On the other side, the Zhou house.
“Gou Dan, are you sure this rabbit meat really was given to you by Yan Xi?”
Gou Dan, hearing his mother ask this question one more time, was getting impatient. “I’ve said it several times already, Yan Xi took us to catch them. You’ve been asking about it this long, aren’t you sick of it!” So saying he turned and went back to his room, and no matter how his mother swore behind him he wouldn’t pay any attention.
“Husband, what do you think Yan Xi is thinking? She has meat and instead of eating it in secret she generously brings it out and shares it with us. Gou Dan says it was split among several people, half a rabbit a family, how much meat is that? My goodness, this Yan Xi really does have a loose hand. It seems from now on we should let Gou Dan spend more time with Yan Xi. If there’s another good thing like this, we can get a share too, can’t we,” said Mrs. Zhou.
“You’ve got food and it still doesn’t stop your mouth. You think a good thing like this is something anybody can get in on? It’s only because Yan Xi is generous. If it had been someone else who quietly took it home, what could you say? Enough. And from now on stop going about saying Yan Xi is an idiot. Besides, she’s better now, and she’s clever beyond words, it’s only been a few days and they can eat meat. It’s only because she doesn’t hold it against you, otherwise you talk about people behind their backs and still want a share? Dreaming would be better,” said Zhou Dazhu.
Mrs. Zhou pursed her lips. “I know. But wasn’t the old Yan Xi truly an idiot? And I wasn’t the only one saying it. All right, I won’t say it anymore.” So saying, the two of them finished tidying up the house and went back into their room, and put out the oil lamp.
The same conversation was playing out in other houses. Some thought Yan Xi generous, some thought Yan Xi a fool, but everyone decided in their hearts to get on good terms with Yan Xi, so they could share in any good thing later.
The next day Yan Xi got up very early. When she went out the family had only just gotten up too, and Yan Xi let out a breath, luckily she wasn’t the last today, or she really would have lost all face.
Yan Xi’s mother saw Yan Xi come out and quickly said, “Why not sleep a bit more? There’s nothing to do these days anyway, and it’s only in the morning that it’s a bit cool and comfortable for sleeping.”
“It’s all right, Mom. I went to bed early and couldn’t sleep in the morning, so I came out to see whether I could help with anything,” said Yan Xi.
“We don’t need you. Your body has only just recovered, rest more. It isn’t the autumn harvest yet, and there’s nothing much to do. There are plenty of us at home and we can manage.”
All right then. With it put like that, what more could Yan Xi say? When she had washed she found Yan Xi’s mother had already steamed her egg custard. Seeing this, Yan Xi hurried to say, “Mom, from now on don’t make it just for me, I’ll eat the same as everyone else. Save the eggs for you and for Xiaoyu and the other little ones. They work hard feeding the chickens and the pigs, and you all have to go down to the fields. Don’t stint yourselves to feed me.”
“Mom, if you ask me, how about the family eats three meals a day? Look, every day at home we eat thin gruel, and generally only one meal has buns, and black flour at that. How can our bodies stand it in the long run? And you all work hard every day. Day after day it builds up, and it’s easy to fall ill. Now that I’m better too, the money at home doesn’t need to be saved up to treat me. Let’s use the money to buy grain and build the whole family up.”
Yan Xi’s mother listened to this, pressed her lips together and agreed. A good deal of silver had gone out every month in the past anyway, now it would be used to buy grain, and the whole family would eat it, so there was nothing to grudge.
In fact it wasn’t that Yan Xi’s mother was hard-hearted and grudged the family good food. It was that the old Yan Xi’s idiocy really had cost no small sum, and the family scrimping and saving barely covered the monthly medicine money. Most of that came from the third son going out to do day labor in the slack season and the eldest son’s wife taking in embroidery work, and it had all gone into filling the hole.