Chapter 21
"you……"
"Brother Xun, you..."
Either they fall into a deathly silence, or they speak at the same time.
Shu Wanxiu almost bit her tongue.
"Brother Xun, please speak."
Xun Yi paused for a moment, then said, "The village chief told you that I came here as a refugee. Do you remember?"
Not knowing why he suddenly brought this up, Shu Wanxiu nodded, "I remember."
"Things will get better." These were words of comfort that Xun Yi had said to an outsider for the first time in his life.
"If I help you in any way someday, don't worry about it. I've been through the same thing."
He finished drinking the water, put down the bowl, and left.
Shu Wanxiu was left completely baffled.
Of course, by evening she understood the meaning behind Xun Yi's words.
She was washing rice and cooking when Pang, the village head, cheerfully carried a large iron pot and placed it directly into her stove.
"Village Chief, what is this...?" Shu Wanxiu was completely dumbfounded.
Pang Zhishan grabbed a stool and sat down with an air of authority. "Hey! This kid Xun! He wanted to give you a pot but was afraid you wouldn't accept it, so he specially asked me to be the middleman."
So, the iron pot that Xun Yi was forging yesterday was actually intended to be delivered to my home?
Although Xun Yi had laid the groundwork several hours earlier, Shu Wanxiu still couldn't accept it immediately.
She asked hesitantly, "Village chief, may I ask how much it costs to buy such an iron pot?"
"consistent."
After Zhang Kou answered, Pang Zhishan denied it again, "No, it's people from other villages who need one guan to buy it. At Xun Yi's place, people from this village can buy an iron pot for only eight hundred guan."
Eight hundred coins was an amount that Shu Wanxiu could only dream of.
Pang Zhishan was not incapable of reading people's expressions. Judging from Shu Wanxiu's expression, he knew that Xun Yi had a reason for asking him to make this trip.
Do you know why he gave you the pot?
Before she could think of a polite way to refuse, Shu Wanxiu subconsciously answered Pang Zhishan's question first.
"I don't know."
“That day, he came with me to deliver the hoe to you. You were making dinner, and he recognized the pot you were using as the one he had used before.”
The Pang family had owned this iron pot for many years, and ten years ago they lent it to their young son, Xun Yi.
Pang Zhishan smiled at her, "Your aunt must have told you some of Xun Yi's background, but there are some things that we couldn't say without Xun Yi's consent."
Shu Wanxiu realized that Pang Zhishan was about to say something, so she stopped what she was doing and listened attentively.
"Ten years ago, I remember the day I went to the county to pick him up, it was a bright and sunny day. I traveled for half the morning to reach the county town, and saw a huge group of refugees at the entrance of the county government office."
Because the incident ten years ago was the first time Fangyuan County had received so many refugees since the founding of the dynasty, the government was also very inexperienced in dealing with this matter. Not only were the refugees haphazardly gathered together, but the village chiefs who went to collect people from each village also did not know what the procedures were.
I spent most of the day squeezing through crowds, finally figuring out the list by midday, and finding them under the blazing sun.
Pang Zhishan squinted as he recalled the scene, feeling as if it were yesterday.
"His clothes were tattered, and he was not tall. He had a fierce face, and a large bow was slung across his body."
"In the crowded throng, there was a tiny guy who was holding his sister's hand tightly. You could walk right next to him without any problem, but if you bumped into his sister, he would shove her back fiercely and without any politeness."
“I don’t think it’s a good thing for such young children to be so fierce. But the fact that the county sent two of them to the village is already a result of special consideration from the county because they see that our village doesn’t have much farmland.”
I couldn't simply ask the county to assign me to another family because I disliked him. So, I had no choice but to take both of them back to the village.
It is very difficult for a person to admit their mistakes in front of others.
After a moment of thought, Pang Zhishan continued recounting this old story.
"Because I didn't have a good impression of him when I first met him, I didn't like to get involved in his affairs afterwards. Fortunately, your aunt is kind and compassionate and has been very helpful to them."
"Over time, your aunt got to know them and learned about his background and past."
"His father was originally a hunter in the north. One day, he shot a game in the mountains. The game was tenacious and fled all the way from the barren mountains to the boundary between the barren mountains and the landlord's mountain before collapsing."
"Actually, there was no border crossing, just right next to each other, but his father was seen picking up prey, and someone deliberately spread rumors to tarnish his father's reputation."
Having offended the local tyrant, his father had no choice but to leave his hometown and later marry into a family in the Central Plains.
After living peacefully for more than ten years, they were unlucky enough to encounter a flood.
"His father risked his life to protect his wife and siblings during that flood, but unfortunately, they didn't get far before they both died from the plague."
“Xun was protecting his sister all by himself. He was almost captured and cooked several times on the way. Ferocity is not his true nature. He just wanted to protect himself.”
"Even after settling down, he didn't live a wealthy life. At first, he wanted to use the large bow his father had left him and the techniques he had been taught to hunt. But he was so young, how could he easily venture into the deep mountains?"
"Every time I went in, I ended up covered in injuries, but I was lucky to survive. It proved the saying that fortune favors the bold, and I always gained something."
"After raising his younger sister with such hardship for several years, he became ambitious and wanted to make life better, even to save up a dowry for his sister. So he sought out a blacksmith in the county town and learned the craft of blacksmithing."
What happened next was no secret. This summer, he married off his sister in a grand and prestigious ceremony as her elder brother.
"I guess it's because he has experienced the hardships along the way, that he can't stand seeing you all suffer and wants to help you more."
"Just accept it, consider it a windfall."
Shu Wanxiu was almost speechless.
He silently prepared the food and specially asked Village Chief Pang to act as a mediator.
Did she have the option to refuse?
When she heard Pang Zhishan say that Xun Yi and his sister had almost been cooked and eaten several times on the way, Shu Wanxiu unconsciously clenched her hands, only to realize later that she was numb.
She lowered her head and touched the four crescent-shaped marks left on her palm.
"Okay, I'll take it."
The marks left by excessive force cannot be smoothed out in a short time.
"However, I have noted down the debt of eight hundred coins, and I will repay it when I am able to."
At first glance, I agree with what you say, but the more I think about it, the more something seems off.
"Stop! That's not right." Pang Zhishan thought for a while before he realized what was going on and said, "Since he delivered it, you shouldn't keep track of it. Otherwise, it would be like that kid Xun forced you to buy it."
Shu Wanxiu took a deep breath and frowned.
“…Then I won’t keep a record, but I’ll still owe him a favor.”
Pang Zhishan nodded, "That's right, this time it is."
Before leaving, he added, "Aren't you going to cook? Try it out and see if the new pot works well."
A new pot... naturally works very well.
Perhaps it was because she heard Xun Yi's story and felt that she was a bit luckier in comparison, or perhaps she was inspired by the story of turning the tide against all odds; in any case, Shu Wanxiu was exceptionally motivated from then on.
During the day, he gathered firewood and fished; at night, he made dried fish. One day, he even made another trip to Wuli Village to arrange a specific date for going to the county town to do business.
My uncle's house is already under construction. With the help of the whole village, I heard it can be completed in about ten days.
Considering the issues of building houses and the growth of vegetables in Shu Wanxiu's field, they set the date for starting their business two days before receiving relief food.
Why make this extra trip?
Because there would be long queues on the day of receiving relief food, doing business would delay the distribution of food. Also, the refugees were short of money, and if one refugee found a way to make money, others might not see it and would definitely follow suit.
If everyone went to the wilderness to fish, would the fish still fetch a good price?
Of course, it's possible that there are intelligent people who share the same idea.
They don't stop others from making money, but they also don't loudly proclaim that they want to make money themselves.
Their ultimate goal is to make a fortune quietly.
Before we knew it, the appointed day had arrived.
The day before, Shu Wanxiu poured the remaining rice in the house into a wooden basin, and then took out a clean grain bag and filled it with the dried fish she had been saving over the past few days.
Early that morning, I took another basket and filled it with freshly picked flat vegetables, winter melon, wormwood, coriander, and spinach from the field.
Although only two portions of each vegetable were picked and tied into small bundles with wild grass, the basket was still full.
"Shouyi, your aunt really can't take you this time. You have to be a good girl and stay at Aunt Chen's house until your aunt comes back, okay?"
The journey is long, and it will definitely take a whole day to get there.
It was unavoidable to take Shu Shouyi to collect grain in a couple of days. He had finally gained some weight, and Shu Wanxiu didn't want to keep taking him on long journeys, lest the weight he had just gained fall off again.
Moreover, it's easy to neglect him when he's away on business; what if he gets lost or is kidnapped?
Shu Shouyi reluctantly agreed.
"Sweetie, if Auntie sells all these goods today, I'll buy you a little trinket."
As if triggered by some mechanism, Shu Shouyi suddenly looked up, "Of course Auntie's goods can all be sold out! But Auntie, please don't buy me anything, we need to save money!"
Recently, he has been going to the stream to catch fish frequently. Shu Shouyi once asked him why, and Shu Wanxiu replied that she wanted to save money. He has kept this answer in mind ever since.
“And another thing,” he held up two fingers and earnestly instructed, “Auntie, don’t forget to buy needles and thread, and some fabric.”
"Okay, I will never forget." I dare not forget.
These are the things I need to buy as soon as I earn money, otherwise I won't be able to sew clothes when the weather gets cold.
She carried the goods all the way to Aunt Chen's house, and then hurried to Wuli Village, her feet wet with dew.
Shu Yanrong took his son to the shallows to catch the fish yesterday evening. He has had a good catch recently and checks on the fish from time to time, but he never takes them home. Instead, he keeps them in fish traps in the shallows.
I didn't take them all home until yesterday evening to keep them in water.
I was worried, so I got up every now and then to check on them. Luckily, they were lively and active all night, and none of them had turned belly up yet.
"Let's go."
Both parties had prepared for this deal well in advance, and now they could leave at any time.
Shu Yanrong was not alone; his eldest son, Shu Chenglin, who was already married, came along with him.
There were many fish, so they borrowed three buckets, and each person carried one bucket.
They carried the fish for dozens of miles along mountain roads, spilling water countless times, and it took them several hours to finally enter the county town.
"Father, where are we going to do business? Should we ask a shopkeeper where the market is?"
When they were refugees, they had never been to the city, and they didn't even know which way the market in the county town was located. Shu Chenglin could only ask his father to make the decision.
"It's getting late, and business might not be good even if we set up a stall at the market. It's better to hawk our wares in the alleys."
Shu Wanxiu thought it was good, but it was indeed late.
"Xiu-mei, are you coming with me or with my father?" Shu Chenglin asked.
"I'll go alone."
Both of them said, "How can that be?"
"Don't worry, I'll be alert. We'll meet here in two hours."
Big fish is fish, and dried fish is also fish. If a family buys a live big fish, it is very unlikely that they will also buy a portion of dried fish.
"Since I'm here to make money, I've definitely thought it through beforehand. You don't need to worry about me too much."
Having been in charge for a long time, Shu Wanxiu gradually developed her own ideas, and when she showed her courage, her aura was no weaker than that of a man.
Shu Yanrong said, "You need to be careful."
"Yes, definitely."
A note from the author:
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Let me post one chapter first, then I'll revise it. If all goes well, there will be another chapter later. [Let me see!]
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