Chapter 18
Passing through the bustling market and heading south, the scattered and disorderly houses along the way gradually disappeared, and were replaced by neat military settlements. The houses were square, one next to the other, with most of the courtyard doors open, and the courtyards were filled with furs and clothes hanging out to dry.
A man carrying a load and leading a camel came across the alley. Seeing Zhao Xiping's gloomy face and two girls and children following him...whose attire would never appear in a military settlement, he asked in surprise, "Brother Zhao, where did you bring these people back from?"
Sui Yu lowered her head and dared not say a word. She noticed that the two feet in front of her stopped, so she also stopped, holding her breath.
"In a few days, when you finish your work in the fields, come to my house for the wedding banquet." Zhao Xiping accepted his fate.
It was clearly a happy occasion, but after he mentioned it, it became as cold as a funeral. The man who asked the question didn't dare to ask any more questions. He agreed and turned around with his camel. After walking a few steps, he looked back at the three people on the road with a belly full of curiosity.
Sui Yu breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at the man in front of her and said, "Thank you for taking me in. I will work hard and make sure you don't suffer any loss."
Zhao Xiping snorted coldly and said sarcastically, "You won't let me suffer a loss? This criminal slave has no land or food. I brought back two mouths to feed but didn't get any more land. How can I not suffer a loss?"
Sui Yu was stunned. She didn't know about this policy. She opened and closed her mouth, and finally could only mumble, "I'll eat less and work more. I'll wash your clothes and cook for you, and I can also collect firewood and manure."
"Anyone can do these jobs."
Sui Yu shut up. He was very angry and felt very aggrieved. She didn't provoke him.
After two more turns, we arrived at Thirteen Villages, each housing one hundred households. There were three lanes, and Zhao Xiping's home was in the middle of the second lane. He was a captain of ten men, and his yard was three feet deeper than that of an ordinary soldier. It had two rooms, a kitchen, a firewood room, and a livestock pen.
As soon as you enter the door, the layout of the house is clear at a glance.
The hoe and sickle brought back from the fields were still in the yard, the empty water bag fell at the foot of the wall, and two bald hens were idly digging the soil outside the woodshed. When people walked in, they raised their necks and stared, clucking from time to time.
Zhao Xiping sat down on the stone outside the main room door. He sighed deeply and rubbed the dry mud on his hands with his head down.
Sui Yu held Sui Liang in the yard, afraid to move. She glanced over from time to time, seeing him remain motionless. She took tentative steps, picked up the water bag on the ground and hung it on the earthen wall. She propped the tilted hoe against the wall and placed the sickle at the base. She even took a broom from the livestock pen and planned to sweep up the chicken droppings in the yard.
"Okay, stop busying yourself." Zhao Xiping sighed again.
He suddenly spoke out, and Sui Yu was startled.
"I don't think you're a coward," Zhao Xiping glared at her. "Would you be scared by me if you dare to say the law is wrong?"
"I'm afraid of you, afraid that you'll regret it." Sui Yu tried to be humble and retorted in a low voice: "I didn't say that."
"Now I'm more careful."
Sui Yu didn't say anything. She underestimated people's hearts and lacked knowledge in this area.
"What's your name?" Zhao Xiping asked again.
"Sui Yu, the Yu of jade, my younger brother's name is Sui Liang, the Liang of goodness."
Zhao Xiping sneered, "What about the others? Are you going to bring another one back someday? Your mother, your grandmother?"
"No, they're all dead." Sui Yu explained the situation honestly. "Liang Ge'er and I were born to my aunt. After being sentenced to exile, my aunt and aunt hanged themselves. I also hanged myself, but the rope broke and I didn't die. Liang Ge'er was frightened and became stupid at that time. He can't speak. As for my father, he died on the way to exile."
"Born by an aunt?" Zhao Xiping gritted his teeth and cursed Li Baihu in his heart.
Sui Yu nodded. She didn't lie because she didn't want to create hidden dangers. Anyway, the situation was already so bad that it wouldn't matter if it got worse.
"Is your father really not involved in your uncle's corruption?" Zhao Xiping confirmed again.
"Seriously, I swear." Sui Yu raised two fingers and said, "My father has no right to get involved in this matter. My uncle looks down on him. We only meet once for the New Year's ancestral worship. How could he be allowed to know about such a life-and-death matter?"
Zhao Xiping believed it. He stood up and walked towards the kitchen, saying, "From now on, I can't have anything to do with your cousins. I hate corrupt officials the most. We fight to the death on the battlefield to protect our territory, but these bastards are just eating away at our country without regard for human life. I wish I could kill them all."
Sui Yu was silent for a moment and nodded in agreement.
A fire was lit in the cold stove and blue smoke came out of the chimney. Zhao Xiping added a ladle of water to the pot to heat up the cold porridge left over from the morning. He heard the sound of a broom scraping the floor outside. He glanced outside and was choked by the ashes that were stirred up.
"Sprinkle water first to thin the dust." He frowned and asked impatiently, "Have you never swept the floor?"
"Oh oh oh." Sui Yu hurriedly put down the broom and scooped up water to sprinkle on the ground.
"What a rich lady." Zhao Xiping sneered.
Sui Yu did not argue, but diligently sprinkled water on the yard to suppress the dust, then continued to sweep the floor obediently and docilely. He shoveled the piled up dust and chicken droppings into the basket instead of throwing them away. These could be composted and used as fertilizer after the crops were harvested.
The porridge was hot, and Zhao Xiping brought out his own bowl and said, "There's rice in the pot, go get it yourself."
Sui Liang took a step forward and turned to look at his sister again.
"We're not hungry, so we won't eat." Sui Yu pulled Sui Liang to stand still and said, "We only eat two meals on the road. We're used to it."
Zhao Xiping didn't care whether she was really not hungry or pretending not to be hungry. He filled his stomach, put down the bowl, picked up the hoe and sickle and went to work in the fields.
"Let's go to work too." Sui Yu chased out the door.
"Stay at home and don't work yourself to death in the fields." She was so thin that a hit from his elbow could break all her bones. Even though Zhao Xiping disliked her, he would never torture a woman and a child.
His figure quickly disappeared at the end of the alley. Sui Yu looked away and saw the old lady from the opposite yard coming out. She took the initiative to greet her: "Hello, grandma."
"Whose family are you from? A relative of Captain Zhao? Your accent doesn't sound like a local."
"I'm his wife." Sui Yu lowered her head and smiled shyly.
"What?"
"Xiping said that he would invite you to the wedding banquet after finishing the work in the fields." Sui Yu said again.
The old woman was stunned. "When did that happen? I haven't heard him mention it before."
"Just today, grandma, you are busy, I'll go wash the pots and dishes." Sui Yu pretended to be shy, walked quickly into the house and closed the door.
As soon as she entered the room, her expression changed. Seeing Sui Liang staring at her eagerly, she walked over to the kitchen and said, "Are you hungry? Be patient, we'll eat tonight."
Sui Liang shook his head, he was not hungry.
The iron pot on the stove was like a bucket, an uncapped rectangular iron vessel, half a arm's height. Sui Yu peeked in and saw that there was still some thick porridge at the bottom. She scraped it out with a bowl. It was a shallow bowl, enough for a man to fill up even if he was full. He didn't eat any of it, so he must have left it for her and Sui Liang.
Sui Yu put the leftover porridge into the food cupboard, scooped water to soak the pot, washed the dishes and then the pot, and wiped the corners of the stove clean. He also scrubbed the oil tank and salt tank until they were shiny, and even washed the broken handles back to their original color.
"Is there still fire in the pot?" she asked Sui Liang.
Sui Liang leaned into the stove and blew a deep breath, and sparks appeared.
Sui Yu walked over and saw a tree stump stuck in the ground. A wisp of white smoke rose from the cracks in the tree. She squatted over to look. The stump was completely burned out. As her breath entered, a red glow appeared on the carbonized inner wall. It turned out that the fire was preserved in the stump, so she didn't need to keep the fire going.
"Come on, come out." Sui Yu closed the stove door. At this time, she was starving and her legs were weak from hunger, so she had to sit on the stone to rest.
Sui Liang walked to the water tank, scooped half a bucket of water to fill his stomach, and then gave it to Sui Yu.
Sui Yu took the ladle and drank until she was full. She sighed and burped.
"Yeah." She laughed.
Sui Liang also laughed.
"What are you laughing at, little fool? Here, put the ladle on the lid of the jar."
Sui Liang ran over and over with light steps. At this time, there were only the two siblings left in the yard, and he rarely showed any childish look.
Sui Yu rested up, leaning on her knees to stand up and said, "Come with me to clean the livestock pen, then we'll go out and look for wild vegetables. We'll cook a couple more dishes tonight and eat as much as we want to celebrate our new home."
Sui Liang nodded heavily.
The livestock pen ran the length of the yard, with no roof and shoulder-high pens. Sui Yu walked in and found the ground covered in sand, strewn with chewed grass residue. In the corner lay two soft piles of camel dung, clearly indicating that Zhao Xiping still kept camels. Sui Yu remembered the man she'd spoken to on the way here, also with a camel, and she figured every household probably had one or two camels to haul goods.
The sink with floating grass residue was cleaned and replaced with clean water. The grass residue was swept away with a broom, and the dusty loess wall was also swept. Sui Yu did not touch the camel dung because he could not pick it up before it was dried.
After coming out of the camel pen, Sui Yu ran to the toilet. After coming out, she took a broom to sweep the cobwebs in the toilet. She also cleaned the roof and walls of the woodshed, kitchen, and main room, but she did not go into the bedroom.
"Let's go out. Do you still want some water?" Sui Yu took the basket from the wall. The sun was setting, and it was time to go digging wild vegetables.
Sui Liang drank a bellyful of water before running out.
"It's coming out."
There were people sitting in the alley, an old lady coaxing a child, an auntie peeling beans, and a young sister-in-law grinding sheep bones. When Sui Yu opened the door and came out, they all looked over.
Sui Yu smiled shyly at them and walked over with Sui Liang in her hand.
"It's almost time to cook, what are you busy with?"
"I'm going to look for some wild vegetables. There's no vegetables at home." Sui Yu answered softly.
"Captain Zhao's vegetable garden is as barren as the Gobi Desert. I'm glad you've come. Plant some radishes and bitter greens next year. It'll be enough for a year."
Sui Yu nodded slightly.
"She is a lady, how can she be the type to grow vegetables and manage the household?" someone sneered.
Obviously, Sui Yu's identity and origins have been revealed.
"There is no such thing as a young lady. There is no young lady. It's just that Xiping doesn't despise me. I followed him and naturally devoted myself to managing the household for him." Sui Yu knew what kind of personality older men liked most in their wives. She was like a handful of water that could not be shaped, without any edges or corners, and extremely docile.
"If I don't know how to grow vegetables, I will learn. If there is anything I don't understand, I will ask grandma and auntie to teach me." She added.
"Oh, okay."
After Sui Yu and her brother left, the people who stayed behind whispered to each other, "She's a hard-working girl, and seems quite gentle, not like the young ladies in the opera."
"How dare she, a criminal slave, act like a lady?"
"That means she's smart."
"It's not that easy to be picky. As long as I can find a wife, it's fine. With the new wife coming home, Captain Zhao will have hot meals to eat when he comes home from work in the evening."
"Too."
…
Sui Yu pulled Sui Liang out of the military settlement and headed toward the sound of water. Asking for directions along the way, they learned they were headwaters from the Shizhi River. As the sound of water grew clearer, the houses along the road transformed into fields filled with workers. Camels carried millet stalks along the road, and deep in the fields, hidden by the millet leaves, the sound of pounding bean pods could be heard.
Sui Yu stuck her head out to look around but didn't see Zhao Xiping. She withdrew her gaze and pulled Sui Liang upstream along the river beach. At the end of the oasis was a bare sand hill, which was covered with the sunset and was as beautiful as a painting.
Sui Yu looked all the way and most of the depression he had been holding in for the day was gone.
There was a loud thud in the river, and a fish the size of a palm jumped out of the water and fell back into the river. Sui Liang stared at it blankly, swallowing his saliva with greed.
"When we have free time, we will make a net to catch fish." Sui Yu had an idea. She had no land, so she could only seek livelihood in rivers, lakes, wilderness and desert.
Sui Liang nodded heavily, he looked away and searched for leeks on the ground. This was the only kind he recognized.
Zhao Xiping worked in the fields until it was completely dark before returning home. He first led a camel to transport the millet to the granary, and then returned in the dark. Thinking of the two extra people at home, he sighed again.
"You're back?" Hearing the noise, Sui Yu quickly stood up from the stone. She went out and said, "I've prepared the meal and was waiting for you to come back."
"Um."
Sui Yu took the hoe from his shoulder and said softly, "I'll go to the fields with you tomorrow. If you can't do the heavy work, I'll do the light work. At the very least, I can lead your camel or run errands for you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com