Chapter Two: The Little Match Boy

Seeing my sister-in-law extend her slender, lily-white hand like a scallion stalk, I kept my hands in my pockets and didn’t move.

“When will you teach me your skills?”

Earlier, when she said she wasn’t my sister-in-law, I felt nothing inside.

At that time, I naively believed that Liao Xiaoqin was only four or five years older than me, still very young. My brother and she hadn’t registered their marriage yet, and sooner or later, she would leave the Meng family.

A chaste woman’s virtue should not bind a breathtaking beauty.

But I was intrigued by the way she dealt with Old Wu’s second son and her incredible reputation in the martial world.

This was a woman whose every cell overflowed with skill and stories.

I had to learn from her!

My sister-in-law’s expression was teasing as she stared at me.

“Not going to ask who your brother’s enemy is?”

“No! I’ll ask once I become a fierce dragon of the martial world!”

“Tsk, tsk, such ambition!” She raised the corners of her eyes slightly, her gaze soft and lingering, beckoning me over. “Come here, I’ll teach you your first skill.”

I immediately walked toward her.

“Smack!”

A heavy slap landed across my face.

My cheek burned fiercely as I fell to the ground, teeth clashing against my gums, blood trickling from the corner of my mouth, my eyes fixed on her.

She snorted coldly.

“This slap is your initiation lesson. If you want to learn skills, you must learn manners first!”

She was annoyed that I didn’t offer my hand!

I got up, wiped the blood away, silently cursing her for lacking martial virtue, but gritted my teeth and replied,

“Got it!”

Then I turned and left to buy food.

From behind, she coldly instructed,

“Rent a horse and get a compass, too!”

Although prices weren’t high in the 1990s, I only had a little over three hundred yuan left. Renting the apartment had cost 266 yuan. After buying food, I went to the south gate to rent a horse and buy a secondhand compass, leaving me without a single coin to spare.

I took the items back to the rental, tied up the horse, and had to head out again.

I had already noticed that the cargo yard near the big bridge was hiring laborers for thirteen yuan a day, including lunch and a pack of Hardman cigarettes.

My sister-in-law asked, “Where are you going?”

I replied, “To do some casual work. No food tomorrow if I don’t.”

She bit into a greasy meat bun lightly, as if hearing the funniest joke ever.

“A laborer never rises above his station. No wonder the Meng family is full of paupers!”

I was annoyed.

Not only had she slapped me, but I had gone hungry all day to save food for her, and she casually mocked me.

I was about to snatch the bun from her, to starve her a bit and crush her arrogance.

She lifted her chin, pointed at me with a defiant glare.

I backed down.

Because I couldn’t beat her, and she had a bad temper—she might really hit me.

She said, “Tonight, I’ll show you what it means to feast once and eat for three years.”

That very night, I finally understood the meaning behind her nickname.

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