Amian would go home every night. Not only that, she also found a job at a restaurant in the city that paid her a monthly salary!
The news spread like wildfire, and the Meng family was overjoyed, their gloom of the past few days vanished.
When A-Mian returned in the evening, rumors had already begun circulating in the village that she was earning more than ten taels of silver a month and was adorned with gold and silver. The reason she hadn't been in the village these past few days was because she was going to abandon her husband, Meng's third son, after achieving great success.
The husband, who had shared hardship, led the donkey home, and people along the way gossiped about it.
"...Looking at him, he doesn't seem like the kind of person Ah Mian wants to divorce her husband."
"That's right, Brother Liu. You said the other day that Meng San is not young anymore and is fierce. He finally managed to marry a wife, but now he wants a divorce. I heard Meng San secretly crying at home. Is that true?"
Brother Liu shifted his gaze to the other side, pursed his lips, and said, "Your aunt told me that, how would I know so much!"
"It doesn't seem like it; they've even brought the donkey back. They've probably made up."
Meng Chijian returned to the courtyard and asked Xiao Jing to take A Dou to eat grass. He then hurriedly went into the house and changed all the bedding and pillowcases. He also put away A Mian's handkerchiefs and towels that he had previously stored in the cabinet.
Then he carried the vegetable basket into the kitchen, which contained half a pound of sliced braised pig ears. The vendor said that this was a favorite among children, and although there wasn't much meat, the price was the same as that of pork foreleg.
There were also two long, silvery knife fish, which were a rare sight for the mountain people.
The rest were ordinary: a large bunch of amaranth, soaked dried bean curd sticks, and a piece of pork belly.
When A-Mian arrived home, the Meng family was no longer as cold and deserted as before. On the wooden table were stir-fried pig ears with bell peppers, braised ribbonfish, stir-fried amaranth, braised pork with tofu skin, and egg drop soup.
This meal was comparable to celebrating the New Year, and even Meng Jing, who had just returned from herding the donkey, was a little shocked.
Ah Mian, who had been eating wheat rice (without any side dishes) for several days, smiled sheepishly and eagerly ran to the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks.
She doesn't like to eat vegetables if she eats meat, but amaranth is an exception. The juice from stir-fried amaranth, when poured over rice, will turn the rice a beautiful purplish-red color, making it both visually appealing and delicious.
Next, we ate pig's ears. A-Mian had eaten them once or twice before, and she loved them because they made a "crunching" sound when she bit into them, which was fun.
Meng Chijian sat beside him, his appetite equally voracious. For a while after his fever subsided, he hadn't been able to eat much, and now he suddenly felt extremely hungry.
Even Xiao Jing didn't have time to chat with A Mian. She stared at the two of them in disbelief before quickly starting to eat as well.
Mencius' mother didn't eat much, but smiled as she drank the soup.
"What kind of fish is this? Why does it only have one big bone?"
"This is called a knife fish. It's naturally shaped like this, making it easy for us to eat."
"I see."
After dinner, A-Mian and Meng-Jing enthusiastically exchanged gossip about recent days in the backyard.
"Ah Mian, you're so brave to go to someone else's shop and ask if they need help!" Meng Jing listened to her adventurous words with great admiration and longing.
Looking back, Ah Mian finds it hard to believe that she actually did it. "I was forced into it because I had no other choice. Hotels were just too expensive, and I couldn't afford to stay there."
What's it like working outside?
"It's quite tiring, but there are so many new things happening every day, and the owner treats me very well. In the future... if I can open a shop in the future, I'll invite you to work there!" Ah Mian declared boldly.
"Really?!" Meng Jing excitedly grabbed A Mian's arm. She felt that she didn't dare to ask at other shops, as it would be too embarrassing to be rejected.
But if it's Ah Mian's shop... she'd definitely dare to go!
"What kind of shop do you want to open?"
The person who was brushing the donkey also slowed down.
"I want to open a tofu shop, but not just tofu, but also tofu-related dishes. For example, butterfly tofu, fish tofu stew in a casserole, lotus leaf steamed tofu, tofu hot pot... and maybe I can even make ice cream tofu!"
Tofu is cheap, so it's really hard to support a shop (besides, if you only sell tofu, you can just set up a stall), so Ah Mian came up with this idea to also sell soy milk and tofu pudding.
Meng Jing agreed: "That's good, I also like to eat tofu."
The two then discussed how they would spend their money if they ever made a lot of money. A-Mian said she would buy land and cattle, while Meng-Jing said she would buy an endless supply of candied hawthorns and peach blossom pastries.
"By the way, will you still be working at that shop in the future?" Meng Jing suddenly remembered another important question.
“Yes, you have to work during the day, and then you can work in shifts every four days at night, with one day off per month. But once I finish this job, I’ll only work the day shifts next month, since your third brother won’t let me work at night. But even if I only work the day shifts, I’ll still get two taels of silver next month,” A-Mian answered truthfully.
"That's a lot!"
"Once I get my first month's wages, I'll treat you all to a meal," A-Mian said with a smile.
The courtyard was immediately filled with loud cheers and shouts.
On her day off, A-Mian rushed to Doctor Mo to learn new "kung fu".
She had already finished learning the Eight Pieces of Brocade, and Meng Chijian said that since it was on his way, he would take her to the pharmacy.
When he arrived at the small pharmacy, he found that Wen Qiao, whom he had originally wanted to look for, was also there.
Seeing that her "master" had not yet arrived, A-Mian went to the courtyard to stretch her arms and legs.
"You're quite interesting," Wen Qiao mocked. "You wouldn't come to see a doctor before, and it felt like you were being forced to swallow bitter herbs if you talked to me. Now why are you so eager to come to me?"
Meng Chijian, with his incredibly thick skin, remained unfazed upon hearing this: "Do you know of any diseases in the world that, while not affecting the body, always make the person appear somewhat abnormal? As if frozen in time."
"Can this illness affect normal life?"
"It has some impact... but it doesn't affect my daily life."
“That means you’re not sick,” Wen Qiao said.
"Could it be that he has some kind of mental illness?"
Wen Qiao was even more confused.
On this vast land, besides lovesickness, what other heart ailments are there? It's just that from time to time, people suddenly go mad, become stupid, are possessed by evil spirits, jump into lakes, jump into wells, are possessed by ghosts, or become so lazy that they don't even want to eat the pancakes hanging around their necks.
"The illness you described might be post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD for short." Mo Man, who had rushed over, had been listening for a while. "I once read about something similar in a book from the Western Regions. Simply put, after experiencing a certain disaster, patients suffer psychological trauma. As a result, their minds frequently flash back to fragments of that time, causing them to constantly relive the pain. In order to avoid experiencing this pain again, some patients unconsciously adopt methods of 'avoidance' or 'numbness' in their minds. One such method is to keep themselves at the age before the disaster occurred."
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