Chapter 34: Jiang Xia’s Secret Competition
Something was off at the black market trading spot today.
The reason was An Ning, who sat there reading a book. She was so focused that the proprietor, a heavyset man, found himself subconsciously lowering his voice.
If the boss was acting like this, his underlings and the various people coming to trade naturally followed suit, hushing their own voices.
Some were even scared away entirely.
’Is it this quiet because the heat is on?’
The heavyset man stood at the door, waving his chubby hand, wanting to shout that everything was fine. But the moment he thought of An Ning reading behind him, the words caught in his throat.
He closed the door and turned to glance at An Ning. ’Just whose daughter is she?’ he wondered. ’Her presence is overwhelming.’
An Ning was seated in the very center of the courtyard, somehow making a simple chair feel like a throne.
In reality, An Ning was using her spiritual power to read the book, memorizing the contents of every page. She felt it would be very useful to her.
However, since she hadn’t fully learned all the Chinese characters yet, her progress was a bit slow. She could only memorize the shape of each character and every picture, planning to look them up in a dictionary later to match them one by one. That would make things much easier.
Still, this reminded An Ning that she needed to set aside more time for learning characters when she got back.
KNOCK... KNOCK... KNOCK.
A rhythmic knocking sounded, and the heavyset man went to open the door.
"Hey, come on in."
From the man’s tone, it was clear this was a regular.
Jiang Xia entered with a wicker basket on his back and whispered to the man, "I found signs of a wild boar. What’s the price right now?"
"What a coincidence. Wild boar is eighty cents a catty. Just bought one this morning."
’Just bought one?’
Jiang Xia recalled the drag marks he’d seen on the mountain that morning and asked curiously, "Was it from North Mountain?"
The man just shook his head and smiled without saying a word.
Jiang Xia was just asking. There were only a few skilled hunters around, so he figured it was probably one of the guys from the North Mountain crew. They had more people, so taking down a wild boar wasn’t a huge effort for them.
He himself only dared to go after setting traps, and even then, he brought Da Huang along. Getting injured would be bad news.
Jiang Xia followed the man into the courtyard and spotted An Ning before he even had a chance to take off his basket.
She was just too conspicuous to miss.
Jiang Xia didn’t say anything, though. He simply sold the game from his basket, collected his money, and left.
Just then, An Ning closed her book, stood up, and handed it back to the heavyset man.
The man extended both hands and accepted the book with a reverence he didn’t quite understand himself.
"Finished already?"
"Finished. Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out for that ginseng you mentioned."
An Ning retrieved her own basket and walked out of the courtyard.
But just as she exited the alley, she saw Jiang Xia leaning against a wall, a roguish swagger about him.
"Find another sika deer that ran into a tree today?"
"No."
An Ning walked on ahead, with Jiang Xia trailing annoyingly behind her.
"My name’s Jiang Xia. I know you’re An Ning. How come I’ve never seen you on the mountain before?"
"Hey, were your shoulders sore yesterday?"
"Why would my shoulders be sore?"
An Ning’s retort instantly brought out Jiang Xia’s rebellious streak. He stretched his arms and said, "Mine aren’t sore. I was just thinking, a young lady like you carrying all those baskets of dirt... I was worried you’d be in pain."
Forcing himself to ignore the ache in his own shoulders, Jiang Xia heard An Ning reply nonchalantly, "I’m in great shape. They don’t hurt at all."
With that, An Ning quickened her pace. She was planning to get back to the village to work.
Jiang Xia, trailing behind, felt his jaw clench. He was in great shape too!
’She’s really not sore? Impossible!’
He broke into a jog to keep up, but An Ning was so fast that he soon had to pick up his pace to a run.
An Ning, for her part, was in a hurry to get back to work. She was thinking about finishing the irrigation ditch soon to make watering the fields easier, so her strides grew longer and she picked up speed again.
Jiang Xia, already sore all over, saw An Ning accelerate again. His competitive spirit flared up, and he desperately tried to keep pace.
When he finally caught up and was running alongside her, he feigned ease and said, "Your speed is nothing special! I caught you easily enough."
An Ning glanced sideways. Someone was calling her out? Unacceptable.
Her eyes narrowed into a smile, and with a WHOOSH, she accelerated again.
Jiang Xia watched her disappear from his side, muttered a few choice words under his breath, and grit his teeth to follow.
’I refuse to believe I can’t beat her at anything!’
When Jiang Xia caught up again, An Ning gave him a second look. ’This human’s physical constitution is actually pretty good,’ she thought. ’It’s almost at the basic level for gene modification.’
This time, An Ning didn’t speed up again. Any faster and it would defy common sense.
The two of them continued down the country path. One walked with a relaxed gait, her breathing even and deep. The other was red-faced and panting, his chest heaving so violently he couldn’t speak a single word.
When they reached the village, their paths diverged. An Ning sighed at Jiang Xia and said consolingly, "It’s okay. Just go home and practice a bit, and you won’t be so out of breath."
With that, An Ning turned a corner and was gone. Jiang Xia immediately collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, his eyes filled with indignation.
’That nearly killed me!’
WOOF WOOF WOOF!
Da Huang appeared. Seeing Jiang Xia collapsed on the ground, the dog bounded over and planted both front paws on his chest, pressing down hard.
"COUGH, COUGH—Okay, okay, I’m not dead."
Jiang Xia hugged Da Huang’s head and used the dog’s body to pull himself up. His legs felt like limp noodles as he shuffled toward his house at the foot of the mountain.
Meanwhile, An Ning returned to the An family home and ate. Afterward, she headed out to the fields with everyone else. An Guoming was home again today.
Today, An Ning and her older brother, An Guoqing, went back to work on the irrigation ditch. Jiang Xia was there too.
When he saw An Ning, he was still stewing over what had happened that morning. He worked with a pent-up frustration, plowing through his tasks silently and furiously.
At the end of the day’s labor, An Ning walked past Jiang Xia without a hint of fatigue. Her steady breathing made him grind his teeth before he finally admitted one thing: when it came to strength, he was no match for her.
After competing with her for two days, Jiang Xia finally gave up.
’But it’s just in terms of strength,’ he thought. ’There must be something I’m better at than she is.’
His confidence quickly rekindled, Jiang Xia staggered home, meeting Da Huang, who had come to greet him, on the way.
"Da Huang, you’re the smart one, coming to get me."
WOOF WOOF WOOF!
Da Huang barked up a storm, but Jiang Xia didn’t understand what he was saying. As he reached his door, however, he saw his grandfather.
There was a knowing look in Mr. Jiang Sr.’s eyes. It was a good thing Da Huang had gone, or the boy probably would have had to crawl his way back.
"Grandpa—"
"Go on back and rest. Don’t go up the mountain tomorrow."
"Okay."
Although Jiang Xia was competitive, he also knew when to advance and when to retreat. If he couldn’t do something, he couldn’t do it. He just had to find something he was good at.
Meanwhile, An Ning, oblivious to all of this, simply finished her day’s work. After returning home and eating dinner, the An family held another meeting.
"Dad, I did some asking around today," An Guoming said. "The best material for the schoolbags is canvas. There’s a factory in the county town that often has defective fabric, but we don’t have any connections to get in touch with them."
Hearing this, An Ning made an instant decision. They had to seize the opportunity to make money. As for An Guoming’s problem with not having connections, they could figure that out once they were in town. So, she spoke up.
"Second Brother, let’s go to the county town."