CH 27

Chapter 27 – Cockfighting

All her family members felt Man Bao was pretty amazing, and asked, “Man Bao, how did you figure it out?”

Liu Lang embarrassedly admitted, “I counted for a long time but still couldn’t get the total amount.”

Da Ya added, “Sixth uncle started calculating when we had four to five flower baskets left. He couldn’t figure it out even when we were done with the baskets.”

Man Bao counted on her fingers and said to them, “It’s very simple. There are a total of 24 flower baskets, one for five wen.

“So, 20 baskets are exactly 100 wen, two baskets are 10 wen, and four are 20 wen. 100 wen plus 20 wen, isn’t that 120 wen?”

Everyone’s eyes glittered as enlightenment dawned. They counted on their fingers for a long time but still couldn’t figure out the total amount, “Why are 20 flower baskets worth 100 wen?”

Naturally, Man Bao said, “Because 10 flower baskets are 50 wen.”

Everyone was even more confused.

Regardless, they just made a lot of money!

Wu Lang put all the money in the cloth bag which was earlier used to contain the sweets. He stroked the bag and his face blushed with excitement as he had never touched so much money before.

Liu Lang saw it and wanted to touch the money bag, so everyone took turns to touch a handful of copper coins. Then, they sighed contentedly, “Our family have money now.” (Aren’t these kids lovable? Their first thought was of the family, and not their own desires and wants!)

Wu Lang put the money bag into the inner layer of his garment, and asked Man Bao, “Youngest sister, do you want to go somewhere and play? Tell fifth brother and I’ll take you there.”

Man Bao said, “I’m going to buy a big rooster.”

Wu Lang subconsciously covered the bag, “Why do you want to buy the rooster?”

“Nourish mother’s body,” Man Bao said with bright eyes, “Father said, my mother has suffered too much in the past, and she can only get better if she gets good nourishment. The big rooster is a great source of nourishment.”

Wu Lang hugged the money bag tightly, as he was very reluctant, “But that rooster costs 65 wen, it’s too expensive.”

Da Ya and Er Ya also thought the rooster was too expensive, and they nodded in agreement.

Man Bao was very persistent. She felt it was quite easy to earn money. Besides, what was more important than their mother’s health?

Wu Lang couldn’t win, so he could only say, “We’ll buy another one, buy a smaller one since only mother will be eating. She can’t eat so much for one meal. It’s cheaper, and you can buy a few more roosters.”

Man Bao thought her brother made sense, “Where can we find other roosters?”

Of course, they should just backtrack as the earlier street was full of hawkers specializing in selling all kinds of chicken, duck, and vegetables.

However, Wu Lang rarely came to town and didn’t want to backtrack, so he pointed forward, “Let’s just walk ahead, and see if we can find cheaper roosters along the way.”

Everyone happily agreed.

Wu Lang led Man Bao by hand and hugged the money bag tightly, while Wu Lang led his two nieces. With their pack baskets, the two teenagers happily led the younger children in search of amusements.

Man Bao was so excited as this was the first time she saw a sea of people. She wasn’t afraid of strange surroundings. Conversely, she wanted to go where the crowds were!

In the beginning, Wu Lang was leading her, but it didn’t take long before she started dragging Wu Lang and, in the end, he had to chase after her.

Liu Lang also had a place he wanted to go to play. After chasing Wu Lang for a while, he stopped bothering. In any case, it was just one street, and he would bump into them at some point.

Da Ya and Er Ya also didn’t want to chase after Man Bao. So, they followed sixth uncle and played to their heart’s content as they walk along.

Poor Wu Lang! He had to worry about thieves and losing Man Bao. The crucial point was that he also wanted to play.

Man Bao followed the crowd, she ran and stopped and had no clue where she was. When she saw a crowd of excited adults shouting, she was very curious and squeezed through them.

The sweaty Wu Lang who was chasing after her, “Man Bao, Man Bao, don’t run around…”

It was difficult for him with his pack basket to squeeze through the roaring crowd. So, he could only jump up to look at what was happening inside the ring.

When he saw two roosters, his face turned pale in fright. He ignored everything else, dropped the pack basket, hugged the money bag, and squeezed in.

As soon as Man Bao squeezed in, she saw two roosters in the centre. Their comb was ramrod straight and they were crowing to fight.

Man Bao was stumped. What was so interesting about two fighting roosters?

The surrounding crowd was very excited. They clenched their fists and shouted, “Peck it, peck it, harder, peck the eyes, peck the eyes…Oh!”

Man Bao saw the excited adults on her left, and the annoyed adults on the right. She was totally confused, “Keke, what are they doing? Should I help them? Go and persuade the roosters to stop fighting?”

The system advised, “It’s best that you don’t do that. This should be the legendary cockfight.”

Man Bao curiously asked, “What is cockfight?”

“A way of gambling where two roosters fight against each other. The owner of the rooster which loses the fight, loses.”

The system shared the famous cockfighting legend in history.

For example, a certain emperor loved cockfighting. Someone presented a rooster which was purchased at a high price to the emperor. For this, the emperor was severely admonished by a court official.

Man Bao watched the cockfighting curiously for a while. Wu Lang finally squeezed in, hugged Man Bao, and covered her eyes and said, “Man Bao, why did you come here? This is gambling. We can’t learn from fourth brother.”

Man Bao peeled his hand off her eyes. At that same moment, a victor was decided in the cockfighting. The loser was blinded, clucked his wings, and ran away.

The winner which was still in the ring tilted its head proudly and clucked away just like Man Bao when she did a great job.

The owner of the fleeing rooster kicked it to the ground, took out a handful of silver and threw the money at the winner.

Man Bao stared thoughtfully. She took a good look at the man and the rooster.

Wu Lang was terrified when he saw her expression and pulled her away.

Man Bao was unhappy, and said, “I won’t be as stupid as fourth brother. What’s so fun about watching cockfighting? It’s not people who are fighting.”

Wu Lang was stunned, “You, you still want to watch people fight?”

Man Bao asked curiously, “Is there really a way to watch people fight and gamble?”

Wu Lang had never seen this before, but he has heard fourth brother talking about it. However, does he dare to reveal this to Man Bao?

Wu Lang shook his head repeatedly, “No!”

Man Bao said “Oh”, wriggled free and said, “I’m going to talk to that big brother.”

After saying that, she went straight to the loser. Man Bao was a young child and she only reached up to the man’s thighs.  

Although the man’s face was ugly, he didn’t want to take his anger out on a child. He frowned and shouted around, “Who brought their child here? Take her away quickly.”

Wu Lang caught up with Man Bao, hugged her and was about to drag her away.

Man Bao tried to push her fifth brother away while shouting to the loser, “Big brother, do you want to buy a rooster? Very beautiful, a very beautiful rooster.”

The man lowered his head to look at Man Bao, frowned and said, “Do you have roosters at home?”

Man Bao nodded vigorously, “I saw a very beautiful, very beautiful big rooster, with red and black hair, shiny eyes, straight combs with are bright red. It looks good, it’s very good-looking.”