Yan Xi ate breakfast and then planned to go to the old house. Before, she hadn’t known, now, say what you like, Yan Xi had to go to them herself. She could hardly have the elders come and visit her.
She caught a rabbit, and picked a few catties of green jujubes from the space while she was at it, and took the lotus pastries as well, and then Yan Xi headed off toward the old house.
On the way she met quite a few aunties and older women, and seeing Yan Xi going out with a basket in her hand they all came up to greet her.
When she got to the old house Yan Manfu’s family had just finished breakfast. The aunt was clearing up, and Grandmother was sitting in the yard with her great-grandson’s trousers in her hands, patching them. Because of her age she couldn’t see clearly and had to feel about a long while before each stitch. It hurt Yan Xi to see it.
In the old days, how many people over seventy were still toiling for their children? They would long since have begun to enjoy their old age.
Looking at her grandmother’s head of silver hair and her clouded eyes, Yan Xi couldn’t help calling out to her.
At first Grandmother Yan didn’t hear, at her age she was somewhat hard of hearing. It was only when Yan Xi walked over and took the needle and thread from her hands that she reacted.
Looking at the girl in front of her, Grandmother Yan for a moment hardly dared believe it was her, and it wasn’t until Yan Xi called out Grandma again that she dared believe her granddaughter really was well.
Yan Xi looked rather like the old man when he was young, the difference was that the old man’s features were firm and rather more dashing.
Yan Xi as a whole was cooler and more delicate, and her height of 165 made her look all the more like a willow in the wind. Her oval face had clean lines, and the cool contours seemed carved, showing a quality of their own. Her fine brows and eyes were bright as they turned. Beneath her high nose her pale pink lips were pressed slightly together. Her black hair was tied in a low bun and hung down her back. The patched clothes she wore did nothing to hurt her bearing, she looked nothing like a farm girl.
Although her looks were no different from before, in those days Yan Xi as a whole had seemed more vacant, her eyes a stagnant pool. She didn’t speak and laughed stupidly now and then. Everyone around knew Yan Xi was good-looking, but the whole person gave off an air of idiocy, nothing like now, when her every frown and smile was full of life.
Probably because she had drunk spirit spring water, the skin that had been tanned dark by the sun was a little whiter now, and her skin was smooth and fine. It wouldn’t be long before it went back to its original color.
Grandmother Yan took her granddaughter’s hand and said in a rush, “Good, good, good. It seems she really is well. If this old frame of mine were any use I’d have gone to see you long ago, there’d have been no need to wait this long.”
“Sit down, sit down, keep an old woman company a while. I haven’t seen you for a few months. You’ve grown into a big girl. Just looking at you makes me glad.”
Yan Xi carried the things into the house, gave the rabbit and the jujubes to her aunt, and gave the pastries to her grandmother, telling her to put them away and eat them slowly.
There were eight lotus pastries in the box, and Grandmother Yan opened it and gave one each to the aunt and to Yan Xi, and took one herself and slowly sucked at it.
Looking at her kindly grandmother, Yan Xi felt a sense of urgency for the first time. She had thought that transmigrating after death was already good enough, and only after coming here did she find that everyone in the family was very good to her. They were a bit poor, but didn’t she have the space? For what it was worth she had lived twenty years in the modern world, and in an age of information overload she had learned no small amount from the internet. In these ancient times what mattered most was clothing, food, housing and travel, starting from those couldn’t go wrong.
By the time Yan Xi had finished thinking, her grandmother had finished the lotus pastry and was looking at her with a beaming face.
Yan Xi thought it over and, with her back to her grandmother, took two peaches out of the space. These had been watered with the spirit spring, they tasted sweet and juicy and could also strengthen the body, the more you ate the better for you. It wasn’t as outrageous as the spirit springs in novels that wash the essence and cleanse the marrow [1]wash the essence and cleanse the marrow (xi jing fa sui, 洗精伐髓) Metaphor, a mystical transformation that purges the body of all impurities jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3254420_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3254420_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and expel impurities, but it was still a rare treasure. Yan Xi wasn’t picky, being able to have a space at all satisfied her.
“Grandma, have a peach. I picked these in the mountains. It’s probably because the place is far off and nobody goes there, so they were ripe and nobody picked them, and it fell to me.”
So saying she washed the peaches and handed one to her grandmother. Grandmother Yan took it and looked. “This peach really isn’t bad. It’s big and soft, and you can even smell the sweetness. Better than that crisp peach they grow in the village. If it could be taken and sold it would surely be worth a good deal.”
“In future keep good things like this for yourself to eat, there’s no need to bring them to an old woman. At my age eating this sort of thing is a waste, better that you young people eat it.”
“Grandma, once it’s given to you, eat it. When I have time I’ll go and pick more. Nobody goes there anyway. Next time I’ll pick a lot so the whole family can have a taste.”
Yan Xi kept her grandmother company till the middle of the si hour, and seeing her aunt come back from the field with greens she made ready to go. Staying any longer and it would be getting late, and they were probably cooking at home too.
She had just risen when the aunt called out, “Eat here. It’s only one more person’s food, it’s no trouble at all. Your uncle and your cousins will be back from the field soon, and it will do for you to see one another. They’ve been thinking of you too.”
Without waiting for her to answer she took hold of Yan Xi and pulled her toward the front room and made her sit, and went off to the kitchen herself. The weather was hot now, so a stir-fried greens and a cold-dressed cucumber, and thinking there was still the wild amaranth picked that morning, she stir-fried that too to go with the buns.
The food was just ready when Yan Xi heard the yard gate open and the sound of talking, and knowing it was her uncle and the others back, she hurried to help by drawing water for them to wash their hands.
Yan Manfu was quite taken aback when he saw Yan Xi. “Little Xi is here. Don’t trouble yourself, we can do it ourselves, you go and rest.” Without waiting for an answer he took the basin out of Yan Xi’s hands and drove her off to the front room, and he and his two sons and their wives drew water and washed their hands.
The two cousins’ wives were a bit awkward when they saw Yan Xi. They knew this was Second Uncle’s family’s youngest daughter, and though they had seen her before they had never spent time with her, and to run into her all at once was a little uncomfortable.
Their own father- and mother-in-law treated Yan Xi like their own daughter, and whenever there was anything good in the house they would secretly put a little aside for Yan Xi. All of this was behind Second Uncle’s family’s back, and since nobody knew, nobody told Yan Xi.
Yan Xi could see the two cousins’ wives were uncomfortable, so she hurried to greet them both, and then asked after her little nephews, and only then did the two of them relax a little. They smiled at Yan Xi and began talking about their own children.
Although the two of them spoke full of complaints, anyone could see the smiles in their eyes. Yan Xi chimed in from time to time, and the two sisters-in-law beamed as they listened.
Sure enough, everyone likes to hear pleasant things. Because Yan Xi was such a good audience and could pick up whatever they said, before long the three of them were much more natural with each other, and the two of them even invited Yan Xi to go up the mountain with them sometime, which Yan Xi readily agreed to.
The Yan house.
The two sisters-in-law had the food ready and still Yan Xi hadn’t come home, and when they went to tell Yan Xi’s mother she said straight out not to wait, let’s eat, it looked as though your uncle’s family had kept her for a meal, or Little Xi should have been back long ago.
Her eldest brother’s family had always been fond of Little Xi, and now that Little Xi had gone to them herself it was only natural to keep her for a meal. Over Little Xi’s business the two families had been awkward for several years, and having Little Xi go to them herself was also to smooth the relationship over. Her eldest brother and the others probably knew it too, otherwise whose family had grain to spare and would be willing to keep another mouth to feed.
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