Wang shi pointed at Li Jiaojiao. “Did you see the wound on her hand?”
Li Chengcai kept a stern face, not even wanting to look at Li Jiaojiao. “Who doesn’t get hurt doing farm work? Whose fault is it she has such bad luck, whose fault is it she was born into a family like ours, if she’s so capable, why didn’t she pick a rich family to be born into?”
Wang shi’s face went livid with anger. Li Chengcai pointed at her nose. “Did you hear what Father said to me? We’ve spoiled her too much. Girls from the countryside should do the work, sending her up the mountain to chop firewood, what’s wrong with that, what part of it can’t she do! Keep coddling her like this, and I’d like to see what happens once she’s married off, are you planning to go along with her?”
“Li Chengcai, are, are you even human?”
Wang shi was made to cry from anger. Li Jiaojiao gritted her teeth in fury. “Enough, stop arguing, both of you!”
With that, Li Jiaojiao stepped forward to support Wang shi, looking at Li Chengcai with eyes full of hatred. “Don’t scold my mother anymore. From now on, no matter what I’m made to do, I won’t complain about hardship or exhaustion. Don’t worry, even if I really can’t get married in this life, I won’t make you support me forever. If it really comes to that, I can become a nun!”
Li Chengcai was nearly driven mad with fury by this. He pointed at Li Jiaojiao. “Say that again?”
Li Jiaojiao wasn’t afraid of him at all. She looked at Li Chengcai coldly. “Don’t worry, even if I can’t marry, I won’t bring ruin on you either! Is that good enough for you now? From now on, whatever they tell me to do, I’ll do, I won’t complain of hardship, I won’t complain of exhaustion. Do you hear me clearly?”
Li Jiaojiao spoke every word with perfect clarity!
Li Chengcai, enraged, was about to hit Li Jiaojiao again. Wang shi stood in front of Li Jiaojiao, blocking him. “It was already dark and Jiaojiao still hadn’t come home. I told you to go fetch your daughter, where did you go instead?”
Li Chengcai instantly fell silent, turned around, and walked out.
Wang shi and Li Jiaojiao went into the room, and there saw the rehmannia at the foot of Li Jiaojiao’s bed, along with a whole pile of herbs behind the door. “You two…”
Li Jiaojiao quickly made a shushing gesture, helped Wang shi sit down, and gently wiped her tears away. “Today when I went to sell herbs in town, Physician Wu at the pharmacy told me he wanted rehmannia! When Qiaoqiao and I were chopping firewood on the mountain, we spotted a whole patch of it, so we dug it up! Mother, it’s fine, we’ll only keep getting better from here!”
Wang shi glanced outside, then looked at her daughter. She knew her daughter’s heart had grown distant from Li Chengcai, but she couldn’t bring herself to make her daughter obey him either. She only patted Li Jiaojiao’s shoulder. “Jiaojiao, this is all Mother’s fault!”
Li Jiaojiao shook her head. “Mother, my hand is hurt, so I’ll need your help washing the rehmannia clean. Physician Zhou wants prepared rehmannia, Mother, once I find some time, I want to process some!”
Li Qiao leaned in close to Wang shi’s ear. “Mother, Sis said prepared rehmannia sells for two taels of silver a catty!”
Wang shi was stunned speechless, staring blankly at the pile of rehmannia. “That, that’s… too expensive, isn’t it?”
That night, Wang shi still stayed by the two siblings’ side, while Li Chengcai slept alone.
Early the next morning, Old Man Li got up early and announced to the whole family, “Today everyone’s going out to till the fields, we’re about to plant the winter wheat, so no one’s to be idle! Once the seeds are in the ground, everyone can rest for a couple of days!”
Then he began assigning tasks, whether it was Li Qiang, Li Qiaoqiao, or even the youngest, Li Sen, everyone had to go work in the fields.
Old Man Li looked at Li Jiaojiao’s bandaged hand and said to her, “Jiaojiao, today you and your mother will stay home in charge of the three meals. Once they’re ready, bring them out to the fields for us.”
Wang shi looked at Old Man Li with gratitude.
Once the whole family had left, Li Jiaojiao was simply overjoyed. She’d only been in this world two or three days, but in these two or three days, she’d found her luck to be especially good, for instance, today, just as she wanted to process the rehmannia, Old Man Li told her and her mother to stay home!
“Good heavens, if I’d had this kind of luck in my past life, why would I have bothered working a job? I could’ve just bought lottery tickets and been done with it!”
Wang shi, hearing Li Jiaojiao muttering beside her, asked, “Jiaojiao, what did you say?”
Li Jiaojiao quickly waved her hand. “Nothing! Mother, what are we making this morning?”
Wang shi took Li Jiaojiao into the kitchen. “What to make and how much, your grandmother’s already arranged all of that!”
On the kitchen stove sat a basin of mixed coarse grains, beans, a bit of rice, and a little wheat flour, along with some pickled vegetables.
Wang shi first scrubbed the pot clean and set the grain to steam, then went to Li Jiaojiao’s room, took a large basin, brought everything out, and washed it all clean, while Li Jiaojiao went to chop pig fodder and feed the pigs and chickens…
Wang shi set the washed rehmannia on the ground, and Li Jiaojiao hurried to gather firewood and began steaming it. Prepared rehmannia needed to be steamed for twelve hours, that is, six shichen, turned once partway through, and steamed and simmered repeatedly twice over.
Once the meals were ready, Wang shi and Li Jiaojiao carried them out to the fields, picking up some firewood on the way back as well.
Before Deng shi and the others came back from working, Li Jiaojiao finally finished the first round of steaming. She hurried to hide the rehmannia away in the space, and once Deng shi and everyone else had gone to sleep, she stayed up late steaming rehmannia again on her own.
In the middle of the night, someone got up to use the outhouse, and hearing the sound, Li Jiaojiao quickly threw the rehmannia into the space.
“What’s this smell?”
Hu shi, carrying her little son, saw firelight in the kitchen and curiously poked her head in to look. Li Jiaojiao hid behind the door, and Hu shi didn’t spot anyone, muttering quietly to herself, “It must be that woman again, told her to clean up the kitchen and she didn’t even put the fire out. Just wait, I’ll tell Mother tomorrow for sure!”
Hu shi shut the door and left. Li Jiaojiao waited behind the door for a good while before finally poking her head out and taking the rehmannia back out to cool.
By the time Li Jiaojiao finished cleaning up the kitchen, the sky was already faintly graying. Yawning, she headed back to her room and ran right into Wang shi getting up. Wang shi had to work during the day, and last night she’d wanted to help, but Li Jiaojiao had turned her down.
“Jiaojiao, just going to sleep now?”
Li Jiaojiao yawned. “Mother, don’t wake me up in a while, let me sleep in a bit longer.”
Wang shi ached for her daughter, but before that ache could last even three seconds, Deng shi’s voice rang out from the main room, and Wang shi scurried right over, arriving late only meant catching more of Deng shi’s daily scolding.
Deng shi doled out the food to be cooked that day, took a chunk of salt, knocked off a tiny bit with a small hammer, and put it on a plate. “Use less salt, salt’s expensive.”
In the countryside, the only seasonings were chili pepper and salt, and salt especially was extremely precious. Deng shi reminded her daughters-in-law every time to be careful when cooking, and once she’d finished giving instructions, she went out to the fields with Old Man Li and the others.
The whole large Li family set off in force up the mountain to plant winter wheat. Wang shi had just carried up a jar of water when she looked up and saw Li Jiaojiao standing on a stool, putting away the rehmannia. She called out to her. “Jiaojiao, take the winnowing trays to the back yard, if your grandfather and grandmother come back and see this, there’ll be no explaining it away.”
Thinking it over, that made sense, so Li Jiaojiao quickly moved the winnowing trays to a spot in the back yard where they wouldn’t easily be noticed, and only then hurried back to help.