“Yu Qingshan, I told you long ago to fix the cart wheels, and you just wouldn’t listen!” Zhang Qiaofeng saw her daughter suck in a breath of cold air and turned to scold her husband.
“It was just my foot slipping a little, it’s fine.” Ever since Xie Fuling had been at the Marquis’ estate, whenever her parents argued, she’d have to coax her father first, then her mother, going back and forth several times before they’d make up. So she was afraid that her past experience would repeat itself with her birth parents.
“I rushed out because I was worried about picking up Fuling. Once we get home, no matter how late, I’ll fix the cart for sure.”
“Good that you know it!”
Zhang Qiaofeng gave a light snort and reached out to brush the mud off her daughter’s clothes. “On the way back to the village, let’s buy some more meat. Fuling coming home is a great joy for our family, we have to celebrate with meat.”
“Fine, whatever you say.”
Xie Fuling stared blankly at her birth parents. She’d thought there’d be an argument, but it was resolved in just a few words?
“Fuling, what’s wrong?”
Zhang Qiaofeng saw her daughter’s dazed look, wiped her hands clean, and then cupped her daughter’s cheek. “Our family’s days, though they can’t compare to the Marquis’ estate, your father and I will sell everything we have if we must, to make sure you’re fed and warm. If after living here a while you really can’t get used to it, your father and I will go beg the Marquis…”
“No, it was me who asked to come back to my own family.” Xie Fuling’s nose stung. In the past that stinging feeling was always tied to being wronged, but this time it was because her own feelings were being taken seriously, being handled with such care. “It was I who owed the Marquis’ household to begin with. How could I keep staying there eating and drinking for free? Besides, it wasn’t fair to Leyi.”
A flash of astonishment crossed Zhang Qiaofeng’s eyes, and after a moment her eyes suddenly reddened. She reached out and pulled her daughter into her arms. “Child, you’ve suffered wrong.”
Yu Qingshan said nothing, but the look he gave his daughter was full of guilt.
Unlike the fine incense scent on the Marquis and his wife, her birth mother’s rough clothes carried a faint scent of soap bean. Xie Fuling inexplicably wanted to cry, but she held it back, and softly replied, “No, no wrong at all.”
“All right, let’s not think about the past anymore. Get up on the cart, we’ll be home soon.”
“The road’s hard to walk. I’ll get down and walk with you…” Xie Fuling didn’t want to burden her birth parents at their very first meeting.
“You’re our daughter, it’s only right that we dote on you. Just sit there properly and be good.” Zhang Qiaofeng insisted her daughter sit on the cart, holding the handles with both hands and smiling at her. “The moment I saw you, I knew you were my daughter. Look at those eyebrows and eyes, cast from the very same mold as mine.”
The word “be good”, ever since Xie Fuling had grown old enough to understand things, she’d heard it every day from the Marquis and his wife, wanting her to become the perfect daughter in their eyes. But here, from her birth parents, those two short words made her feel cherished.
“Qiaofeng, watch your step, don’t fall again.”
“I know. You watch the road properly.”
Xie Fuling came back to herself and thought of the thing she’d just picked up. She opened her palm, a round object, about the size of a pigeon egg, covered in dust. She remembered her mother saying there was water in the bundle, so she immediately took out the water pouch and washed the thing clean.
“Ah, what is this?”
Zhang Qiaofeng saw her daughter’s movements and came right over.
“This is what I picked up just now when I fell.” Xie Fuling rubbed the thing against her clothes, then held it up to look at it carefully. “This… this looks like a pearl?”
“A pearl?”
Zhang Qiaofeng’s eyes went wide in an instant. She stopped walking and came closer to look. “This road, your father and I have walked back and forth at least a hundred times. Forget a pearl, we’ve never even seen a copper coin, so how did you pick up a pearl the moment you tried?”
“I don’t know either, but pearls can be real or fake too, maybe it’s a fake one.”
Strangely enough, ever since she was little, Xie Fuling would get whatever she wished for. If she wanted to climb trees, her balance was especially good. If she wanted to swim, she could hold her breath in the water. Her luck was also unusually good.
In short, as long as it wasn’t something harmful to others, she could always manage it easily.
“Real or fake, hide it well for now. If someone sees it once we get into the village, that’ll be trouble.” Zhang Qiaofeng wasn’t thinking about the thing her daughter had found, only worried about her safety. “If you’re sleepy, take a little nap. We’ll be home soon.”
“All right.”
Xie Fuling had once thought home was a cage to her. But now she felt a flicker of longing for it.
They reached the gate just as the sky was starting to darken. The village dogs were barking one after another, lively and noisy.
“If the noise bothers you, it’ll quiet down in a bit.” Zhang Qiaofeng said as she helped her daughter down from the cart, worried the noise might scare her.
“I used to keep a dog, but not long after, the Marquis’ wife found it dirty and gave it away.” Xie Fuling smiled at Zhang Qiaofeng, holding the bundle in her arms, and looked up at the small courtyard ahead, ringed by a bamboo fence.
“If you like them, I’ll have your father catch one for you someday. There’s nothing else much in the village, but plenty of dogs.” Zhang Qiaofeng held her daughter’s hand and pushed open the gate. Seeing the courtyard dark inside, she immediately raised her voice and called out, “Yu Heng, Yu Zhuo, Yu Rong, Lehuan, everyone come out.”
Xie Fuling counted, including herself, that made five. A large household.
“Coming.”
A moment later, a little girl ran out from the house, her hair in two little pigtails, wearing patched clothes just like her parents, her big eyes blinking as if they could speak: “Big Brother went to pick up Big Sister-in-law, Second Brother hasn’t come back yet, Third Brother said his sworn brother had something going on, so he probably won’t be back today either.”
“Didn’t I tell Yu Heng before we left, to wait until we’re back to discuss it? Why did he go behind our backs to pick her up?” Hearing her youngest daughter’s words, Zhang Qiaofeng’s temper flared, but then she turned and saw her eldest daughter standing there, and immediately switched to a smile. “Fuling, don’t be scared, your three brothers aren’t home right now. This is your fifth sister Lehuan. Lehuan, this is your real elder sister Fuling. Say hello.”
Xie Fuling’s gaze fell on Yu Lehuan’s face as she sized her up, and Yu Lehuan was sizing her up too, just the same.
Sometimes blood ties are strange like that, with just one glance, two hearts drew close together.
“Lehuan, hello.”
Xie Fuling took the initiative to break the ice, and thinking of the pastries still in her bundle, she immediately took them out. “This is a pastry the steward gave me before I left. Lehuan, here, eat it.”
“I…”
Yu Lehuan had never eaten pastries before, but she didn’t dare take it directly. Her eyes went to her mother, hoping for permission.
“Lehuan doesn’t like sweets. Fuling, keep it for yourself.” Zhang Qiaofeng stuffed the pastry back into the bundle. “Once you finish it, Mother will buy you more.”
Xie Fuling saw the light suddenly dim in Yu Lehuan’s eyes, took the pastry, walked over to her, and pressed it into her hands. “If you don’t like it, it doesn’t matter to try it. Lehuan, take it!”
Zhang Qiaofeng was stunned for a moment. This truly was her own daughter, her temperament really did take after her own. What mattered most was that she could see Fuling didn’t look down on Lehuan at all, and she broke into a smile at once. “Lehuan, aren’t you going to thank your fourth sister?”