Li Jiaojiao was overjoyed, she didn’t expect Li Qiao to find notoginseng. This herb was excellent medicine for treating bruises and injuries from falls, and precisely because it was so good, it was rare, and the price was high too!
Li Jiaojiao carefully put the notoginseng into her basket. In passing, she noticed a small flower in Li Qiao’s hair, a small purple-pink flower, fuzzy all over, and she quickly took it off. “Qiaoqiao, where did you find this?”
Seeing the flower, Li Qiao happily pointed in a direction. “Sis, I was just about to tell you, there’s a whole patch of these flowers over there! Don’t you love flowers the most? I was going to weave you a flower crown!”
Li Jiaojiao took Li Qiao and ran toward the direction he’d pointed.
A patch of ground roughly eighty-some square meters appeared right before her eyes, the whole area was covered in rehmannia, blooming with small purplish-red flowers, the tips of the petals white, fuzzy all over, absolutely beautiful!
Li Jiaojiao couldn’t contain her excitement. Rehmannia, in the countryside commonly called “chicken sips wine”, the rhizome underneath was the rehmannia root itself.
Rehmannia was divided into raw rehmannia and prepared rehmannia, prepared rehmannia was the herb produced by processing raw rehmannia. The effects of prepared rehmannia were powerful, nourishing the blood, replenishing bodily fluids, and boosting essence and marrow. Research from her era had shown that prepared rehmannia could also promote blood formation, enhance memory, and lower blood sugar.
Such a large patch of rehmannia, she’d thought she wouldn’t be able to find any at all.
“Qiaoqiao, quick, the rhizomes underneath, help me dig them up quick!”
Li Qiao asked Li Jiaojiao, “Sis, is this an herb too?”
Li Jiaojiao glanced at the towering, majestic peak. “Yes, nature is amazing! All right, Qiaoqiao, be careful, don’t damage the roots! Dig up the big ones, and leave the small ones, we can come back and dig those up later!”
The two siblings spent nearly two hours digging up the whole patch of rehmannia. Li Jiaojiao told Li Qiao, “Remember this flower, this is what rehmannia looks like! Whenever you see it, dig it up. Once we’re home, I’ll make it into prepared rehmannia, worth two taels of silver a catty!”
Li Qiao nodded rapidly like a chick pecking at rice.
The basket was nearly too full to hold any more, so Li Qiao took off his outer coat and used it to wrap up the remaining rehmannia. Li Jiaojiao carried the basket on her back, held Li Qiao’s hand, and with her own outer coat also packed full of herbs, the two siblings carefully made their way down the mountain.
By the time they got home, the sky was almost dark. Li Jiaojiao carefully put all the rehmannia and other herbs in her own room, told Li Qiao to wait, and then took her hatchet and basket back out the door.
She didn’t finish chopping several dozen pieces of firewood until it was already dark.
Li Jiaojiao couldn’t carry it all. She looked at the village, now dark, with lights already lit in many homes, and struggled to drag the firewood down the mountain. The rope had cut into her hands, leaving bloody welts, but she gritted her teeth and pressed on step by step.
“Jiaojiao!”
Wang shi’s voice came from not far away. Li Jiaojiao quickly answered her. “Mother, I’m here!”
It was already dark, and Wang shi had finished cooking dinner before Deng shi finally let her go out to look for Li Jiaojiao. “Haven’t you seen your father?”
Li Jiaojiao shook her head. “No, it’s already dark, everyone working must have gone home already. Mother, is Father still working?”
Wang shi shook her head and said nothing. She didn’t tell Li Jiaojiao that, because Deng shi hadn’t let her go, she’d asked Li Chengcai to go up the mountain to fetch his daughter, but their daughter hadn’t seen Li Chengcai at all… it was very likely that Li Chengcai hadn’t gone up the mountain at all.
Wang shi sighed inwardly and hoisted the firewood onto her own back. For all her frail look, years of farm work had made her quite strong. Wang shi walked ahead. “Slow down, it’s dark, you can’t see!”
Li Jiaojiao watched Wang shi’s back and clenched her fists.
At dinner, Li Juanjuan spoke with a sarcastic edge. “Grandmother, look at Cousin Jiaojiao, truly living the life of some pampered young lady. I went up the mountain to cut pig fodder, and look how long I’ve been back already. And look at Cousin Jiaojiao, needing Second Aunt to go up the mountain and fetch her! Tsk tsk, what a life of luxury, not like us, born to do the work!”
Wang shi wanted to explain, but Deng shi’s darkening face kept her from daring to speak.
Li Jiaojiao gave a light laugh. “Sister Juanjuan, listen to yourself, what do you mean ‘born to a pampered young lady’s life’? Have you ever seen a pampered young lady go up the mountain to chop firewood? It’s my own fault too, I fainted on the mountain, I’ve missed several meals already, I had no strength left, I can’t compare to you. This morning I even smelled you all eating lard, so fragrant, I could smell it from outside the door!”
Li Juanjuan’s face instantly changed. Hu shi hurriedly spoke up. “What lard… that, that was the children’s maternal grandmother giving some to Xiaosen. Xiaosen isn’t in good health, his grandmother felt for him and gave him a little, even though she couldn’t bear to eat it herself!”
Li Jiaojiao said no more and picked up her bowl. The wound on her hand was too deep, and the pain made her tremble.
Wang shi grew anxious and hurriedly asked Li Jiaojiao, “How did you faint? Let Mother look?”
Before Li Jiaojiao could answer, Wang shi had already taken her hand to look, on both hands, a wound cutting down to the flesh appeared right before her eyes. Her eyes instantly reddened, aching with pity, and she asked hurriedly, “Does it hurt? Why didn’t you tell Mother? You’ve never had much strength since you were little, if you know you can’t carry something back, don’t force it, just wait for me right where you are!”
The whole Li family sat at separate tables for men and women.
Old Man Li sat at one table with his sons and grandsons, while Deng shi sat at another table with the women of the household.
Li Qiaoqiao and Zhao shi glanced at Hu shi and Li Jiaojiao. Deng shi frowned and set down her bowl and chopsticks heavily. “Hmph, truly a servant’s body with a young lady’s airs! Whose fault is it you don’t have the constitution for it, what are you crying in front of me for?”
Wang shi didn’t dare cry out loud. She hurriedly got up and took Li Jiaojiao to the kitchen to fetch water and wash her hands.
Old Man Li glanced over, and once Li Jiaojiao had left, he said to Deng shi, “Jiaojiao isn’t in good health, from now on, let Qiangzi handle work like chopping firewood!”
Li Qiang was Zhao shi’s younger son. He was tall and sturdy in build, but a bit slow-witted, eighteen or nineteen years old, currently in the middle of matchmaking.
Deng shi said nothing. Zhao shi glanced at Li Qiang and said nothing either.
Having said that, Old Man Li then said to Li Chengcai, “Even though a daughter should be doted on somewhat, whose fault is it that we don’t have the good fortune for it? Before she’s married off, she has her parents to dote on her at her mother’s home, with elders backing her up. But once she’s married off in the future, then what?”
Li Chengcai nodded quickly, Old Man Li was warning him not to spoil Li Jiaojiao too much.
After Hu shi cleaned Li Jiaojiao’s wound and wrapped it with a handkerchief, she came back to eat. She noticed that in front of her and Li Jiaojiao there was now an extra hard, dry cornmeal bun. Such a bun scraped at the throat, but in the Li household, each person got one coarse-grain bun and one bowl of rice per meal, that was the fixed ration. If still hungry, one was to drink more water, and that would fill you up!
Hu shi glanced at Deng shi, her eyes full of gratitude.
After dinner, Hu shi had just finished the kitchen work and washed and hung up the clothes to dry. The moment she stepped into the room, Li Chengcai laid into her without warning. “You stinking woman, don’t think I don’t know what you meant by saying that today! What do you mean ‘she’s not in good health’? Plenty of people aren’t in good health, does that mean, just because she’s not in good health, the whole family has to wait on her hand and foot?”