By the time the group met up with Zhu's father and his team, they had already negotiated the price with a restaurant.
When Zhu's father, his fourth uncle, and Zhu Pingjun, who was too lazy to get out of the car, didn't know who to sell the wild boar to in the town, the owner of a restaurant took the initiative to contact them and showed great sincerity.
The price of ordinary pork is about 18 wen per catty, and the price of live pigs (fat pigs that have just been released but not slaughtered) is 10 wen per catty. After all, the cost of slaughtering live pigs and removing blood, offal, etc., the meat yield of live pigs is about 80%, so it is understandable that there is a price difference between live pigs and pork. For the wild boars that Zhu's father brought, the price given by the restaurant owner was 15 wen per catty. This price has exceeded the expectations of Zhu's father and the fourth uncle. It is half more expensive than the pigs raised at home, so naturally they agreed. The wild boar weighed 268 catties and should have been paid 4020 wen. The shopkeeper gave 4050 wen to make a personal connection, 30 wen more, a total of more than four taels of silver, which was considered a small fortune. Of course, the shopkeeper made more money. A wild boar can be made into hundreds of delicious dishes, and at least nearly 100 taels of silver can be earned from it.
The eldest aunt, the fourth aunt, and the others were all excited by the four taels of silver and 50 copper coins given by the shopkeeper. They had never had so much money in their hands before. Now seeing so much money all of a sudden, the eldest aunt and the others were so excited that they wanted to rush over and hug all the money in their arms.
Zhu Ping'an's attention was not on the money, but on Zhu Pingjun, who was supposed to be with his father, but was not here. Where could Jun go by himself, and he didn't know the way! It would be fine if he was just running for fun, but if he was deceived by someone, it would be terrible. Based on Jun's character, both possibilities were very high.
"Dad, Fourth Uncle, where is Brother Jun?" Worried, Zhu Ping'an interrupted the adults who were surrounding the silver and reminded them that Zhu Pingjun was missing.
"Jun'er is right beside us..." Fourth Uncle stopped talking halfway and swallowed his words back. He also noticed that Zhu Pingjun was missing.
The adults were worried. Where had this naughty kid gone? They remembered the rumors of beggars kidnapping children in the town before, and they couldn't help but get worried. They quickly put the silver and copper coins in their money bag, and Zhu's father and his men split up and went to look for Zhu Pingjun. They didn't dare to lose him.
After calling out several times but with no response, my aunt was so anxious that she almost cried.
Suddenly, Zhu Pingan saw a naughty kid sucking his fingers at a candied haws stall, who looked very much like Zhu Pingjun. But there was a man and a woman next to him, both middle-aged people who didn't look like good people, and they were bargaining with the owner of the candied haws stall.
"Aunt, do you see that is Jun?" Zhu Ping'an quickly called out to his bewildered aunt.
"Jun'er, who told you to run around?" The aunt only took one look and was sure that it was Zhu Pingjun. Then she looked at the middle-aged couple beside him and ran over with a loud scream in shock.
The voice of the aunt attracted Zhu's father and fourth uncle who were looking for them not far away, and they ran over here together.
The middle-aged couple who were bargaining with the candied haws seller over there saw that the situation was not good, so they left Zhu Pingjun behind and ran away in a small alley.
The aunt pulled Zhu Pingjun into her arms, checked him several times, and only breathed a sigh of relief after she was sure that he was safe.
Only then did the adults have time to ask Zhu Pingjun about the whole story.
Zhu Pingjun bit his fingers, stared at the candied haws stall and swallowed his saliva, then told the whole story without any logic.
While his father and uncle were busy negotiating prices with the restaurant owner and helping unload wild boars, Zhu Pingjun was alone, counting ants beside the ox cart. Then he heard someone telling stories in front of the teahouse next door. It happened to be his favorite story about heroes fighting against evil and protecting the good, so he walked over to listen.
There was a middle-aged couple, yes, the one who just slipped away. They told Zhu Pingjun that there was a hero visiting their home, and they also said that Zhu Pingjun had a peculiar bone structure and must be a martial arts genius, and they said they wanted to take Zhu Pingjun to the hero to become his apprentice.
That’s right, Zhu Pingjun immediately followed them happily.
Fortunately, Zhu Pingjun was greedy and asked for some candied haws from the candied haws stall when he saw them. Just when the middle-aged couple was buying them, the sharp-eyed Zhu Pingan happened to discover them and they were chased back by his aunt.
After hearing this, the aunt's face turned black. She grabbed Zhu Pingjun and gave him a beating. She also gave him a lecture, saying that he was a beggar and a child trafficker.
After a while, Zhu Pingjun was beaten so hard that his voice became distorted as he cried.
The aunt felt that she had educated him enough, so she asked Zhu Pingjun, "If someone says there is a great hero, will you still follow him?"
Zhu Pingjun was crying with tears and snot all over his face, but after hearing this, he immediately perked up.
He raised his head and looked at his aunt and asked quickly, "Where is it, where is the hero?"
As a result, I was beaten up again by my aunt with a gloomy face...
Is this what children should do? Zhu Ping'an's eyes twitched. He couldn't learn this. Even if he thought with his buttocks, it wouldn't be like this.
Chen and the others hurriedly stopped them, fearing that the aunt, who was almost vomiting blood in anger, would kill her relatives for the sake of justice. Some hugged their arms and some protected Zhu Pingjun. It took a long time of persuasion before the aunt calmed down.
After being beaten twice, Zhu Pingjun didn't realize until he got home that the two middle-aged couple who had kindly taken him to become their apprentices were actually beggars. He muttered that he would only follow the heroes next time. If he hadn't kept his voice down, he would have been caught and scolded by his aunt.
As soon as Zhu's father got home, he gave the money from selling the wild boar to his grandmother, but his grandmother refused to give him a penny. Chen was very dissatisfied with this. Her husband and eldest son had worked so hard to get the wild boar back, and it was even slightly injured, so why didn't they give him a penny
After dinner, Chen was in a bad mood. However, after Zhu Ping'an dumped a large basket of rags on the ground, took out 270 coins he earned from selling honeysuckle hidden in the rags and gave them to Chen, Chen's face looked a little better.