’t blame me for not keeping an eye on it."
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