Chapter 27: Cockfighting
Zhou Wulang and the other three felt that Man Bao was really impressive and asked, “Man Bao, how did you figure it out?”
Zhou Liulang shyly said, “I’ve been trying to calculate it for a long time, but I couldn’t get the answer.”
Da Ya testified for him, “When we had four or five flower baskets left, Sixth Uncle started calculating, but he still hadn’t figured it out even after we finished weaving them all.”
Man Bao explained to them by counting on her fingers, “It’s very simple. There were twenty-four flower baskets in total, and each one cost five wen. Twenty of them would be exactly one hundred wen. Two baskets are ten wen, and four baskets are twenty wen. One hundred wen plus twenty wen is one hundred and twenty wen, right?”
Wu Lang and the others stared at her blankly and counted on their fingers for a long time, but still didn’t understand. “Why are twenty flower baskets one hundred wen?”
Man Bao explained matter-of-factly, “Because ten flower baskets are fifty wen.”
Wu Lang and the others became even more confused.
However, no matter what, they had earned a lot of money.
Wu Lang put all the money into a cloth bag used for storing sugar, felt it, and his face turned red with excitement. He had never touched so much money before.
When Liu Lang saw it, he also wanted to feel it. So the five of them took turns feeling the copper coins, and only then were they fully satisfied, saying, “Our family has money now.”
Wu Lang held the cloth bag close to his chest, and asked Man Bao, “Little Sister, what do you want to play? Tell Fifth Brother, and Fifth Brother will take you to play.”
Man Bao said, “I want to buy a big rooster.”
Wu Lang instinctively hugged the cloth bag tighter. “Why do you want to buy a big rooster?”
“To nourish Mother’s body,” Man Bao said with bright eyes. “Father said that Mother’s body is so weak because she suffered too much hardship in the past, so she needs to nourish her body to recover. Big roosters are nourishing.”
Wu Lang hugged the bag, feeling reluctant. “But a big rooster costs sixty-five wen. That’s too expensive.”
Da Ya and Er Ya also felt it was too expensive and nodded in agreement.
But Man Bao insisted. She felt that money was still easy to earn, and what could be more important than her mother’s health?
Wu Lang couldn’t argue with her, so he could only say, “Then we’ll buy a smaller one. Since it’s just for Mother to eat, she can’t finish such a big one in one meal anyway. A smaller one will be cheaper, and we can buy a few more.”
Man Bao thought he made sense. “Where else can we buy roosters?”
Of course, it was the same street they had just been to, where they sold all kinds of poultry and vegetables. But since Zhou Wulang rarely had the chance to come to the county town, he didn’t want to go back to that street. He glanced around and pointed ahead, saying, “Let’s look ahead. Maybe we can find a cheaper one.”
Everyone agreed.
Zhou Wulang held Man Bao’s hand and hugged the cloth bag tightly, while Zhou Liulang held one niece’s hand in each of his hands, and the two of them happily led everyone to play, carrying the backpacks on their backs.
It was Man Bao’s first time seeing so many people, and she was extremely excited. She wasn’t afraid of strangers at all and would squeeze her way into wherever there were crowds of people.
At first, it was still Zhou Wulang leading her, but soon it became Man Bao dragging Zhou Wulang along. Eventually, Zhou Wulang had to chase after her.
Zhou Liulang also had places he wanted to play, so after chasing them for a while, he got tired of it. After all, it was just one street; as long as they kept walking, they would run into each other eventually.
Da Ya and Er Ya didn’t want to chase after them either, so they happily followed Sixth Uncle and played behind them.
It was only Zhou Wulang who suffered. He had to worry about someone taking the money from his cloth bag, worry about Man Bao getting lost, and most importantly, he wanted to play too!
Man Bao kept running and stopping as she followed the crowd, not knowing where she had ended up. She saw a group of adults gathered around shouting loudly, and she became very curious. She squeezed her way through the crowd and into the center.
Zhou Wulang followed behind, sweating profusely. “Man Bao, Man Bao, don’t run off…”
Carrying the backpack made it difficult for him to squeeze through, so he could only jump up and down to see what was happening inside. When he saw what was going on, his face turned pale with fright. He didn’t care about anything else anymore, dropped the backpack, hugged the cloth bag tightly, and pushed his way in.
As soon as Man Bao squeezed in, she saw two chickens in the center, their feathers standing on end as they clucked and fought each other. Man Bao was stunned. What was so interesting about two chickens fighting?
But the adults watching were very excited, clenching their fists and shouting loudly, “Peck it, peck it, harder, peck its eyes, peck its eyes… oh no!”
Man Bao looked at the excited adults on the left, then at the disappointed adults on the right, feeling completely bewildered. “Ke Ke, what are they doing? Should I help and persuade the two chickens not to fight?”
The system said, “It’s best if the host doesn’t get involved. This is probably the legendary cockfighting.”
Man Bao curiously asked, “What is cockfighting?”
“A form of gambling where two chickens fight each other. The owner of the losing chicken loses the bet.” The system briefly explained the famous legends of cockfighting in history.
For example, a certain emperor was very fond of cockfighting, and someone spent a large sum of money to present him with a chicken, for which he was even scolded by a famous minister.
Man Bao watched curiously for a while. Finally, Zhou Wulang squeezed his way in, grabbed Man Bao, covered her eyes with his hand, and said, “Man Bao, who allowed you to come here? This is gambling. We can’t learn from Fourth Brother.”
Man Bao pulled his hand away from her eyes, just as the two chickens in the ring had determined a winner. One of them had been pecked in the eyes until it was blinded and was now flapping its wings and clucking as it tried to flee. The other chicken, on the other hand, held its head up proudly and clucked triumphantly, just like Man Bao after doing something great.
The owner of the fleeing chicken, blinded and defeated, was so angry that he kicked the chicken to the ground. Then he took out a handful of silver from his pocket and threw it to the other person.
Man Bao’s eyes widened as she looked at that person, then at the chicken, deep in thought.
Zhou Wulang was worried when he saw that expression on his little sister’s face and tried to pull her away.
But Man Bao refused to leave. “I won’t be as silly as Fourth Brother. What’s so fun about watching chickens fight? It’s not like they’re people fighting.”
Zhou Wulang was stunned. “You… you want to watch people fight instead?”
Man Bao curiously asked, “Is there really a way to gamble by watching people fight?”
Zhou Wulang had heard about it from Fourth Brother, but dared he tell Man Bao?
Zhou Wulang shook his head repeatedly. “No!”
Man Bao said “Oh” and broke free from his grip. “I’ll go talk to that brother.”
With that, she rushed toward the man who had just lost money gambling and was looking displeased. Man Bao was so small that she only came up to his thighs.
Although the man looked unhappy, he wouldn’t take it out on a child. Frowning, he shouted at the crowd, “Whose child is this? Hurry up and take them away!”
Zhou Wulang had already caught up and was trying to drag Man Bao away, but she pushed against Fifth Brother while calling out to the man, “Brother, don’t you want to buy a rooster? A very beautiful rooster.”
The man looked down at Man Bao with a furrowed brow. “You have chickens at home?”
Man Bao nodded vigorously. “I saw a particularly beautiful big rooster. Its feathers were reddish-black, its eyes bright and shiny. Its comb was straight and vibrant red – so gallant, so handsome!”
