That evening, Zhang Fangyuan had dinner. Although people ate their evening meal early, winter was approaching, and the days were short while the nights were long. It was getting dark earlier and earlier.

After leaving his fourth uncle’s house, he hadn’t walked far when he heard a rustling sound. It seemed that tiny snowflakes were falling. A little snowball bounced off his shoulder and landed on the ground. He couldn’t help hunching his shoulders. Glancing sideways, he saw a warm yellow light shining from the window of the Xu family’s house in the distance, and suddenly, his heart felt a little warm.

Within a few days, the villagers noticed that Zhang Fangyuan had once again become elusive. His courtyard gate was often tightly shut, and no one knew where he had gone.

The villagers said that he was probably too embarrassed to show his face in the village after his marriage proposal had failed. Others said he had been upset by the incident and had gone back to fooling around in the city. There were all sorts of rumors, but no one knew what the butcher was actually doing.

After all, his usefulness to the villagers wasn’t particularly great. At most, he was someone they called upon to slaughter livestock. But after what had happened with the Guang family, who would still be willing to deal with him? They would rather hire butchers from elsewhere than have anything to do with him.

Little did they know that Zhang Fangyuan had already slung his set of pig-slaughtering tools over his back and was walking along the field ridges and small paths of neighboring villages.

He struck a meat-cutting knife against a sharpening rod, producing a cold, metallic sound that carried a long way on the wind.

This was the distinctive signal used by butchers. Whenever villagers heard it, they knew a butcher had come to slaughter livestock.

He worked tirelessly, traveling from one village to another, continuing all the way toward the main official road.

If the people in his own village didn’t want him to slaughter their livestock, he would go to other villages. It was already deep winter, and many households were slaughtering livestock either to sell the meat or to prepare for the New Year. The butchers in many villages were so busy they couldn’t keep up with the work. Zhang Fangyuan took advantage of the openings in their schedules, and sure enough, some people heard his signal and called him over to slaughter their livestock.

“I travel from village to village slaughtering livestock. Let me make this clear first: I don’t take meat as payment. I only accept money.”

“How much do you charge for each animal?”

“The going market rate.”

Slaughtering one pig cost anywhere from twenty-five to forty coins, depending on how generous the owner was. Zhang Fangyuan charged according to the usual rate and was willing to slaughter other livestock, such as sheep, as well.

He spoke straightforwardly. The villagers saw that his tools were complete and his build was sturdy and imposing, so he looked like a capable man. Besides, there was nothing wrong with paying him in cash. If they paid with meat or offal, the value would still amount to money when calculated. It wasn’t as though one arrangement was necessarily better or worse than the other.

So they invited him back to their homes and quickly called their brothers and neighbors over to help slaughter the pigs.

People from other villages didn’t know Zhang Fangyuan, and few had heard what sort of reputation he had in his own village. But when they saw how swiftly he slaughtered the pigs, scraped off the bristles, and divided the meat, performing the entire process as smoothly as flowing water, they were impressed.

Even when the owners paid him the lowest market rate of twenty-five coins, he didn’t complain. Everyone thought he was very straightforward. He was nothing like some butchers who were endlessly fussy—after eating a meal and taking their share of meat, they still wanted money on top of that. Even those who didn’t ask for money would try to demand extra meat. There weren’t many butchers in this trade, so villagers had little choice but to put up with them and suffer such losses in silence.

As soon as the livestock at one household had been slaughtered, Zhang Fangyuan would be invited over to the next. He worked neatly and was strong, too. He could slaughter more than ten animals in a single day without feeling tired, and he went wherever people called him.

The villagers were delighted. Everyone would gather on one or two days to slaughter their pigs, with the same people helping out. Each household only had to contribute a little, which was much more economical than slaughtering pigs on separate days, one household at a time. It was lively, and the host families could save on the meat they would otherwise have to provide. What was there not to like?

For a while, this left the butchers in those villages with considerably less business. Unfortunately for them, they simply couldn’t match Zhang Fangyuan’s ability.

Zhang Fangyuan spent many days traveling outside the village. He went about his work quietly and diligently, carefully remembering which villages raised a lot of livestock and which households kept the most animals.

Whenever he happened to arrive at a household around mealtime, he would eat the pig-slaughtering soup. He got a good meal and earned money at the same time. He found life much more pleasant than staying in his own village and listening to idle gossip.

After more than half a month of traveling from village to village to slaughter pigs, he had covered many villages and traveled quite far. The money in his pocket had steadily increased. When he finally counted it all up, he discovered he had earned more than a thousand coins. Since the copper coins were heavy, he stopped working and went into the city to exchange them for silver at a money house.

Once the large bundle of copper coins had been exchanged for a few small silver pieces and tucked into his pocket, he felt much lighter. Earning money gave him such a sense of security that he didn’t even want to go home.

He had finally figured something out. When he had been reborn, he hadn’t wanted to repeat the fate of dying alone and unmarried in old age, so he had rushed to start a family. He hadn’t realized that without first establishing a livelihood, it would be difficult to start a family at all. Then he had been dealt another hard blow, which had actually cleared his head.

Rather than staying in the village, listening to gossip and failing to find a marriage match, he might as well put his effort into making money.

After leaving the money house, he went straight to the livestock market, intending to pick out an animal and set up a cart.

“What kind of animal are you looking for? Feel free to look around and choose for yourself! We’ve got young and tender ones, strong ones, and old ones!”

The livestock market consisted of several long rows of roofed sheds, divided into individual stalls. The cattle and horses were penned separately, and the railings had openings that made it convenient for customers to inspect the animals.

As soon as Zhang Fangyuan entered, he was greeted by the pungent smell of cattle and horses, mixed with manure and urine. It was quite unpleasant. Yet there were plenty of people inside, many of them there to look at livestock.

Cattle and horses were extremely important for farming, transportation, and hauling goods. In any village, only the better-off households could afford to buy such animals with their spare money. Of course, those who made their living specifically by driving ox or horse carts to carry passengers were another matter.

Zhang Fangyuan was also quite undecided about whether to choose an ox or a horse. His plan was to hitch the animal to a flatbed cart. He wasn’t going to make a living transporting passengers; he wanted it specifically for hauling goods.

Unable to make up his mind, he wanted to call over a livestock dealer to give him some advice. But those lazy fellows were lounging beneath the warm sheds with their legs crossed, not even bothering to come over and greet customers.

Zhang Fangyuan raised his voice and called out twice.

“He’s an unfamiliar face. Looks like this is his first time here.”

“I hate dealing with this sort of customer the most. You can spend ages explaining everything, and he still won’t buy. Whoever has nothing better to do can go over and entertain him.”

A few old hands kept passing the responsibility around, unwilling to move. Livestock wasn’t like pork. Even if people pooled their money, they could usually afford at least a little meat. But an animal costing several thousand coins was another matter. If everyone who walked in could afford one, running a livestock market would be easy.

Most people who came here only looked without buying. Being able to close a deal after someone had visited several times was already an accomplishment. Even those who only wanted to rent an animal often had to come three or five times before paying a deposit.

When it came to first-time customers, the old hands couldn’t be bothered to waste their breath.

“How about I go help him?”

The others looked at the man who had volunteered and laughed. “Sure! Yuanquan’s still new here. Go attend to more customers and get to know our livestock market better.”

It was quite a while before Zhang Fangyuan finally saw a young livestock dealer hurry over. He was a little displeased, but didn’t say anything.

“How much do your oxen and horses cost?”

“Big brother, we’ve got livestock of all sorts of quality here, so there’s no fixed price. Oxen generally range from eight thousand to twenty thousand coins. Horses are even more expensive, starting at ten thousand with no upper limit.”

Zhang Fangyuan knew that the prices of fine-bred horses were astonishing, but he wasn’t some high-ranking official or noble. He had no need to consider that sort of horse.

The livestock dealer politely asked, “May I ask what you intend to use the animal for? If you do a lot of farming, you might consider buying an ox. It can plow the fields, pull a cart to transport goods, and even be lent to your neighbors in exchange for money or fodder. But if you often travel around doing business, a horse would be better. First, it runs faster and isn’t as sluggish as an ox. Second, it’s smaller. When you’re traveling for business, a horse produces less manure and urine than an ox, so it’s easier to clean up after.”

Zhang Fangyuan thought the dealer’s advice was quite practical, and he began to form an idea. “Then how much would a strong horse cost?”

“A good, strong horse would cost at least twelve thousand coins. But the horses at our market are all of good quality. Even the cheapest ones are very durable.”

Zhang Fangyuan did a quick calculation. An animal cost several times more than the betrothal gifts for a wife. It really wasn’t something he could afford.

He said bluntly, “Too expensive.”

That was what many people were thinking, though most didn’t say it outright. Usually, they would beat around the bush for ages just to express the same sentiment. Yuanquan thought this deal was hopeless, but then he heard the man ask, “Do you have anything I can get for eight thousand coins?”

“Anything around eight thousand would mostly be a young horse. It wouldn’t be able to carry much weight, and you’d have to raise it until it grew up.”

Zhang Fangyuan couldn’t help sighing. If that was the case, he would just have to save up some more money and come back to look.

The dealer suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said, “If you’re genuinely interested in buying, why not take a look at this one? It’s a fully grown, strong horse. The only problem is that one of its legs was injured when we bought it. You can’t put it to work right away; it’ll need some time to recover. You can have it for eight thousand coins.”

Zhang Fangyuan followed the dealer to a horse stall in the corner. The horse in question was black. It looked to be in good condition, tall and sturdy, clearly capable of pulling a heavy load. The only drawback was that its left hind leg was indeed injured.

“If it were healthy, it could sell for more than ten thousand coins. It’s only because of the injury that we’re selling it so cheaply.”

“Was the bone injured? Can it recover?”

The dealer replied, “It should, as long as it’s given proper rest. If it doesn’t recover, then it’s pretty much useless. Our livestock market wouldn’t take it back either.”

Zhang Fangyuan moved closer to inspect the horse’s injured leg and then reached out to touch it.