I’ll Butcher Pigs to Support You! 6

Chapter 6

After they returned home, Shen Xizhi didn’t speak to Song Yugui again. She deliberately kept her distance, quietly taking up a broom to sweep the house inside and out before shouldering a basket and heading out.

Song Yugui didn’t notice. She was still preoccupied with how to earn money.

After mulling it over for a long time, she was filled only with despair. She was truly unsuited for transmigration. She didn’t know how to do anything. What other transmigrated woman was like her, only skilled in office work and butchering?

Other people would transmigrate and invent all sorts of little gadgets, living prosperous lives. She transmigrated and had already forgotten most of the one skill she could actually use in ancient times.

If she had known, she would have listened to her father and learned to butcher properly. Butchering actually paid well, but she had felt it didn’t suit a beautiful woman’s image and had stubbornly refused. Forget it. She would go to town tomorrow and look for some odd jobs first.

Lost in thought, she decided to get up and go for a walk. It was her first time in this place; she needed to get her bearings.

“Xizhi, I’m going for a walk,” Song Yugui called out from inside the house. She was surprised when she got no response.

Stepping outside into the empty courtyard, she realized that Shen Xizhi must have gone out too.

She was home alone.

Although she didn’t know what the villain was out doing, she was sure it was something productive, unlike her.

This was the first time since yesterday’s dinner that Song Yugui had ventured into the courtyard. Looking out, she saw that their house was on a small slope, with several other houses nearby, all with smoke curling from their chimneys.

She squinted at them for a moment, then it suddenly occurred to her: they hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch.

Had Shen Xizhi gone out without eating?

Her plan to go for a walk was temporarily shelved. Song Yugui rummaged around the front hall, wanting to make a meal instead of just lying around waiting to be fed all day.

But after searching for a long time, all she found was a handful of wilted wild vegetables.

Looking at the green vegetables and remembering yesterday’s green-tinted congee, her heart sank. No wonder the woman was nothing but a bag of bones. How could anyone get fat drinking thin rice soup and eating wild grass every day?

Oh well, she would just have to endure it for now. Later, she would ask if there was any empty land around the house.

Shen Xizhi returned from afar with a basket of green grass on her back, only to see smoke rising from their own chimney. She froze, her first thought being, Is there a fire?

She hurried closer, only to see Song Yugui emerging with a bowl of rice soup.

She could actually start a fire and cook? Wasn’t she completely useless, unable to tell one grain from another?

Song Yugui saw her too. The corners of her mouth had just begun to lift when the persona that had been absent since last night suddenly possessed her again. She coughed into her fist and forced her expression to turn indifferent. “Where have you been? You’re only just getting back.”

Seeing her unsmiling face, Shen Xizhi’s bravado immediately weakened. She glanced at her furtively, inching her way into the courtyard. Only when she was four or five steps away did she speak softly, “I went to cut pig feed. I haven’t fed the pig yet.”

Song Yugui was surprised. “We have a pig?”

Hearing this question, the young woman’s delicate brows furrowed. Did she really drink herself stupid? she wondered.

But her verbal reply was still obedient. “Yes, we do. Almost every family in the village raises a pig.”

After a moment, she added hesitantly, “Wife used to sell pork in town, but you haven’t sold any in a long time, and you gave up the stall.”

She didn’t know if the other woman remembered this, as her mind seemed to be quite seriously damaged.

Of course, Song Yugui didn’t know. She was aghast and quickly asked, “Then why did I stop selling?”

Shen Xizhi bit her lip and lowered her head, enunciating each word carefully. “You said that selling meat was crude work, and you wanted to study to cultivate a refined temperament.”

Of course, she hadn’t studied in the end. She hadn’t done anything. After she stopped selling meat, she spent her days loafing around like a hooligan.

Was there a woman in a ten-li radius who wasn’t afraid of her?

Song Yugui: …

She didn’t need to ask to know what happened next.

She rubbed her forehead and finally couldn’t help but laugh, a bitter, self-deprecating laugh.

Is she insane? Giving up a good livelihood to live in poverty?

Watching her wife’s expression shift from cold to inexplicably amused, Shen Xizhi was so frightened she took two steps back, not daring to get any closer.

What’s wrong with her? Did she really injure her head? This is so scary. She’s not going to hit me, is she?

She was most afraid of being beaten. Her small, doe-like eyes were soft and timid, her long lashes trembling. She didn’t dare to look at her directly, only stealing quick glances before quickly lowering her head, like a thief.

Song Yugui’s expression changed a thousand times before settling into a sigh. “Forget it. Sit down first. We’ll talk about this later. I made some vegetable congee like you did yesterday, but I added a little salt. You should try it.”

Yesterday’s congee had been bland and unsalted, which was why it was so hard to swallow.

She had just had a taste of this one, and it was quite good, at least better than yesterday’s.

Shen Xizhi looked down at the two bowls of congee on the table. There was a surprising amount of rice, even in her bowl. The congee was cooked to the perfect consistency, not too thin and not too thick, and the fragrance of the rice wafted up to her nose.

But she felt a pang of regret. Hugging the basket of pig feed to her chest, her voice sounded glum. “I’ll go feed the pig first. You go ahead and eat, Wife. Don’t worry about me.”

Song Yugui was surprised. “What’s the rush to feed the pig? Sit down and eat first. The pig won’t starve to death.”

Shen Xizhi hesitated, torn and reluctant. On the verge of the other’s impatience, she finally nodded reluctantly. But she didn’t sit down right away. Instead, she went to the kitchen, got another small bowl, and poured out most of the congee from her own bowl.

“What are you doing?” Song Yugui asked, her face a question mark.

The young woman pressed her lips together, her eyes filled with unconcealed heartache as she looked at the bowl of congee. “I can’t eat that much.”

Song Yugui: …

No wonder she was as thin as a skeleton.

“You need to eat more to have strength. Look at you, you didn’t even cut as much pig feed as the others.”

Just then, a woman carrying a shoulder pole passed by the courtyard gate, both ends laden with pig feed. She had said it casually.

Who knew that the other woman, upon hearing this, would look at her as if she had seen a ghost, then quicken her pace. The two buckets of pig feed swayed back and forth as she quickly disappeared from their gate, dropping a few handfuls of feed on the ground.

…

Song Yugui gradually understood that the original owner was probably very disliked by the villagers, especially the women.

Shen Xizhi also glanced at the other woman’s pig feed. It was indeed much more than what she had brought back. It was a fact, but she still felt inexplicably unhappy. Her expression turned sullen, and she simply ignored her.

Song Yugui took a few sips of her congee and, hearing no response, realized she was being ignored. She looked up and saw her holding the bowl, her cheeks puffed out, looking like a wronged little wife who didn’t dare to speak up. She couldn’t help but laugh.

This laugh frightened the other woman. Shen Xizhi thought it was a laugh of extreme anger and quickly looked up, wanting to say something to salvage her momentary willfulness, but her face was caught and pinched.

Her sharp, goose-egg-shaped face had little flesh on it, just a little. She pinched it twice, found the feel unsatisfactory, and let go. “Eat. I’ll go cut some more later. You can just stay at home. By the way, do we have any medicine for injuries?”

Her mind had been foggy when she first transmigrated yesterday, and she hadn’t thought to treat her own injuries. Now that she remembered, she felt a pang of guilt.

Shen Xizhi didn’t know why she was suddenly asking about this, but as long as she wasn’t angry, it was fine. She nodded slightly. “We have safflower oil.”

After a moment’s thought, she added a concerned question, “Is Wife injured?”

She’s being so obedient, surely she won’t make anyone angry again, right?

Song Yugui finished the last of her congee and looked at the sky. She felt that cutting the pig feed could wait. “Go find it later,” she said. “I saw yesterday that your bruises haven’t faded. I’ll rub them for you.”

If bruises weren’t rubbed out, they would hurt for a long time. If they were, they would heal quickly.

“Ah, for… for me?” The little doe was startled.

The safflower oil in the house was usually for her. When she got injured, she would just endure it. Could she use medicine now?

“Yes. You eat first, then go get it. There’s no rush. Eat more. Don’t worry about saving food. I’ll go to town tomorrow to find a job and earn some money. I won’t let you go hungry.”

Shen Xizhi automatically ignored her talk of finding a job again. She had said it many times before, but had never actually done it, so she didn’t take it to heart. However, the fact that she was concerned about her injuries gave her a strange feeling. Her hands, holding the bowl, tightened, her beautiful, distinct knuckles turning slightly white.

“Mmm…” she replied softly, looking gentle and obedient.