Mother Yan set down the fruit tray and nodded, then quickly went to her room to get ready. Rumors about her daughter were still spreading outside, and with Yan Sisi going to the bathhouse, she didn’t know what gossip she might overhear. By following her, Mother Yan could at least feel a little more at ease.
The two of them carried wooden basins filled with towels, soap, and clean clothes and headed toward the People’s Bathhouse, not far from home.
Yan Sisi walked into the bathhouse with confidence, handing two five-cent bath coupons to Aunt Wang, who was sitting behind the desk.
Wang Yan took the coupons and looked up. When she saw it was Yan Sisi, her eyes lit up, and she greeted her warmly, “Sisi, you’re here!”
Yan Sisi had become the hottest topic in town recently. People had assumed she’d hide at home, but here she was at the bathhouse.
Politely, Yan Sisi nodded, took the wooden tag with the red string and key, and turned toward the women’s section. As she reached the door, she faintly heard someone mutter the words “falling into the water” behind her.
Her expression remained unchanged as she entered. She had already heard all sorts of unpleasant words in her dream. After all, it was just about one incident. If she let these words get to her, she might spiral into the same obsessive thoughts as in the dream, eventually breaking down under the gossip. That would only hurt those who loved her and delight her enemies.
Yan Sisi checked the number on her key, found the corresponding locker, placed her clean clothes inside, and put her dirty clothes into the wooden basin.
Mother Yan, carrying her own basin, had already walked further into the bathhouse. Yan Sisi quickly followed, knowing that on her own she wouldn’t manage to get water in time.
The moment she stepped in, the white steam blurred her vision. The sound of water splashing filled her ears, and the entire space was shrouded in a misty haze.
She immediately regretted coming, there were quite a few people tonight. Every shower in front of her was already occupied, so she had to hold her breath and follow Mother Yan toward the back.
Even at the very end, there were no free showers. Embarrassed, Yan Sisi stood awkwardly until her mother pulled her over to a familiar neighbor and had her share a shower with them.
Under the shower, Yan Sisi wet her hair but had to step aside for the next person. When she finally worked the shampoo into a lather, her mother dragged her back under the shower to rinse.
The entire process felt like a battle. After washing her hair, her mother grabbed her again, scrubbing her body hard with a towel. When she rinsed off the soap, her face was burning hot, her head dizzy, and breathing felt difficult.
Yan Sisi shouted into her mother’s ear, “Mom, I’m going back first!”
She pointed toward the wooden basin a short distance away. Mother Yan nodded, and Yan Sisi forced herself to endure the dizziness and lack of oxygen long enough to dash out.
Yan Sisi had just stepped back into the room outside when she felt her breathing ease considerably. She walked over to the locker where her clothes were kept, used the key on her wrist to open it, quickly dried herself, changed into clean clothes, and rubbed her hair with a dry towel. Once partially dry, she wrapped it up with another towel.
Across from her, a group of women had been whispering as soon as they saw her face.
“Isn’t that the daughter of the old Yan family?”
“That thing, you heard about it?”
“No, you don’t know? They say a man has already held her.”
“I thought the daughter of the old Yan family isn’t married yet!”
The women whispered and glanced at Yan Sisi, each remark growing more absurd. By the end, their gossip had escalated into claiming she had slept with a man.
Yan Sisi could no longer hold back. Anyone who could tolerate them any longer would have to be a saint. She spun around to face the woman who had started the rumors, slammed the items in her hands onto the bench between them, and the room echoed with a loud “bang,” instantly drawing every eye.
Her gaze was icy as she looked at the gossiping woman, her voice cold: “Who exactly are you talking about?”
The woman, Wang Li, unbothered by a young girl staring her down, snorted and said, “I’m talking about you. If I say it, I’ll admit it. You’re nothing but a slut who’s slept with a man.”
“Better hurry and get married, or when your belly gets big, it won’t look good.”
“Am I right, everyone? A young, unmarried girl with a boyfriend going around being loose, back a few years ago, people would have dragged you out for public shame, yet here you are, leisurely bathing.”
Yan Sisi’s eyes turned red, highlighting her pale face and giving her a delicate, almost fragile appearance. Someone nearby couldn’t bear it and said, “Wang Li, watch your words. Don’t spread things without proof.”
Wang Li glared at the interjector and snapped, “How am I spreading lies? People even came to propose marriage! Doesn’t everyone in the compound know? You defending her, is she having an affair with your son or something?”
Yan Sisi’s eyes narrowed on the woman across from her. She recognized her, this was the same woman from her dream who had spread all the rumors in the compound. At first, few people knew about her falling into the water, but this woman told anyone who would listen. The story became more and more exaggerated until it claimed she was involved with multiple men, hiding at home as if in confinement.
In her dream, her husband had a mistress and even a child with her. She had endured it all silently to avoid being cast out.
Yan Sisi knew all this because a concerned neighbor had discreetly warned her not to get caught up in the mad gossip.
She hadn’t sought this woman out, yet now, here she was, theatrically performing her lies in front of everyone. Once she stopped from exhaustion, Yan Sisi finally spoke calmly: “You’re so concerned about other people’s business, why don’t you worry about the mistress your husband has on the side?”
Wang Li’s eyes widened in shock. She stared at Yan Sisi, loudly denying, “You’re talking nonsense!”
After speaking, Yan Sisi forced a smile onto her face and, seeing the curious eyes around her, explained, “My husband treats me so well, there’s no way he’d have a mistress.”
But inside, she was panicking. She couldn’t let this go on. If her mother-in-law found out, and the other woman had already had a child, she’d definitely be thrown out of the house.
“Since there’s nothing to it, let’s all go check over at People’s Road next door, think of it as going to watch a free show,” Yan Sisi said, giving a rough address. She noticed Wang Li’s face turn pale and acted as if she were about to go see.
Wang Li couldn’t hold back a scream. Clutching her wooden basin, she flew toward the door, glancing back at Yan Sisi before leaving: “My husband wouldn’t do that! Don’t spread lies!”
Seeing everyone scattering, Yan Sisi looked around at the remaining onlookers, then firmly closed her locker and left.
Outside the bathhouse, she took a deep breath of fresh air, telling herself not to care about the rumors, but when she actually encountered them, she still couldn’t suppress her impulse. This incident would only increase the gossip in the compound: she was no longer the delicate, weak girl everyone thought she was, she had shaken up her old image completely.
Yan Sisi pressed the towel to her head and ran against the cold wind back home. She put her still-damp hair over the coal stove to dry, greeted her father who was still watching TV, then returned to her room to enter her space.
During the day she had been busy studying; at night, she had been selling strawberries, reporting on the space to her parents, eating, and bathing, she hadn’t had time to properly check her space.
Looking around, she saw that the entire space was full of mature plants. The trellis for the climbing plants was completely covered in green leaves, some hanging long in midair. The areas she hadn’t maintained looked like tangled weeds.
Yan Sisi grabbed three baskets and a few woven bags from the kitchen and returned to the space. She picked ripe chili peppers, vegetables, spinach, and tomatoes, filling the baskets and bags. It took her over an hour just to harvest these.
There were still many ripe sesame plants, cucumbers, loofahs, muskmelons, sweet melons, watermelons, and strawberries left unharvested.
Exhausted, she couldn’t straighten her back and, seeing the ground covered with ripe fruits and vegetables, her head ached. Why had she planted so many plants?
Just as she exited the space, her mother came in. With a flick of her consciousness, everything in the baskets and bags suddenly appeared on the floor.
Yan Sisi’s mother looked at the mess of vegetables and didn’t know what to do, so she called in her husband. When he saw the sheer quantity, he was shocked. “Daughter, how many vegetables have you actually planted?” he asked in disbelief.
Yan Sisi counted and said, “There are also sesame, cucumbers, loofahs, muskmelons, watermelons, and strawberries. There’s too much, I can’t harvest it all.”
Obviously, even the three of them couldn’t possibly eat all of it. Her mother crouched down to sort the vegetables, setting aside the more common ones to give to neighbors they were friendly with.
The rest would be dried to last through winter for her father and Mingze. As for the remaining vegetables in her daughter’s space, even if they wanted to help, they couldn’t.
While sorting, her mother said, “Tomorrow I’ll have your father buy some bamboo baskets to store vegetables in there, and we’ll look for other seeds and fruit trees for you.”
Her father only had one hand free to help, but he smiled and agreed when his wife explained: “Alright, I’ll check tomorrow.”
With such a magical space, he wanted to figure out what to plant in it. Then he added, “Sisi, can medicinal herbs be grown in the Immortal’s Space?”