Under a dense foliage of shrubbery and leaves, bits of light from the skies above poured down onto the wet swamplands in sparse quantities. The buzzing of insects and the croaking of amphibians as they moved around were omnipresent. Every now and then, snakes would pop out of tiny, unsuspecting holes in the ground and gobble up frogs too busy staring at their own reflections. In the more deeper and denser areas, the eyes of lazy alligators would occasionally pop up to the surface to observe and examine the world. Lizards, with nothing better to do all day, would ascend and descend trees in search of bugs, worms and fruits.
On this day, a little yellow lizard that had just spotted a plump guava was making its way up a tree branch. It moved with great speed, not bothered about the fatal height it was climbing at. It was confident that its body would be able to naturally stick to surfaces, preventing it from falling, so all it had its sights on was the tender and juicy fruit that was just a minute’s reach away. As it rushed forward, it suddenly felt as if it had lost a lot of weight. The lizard was deeply astonished, because it had never experienced such a sensation before. Only then did it start to register the pain.
It’s tail had been snapped off!
The perpetrator was a dull, dirty-looking piece of metal. It would perhaps be more accurate to call it a knife! The weapon had pinned the lizard’s tail firmly onto the tree branch. The lizard lost its balance and fell towards the waters below. An alligator had already opened its mouth large and wide to catch and cushion the lizard’s fall with its belly.
“Nooo!” a young, high-pitched voice screamed, deeply aggrieved that the gator had gone and swallowed the lizard. The one that had made the cry was pulling at her hair in vexation. That was her prey that had just been snatched away!
She had spent all morning looking for yellow-tailed lizards and she now had nothing to show for it. These things were not easy to come by, and they certainly weren’t easy to catch. What was even more frustrating was the fact that she had in fact spotted one after hours of waiting and swatting away bugs that kept crawling into her clothes, only to have that gator swallow it up in front of her eyes!
She so wanted to skin that damn thing alive!
After about 15 minutes of cursing the alligator and throwing rocks into its pond, she finally calmed herself down. Her knife was still firmly latched into the tree branch above, so she had to go collect it. Although it was rather cheap and roughly made, it was one of the few precious tools she had. She gathered her bearings and started to climb the tree.
Even though the knife was situated rather high up, in one of the more thinner branches, she was rather lightweight. The branch only trembled slightly. Other than that, it showed no signs of giving way. When she finally reached and reclaimed her weapon, she was somewhat glad to find that the lizard’s tail hadn’t fallen off. It had been nicely skewered with her knife.
Perhaps this could be taken as a sign of luck. Maybe the one that was gathering lizards in the village would at least pay her a few coppers for the tail. Stuffing the tail in her side pouch, she got ready to climb back down. To her surprise, however, there happened to be a bird nest not far from her position, a bit further along the branch.
Her eyes immediately lit up! There were a total of five swallow eggs within. These eggs would fetch a great price, at least ten copper per egg, but she didn’t have the heart to sell them. She rarely ate eggs, and she missed their taste. Unable to resist her gluttony, she slowly crawled towards the nest.
Even with her small size, the extreme ends off the branch were having trouble lifting her. She was only a gentle breeze away from falling, but she preserved, dead-set to eat poached egg for dinner.
Sssss!
“Eeeck!”
A snake hiding in the nest had jumped at her, causing her to shriek and fall in reflex. Her upper body fluidly moved backwards. Due to her tightly locked legs that were desperately clutching onto the branch, however, she didn’t lose all her balance. She managed to catch the snake that pounced on her with her hands a few seconds before it bit her nose off. As she sat back up, she madly waved the snake around in fright, before tossing it into the water in anger.
The alligator, which she thought had left, once again appeared. It devoured the snake with a languid motion and went back to its resting place in the water, as if nothing had happened.
“Aaaaagh!” she shouted, frustrated that she had fed the alligator again, “I shouldn’t have thrown that dumb snake! I could’ve sold it! Why am I always so impulsive!”
Feeling like an idiot, she indignantly slapped herself for doing something so stupid. No wonder everyone at home made fun of her and called her a child! She was always doing things inefficiently instead of being productive and using her brain to think before acting. As she lamented, she suddenly remembered the nest in front of her.
That’s right! At least she had something tasty for dinner tonight!
“Boiled Eggs, Coddled Eggs, Fried Eggs, Poached Eggs, Scrambled Eggs, Century Eggs, Pickled Eggs, Smoked Eggs…”
As she stuffed the eggs in her pouch, she was merily singing, imagining all the delicious meals that could be made later. Once she was done collecting what needed to be collected, she haphazardly jumped from tree to tree, eager to get back to the village soon so she could get her sister to secretly make something appetizing for her later.
The forest was about 20 minutes away from the village. There were other hunters in the vicinity who she spotted every now and then, but she had no mood to greet or pay attention to them. It was already afternoon and she was getting hungry. She wasted over 5 hours rolling around in the dirt, leaving no stone unturned in her search for some lizards. She was spent! There was no such thing as breakfast in her family, so the last thing she ate was some moldy bread the night before. Thinking about the creamy texture of the eggs made her mouth water, earning her some stares from the people nearby.
She didn’t forget to head to the market first. If she went home without earning a single copper, her mother would definitely beat the daylights out of her. The markets consisted of about twenty or so stalls and two general goods huts buying and selling all manner of items. Most of the vendors were farmers, so a majority of their wares were made up of homegrown fruits and vegetables. There were also some stalls selling things like farming equipment, hunting equipment, cooking equipment and so on. There were almost no luxury goods for sale, save for things like soap, sugar, and some condiments in the general goods hut.
Song Yi quickly spotted the person that was buying yellow-tailed lizards. He was a man that could neither be called young nor old wearing clothes that were really worn down from travel. He seemed unfamiliar to her, a resident of the village for about 12 years, so she didn’t hesitate to label him as a traveler.
When she approached him, she saw that he had already accumulated a fair number of lizards on a bench, numbering about 20. She didn’t know what he needed them all for, but she certainly needed the money he was willing to pay for them. Gang Gu, a boy she had a bit of an enmity with for a long time now, was currently dumping out the lizards he had collected in his bag into the vendor’s hands. The bastard had actually managed to collect 3!
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What surprised her more was the bulging coin pouch by the vendor's side. As he reached into it, he actually fished out 60 coppers! He was buying the lizards for 20 coppers a piece! What a wasteful, yet rich individual!
Her eyes shone as it was finally her turn. She was determined to haggle at least 10 coppers for the tail, which she would never do if this vendor were someone else. What a joke! No normal person would buy even a whole yellow-tailed lizard for even 1 copper, let alone 10 for just its tail! She was going to make hell bent on making a profit today!
“Mister, here, buy this!” she demanded, holding out the tail with both hands in expectation. Her head didn’t even reach the man’s shoulders, but her gait was domineering! She would not stop pestering him until he bought it off her!
The vendor had a troubled expression on his face. It seemed as though he really didn’t want to buy it. Seeing this, Song Yi started to panic.
“Look, look, this tail is nice and fat and plump and half as big as a whole lizard,” she explained desperately, holding the tail very close to his face for him to examine, “Since I’m only selling the tail, I’ll be generous and take it for half price! Give me 10 coppers and it’s yours. ”
Seeing her shamelessness, black lines started to form on the vendor’s forehead. What did it matter if the tail was fat and plump! It’s not like he was going to eat it! Besides, for his purposes, the tail was useless. He was buying the lizards specifically for their tongues.
“Look here boy,” the vendor said impatiently, mistaking Song Yi’s gender like most people that saw her for the first time, “Don’t waste my time. I don’t want the tails. I’m not buying.”
Hearing this, gears immediately began to turn in the girl’s head. She thought that she had priced the tail too highly, so the vendor was acting disinterested to get her to lower the price! It was a bargaining tactic!
“Ok, ok, you don’t have to buy it for 10. I’m feeling really kind and considerate today, so I’ll sell it to you for 5,” Song Yi hurriedly said, holding out a hand in front of her, “Hmm, what do you say? It’s a great deal!”
The vendor had already started to ignore her and turned to face other sellers. He had so much money, but he was being this stingy with her! She had spent quite a bit of time searching for the lizards and her body was stinky with sweat. And yet, this penny pincher didn’t care! Flustered, she continued to bother him.
“Yeah, maybe 5 is too much? What about 4? That’s a decent price right?”
Seeing that she still couldn’t get his attention, despite hovering around him and wagging the lizard tail around, she grit her teeth and started pricing it even lower, attracting the attention of curious bystanders.
“I spent so much time trying to find these damned lizards! I would’ve brought the whole thing, but an alligator beat me to it. Otherwise, why would I only be selling the tail! Mister, please be considerate! 3 cop—no, 2 coppers. Please just give me 2 coppers!”
The vendor looked annoyed, and those around were sure he was going to hit her any minute if she continued. Gang Gu and his crew laughed at the sight as they mocked her and the pitiful scene she was making.
Finally, unable to tolerate her whining anymore, the vendor fished out a copper coin from his pouch and tossed it at her, shooing her away. He didn’t even bother taking the tail! To a random onlooker, it was as though she wasn’t selling her goods, but begging for money. Seeing the coin on the floor, Song Yi realized that she would be unable to do business with this man. She simply didn’t have what he wanted, so now he was telling her to get lost with some money. If she really continued advertising now, it would not be strange for her to get beaten up.
She picked the coin up from the ground and left while cursing her fortune. What should have been 20 coppers was only 1 now! She wanted to torture that damn alligator to death. Too embarrassed to stay any longer, she ran back home with strength in her steps.
Feri Village was home to about 900 people, which was rather small for a village. Even though it had been around for a long time now, the reason why its size remained so small was due to the terrain. It wasn’t easy to farm in this area, and natural resources besides wood were hard to come by. Even clean drinking water wasn’t easily obtained, so it made sense that not a lot of people lived here. Anyone with enough money would definitely leave to other villages or towns rather than staying in this desolate area.
Her house was near the outer perimeter of the village, on the opposite side of the market area, so she had to run for about 15 minutes to get there. Her hut had three bedrooms, and was moderately sized compared to other huts in the area. But, since she lived with her paternal uncle, her paternal grandparents, her parents, and her three elder siblings, it felt incredibly cramped.
She nervously entered the courtyard as sneakily as she could, using the tables and chairs lying around for cover. She wanted to grab a bite to eat, hand over the eggs to her sister, and quickly leave before being spotted by anyone else. She had only managed to take home a single copper, so her mother would not be pleased if she was discovered. In her head, she wanted to go try catching lizards again until evening time and return by dinner with at least 40 coppers, so even her mother would not be able to complain. Unfortunately for her though, she was caught the minute she entered the kitchen.
Seeing that her mother’s eyes had already caught her, she had no choice but to give a proper greeting.
“H-Hello mother,” she anxiously greeted. Her voice was trembling, and she felt like her mother already knew what was up. Her expression instantly tensed.
“How much did you make today?” her mother asked, already walking over.
“I… uh, today I—”
Slap!
Without waiting for her to finish, Ding Duali slapped her daughter, causing the girl’s cheek to turn red.
“Just by looking at your face I can tell!” her mother screamed, slapping the girl again in anger, “You’re the only one in this house who is so useless. All you do is play in the forest all day instead of working to make money like everyone else! You’re a leach! I already recommended you to go try apprenticing in embroidery with Madam Gang like your eldest sister, but you so vehemently declined and insisted on spending your time frolicking with frogs instead! Then I asked you to help out in the house like your second sister, but you can’t cook, you can’t clean, you can’t maintain the fire, and you can’t even weave a basket! What a useless girl I’ve given birth to! All you know how to do is squander money!”
Song Yi had tears in her eyes as her mother continued to hit her, but she refused to let them fall. If she did, her mother would only become angrier, and complain that all she knew how to do was cry when being disciplined. But it was really hard for her to compose herself.
Crack!
In her rage, Ding Duali had emptied her daughter’s pouch without warning, causing the five swallow eggs she had so collected with so much difficulty to shatter on the ground, completely obliterating them. Seeing this, 12-year-old Song Yi could no longer remain in the kitchen. She grabbed her pouch back from her mother and ran away, not caring about the screams that chased after her.
After she left her house’s courtyard, she ran outside the village too, not wanting to be followed by anyone. Once she was sure that she was alone, she sat down by a rock and allowed the tears that she was holding in to fall. She felt sad. She felt angry. She felt useless. She felt guilty. She felt so many emotions that were bringing her mood down and making her feel depressed.
She felt useless because she couldn’t even catch one lizard or make any money. She felt sad because her mother had screamed at her and hit her for returning home empty-handed. She felt angry because her mother didn’t even want to hear her out, and had even ruined the eggs that she so painstakingly tried to collect. And she felt guilty because all she could do when her family needed her to be helpful was cry.
Why did it have to be like this! Why did her grandmother have to be sick! Why did her eldest sister need help to fund her dowry! Why did her father have to be so foolish with money! Why did she have to be poor! And why did all attempts she made to make money end up in failure!
Hadn’t she sacrificed a lot already?
Growl.
Her stomach reminded her that she had yet to eat anything. Without thinking, she pulled out the lizard tail she had failed to sell from her pouch and swallowed it raw! After gulping it down, she huffed a couple times in anger, and fell asleep.