Chapter 12 Harmony and Joy
The Meng family's house was a two-courtyard house. The back yard was for living, while the front yard was divided by four or five sheds, where bamboo and bamboo strips were piled up, ten chickens were kept, a donkey was kept, and a wooden cart was placed against the wall. The layout was messy and crowded, but it was kept very clean.
The donkey poked its head out of the donkey shed and brayed twice at Meng Qing.
"Da Mao, I'm back," Meng Qing greeted happily.
"Its name is Da Mao, and it's six years old," she introduced.
Du Li said helplessly, "I know, I've been here before, and you told me about it."
“I’m just worried you’ll forget.” Meng Qing led him to the backyard. The backyard wasn’t very big, not comparable to the Du family’s. The main hall, side rooms, and kitchen were all located in the backyard. The open space outside the house was only one-third of the Du family’s yard. In the small space, Meng Qing’s orange tree and Meng’s mother’s osmanthus tree were planted, with round Taihu stones arranged in a circle around the tree pits.
This courtyard has a strong sense of daily life, and Du Li always takes a long time to look around whenever she comes here.
Meng Qing's boudoir was just as it had been when she last left, except the bed was empty and the bedding had been washed, dried, and packed away in a trunk to prevent dampness. She was in a hurry to cook for her parents and didn't have the mind to unpack the trunk and make the bed, so she took the child to her parents' room to sleep.
Du Li watched her use another brass key to unlock the main house door, and he once again witnessed Meng Qing's status in the Meng family. After her marriage, she not only had a key to her parents' house, but also the right to freely enter and leave her parents' rooms. In the Du family, only Du Min could enter the west wing, but there was only one key to the west wing, tied to his father's belt, and only his mother could access it.
"I'll go cook. You stay in the yard and watch over the child. Call me if the child wakes up," Meng Qing said as she came out.
Du Li nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
"I don't need help cooking."
Meng Qing worked quickly, and soon smoke began to rise from the chimney. She started steaming the rice first, then began washing and chopping the vegetables. There were eggs, water celery, and half a block of tofu in the cupboard, enough for only two dishes.
"Du Li, go to the fish market and buy two fish. Look at those fishing boats that just came into town, buy two whitefish, I'll steam them. If there aren't any fresh whitefish, buy silver carp. Also buy two or three pounds of shrimp..."
"Qingniang, are you calling me?" Du Li ran over from the front yard.
Meng Qing went outside. "Aren't you in the backyard? What have you been doing?"
“I remembered seeing donkey dung in the donkey shed when I came in, so I went to clean it up.”
Meng Qing glanced at him with a smile, "Your mother-in-law will praise you for being so diligent when she gets back. Don't bother with that for now, go to the fish market and buy me two fish..."
"I've bought the fish." Meng's mother strode in and called out loudly in the front yard, "When I came back, I was startled to find the gate open. I thought I had forgotten to lock it in my haste this morning."
Meng Qing and Du Li went to greet her together. Meng's mother stared at Meng Qing for a couple of seconds, making sure there was no gloom between her brows, before her heart finally settled down.
“We just got back yesterday, and you two are here today. If you had known you would come with us yesterday, we would have saved ten coins for the boat fare.” In front of her son-in-law, Meng’s mother did not voice her doubts.
Du Li took the fish and said, "I'll go scale it."
As soon as he walked away, Meng's mother pinched Meng Qing with a stern face, "Did your wife kick you out of the house?"
"No, Du Li brought me back, and his parents agreed to my return. Mother, this is a happy occasion. I'll tell you both when Father and my younger brother come back, so I don't have to repeat myself." Meng Qing pulled her mother towards the kitchen. "It's going to rain. Didn't Father and my younger brother come back with you? Is there business at the shop?"
Mencius' mother was skeptical. A happy occasion? Could something related to the Du family really be a happy occasion?
She was filled with anxiety.
The fish had just been cleaned when the rain started.
Du Li cleaned the donkey shed and chicken coop in the rain. The rain washed away the stench of the manure. The citrus and osmanthus trees in the backyard released their fresh fragrance under the pounding of the raindrops, which, along with the drifting moisture, gradually nourished the home.
"Son-in-law, quickly change your clothes." Mother Meng handed him a set of Father Meng's clothes. "Put these on quickly, don't catch a cold, it gets cold when it rains."
"It's alright, it'll dry in a bit." Du Li didn't mind; when he was planting rice seedlings in the paddy fields, he would wear wet clothes all day long.
"Listen to me, go change." Meng's mother glared at him, "These are your father-in-law's clothes, not someone else's. Why are you so fussy?"
"I feel at ease..." Du Li had no choice but to take the clothes and go to Meng Qing's boudoir.
"Du Li, the bedding is in the box. Take it out and make the bed," Meng Qing called out.
"good."
When Du Li came out again, Meng's father and Meng Chun had returned, and Wang Zhou had also woken up. They stood by the bed, craning their necks to tease the child.
For a moment, Du Li was in a daze. All the past seemed to have drifted away from him. He was no longer himself. He had become someone else, and he longed to become someone else.
On this rainy day, a seed sprouted in his heart. He longed for a new life, he wanted a home where no one looked down on him.
“Brother-in-law, Dad’s clothes fit you perfectly.” Meng Chun came out carrying a urine bag.
Du Li snapped out of his daze and reached out to take the urine bag. "I'll wash it."
Meng Chun didn't try to take the job from him, so she tossed him the urinal. He ran into the kitchen in the rain and said, "Sister, I'll watch the fire. You go and feed Wangzhou so it won't delay your meal later."
Meng Qing came out of the kitchen and saw Du Li. She said, "It's raining so hard, we can't do any work in the fields. Why don't you stay here for a few more days and go back when the rain stops?"
Du Li shook his head. He couldn't work on a rainy day, and the villagers had nothing to do, so they liked to gather together and gossip. His family's affairs would definitely be dug up and questioned. He had to hurry back and talk to his parents to avoid affecting Meng Qing's reputation.
“The rain is heavy, and the fields will flood. The rice seedlings have only been planted for half a month. If the water floods the seedlings, the whole seedlings will float up. I have to go back to guard the fields and watch the water.” Du Li used this excuse.
When Meng's father came out and heard this, he sighed, "Farming is hard work."
"It's much easier than fishing on the river or rowing a boat." Du Li was quite content; farming involved dealing with crops and didn't require much worry.
Seeing that he had made up his mind, Meng Qing stopped trying to persuade him and went back inside to breastfeed the baby.
After putting the child to sleep, the Meng family served the meal: a steamed fish, a bowl of steamed eggs, and half a basin of water celery and tofu soup. Some dishes were dry, some were soupy, and the meal was light yet flavorful.
After lunch, Mencius' mother put down her chopsticks and asked impatiently, "Can you speak now?"
"You all know the reason for this. It's because his third brother's classmate, Gu Wuxia, wanted to order a pair of flying horses from the paper horse shop. He asked Du Min for help, and Du Min came to me for help. I agreed to give it a try, so I brought the child back to stay for a while," Meng Qing said casually.
Meng's mother glanced at Du Li and asked tactfully, "In about half a month, the family will be busy with silk weaving, right? Didn't your in-laws ask you to stay home and help?"
"They did want to stay, but Du Min's matter was more important. He said that the sage was suppressing extravagant burials and advocating for simple burials, and he wanted to write several policy essays on this. I can't say the specifics, but his point was to advocate using paper funerary objects instead of real objects and pottery for burial." Meng Qing deliberately spoke vaguely, "He wanted to write related policy essays, but the students of the academy didn't have much contact with paper funerary objects, so he wanted to take this opportunity to let his classmates understand the charm of paper funerary objects."
Meng's father didn't understand policy essays, but he sensed a business opportunity in Meng Qing's words: "If your brother-in-law wins first place again with this policy essay, won't our Meng family's paper horse shop become famous?"
"As expected of my father, he grasped the deepest details immediately." Meng Qing praised him highly.
Mencius' mother scoffed, "What's all this about being profound or subtle? We're familiar with this technique; we understand it as soon as we hear it. When you were around ten years old, you went to Ruiguang Temple every day to listen to the sutras, debated with the worshippers, and took every opportunity to introduce them to paper figures and horses. That's how our shop built its business. Year after year, we've accumulated some reputation."
"My mother is so smart; she saw through the crux of the matter immediately. Our family's paper horse shop is thriving, and that's all thanks to you," Meng Qing praised them one by one.
“That’s right.” Meng’s mother glanced at Meng’s father.
Meng's father waved his hand and laughed, "Your credit is your credit, I won't take it from you."
Meng Qing and her brother Meng Chun couldn't stop smiling.
Du Li found it quite novel; could parents, father and daughter, and mother and daughter really get along like this?
"That's the gist of it. I came back to help." Meng Qing steered the conversation back on track. "Du Min will probably bring Gu Wuxia over tomorrow. If he doesn't, he'll probably have to wait until the weather clears up. I've already told him that I need to see that painting before I can decide whether or not to take on this business."
“If you handle this, we can do the job. That Gu student doesn’t want brightly colored funerary objects; he wants them made to match the colors in the painting—light black, jet black, only you can create such a smooth color transition.” Meng’s father had seen the painting. Gu Wuxia wanted the horse in the painting to have its expression restored, but the paper horse’s skeleton was stiff and lifeless. To bring out its spirit, the only way was through painting and decoration. Painting was Meng Qing’s forte; he had only learned the basics from her.
“If you think you can do it, then you can take this business.” Meng Qing trusted her father’s judgment. She reminded him, “If this business is successful, our reputation will spread. Father, you need to stock up on bamboo and bamboo strips. You also need to buy hemp cloth and yellow hemp paper. It would be best to also have silk cloth and paper bark. Good products should be made with expensive materials.”
“A sheet of paper costs five coins!” Meng’s father was reluctant to buy it, worried that he would not need it and it would be left unused. “When you need it, have Meng Chun buy it. Don’t hoard this stuff.”
"Alright." Having finished her roundabout way of saying things, Meng Qing chuckled, leaning forward and resting her head on the table. Looking at her parents, she asked, "Master Meng, Accountant Pan, I've come back to help out. Have we divided the profits yet?"
"Yes." Meng's mother glanced at Du Li and said half-jokingly, "I'll give you something, more or less. It depends on how you use the money. If you take it back to the public treasury, I'll give you less. The rest will be saved up for Wangzhou."
“You’re meddling too much. Is this something you can interfere with?” Meng’s father scolded.
Mencius' mother glanced at Du Li, ready to change her mind at any moment.
“It’s my personal savings,” Meng Qing said.
“This money is what you gave Qingniang; it’s her private savings. I can’t use it, and my parents certainly can’t touch it,” Du Li stated.
"I've thought it all out. I'll take over the making of the funerary objects. After selling them, I'll get half of the profits after deducting the cost. As for the remaining profits, especially after we've built up our reputation, I'll take 20% of the profits from each sale, regardless of who made them," Meng Qing said. "Father, Mother, Little Brother, what do you think of this profit-sharing arrangement?"
Mencius' parents understood immediately: the remaining 20% of the profits were likely to go to Du Min or the Du family.
"I have no objection," Meng Chun said first.
“All the profits from the antiques you make are yours. But there’s a time limit for the remaining 20% of the profits, right?” Meng’s father said.
Meng Qing thought that Du Min would probably not care about the money after passing the imperial examination, so she held up three fingers, "Three years."
“Okay,” Meng’s father accepted.
"As for the funerary objects I make, we should split them 50/50. I can't take them all. I need to take care of my child, and I'll definitely need your help with things like making the frames and pasting the paper. I can't keep all the profits for myself," Meng Qing explained clearly.
Mencius' mother pointed at her son and said, "Meng Chun, you help your sister, and you two can split the profits. Your father and I don't want this money."
“If you don’t want me, I will. If you want to hire this old man to help you, I’ll pay you thirty coins a day,” Meng’s father said earnestly.
"My sister and I are a perfect team, a powerful duo. How dare you interfere?" Meng Chun was happy that his sister was back and was so arrogant that he wanted to get a beating.
Meng's father stared at him, and he shrugged, got up, and ran away.
"The rain has lessened, shall we still go to the paper horse shop?" Meng Chun asked from under the eaves.
Du Li snapped out of her reverie. "Is the rain getting lighter? I should go."
"Let's stay until tomorrow," Meng's father said, urging his guest to stay.
"We should leave as soon as possible. If it rains heavily tonight and the river rises, it will be even more difficult to navigate." Du Li wanted to stay, but he had more important things to worry about.
Du Li changed into his clothes, and the four members of the Meng family saw him off at the door.
"Father, Mother, please don't see me off. I'll come again in the future." Du Li asked them to stop.
"Meng Chun, take your brother-in-law to the ferry. If there's no boat, bring him back," Meng's father instructed.
"Hey." Meng Chun went back inside to get an umbrella.
"Be careful on the road," Meng Qing instructed.
Du Li nodded, "It's hard on you taking care of the child all by yourself."
Meng Qing hadn't expected him to have this awareness, and she smiled gently, "Remember to come visit me and Wangzhou more often."
Meng Chun took out an umbrella, and Du Li followed him. After the two disappeared, Meng Qing and her parents went back into the house.
“Du Min has done a good thing by bringing you back,” said Meng’s mother.
"I should thank him." Meng Qing was happy; before her marriage, she had never dared to hope that she could continue doing what she loved.
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