Chapter 20
At this moment, Shu Wanxiu was in a very cheerful mood.
With his uncle's matter resolved, delivering the fish to Xun Yi became easy.
He certainly wasn't as eloquent as the village aunties; she wouldn't need to rack her brains to defer back and forth.
With Xun Yi's permission, she led Shu Shouyi into the furnace to deliver the fish.
"Brother Xun..."
Xun Yi was forging an iron pot in front of the furnace.
It wasn't the small pot that Aunt Chen lent her, but the kind of large pot that could be placed in the burner of a double-pot earthen stove.
Shu Wanxiu was immediately drawn to her.
However, she only looked at it for a short while before obediently turning her gaze away without even asking the price.
After all, he didn't have a single copper coin in his pocket, so asking would be useless.
Xun Yi seemed to have reached a crucial moment in his training, and couldn't spare the time to go to the kitchen to get a bowl to hold the fish.
Shu Wanxiu, understanding and considerate, said, "Then I'll put the bowl here too."
"Yes. The rabbit skin is ready. I'll take it up the mountain tomorrow." His voice was very calm. He paused and said, "Thank you."
Shu Wanxiu smiled brightly, "No need to thank me."
Things went as she had expected; dealing with Xun Yi was not complicated.
They took the remaining fish back to the mountain.
After an afternoon of hard work, only two bowls of food remained, and Shu Shouyi found it hard to accept this disappointment.
Instead of patting his head and back to comfort him as before, Shu Wanxiu squatted down to look him in the eye and spoke to him gently and rationally.
"Count how many times the villagers have helped us. Do you think a bowl of small fish is enough to repay them?"
Two questions were enough to silence Shu Shouyi.
Shu Wanxiu, however, did not stop.
"It's hard to give away what you've already got, and now you feel reluctant to part with it. But if you think about it from another perspective, can you better understand how hard the villagers worked to help us in the first place?"
They gave away their own valuables to them for free, and helped them build houses even though they didn't have much of a relationship with them.
Under Shu Wanxiu's guidance, Shu Shouyi recalled the villagers' righteous deeds one by one, and the disparity in his eyes gradually turned into admiration for the villagers.
"Auntie, I understand!" His voice had never been so firm. "I will never be stingy again. I will grow up well and repay everyone."
"Ah, that's more like it."
Shu Wanxiu didn't cook the two bowls of small fish properly, as there were no side dishes at home, and even if she did cook them, they wouldn't taste the same as she remembered.
After cooking, there was a layer of red charcoal at the bottom of the fire pit. Shu Wanxiu washed the pot clean, poured the small fish and shrimp into the pot and spread them into a thin layer, slowly drying them with the heat of the charcoal fire.
Although small fish treated in this way cannot be preserved for as long as smoked fish, they can still remain fresh for a long time if stored properly.
The child's sleep is always very regular. He will feel sleepy at a fixed time every day and can fall asleep in no time after lying in bed.
Shu Wanxiu lay on the same bed but felt no sleepiness whatsoever.
After tossing and turning, she lay on her side and looked out the window.
The bright moon, unaware of the sorrows in people's hearts.
How much firewood should we stockpile for winter? How do we get the needles, thread, and fabric for mending clothes before winter? How long will we need to borrow Aunt Chen's pot? How do we get the farming tools for next year?
Next year, once I have farmland, will I be able to cultivate it all by myself? Will I be able to harvest smoothly at harvest time?
She gave a bitter smile.
Originally, she thought the natural disaster that had struck her hometown was a once-in-a-millennium event, but after learning the reason why Xun Yi had settled there, she no longer had any such wishful thinking.
Aunt Chen said that ten years ago, a flood in the Central Plains submerged thousands of acres of fertile land and destroyed countless houses. Of Xun Yi's entire family, only he and his sister survived.
She knew what kind of pain that was.
We can still manage to turn things around when faced with man-made disasters, but we are truly powerless against natural disasters.
Those like her, whose families were destroyed by natural disasters, will live in constant fear and insecurity for the rest of their lives.
She had seen Tingyi twice recently, and although she didn't say it, she was actually quite envious.
Before fleeing the famine, Tingyi had a lively and cheerful personality, which remained unchanged afterward.
The feeling of supporting a family alone is too tiring. She wondered if she could be like Tingyi if her parents, brother and sister-in-law were still alive.
She didn't get an answer, but she was sure she missed them.
Tears silently slid down from the corners of her eyes.
If only we had never suffered such a calamity.
Life goes on.
Filled with sorrow at night, Shu Wanxiu realized during the day that, apart from missing her loved ones, all her troubles stemmed from poverty.
The answer to how to make money came up with by my uncle: target things in the water.
Before her uncle and his family went to the county town next month to collect relief grain, they planned to catch some big fish to sell, and asked her if she wanted to come along.
Shu Wanxiu had not thought of a way to exchange the money before, so she did not give her uncle an answer.
Now that I've figured it out, maybe I can get some dried small fish and shrimp and pick some fresh vegetables to sell.
Yesterday, Xun Yi said the rabbit skin was tanned and would be delivered today, so she didn't go fishing. She only went into the mountains twice this morning to get some firewood.
Her family didn't have a woodshed, so the firewood they had recently collected was broken into pieces and stacked in the wooden shed, forming a tall pile that looked like a wall.
If there were this many large pieces of firewood, it would be enough to get through the winter. Unfortunately, they are all small, withered branches, which don't burn very well.
Shu Wanxiu felt at ease only after filling the eaves of both rooms with firewood and leaving half of the main room empty for it.
As noon approached, Xun Yi came up the mountain with the rabbit skin.
This was the first time Shu Wanxiu and Shu Shouyi had seen a tanned rabbit skin.
After receiving it from Xun Yi, the two of them reached out and touched it with great curiosity.
"So warm and fluffy."
"Yes, it's very soft."
The hairy side is soft, while the inner side is somewhat hard.
Shu Wanxiu even held it under her nose to smell it. Although it had an indescribable smell, it wasn't pungent overall.
After immersing herself in the reading, Shu Wanxiu realized her rudeness.
"Thank you, Brother Xun. You've really gone to a lot of trouble."
"Wait a moment, I'll go get a stool."
Shu Wanxiu rushed over at lightning speed to bring Xun Yi a stool and pour him water.
Xun Yi hesitated for a moment before sitting down.
He was so tall that sitting on an ordinary stool looked like sitting on a small stool.
Shu Shouyi blinked, holding the rabbit skin, and sat far away from him.
...
Since we've invited them to stay for a while, the host should naturally extend their hospitality.
It was somewhat inappropriate for a lone man and woman to sit together, but since others had helped them, it would seem too distant for them to sit far away from Xun Yi.
There wasn't much room for Shu Wanxiu, so she carefully considered her options and didn't sit down. Instead, she stood under the eaves and broke off pieces of firewood.
Xun Yi was preoccupied with his own thoughts and did not realize that Shu Wanxiu was trying to avoid suspicion.
A note from the author:
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Here's a little appetizer to whet your appetite; more updates to come later. [Let me see!]
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