By the time Yan Xi got home it was already noon, for no other reason than that her uncle’s family had been much too warm. The sparrows the little nephews had caught up the mountain were roasted black, and they insisted on pressing two of them on Yan Xi, saying it was a filial gift for their auntie, which set the whole family laughing.
Yan Xi couldn’t refuse and could only eat them with the four little nephews. Sparrows have no meat on them, once the innards and the feathers were gone there was only a thin layer of skin, and one bird was only enough to give you a taste of meat.
At the meal she found one person missing, and asking, she learned Yan Lei wasn’t home, he had gone with Yan Jiang and the others to the Songjiang docks to haul cargo, and it was nearly two months now, so they reckoned he’d be back next month. The autumn harvest was at hand, and getting the grain in early was what mattered. From the look of this year, after the taxes there would still be a good deal left, and they would certainly have a fat year.
“Auntie’s back. I wanted to go and find you but Grandma wouldn’t let me, she said you’d eaten at Granduncle’s house.” Xiaofeng had sharp eyes, he saw Yan Xi before she was through the gate.
“Auntie, Auntie, can we go up the mountain today too? There’s only one rabbit left at home, and Gou Dan and the others want to come along too.”
“You went yesterday, don’t pester your auntie today. You can’t catch game every day. If it were that easy the mountain would have been picked clean. Go and play, don’t bother your auntie.” Yan Xi’s mother heard and came out and scolded them a few times.
“It’s all right, Mom, going out to play is fine. Today at Uncle’s we had stir-fried amaranth and it tasted good, so I’ll take them and pick a little and bring it back, and we’ll make dumplings tonight. Don’t we still have rabbits at home? We’ll kill one tonight and keep some for the filling, and send a bowl over to the old house while we’re at it.”
“Do as you like then, but come back early. It’s too hot, just pick enough for one meal, if it wilts it’s wasted.”
Yan Xi took the string of small fry out with her, and Xiaofeng went and called Gou Dan and Tie Dan and a few other children, nine in all, and they headed into the hills.
Yan Xi, thinking that in a few days she would clear out some fruit and vegetables at the market, had them take her to find the fruit trees. You had to know that these children ran wild over every hill and knew exactly what was in the mountains. Country children had no snacks to speak of, they could only wait for the wild fruit on the hills to ripen.
They walked an hour and came to a hollow in the hills where there was a stretch of wild grapes, just at the time for picking, a green expanse of them, a pleasure to see.
Ordinarily the families didn’t let the children come here on their own, this stretch was rather far from the village, and they were afraid something might happen.
This time, because Yan Xi wanted to pick some fruit to sell, the children decided to bring Yan Xi to see it, and to take some home for their families while they were at it.
They set the back baskets down and lined them with some grape leaves, and only then picked the ripe grapes and put them in the baskets. Gou Dan and the others all helped.
Yan Xi wasn’t one to have people help for nothing. She gave the children two wen for every ten catties they picked, and in future if they came and picked and delivered it themselves it would be two wen for five catties, since they would have to bring it to the Yan house.
These were ownerless things in the hills to begin with, whoever picked them owned them. Now that there was money in it the children were all thrilled, and even the grapes they had said they’d take home they didn’t want anymore but gave to Yan Xi. If the elders at home learned there was money to be made and they hadn’t made it and had only brought back some sour grapes, there would certainly be bamboo shoots stir-fried with meat [1]bamboo shoots stir-fried with meat (zhu sun chao rou, 竹筍炒肉) Idiom, a beating with a switch or cane jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3254421_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3254421_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
They picked a good half a back basket, reckoned at some thirty catties, and Yan Xi gave the children a wen each. Seeing there really was money to be had, Gou Dan and the others all said they’d come again when the next lot was ripe, and buy sweets when the peddler came to the village.
She had given out eight wen, but however Yan Xi reckoned it she wasn’t losing. Sell these grapes on and it was all clear profit.
It wasn’t until they were nearly at the foot of the mountain that they saw anyone. There were several village girls gathered together cutting pig grass, and by the look of it they were getting ready to go home too.
The few girls only looked Yan Xi and the others over a few times and then turned their heads and went back to their own work. There was a great pile of work waiting at home, and if they got back late they’d be scolded again.
Just as Yan Xi was about to leave, out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the girls glaring at her. Yan Xi thought she had seen wrong and turned to look, and the girl gave a start and quickly lowered her head.
Yan Xi looked a few times and still didn’t find that she knew the other girl, and was still wondering why the girl would look at her with that kind of look.
Then Yan Yu spoke up: “Auntie Hehua, why are you glaring at my auntie? If you have something to say, say it.”
“I wasn’t, you saw wrong.” The girl flatly denied it.
Only then did Yan Xi know who she was: the heroine of the gossip she had heard on the ox cart yesterday, Wu Hehua, nineteen and with no husband’s family after her engagement was broken off.
By the look of it she probably bore Yan Xi a grudge.
Yan Xi was speechless. She had only watched the melon, whom had she offended? Besides, it wasn’t she who had told it. She had only heard a piece of gossip and had brought trouble on herself.
Yan Xi wasn’t of a temperament to swallow things either, and knowing the cause of it she said directly, “You’re Auntie Guihua’s daughter Sister Hehua, aren’t you? By rights this is the first time we’ve met and there’s no deep grudge between us. It isn’t right for you to look at me with the eyes of an enemy!”
Wu Hehua didn’t expect Yan Xi to be so blunt. She had only glared a few times, and Yan Xi said that about her in front of all these people, without leaving her the least face.
Listening to the whispering around her, Wu Hehua couldn’t hold out and said, “You know what you did. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have been beaten and scolded by my mother yesterday. Do you still think you did nothing wrong?”
It turned out that yesterday, after Xu Guihua was put down by Yan Xi, someone had brought up Wu Hehua’s business to her face. She couldn’t keep her countenance, and when she got home she grew angrier the more she thought about it, and gave Wu Hehua a thorough beating and let her have no dinner.
Wu Hehua’s eldest sister-in-law Xu Zhaodi was there fanning the flames too, egging Xu Guihua on until her temper grew hotter and hotter. Wu Laoyao and Wu Dagui just sat there smoking their pipes and paid not the least attention to the household’s business, and her younger brother Wu Ergui didn’t so much as glance at his eldest sister but only called out that he wanted eggs. Her five-year-old niece Wu Xiaohua was so frightened she hid at the door, afraid of being scolded along with her.
Xu Zhaodi was Xu Guihua’s own niece. To get a hold on the Wu family and be better able to help the Xu family, she had insisted on matching Xu Zhaodi to her son.
And sure enough, before long this household was entirely what the Xu aunt and niece said it was. The Wu family’s men had it well enough, it was only Wu Hehua’s life that got harder and harder. She had at last found a household that lived well, and instead of trying to hold on to it she had ruined it, and after that Wu Hehua had even less standing at home.
The Xu family also favored sons over daughters. The men of the family being able to marry and have children depended entirely on the daughters married out to help them, and they came round now and then to cadge as well, wanting nothing more than to fasten on their daughters and suck them dry.
From birth the daughters of the family had it instilled in them that they must look after their mother’s family, that they should go without themselves rather than not take the good things to their brothers at home, only when the mother’s family did well could they do well.
Both Xu Guihua and Xu Zhaodi believed this without a doubt.
Wu Hehua and Wu Xiaocao were the lowest of the low in that house. Faced with this state of things, instead of thinking of changing herself she blamed other people, as though everyone had wronged her.
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