Meng Wan followed closely behind Song Tingzhou. The two abandoned Tian Xing, who was beaten half to death, and went down the mountain in silence. Meng Wan was filled with thoughts and didn’t even have time to feel angry or afraid.
His biggest problem now is his chastity.
If one has to avoid suspicion when talking to men outside the family, then wouldn’t it be considered a breach of chastity for him to almost have his body seen like this?
Even though Song Tingzhou knew that Tian Xing hadn’t succeeded, being held and molested in the arms of a stranger like that was a major taboo in this era.
He had already given the tofu recipe to Chang Jinhua. The Song family now earns more than one tael of silver a month from tofu, so they probably won’t kick him out directly. There will definitely be some rift between them, and perhaps Song Tingzhou won’t marry him after this incident.
Wouldn’t that be turning misfortune into blessing?
”Feel sorry.”
Meng Wan stared blankly at Song Tingzhou. Was he apologizing to me?
Song Tingzhou, whose expression was usually cold and aloof, seemed somewhat flustered at this moment. He avoided Meng Wan’s gaze and said in a low voice, “It’s my fault. I didn’t give you a proper title, which has caused you to suffer this humiliation today.”
Meng Wan subconsciously wanted to please and comfort him, after all, he was his employer.
”It’s not your fault, it’s my fault…” But halfway through his sentence, he started to protest, “What the hell? I’m the victim here, what does it have to do with me? Is it my fault that I’m good-looking!”
Meng Wan gritted his teeth and said, “It’s the eldest Tian. Who knew he looked so upright that he could do something like this?” He’s a domestic abuser, what kind of good person could he be?
Meng Wan was furious whenever he mentioned him. Damn it, he had the nerve to disgust me. If he didn’t teach Tian Xing a lesson, he wouldn’t be Meng!
”In short, I will never let this happen to you again, unless I die.” When Song Tingzhou said this, he lowered his head slightly and looked directly at Meng Wan, his tone firm and serious, as if he had engraved this promise in his heart.
”What are you talking about, dying or something…” Meng Wan didn’t expect him to say it so harshly, and for some reason he felt a little flustered.
Could it be that Song Jia Da Lang[1]Song family’s eldest son jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2996128_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2996128_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); has really fallen for him? From what he’s saying, it seems like he really wants to marry him. What should I do? Should I really marry him?
When Chang Jinhua got home, she noticed that the atmosphere between the two was not right. But she didn’t expect that the Tian family next door would have the audacity to molest Meng Wan, so she thought that Song Tingzhou had offended Meng Wan and made him unhappy. But when she looked again, she found that her son’s face was even more unpleasant than Meng Wan’s. This confused her.
Silently sitting down at the table, Meng Wan found a piece of pork rib in his bowl. He glanced at Song Tingzhou beside him, then lowered his head to gnaw on the rib. After a while, another piece appeared in his bowl.
Meng Wan’s initially bad mood turned into an increasingly delicious one as he ate.
”Auntie, I want more rice!”
”Go get your own food, why are you calling me?” Chang Jinhua was baffled.
Song Tingzhou silently scooped a spoonful of rice for Meng Wan, and calmly explained to his mother, “His hands are oily, so it’s inconvenient for him.”
Upon hearing this, Chang Jinhua looked them over. “Just now, Dalang went to Zhaoshan to look for you…”
”Big brother, what happened to you? Did you get into a fight?”
”My dear grandson!”
”Brother, which heartless person beat you up like this?!”
”Brother, who is it? Father and I will go find him!”
”Get up and move him! Can’t you see your man’s been beaten up like this? He’s like a wooden stake, unable to move! Hurry up and call a doctor!”
Sharp shouts and curses came from next door, and the three people at the Song family’s dinner table reacted in different ways.
Chang Jinhua frowned. “The eldest son of the Tian family next door got beaten up?”
The two children remained silent, and Chang Jinhua immediately sensed something was wrong. “Dalang, did you hit Tian Xing?”
Song Tingzhou put down his chopsticks and said in a calm tone, “He was blind to his own faults—he fell into a ravine.”
Meng Wan immediately testified, “That’s right, my cousin and I saw it with our own eyes! He rolled around several times.”
Chang Jinhua looked at the two of them suspiciously, “Then why didn’t you help pull him up?”
Song Tingzhou sneered, “What does this have to do with me?”
He rarely contradicted Chang Jinhua, so this statement was somewhat disrespectful.
Meng Wan knew that Song Tingzhou’s anger wasn’t directed at Chang Jinhua, and fearing that Chang Jinhua might misunderstand, he quickly tried to smooth things over, “Auntie, didn’t you tell me to have less contact with the Tian family? So we didn’t interfere.”
Chang Jinhua almost laughed out of anger at the two of them, “I said I wouldn’t let you have as much contact with the Tian family, but when have you ever listened to me?”
Meng Wan immediately raised her hand and swore, “I will listen this time, and if I ever have anything to do with their family again…”
Another piece of pork rib appeared in his bowl, interrupting him.
Meng Wan muttered under his breath, “That’s enough, that’s enough.”
Song Tingzhou put away his chopsticks and, with the mushroom-infused sauce, finished off the tofu on the table.
The commotion next door had been going on for quite some time. Since they were all neighbors, Chang Jinhua couldn’t just ignore it. She counted out ten eggs from the kitchen cupboard and said, “You all stay home and behave yourselves. I’m going to check on things next door.”
Meng Wan wanted to take a shower, but Chang Jinhua wasn’t there, and it felt strange to be alone with Song Tingzhou.
”Do you want to take a bath? I’ll boil some water for you,” Song Tingzhou suddenly asked.
Meng Wan shook his head and refused, “I’ll burn it myself in a bit, you go read your book.”
Song Tingzhou wanted to spend more time with Meng Wan, but he was afraid that Meng Wan would feel uncomfortable, so he went back to his own room.
After washing the dishes, Meng Wan sat on the doorstep. Winter was approaching, and it was getting dark earlier and earlier.
A dim orange light shone from Song Tingzhou’s small house. Meng Wan turned his head to look and couldn’t help but remind him, “Cousin, the light is too dim and it’s bad for your eyes. Get some rest.”
”Mm,” Song Tingzhou replied softly.
Meng Wan turned his head back and looked up at the sky. The dark night sky was filled with stars, which seemed to be very close to the ground, and some of them were still twinkling slightly.
He hugged his knees with both hands, a cold wind blowing on him, making him shrink back. He buried his chin in his chest and began to stare blankly at the stars.
He belatedly felt disgusted and frightened. Recalling Tian Xing’s words, if Song Tingzhou hadn’t arrived today, those words might very well have come true. Being kept by the Tian family as a breeding tool, that beast who would even kill his own husband, that day would be more terrifying than death.
Just because you have received higher education in modern society doesn’t mean you can be complacent or overestimate other people’s sense of morality. It would be foolish to risk your own safety.
Chang Jinhua had clearly reminded him many times not to go there alone as a young man, but he was not careful enough and forgot his current status and identity. Even in the past, in a society governed by the rule of law, there were still left-behind children or women who were violated by beasts.
Thinking about Zhu Ge’er’s disappearance later, and Xiao Mei’s sudden absence this morning, there must be something fishy about what happened today.
Meng Wan’s eyes flickered.
Oh right, he forgot to thank Song Tingzhou.
”Aren’t you cold, child? What are you doing sitting at the door? Come inside.” Chang Jinhua returned from the Tian family next door, closed the door and walked inside. Suddenly, she saw Meng Wan sitting on the doorstep, which startled her.
”Last time, when my sixth aunt’s son, Dali, got married, you went to his house late at night to pick me up, so I’ll wait for you today too.”
Song Tingzhou, who was reading in the small hut, heard this. He rubbed his book for a moment and made a mental note of it.
When Chang Jinhua returned, Meng Wan took a shower in the kitchen. After getting into bed, he said to Chang Jinhua:
”Auntie, don’t get up tomorrow morning. I’ll prepare breakfast for my cousin.”
Chang Jinhua grinned through the curtain, “That’s great, I can sleep in tomorrow too.”
The next day, Meng Wan got up early to knead the dough. He rolled the dough into a thin sheet on the work surface, scooped two spoonfuls of flour into a bowl, lit a fire in the stove, melted a spoonful of lard in a large pot and poured it into the flour, then added two small spoonfuls of salt, stirred it evenly and spread it on the sheet, sprinkled on a handful of chopped scallions, rolled it up and rolled it into a round shape again.
He made a lot of dough and made six large pancakes. He used the remaining oil in the pan to slowly cook them over low heat.
Song Tingzhou returned with freshly ground soybean milk. Seeing Song Tingzhou busy at work, he quietly squatted down in front of the stove to help him stoke the fire.
”Cousin, turn the fire down.”
”Um.”
Meng Wan stood by the pot with a spatula in his hand, flipping the pancakes in the pot from time to time.
”Um, thanks to you yesterday.”
Smelling the unusual aroma emanating from the pot, Song Tingzhou calmly said, “I’m the one who frightened you. I’ve already told Mother that after I finish the provincial examination in the prefectural city after the New Year, I will marry you no matter what the result is.”
Upon hearing this, Meng Wan’s spatula trembled and fell directly into the pot. His mind went blank, and he instinctively reached into the pot to retrieve it, but someone grabbed his hand halfway through.
”Be careful not to burn yourself.”
A warm palm enveloped his hand, and Song Tingzhou’s deep voice seemed to be right next to his ear.
Meng Wan quickly withdrew his hand and turned away from him.
Song Tingzhou stood up and took two steps back. “I’m sorry, I overstepped my bounds.”
He washed his hands, slung his book bag over his shoulder, and prepared to go to the private school.
Meng Wan hurriedly used chopsticks to lift the spatula from the pan, scooped out the cooked pancakes one by one, and put them into a cloth bag. “Wait, you haven’t eaten yet, take the pancakes and eat them.”
I specially made this for him; how can I let him leave hungry?
Song Tingzhou, not minding the heat, took out a pancake and said, “I’ll take this to eat on the way, you can keep the rest.”
Meng Wan asked him, “Why is that? Don’t you usually bring six or seven coins with you to eat at the private school?”
“I will come back to eat and stay every night from now on.”
”Dalang said he’d be back to stay tonight?” After Chang Jinhua got up, Meng Wan told her what Song Tingzhou had said.
“That’s what my cousin said. He only took one pancake from the ones I made for him.” Meng Wan replied to Chang Jinhua while skillfully tending the fire, adding brine, and making tofu.
”This is really strange. Usually, when I ask him to come back to stay, he won’t come back.”
The private school in town was small, and most of the students were children from local families. Before Song Tingzhou was born, when Chang Jinhua’s late husband Song Youmin was still alive, he would stay at his maternal grandparents’ house in town and go to the private school to study. After Song Youmin passed away, the two families did not lose contact. It was not until Song Tingzhou’s maternal grandfather also passed away due to illness that his uncle and aunt kicked him out.
In those years, although they were said to be staying temporarily, Song Youmin still sent a lot of money and food to his wife’s family. If he hadn’t passed away, they would have used that money to buy a small courtyard house in town.
Chang Jinhua wiped her eyes. “It’s good that you’re back. Otherwise, with just the two of us at home, and so many different kinds of people in the village, it would be a problem if there wasn’t a man around.”
Normally, Meng Wan would have just taken Chang Jinhua’s words as idle chatter, but now that he had experienced hardship himself, he genuinely agreed, “Yes.”
There was shouting and cursing coming from the neighboring yard early in the morning, and Meng Wan then remembered to ask Chang Jinhua, “Auntie, how is it next door?”
Chang Jinhua sighed, “Tian Jia Dalang[2]Tian family’s eldest son jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2996128_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2996128_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); said that he slipped and fell into a ditch while going down the mountain. It was full of rocks, which is why he was injured like this. When I went there yesterday, the barefoot doctor from Hongmiao Village also came. He said that his leg was broken and there was internal damage as well. The doctor said that he could only set the leg, and the internal damage would have to be checked by a doctor in town.”
Meng Wan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Tian Xing wouldn’t dare to spread such a shameful matter around.
He stayed home and did his laundry and tidied the yard. In the morning, the Tian family picked up the village chief’s oxcart and took Tian Xing to town to see a doctor.
When the car passed by the Song family’s house, Meng Wan didn’t even look up. The people buying tofu in front of the Song family’s house, however, all glanced at it a few times. As soon as the car left, they started gossiping behind her back.
”Who’s lying in the car? Old Master Tian?”
”How old is that old man? If he really can’t go on, we’ll just buy him a burial shroud, not taking him to town in an oxcart.”
”It’s Tian Xing.”
”Tian Xing? What happened to him? Why is he still lying there?”
”His brother said he fell into a ditch while chopping firewood on the mountain.”
”ha?”
These farmers were used to going up and down the mountains, and they had never heard of anyone falling into a ditch while going up the mountain.
”He looked like he fell pretty hard; his mother and his brother went with him.”
“Why didn’t his husband go with him?”
”His husband is like a mute; if he gets lost in town, he probably won’t even ask anyone for directions.”
Meng Wan listened expressionlessly, his hands never stopping their work. Winter was approaching, and the cabbages and radishes in the vegetable garden needed to be moved to the cellar to prevent them from freezing. They were counting on these things to get through the winter.
”Wan-ge’er, leave twenty cabbages on top, I’ll use them to pickle sauerkraut tomorrow.” Chang Jinhua, who was selling tofu at the door, called out to Meng Wan to leave some cabbages.
”Okay, Auntie,” Meng Wan replied crisply.
The Song family’s cellar was located in the corner of the backyard, with a heavy wooden door above it.
Meng Wan moved all the cleaned cabbages to the cellar, waiting for Chang Jinhua to have time so the two of them could carry them into the cellar together.
”Wan-ge’er”.
The houses of the Song and Tian families were built close together; not only were the front yards adjacent, but the walls of their backyards were also very close.
Zhu Ge’er’s voice hadn’t recovered yet, and his words were still hoarse and unpleasant.
Meng Wan ignored him and continued moving the cabbages from the front garden to the backyard.
“Yesterday I told your cousin where you were.” Zhu Ge’er’s eyes were full of expectation; he wanted Meng Wan to respond to him.
Meng Wan neatly stacked the cabbages on the ground and said sarcastically, “So what? You want me to thank you?”
Zhu Ge’er stammered, “No…no, I’m sorry, Wan Ge’er. He’s suffered too much. He said he wouldn’t hit me anymore once we had a child.”
Zhu Ge’er stood on the wooden stump and watched Meng Wan work on the other side of the wall. Regardless of whether Meng Wan paid attention to him or not, he spoke his heart to himself, “I actually feel sorry for him. He has been married for so long and we still don’t have any children. I feel sorry for him. I endure it even when he hits me.”
”Things gradually changed after my second brother got married, and he hit me. Even when Xiaomei was praised by my mother-in-law, he still hit me. Later, Xiaomei got pregnant… That night, I really thought I was going to die. You saved my life!”
References[+]