Chapter 5 Rumors and Gossips

Before noon, all forty chive and egg pancakes that Lin Yao had prepared were sold out.

Looking at the empty pancake stall, Lin Cheng couldn't suppress his smile. Holding the heavy money bag in his hand, he excitedly said to Lin Yao, "I never expected our pancakes to sell so well!"

As Lin Yao packed up her stall, she smiled and said to her elder brother, "Yes, business is booming today. But brother, this is our first day setting up a stall, so everyone is still excited, which is why there are so many customers."

She drank a bowl of water and continued, "Besides this, we also need to calculate the costs. Although the eggs are laid by our own chickens, we still have to buy more when we run out. At the market price of two coins per egg, we used ten eggs today, which is twenty coins. The chives were picked from the mountain and were free, but the oil and flour cost twenty coins for now. So after deducting the costs, we only made eighty coins in total today."

Lin Cheng was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, but he quickly grinned again. He wrapped the money up and carefully stuffed it into his pocket, saying, "Eighty coins is quite a lot. This is much better than hunting. Even if you spend a whole day crawling around in the mountains, you might not be able to earn this much."

Lin Yao smiled and said, "I see that everyone likes this pancake. If we prepare more ingredients in the future, we can earn more money."

Lin Yao glanced at Aunt Li's shop next door, thinking that once the business took off, she would also need to buy some tables, chairs, and tableware.

Lin Cheng nodded quickly: "Okay, I'll get up early tomorrow to prepare the ingredients, make more eggs, and buy more flour and oil."

The first day of setting up their stall went much better than Lin Yao and Lin Cheng had expected. After packing up their things, the three of them carried empty loads and empty baskets back to the village.

Along the way, Lin Yao and Lin Cheng discussed how much food they should prepare for the next few days, while Lin Song skipped and hopped along behind, occasionally picking up small stones from the roadside and throwing them around for fun.

But once inside the village, the atmosphere felt somewhat strange.

The three siblings had always gotten along well with their neighbors. They would usually greet each other and exchange a few words when they met. But today, when they saw them from afar, they quickened their pace and hurried away, as if they were avoiding them.

Lin Cheng and Lin Yao exchanged a glance, both sensing that something was amiss.

As they approached home, the three of them spotted a person squatting at their doorstep from afar.

"Brother Dazhuang!" Lin Cheng quickly walked a few steps forward and greeted Liu Dazhuang.

Liu Dazhuang was a well-known hunter in the village. Although he looked only twenty-four or twenty-five years old, he had nearly ten years of hunting experience. Since Lin Cheng's father went missing, Liu Dazhuang often took Lin Cheng up the mountain to hunt, teaching him to identify animal tracks and find water sources. The two were as close as brothers.

Today is the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the day Liu Dazhuang goes to town to sell his game. When he goes to sell his game, he will also take Lin Cheng's game with him so that Lin Cheng can stay at home and take care of his younger siblings.

When Liu Dazhuang saw them return, he quickly stood up and picked up the cloth bag he had just placed at his feet. "Cheng-ge'er, you're finally back!"

Lin Cheng hurriedly stepped forward: "Brother Dazhuang, have you been waiting long? I was just looking for you. I was lucky yesterday and hunted a pheasant. Could you please help me take it to the market to sell?" As he spoke, he hurriedly went into the house, took out the wrapped pheasant, and handed it over.

Liu Dazhuang took the pheasant and noticed that the brother and sister weren't very interested. "Why are you both looking so down?"

Following Liu Dazhuang's words, Lin Cheng recounted the strange reactions of the villagers on the road.

Upon hearing this, Liu Dazhuang's expression changed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he still spoke up, "It's all because of your aunt! She's a master of making things up. When she was chatting with the women under the banyan tree at the village entrance, she said that the day Yaoya went missing, she must have been tainted by something unclean. She bled so much from her head, but the next day she went up the mountain as if nothing had happened. She said that if anyone in the village got tainted by something unlucky, it would bring disaster to the village. She told it all with such conviction that she scared everyone."

Lin Yao felt a little guilty; what Hu said wasn't wrong.

She herself didn't care about such sayings, nor did she care about whether she could get married. However, she had to find a way to deal with these superstitious beliefs that affected her reputation, otherwise she was afraid that if anything happened to anyone else in the future, they could blame it on her family.

Lin Cheng was so angry that veins bulged on his forehead, and his fists clenched tightly: "My aunt is outrageous! How could she treat someone like this, ruining A-Yao's reputation for no reason! It was clearly her..."

Lin Cheng stopped midway through his sentence. He knew that if word got out that his aunt was going to sell his sister to be a concubine, his sister's reputation would be ruined.

Liu Dazhuang quickly patted Lin Cheng on the shoulder to comfort him: "Brother Cheng, don't worry. Your aunt is just a gossip."

Lin Cheng took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down: "Brother Dazhuang, thanks to you for telling us, this matter absolutely cannot be left like this. I must find Auntie and demand an explanation to clear Ayao's name!"

After saying goodbye to Liu Dazhuang, the three siblings put their stall items at home, and Lin Cheng went to the main house of the Lin family to seek justice for his sister.

Lin Yao grabbed Lin Cheng, who was about to rush to the main house of the Lin family, and said, "Brother, if you go there in such a huff, Auntie will definitely deny everything."

Although Lin Cheng was furious, he knew that his sister was right, so he could only suppress his anger and listen to her plan.

Lin Yao leaned close to Lin Cheng's ear and whispered her plan.

Lin Cheng was taken aback at first, then frowned slightly: "Ayao, this matter should not be known to others, as it will damage your reputation."

Lin Yao shrugged and said, "Brother, I have done nothing wrong in this matter. The most important thing is to resolve the rumors. Besides, I have no intention of getting married. I can live on my own. Why should I get married to serve a whole family and work myself to death without getting any reward?"

Lin Cheng assumed she was just a young girl and didn't take Lin Yao's words to heart, but he also knew that with this talk of evil spirits, his sister's reputation wouldn't be good either.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Lin Cheng returned to his room and took out the deerskin he had brought back last month.

He and Dazhuang had put in a lot of effort to hunt this deer. They sold the venison, and the remaining deer hide was soft, thick, and warm to the touch. They each took half of the hide. Lin Cheng had planned to keep it to make a pair of warm boots for each member of his family and to sew a small cape for Song'er.

The brother and sister, carrying deerskins, hurried to the house of the matchmaker in the neighboring village.

The two knocked on the door for a while before a plump old woman came to open it.

As soon as the door opened, Lin Yao spoke first, her eyes reddening, her voice tinged with grievance and urgency: "Grandma, please help my brother and me this time. Consider this deerskin a token of our gratitude. There will be a greater reward after this is done." As she spoke, she spread out the deerskin, its fine fur gleaming softly in the dim room.

Zhang the matchmaker was a money-grubber, and her eyes lit up the moment she saw the fine deerskin. She nodded hurriedly, "Young lady, come in quickly. I can't bear to see you suffer. Tell me, how can I help you?"

Lin Yao got goosebumps when she heard what Zhang Ya Po said. "Grandma, do you still remember Hu Shi?"

When Zhang Yapo heard the name, her eyelids twitched slightly. "Hu Shi? Which Hu Shi? I meet so many people every day, I really can't remember right now."

Seeing her expression, Lin Yao clearly remembered. "Mother-in-law, don't beat around the bush. A few days ago, the old magistrate in town wanted to find a young woman to be his concubine, and Hu from Huaihua Village came to you. But Mother-in-law, you don't know this, but I'm the only daughter in the Lin family's eldest and second branches. Hu is trying to harm you! My brother is still alive, how can she be in charge of me? She deceived you and trafficked women, which, according to the law, is punishable by exile for two thousand miles! Now, all you need to do is cooperate with us to put on a show, and the matter can be resolved!"

Although Lin Yao despised these feudal ideas, she was now just an ant in this era and could only follow local customs. She reminded Zhang Yapo about the fact that there were still male heads of the household.

After hearing this, Zhang the matchmaker took the deerskin in her hand and examined it carefully, weighing the pros and cons in her mind. After a while, she said, "Considering how pitiful the young lady is, and that you have brought out such a good thing, tell me how you want me to cooperate."

The next day, when Zhang Yapo arrived at Huaihua Village, it was a busy time for villagers to move around. The women from each household had finished their chores and were chatting in twos and threes.

As soon as Zhang the matchmaker entered the village, she rushed towards the house of the Lin family's eldest son, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Hu Shi! I've been looking everywhere for you! You promised to sell me your beautiful daughter, and you've already taken the deposit, so why haven't you brought her here yet? You have to be honest in business!"

Hearing the commotion, the neighbors gathered around.

Mrs. Hu had almost forgotten about the matter. She was in the house scolding her eldest son for incurring gambling debts again when she heard the commotion outside. She panicked and hurriedly ran out to close the door.

As soon as she showed her face, Zhang the matchmaker rushed forward, saying, "You've made me search everywhere! We agreed before that I would sell your daughter to me so I could take her to Master Hu's house to enjoy a life of luxury. Master Hu has been waiting for days now, but why hasn't she come yet?"

Hu tried to remain calm, but pointed at the matchmaker and yelled, "You crazy old woman who's full of lies, where did you come from, and what nonsense are you spouting here!"

Liu San Niang, who had been watching the show for a while, said, "Grandma, you've probably been fooled. This Hu Shi doesn't have any daughters. She only has two sons. As for daughters, the Lin family only has one in the second branch. How can an elder sister-in-law sell her niece?"

Just then, Lin Yao was passing by when she heard the commotion. Her face turned deathly pale, and she rushed to the matchmaker, grabbing her sleeve tightly as tears streamed down her face. "Grandma, what did you say? Why is my aunt selling me?"

Granny Zhang flung her handkerchief aside, feigning grievance: "Oh, Hu, don't try to deny it! A few days ago, under that crooked old tree at the village entrance, we had a good talk, and you even accepted my deposit. Why are you turning your back on me now?"

The eldest aunt's forehead was covered in beads of sweat, and her eyes darted nervously through the crowd. She vehemently denied it, saying, "Don't listen to her nonsense, she's a liar who's trying to scam me!"

But when people looked at Hu Shi, who was dressed in drab clothes, and then at Zhang Yapo, who was dressed in bright clothes, they were already seven or eight parts convinced. Someone couldn't help but mutter under their breath, "Hu Shi, if this hadn't happened, would they have come to your door? And they told you such a convincing story, what do you have to be fooled about?"

Lin Yao sobbed, adding fuel to the fire: "Aunt, I've always respected you as an elder. Even though you've never been kind to me, I've never talked back. How could you be so heartless as to push me into this fire pit!"

Madam Hu wanted to make a defense but didn't know where to begin. She felt dizzy and surrounded by accusations: "How cruel! You can even do this to your own niece!" "No wonder you called Yao a jinx before, you were planning to sell her!"

A note from the author:

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