Chapter 105: Plans for the Next Step (Second Update)

“Forget it?”

Hou San’s face was as calm as still water. He had truly drunk a great deal of water—unclean river water—and now, leaning weakly against a large stone by the riverbank, he said with faint strength, “Let the snake bite us, that’s one thing, but just let ten thousand yuan go? Do you know how many piglets you can buy with that money?”

“Twenty! I’ve already calculated that...” Zhu Dachang rubbed his round belly and rested his head on the other side of the stone, speaking gently to persuade him. “Third Brother, you always say a prime minister’s belly can hold a boat. Our bellies now, forget about holding a boat, they could even row a cruise ship around. That girl didn’t seem to have any ill intentions; maybe she was really scared and panicked, which made her release the snake to bite us. She’s probably regretting it now. As for the money, if it’s gone, then it just wasn’t meant for us to keep. That’s fate.”

“You’re quite open-minded,” Hou San rolled his eyes and scooped water from a plastic bottle he had picked up by the roadside, handing it to Zhu Dachang. He sighed deeply. “Fine, since you put it that way, I’ll let it slide for your sake. No need to quibble with that girl. Brothers are like limbs; women are like clothes. We can’t ruin our brotherhood because of a woman... Come on! Keep drinking!”

“Drink more?” Zhu Dachang grimaced. “Third Brother, if I drink any more, my belly will burst. If I gently shake it now, there’s a clanging sound inside.”

“They say half a bottle of water makes a jingle, which means your belly’s not full yet!” Hou San patted Zhu Dachang’s shoulder. “If you don’t want to die, you have to drink! I learned a bit from the village barefoot doctor before—water can neutralize any poison. As long as you drink enough, the snake venom in our bodies will naturally heal without medicine! I know that snake’s origin—it kills within seven steps! Its venom is potent, but we’ve been hopping all along the way, not wasting a single step. We have plenty of time. Drink more water to flush it out.”

Zhu Dachang frowned and gulped down another bottle of river water, staring at the black mud at the bottom of the plastic bottle, blinking. “Third Brother, will drinking this water give me diarrhea?”

Hou San pursed his lips and looked at a worn-out shoe floating in the river, his face turning a little green. “It’s unclean, but drinking it won’t make you sick. If it causes diarrhea, that’s even better—it means you’ll flush the poison out clean.”

Zhu Dachang vaguely said, “Oh,” and sprawled out on the ground, listless. “Third Brother, I’m a bit sleepy. I’ll rest my eyes for a while...”

“No sleeping!” Hou San shouted. “You must get through this. Now... I’ll tell you about our next plan to boost your spirits.”

Zhu Dachang slapped his cheek, forcing his eyelids open. “Third Brother... go ahead... I’m listening...”

“Good! When others fail in business, there’s a term called ‘reviewing the game.’ Today, we’ll do the same!” Hou San lay on the big stone, pressing hard on his belly to spit out the river water as he spoke slowly. “Before, we failed because we had no plan. This time, we had a plan, but the direction was wrong, and on top of that, we trusted a woman’s words by mistake, which led to our downfall... That’s why Zhang Wuji’s mother said you can’t trust pretty women, and even less so those with dark complexions. Looks reflect the heart; a dark face means a dark heart...”

“Third Brother, she didn’t actually have a dark complexion—just dark circles under her eyes. Her skin was quite fair.”

“Do you think the eye sockets aren’t part of the face? Partial darkness is still darkness! Enough about her. Seriously, after some thought, we have to stick to the technical route. Acting like we’re collecting tolls on the road doesn’t suit us, and the profits are low...”

Listening to Hou San’s rambling, Zhu Dachang occasionally chimed in, his gaze drifting toward their hometown, Elm Willow Village, his thoughts soaring.

Looking up, he saw the sun but not Elm Willow; the sun was near, but Elm Willow was far away. Actually, Zhu Dachang saw nothing, but he knew there was a woman waiting for him there.

He remembered the afternoon they first met—the woman standing in the elm and willow grove, smiling with spring in her eyes, speaking her name in a voice as melodious as an oriole’s: Zhang Cuiflower, Elm Willow’s Zhang Cuiflower. Such a beautiful name, Zhu Dachang etched it firmly in his heart.

When pigs root in cabbage, they keep their heads low; people are the same. That day, from start to finish, Zhu Dachang kept his head low but secretly stole glances at Cuiflower for hours. He kept wondering how a girl could be so beautiful—round face, round waist, round eyes like lightbulbs.

Lightbulbs bring brightness; at that moment, Zhang Cuiflower’s eyes brought light to Zhu Dachang’s life.

Since then, Zhu Dachang followed closely behind her—helping her plow the fields, feeding pigs together, counting raindrops leaking from the roof. Every day, Zhang Cuiflower teased him as a fat pig, and Zhu Dachang would straighten up and proudly declare, “I am Zhu Dachang, the chubby butcher from Elm Willow Village’s Milk-Ditch.”

“Pah, you’re just a pretty face with no substance!”

Zhu Dachang still remembered the playful yet pitiful tone in Cuiflower’s voice. He had thought they could be together forever, only to realize some things are as fleeting as grass and trees in autumn.

Cuiflower had been a widow for three years, finally ready to remarry. Her lazy and gluttonous mother had arranged a match for her with the village fool, Wang Mazi.

Wang Mazi, as a child, went with other village kids to the mountain to fetch bird eggs. When he jumped down from a tree with a big step, he hit his head and injured his testicles. The respected barefoot doctor gave him a folk remedy of eating raw loaches, but it didn’t cure him—so it was regretfully declared that Wang Mazi’s manhood was lost forever.

“Cuiflower is already a widow—I can’t let her live a life of lonely widowhood again!”

Zhu Dachang mustered courage and sought out Hou San, offering all his money and begging Hou San to devise a plan to save both him and Cuiflower. Because this time, if Cuiflower really married Wang Mazi, it wouldn’t be the groom who died on the wedding night, but the remarried bride.

Hou San smoked through the entire night. The next day, he rented a car in town, bought a bunch of gifts, and took Zhu Dachang to Cuiflower’s mother’s house. He knelt down with a thud, kowtowed several times, then pounded his chest, promising to bring Zhu Dachang back home in glory within a year.

After counting the money in Hou San’s red envelope, Cuiflower’s mother finally smiled broadly and praised Zhu Dachang as a good son-in-law.

That night, during a storm with thunder and lightning, Cuiflower walked into Zhu Dachang’s earthen house soaking wet. They laughed together under the blanket all night.

The next day, Zhu Dachang left Elm Willow Village with Hou San, determined to fight with all his might. He didn’t look back as he left because he knew the farther he went from Cuiflower, the closer he was to seeing her again.

It was still spring then, and now another spring was about to come.

Sunlight shone on his face but carried no warmth. Lying on the stone, Zhu Dachang felt Hou San’s voice growing distant, fading almost to silence. At that moment, he suddenly felt so tired and wanted to close his eyes and sleep deeply.

Slap!

Hou San smacked the back of Zhu Dachang’s head, irritable. “I told you not to sleep! Did you just ignore me?”

“Third Brother...” Zhu Dachang shot his eyes open and smiled sheepishly. “I’m not sleeping, just resting my eyes a bit...”

Hou San rolled his eyes and spat on the stone. “Nonsense! I even heard you snoring... If you really weren’t asleep, tell me what I just said.”

Zhu Dachang smiled foolishly and briefly said, “Next step plan.”

“What plan?” Hou San glared at him coldly. “If you get it wrong, you’re banned from eating gaga for ten days.”

Zhu Dachang pinched the fat on his belly and quickly answered, “I know, I know... Tonight, 10:30 p.m., East View Street, rob the jewelry store!”

Hou San nodded, pulling out an invitation card for a newly opened jewelry store from his pocket. He chuckled, “If we’re going to do this, we have to do it big. Small-time stuff won’t get us anywhere. The goods in the jewelry store should be real. This time, I’m going to hold my head high and wipe the slate clean!”

Zhu Dachang saw the excitement on Hou San’s face and smiled faintly, shouting along, “Wipe the slate clean!”

Just then, a mother and daughter passed by the roadside. The little girl, with braided pigtails, pointed at Hou San and called out to her mother, “Mom, look! There’s a turtle on the rock spitting!”

The young mother tapped her daughter’s head and scolded, “Don’t talk nonsense, that’s obviously a bastard!” She glanced down at the red invitation card in her hand and hurried on with her daughter. “Come on... Your unfamiliar aunt’s new store is having a grand opening today. We’re going to visit a relative and maybe find your father, whom you’ve never met!”