Chapter 12
Since Li Xin returned, Chen Qing has been going out more often. They either go up the mountain to pick wild fruits or go down to the river to catch fish. Only when he is with Li Xin can one see some youthful energy in Chen Qing. He is twenty-one years old this year, looks younger than his age, but always acts like an old man, making it impossible to guess his real age.
"It's settled then, we're going to town first thing tomorrow morning. The busy farming season starts in a couple of days." Li Xin said as she parted ways with Chen Qing at the crossroads, reminding him to get up early the next day.
Chen Qing never refused him, and when he got home, he told Aunt Sun about going to town the next day.
“Yes, that’s perfect. I was just saying I need to buy some things for the sacrificial ceremony tomorrow. If you’re going with Li Xin, you can buy them all.”
The Ghost Festival (July 15th of the lunar calendar) is just two days away.
Grandma Sun took out some silver from the house: "Here, this is for buying things."
Chen Qing didn't accept it. He still had money on him, the money from selling the handkerchiefs last time. He had always stayed in the village and had never left home, so he had no opportunity to spend money. Therefore, he had saved the money he earned from embroidering the handkerchiefs.
“Keep the money you earn from embroidering the handkerchiefs yourself, and I'll cover all your household expenses.” Despite his refusal, Aunt Sun handed him the purse.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "Now the family doesn't have much money left. Eight taels of Taozi's ten taels of compensation were spent on his funeral. The family had three taels of silver in savings before, and we paid Zhou Yuan one tael for cooking for him. Now we only have six taels left in total."
Chen Qing felt bitter upon hearing this. Other families in the village might have some other sources of income, such as young and middle-aged people finding odd jobs during the off-season.
Their family could only rely on their small plot of land, depending entirely on the weather. Fortunately, the weather had been favorable for many years, allowing them to barely make ends meet.
But will it have to be like this in the future?
He could embroider four handkerchiefs a month for five coins each, which would earn him twenty coins. Twenty coins could only buy ten meat buns.
"What are you thinking about?" Aunt Sun smiled and patted Chen Qing's shoulder as she saw him deep in meditation.
Chen Qing shook his head: "It's okay, Mother, I really still have money."
He had saved up some money in the past five years, which Aunt Sun knew, but she never interfered. Occasionally, she would give Chen Qing some pocket money, and Chen Qing now had about one or two taels of silver in savings.
“You silly child, we gave you the money so you could spend it yourself. Why are you always saving it?” Aunt Sun said disapprovingly. “Listen to me, keep your own money.”
Chen Qing took a while to say, "Mother, the money used to pay for Meng Tao's funeral was his pension. This Ghost Festival, I want to do something for him too..."
Grandma Sun was stunned, her eyes reddening slightly: "Alright then, use your money."
As they were talking, there was a knock on the door. Through the fence, Chen Qing saw Zhou Yuan, who was carrying a rabbit.
Zhou Yuan has been learning to hunt these days. At first, he always came back empty-handed, occasionally picking some wild fruits and mushrooms. But Aunt Sun saw that the mushrooms he picked were all poisonous and could not be eaten.
Gradually, he was able to catch a pheasant and some rabbits from the mountains.
He just couldn't cook, and the game he brought back was too little to take to town to exchange for money, so he could only bring the game back to their house and ask them to cook it for him.
After helping them, Zhou Yuan would ask them to keep a portion as well, but he refused to take it all home to eat himself. Grandma Sun had no choice but to bite the bullet and leave it behind.
So later, when Chen Qing and Li Xin went to the river to catch fish, they would also send a portion of the cooked fish soup to Zhou Yuan.
In the course of this back and forth, the relationship between the two families has improved considerably. At least now, when Chen Qing sees Zhou Yuan, he won't be speechless anymore.
"Oh my, what a fat rabbit!" Grandma Sun exclaimed, looking at the gray rabbit. "How was your harvest on the mountain today?"
Zhou Yuan nodded. He had also figured out some of the essence and fun of hunting, and he had been going up the mountain a lot these days.
"The harvest has been pretty good these past two days." Zhou Yuan held up the rabbit in front of Granny Sun. "There are three pheasants and two rabbits."
Grandma Sun clasped her hands together: "This is enough to sell in town."
Zhou Yuan nodded: "I plan to go to town tomorrow to see what price I can get." He handed the rabbit to Aunt Sun, "This one has an injured leg, so it probably won't fetch a good price. Shall we cook it and eat it?"
Chen Qing pursed his lips, thinking he was too greedy, but he didn't dare say it out loud.
It was Aunt Sun who spoke up: "I can tell you don't do business often. You think a rabbit with an injured foot can be a bonus? People will appreciate your kindness and listen to you. Take it back."
Chen Qing nodded in agreement.
Zhou Yuan stopped insisting and said, "Okay, I'll take it back."
Grandma Sun called out to Zhou Yuan, "Are you going to town tomorrow? Aqing and his friends are also going to town tomorrow. Why don't you give them a ride?"
Zhou Yuan nodded: "Of course."
Chen Qing wanted to say no, but Zhou Yuan walked away quickly, and he hadn't even said his refusal.
Aunt Sun laughed at him: "You used to always think about avoiding suspicion and refused to get closer to Zhou Yuan. Li Xin will be with you tomorrow, so you don't have to worry about what others will say. Also, I've heard that Li Xin's father wants to marry her off to Zhou Yuan. You can be the one to bring them together."
"Huh?" Chen Qing was stunned and at a loss for what to do.
"What? Li Xin is of marriageable age too. If she marries Zhou Yuan, she'll be our neighbor. Shouldn't you be even happier?" Aunt Sun thought Chen Qing was still out of the loop. "Listen to your mother, don't you think they're a perfect match?"
Chen Qing nodded blankly, "Okay, I understand."
The next morning, Chen Qing got up early. Aunt Sun steamed some leftover cornbread for him from the night before. He took two, intending to share them with Li Xin later.
Li Xin's house was closer to the main road to the town, so Chen Qing, carrying a basket on his back, greeted Aunt Sun and headed towards the village entrance.
When Chen Qing passed by Zhou Yuan's house, he found that Zhou Yuan had already harnessed the cart. Chen Qing was prepared that Zhou Yuan would not see him, and even thought of going down the ridge and walking in the field so that Zhou Yuan would not be able to see him.
Before he could jump off the ridge, Zhou Yuan called out to him, "You're here? Wait a moment."
Chen Qing withdrew his tentative foot and stopped at his doorstep: "Oh."
Before long, Zhou Yuan had hitched up the oxcart and walked over to Chen Qing: "Let's go."
"Oh." Chen Qing followed behind him.
Zhou Yuan turned to look at him and said, "Get on."
Chen Qing then climbed onto the oxcart, holding two cornbread buns in his hands. Zhou Yuan glanced at what he was holding: "For me?"
He couldn't bring himself to say that this was prepared by his mother for me and my friends, and there was no room for him, so he handed him one of the cornbread buns with a bitter face.
Zhou Yuan took it and finished it in two bites. Chen Qing looked away and gazed at the sky, which was already showing a sliver of white.
Li Xin had been waiting at the village entrance. He was stunned for a moment when he saw the oxcart coming. Then, without saying a word, he climbed onto the oxcart. After he was settled, he said, "I thought I was going to have to walk today. It's so nice to have a cart."
Chen Qing admired his easygoing nature; if it were him, he would have thought about many, many things.
Li Xin tugged at Chen Qing's hand and saw the remaining cornbread. She took it from him and said, "Did your aunt ask you to bring this for me? I love your cornbread the most, especially the ones made with fresh corn."
This cornbread was made by Aunt Sun last night. She went to check on the corn harvest and picked two ears of corn on the way back. She crushed the fresh corn, added some mixed flour from home, and steamed it together. The cornbread had the aroma of corn and was very delicious.
Chen Qing watched him eat with relish and sighed, hoping that his stomach wouldn't growl soon.
With the oxcart, the journey to town wasn't much faster, but the advantage was that it wasn't as tiring. Feeling a bit bored on the way, Li Xin started chatting with Zhou Yuan.
"You're not from our city, are you?" Li Xin asked.
My ancestral home is Yizhou.
Chen Qing listened intently. Yizhou seemed to be not far from his hometown. No wonder Zhou Yuan's accent sounded somewhat familiar.
"Then why did you come here?"
"There's no one at home anymore, so I want to change my living environment." Zhou Yuan seemed particularly patient, answering all of Li Xin's questions.
"Huh? They're all gone?" Li Xin was surprised. Zhou Yuan didn't seem that old, so how could his parents be gone?
"Yes. My grandmother was still alive before I went to the barracks, but she was gone when I returned home. Her biggest wish was to live in a place with mountains and rivers. Luohe Village is a good place."
Chen Qing listened silently, feeling even more envious of Li Xin. He could chat so well with someone he had just met, unlike himself, who couldn't even open his mouth.
Judging from how enthusiastically they were chatting, and the topics they were discussing, it seemed like the kind of things newlyweds would talk about to get to know each other. Mother was overthinking it; there was no need for him to mediate.
He had no choice but to lean against Li Xin and pretend to be asleep.
Seeing Chen Qing close his eyes, Zhou Yuan also stopped talking. When Li Xin asked him questions, he would only give a perfunctory "uh-huh" or "yeah" and his attitude changed as quickly as the weather.
Li Xin glanced at Chen Qing on his shoulder, then at Zhou Yuan who was driving the carriage, and knew that his earlier feeling that something was off between the two of them was not just his overthinking.
Chen Qing didn't know when he fell asleep. When he woke up, they had already arrived in town. Li Xin rubbed her shoulders and looked at the pheasants and rabbits that Zhou Yuan had placed on the back of the cart.
"Are you going to sell it right now? Do you know where to sell it?" Li Xin asked.
Zhou Yuan shook his head: "It's just a market, isn't it?"
“Everyone at the market is haggling over prices. Let me take you somewhere else.” Li Xin noticed the tension between him and Chen Qing and wanted to help him as much as she could, since Chen Qing was her good friend.
Chen Qingqing cleared his throat and said in a low voice, "Then I'll go buy my things first, and we'll meet up again in a bit."
He remembered his mother's words and was determined to create opportunities for them.
Without waiting for their reply, he ran away as if something was chasing him.
"Aqing. Sigh..." Seeing that she couldn't call Chen Qing back, Li Xin had no choice but to give up. "I'll take you to sell wild game."
He looked up and saw Zhou Yuan still staring at Chen Qing's back: "Stop staring! Hurry up and make money, how are you going to get married if you don't make money!"
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