Chapter 53 Corvée Labor

After a stick of incense had burned, Du Li arrived at the ferry with Meng Chun and two apprentices from the paper horse shop. The two apprentices carried two bags of rice, while Meng Chun carried Meng Qing and Wang Zhou's luggage.

"You and Chun go back first. I'll take Lao San to the prefectural school and then come back," Du Li said to Meng Qing.

Meng Qing nodded, switched arms to hold the child, and pressed down Wang Zhou's restless arm with the other, "Behave yourself, your uncle will hold you when we get home."

Meng Chun gave Du Min a hasty greeting, then excitedly retreated behind Meng Qing, teasing his little nephew to try and catch him.

The one behind her stepped on her heel, and the one in her arms was kicking restlessly. Meng Qing got angry soon after. She turned around and kicked Meng Chun, "Behave yourself. If you keep making trouble, I'll leave you both here."

Meng Chun laughed loudly, "You're treating me like your son and scolding me? I can run and jump, you've left me here, do you expect me to cry and beg you?"

Meng Qing was taken aback, then chuckled and said, "Walk properly and behave yourself."

Wang Zhou peered at his uncle and his mother, and he laughed along with them.

"Don't laugh, if I leave you here, you'll cry." Meng Qing poked him with a smile.

Du Min watched the two adults and one child laughing and joking as they walked away. He glanced at the person beside him. He had two older brothers, but he had never felt such a comfortable and natural sibling bond.

“Your son forgets you are his father as soon as he sees his uncle,” he said.

“He’s called my uncle, but he’s more like a father to me.” Du Li could see clearly that Wang Zhou was closer to the Meng family, so he didn’t feel uncomfortable.

"Gentlemen, would you like to take a boat?" the boatman asked loudly as a boat approached.

"Let's take a boat," Du Min said.

Du Li brushed his hand away and carried Du Min's bedding roll for him. "You can just carry your book box."

Apart from the two poetry books at the bottom, Du Min's book box was filled with his clothes. They weren't heavy, so he could carry them without any trouble. They were both presentable and added to his scholarly elegance.

“Boatman, go to the prefectural school,” Du Min said.

"Alright. Is the young master a student at the prefectural school?" The boatman sized up Du Min.

Du Min glanced down at his clothes: he was dressed in linen clothes and shoes, and his trousers even had scratches left by scorched branches from the countryside. He didn't look like a young master at all.

"What kind of young master am I? I'm just learning to sweep and clean in the prefecture," Du Min said with self-deprecation.

“Those who can go to the prefecture to learn to work are much better off than us. They meet only noble young men, and a few coins from them can be worth a month’s worth of our boating.” The boatman chatted with him, “Look at you, you work in a scholarly mansion and you develop a scholarly air about you, while we are soaked in the smell of the water.”

Du Min smiled and said, "You are more at ease, you don't have to worry about offending people by reading their faces or being mistreated, and you don't have to worry about offending people by saying the wrong thing."

Du Li glanced at him twice.

Du Min pretended not to see anything and chatted with the boatman, making him happy. When they arrived at the ferry crossing of the prefectural school, the boatman even charged him two coins less.

After watching the boatman row away, Du Min pocketed two copper coins and went to knock on the door with his book box.

"Du...Du Xuezi?" The gatekeeper looked at him as if he had seen a ghost. Then, seeing Du Li carrying his bedding roll, he asked hesitantly, "What are you doing? Didn't you drop out of school?"

“Uncle Wu, I’m asking for leave to go back home because I have something to do. I’m not dropping out of school. I was just joking with you that day,” Du Min explained with a smile. “If you don’t believe me, go ask Wei Shutong. Dr. Xu approved my leave.”

The doorman's expression changed. "Are you kidding me? Is this something to joke about?"

Du Min apologized repeatedly, "How could you believe a casual remark? And have believed it for so long? If I really dropped out of school, wouldn't the academy have heard about it?"

The gatekeeper's face darkened; he was the one who had stirred up the rumors within the academy. But these rumors hadn't stopped at the academy; they had spread beyond. He recalled that about two weeks ago, two men claiming to be relatives of Du Min had come, inquiring whether he had truly dropped out of school, to which he had confidently replied that he had. Looking at Du Min's expression, he seemed unaware and unaffected? Wait, how did Du Min's relatives know he had dropped out?

"Forget it, I won't hold it against you. I won't believe you anymore." The doorman sensed something was wrong, but couldn't figure it out. Afraid that Du Min would retaliate, he stopped pursuing the matter and opened the door to let him in.

Du Li followed without a word, carrying his bedding roll.

Inside the prefectural academy, the classes had not yet ended. The students sat in the classroom listening to the lessons, while the pageboys and servants wandered around the academy. They saw Du Min carrying a book box and swaggering around the academy, and they all stared at him in surprise.

"Du Xuezi, didn't you drop out of school?"

“Who said I dropped out of school? I asked Dr. Xu for leave to go home and take care of my sick family.” Du Min asked, then pretended to suddenly realize something and said, “Was it Uncle Wu, the doorman? I was just joking with him, but I didn’t expect him to take it seriously, and you all took it seriously too?”

The pageboy and the servant looked at each other, neither of them saying a word.

Du Min didn't press further. He led Du Li to the back dormitory, took out his key, and opened the dormitory door. Everything inside was exactly as he had left it.

Du Li unwrapped the sheets from the bedding roll, tossed the clean blankets onto the bed, and said, "You pack up, I'm leaving."

"You're leaving already?" Du Min asked in surprise. "Don't you have anything to say to me?"

"What else do I need to tell you?" Du Li asked, confused.

“You brought me here especially for me, I thought you had something to say to me in private.”

Du Li pointed to the bedding rolls spread out on the bed, "You carried this thing all the way in, didn't the people at the prefectural school laugh at you?"

Du Min was speechless.

"I'm leaving." Du Li didn't look at him; he lifted his foot and left.

Du Min subconsciously followed him out, but Du Li turned back and waved, indicating that he didn't need to see him off anymore.

Du Min watched the figure stride away briskly until it was no longer visible. He turned back into the room, stared at the empty dormitory, and sat there alone for a long time.

Du Li left the prefectural school without paying for a boat ride. He walked for half an hour and arrived at Jiayufang at dusk, where he went to the Meng family's residence.

Meng's parents returned, and they both vie to hold Wangzhou. Meng Qing and Meng Chun sit facing each other under the eaves. Meng Chun leans forward and talks incessantly, while Meng Qing listens attentively.

"My son-in-law is back." Mother Meng was the first to notice the person outside the gate. "What are you doing standing outside? Come in, we've been waiting for you."

Du Li realized that she said she had returned, not that she had come.

"Let's go, let's go, we'll set off as soon as he's back." Meng Qing stood up abruptly.

"Where to?" Du Li asked.

"We're going to a husi (traditional Chinese restaurant) in Rujiaofang for dinner. My parents are treating," Meng Qing told us. "Your third brother took us to this husi. The roasted mutton is delicious, and the biscuits and gulouzi are also very fragrant. They're much better than the ones in Chaliao."

"Let's go," Meng Chun urged. "I've already inquired. The temperature drops quickly in the mornings and evenings lately, and Hu Si has mutton stew."

Mencius's parents led Wangzhou outside, and his mother teased, "Mengchun has been craving it for a long time, just waiting for you to come back so we can go together."

The family locked the door and hurried to the ferry to take a boat. They arrived at Hu Si as the sun was setting, and by the time they sat down, it was already dark.

"Five catties of roasted mutton, a pot of mutton soup, and five ancient buildings." Meng Chun ordered as soon as she sat down. "Sister, do you still want some biscuits? Brother-in-law, do you want some?"

Du Li waved her hand, "Five catties of roasted mutton? A pot of mutton soup? You ordered so much, can we finish it?"

“If you can’t finish the roasted lamb, you can take it home. I didn’t get enough last time,” Meng Chun said.

"These are all we need. Bi Luo doesn't need them." Meng Qing picked up Wang Zhou and let him sit in her lap so as not to disturb her parents' meal.

"Let me carry you," Du Li said.

“I’ll hold him; he’ll behave better in my arms.” When Wang Zhou was disobedient, Meng Qing would really scold and punish him, whereas everyone else would spoil him and scold him as if it were a cat.

“Eat more later, because you’re going to have a tough time when you go back tomorrow,” Meng Qing said.

Du Li smiled. Compared to the Meng family, the Du family's life was indeed hard. He originally wanted to keep Du Min at home for a couple more days, using his name to slaughter chickens and ducks and have a couple of meat meals, but he didn't succeed.

“Winter is coming. Last time we came, the leaves on the grape trellis were still green, but today, almost none of them have fallen off.” Meng’s father looked up at the sky.

“Speaking of which, I just remembered that a few days ago I went to Jinxiufang and bought twenty catties of silk floss. I asked the seamstress at the tailor shop to make one or two sets of winter clothes for each member of the family. Son-in-law, there are two sets of winter clothes for you too. Don’t make any new ones. Come and pick them up in half a month,” said Meng’s mother.

Du Li felt a lump in her throat; he didn't deserve her treating him so well.

“Mom, it’s a waste for me to wear a silk winter coat while I’m working in the countryside. You should return it. It’s more convenient for me to wear a reed-flecked winter coat. There are reeds growing in the irrigation ditch next to our rice paddies. I’ll go back and cut a basket of reeds and replace the reed fluff inside last year’s winter coat with the new one. It’ll be just as warm,” Du Li said.

Roasted mutton and mutton soup were served. Mencius' mother swallowed the words she was about to say, waved her hand, and said, "Don't say anything more. Just take what's offered. Eat, eat, everyone use chopsticks."

Meng Qingchu tapped Du Li, "Serve some mutton soup to my parents and me."

Meng Chun, holding a piece of roasted mutton in one hand and handing over a bowl in the other, said, "Brother-in-law, give me a bowl too."

With Du Li busy, he had no time to ramble on. After silencing him, the four members of the Meng family began to enjoy the roasted mutton before he could.

The meal took half an hour. In the end, the mutton soup was all gone, but there was still more than a pound of roasted mutton left. Meng Chun asked the restaurant to wrap up the roasted mutton so he could take it with him.

They walked slowly home and digested their food by the time they got there. Meng Chun, being a glutton, couldn't hold back his food, so he steamed the roasted mutton again and then shared the more than one pound of mutton with Du Li.

As a result, both brothers-in-law were so restless they couldn't sleep. Du Li couldn't stay still, so he dragged Meng Chun to dismantle the chicken coop and clean up the donkey shed. If it weren't so late at night, he would have taken Da Mao out for a stroll.

Du Li only went back to her house to sleep after the neighbor's roosters had crowed.

After Du Li left, Meng's mother leaned close to Meng Qing and mumbled, "That Meng Chun is a troublemaker. He couldn't sleep last night, and he kept his brother-in-law awake too."

It wasn't Meng Chun who was keeping Du Li from sleeping, but Du Li who was keeping Meng Chun from sleeping. It was only because his behavior was so unusual that Meng's mother noticed something was wrong. Seeing that Meng Qing didn't respond, she asked bluntly, "You won't let him near you?"

"Aren't you ashamed to ask about other people's sex life?" Meng Qing was too lazy to say anything. "It's none of your business."

Mencius' mother poked her with her finger, "Do you think I care about interfering? Let me tell you, although my son-in-law may not make a lot of money, he is a very good person. Don't bully him too much."

"I didn't bully him, go about your business." Meng Qing replied dismissively without looking up from her work.

Mencius' mother had no choice but to let her be.

The two brass horses that Xing Shu ordered will be delivered in two days, but Meng Chun and his father did not dare to paint the horses' eyes, noses, and shadows on their faces. This part was left to Meng Qing to do.

"Sister, the colors are mixed, take a look." Meng Chun brought down the paint tray.

Meng Qing reached out, dipped her finger in the color, and rubbed it between her fingers. "Okay, this color is fine. Here's a brush, you can draw the horse's eyes."

"Huh? I was just waiting for you to come back and draw the horse's eyes, why am I being asked to do it again?" Meng Chun was so surprised he almost jumped up.

Meng Qing jumped off the bench, made way for her, and sternly rebuked, "What? You're not selling brass horses anymore without me? You don't even want a chance to practice? You'll never actually do anything in the future?"

Mencius' mother quickly walked away, afraid of being implicated.

Meng Qing glanced at her, and she handed the brush forward a little more, "Paint."

“We have two more days until delivery. If I ruin this horse, there won’t be time to make another one. How about I practice on the next order?” Meng Chun suggested to her.

"No, why didn't you do this sooner? If you had had this idea earlier, you would have done it sooner. Even if it was ruined, you could have redone it. Now it's too late." Meng Qing forcefully shoved the brush into his hand.

Meng Chun was on the verge of tears, and he cried out, "Father, Mother, come and save me!"

Nobody paid any attention.

"Sister, I'll kneel down for you," Meng Chun pleaded. "You really can't do anything reckless. If I ruin the painting, this deal will be over."

Seeing that he was really about to kneel, Meng Qing was both amused and angry, and said, "Bring another stool."

Meng Chun thought she had agreed, so he hurriedly went to fetch another stool.

Meng Qing stood on a stool to one side of the horse's head and said, "You draw it, I'll watch over it. There won't be any major mistakes. I can correct even the slightest error."

Meng Chun slumped his shoulders. Even now, she still wouldn't change her mind. He knew he had to paint today, so he could only take a few deep breaths, pick up the paint palette, and step onto the stool.

"Senior sister, can we watch from the sidelines?" Shen Yuexiu peeked out from the row of houses.

“Next time I paint, you can come and watch. He’ll be fine. He’s already flustered, and more people will only make him more flustered,” Meng Qing said.

"Hey!" Shen Yuexiu was not disappointed. She responded happily and went back into the house to continue her work of dyeing and drying paper.

Meng Chun took a few deep breaths, but still dared not put pen to paper. Meng Qing did not urge her. She put her hands in her pockets and asked, "After I left, did anyone else come to the shop to become an apprentice? I see that the shop still has the same few apprentices."

“Several came, but none of them were willing to sign contracts or leave their homes to do business in other counties. Four of them hesitated for a few days and changed their minds to become apprentices, but my father refused to take them in. He even said that he would not take in any more apprentices for three years to avoid the situation where too many apprentices would lead to a proliferation of paper-making shops in Wu County, causing apprentices to not be able to earn money or be forced to leave their homes to open their own shops.” Meng Chun said this with great pride. “Those people were impressed by Master Meng’s character and did not cause any more trouble after being rejected.”

Meng Qing exclaimed "Wow!" with pride, "Our father is such a good teacher and a wonderful person."

"That's right!" Meng Chun was extremely proud. "I will learn from my father and I will protect the good reputation of the Meng family's paper horse shop in the future."

After saying that, he handed the paint palette to Meng Qing, held the horse's head in his left hand, took a deep breath, and began to draw the shape of the horse's eyes on the uneven paper with the brush in his right hand.

Meng Chun has been learning to paint from Meng Qing since he was eight years old, and has eight years of experience. He can draw the facial features of paper figures, but he only started to work on the facial features of paper horses last year. Although he has practiced a lot in private, it was all on flat paper.

He held his breath and sketched the shape of the horse's eyes, then stepped back and looked around. "Sis, is this okay?"

“No problem, don’t be too particular about the shape of the horse’s eye. It can be big or small, round or long or narrow.” Meng Qing encouraged him to draw the other eye. “You have to pay attention to this. The two eyes have to be the same. They can’t be one big and one small, or one round and one long and narrow.”

Meng Chun glanced at her, then resignedly continued to carefully sketch.

"Oh no, this eyelid is drooping a bit."

“We can touch it up when we’re coloring it,” Meng Qing reassured him. “Here, take a fine brush and use it for coloring.”

Meng Chun carefully applied the color, filling in the horse's eyes, outlining the curve of the raised eyelids, and the dark brown pupils.

Meng Qing watched without saying anything more.

After a stick of incense had burned, Meng Chun put down his brush. He looked around and said with satisfaction, "Not bad at all. With the eyes drawn, the paper horse immediately has a lively spirit."

Meng Qing took the brush, dipped it in paint, and added a couple more strokes, instantly bringing the horse's eyes to life. "After it dries, apply a thin layer of cow glue to these two areas, and the eyes will look watery."

Meng Chun nodded, stared at the horse's eyes for a while, and continued to outline the bridge of the nose and nostrils for the paper horse.

"How is it?" Meng's mother carried Wangzhou down the river. "Qingniang, the child is hungry."

Meng Qing jumped down. Meng Chun glanced at her, moved his foot, but still chose to continue drawing.

Mencius' mother stood up to take a look and said, "It's exactly the same as what your sister drew."

"My sister helped me add a couple of strokes; the horse's eyes in my drawing lacked spirit," Meng Chun said truthfully.

"With more practice, you'll get better. There will be plenty of opportunities to practice your writing in the next two months. You keep drawing, I'll go back and make dinner first," said Meng's mother.

After Meng Qing finished feeding the child, Meng Chun also finished her work and repaired the ox glue on the horse's head.

Meng Qing looked them over and said, "No problem, it's fine. You draw the other paper horse tomorrow, I won't be watching you anymore, just do your own thing."

"I knew it." Meng Chun gritted her teeth. This was her old trick: as soon as she saw him showing signs of mastering the skill, she would give up and ignore him.

Meng Qing ignored his words. She stood under the horse's head, facing the paper horse's open mouth. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Little brother, get some tung oil and brush two more layers of tung oil on the horse's tongue. When you light the fire, lead the way by going in from here first."

"Okay." Meng Chun went to the row house to get the tung oil.

At this moment, Meng's father came down from the attic. "Where is Meng Chun? I heard from your mother that you forced him to do it? Is this his drawing? It's not bad, just a bit docile. It doesn't have the imposing and domineering feel of the paper horses you drew."

"This shows that he is gentle at heart," Meng Qing said.

When Meng Chun heard this, he retorted, "Father, why don't you try it yourself? Let's see what kind of horse you can draw."

Meng's father immediately backed down, "I'm not as good as you. I can't draw it. I can only outline a person's facial features. You're amazing. You and your sister are both amazing."

“Sister, you’re forcing Father and Mother to take action too.” Meng Chun looked at Meng Qing.

Meng Qing curled her lip in disdain, "These are two pieces of elm wood, there's no hope for them."

Meng Chun laughed loudly, and Wang Zhou, seeing this, also grinned foolishly.

Meng's father wasn't angry. He took his grandson and joked, "Two pieces of spirit wood. You two keep busy. I'll go back and help with the cooking."

After Meng Qing and Meng Chun finished their work, the siblings went around the house to make sure there were no problems. They then said goodbye to their seven apprentices and went home.

Back in Jiayufang, I heard the neighbors discussing the matter of corvée labor.

"Has the corvée labor begun this year?" Meng Qing asked.

“Yes, the government officials came to inform us during the day. But your family doesn’t need to worry. Your father told the neighborhood head that he doesn’t want to do corvée labor. He donated six zhang of silk to replace the labor service,” said the uncle next door to the right of the Meng family.

Meng Qing wasn't surprised. Her father was a businessman and didn't have the strength for hard labor, so he donated silk every year to avoid service. She was just worried about Du Li. He still had five days of service left this year, and at three feet of silk per day, donating fifteen feet of silk would exempt him from service. But if he didn't go to serve, he would probably be pestered by Old Ding to do it in his place.

As Meng Qing expected, Du Li was already entangled with Du Laoding and refused to agree, saying, "I still have five days of service left this year, how can I help you with your service?"

"I'll do your thing, and you do mine," Old Ding Du had already decided.

“No. If you don’t want to do corvée labor, you can substitute it with a labor service and buy silk in the city to donate. Don’t count on me.” Du Li refused clearly. “If I serve for you this year, my service will start again next spring. Can my body handle that?”

There were two service periods each year, one in early spring and one in late autumn. The government arranged for male members to serve, ensuring that families with many male members had at least one male member at home during the service period. Therefore, Du Laoding, Du Ming, and Du Li served separately. He served in early spring every year, while Du Laoding and Du Ming served in late autumn. Du Ming never had the opportunity to serve in place of Du Laoding. Du Li could foresee that if he agreed this time, he would have to serve in place of his father every late autumn from now on.

“I’ll accept corvée labor as a substitute. I’m getting older every year and can’t do heavy work anymore. Corvée labor is either digging river mud or building city walls. It’s too hard for me. I want to live a few more years so that your third brother can pass the imperial examination and I can enjoy my retirement. As long as your mother and I are alive, the three of you brothers can stay together and benefit from your third brother’s success,” Old Ding Du said earnestly.

Du Li didn't respond; he waited for what was to come.

"I heard you made a lot of money selling eels? How about giving some to your father?" Old Du said with a smile.

Even though Du Li had given up on him, he was still heartbroken. He thought he wouldn't be angry anymore, but hearing these words made him so angry that he wanted to smash things.

"All the harvest from my fields goes to you, isn't that filial piety? I've only saved a few bucks, and you're already eyeing them? Are you short of money? No, why are you being so stingy with me?" Du Li gritted his teeth, kicking the wall in anger. "Can you stop disgusting me? You're my father! Can't you act like a father?"

Old Ding Du's face turned cold. "I'm disgusting? Even if I were disgusting, I still raised you all these years. And you, you send all the good things to the Meng family without ever thinking about your father?"

Du Li took a few deep breaths. He couldn't reason with this man, so he stopped wasting his breath. "Let me make this clear: I won't give you a single penny. Give up."

After saying that, he strode away.