The sky was just barely growing light when Zhang Qiaofeng woke up right on time, and as she was putting on her clothes, she said to her husband, “Once you’ve pawned the pearl, come back early. I’ll ask around about what’s missing from Fuling’s room, what we bought might not be to Fuling’s taste.”
“All right.”
While Yu Qingshan was putting on his shoes, Zhang Qiaofeng lifted her pillow, only to find that the pearl she’d tucked underneath it last night was gone. “Qingshan, bring the candle closer, why is the pearl gone?”
“Are you sure you put it under the pillow?” Yu Qingshan came over to help his wife search together.
But the two of them turned the whole room upside down and still couldn’t find the pearl.
“How could it just disappear?”
Zhang Qiaofeng was so anxious that tears came to her eyes. “Fuling trusted me so much, and I couldn’t even keep watch over one pearl…”
Yu Qingshan’s brow furrowed tight, and suddenly he turned and rushed out the door, straight to his eldest son’s room. The bed was neatly made, and there wasn’t a soul inside.
“The pearl was stolen by Yu Heng.”
“What?”
Zhang Qiaofeng, who had caught up, heard her husband’s judgment and her steps wavered, nearly making her fall. “How could he be so muddleheaded, we never said we wouldn’t help him!”
“Father, Mother?”
The commotion the two of them made had already woken Yu Fuling, who had barely slept all night. She walked in, saw her parents’ worried faces and the empty room, and understood at once. “Did Big Brother steal the pearl?”
“Fuling, you…” Zhang Qiaofeng looked up, staring at her daughter in shock, wanting to explain, but not knowing what to say.
“Big Brother doesn’t care about you two at all, let alone giving a thought to me, a younger sister who’s only just come home. Right now, to him, Eldest Sister-in-law matters most.” Yu Fuling lowered her head, took a pearl out from her waist, and held it up for her parents to see. “The one Big Brother stole is the inferior pearl from my hairpin, it’s worthless. The one I picked up is right here.”
“Eh?”
Zhang Qiaofeng was completely stunned. “But yesterday, I clearly saw you put the pearl in my hand.”
“Yesterday I was standing behind the two of you, and I noticed Big Brother’s eyes kept darting around uncertainly while he was talking. I can’t say for sure he had bad intentions, but he definitely had some plan of his own in mind, so I made the decision on the spot, and didn’t tell you in time because I was afraid of alerting him.” Yu Fuling looked at her parents sincerely. “Please forgive me, Father, Mother.”
“Fuling, it’s a good thing you were sharp enough to swap the pearls, otherwise, if Yu Heng had really taken it, we wouldn’t have seen a single copper coin from it.” Zhang Qiaofeng’s tension from a moment ago vanished entirely. She grabbed her daughter’s hand, her eyes full of excitement. “That cleverness of yours, it takes after me.”
Yu Fuling’s eyes grew warm. At the Marquis’ estate, every time she’d used her own wits to get herself out of danger, the Marquis would always scold her, saying a person shouldn’t be so sly and cunning, that one should be upright and dignified, as long as you carried yourself properly and stood up straight, what did a little grievance matter?
But right now, her mother’s hand holding her own was so warm, her eyes full of unreserved approval, slowly wiping away all the blame and misunderstanding she’d suffered at the Marquis’ estate.
“Qingshan, hurry and get ready to head into town.” Zhang Qiaofeng found a piece of red cloth, carefully wrapped up the pearl, and handed it to her husband. “Go early, come back early.”
“Understood.”
“All right, it’s still early. Go back to your room and sleep a bit more.” Zhang Qiaofeng tied on her apron. “What do you want for breakfast?”
“Mother, let me make breakfast.”
“Fuling, you know how to cook?” To Zhang Qiaofeng, this came as quite a shock, she’d thought a young lady of a noble household would have delicate fingers that never touched kitchen work. “As for Leyi, at home I never even let her through the kitchen door.”
Yu Fuling’s hand, reaching for the apron, paused for a moment, a bitter smile appearing on her face. “I often got myself into trouble, always making the Marquis and his wife so angry they couldn’t eat, so I learned to cook, hoping it would calm them down.”
“What child doesn’t get into trouble, doesn’t cause a little mischief? Your eldest brother is already a married man, and he still makes us worry constantly.” Zhang Qiaofeng, who had felt guilty for having wronged the Marquis’ daughter, was now full of anger instead. “Fuling, listen to me, in the Yu family, you and Lehuan are not to go into the kitchen. Only on festivals and holidays, when Mother really can’t manage alone, can you two lend a hand. My daughters’ hands can hold all sorts of things, just not the cooking spatula. Now hurry back to your room and rest!”
“But if you have to do everything yourself, Mother, won’t that be very hard on you?” In Yu Fuling’s understanding, once children grew up, it was only right that they share the household chores with their parents.
“Normally your father helps me with everything. I do the cooking, he starts the fire, and washing dishes and tidying the house, he does all of that too. Back then, it was exactly this quality in him that made me shameless enough to marry him.” Zhang Qiaofeng winked at her daughter. “Fuling, when you look for a man in the future, you must find one who dotes on his wife, understand?”
“Marriage is a matter for later.” Yu Fuling’s face reddened, so it turned out mother and daughter could talk about such private, intimate things too.
“While you’re still young, look around carefully. Once you reach a certain age you won’t be able to find a good one, and marriage is a lifelong matter.” Zhang Qiaofeng stroked her daughter’s cheek, saying with feeling, “Your father has never once overlooked my hard work and what I put into this family, that’s the reason why, no matter how hard life gets, I’ll keep going through it with him.”
“I’ll keep Mother’s words close to my heart.”
Indeed, as long as the whole family worked together with one mind, no matter how hard the days were, they would pass in the end.
But Yu Fuling had already seen her eldest brother’s rebelliousness, and she had no idea yet what kind of character her other two brothers had.
After finishing breakfast, Zhang Qiaofeng tidied up the house, and Yu Fuling had her sister take her around the village.
The temperature in the village was a bit cooler. Household after household was out working the fields while the sun hadn’t yet risen high.
“Lehuan, where’s our family’s land?”
“Over there.”
Yu Fuling looked in the direction her sister was pointing, a small little patch, nothing compared to the well-tended fields around it. “How many mu is it?”
“Father came from outside the village. Back then he spent quite a bit of silver and asked the village head for help before he got a household registration and was allotted five mu of land, three mu of dry field and two mu of paddy field.” Yu Lehuan knew the family’s situation very well. “Last year Father wanted to take my three brothers to reclaim some wasteland, but the wasteland is all rocks and rubbish, and the soil quality is bad too. If he really tried to reclaim it, who knows how long it would take.”
“Where is that wasteland? Can we go take a look now?”
“It’s on the hillside up ahead, Fourth Sister. I’ll take you there.”
The two sisters spent some time climbing up the hillside. The view was good from up there, but the wasteland was overgrown with weeds, and being the middle of summer, flies and insects buzzed about, and the smell was unpleasant.
“What’s that place over there?”
Yu Fuling pointed at a small grove about five hundred meters ahead of the wasteland, fenced in with a wooden barrier. “Can we go over there?”
“Every midnight, all sorts of terrifying sounds come from that grove. Some bold villagers went in during the daytime and found a lot of white bones. It scared everyone so much they said there must be a man-eating beast inside, and the village head forbade anyone from going in, to avoid any deaths.”
“The grove isn’t far from the village either. A wooden fence can stop people, but if there really were a beast in there, could it really stop it?” Yu Fuling looked at her sister. “Do you dare go in with me right now to take a look?”