Chapter 52 Tender Memories: Money is Not as Important as Health
Yao Xiaoyu arranged a time with Dr. Maria to perform the foot-setting surgery on Wenrou, and then went back to work as usual. Aunt Gu, who was doing needlework, saw Yao Xiaoyu come in, naturally put her things in the drawer, and while locking it, said:
"Little Yao, my stomach is also a little uncomfortable..."
At least come up with a different excuse.
Yao Xiaoyu, who had just been given cover, felt somewhat helpless, but still went along with what Aunt Gu said:
"Then you should go quickly, I'll keep watch here."
That was exactly what Aunt Gu wanted to hear. Before Yao Xiaoyu could even finish uttering the last word, Aunt Gu had already reached the pharmacy door, not forgetting to put on a dutiful yet helpless expression:
"My body is really letting me down... I'll try to come back as soon as possible."
The words sounded nice, but Yao Xiaoyu knew that once Aunt Gu left, she wouldn't reappear until tomorrow when she went to work. Fortunately, there was hardly anything going on at the pharmacy, so she could manage on her own with ease, and was even more comfortable.
Looking at the headline in the tabloid, "Miss Qiu's work is hurtful: Unlucky guy with the same name, surname, and school is brutally beaten," Yao Xiaoyu smiled with satisfaction. She decided to ask the school in a few days if they had fired the math teacher. If not, she would write another one.
Or perhaps that slightly flawed draft could be revised and submitted?
Flipping through the newspaper articles, writing about Miao Wuni's story, and calculating her royalties, before she knew it, it was time to get off work. On her way home, she saw that there was still more than a pound of pork belly left at the meat stall, so Yao Xiaoyu simply asked the vendor to slice it and buy it all.
Today's conversation with Dr. Maria went so smoothly, we should celebrate.
The pork belly that Yao Xiaoyu brought back was warmly welcomed by her family. The rendered pork fat was poured into a bowl and stewed with the tofu she had bought. Although it looked white, it was delicious and easy to eat.
After finishing her meal, Yao Xiaoli carried her bowl to the kitchen, with Wenrou following behind. Her calm face showed no sign of pain.
It doesn't hurt?
I've just gotten used to it.
Wenrou had previously mentioned some family matters, including her experience with foot binding:
"First, a strong old woman helped you walk forward, then a maidservant took over, and finally you had to walk on your own. The Wen family doesn't keep young ladies who are carried around."
At that time, there was a saying that three-inch golden lotuses, four-inch silver lotuses, and five-inch iron lotuses made it difficult to get married. In order to find a good marriage, girls would bind their feet smaller and smaller. Some girls could not walk at all and could only be moved by others. They were called "carried young ladies".
"Can't we stay?"
Yao Xiaoli opened her eyes wide and asked, timidly pulling her feet back. Her feet were so small, how painful it must be to walk with them.
"How could I not move? There were people behind me with bamboo sticks. If I didn't move, they would whip me. My feet hurt and my body hurt. I really wanted to die at that time."
Bamboo branch is exactly what it sounds like. A bamboo branch is a long, thin, smooth stalk that you can cut off by removing the forked branches and leaves. It may look inconspicuous, but only those who have experienced it know how it feels to be whipped. Yao Xiaoyu once had a classmate who got into trouble and was whipped on the buttocks with a bamboo branch by his parents, even through his clothes. The next day, he was too scared to sit down and listen to the lesson.
"Once you can walk a hundred steps on your feet, you have to start learning to control your facial expressions. No matter how much your feet hurt, you can't show it on your face. You have to smile. Anyone who dares to grimac will be whipped with a bamboo stick."
Men prefer the graceful figure of bound feet, even if it really hurts, it has to be with tears in their eyes and soft panting, a unique charm. No one wants to see a face contorted with pain.
What woman in the world doesn't suffer? You get used to it after a while.
"It was only when they were about to bind your feet that the Qing Dynasty fell, otherwise you would have been beaten too."
The gentle Yao Xiaoli shrank into a ball in fright. Yao Xiaoyu had never been so fortunate that the original owner's body was not good. Back then, the original owner had her feet bound and developed a high fever that night. A doctor was called to take her pulse and found out that Yao Xiaoyu's body was weak and she would probably die if her feet were bound.
Yao Daniu smoked and thought about it for several days. In the end, he still loved Yao Xiaoyu's life more. However, he secretly prepared a lot of dowry, intending to use money to buy his granddaughter a good marriage. Later, after the establishment of the Republic of China, the anti-footedness movement became more and more widespread, and Yao Daniu was even more grateful.
Unfortunately, the enormous dowry was lost with Yao Dani's desperate gamble that failed.
...
It rained that night, and Yao Xiaoyu slept very well listening to the natural white noise. When she woke up the next day, there was still a light drizzle outside the window.
"Open the umbrella before you go."
Zhou Chunhua handed the oil-paper umbrella to Yao Xiaoyu. It was bought before the New Year. It was small and not decorated. Its only two advantages were that it was sturdy and cheap. Yao Xiaoyu took it, opened it, and went to the hospital with Zhou Erniu as usual.
"Two bowls of meat noodles and one fried dough stick, please."
Despite wearing three pairs of thick socks and trying to walk in dry places, Yao Xiaoyu's shoes were not waterproof. She looked at her mud-covered shoes and then at Tao Erniu's wooden clogs. She decisively sat down at the pancake shop next door, ordered her food, and interrupted Tao Erniu.
"If you dare say you're not hungry, then I don't need the silk flowers."
Normally, a little back-and-forth banter is just a way to practice one's verbal skills, but to put on such cold weather with lines like "you want it, I don't want it; I'll give it to you, you absolutely must have it"... Yao Xiaoyu really didn't want to put herself through that.
Tao Erniu abruptly closed her mouth, which she was about to open, and Yao Xiaoyu nodded in satisfaction.
The meat noodles were served quickly. The noodles were thin and long, and the soup was very flavorful. Yao Xiaoyu ate more than half a bowl while blowing on it, before soaking the fried dough sticks in the soup and biting into them piece by piece. The fried dough sticks, which were soaked in soup but had not yet softened, made a crunching sound in her mouth. Yao Xiaoyu squinted her eyes in satisfaction.
Her wet feet were still freezing, but after a bowl of noodles, she warmed up. Yao Xiaoyu paid nine copper coins and left the pancake shop with Tao Erniu, who had been waiting for a while. This time, the two didn't stop and parted ways at the entrance of Maria Hospital.
Where did this come from?
When Yao Xiaoyu opened the door of the Western-style pharmacy, she was almost knocked over by the distinctive smell of feet inside. Then she noticed the coal stove under the window. Aunt Gu had taken off her shoes and was warming herself by the stove, wearing only a pair of socks.
"My son brought this here specifically because it was raining today."
After showing off for a while, Aunt Gu called Yao Xiaoyu over to warm herself by the fire. Yao Xiaoyu took out two hard-boiled eggs and handed them to Aunt Gu, then naturally came down.
"You've really prepared everything perfectly."
Aunt Gu looked at Yao Xiaoyu with a cloth in her left hand and a pair of dry socks in her right hand, and sighed in surprise.
"I am physically weak and it is difficult for me to recover from illness, so I can only make more preparations."
Yao Xiaoyu moved her shoes as close to the coal stove as possible, breaking the sour atmosphere with a single sentence. She then picked up a newspaper that hadn't been wet by the rain, read a few jokes to Aunt Gu, and then stared blankly at the dark red glow in the coal crevices: "What is Tao Erniu doing now? Is she still out in the rain trying to earn money?"
"Of course you need to earn money, but you can't get caught in the rain anymore."
Lan Shuangyu grabbed Tao Erniu's hand and forcibly pressed her onto the stool. She picked up the small kettle on the coal stove and poured a bamboo tube of hot water for Tao Erniu. The two small fish on her clothes were particularly eye-catching.
Do you know how much it costs to see a doctor when you're sick?
Lan Shuangyu also came from a poor background, so she knows what her partners care about most, and she can keep them rooted to the spot with just one sentence.
"When you were in the village, you must have seen perfectly healthy people get sick after being caught in the rain, right?"
As Tao Erni listened to Lan Shuangyu's words, she subconsciously thought of Uncle Shitou, the strongest man in their village. He was as strong as a mature ox, eating, defecating, and working hard, and managed to cultivate half an acre of fertile land by his own manure production.
But this tough guy, two years ago, wanted to do more farm work and stayed outside a little longer when it rained. When he got home, he started coughing. The doctor prescribed bitter medicine, but he didn't make it through two months.
"Warm yourself up by the fire first; if your body is damaged, everything else is meaningless."
Lan Shuangyu sighed. Tao Erni didn't say anything more, but silently took her feet out of the wooden shoes, took off her soaking wet socks, revealing her feet covered in chilblains and deep marks from the wooden shoes. The two girls squeezed behind a table at the entrance of the alley, sat on a bench, and leaned against an umbrella to keep warm, like birds huddling together for warmth.
The heat gradually spread from her feet throughout her body. Tao Erni looked at Lan Shuangyu, who was holding an umbrella beside her, and suddenly spoke:
"You said you couldn't get wet in the rain, so why are you setting up your stall today?"
Lan Shuangyu's expression froze.
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Author's Note: I made some minor revisions starting from Chapter 46, but it won't affect the overall reading experience.
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