Early on the morning of August 14th, Zhao Youcai and Wang Meilan left home to pay their last respects to Jiang Hua.
Zhao Jun stayed home to eat with his two younger sisters.
Just as Zhao Jun was clearing the table after breakfast, Wang Meilan and Zhao Youcai came back.
Zhao Jun left the two little girls with Wang Meilan and headed to the Forest Farm for work.
After a day of training, and despite once again being the first to pass the inspection, Zhao Jun didn't leave work early. Instead, he waited to take the Forest Farm's commuter train down the mountain with Zhao Youcai.
Not long after the father and son got home, Jiang Zhou showed up at their door to invite Zhao Jun's family of five to the feast.
Yesterday, Jiang Zhou had claimed he would set up twenty tables, but that was a bit of an exaggeration.
He had made a fine speech the day before, claiming the banquet was to thank the fellow villagers who had paid their last respects to Elder Jiang. In reality, he had already dismissed them that morning with a meal of corn grit porridge and pickled vegetable sticks. Tonight's feast was purely for collecting gift money.
But social obligations remained. With Jiang Hua gone, only Mrs. Elder Jiang was left. And according to Jiang Zhou, he was planning to take Mrs. Elder Jiang to his home to care for her in a few days.
The old woman was getting on in years, and it was anyone's guess how much longer she had. Therefore, almost everyone who came had some history with the elderly Jiang couple. More specifically, they were people to whom the couple had given gift money but who hadn't yet had a chance to reciprocate. It was only natural to use this occasion to settle the social debt.
As for those who had no such history of gift exchange with the couple, they wouldn't come at all.
Zhao Jun's family sat at a table in the courtyard, near the house.
Sharing the table with his family of five were Mrs. Elder Jiang, Jiang Zhou's parents, Village Chief Zhao Guofeng, and the chief's elderly mother.
Clearly, this was not a table just anyone could be seated at.
Before the banquet began, Jiang Zhou's parents repeatedly expressed their gratitude to Zhao Jun's family. But Mrs. Elder Jiang just sat there silently, staring at the empty table without a word.
Zhao Jun glanced at the old woman and sighed inwardly. 'I've already done everything I can. If it's still not enough, then there's nothing more I can do.'
With this in mind, Zhao Jun turned to look around. He saw Li Baoyu's family and Zhang Yuanmin's family sitting together at a table in the corner by the wall.
Zhao Jun stood up and went outside the courtyard to use the outhouse. As he came out, he ran right into someone.
The young man was a big fellow, around six feet tall and weighing close to two hundred pounds, with a brawny, powerful build.
At that moment, he was carrying a large liquor cask in each hand. Each cask weighed thirty jin, yet he held the sixty-jin total and could still break into a trot. He was clearly in great shape.
"Brother Jun!"
"Hey, Gu Yang!" Zhao Jun greeted him. "You here to help out?"
"Yep." Gu Yang gave Zhao Jun a broad, guileless grin. "I asked Granny Jiang, and she said it was okay for me to come."
"Ah." Noticing the sweat on his brow, Zhao Jun offered, "Here, let me carry one for you."
"No, no, it's fine." Gu Yang smiled and shuffled to the side, dodging Zhao Jun's outstretched hand. "But Brother Jun, I was hoping to ask you for a favor. Is that okay?"
Hearing this, Zhao Jun readily agreed. "What is it? Go ahead."
"Well..." Gu Yang seemed a little embarrassed. He hesitated for a long moment before finally asking, "I heard you have some Medicinal Deer Beans. Could I have one?"
After all that waiting, Zhao Jun had thought it was going to be something serious. Hearing he only wanted a Medicinal Bean, Zhao Jun laughed. "That's no problem at all."
As they started walking back toward the Jiang Family's house, Zhao Jun explained, "The thing is, I don't have the Medicinal Beans with me. I gave them all to Brother Zhang."
Gu Yang heard this and blurted out, "Zhang Yuanmin?"
"Yep," Zhao Jun said. "I'll mention it to him in a bit, and you can go pick it up from his place tomorrow."
"Okay, okay. Thanks, Brother Jun."
"Don't mention it."
As they were talking, they arrived back at the Jiang Family's house. The moment Jiang Zhou saw Zhao Jun, he hurried over with a smile. "Xiaojun! Come on in, the food is about to be served."
Zhao Jun smiled and nodded, then headed into the courtyard. Just then, he heard Jiang Zhou bark at Gu Yang, "Hurry up! Take that liquor to the back, they're waiting for it!"
Zhao Jun's steps faltered for a moment before he continued on toward Zhang Yuanmin.
At that moment, Zhang Yuanmin was deep in a discussion about classical Chinese literature with the Li father and sons and hadn't noticed Zhao Jun approach from behind.
It was Yang Yufeng who spotted Zhao Jun. She nudged Zhang Yuanmin and said, "Hold on a second, your brother's here."
"Hey, brother!" Zhang Yuanmin turned around, and upon seeing Zhao Jun, he immediately started to get up.
Zhao Jun quickly pressed a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down onto the stool. He first nodded to Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei before saying to Zhang Yuanmin, "Brother Zhang, I just saw Gu Yang. He asked me for a Medicinal Bean, so I told him to go to your place to get one tomorrow."
Then, Zhao Jun quickly added a reminder, "He's going through a hard time. Brother, if you still have one, please give it to him."
"Done!" Zhang Yuanmin agreed without a second thought. "If he comes, I'll give it to him. He's a good kid. When you were building your house, he worked really hard and honestly."
"Yep." As soon as Zhang Yuanmin finished speaking, Jin Xiaomei chimed in, "Gu Yang's a decent sort. He helped our family out later on, and he really put his back into it."
"Huh? That's not right." Unlike Zhang Yuanmin and Jin Xiaomei, Li Dayong looked around and asked with a hint of confusion, "I haven't seen anyone from the Gu's Family here today. Did Gu Yang come by himself?"
Jin Xiaomei nudged Li Dayong and frowned. "The kid's just here to lend a hand and get a hot meal in return."