"Wife, I want to eat meat” 《娘子，我要吃肉》Chapter 60

Zhuozhou extended for hundreds of li¸ there were around ten other counties surrounding it, before it there was River Wu, behind it there was a range of mountains. Zhuozhou was in the middle of the mountain range, at first it was established reliant on the mountains, reliant on the mountains for food, because of its particular geographical location it became the 

biggest relay station for post horses in the surrounding several hundred li, providing board and lodging for travelling merchants, incessantly building more and more before experiencing a century flood, a third of the town was covered in water.

Shengzu had a son good at building towns, he was sent to Zhuozhou, suddenly inspired to use the mountain to fill in the river, he moved the entire Zhuozhou back a few tens of li, flattening the back mountain by excavation, the mud mounded into several tens of zhang[1] to become a large construction, the river water in effect extradited into a moat, then following tens of several years of changes, Zhuozhou will regain its flourish, the surrounding counties and fields will gradually increase. If it was common rainfall then it’s fine, but if the Heavens didn’t care, and carry on the rainstorm for another half a month, the moat blocked up with silt would be ineffective unable to clear the way and would overflow into the outskirts of the town, apart from the part of Zhuozhou above ground, the surrounding town and fertile lands would be submerged by the converged attack of the moat and River Wu dam.

The court allocated funds to build dams every year, and Zhuozhou’s defence was the local officials business, and required a large amount of money to be spent.

Originally there was no problem for many years, who knew a great construction, would over a long period of time also become weak. Over a night, a gap in the dam was forced open, the moat level rose up, the victims flocked and arrived wanting to enter into the city, finally they were stopped outside the city.

Xia Ling Mei had still not entered the boundaries of Zhuozhou, and was already unable to move a single step.

She did not travel by herself, rather disguising herself she followed along with the disaster relief supplies from the court.

After all she was a woman, although she travelled the Jianghu with a low profile, not daring to show her face in public with great fanfare. Wang Yun Feng went to the disaster relief, it was an imperial decree, as a wife and mother she ought to quietly and peacefully stay at the residence, waiting for her husband to return safely. In history, there had not been an official sent away on an imperial affair bringing their wife and child along, otherwise it would hinder the official, and would make it easier to be denounced.

Wang Yun Feng was an imperial censor, it was right and proper for him to report others, but if he was reported by others, then it was an enormous mockery.

Xia Ling Mei disguised herself as a common Jianghu woman, following behind the imperial procession for the entire journey, occasionally able to run into other hired bodyguards escorting the procession. Apart from Beiding city, there were other common people acting on their own initiative from the other places around Zhuozhou donating goods, funds from benevolent people were escorted to the disaster areas by hired bodyguards. Furthermore daring women of the Jianghu also gathered together from far and near, wanting to do their part for the stricken region.

No matter what, the people of the Jianghu delivering goods were not controlled by the officials, the corruption would be less, even more things would be able to reach the victims’ hands.

“Tonight we can only spend the night on the road, there’s more than ten li to the next town, we can’t rush there before the sun sets.” The person who spoke was the hired bodyguards second manager Zhuang Hei Zi. His name made Xia Ling Mei think of another man with the same surname.

Xia Ling Mei sat on her horseback looking into the distance, the front of the cart loaded with goods could not be seen. Ahead someone had already lead the cart to the roadside to stop for a bit, not long after there were few smokes rising from kitchen chimneys.

Zhuang Hei Zi had joined the process a few days before escorting goods, seeing Xia Ling Mei by herself lingering at the back he felt a bit more need to take care of her. Outside, even a woman of the Jianghu could easily find protection, the uncouth fellows of the hired bodyguards were for the most part willing to lend a hand. None of them could tell, that amongst the imperial procession there were shadow guards of the Wang family mixed in at the rear.

Xia Ling Mei naturally would not go to find Wang Yun Feng empty handed, before she left she had raised some funds from the Xia family relatives, bought some medicinal ingredients to bring with. Such heavy rain, the foodstuff was windswept and battered by rain, and it wasn’t sure how much would reach the stricken region. Foodstuff was easy to buy, but not necessarily the medicinal ingredients.

Zhuang Hei Zi had a full beard, the hair on his head fluffy making him into a lion head, a pair of hatchets hanging behind his back from his shoulders, wearing a simple armour, appearing to be around thirty years old, bold and powerful man who assumes responsibility. After directing the hired bodyguards to arrange the goods, he dragged several clever young men with him to enter into the mountain forest at the side of the road to hunt for game. They were escorting husked rice, the heavy thick hemp bags had long been soaked through, they didn’t open a single bag.

The Wang family’s shadow guards saw Xia Ling Mei linger amongst the hired bodyguards, and they knew she was not prepared to come near, over these past few days they were already used to this mistress’ unconventional temper, leaving a few experienced people to continue to secretly protect Xia Ling Mei, the other people also busied themselves.

This time Zhuang Hei Zi caught a snake, and even scooped out the eggs from the snake nest, boiling it thoroughly in a pot before dividing it amongst some of the accompanying women.

“Brother Hei Zi is amazing?” A young lady from the side moved closer and whispered into her ear. Xia Ling Mei recognised her, supposedly she was the daughter of the boss of the hired bodyguards, she had come this time with everyone to gain knowledge and experience. In fact everyone was aware, gaining knowledge and experience was false, the truth was her chasing Zhuang Hei Zi.

Xia Ling Mei turned her head slightly, glancing at the great hero at the distant stream concentrating on peeling the snake’s skin, she laughed. Born of an influential family, compared to her preference of that type of elegant scholar like Wang Yun Feng, she imperceptibly always stayed away from those fools.

“I like him, tell me, would he like me?”

Xia Ling Mei peeled the shell off the snake egg, slowly taking a bite then saying: “Lady Luo is talented and good-looking, no one can ignore you.”

Lady Luo poked the fire with a stick, murmuring: “But he won’t look at me.”

Xia Ling Mei turned her head around, just in time to see Zhuang Hei Zi pull out things from the snake stomach, the two people regarded each other, Zhuang Hei Zi rinsed the things in his hand with water, wrapping it in clean leaves and walking over, delivering it to her: “Snake gall is great, don’t waste it Lady Wang.”

The young men who were roasting game over the fire lifted their heads, their eyes vaguely glancing over the two people. The Lady Luo at her side looked like she wanted to cry, Xia Ling Mei expressionlessly took the snake gale, smiling: “Thank you.”

Zhuang Hei Zi subtly released a breath, and before he could laugh loudly, he saw Xia Ling Mei place the leaves with snake gall lightly into Lady Luo’s palm: “Eat it, don’t waste everyone’s kind feelings.”

This was clearly especially given to Xia Ling Mei by Zhuang Hei Zi, when did it become everyone’s gift? This winning someone’s favour by using someone else’s property was too brazen, it was clearly a slap to Zhuang Hei Zi’s face.

Lady Luo looked left and right at both of their expressions, both cheeks a giddy red, not sure if it’s from the heat of the fire or she was angered by someone, directly pushing the thing to 

Xia Ling Mei: “As if I want it.”

Xia Ling Mei smiled: “Good food ought to be given to the most important person. If this was given to me by my husband, I wouldn’t push it away.” Exactly because Zhuang Hei Zi was an outsider, that’s why Lady Wang cannot accept it. Equally, ambiguously declare Lady Luo is actually the most important person here.

A double entendre, how can the pointless argument of these people of the Jianghu compare to those of the influential families. With a look it could be seen Lady Luo did not know well the way of the world, and did not dare to throw a fit in front of the person she liked, being looked at by everyone before she finally hesitatingly took a bite.

Xia Ling Mei did not look at Zhuang Hei Zi’s face, minding her own business she received a hare from the young men and slowly roasted it, in any case she had also travelled the Jianghu for so long, she hadn’t the slightest problem of looking after herself. Halfway through eating, another stick appeared across her eyes, on it was skewered half a snake. Xia Ling Mei sighed, swapping a hare leg for some snake meat with Zhuang Hei Zi, still not getting up, the hero uninterested said: “I don’t have any special meaning.”

Xia Ling Mei stared blankly, forcing a smile: “I…actually don’t really like snake meat, it’s too much effort to eat.”

Zhuang Hei Zi was angry from being rejected by her in quick succession, loudly saying: “Lady Wang is looking down upon this crude person.” And without waiting for Xia Ling Mei’s response, he viciously took a bite of the rabbit leg which had been roasted well, like he was biting into Xia Ling Mei’s flesh.

Xia Ling Mei raised her eyebrow, smiling yet not a smile: “How is the second manager a crude person, if you were truly a crude person you wouldn’t use me to reject Lady Luo’s ideas.” She rolled the snake meat around her hands, placing it on the fire to lick at: “Lady Luo likes you, if you don’t like her just reject her, there is no need to involve me this outsider.”

Zhuang Hei Zi paused: “You think I’m using you?”

Xia Ling Mei did not reply, only saying: “It’s not like I haven’t used by others before, this trifle matter just take it as my thanks to the second manager. It’s just that, don’t take things too far, Lady Luo is young, she can’t take too great a shock. Whatever it is, you should speak with her, she will understand.”

Zhuang Hei Zi scratched his beard, looking a bit like a wise man subconsciously pondering over it. Quite a while later, before he smiled and said: “Lady you have guessed wrong, I truly have no thought of using you. Even though I’m a crude person, I exceedingly understand my own thoughts.” As he spoke he turned to leave.

The moment he left, Lady Luo moved closer: “What were you talking about just now?”

Xia Ling Mei looked over the snake meat, handing it over into Lady Luo’s hands: “I’m not familiar with second manager, what can we talk about?”

“But brother Hei Zi didn’t look too happy.”

Xia Ling Mei gathered up the remains of the hare, walking to discard of it to one side, seeing Lady Luo’s unwilling to forgive appearance, she couldn’t help smile and say: “His bad mood has nothing to do with me.”

After that, the atmosphere inevitably was somewhat strange in the procession. Xia Ling Mei didn’t want to cause trouble, during the day she gradually increased the distance with Zhuang Hei Zi, and not approach Lady Luo, actually walking extremely close to the common people.

Again walking for a few more days, getting closer and closer to Zhuozhou, on a particular night, Lady Luo suddenly produced a loud cry, shrieking at Zhuang Hei Zi: “What is good about her?”

Xia Ling Mei was alarmed hearing these words, subconsciously beginning to move away, no longer willing to see that pair of person and horse.

At night when everyone was resting Zhuang Hei Zi would look for her in the densely packed crowd, she didn’t want to invite trouble, she simply ran to the middle of the Wang family shadow guards, they were also hidden amongst the soldiers of the imperial court, Zhuang Hei Zi didn’t want to go in, going around the outside a few times, before finally leaving embarrassed.

When Bai Yan brought everyone to hide Xia Ling Mei, he couldn’t help laugh bitterly. On the outside Xia Ling Mei was the assertive `Lady Wang`, how can there still be someone with these thoughts for her? These people of the Jianghu truly do not have standards.

As a result, at certain moments when Xia Ling Mei did not know, Bai Yan lured Zhuang Hei Zi away, the two of them fought. The outcome was not evident, Bai Yan actually looked pensively silent for several days.

Finally, crossing over this mountain top, the city gate of Zhuozhou could be seen.

---

[1] 3.3m