Chapter 17
The corn husks on one plot of land were quickly stripped off and laid out to dry on the other side of the yard. The yard, which was already quite small, was now only wide enough for one person to pass through.
Because she got up too early in the morning, Li Xin took Niu Niu home after finishing her work, and Zhou Yuan naturally couldn't stay any longer. Aunt Sun washed the dishes and told Chen Qing to go catch up on his sleep.
The medicine that Li Xin applied to him this morning worked very well, and he doesn't feel much pain anymore. He falls asleep almost as soon as his head hits the bed.
He rarely dreams, but today he actually had a dream for the first time ever.
In his dream, he saw his father's gentle appearance before jumping into the river, and then he was being stared at by people while following the slave trader. Finally, his dream landed on a person whose face Chen Qing could not see clearly no matter how hard he looked.
"Chen Qing?"
The person in the dream seemed to be struggling to move, and Chen Qing nodded vigorously.
"I am Meng Tao."
Chen Qing opened his eyes wide, trying hard to see his face clearly, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see it.
"I……"
"Take good care of my mother."
Chen Qing nodded again: "You..."
"You don't need to make me remain chaste; we're not even close."
Chen Qing was stunned.
"I'm not talking to you anymore. Take good care of your mother and do what you want to do."
"No, Meng... Meng Tao!!"
Chen Qing sat up in bed, his forehead covered in sweat, his heart pounding. Outside the door, Aunt Sun was talking to Zhou Yuan. Chen Qing's call was quite loud, and the person outside could hear it clearly.
Zhou Yuan's smile vanished, and he nodded to Aunt Sun: "Auntie, I'll go back first."
"Okay." Aunt Sun was also eager to check on Chen Qing, so she waved to him.
"Aqing, did you dream about Taozi?" Grandma Sun walked to Chen Qing's bedside and saw that he was covered in sweat.
Chen Qing nodded: "I didn't see his face clearly. He said that I should take good care of you."
Grandma Sun wiped away her tears: "I knew he was a good boy."
I don't enter her dreams, is it because I'm afraid of upsetting her?
However, they didn't have much time for sentimentality; they had plenty of work to do.
Harvesting on the flat land in the village was not as difficult as harvesting on the mountain, so they stopped getting up so early after that.
When they went out, everyone around them was out working. They were all chatting and laughing all morning. When people were laughing and talking, they didn't seem too tired when they were working. In no time, the whole field was harvested.
The plots of land next to Chen Qing's house belonged to people who had gone to the frontier with Meng Tao.
"I heard your Meng Qi is getting married?" They had finished picking the corn and were now cutting the corn stalks.
"Yes, once the harvest is finished and the taxes are paid, I can bring my new wife into the family." Meng Qi's mother was beaming with joy. Although Meng Qi didn't have the same military achievements as Zhou Yuan, at least he returned safely. Getting married and having a child was her only hope.
Grandma Sun smiled too, but there was a hint of bitterness in her smile: "Very good, very good."
Meng Qi, who was standing nearby, also came over to help. He hadn't seen Aunt Sun much since he came back. His mother had told him not to go in front of Aunt Sun, for fear that she would be reminded of the pain of losing her son. Even when they wanted to offer incense to Meng Tao, their mother stopped them.
After all, having gone through the baptism of life and death, the few people who left Luohe Village have matured a lot. Perhaps they were still a bit childish before, but now they are able to stand on their own.
Meng Qi greeted Aunt Sun, and under his mother's disapproving gaze, he talked to her about things related to the border.
Grandma Sun listened silently, occasionally wiping her eyes with her sleeve: "Thank you, Meng Qi."
Meng Qi is now stronger than when he was younger, and he's also tanned quite dark. He said with some regret, "We were scattered after we entered the army camp. Several of us were in different battalions, so we rarely saw each other. We don't know much about Brother Tao's situation, but he received ten taels of compensation, so he must have been very brave on the battlefield."
After all, Zhou Yuan had distinguished himself in battle and returned alive, so no one knew exactly how much the imperial court had rewarded him.
Zhou Yuan had said these things to her before, but even if she heard them a thousand or a hundred times, she would never get tired of them.
Before long, both plots of land had been harvested. Meng Qi's mother looked at Granny Sun and asked, "How are you going to take them back? This place isn't close to your house. How about I have Qi help you pick some out?"
Grandma Sun shook her head: "We borrowed Zhou Yuan's oxcart."
Meng Qiniang suddenly realized: "Yes, your two families live close by, and his family also has cattle."
With Zhou Yuan's help, Chen Qing's family harvested the autumn crop much faster than before, and the harvested corn was all piled up in Zhou Yuan's yard.
Besides Chen Qing's family, other families also wanted to borrow Zhou Yuan's oxen. Who would want to do hard labor themselves when they had livestock to use? But Zhou Yuan didn't lend to every family. He only lent to families without a man, or those who were old, weak, sick, or disabled. He didn't ask for any payment, just that the oxen be well fed.
The autumn harvest was in full swing in the village, and the village chief's family was no exception. Although his family was richer than other families in the village, unlike Li the blacksmith's family, they did not rent out all of their land. On the contrary, their family cultivated more land than others.
The Li family is becoming increasingly prosperous. While the war may seem to have little impact on them, their blacksmithing business is registered with the government. The weapons and equipment needed on the front lines are all forged by blacksmiths.
Li the blacksmith was summoned to the prefectural city and worked there for several years. Because of our dynasty's great victory, the enemy country gave a lot of compensation silver, and the court gave these craftsmen a considerable reward.
Fortunately, the village chief's family has many able-bodied young men. The village chief has three sons, all of whom are good at working. The three sons have married three wives, two husbands and one wife. The eldest and youngest sons both have husbands, the second son has a wife, and today the youngest son's husband said he was not feeling well and stayed home to help Aunt Wang cook.
"How strange, why hasn't anyone come to borrow the oxcart this year?" Aunt Wang said to her husband Zhang Ran while tearing corn. In previous years, some families without men would come to borrow the oxcart at this time, but this year not a single one has come.
“I heard that everyone’s going to borrow from Zhou Yuan’s family,” Zhang Ran said.
Aunt Wang gritted her teeth. Ever since Zhou Yuan came, nothing in their family had gone smoothly.
Chen Si and Meng Zhuzi, of all people, insisted on stealing from his house. After he paid compensation, his married sister-in-law came to make trouble every day. Despite her advanced age, she still acted like a child, crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide. She was so shameless that she even wanted to taste the children's food, saying that her brother-in-law hadn't resolved things for her properly.
Ultimately, it's all Zhou Yuan's fault.
Now they're borrowing cattle everywhere. In the past, when they lent out cattle, they would always get some benefits in return. But now nobody comes to them, and they can't even get anything in return.
“What can we do!” Zhang Ran said. “Even Father has to treat him with respect because of his military achievements. I heard that Li the blacksmith wants to marry his son to him.” If you listened carefully, there was a hint of sourness in his words.
Aunt Wang scoffed, "Doesn't his family look down on everyone?" Aunt Wang got angry just thinking about it. She originally wanted her youngest son to marry Li Xin, but his family made all sorts of excuses, saying that Li the blacksmith was in the prefectural city, that Li Xin was too young, and in short, they were unwilling to arrange the marriage.
Now they're rushing to get there.
“If this marriage really goes through, won’t Li the blacksmith and Zhou Yuan be able to do whatever they want in the village?” Zhang Ran stirred up trouble. He knew he was the village chief’s second choice, and only after marrying into the family did he realize how miserable his life was.
"Heh." Aunt Wang didn't say anything more, but she tightened her grip on her hands.
“Zhou Yuan’s conditions are far superior to those of some pretty faces,” Zhang Ran said sourly. “Not to mention anything else, just look at the nighttime hours. Surely he can manage to stay awake for a moment, even if the lights are turned off.”
Aunt Wang glared at him and said, "Shut up!"
The month of autumn harvest passed quickly. After the harvested corn was dried, it was time to thresh it. After threshing, it was dried again until it was completely dry. Then, it was time to wait for the imperial tax collectors to come and collect the taxes.
During those years of war, land output was taxed at one-fifteenth of the total, and all the farmers lived a very frugal life. This year, the war is over, but the imperial court has not yet issued any policies. It is expected that the tax rate will be reduced somewhat.
Farmers rely on the land for their livelihood, and fortunately, the weather has been favorable in recent years, so after paying taxes, they can still have some left over from their output. Otherwise, I really don't know how they would be living.
Once all the corn was dried, Chen Qing started shelling the corn at home. He selected some large, plump kernels for seed, kept the ones without pests for his family to eat later, and mixed the rest together to pay taxes.
At this time, everyone was at home peacefully husking corn, so Li Xin brought Niu Niu to Chen Qing's house and talked to Chen Qing while husking the corn.
“A relative came to visit me,” Li Xin said.
"It's normal for relatives to come over." That's what they say, but they don't have any relatives. The last time someone came, they were calculating how much money his family had.
"I heard my dad say that it was some distant relative of ours, someone who lived many, many houses away." Li Xin recalled the scene when she met that person. Her family was having dinner, and her father was talking to her mother about Li Xin getting married, when they heard a knock on the door in the courtyard.
He opened the door and saw a man who was so thin he was practically skin and bones standing there. He was wearing a blue long robe and had a book box on his back, looking like a scholar.
He was pale and thin, as if he hadn't eaten in a long time.
Li Xin didn't recognize the man, so he had to call Li the blacksmith out.
Li the blacksmith didn't recognize him either. After asking around for a while, he finally found out that he was the grandson of Li the blacksmith's deceased mother's cousin. He lived a long way away from Li's home, and Li didn't know how he had found his way there.
Since they had already come to our door, it wouldn't be right to kick them out. Li Xin's mother gave him an extra bowl and chopsticks. He must have been starving, because he didn't care about being a scholar and started wolfing down his food. As he ate, tears welled up in his eyes, which scared Niu Niu so much that he started crying too.
Qi Shuning's story is simple: a weak body, a mother who died young, a mean stepmother, and a stepfather who became a stepfather after his stepmother's arrival. Later, he lived with his widowed maternal grandmother, but she also passed away. He then returned to his own home, but there was no longer a place for him there. His stepmother no longer allowed him to study and made him do hard labor, but his body couldn't handle the hard work. Remembering that his grandmother had mentioned that there was still a branch of relatives in the family, he took his grandmother's keepsake and went to Li the blacksmith's house.
Li the blacksmith sighed, looking at the token he had taken out—it was indeed his mother's—and asked, "How do you want us to help you?"
Qi Shuning said, "I want to study."
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