Lin Xiaoman’s heart ached at the sight. She squeezed in next to her and sat down. “Oh my, what’s upset you? Why are you about to cry?”
Lin Xingxing leaned her head on Lin Xiaoman’s shoulder. “Xiaoman, I’m going to be married off. After this, I’m afraid it’ll be hard for us to see each other again.”
Shen Guihua felt a pang of sadness hearing her daughter’s words, but a girl had to marry when she came of age.
“Alright, stop that. How can a girl not marry? When you talk like that, you’ll make Xiaoman upset too.”
Lin Xingxing, who had only been feeling sorry for herself, began to cry like a string of broken pearls after hearing Shen Guihua’s words.
Lin Xiaoman had long known that Lin Xingxing liked Li Tiezhu, a farmer from the neighboring village of Liujiazhuang. She had met him before—he was a steady, honest young man.
But the Li family was too poor to even own land. They could only rent fields from Lord Liu. After paying the annual rent, the grain left over was barely enough to keep them from starving. In recent years, with the poor harvests, she had heard they even owed Lord Liu quite a bit of money. Lin Xingxing’s family didn’t want to marry their daughter into such hardship, so they had always refused the match.
But seeing Lin Xingxing crying like this, Lin Xiaoman felt upset too. She asked who the match was with and learned it was the Fang family, who ran a grain shop in the county town. The family had only one son, and if Lin Xingxing married him, she would become a young mistress.
“Marrying into that kind of life, you’ll have everything done for you—clothes handed to you, food brought to you. What’s there to be unhappy about?”
Lin Xingxing kept crying. The other three people on the cart also tried to console her. “Xingxing, you’re just reluctant to leave your parents. We’ve heard of Fang’s Grain Shop too. The family only has one son. Madam Fang is a second wife who married into the family two years ago—she’s not much older than the young master, so she probably won’t act like a strict mother-in-law. And there’s even a maid in the household. Xingxing will be living a life of comfort once she marries in.”
Lin Xiaoman gently comforted her. “How about this: when we go into town today, I’ll go with you to check out the grain shop. Who knows, maybe the young man is decent?”
Lin Xingxing’s crying paused. After a moment, she gave a soft “mm” of agreement, as if something had crossed her mind.
…
The dirt road was full of potholes, and the cart jolted along it, making Lin Xiaoman long for the smooth paved roads on the other side.
By the time they finally reached the county town, Lin Xiaoman felt like her bones had been rattled apart. She decided then and there that she was never taking the cart again if she could help it.
After getting off the cart, Lin Xingxing didn’t say anything, but her eyes clearly begged Lin Xiaoman to accompany her to the Fang family’s grain shop. Lin Xiaoman, however, told her to be patient. “Aunt Guihua, I’m feeling a bit thirsty. How about we go to that tea stall over there for a cup of tea?”
Shen Guihua smiled and nodded. “Alright, Aunt Guihua will treat you.”
Lin Xiaoman didn’t stand on ceremony. The group walked into the tea stall.
The stall was run by a woman in her forties. It was quiet at this hour, and when she saw the four of them enter, she came over with a smile. “What would you like to drink?”
Shen Guihua ordered a pot of Biluochun tea.
Lin Xiaoman remembered that when she was little, her mother and Aunt Guihua always ordered Biluochun whenever they came to town with her and Xingxing. Her mother would rinse the cups with boiling water, then pour a little bit of the tea into a cup with some sugar she carried with her for Lin Xiaoman to drink. Aunt Guihua used to tease her mother for being so particular despite their modest means.
Now that her parents were gone, and Aunt Guihua still remembered the tea they used to love, Lin Xiaoman felt a wave of sadness.
After the woman brought the tea, she turned to leave, but Lin Xiaoman stopped her. “Auntie, I’d like to ask you about someone.”
The woman wiped her hands on her apron. “Who would you like to ask about, miss? I’m not sure if I know them.”
Lin Xiaoman smiled. “It’s about the young master of Fang’s Grain Shop in town. I heard recently that he sent someone to the countryside to arrange a marriage match. I was just wondering—why would a family as wealthy and established as the Fang family need to look for a match in the countryside?”
The woman’s smile stiffened. Glancing around to make sure no one was listening, her eyes swept over Lin Xiaoman and Lin Xingxing before she lowered her voice. “Is he trying to match with one of your girls? I won’t hide it from you—if the Fang family comes to propose, whatever you do, don’t agree. Don’t push a good girl into a fire pit.”
Lin Xingxing seemed to let out a breath of relief. Shen Guihua’s face, however, turned pale. She took out a handful of copper coins from her pocket. “Sister, please tell us properly—what kind of family is the Fang family, really?”
Seeing the expression on her face, the woman knew that Fang’s Grain Shop had set its sights on her daughter. Glancing at the copper coins in her hand—about thirty or so—she smiled again. “It’s not busy right now anyway. Come over here, and I’ll tell you properly. It’s not about the money; I just can’t bear to see a good girl walk right into a fire pit. That Young Master Fang… oh dear, he has that kind of sickness…”
…
When they came out of the tea stall, Lin Xingxing looked completely relieved, but Shen Guihua’s face had turned pale with anger. “That Fang family is despicable! Carousing around and catching all kinds of diseases is one thing, but not even sparing his stepmother? Who knows whose child is in Madam Fang’s belly?”
Lin Xingxing tugged at Shen Guihua’s sleeve. “Mother, don’t talk about such things out in public.”
Shen Guihua had spoken in a fit of rage and immediately regretted saying such crude things in front of her daughter.
Lin Xiaoman added, “Aunt Guihua, the most important thing now is to call off this match. We can’t let Xingxing marry into the Fang family.”
Shen Guihua nodded repeatedly. After quickly buying a few things in town, she hurried back with Lin Xingxing.
As they passed by Fang’s Grain Shop, they saw an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old young man sitting out front. He looked decent enough but was openly flirting with a woman in gaudy clothes, his hands wandering. After asking around, they learned that the young man was Fang Mingcheng, the young master of Fang’s Grain Shop, and the woman was from a brothel.
Shen Guihua spat in their direction. “Scoundrel!”
Her remark drew laughter from passersby. Fang Mingcheng, furious, tried to rush over to hit her but was held back by a shop assistant, who whispered something in his ear. A flicker of disbelief and guilt crossed Fang Mingcheng’s face.
If Shen Guihua had only half-believed the tea stall woman before, now she was completely convinced. Marrying her daughter into the Fang family would truly be pushing her into a fire pit.
Fortunately, according to Shen Guihua and Lin Xingxing, the engagement had not yet been finalized. As long as Lin Xingxing’s family refused the match, the Fang family had no grounds to object.
Shen Guihua took her daughter back home to break the news, while Lin Xiaoman and Lin Erhu followed the address on the deed and asked around for directions.
After asking several people, they finally found their family’s shop tucked away in a remote corner.
The storefront was fairly large. Outside the door was a stove with a simple, makeshift awning that looked like it might collapse at any moment. If they wanted to protect against rain and snow, they would need to reinforce it.
Fortunately, even though the location was out of the way, the space in front was wide open, which would allow them to set up a few tables on good-weather days.
But when they arrived, they found the door locked with a heavy iron padlock.
Compared to the rammed-earth houses in the countryside, the brick-and-tile buildings in town were much sturdier. Since the town wasn’t at the epicenter of last year’s earthquake, most shops had suffered little damage. This shop, which their parents had bought, was no exception—it looked a bit run-down but was otherwise intact.
Peering through the torn paper window coverings, they could see twelve square tables inside, each with four long benches. A few odds and ends had been left behind on the floor.
They asked the neighboring shop owner and learned that the shop had been rented out last year to a couple who sold steamed buns. But with the hard times, they barely sold a few baskets a day. If they hadn’t paid a year’s rent upfront, they would have shut down long ago. As soon as the year was up, they locked up and left without waiting for the landlord to show up.