“What’s all this racket?”
Old Mrs. Xie shouted impatiently, her voice rough and loud. “If you’re not hungry, don’t eat! Get out and stay outside!”
Xie Wuni snorted heavily and turned to go inside.
Only after entering did Xie Jinzhu realize why it was unusually quiet today: Second Aunt wasn’t there.
She looked around but didn’t see Eldest Aunt or Madam Wang either.
Although the Xie family was so poor it was a headache, they had a strong sense of family unity.
Unless there was some special reason, everyone was expected to come home for meals and to sleep.
Moreover, none of the Xies could bear to spend money eating outside. They survived day by day on two meals of wild vegetable soup and coarse steamed buns, one in the morning and one in the evening.
Noticing there was no scrambled eggs on the table, Jinzhu picked up her bowl and asked curiously, “Has my mother and the aunts not returned yet?”
Father Xie’s expression was sullen. “They have matters to attend to. They won’t be back tonight.”
A strange pang of unease struck Jinzhu’s heart.
Old Mrs. Xie shot Jinzhu a sharp, heavy glare, looking as if she wanted to explode in anger but was forcing herself to hold it back.
Old Mrs. Xie picked up her bowl and said, “That bowl of egg yolks is good stuff. After the meal, Third Master, you take it over. Have them cook it to nourish Second Daughter.”
Third Master Xie lowered his head and said, “Alright.” The atmosphere at the table grew inexplicably heavy and somber. Even Xie Wuni wisely kept her head down, eating without a word.
Jinzhu scanned the room, deciding it was best not to speak. Suppressing the sour churning rising from her stomach to her throat, she silently picked up her own bowl of vegetable soup.
Even though there were still over ten days left until the agreed-upon date to repay the money, if there was no more income coming in, she couldn’t speak for others, but Xie Jinzhu herself was going to go crazy.
She truly couldn’t take another sip!
The Xie family cooked without any meat or oil.
It wasn’t that they didn’t crave it; they simply couldn’t afford it.
That palm-sized jar of lard had been the original host’s exclusive privilege, and the occasional scrap of meat had been her special treatment too.
All those privileges were now revoked.
All the vegetables from the fields were taken by Eldest Aunt and Old Mrs. Xie to sell in the county town. What they ate could only be the free wild vegetables.
Besides wild vegetable soup, there was wild vegetable stew. The bowls were a monotonous, sickly green.
In just over ten short days, the unchanging vegetable broth and the choking coarse buns had turned Jinzhu’s eyes green with desperation and left her insides feeling hollow and panicked.
She couldn’t even imagine how people had survived until now eating only this.
After several attempts, Jinzhu finally managed to swallow only half a bowl. As she held the remainder, unsure what to do, Xie Wuni directly reached out and snatched it. “If you don’t want it, give it to me.”
“Fifth Sister, that’s my leftovers…”
“So what if they’re leftovers?”
Xie Wuni rolled her eyes. “You think I’d even get your scraps otherwise?”
Having something to eat was good enough. What was there to pick and choose?
Xie Wuni hugged the bowl contentedly and turned her body slightly, as if afraid Jinzhu might try to snatch it back.
Jinzhu sighed, her feelings indescribable. “Fine, as long as you don’t mind.”
“Grandma, everyone, take your time eating. I’ll go out and get back to work.”
Making money.
She had to make money, and quickly!
Xie Jinzhu resolutely threw herself back into her money-making endeavors.
Old Mrs. Xie’s face was dark. After a long silence, she suddenly slapped Xie Wuni’s hand. “Eat, eat, eat! Is eating all you know?”
Wuni, slapped for no apparent reason, blinked, thoroughly angered. “Grandma, you’re still playing favorites!”
“Xie Jinzhu is just a girl like the rest of us. What right does she have…”
“What favorites am I playing?”
Old Mrs. Xie said discontentedly, “Isn’t she eating the same as you? Didn’t you cook her portion along with yours?”
“Why don’t you just chew the pot along with it, and have your father build you a pen?”
Xie Wuni, holding her bowl, stood up angrily and stormed off, running into the courtyard and spitting fiercely toward Xie Jinzhu: “I’ll eat it!”
“Finish it all and starve to death for all I care!”
Xie Jinzhu: “…”
Watching Xie Wuni shovel wild vegetable soup into her mouth in big mouthfuls, Xie Jinzhu sincerely said, “Eat slowly, I won’t fight you for it.”
She truly wasn’t craving a single bite!
Xie Wuni glared sideways and ate even more heartily. The people who stayed in the main room discussed something, and soon Father Xie and Second Uncle Xie came out.
Father Xie held the eggs Old Mrs. Xie had mentioned and said to Xie Jinzhu, “We’re going out for a while. Don’t cause any trouble at home.”
Xie Xiao Qi didn’t need to be told.
There was only one person in the family who might cause trouble.
Xie Jinzhu tried her best to put on an honest expression and nodded. “Father, are you and Second Uncle going to Second Sister’s house?”
What happened to Xie Er Ni?
Why does everyone look so grim?
Father Xie didn’t answer Xie Jinzhu’s question. Instead, he walked toward Eldest Uncle Xie.
As they left one after another, Xie Jinzhu faintly heard the word “borrow,” and her brow twitched silently.
Were they going to borrow money?
Xie Jinzhu stood silently for a while, then picked up the half-carved ink block again, thinking she must speed up her work.
No matter what trouble the Xie family was facing, these ink sticks had to be exchanged for silver as soon as possible.
Those who went out under the cover of night didn’t return until dawn.
As the sky grew faintly light, Old Mrs. Xie even took Xie Wuni and Xie Xiao Qi to the vegetable plot, gathering everything that could be sold. The old woman and the two youngsters shouldered vegetable baskets and prepared to go to the county town to sell vegetables.
The journey from the village to the county town took at least two hours on foot, and each basket of vegetables weighed dozens of pounds.
Ignoring her own frail body, which had just recovered from illness, Old Mrs. Xie grunted and tried to lift the load onto her shoulder.
Xie Jinzhu had worked until the rooster crowed before closing her eyes last night. Awakened groggily by the noise, she came out and was instantly startled awake: “You mustn’t!”
Xie Jinzhu rushed over and grabbed the carrying pole. “Old Madam, you really mustn’t. The doctor said you…”
“Ah, let go!”
Old Mrs. Xie pushed Xie Jinzhu away irritably. She swung the carrying pole but couldn’t bring herself to strike her with it, instead planting it on the ground and saying, “I’m not so old that my bones are crumbling yet. I can handle this bit of work!”
Old Mrs. Xie shoved Xie Jinzhu away disdainfully. “Go back to sleep.”
“If you’re hungry, boil an egg for yourself. I’ve already taken the eggs out for you. Don’t hold things up!”
Old Mrs. Xie’s eyes were red, but the strength in her hands was considerable.
Xie Jinzhu was pushed back several steps. Rubbing her eyes, she said helplessly, “What more sleep?”
Clearly, something had happened—something big that required money.
Right now, everyone in the Xie family had gone out to find a solution. Even Xie Wuni was quietly stuffing cabbage from Old Mrs. Xie’s basket into her own backpack.
If she went back now, buried her head, and went back to sleep, her already pitch-black sins would gain another layer!
Xie Jinzhu scratched her head, stifled a yawn, snatched the carrying pole from Old Mrs. Xie’s hands, and said, “Wait for me to wash my face.”
“I’ll carry it.”
Old Mrs. Xie stared at her empty hands, unable to believe what she had just heard.
Xie Wuni poked Xie Xiao Qi’s arm and whispered, “What did she just say?”
“Who’s carrying it?”
Xie Xiao Qi pursed her lips, her tone complicated: “I also think I must have misheard…”
Which direction did the sun rise from today?
Were those actual human words that just came out of Xie Jinzhu’s mouth???
Under three pairs of incredulous gazes, Xie Jinzhu, unfamiliar with the carrying pole, abandoned Old Mrs. Xie’s shoulder pole and instead chose the large-bellied bamboo back basket.
After Old Mrs. Xie carefully packed the cabbages, Xie Jinzhu tucked the box containing two ink sticks close to her body, hoisted the back basket, and said: “Let’s go, aren’t we going to sell the vegetables?”
Although the ink sticks weren’t completely air-dried yet, it was just the right time to find a place to have them appraised today.
After working hard for so many days, she was going to go ask about the price.