“Xiaowei, what are you looking at?” Lin Changsong climbed down from the roof after repairing the tiles and saw his daughter staring blankly at the stream.
Lin Xiaowei pulled him over to the stream. “Dad, there’s a drop in elevation here. If we install a waterwheel in the stream, we can convert the mill into a water mill.”
Lin Changsong’s eyes widened. “You know how to make a waterwheel?”
Lin Xiaowei said smugly, “Of course. I studied woodworking under a master, and later I even made an entire video about water mills. After I finished filming it, my maternal grandmother’s relatives kept using that water-powered millstone.”
Lin Changsong thought for a moment. “Once we have money, Dad will get you a set of woodworking tools. You can build a water mill to make things easier for your mother when she makes pastries. She has a lot of ingredients that need to be ground into flour.”
Lin Xiaowei had thought of that too. There were no high-speed blenders or anything like them here, so making pastries was too much work for her mother.
“Dad, the staple food here is rice. The waterwheel can also be used to pound rice.”
Lin Changsong became excited. “My daughter is an all-around talent! But we don’t need to rush. We’ll take it one step at a time.” He was already thinking that their new home should be built nearby. When the time came, he would make Xiaowei a large workshop where she could do handicrafts and woodworking.
The mill rented by Lin Changgen had three rooms. One held a stone mill, while the other two had originally been storehouses. The Clan Head had now lent them to the Third Branch as temporary lodging. Lin Changgen was already extremely satisfied. To be able to leave the Old Lin family and have a place to stay was something he would never have dared imagine before yesterday.
Once they had finished tidying up, the Clan Head’s brothers left. There was not even a cooking pot in the house, so they had nothing with which to entertain them. That day, the men had first helped clean up Lin Changsong’s house and then helped tidy the mill. Once they had money in their hands in the future, they would have to repay this kindness.
Before Old Man Lin left, he looked at his two sons with a worried expression, several times wanting to speak but stopping himself. Lin Changsong thought of the wowotou they had found when they woke up and still comforted his father with a few words. “Dad, go home. No matter what happens, the two of us brothers will still be filial to you.”
Under the complicated gazes of the two families, Old Man Lin walked away with his back hunched.
Before returning to his own home, Lin Changsong pulled Third Brother aside and spoke to him for a few minutes.
Lin Changgen looked incredulous. “Second Brother… Mother wouldn’t do something like that, would she…?”
“What if she does? Besides, this place is somewhat remote. Even if Mother wouldn’t do anything, what if someone else gets malicious ideas?”
“All right. I’ll listen to you, Second Brother.”
Seeing that he had taken his words to heart, Lin Changsong said, “Then I’ll head back. If anything happens, shout loudly. I’ll be able to hear you over there.”
Lin Changgen nodded, and his family watched the Second Branch walk away.
The courtyard rented by the Second Branch was only two or three hundred meters away. It had originally belonged to an outsider named Xu, a hunter who had lived alone. Later, he had met with an accident while hunting. When he escaped from the mountains, he had been down to his last breath.
The Lin clan had taken care of his remains. Since he had owned no farmland, he left only this house, so he gave it to the clan.
The clan could rent it out or sell it, but because it was close to the foot of the mountain, everyone preferred living in the center of the village. No one wanted to buy the house.
After leaving the mill and passing another family’s home, they arrived at the place where they would be staying temporarily.
The family next door was one of the more than twenty refugee households that had settled in Kaoshan Village the year before last.
There were only two brothers. Their entire family had died along the road while fleeing the famine. The elder brother was seventeen and went into the mountains to hunt every day. The villagers exchanged things with him for some of his game.
The younger brother was fourteen and studied at an academy in the county town.
According to the Lin family’s memories, the two brothers usually left early and returned late as well. They had only ever seen them from a distance and had never had much interaction with them.
The hunter Xu’s house consisted of only three simple rooms: a central main room with one bedroom on either side. One room was now occupied by the husband and wife, while a straw curtain had been hung across the middle of the other room for the brother and sister pair.
What else could they do? They still had no money to build a house of their own, and the two “children” were both unwilling to sleep in the same room as their parents. They could only divide the other bedroom into an inner and outer section.
The straw curtain had also been woven by Lin Xiaowei that very day.
Wang Ya went to the secret base and carried down everything they had hidden there in two trips. “Tomorrow, we’ll sell the medicinal herbs. Otherwise, without any money in our hands, we won’t be able to get anything done.”
Lin Xiaowei raised her hand. “I’m going too. I gathered all the foxtail grass in the courtyard separately today. I’ll make some grass-woven items later and take them to the county town to sell tomorrow!”
Lin Minghao looked left and right. “Then how about I stay home and guard the house?”
Lin Changsong rubbed his head. “You’re not even as tall as my leg. What are you going to guard? You can’t even beat Lin Mingjiang. Are you staying here to offer yourself up as a dish?”
Lin Minghao… was furious.
Wang Ya had nearly forgotten what her son had been like as a child. Now that she saw a son who was not so bookish, she found it novel. She pulled him over and gave him a vigorous rubbing. “The courtyard walls are high. There’s no need for you to guard the house. You’re coming to the county town with us tomorrow.”
The sky slowly darkened. The four of them had neither an oil lamp nor candles, so they could only force a shutdown. An oil lamp, however, had been lit inside the neighbors’ house next door.
“Young Master, I’ve found out everything. The people who moved in next door are Second Son Lin from Lin Shuanzhu’s family, while the ones in the mill are Third Son Lin. They only split from the family today and were driven out by Old Madam Liu. As for this Second Son Lin…”
Beside the oil lamp, a pair of long, slender hands held a book and gently turned a page. “What? Is there a problem?”
“Old Madam Liu is extremely biased toward the First Branch. I heard that this Second Son Lin was a lazy man, and that his wife and children were all exploited by Old Madam Liu. A few days ago, Old Madam Liu wanted to sell the Second Branch’s daughter to fund the First Branch’s grandson’s imperial examinations. The Second Branch refused, so Old Madam Liu locked them up for five days. They nearly starved to death, and then the entire Second Branch changed.”
The person holding the book glanced at him, indicating that he should continue.
“Afterward, the Second Branch went around telling the villagers that Lin Minghai was certain to succeed in the examinations and that they would enjoy the benefits with him. Yet today, they were thrown out with nothing.
“Wang Ya was timid by nature, the kind of person who didn’t even dare speak loudly. Now she dares to talk back to her mother-in-law. The two children were also invisible before, but now they have both become articulate.”
The man asked in confusion, “Young Master, can being starved once really cause such a drastic change?”
The person addressed as Young Master paused before replying in a calm voice, “Perhaps.”
“I think this Second Son Lin did it deliberately. He deliberately provoked Old Madam Liu…” He continued on and on.
The Lin family, who had fallen sound asleep after an exhausting day, had no idea that they were the village’s top news story. Everyone was saying that Lin Changsong and Lin Changgen had suffered a huge loss: just when they were about to reap the benefits, they had been driven out of their home.
Only a few clever people in the entire village saw through Second Son Lin’s intentions, including their new neighbors.
The next day, the sky was only beginning to brighten when the family of four woke up. It had only been a few days, yet Old Madam Liu had already conditioned them into having the instincts of oxen and horses. What a sin…
Once it was light, Lin Xiaowei went to the stream to gather reed leaves, which she planned to use to weave dragonflies.
Wang Ya went to deliver an earthenware pot to the Third Branch. Neither family had received a cooking pot during the division of the household. The house they rented had an iron pot, but the Third Branch had nothing at all. Without an earthenware pot, they could not even cook porridge.
Fortunately, Lin Xiaowei had fired several pots of different sizes again. Though they were a little rough, they would work well enough for the Third Branch in an emergency.
When Shen Shi received the earthenware pot, she was extremely excited. She had been worrying about how to cook.
Mother and daughter returned together from the stone mill and passed by the neighbors’ home.
Their courtyard was enclosed by a fence, and the two youths were both practicing martial arts.
Wang Ya glanced over twice before looking away. Lin Xiaowei, however, was interested in ancient martial arts and kept staring.
Although the two youths did not turn around, they both sensed the gazes. They simply did not look back.
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