Zhang the Lame left. Aunt Zhang from next door, having heard the commotion, peeked her head out. When she saw the man beside Jiang Yuanyuan, she paused for a moment but still didn’t step out.
Jiang Yuanyuan closed the door again and stood on tiptoe to hold an umbrella over the tall man. “You’re all drenched.”
Chu Jing noticed that even though she was straining to reach, the umbrella was still held too low, so he reached out and took it from her.
Jiang Yuanyuan tilted her head to look at him. Seeing his stern expression, she thought he was upset about Zhang the Lame’s debt collection and said, “I didn’t owe him money. It was my grandmother who owed it.”
Her explanation came somewhat abruptly. Chu Jing paused for a moment. “I know.”
He spoke very earnestly, “Your grandmother took the money, so your grandmother should marry him. You won’t marry him.”
Jiang Yuanyuan couldn’t help but burst into laughter, as if she hadn’t expected him to say such a thing. For a moment, tears of mirth welled up in her eyes.
She deliberately asked, “What if Zhang the Lame comes again? Today he wanted to hit me. Luckily, you were here, otherwise I…”
Her voice grew soft and frail, growing quieter and quieter. It seemed she wasn’t so much worried about whether Zhang the Lame would return, but rather about Chu Jing not being there.
Indeed, for a vulnerable woman, such a situation was truly frightening.
Her reliance made Chu Jing feel an invisible sense of responsibility settling on his shoulders. He said, “I’ll drive him away for you.”
Jiang Yuanyuan’s almond-shaped eyes instantly curved into crescents as she cooed sweetly, “Really?”
Facing her smiling face, Chu Jing nodded. “Of course, it’s true.”
Dealing with a lame man was nothing—he could handle it with one hand.
·
After leaving Jiang Yuanyuan’s place, Zhang the Lame went straight to Uncle Jiang’s house to find Granny Yu.
Granny Yu was drinking sweet potato porridge when he arrived. Seeing him, she hurriedly asked, “How did it go? Did she agree?”
Now, every time Zhang the Lame saw Granny Yu’s wrinkled old face, he felt like vomiting. It was all because of that damned Jiang Yuanyuan saying such things. This old hag, with her face full of wrinkles and teeth that whistled when she spoke—even if she paid him, he wouldn’t want her!
“Agree, my ass!” Zhang the Lame said. “You’re all in cahoots trying to swindle me out of my money, aren’t you? Either you get Jiang Yuanyuan for me, or you return my money. Otherwise, I’ll report you to the authorities!”
Naturally, there was no way she was going to return the money. Granny Yu had already hidden it away and never intended to give it back. Her plan was to help Zhang the Lame get Jiang Yuanyuan first.
If that didn’t work out, she still had a granddaughter!
“Don’t rush. I have another idea,” Granny Yu’s eyes darted around as she said, “That man can’t guard her forever. Find a time to have your way with her. Once the rice is cooked, she’ll be yours! She won’t be able to escape then!”
Easier said than done. Zhang the Lame snorted. His face, darkened from years of drinking, looked even uglier now as he spat toward Granny Yu’s face. “If this doesn’t work either, I’ll report your whole family!”
Faced with such a brute, Granny Yu didn’t dare utter a word of protest. She coaxed and persuaded him until he finally left.
Turning to look at her son, who was cowering like a quail, she cursed a few times under her breath before heading back inside.
·
The rain lasted for two days. On the third day, the sky remained overcast. Taking advantage of the break in the rain, Jiang Yuanyuan and Chu Jing each took a basket and headed to the fields to harvest all the vegetables and store them in the cellar.
This way, there was no need to keep checking the fields. If they ran short of vegetables, they could buy some from neighbors or go to town. In less than two months, it would be time to slaughter the New Year’s pig, and they could buy pork to last through the entire New Year season.
There wasn’t much left in the fields anyway—two trips would be enough for the two of them to carry everything back.
Having bought a man, it made no sense not to put him to work. But along the way, Jiang Yuanyuan had noticed that the usually friendly aunties were now avoiding her from afar, as if she were some venomous snake or ferocious beast.
Deep down, she thought it would be a good thing to get along well with these neighbors, and she was more than willing to do so.
But she also knew that, for now, only Chu Jing could help her out of her predicament. These neighbors hadn’t stepped in to stop Uncle Jiang’s family when she was about to be sold—at most, they might have offered a few words of comfort afterward.
Everyone had their own lives to live. If they could get along well with others, that was ideal. If not, there was no need to force it.
The outer leaves of the cabbages in the field had already started to yellow. The two of them filled two baskets and carried them back. When they returned for the second trip, the field looked as if someone had trampled through it, and several cabbages had been kicked and ruined.
Jiang Yuanyuan sighed. Chu Jing pointed toward a family harvesting vegetables not far away and said, “It was them.”
Jiang Yuanyuan looked over—it was her neighbors to the right, Scholar Sun’s family.
Scholar Sun’s family always prided themselves on being educated. They loved to comment on every little thing in the village, big or small. After all, he was the only Xiucai in the entire village. When the fields weren’t busy, every household hoped to send their children to him to learn a few characters, so no one dared to offend him. This only made the family grow more arrogant and overbearing.
Chu Jing was deeply unhappy that the food he was about to eat had been ruined like this. He felt that he was already making do in this place, and now, when he had resigned himself to eating cabbage all winter, even that was being taken away from him.
The air around him grew heavier.
Sensing his displeasure, Jiang Yuanyuan tugged gently at his sleeve and said softly, “It’s alright. In a couple of days, I’ll take you to town to buy something delicious.”
Chu Jing’s expression softened slightly. Suddenly, he asked, “Do you just let it go when you’re bullied like this?”
“Well, not exactly,” Jiang Yuanyuan replied. “Most of the villagers were actually quite kind to me after my parents passed away. By the way, how did you know it was Scholar Sun who did it?”
She changed the subject, making it clear she didn’t want to dwell on it. Chu Jing studied her for a moment and then let it go.
“They kept looking over here, and besides—”
“It rained last night, so the soil in the field is still damp. There are footprints.”
There were indeed some messy footprints on the ground, though most people wouldn’t have paid them much attention.
Jiang Yuanyuan’s eyes curved into a smile as she praised him sincerely, “You’re really clever.”
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Chu Jing’s lips. He went to pick the remaining two or three cabbages in the field, as if in response to her compliment.
Jiang Yuanyuan finally understood: with Chu Jing, you had to praise him, just like coaxing a child. If you wanted him to work, you had to coax him into it.
But that was fine. If there was one thing Jiang Yuanyuan was good at, it was coaxing people.
The two of them looked even more intimate than newlyweds in the village. Watching from afar, Scholar Sun snorted coldly and said to his son, “This is the woman you once said you wanted to marry. If we had really brought her into our family, our reputation as a scholarly household would have been utterly ruined!”
Scholar Sun’s son, Sun Feng, softly uttered an “oh,” but his eyes couldn’t help drifting toward Jiang Yuanyuan’s fair and delicate face, his heart not agreeing in the slightest.
His father was just putting on a show; in truth, he also liked beautiful women. Last time, he had even seen his father talking to the family maid, Yingying, behind his mother’s back.
In Jiang Yuanyuan’s field, there was still a small patch of chrysanthemum greens, planted earlier with the help of Aunt Sun. Now, they were a lush green, looking quite delightful.
Since she didn’t plan to come back later, Jiang Yuanyuan harvested all the chrysanthemum greens at once, intending to steam them for dinner. There was still cured meat at home, so she could also stir-fry a plate in the evening.
Returning home, Jiang Yuanyuan first washed the chrysanthemum greens clean, then took half of them to give to Aunt Zhang.
She knocked on the door, and when Aunt Zhang opened it and saw it was her, she hesitated for a moment, said nothing, and closed the door.
After a while, Uncle Zhang’s scolding voice came from inside the house, “I already told you it was her, and you still went to open the door! Do you want our family to lose face in the village too?”