Wang shi looked at the plump white buns, the fragrance making her mouth water, but she didn’t eat. She kept her eyes fixed on Li Jiaojiao.
Wang shi had a straightforward nature but was very soft-hearted inside. Li Jiaojiao had no choice but to explain to her, “Mother, when I was little and fell at Grandfather’s house, Grandfather went up the mountain and picked some herbs to bandage me up. Qiaoqiao got kicked by Father last night and has a bruise on his stomach, so I went up the mountain this morning to find him some herbs, and I had some left over, so I sold them to Physician Wu in town!”
Only then did Wang shi let out a breath of relief. “Jiaojiao, you’ve grown up!”
Li Qiao urged Wang shi to eat quickly. Wang shi looked at her daughter, then at her son, and holding the bun, took a bite before immediately asking, “Your grandfather and grandmother haven’t eaten yet, let me give this to them first…”
“Mother, if you give it to Grandfather and Grandmother, what about Eldest Uncle and Eldest Aunt? What about Third Uncle and Third Aunt?”
Wang shi froze. Li Jiaojiao held her hand. “You yourself haven’t had meat in almost a year. Let’s eat first, later, once I’ve dug up more herbs and earned more money, I’ll buy meat buns for the whole family then, all right? Right now I… I don’t have much ability, I only earned a dozen-odd wen. Qiaoqiao’s been craving meat buns, last time he saw Juanjuan and the others eating them, he was dying of envy!”
Li Qiao, right on cue, put on a pitiful look. “Mother, last time Sister Juanjuan and the others brought back so many meat buns, I, I didn’t get to eat a single bite!”
Only then did Wang shi remember, last time Hu shi brought the children back from her maternal home, her family had given the children quite a bit of food, including over a dozen plump white meat buns. At the time, Li Juanjuan and her brother each held a meat bun in hand while Li Qiao just stared at them longingly, but Hu shi hadn’t given the children even half a bun.
Thinking of the look on Li Qiao’s face back then, Wang shi took a hard bite of her meat bun. “Give them what? We only have these few meat buns!”
And so, Wang shi ate one, and when Li Jiaojiao handed her a second bun, she wouldn’t eat it, instead breaking it in half and handing the pieces to Li Jiaojiao and Li Qiao. “Mother’s getting on in years, one is enough for me. You two eat, you’re still growing, especially you, Jiaojiao, a girl needs to be healthy. Look how thin you’ve gotten.”
Li Jiaojiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, this frail little body of hers had already had quite enough with two whole meat buns!
Li Qiao pushed his half back, holding his little belly. “Mother, I’m already full, I can’t eat any more!”
“Mother, Qiaoqiao and I each had two meat buns, look, two of them! We didn’t even dare drink water, our stomachs can barely hold any more!”
Only then did Wang shi finish her bun.
The meat buns of this era really weren’t skimped on at all, made from white flour, stuffed generously with meat filling, so the buns were quite heavy. One bun alone was enough to fill a person up. But the original body had had it so hard, going a whole year without tasting meat even once, she’d been starved for it!
There were still four buns left. Wang shi didn’t want to eat any more and carefully put the remaining meat buns away. “Your father works hard in the fields, let’s save these for him!”
Although Li Jiaojiao had already planned to save some for Li Chengcai, hearing Wang shi say she wanted to save them for him left a sour taste in her mouth, she really had not the slightest bit of goodwill toward Li Chengcai.
“Mother, you work even harder than Father! Father only does the fieldwork, but you have to do the fieldwork and the housework too! Eat one more, you need a full stomach to work, right?”
“That’s right, Mother, eat, eat!”
Li Jiaojiao and Li Qiao urged Wang shi to eat one more, and unable to resist the children’s urging, Wang shi ate another one.
This was only the second time since Wang shi had married into the Li family that she’d eaten this full. Li Qiao, ever obedient, hurried to bring her a cup of water.
After drinking the water, Wang shi had no time to rest and quickly picked up her clothes to fan them about. “Quick, let’s air out the smell, if your grandmother finds out, there’ll definitely be trouble again!”
After lunch, Deng shi began assigning tasks again, and everyone got their own job. Li Jiaojiao was to go chop firewood, Li Juanjuan was to go cut pig fodder, and Li Qiaoqiao was to stay home and tidy up the household chores.
Although they were all girls, Li Jiaojiao, who was good-looking and delicately built, was assigned the hardest work of all, she had to go up the mountain to chop firewood!
Li Jiaojiao had a proud temperament. Without a word, she took her hatchet, rope, and basket and headed up the mountain.
Just as she reached the foot of the back mountain, Li Qiao came running over. “Sis, Sis, look what this is!”
Li Qiao held in his hand some burnt, partially remaining paper, gasping for breath as he ran up to Li Jiaojiao.
Li Jiaojiao took it and looked, wasn’t this the very letters she’d returned to Chen Xuan yesterday?
Suddenly, a whiff of fragrance drifted into her nose again, strong, so strong it gave her a headache. Li Jiaojiao had wanted to figure this out yesterday, but there had been too much going on and she’d let it slip her mind. Now, smelling the scent again, she held the paper in her hand and turned it over and over.
The burned letters smelled even stronger than before. Li Qiao pinched his nose. “Sis, what’s written on this? Is this the letter you gave to Brother Chen Xuan yesterday? I found it behind their house, I grabbed some of it, but Erhu grabbed the rest.”
Li Qiao was only five or six, and boys that age loved to play and form their little gangs. Erhu was an eight-year-old boy, half-grown, who ran around the whole village all day leading a pack of kids.
Li Jiaojiao nodded. “That’s right! Qiaoqiao, smell it, is there any kind of scent?”
Li Qiao pinched his nose. “It’s so strong! Sis, what is this smell, it’s really pungent!”
Indeed, it was quite pungent. Chen Xuan was a grown man, would he really use this kind of scented letter paper to write love letters? It was so strong, could he really not smell it?
Li Jiaojiao wanted to find someone to ask about what this scent was, so she took out the cream-colored handkerchief and carefully put it away.
Seeing this handkerchief, Li Qiao asked curiously, “Sis, when did you switch handkerchiefs?”
Li Jiaojiao waved her hand. “I’m going up the mountain to chop firewood and dig up some herbs while I’m at it. Are you coming?”
The moment Li Qiao heard “dig up herbs,” he perked right up. “Yes, Sis, I’ll come with you!”
While Li Qiao wasn’t paying attention, Li Jiaojiao put the handkerchief into the space!
Physician Wu had asked for prepared rehmannia root, so Li Jiaojiao took Li Qiao and walked with difficulty along the mountain path. Every so often a boulder jutted out, and she had to work hard to pull Li Qiao up over it. They walked slowly the whole way, but the harvest was plentiful, the only thing was, they didn’t find the rehmannia root Li Jiaojiao was after.
“Sis, look, is this an herb?”
Every time Li Qiao spotted a plant, he hurried to ask Li Jiaojiao if it was one.
On this mountain full of strange, jagged rocks, Li Jiaojiao found many kinds of herbs, she even found a very large piece of aconite root, but she still didn’t see any rehmannia.
Li Jiaojiao remembered her grandfather once saying that rehmannia liked warm places. This was the shaded side of the mountain, with less sunlight than the sunny side, more rocks, and correspondingly less soil. She sighed.
Li Qiao came running over from a distance again. “Sis, look, what’s this?”
“Notoginseng!”