Dinner was eaten early today, and the sky was still bright afterward. Grandfather set down his bowl and headed out the door.
Luo Yang and his father sat at home for a while, and after who knows what conversation, they too prepared to go out. Bai Chao was still thinking about the osmanthus flowers at Great-Grandfather's house and wanted to tag along, but before the two could say anything, Luo's Mother pulled him back.
Having brought the fabric home today, Luo's Mother didn't want to wait a single moment—she was going to take measurements right away and make clothes and shoes.
"Mother, are you making two sets? Big Guy said he'd get me two sets." Bai Chao stood obediently with his arms spread open, letting Luo's Mother feel and pinch all over him, only his mouth never stopping as he tried to find out whether two sets of clothes would be made.
He understood perfectly well that you needed two sets of clothes to alternate between, otherwise he'd have to wear that dusty gray outfit again, or that red one that made Grandfather's heart ache just from him sitting on the ground.
The moment Grandmother heard about two sets, she reached out and knocked him on the head without a second thought. "One set is already good enough, and you want two? How can such a little kid have such big ambitions? This old woman hasn't had a new outfit in years!"
Luo's Grandmother still had chores to do. She had to go to the front yard to grab a few packets of corn, shell the kernels, and take them to feed the chickens. The old man had told her before he left to give the family's big roosters something good to eat these next few days.
Luo's Grandmother ambled off toward the main hall, while the two standing under the eaves of the kitchen secretly watched her back. Only after Grandmother had both feet through the main hall doorway did Bai Chao whisper, "Big Guy said so."
Bai Chao's words were soft enough that only Luo's Mother heard them. Luo's Mother's voice was a bit louder as she said, in a tone Grandmother could hear yet could also tell was quite helpless, "We really do have to make two sets. The clothes he came to this family in are completely unwearable, and no one at home is his size. He can't just keep wearing that big red wedding outfit—two sets are needed so he can alternate."
Luo's Grandmother was already inside the main hall and couldn't very well turn back to say anything more, so she just gave a couple of "hmphs" and continued on to the front yard.
With no more sound from up front, mother and son both snickered. Bai Chao was the happiest of all—he finally had new clothes, and two sets at that!
Oh, right! Shoes too!
After Luo's Mother had pinched and measured his shoulders, arms, waist, and legs, she went quiet for a good while, sighing from time to time.
The child wasn't short, but his body was just far too thin. Grandmother was a small person, yet he looked even skinnier than her. A boy his size would normally need at least ten feet of fabric for an outfit, but eight feet would probably be enough for him.
Though the child's frame was a bit unpleasantly thin, his feet were truly beautiful.
His feet were perfectly proportioned, with no protruding bones, and the whole top of the foot looked like a fish. Feet shaped like these not only wore shoes out slowly, but even shoes with slightly rough stitching wouldn't easily chafe them.
Who would have thought—this child wasn't just blessed in the face; every part of him was well-formed. His current frailty was purely from hunger. Once he'd been fed up for a while and put on some flesh, he was guaranteed to be the most beautiful little brother in all of Baihua Village.
The more Luo's Mother looked at him, the more she liked him, and she couldn't help pinching Bai Chao's cheek. Bai Chao didn't mind at all that his mother's hand had just touched his feet—his feet smelled sweet, not stinky in the slightest.
The weather in August and September was crisp and clear, with light winds and thin clouds. The earth, baked by the sun all day, gave off a warm glow, and the grain drying in the heat released a faint fragrance. When the evening breeze blew, the scent slipped irresistibly to the tip of everyone's nose.
Bai Chao had originally planned to go pick a little flower by the fence to play with, but when he saw Grandmother coming in with a winnowing basket of corn, he followed her over and sat down beside her to husk the corn together.
Neither the old woman nor the child bothered to find stools—they sat right on the steps under the eaves. The stone steps, warmed by a full day of sun, were toasty, and Bai Chao remarked casually, "If you sit on hot rocks, won't you get sores?"
At these words, Grandmother looked carefully at his face a couple of times. She had no idea what was stuffed in this little kid's head—how did he come up with such nonsense all day long?
"You won't get sores. You'll get babies." Grandmother's face showed not the slightest smile, as if it were truly possible, and Bai Chao was so frightened he leaped to his feet. "I don't want babies!"
"Mother, why are you scaring him?" The main room of the house was made of wooden planks and not very soundproof, so Luo's Mother had heard everything the two of them said.
She came out carrying a large basket and sat down beside the two of them as well. By now Bai Chao understood—Grandmother had been tricking him. Grandmother was sitting down, and Mother had sat down too.
Once seated again, Bai Chao still couldn't keep still. His hands husked the corn, but his eyes wandered everywhere until they finally landed on the sky.
It had been sunny for many days in a row, and the sky had faded from its initial deep blue to a pale wash, as if coated in a layer of white mist. The puffy white clouds at the horizon had transformed from the snowy white of midday into a riot of colors—hues even a dye workshop couldn't produce hung in the sky, layered and blending into one another, more beautiful than a rainbow after the rain.
"Grandmother, the clouds today are so pretty—they look like they're on fire! Even our house seems to have changed color. It's so bright!" Gazing at the beautiful clouds, Bai Chao looked down at the clothes he was wearing, thinking how wonderful it would be if those rare colors could be made into clothes. They'd surely be gorgeous.
Grandmother's hands never stopped working. She gave the horizon only a shallow glance, her lips not even moving. Every year at this time it was the same in the village—the sky would always fill with fiery clouds, and sometimes the glowing clouds would dye the whole village a different color, making one half wonder if they were dreaming, because outside of sweet dreams, such beautiful colors could never be seen.
But no matter how beautiful, it was all illusory. Grandmother felt that no amount of gazing at clouds in the sky could compare to the reassurance of smelling the grain in the courtyard.
Only food could fill the belly. Only food could let a person live in peace.
Luo's Mother was sorting cloth scraps nearby. She needed to make shoes first—although the house had some insoles for padding, none of them fit, so they'd have to be remade.
She glanced again at Bai Chao's feet, then turned the conversation to Luo Yang and his father.
"Mother, let's make them a good meal tomorrow morning. This time it'll probably be more than half a month before they come back. The employer provides meals, but you can imagine they won't be any good—they're doing hard labor, not skilled work. They'll be lucky to get a meal with meat once every few days."
"Ah, I know. Their bellies won't go wanting." Her son and grandson were heading out to work again. Even though it was to earn money, there was little joy on Luo's Grandmother's face.
That landlord was no kind master. Every year when father and son came back from working for him, they were dark-skinned and thin—suffering terribly.
For a moment, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had nothing to say, but even in silence, Bai Chao between them could sense they weren't too happy. He thought for a moment, tossed aside the corn cob in his hands, and headed straight for the room he shared with Luo Yang.
When Bai Chao came back, both hands hidden behind his back and a grin on his face.
"Mother." Bai Chao brought one hand out from behind his back, and like magic, a piece of candy appeared. He popped it straight into Luo's Mother's mouth.
Just as she tasted the sweetness, Bai Chao was already at Grandmother's side, doing the same—stuffing a candy right into her mouth.
When Mother and Grandmother were unhappy, eating candy made them happy.
The two women were long past the age of being unable to see through a little child's tricks. They exchanged a glance, smiles appeared on their faces, and their moods truly did lighten.
Bai Chao, seeing this, was quite pleased with himself and got back to work, bobbing his head as he shucked the corn.
Corn kernels pattered down from his hands. By the time the corn was all shucked, the sky had grown dark, and the insects lurking in the grass by the ditch began to sing.
Amid the chorus of insects and frogs, the Luo family men returned one after another. As everyone washed up and prepared for bed, Luo's Mother made a special point of telling Bai Chao to soak his feet before sleeping tonight, and to sprinkle some salt in the water.
She said this in a whisper—Grandfather would be unhappy if he heard, saying they were wasting things.
With Luo's Mother's special instructions, and with Luo Yang standing right there, Bai Chao naturally had to soak his feet in the light salt water. When the two of them returned to their room, Luo Yang, remarkably, actually lit the lamp.
"You cheapskate." Only now did Bai Chao realize there was an oil lamp in their room—this was the first time it had ever been lit.
Luo Yang's mouth twitched at being called a "cheapskate." These days, the sky stayed bright until late; even without a lamp, the room wasn't pitch black.
Besides, wasn't it just a matter of taking off your clothes and getting into bed? Even with dim moonlight, there was no need to light a lamp. Getting undressed in the dark wasn't hard at all—why waste lamp oil?
"Fine, I'm a cheapskate. Do you want the cheapskate's money, then?" After dinner that evening, Father Luo had given all thirty of his copper coins to Luo Yang. His thinking was that Luo Yang was married now, all grown up—he couldn't walk around without a single coin to his name; he needed some private money of his own.
The family agreed with Father Luo's reasoning, and so Luo Yang had come into possession of a thirty-coin fortune today.
Luo Yang sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled all the coins out of his pocket, and laid them out on the bedsheet.
Bai Chao scooted over too, gazing wide-eyed at the money on the bed, flashing flattering smiles at Luo Yang every now and then.
Copper coins—coins that could buy things. He wanted them.
At Bai Chao's greedy expression, Luo Yang grew even more smug, while thinking: where was this little fool? He was plenty clever, with that money-grubbing look on his face.
The money-grubbing Bai Chao was quickly allotted his share of the money, but the smile vanished from his face.
"Five? How come I get so few and you get so many?" Bai Chao pressed his hand down over the five copper coins that were his, deeply displeased. "Mine's too little."
"Five and you're still complaining?" Luo Yang had originally planned to give him only three, and had generously handed over five—and he still complained it was too little.
Luo Yang had never had so much money before either. All these years, the money he earned had gone to his family, and he basically never kept a single coin on him. To be honest, the five coins he'd handed over had already hurt.
"Hmph! Little cheapskate, big liar! You said you'd be good to me—if you had a bite to eat, I'd have a bite too, and if there was only one bite, you'd give it only to me. Now you have money, so how come you're only giving me this little? You're a bad egg!"
"……" Luo Yang hadn't expected this person to remember his words so clearly. His expression shifted, and his brow furrowed slightly. Why did this promise sound stranger the more he heard it—as if he'd pledged himself for life?
Had he really said that himself?
"Ah, ah!" Shaking his head hard, Luo Yang shook away the unreliable thoughts in his head, then very helplessly began counting the money again. "Here, another ten for you. Now we both have fifteen each. That works, right?"
"Heh~ It works!" Bai Chao looked at the two identical little piles of copper coins and immediately smiled. As he hid the money under his pillow, he praised the man with a grin.
"Big hubby, you're so good!"