Ji Jiangnu sat by the small river outside the village, holding a fern in her hand, crying and pulling the branches and leaves one by one.
This was a habit that Jiang's daughter learned from her mother before she got married. She would pick the thin leaves from the fern one by one. One leaf meant that her father would come back, and the next leaf meant that he would not come back. She would repeat this process until she picked the last leaf and came to the conclusion: whether her father who was away from home could come back today.
Jiang's husband, Chen Wulang, was conscripted to build a moat in the second month of his marriage.
According to the village chief, workers who have worked for a full year can have a one-month vacation to return home and see their families.
She counted on her fingers and found that it had been more than a year and three months since Chen Wulang left the village.
At the beginning of the month, a sister from the village who had married to a neighboring county came back to her parents' home with her husband who had gone to repair the moat with her, but she said she had never seen Chen Wulang.
Jiang's daughter was very nervous and pulled ferns every day to see if her husband would come back.
The ferns look the same, but their branches and leaves are different. When you count one branch, it turns back, but when you pull the next branch, it doesn't turn back.
There was a shaman in the ancestral temple of the neighboring village who was very good at divination. As long as he was given a jade pendant, he would take out a yellow turtle shell, drill a hole in it, and carve the question he wanted to ask on it, such as "When will my husband come back?" Then he would hold the turtle shell in his mouth, take it out, and roast it over the fire while muttering something.
Jiang's daughter's dowry, a pair of earrings and a pendant, became the witch's property after she went to see the witch several times, but her husband still did not come back.
Just now, after the witch roasted the tortoise shell in front of Ms. Jiang, three cracks of varying lengths appeared next to the hole.
The witch looked at him gravely for a long time before saying, "The divination indicates misfortune. This means Chen Wulang will surely be in great danger!"
If you want to eliminate the disaster, you have to ask a witch to perform a ritual and give three jade pendants.
The Jiang girl had nothing left except a jade pendant that Chen Wulang had personally given her.
This was a token of love between her and him, and also the proof for when they would reunite and discuss marriage after several years of separation. She was reluctant to give it to the witch.
If Chen Wulang really couldn't come back, then she wouldn't have anything related to Chen Wulang.
The main road at the entrance of the village was quiet, and Jiang's daughter had walked back and forth dozens of times.
When she heard a little noise, she stood up and ran over to look. Seeing that the person coming was not Chen Wulang, she ran back to the river in tears and continued to pull ferns.
Dark clouds gradually gathered and the wind by the river grew stronger and stronger.
The storm is coming.
Every time this season comes, a heavy rain will flood the small stone bridge leading back to the village.
Jiang's daughter had no choice but to go home crying.
Her ten-year-old uncle Chen Jiulang and six-year-old aunt Chen Shisan Niang were waiting for her to come home and cook.
The weather was hot and humid, and the firewood was damp, burning in the stove and producing thick smoke. Jiang's daughter herself was so smoked that she couldn't stop crying and coughing.
When my parents-in-law came back from the fields, they could hear their scolding from a distance: "How stupid! You've been married for so long and you still haven't learned how to start a fire. If you didn't know, you would think the house was on fire."
The mother-in-law walked into the kitchen and saw Jiang's daughter coughing from the smoke and fire. She was furious: "You just cry all day long. So many families in the village have married daughters-in-law, but you are the only one who doesn't farm. You only like to plant flowers and plants in front of and behind the house. Later, if you don't want to eat, you will eat your flowers and plants!"
The Jiang daughter whispered, "I can weave a bolt of cloth in eight days, while other families' daughters-in-law can only weave three bolts of cloth in a month."
The yarn she spun was fine and even, the cloth she wove was soft and smooth, and all the family's clothes were made by her. My uncle and aunt were the most beautifully and cleanly dressed children in the village.
The mother-in-law's weakness was her poor needlework skills. When her daughter-in-law accidentally talked back to her, she became furious and yelled, "If you didn't mess around with those flowers and plants, you could weave a piece of cloth in six or seven days. You still dare to talk back? I think you're just itching for trouble!"
Jiang's daughter cried all day because of the possibility that Chen Wulang might have met with an accident. She was so tired that her head was buzzing and she had no energy to reason with her mother-in-law. She could only swallow her anger and bring the cooked food to the table, then quietly went back to her room to continue spinning.
The younger brother-in-law asked innocently, "Mom, why doesn't my sister-in-law eat? I don't have the energy to play when I'm hungry. How can my sister-in-law have the energy to weave when she's hungry?"
The mother-in-law gritted her teeth and said, "Eat your food! Eat more, grow up quickly and help the family farm. Don't sit at home all day doing nothing and make people laugh at you."
The brother-in-law didn't understand what was going on and just lowered his head and ate in silence.
Jiang's daughter listened in the house, sighed softly, and started spinning.
Fortunately, she had secretly taken out a vegetable dumpling to fill her stomach while cooking. Otherwise, if she had just listened to her mother-in-law's scolding, she would have starved to death many times!
This was what Chen Wulang secretly taught him before he left: "No matter how my mother scolds you, as long as she doesn't hit you and just says you can't eat, don't talk back to her. Take the initiative to cook, and when you taste the food, eat a little bit here and there until you're full. Remember this? I'm not at home, and there's no one to protect you. You must take good care of yourself!"
This trick is extremely useful, and the Jiang girl has never been hungry.
Her reputation for weaving skills spread far and wide. Whenever she went to pick flax or wash yarn, there would always be peddlers willing to ask her for scraps of cloth, or simply buy cloth from her.
The mother-in-law kicked the door open and asked her to open her mouth and breathe out so that she could check if she had eaten anything secretly.
The Jiang family girl bit a betel nut and said, "I only have this. I have worms in my stomach. I prayed to the gods and the witch gave it to me."
The smell of betel nut can cover up the taste of all food.
The mother-in-law kicked the loom and said, "Don't be lazy. You can't go to bed until you finish weaving this piece of cloth." Then she went to her bed and took away the only small quilt she had. "It's going to rain tonight and it will be cold. Give this to your sister-in-law."
There was half a piece of cloth hanging on the loom, and she couldn't finish weaving the rest even if she stayed up all night.
The mother-in-law wanted her to go hungry and not sleep for another night.
The raindrops hit the roof, the wind blew violently, and soon it turned into a downpour, as if it was going to collapse the roof.
Jiang's daughter secretly made up her mind that if Chen Wulang didn't come back, she would quietly follow the peddler out of the village and go to the provincial capital to work as a weaver. She heard that the house there was very big, she could have two full meals a day, and she would receive a monthly salary. The best thing was that the threads used for weaving were all silk, the fabrics were all brocade and satin, and the clothes she cut were such that only fairies could wear them.
She was so dexterous that she could support herself by running away. She vowed never to suffer from her mother-in-law again.
Jiang's daughter was cold and sleepy. Her eyes were so swollen from crying that she could hardly open them, and her throat was so hoarse that she couldn't make a sound.
The sound of rain gradually subsided, and the roosters began to crow again.
It's almost dawn.
When Jiang's daughter heard the noise of her parents-in-law getting ready to go out, she got downstairs in a daze, collected two pieces of clothes without patches, rolled them up into a small package, waited for a while to cook breakfast, and took the opportunity to escape when she pretended to go to the river to wash clothes.
At this moment, a familiar voice came from outside the door: "Dad, Mom, I'm back!"
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