“How about we go gather more river mussels tomorrow to cook and send some to father and the others,” Su Li suggested. There were still plenty left in the fields where they had gathered them today.
Upon hearing this, Chen Shi and the others immediately thought it was a good idea. In fact, families with better conditions would regularly send nourishing food and drinks to their menfolk to replenish their strength, as even the toughest bodies would struggle after over ten consecutive days of harvesting rice.
In the past, when the Su family had spare money, they would buy some fatty meat to render lard and use the pork cracklings to stew vegetables to send. This year, however, the family was tightening their belts to save money for Su Li’s second brother’s marriage, so they hadn’t bought any meat. They had managed to save a few taels of silver through frugality.
Unfortunately, all the savings were spent when Su Li fell ill. Other families in the village couldn’t understand—after all, she was just a daughter. Was it worth spending so much silver?
Which poor family hadn’t experienced the loss of a child? To put it harshly, they could always have another child.
So when they learned that the Su family had spent several taels of silver on a doctor and medicine, everyone thought the Su family had lost their minds.
This also led to families who had been willing to marry their daughters into the Su family changing their minds upon hearing about this. No one wanted a sister-in-law who could spend so much silver.
“Alright, let’s do that,” Wu Pozi decided immediately. Without proper nourishment, their health would deteriorate, and that wouldn’t be good.
Although river mussel meat wasn’t as nourishing as pork, it was still meat, wasn’t it? It should help replenish their strength somewhat.
Moreover, the taste was truly delicious. Wu Pozi had never eaten anything so tasty in all her years, let alone the sons and grandsons.
“But we’re almost out of salt at home,” Su Li reminded, recalling how the salt jar was nearly empty when she was cooking earlier.
Hearing this, the room fell silent. After a long pause, Wu Pozi finally spoke, “Tomorrow… never mind, let’s all rest tomorrow. The day after, Qing Shan’s mother, take the eggs from home to sell and buy some salt back.”
Farmers all knew that going without salt was not an option. Without salt, they would lack strength, be unable to work, and their health would eventually fail. So no matter how poor a family was, they still had to buy salt.
But now the family had no silver, so they could only buy salt by selling the eggs they had saved.
However, Chen Shi looked troubled upon hearing this, for no other reason than that there weren’t enough eggs. The family had three laying hens, and the last time they sold eggs was half a month ago. During this half month, one of the hens had been laying only occasionally for some reason. Some of the eggs had been given to the youngest daughter to supplement her nutrition, so the family probably only had about seven or eight eggs left. If sold, they would only fetch one wen each, totaling just eight wen.
The price of salt was two hundred wen per jin, with the minimum purchase being one feng (starting from twenty wen), equivalent to one liang. This meant they were still short by over ten wen. Of course, they could choose to buy illegal salt, but the consequences if caught were severe. Illegal salt sellers would receive one hundred lashes, five years imprisonment, and confiscation of all illegal assets. Buyers of illegal salt would receive fifty lashes and a fine of ten taels of silver, with those resisting arrest facing execution. The penalties were extremely harsh, so ordinary families wouldn’t take the risk unless absolutely necessary. Additionally, the quality of illegal salt wasn’t as good as official salt, so people generally avoided buying it unless they had no choice.
At this moment, Su Laotou suddenly spoke up, “Don’t worry. Tomorrow I’ll make some brooms and weave a few stools to sell together.”
Indeed, aside from farming, Su Laotou also knew how to weave items like bamboo stools, bamboo baskets, and brooms. During times when there was no farm work, he would weave these at home to sell. Otherwise, the harvest from that single acre of paddy field alone wouldn’t be enough to cover the family’s daily expenses.
“But won’t Father be too tired?” Although Chen Shi thought this was a good idea, she was genuinely concerned about her father-in-law Su Laotou’s health.
Su Laotou’s health was not good. His body had been worn down during his early years in the garrison, and later, his leg was injured during a bandit suppression operation. Now he walked with a limp. It was precisely because of this injury that he was able to leave the garrison and return home.
“This little bit of work—how could it be tiring?” Su Laotou waved his hand dismissively. In his view, weaving stools and baskets wasn’t strenuous work. Besides, even if it were tiring, earning silver made it worthwhile. For families like theirs, poverty was far more frightening than hardship.
And so, during the after-dinner break, Wu Pozi, Chen Shi, and Su Laotou settled on the tasks for the next day.
Chen Shi, Su Li, and Su Tao were to gather river mussels, cook, and deliver meals, while Wu Pozi and Su Laotou would cut silvergrass and chop bamboo to weave brooms and bamboo stools.
That night, in Wu Pozi’s room, she tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. The noise eventually woke Su Laotou, who had been snoring. Concerned, he asked, “What’s wrong? Can’t sleep?”
Over the past two years, Wu Pozi had often suffered from insomnia for some reason. Su Laotou knew it was because she worried too much about family matters, but he had no good solution.
“Why not go to Liu Pozi tomorrow and get some herbal medicine?”
Liu Pozi was the village’s barefoot doctor, who also told fortunes and predicted auspicious or inauspicious events for the villagers. Ordinary folks would go to her for medicine whenever they felt unwell, and most of the time, it worked—unless the illness was particularly severe. Wu Pozi had previously gotten calming medicine from her, which would help for a few days.
“Why waste money? Don’t you know our family’s situation?” Wu Pozi refused without a second thought. Although Liu Pozi’s medicine wasn’t expensive—just one or two coins—country folk couldn’t afford to spend even a coin or two carelessly. Every coin had to be spent where it counted.
She then explained the reason for her insomnia: “Haven’t you noticed that Fifth Girl has been acting strangely these past few days?” It was as if she had become a different person.
Lying in bed, Wu Pozi had thought about it for a long time and felt something was off. Her granddaughter used to be timid and timid, but these past few days, although she remained quiet and hadn’t changed much, there was something different in her eyes. Moreover, she had suddenly started cooking such delicious meals—it was truly strange.
During this time, Wu Pozi also recalled an incident from a few days ago. To keep Chen Shi from being too grief-stricken, she had deliberately hidden the fact that her granddaughter had stopped breathing. In the time it took for Chen Shi to fetch the doctor, Wu Pozi had checked repeatedly. Although the doctor later arrived and her granddaughter was revived, and she was happy about it, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the whole affair was filled with oddities.
The more Wu Pozi thought about it, the more frightened she became. She even recalled the rural tales her stepmother used to tell her to scare her into sleeping early at night.
Among those stories were ones about ghosts and monsters that specifically possessed dead bodies to suck the life essence out of people.
Could it be…?
“What’s strange about her? I haven’t noticed anything. Are you overthinking things because you’ve been too tired lately?” Su Laotou mumbled without opening his eyes, not giving it a second thought.
“Forget it, there’s no use explaining to you.” Wu Pozi didn’t voice her suspicions aloud. If her granddaughter really was some spirit creature in disguise, the fewer people who knew, the safer they’d be. She would keep this knowledge to herself. Under the moonlight, watching her husband’s stooped figure, she said, “Let’s sleep. You’ve worked hard all day.”
.
Meanwhile, Su Tao lay on a straw-woven mat and suddenly sighed,
“If only we could eat such delicious meals every day, right, Fifth Sister?”
She was still savoring the memory of dinner, reluctant to let the feeling fade.
Hearing her fourth sister’s words, Su Li felt both amused and heartbroken. “We will,” she said. We definitely will, Su Li thought to herself.
“By the way, Fifth Sister, do you know how to make red-braised pork? Like what we had at the Village Chief’s house last time.” Su Tao rolled over to face Su Li, her large eyes shining brighter than the stars in the night sky.
“I probably do. Why? Do you want to eat red-braised pork, Fourth Sister?” Su Li asked.
“Of course! I dream about it. Don’t laugh at me, but I even dreamed about going to the Village Chief’s house for a feast the other night. Too bad Mother woke me up.” Su Tao’s voice was full of regret—clearly, it had been a wonderfully happy dream, so happy she still remembered it vividly.
“And last night I dreamed about going to Da Jiu’s house for a feast. But just as I was halfway through eating, Da Jiumu came and took the plate of meat away. She called me a jinx and said I must have been a pig in my past life for eating so much. Then I cried and cried until Da Jiu came. He scolded Da Jiumu and gave the meat back to me. Hahahaha!”
At this, Su Tao burst into laughter, clearly delighted that Da Jiumu had been scolded, even if it was just in a dream.
Su Li’s Da Jiumu’s family were butchers. They were relatively well-off in the neighboring village. Since marrying, Da Jiu had been working with his father-in-law slaughtering and selling pigs, living a comfortable life.
But because Su Li’s family was poor and registered as Junhu, Da Jiumu looked down on them. Whenever Chen Shi brought the children to visit, they were often met with disdain. Sometimes, if they ate a little more during meals, they’d be subjected to sarcastic remarks. Not only that, but even Da Jiu’s children—their cousins—disliked them and often bullied or mocked them.
As a result, Su Tao had many unpleasant memories of Da Jiu’s house. Sometimes, even when Chen Shi took them there, she didn’t want to go. After all, Da Jiumu never gave them any meat and would only ridicule them.
Su Li, possessing the original host’s memories, remembered all this clearly. She also recalled one time when Da Biao Jie bought a silk flower. It was exceptionally beautiful (at least in the eyes of the original host and her fourth sister). The original host had wanted to touch it, but the next second, Da Biao Jie scolded her, “Your hands are so dirty! What if you ruin it?”That was the first time the original host had felt inferior, at a loss, sad, and in pain.” It was also after that incident that her personality became even more timid.
Thinking of this, Su Li said, “Fourth Sister, our family will definitely get better one day. When that happens, we’ll eat as much meat as we want and buy whatever clothes we like.”
Su Tao was puzzled. “Why would we need so many clothes?”
“To change into—a different one every day.”
“Wouldn’t that make us just like the masters and madams in operas?” Su Tao said longingly. “Then I want two Peach Blossom Hairpins like Da Biao Jie’s—no, three, five! Anyway, more than her. I’ll go show them off in front of her and make her envy me too.”
Even though she knew it was just imagination, Su Tao became completely absorbed in her fantasy. When she thought of particularly delightful moments, she even let out soft giggles.
In the darkness, Su Li chimed in, “No, we shouldn’t get silver ones—we should buy gold ones, the kind decorated with pearls and precious jade.”
“Wow, how beautiful those would look in our hair!”
“They would be very beautiful indeed…”