Playing *pià* (card-flicking) was definitely a skill that required a certain level of technique; relying solely on brute strength was absolutely useless.
Mainly because no matter how strong you were, what you held in your hand was merely a thin slip of paper.
Thus, under Wang An's direction, the child won one game after another against the boy who refused to listen to Wang An, and slip after slip of *pià* ended up in the boy's hands.
After playing for a while, the boy who hadn't listened became agitated. He pointed at his opponent and shouted
"You're cheating! If you keep listening to him, I'm not playing with you anymore!"
His opponent, naturally, wasn't about to admit that he was winning because of Wang An's guidance, so he immediately retorted
"I'd still beat you even if I didn't listen to him. Just admit you can't play!"
Turning around, the boy said to Wang An
"Big Brother, stop giving me tips. Just watch and see if I can beat him on my own."
The boy who had ignored the directions and lost several *pià* also yelled at Wang An
"If you dare interfere from the sidelines again, do you believe me when I say I'll call my big brother out to beat you up?"
It was clear that if Wang An weren't so tall and sturdy—and if the boy didn't feel he was no match for him—he would have started a fight long ago.
To be fair, Wang An was indeed quite a nuisance; the kids were playing perfectly fine, yet he insisted on leaning in and blathering on.
However, the reason Wang An did this was that he wanted to get close to these children.
One had to understand that rural children of this era, whenever they had free time, spent the whole day running around. There wasn't a single nook or cranny in the entire village they hadn't visited.
Even when their parents told them to work, it usually meant going to the meadows near the village to herd cattle, horses, or donkeys.
When a few—or even a dozen—children gathered, they would let the cattle and horses graze on their own while they continued to play.
For example, they would climb trees to raid bird nests, go down to the river to catch forest frogs and fish, or search everywhere for the nests of "big-eyed thieves" (beetles) to catch them. In short, most of the time they were looking for things they could eat.
And the method of eating was very simple, summarized in one word: "roast." That's right, roast. Everything could be roasted; once it was cooked, it was edible.
There was no helping it; children back then were always hungry, so they took the initiative to find snacks.
The reason Wang An wanted to get close to these teenagers was that older children had to follow their parents into the fields to work, while the very young were too naive—asking them anything was a waste of breath.
Therefore, if any household in the village had a sick cow or horse, these teenagers would definitely know better than anyone. Asking them was a sure bet.
Wang An obviously didn't take the boy's verbal threats seriously. He asked the two children with a smile
"How about you two play again later? A couple of days ago, the Sun family's horse in our village got spooked and ran off. I've come looking for the horse. Have you seen a horse run into your village?"
Asking about cows right now would be a bit too early, but after playing for a while and even making the kids lose their tempers, Wang An felt the time was right, so he decided to test the waters first.
After Wang An finished asking, the two children looked at each other and spoke almost in unison
"No, no horse ran into our village. Not once this year."
"I haven't heard of anyone getting an extra horse. That horse probably didn't run toward our village."
Following up, Wang An continued to ask
"Then have you heard if anyone in your village is looking to sell a horse or a mule lately?"
The two children were stunned for a moment, then the boy who had won the *pià* spoke up
"Ruan Xiaobing's family is selling their two-year-old mule. But that mule isn't very well-behaved; it likes to kick."
Wang An pretended to ponder and nodded, asking
"Is that mule harnessed?"
In this era, buying livestock was primarily for work. If a mule or horse didn't know how to be harnessed, it had to be trained. Training a mule or horse to be harnessed was similar to training it for riding; it required a significant amount of time and effort.
Hearing this, the boy who won the *pià* immediately said
"Definitely not. Ruan Xiaobing's father got kicked once just for trying to make that mule take a harness."
Wang An immediately changed his tune
"Then I don't want it. A 'greenhorn' would have to be trained at home. Everyone's busy plowing the fields; who has time to train it!"
Wang An pretended to slap his thigh and said again
"What about cows? Cows are fine too. Is anyone in your village selling a cow? Let's get this straight: I don't want a calf, and I don't want a greenhorn. It has to be able to be harnessed and pull a cart. I'm in a hurry to use it for plowing. Seven or eight years old or older would be best."
"Greenhorn" (*shenggezi*) was a local dialect term referring to animals or people who had never worked or performed a specific task since birth. However, when applied to people, it carried a derogatory tone.
Noticing the thoughtful expressions on the two children's faces, Wang An continued
"Tell you what, if you two can find me a suitable cow, I'll give you each one yuan—no, how about two yuan each?"
As he spoke, Wang An pulled a stack of "Big Unity" (ten-yuan notes) from his pocket, but after a glance, he put them back and pulled a small stack of change from another pocket.
To be honest, the reason Wang An pulled out the stack of ten-yuan notes wasn't that he had forgotten which pocket held the change and which held the large bills, but because he wanted to show off intentionally to prove he was serious about buying a cow and wasn't just bragging.
Teenagers could absolutely not resist the temptation of money. Don't ask how Wang An knew; the answer was that Wang An had never treated money as a big deal.
Seeing the stack of ten-yuan notes, the two children were naturally shocked. In the countryside of this era, seeing a stack of ten-yuan notes was extremely rare; let alone children, even adults rarely had the chance.
The boy who had lost the *pià* stared at the change in Wang An's hand and asked
"If we help you buy a useful cow, will you really give us two yuan each?"
Wang An said very firmly
"Absolutely. A man's word is his bond. How about this: I'll give you each 50 cents now. If the deal goes through, I'll give you the remaining 1.50 yuan each. If it doesn't work out, you don't get the rest."
As he spoke, Wang An readily handed 50 cents to each of the two children.
In reality, the main purpose of giving this 50 cents was to filter out households that didn't raise cows.
Mainly because there were over 300 households in this village. If Wang An and Wang Li asked every single house, it would take until the cows came home. More importantly, many households didn't raise cows, but rather mules, horses, or donkeys.
The boy who lost the *pià* looked at the money with a face full of joy, then carefully tucked it into his pocket and said
"We'll take you to the houses that have cows to ask, so you don't have to worry about whether you can trust us."
The words this child spoke were exactly what Wang An had hoped for!
(End of Chapter)