Chapter 26 Xie Liangchen's Troubles
Xie Liangchen felt extremely uncomfortable and gritted his teeth as he turned and left.
"Hey? Xie Erlang, aren't you taking the carriage?"
"Haha, could it be that you want to ride horses with the Li family's daughter-in-law?"
"But even the horse can't fit the Li family's daughter-in-law."
When the aunties around him saw him like this, they exchanged glances, their expressions shifting ambiguously between him and Jiang Nuanzhi.
This made Xie Liangchen even more uncomfortable. He stopped abruptly in his tracks.
“Young master, there’s only one donkey cart in this village that goes to town. If we miss it, we’ll be late for the academy today. It’ll be hard to explain to the teacher.” Afu caught up with him and said.
Xie Liangchen was caught in a dilemma: whether to leave or not.
Jiang Nuanzhi smiled and helped Li Junping mount the horse, saying in a very calm manner, "Aunties, please don't joke around. I lent the horse to Young Master Xie earlier. My Ping'er will be going to the academy in a few days, so Young Master Xie returned it. Young Master Xie is shy, so please be kind with your words."
"You're such a kind-hearted girl, still protecting your former master like this. You're so devoted."
Upon hearing this, everyone chuckled knowingly.
Xie Liangchen's face turned bright red, and after a long while he managed to stammer out, "That's utter nonsense! Don't spout such rubbish!"
Jiang Nuanzhi remained frank: "The Xie family has been kind to me, and I am naturally willing to help them within my ability. Aunt, please don't say anything more about deep affection, or my eldest son will be unhappy to hear it."
"Your Dalang? We haven't heard from him for months, could it be that he might be coming back?"
"Yeah, I saw your house was all lit up yesterday, what happened?"
Jiang Nuanzhi said with a smile, "It's my Dalang who's back. He was injured. So, Ping'er and I went to town to fetch a doctor, and that's why we didn't chat with you aunties."
"Oh my, Li family's eldest son is back? Thank goodness!"
"Yes, yes, you should go quickly."
"That's right, this can't be delayed."
With that, Jiang Nuanzhi mounted her horse, patted its rump, and went out the door.
When she passed Xie Liangchen, she saw him looking at her. Jiang Nuanzhi nodded, rode her horse quickly past, and did not stop.
"Young Master, she's gone. Shall we go back and get a carriage?"
Xie Liangchen pursed his lips and stared at Jiang Nuanzhi's back for a long while.
Do you remember what she looked like a couple of days ago?
Afu nodded, grinding his teeth, "I remember it very clearly. She swindled money from me, dared to talk back to you, and even beat up Chuntao."
"That's not what I meant." Xie Liangchen frowned. "She said before that she could give me all of Li family's eldest son's money. She even said she could sell her children to buy me writing materials. Now, judging from her behavior, isn't she a completely different person? Does she... really want to live a peaceful life?"
Afu nodded: "She did say that. Hey? Young master, do you think her current behavior is a trick, just to make you take a second look at her?"
Xie Liangchen frowned, recalling Jiang Nuanzhi's frank demeanor just now, and subconsciously shook his head: "It doesn't seem like it."
"Yes, definitely! I saw her staring at you just now. This kind of trick is probably the same as the women in the manor before, all trying to win your favor, young master. She's quite clever."
Xie Liangchen frowned deeply: "If she really thinks that way, she's made a mistake."
"Of course, what kind of person is she? How could she possibly be worthy of you?" Afu said, seemingly relieved. "But now it's all right. Her hunter is back, which gets rid of this big trouble. Although there's one less person to do the work at home, at least you, young master, have some peace and quiet, don't you?"
Xie Liangchen recalled that the past two days had indeed been different.
When he came back, there was no tea at a suitable temperature. Nor was there any hot water prepared for him to wash up.
The blanket he used yesterday was Afu's. It wasn't that it smelled bad, but his blankets used to be clean and fresh, with a warm, sun-dried scent. The sudden change was really hard to get used to. He forced himself to use it for half the night, but couldn't stand it anymore in the latter half and threw it aside.
When he got up in the morning, the heated kang bed was no longer warm, and he felt dizzy and lightheaded. He seemed to have caught a cold.
The food I've been eating these past two days has been quite unpleasant.
The more he thought about it, the more upset he became, and he sneezed twice.
"Hey? Young master! Quick! Uncle Niu's donkey cart is out."
Afu didn't realize he was unwell at all and immediately called for help.
Xie Liangchen sniffed, his nose stuffy, but finally got on the donkey cart. His studies absolutely could not be delayed.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Pangya also ended up on the bus. All the gossipy women in the village talked about Jiang Pangya constantly.
"No wonder Jiang Pangya has changed her personality. It turns out that Li Jia Dalang has returned."
"I knew she wasn't that kind-hearted. I saw her cooking meat for her child at home yesterday, and it smelled so good. Turns out she was afraid that Li Jia Dalang would scold her."
"It's been so long since Li Jia Dalang had his accident, and she bought so many things yesterday. I don't know where she got the money."
"When I went out, I saw that her dog was eating millet porridge. She really doesn't know how to manage a household."
"That eldest son of the Li family is really unlucky; he married such a person."
"No wonder Xie Erlang looks down on her."
"That's right, that's right."
"Tell me, how badly is Li Jia Dalang injured?"
"Who knows? I bet his spendthrift wife has squandered all his wealth, and I don't even know if he'll still be able to afford a doctor."
Xie Liangchen's head was throbbing, but the words kept drilling into his ears. He couldn't help but recall Jiang Pangya's words from yesterday, saying that all the money was spent on him. He found the words extremely grating and, in his frustration, he couldn't help but shout, "Shut up! You keep calling me Jiang Pangya, aren't you annoying? Can't you say something else?"
The older women were startled.
After a while, he muttered to himself, "What's our relationship with Jiang Pangya?"
"That's right, that's right."
The older women fell silent, but their gazes on him became even more intriguing.
Xie Liangchen became increasingly restless, realizing for the first time in his life that riding in an oxcart could be so agonizing.
Uncle Niu, who was driving the cart, curled his lip. This young boy was no match for Jiang Yatou's thick skin. Their mentality was worlds apart.
Jiang Nuanzhi and Li Junping parted ways in the woods at the foot of the mountain.
Li Junping used to ride his horse to school by himself, and he was more familiar with the town than Jiang Nuanzhi was, so Jiang Nuanzhi felt at ease letting him go.
He carried a basket on his back as he went into the mountains.
Jiang Nuanzhi had actually discovered bloodstains on the way, and as she followed the bloodstains into the mountains, the sight became increasingly shocking.
Along the way, some sharp rocks were even covered in blood and flesh, and crows perched on the blood-stained path, occasionally pecking at the stones.
I wonder how long it took him to climb back.
We hadn't gone far into the woods when we discovered pheasant droppings.
I circled the area with lots of droppings a few times, but didn't find any pheasants. However, I did find some wild eggs.
There were more than a dozen of them. She lined the bottom of the basket with a thick layer of dry grass before putting all the wild eggs inside.
As we walked deeper into the village, we saw many apricot trees along the way. Xinghua Village is famous for its apricot trees covering the mountains, but at this time of year, the apricot trees were just beginning to turn green and had not yet blossomed, so we couldn't see any fruit.
The mountains and forests of the north are full of treasures: walnut trees, pine trees, wild pear trees, hawthorn trees, crabapple trees—she saw almost every kind of wild fruit tree along the way. However, it wasn't the right season, and she couldn't find any fruit.
Even picking mushrooms isn't in season.
Along the way, they also came across dried mint and red peony, which Jiang Nuanzhi picked up as well, thinking it was better than nothing.
After lingering in the woods for a long time, Jiang Nuanzhi set up a trap and headed home with the wild eggs.
She found wild boar droppings, so she simply used a large, abandoned pit belonging to another hunter to make some simple arrangements, hoping to get lucky.
On the way back, I passed the Blackwater River and saw many villagers on the riverbank, some with harpoons, some with winnowing baskets, and others with baskets on their backs, all obviously trying to catch fish. But at a glance, I couldn't see that anyone had caught anything.
Jiang Nuanzhi didn't waste any time going over there and went straight home. It was still early, so she could go to town one more time.
(End of this chapter)
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