If she didn’t save this girl today, she wouldn’t have the face to see Qiuniang after she died.
Zhou Daya’s brows shot up.
“From now on I’m your mother. If you miss me, that’ll do!”
Chen Xiaoman was stunned, and her little nose gradually grew sore.
Besides her mother, there was someone else who cared for her.
She wasn’t an unwanted wild child.
Before Chen Xiaoman could speak, Zhou Daya glared at Chen Shuisheng. “I’ll give you five strings, will you sell her or not?”
Chen Shuisheng sneered. “If you can produce it, I’ll sell.”
She was just a woman, how could she possibly produce five strings.
Zhou Daya’s eyes flickered.
She had five strings on her.
It was the entire savings of the Li family.
A few days ago it had rained, and the family’s mud-brick house leaked everywhere.
Even the foundation was seeping water.
Once summer came, with rain showers every day, the house would probably collapse.
The whole family had discussed building a house of blue brick and tile before summer arrived.
There was a brick kiln in Tunshui Village.
She had come back to her natal home today to deliver Dragon Boat Festival gifts, and had brought the money to Tunshui Village to buy bricks.
If she gave the money to Chen Shuisheng, she would have no way to explain it to the whole family.
But when she saw Chen Xiaoman with eyes red as a little rabbit’s, she gritted her teeth and pulled a money pouch out from her clothes.
In front of the villagers, she turned the pouch upside down, and the silver beads and copper coins inside scattered all over the ground with a clatter.
“Clang!”
The villagers were stunned.
Chen Xiaoman’s round eyes went wide too.
So much money!
Zhou Daya composed herself and said loudly to the crowd, “Let the people of Tunshui Village bear witness. The silver beads plus the copper coins come to exactly five strings, given to Chen Shuisheng today.”
She paused, then continued, “From now on, Chen Xiaoman belongs to my Li family. Whether she lives or dies has nothing to do with Chen Shuisheng!”
The villagers cried out in surprise again.
Zhou Daya was actually willing to give up five strings of cash to save a little girl!
Someone reacted first and immediately said, “I’ll be a witness!”
“Daya, don’t worry. You’re a daughter this village married off, and today you’re doing a great good deed. We won’t let you suffer for it!”
Zhou Daya let out a breath of relief.
She didn’t trust Chen Shuisheng, but with so many people as witnesses, Chen Shuisheng wouldn’t be able to go back on it later.
“I won’t sell!”
Chen Shuisheng roared with fury.
“I’m going to sell my daughter to Landlord Liu no matter what!”
The villagers’ faces flushed red with anger.
Zhou Daya had emptied out her family’s entire savings to buy Chen Xiaoman, and Chen Shuisheng was still insisting on forcing Chen Xiaoman to her death.
“How did our village end up with a beast like this!”
“Sister Daya, you don’t need to do it yourself, leave him to us to deal with.”
“Auntie Daya, you’ve already given the money, Xiaoman is your daughter-in-law now. Chen Shuisheng has to agree whether he likes it or not!”
The villagers shouted and surrounded Chen Shuisheng.
Chen Shuisheng looked at the villagers in panic, stammering, “You… what do you… want to do…”
A big man drove his leg straight into Chen Shuisheng’s stomach, kicking him hard to the ground.
Chen Shuisheng clutched his stomach in agonizing pain and scrambled up in terror.
“Once Zhou Daya married out, she wasn’t part of our village anymore. We’re the ones from the same village!”
With so many people, they were bound to cripple him!
Someone said impatiently, “Don’t waste words on him, everyone hit him!”
The crowd swarmed forward all at once, and Chen Shuisheng, terrified, crouched down and covered his head.
Fists rained down on Chen Shuisheng’s body like a storm, beating him until he screamed again and again.
Quite a few villagers couldn’t squeeze in, and shouted anxiously from the outer ring, “Let me in to kick him a couple times!”
“You in front have hit him enough, make way. The rest of us out here are still waiting.”
Chen Shuisheng trembled like a quail.
He felt like his whole body was about to fall apart.
Farmhands all had strength in their arms, and their fists were as hard as iron hammers.
Chen Shuisheng begged for mercy through the pain. “Sell, sell, I’ll sell! I’ll sell Chen Xiaoman to Zhou Daya! Stop hitting me…”
By the time the villagers dispersed, Chen Shuisheng lay collapsed on the ground with a bruised, swollen face, reduced to a heap of mush.
He didn’t even have the strength left to move a finger.
Zhou Daya spat. “Serves you right!”
She turned and bounced Xiaoman in her arms, saying with a smile, “Let’s go home.”
Chen Xiaoman’s eyes were bright and shining. She turned and pointed at the ground, saying in her babyish voice, “My bundle!”
Zhou Daya quickly picked up the bundle, patted the dust off it against her body, and handed it to Chen Xiaoman.
…
Zhou Daya carried Chen Xiaoman into the courtyard and set her down on the stone drum by the door.
“Xiaoman, sit here and play for a bit, I’ll go make you food.”
Chen Xiaoman pressed her two little hands together and nodded obediently.
Zhou Daya touched her small head, and sighed inwardly.
She still didn’t know how she was going to explain this to the family.
Composing herself, she walked briskly into the shed nearby.
Chen Xiaoman looked around curiously.
Behind her was a mud-brick house held up by large wooden posts, its roof thick with thatch, the window frames blackened with age, and the burlap sacks covering the windows worn ragged.
To the left of the house was a simple pig pen.
A big white pig was grunting as it rooted the ground with its snout.
Next to the pig pen was a chicken coop built of wood, covered with thatch.
The kitchen was on the right.
At that moment, smoke was curling out from the kitchen chimney.
An old hen, leading a dozen or so chicks, strutted arrogantly past Chen Xiaoman.
Seeing Chen Xiaoman staring at it, the old hen flapped its wings at her in warning.
Chen Xiaoman clutched her little bundle tightly to her chest and looked toward the kitchen nervously.
“Eh, where did this little girl come from?”
A somewhat hoarse man’s voice came.
Chen Xiaoman looked over and saw an old man carrying a hoe walk into the courtyard.
The old man wore a worn straw hat, his back slightly hunched, a shiny long-stemmed pipe tucked into his waistband.
The hanging tobacco pouch was patched over patch, so worn its original color could no longer be told.
Chen Xiaoman tensed up at once.
She slid down off the stone roller and stood obediently to the side.
“My name is Chen Xiaoman.”
Chen Xiaoman answered, then felt it wasn’t enough and added, “I’m Father’s third daughter-in-law.”
Old Li was startled. “Where did Chuyuan get a wife from?”
When did this happen?
Why hadn’t anyone told him?
Zhou Daya came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of noodles.
“I got a child bride for Chuyuan, just brought her back. What do you think?”
Old Li looked over the uneasy Chen Xiaoman.
A little girl of two or three, her dry yellow hair cut to ear length.
Her clothes were tattered, and the bundle in her arms had several patches on it.
Her round little face had little flesh on it,
and a pair of round, watchful eyes looked at him timidly.
Old Li went “eh” and said, “This little girl’s grown up quite well.”
She’d surely be a beauty when she grew up.
Just right to match Chuyuan, who was bound to become a scholar sooner or later.
“When Chuyuan grows up and takes a wife, we won’t need to pay betrothal gifts, that saves at least a tael of silver. Raise her a year or two, and she can help around the house, and by eight she can work the fields.”
Old Li’s smile bloomed like a chrysanthemum. “Not bad at all!”
Zhou Daya’s heart sank.
She couldn’t let this stingy old man keep doing the math.
Zhou Daya took Chen Xiaoman’s bundle away, shoved the bowl and chopsticks into her hands, and said, “Eat it while it’s hot.”
Old Li was still thinking it over when the smell kept drifting into his nose.
He instinctively looked at the bowl in Zhou Daya’s hand.
A full bowl of hand-pulled noodles, topped with a boiled egg.
White flour noodles!
And an egg too!
He only got to eat a bowl like that at New Year’s!
His wrinkled face turned to Zhou Daya in an instant. “Are we rich now?”
Chen Xiaoman went pale with fright.
The egg noodles weren’t for her to eat.
She couldn’t let Auntie Zhou get scolded.
She mustered her courage and held the bowl out toward Old Li.
“Father, you eat it.”
Old Li was about to reach for it when Zhou Daya glared. “I made that for Xiaoman. Are you really that stingy?”
His outstretched hand shot back like lightning.
“You eat it, you eat it, I don’t like this fine grain food, it doesn’t fill you up as long.”
Old Li said this out loud, but inside his heart was bleeding.
Whoever didn’t like fine grain food was a fool!