Chapter 193 Dalang, it’s time to take medicine (3)
Huo Shichu went up the mountain with Aunt Zhou because they had nothing at home and they could pick some wild vegetables and fruits and bring back some mushrooms and fungus. Huo Shichu thought about it and borrowed an axe from Aunt Zhou. She planned to chop down a few trees to make small kitchen utensils such as wooden bowls and plates. She couldn't stand the rags that the Wei family had given her.
Aunt Zhou told Huo Shichu about the situation in the village while leading her up the mountain.
"Aunt Zhou, who is this girl following you? Why haven't I seen her before?" A middle-aged woman carrying a basket of vegetables looked at Huo Shichu curiously and asked Aunt Zhou.
Aunt Zhou replied, "This is Wei Dalang's family. She just arrived and doesn't know anything. I'll take her to get familiar with them."
"From Wei Dalang's family?" The middle-aged woman's eyes widened in surprise, and then her voice became louder, "Is it the girl that the old woman from the Wei family exchanged for a bag of corn yesterday?"
Hearing her say this so carelessly, Aunt Zhou felt a little embarrassed. She was afraid that Huo Shichu would be unhappy, so she glanced at her carefully, but found that she seemed to have not heard it at all. She looked around the surrounding environment and did not look sad or embarrassed at all.
Aunt Zhou breathed a sigh of relief, nodded to the woman, and said vaguely: "It's her. It's getting late. We have to go up the mountain early. I won't chat with you anymore..."
After she finished speaking, she motioned for Huo Shichu to follow her quickly, but the loud voice of the woman just now had already let everyone around know that Huo Shichu was the wife that Wei Dalang had exchanged for.
"Tsk tsk, how pitiful! Wei Dalang has both legs broken, and he is destined to be a cripple in the future. This young lady is still so young and has to serve a cripple. It's really a sin..."
"If she had no other way to survive, why would she be willing to be with a useless person? I heard that she came here to escape the war, in order to exchange some food for her mother and brother, and she ended up like this for the rest of her life..."
"I heard that she didn't want to do it and was thinking about committing suicide. I didn't expect her to follow Aunt Zhou up the mountain. It seems that she has accepted her fate."
"Wei Dalang is really lucky. He is a disabled man but still has such a beautiful wife..."
"Do you want this blessing?"
"Bah! Don't curse me!"
Huo Shichu heard all the whispers of the people behind. She became Wei Dalang's "wife" in such an embarrassing way, so naturally she became the topic of gossip for the gossipy old ladies in the small mountain village where there was a lack of entertainment. Everyone watched the development of the matter as if they were watching a play, and couldn't help but point fingers.
"Dalang's family, don't take those people's words to heart. Life is lived by people. Although Dalang's leg is injured now, he can walk with crutches after recovery. Even if he can't do heavy work, he can do other things. Dalang is a gentle person and will definitely treat you well.
Think about it, he has limited mobility, but he is better than those men who beat their wives when they are drunk, right? Better than those gamblers who sell their children and lose all their property, right? As long as you are diligent and capable, you can always make a living..."
Aunt Zhou kept trying to comfort Huo Shichu, fearing that she would dislike Wei Dalang.
Huo Shichu felt a little emotional. Aunt Zhou, the neighbor, did much better than Wei Dalang's family members. As a neighbor, she could truly care about Wei Dalang, but the Wei family members were so cold-blooded that they didn't want him to die.
"Aunt Zhou, don't worry. I don't mean to despise him. At least I have a place to stay and food to eat here. If I continued to flee with my neighbors, I might have starved to death. I have no resentment or resentment." Huo Shichu said sincerely.
Aunt Zhou looked at Huo Shichu in surprise. She had not forgotten that Huo Shichu had hit his head against the wall the day before yesterday and tried to commit suicide. How come she had figured it out today and accepted the fact? Did she really accept her fate?
Aunt Zhou couldn't understand why she changed so quickly, but since the change was good, she didn't need to pursue it, so she said with relief: "It's great that you think so."
Huo Shichu smiled and said, "By the way, Aunt Zhou, you should call me Shichu from now on. You can also call me Xiao Huo. This is the name my father gave me. If no one calls me by that name, then I will lose the last thing worth cherishing in my mother's family..."
When she finished speaking, her expression became sad, as if she was sad because she was abandoned.
Aunt Zhou felt sorry for her after hearing what she said, so she nodded and agreed: "Okay, then I'll call you Xiao Huo."
Huo Shichu smiled with satisfaction. She didn't like being addressed as "Mrs. So-and-so's family", "Mrs. So-and-so's mother", or "Ms. So-and-so".
After a woman gets married, basically no one will call her by her name anymore, as if a woman becomes someone else's vassal after getting married and having children. She is either so-and-so's wife or so-and-so's mother, and her real name disappears. Even after she dies, all she has left is "Ms. So-and-so" engraved on her tombstone.
"Xiao Huo, have you ever been to school at home?" Aunt Zhou asked. "You speak differently from the rough and barbaric people like us, and you have a nice name, too."
Huo Shichu thought about it and realized that the original owner had never been to school, but her brother had attended a private school and there were books at home.
In order to avoid being illiterate in the future, Huo Shichu lied and said, "When my brother was studying, I also learned it and I know a few words."
Huo's father was already dead, and no one knew where Huo's mother and brother would flee to. In an era of inconvenient transportation and backward communications, they would probably never see each other again in their lifetime, so no one would expose Huo Shichu's lie.
"So you can really read, that's amazing!" Aunt Zhou was very surprised, because few men in that era could read, let alone women, but everyone knew that being able to read and recognize was a rare skill, so Aunt Zhou looked at Huo Shichu with new eyes.
"It's okay, it's still okay to read the letters." Huo Shichu said.
As they chatted, they had already reached the mountain. Because it had rained recently, wood ears and mushrooms had popped up. Aunt Zhou reminded Huo Shichu not to go too far, and then they went their separate ways.
Huo Shichu walked far away and found a hidden cave. He then entered his companion space, took a good bath, filled his stomach, and took some change before coming out.
Although she was willing to stay, it didn't mean she had to be hard on herself.
After Huo Shichu had eaten and drunk his fill, he started to work. He chopped down a tree as big as an adult's head and dug it into wooden bowls. Making these bowls did not require any skills, it just relied on strength.
What Huo Shichu lacked the least was strength. Soon she dug five large, deep and wide wooden bowls that could hold both rice and vegetables.
After doing all this, she wanted to go meet up with Aunt Zhou, but on her way back, she saw several familiar herbs. Thinking of Wei Dalang who had injured his leg, she decided to pick them up. At least it would save him some money on medicine. It goes without saying that Wei Dalang didn't have much money on him now.
(End of this chapter)
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