First, there was Granny Hua.

She’d unexpectedly gained a wonderful daughter-in-law in Meizi and was so overjoyed she felt like she was walking on air. Meizi was a kind person from a well-off family. The betrothal gifts were really just for show, since Meizi would bring them all back as her dowry anyway. How could she not be ecstatic!

Now, only her younger son’s marriage was yet to be arranged.

Although her sons, Li Changming and Li Changliang, had warned her to leave Juhua alone, she couldn’t help but get ideas again. Seeing the Zheng Family’s booming sausage business, it looked as if they’d struck it rich. ’To buy up all the pork in the entire village... how much silver must that take?’ She started scheming, trying to figure out a way for her younger son to marry Juhua. ’If he marries her, won’t I learn the secret to those sausages?’

Granny Hua racked her brains for a long time but couldn’t come up with a foolproof plan. She didn’t dare discuss it with her two sons, so she could only mull it over day and night by herself.

Her daily brow-furrowing and deep thought on the matter actually made her seem quieter, which struck Li Changming and his brother as very strange.

While Granny Hua was busy scheming how to get a piece of the Zheng Family’s pie, another person was also keeping a close eye on them: the village chief’s third uncle, Li Mingtang.

Ever since he’d argued with the Zheng Family over buying a plot of land, he had found them to be an eyesore. But against his wishes, the Zheng Family’s fortunes were only improving; they had probably earned a lot of money this winter.

He couldn’t help but mutter to himself, ’Could the Zheng Family’s feng shui really be that good?’

The land his own family later chose was also by the mountain. ’I wonder if its feng shui is as good as theirs.’

Seeing that the Zheng Family had bought all the butchered pigs in the village, he was extremely jealous. He thought angrily, ’Doesn’t everyone say they’re so generous? How come we don’t see them sharing the method for making sausage with everyone?’

One day, after his noon meal, he ambled over to Li Gengtian’s courtyard with his hands behind his back. He sat with his older brother on a stone bench under the jujube tree, basking in the sun and chatting idly.

After chatting for a while, they saw Li Gengtian enter the courtyard, his face flushed and smelling faintly of alcohol.

Li Mingtang smiled and asked, "Gengtian, whose pig-butchering feast were you at?"

Around the New Year, when villagers butchered their pigs, they would often politely invite Li Gengtian over for a meal, though he usually declined.

Today, Shorty Zhou’s family was butchering a pig, and they had specially invited him to eat and discuss building a house on Little Qing Mountain next year, so he hadn’t refused.

Seeing his third uncle’s question, he pulled over a small wooden stool and sat down—he found the stone bench too cold. He stretched out his legs, leaned against the stone table, turned his face toward the sun, and let out a comfortable sigh. He smiled and said, "Shorty Zhou’s place."

Li Mingtang’s interest was piqued. He asked, "Did Shorty Zhou sell his pork to the Zheng Family too?"

Li Gengtian chuckled. "Of course he sold it to the Zheng Family. They’re paying an extra two cents per jin. Who wouldn’t sell to them? You want him to sell it at the market? It’s the New Year, the market is flooded with pork, so it’s hard to sell."

Li Mingtang pursed his lips. "Doesn’t everyone say how good a person Zheng Changhe is, how generous he is? Then how come we don’t see him sharing the recipe for sausage with everyone? He even kept the kimchi recipe a secret, only thinking about getting rich himself. He’s a cunning one, that’s what he is. Those acorns grow on the mountain, and that mountain belongs to the village, so he didn’t dare keep the acorn secret from everyone. But this sausage business has nothing to do with the public, so he kept it to himself, didn’t he? Only people like you are fooled by him, praising his family all day long." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Li Gengtian’s father, Li Mingrui, looked at his third brother unhappily. His face darkened as he said, "Third Brother, what kind of nonsense is that? The mountain belongs to the village, that’s true. But haven’t those acorn trees been there for years? Who ever stopped you from gathering them? In past years when there was nothing to eat, some people tried eating them, but they just got constipated and bloated. When there was food, nobody paid them any mind. Did you ever see anyone gathering them to feed their pigs? Was it wrong for Changhe to tell you the method? Making sausage is his skill. Why should he have to tell you? Have you ever seen anyone who found a way to make money invite everyone else to join in?"

Li Mingtang was left speechless by his older brother’s words, but he was still resentful in his heart, muttering something under his breath.

Li Gengtian glanced sideways at his third uncle and chuckled. "Third Uncle, it’s true that seeing the Zheng Family get rich makes one envious. But Changhe is a good person. Didn’t he raise the price he pays for pork? We can’t say he’s wrong for not sharing the sausage recipe with everyone. If everyone had to bring others along for everything they did, how the hell would any of the shops or restaurants in the city stay in business?"

Li Mingrui nodded. "That’s right. A person can’t be so insatiable. Sigh... You’ve lived this long, and you still don’t understand the saying ’A pint of rice is a kindness, a bushel of rice is a feud’? He told everyone how to process the acorns, but just because he didn’t tell you the sausage recipe, he’s suddenly not a good person? If Changhe hadn’t said anything at all, what could you have done to him anyway?"