Liu Qingyi smiled and replied, “Yes, Aunt Zhao, Aunt Zhang. Most of it is what our family bought.”
“Right now our family has nothing at all—not even a single grain of rice. So we had to quickly buy some supplies, otherwise we couldn’t even survive.”
“Luckily, Uncle Wang and Tieniu helped us. Otherwise, I’m just a child—I couldn’t carry so many things by myself.”
“Put the things on the cart. That’s true, everything in your house has to be bought from scratch. Erhu—how is your sister’s head injury today?”
“Aunt Zhao, my sister is much better today than yesterday. Oh, right, we siblings have all changed our names. I’m Liu Qingyi, my sister is Liu Qingyan, and my younger sister is Liu Qingyou. These were the names my mother originally gave us.”
“Your mother was really educated. People who’ve read books really are different. These names are so nice!”
At that moment, more villagers gradually returned to the ox cart. When they heard that the siblings had changed their names, they all praised them:
“Yes, these names sound wonderful! Erhu—no, Qingyi—why didn’t you use these names before?”
“My grandmother—well, we can’t call her that anymore. She’s the Liu family’s old madam. She didn’t allow us to use them, insisting that ugly names are easier to raise. Now we’ve severed ties with her, and she can’t control us anymore.”
After a while, everyone had arrived, and the ox cart headed back toward the village.
Their village was called Nangang Village. To the north was another village called Beigang Village. Between the two was a ridge, so they were named accordingly.
The town they went to was Qingshui Town. From the town to Nangang Village was about 26 li (roughly 13 km), and it took nearly an hour by ox cart to arrive.
When they reached the village entrance, everyone got off and went home. Wang Dafu and Liu Qingyi were also about to get down.
Old Wang said, “Erhu—no, what was your name again?”
“My name is Liu Qingyi. You can just call me Qingyi, Grandpa Wang.”
“Right, Qingyi. You have too many things—I’ll drive the cart and help deliver them to your home. Otherwise, it’s still quite a long walk from here.”
“Thank you, Grandpa Wang. You’re so kind.”
Wang Dafu also quickly thanked him. “Thank you, Uncle Wang.”
“Oh, don’t be so polite. We’re from the same extended family, haha.”
The ox cart went all the way to the Liu family’s door. Wang Dafu helped carry the heavy items like rice and flour into the house, going back and forth several times before everything was moved in.
When they arrived home, Liu Qingyan was still lying on the bed. She was so weak that she had actually fallen asleep.
Qingyou had gone out to gather firewood several times. Seeing her sister asleep, she didn’t make any noise and quietly went back up the mountain again.
Only when Liu Qingyi returned did Liu Qingyan finally wake up.
She slowly sat up and saw that all the supplies had been bought. She felt quite happy.
After helping move everything, Wang Dafu went home.
By then it was already past noon. In the village, most households only ate two meals a day except during busy farming seasons. Only during peak agricultural work did they eat three meals because of the heavy labor.
At that moment, Qingyou returned carrying a bundle of firewood on her shoulder, and in her other hand she carefully held a bundle of fresh wild greens tied with straw rope.
Because they had no baskets or bamboo containers, they could only use straw ropes.
As soon as she saw Liu Qingyi, her face broke into a bright smile.
“Second brother, you’re back! Sister, you’re awake?”
When she entered the house and saw that all the supplies had been bought, she excitedly said:
“Sister, I dug up so many wild vegetables! Look, such a big bundle! We can make wild vegetable porridge for dinner now. Second brother brought back rice—we finally have food!”
Seeing how easily satisfied the little girl was—so happy just because they had food—Liu Qingyan felt a sharp pang in her heart.
These two children were so sensible it was heartbreaking.
“Qingyou, later I’ll render the pork fat into lard. Tonight we’ll fry the wild vegetables with lard residue.”
“Ah! Sister, we can eat lard residue too? That’s amazing!”
“In the old household, when they rendered oil, it was always Auntie from the main branch—no, Zhao Shi who did it. She guarded it like it was treasure, afraid we would steal even a bite. All the lard scraps went to her children; we didn’t even get to smell them. Breaking off ties was really the right decision.”
Qingyou said excitedly, waving her arms.
Liu Qingyi also nodded. “Sister, you’re different from before. In the past, you always told us to endure and give in to them, but now you’ve become like a different person and directly severed ties.”
“It’s because I was forced into it,” Liu Qingyan said calmly. “Even a rabbit bites when it’s cornered.”
“After I hit my head, I suddenly understood something: kindness without strength only leads to being bullied.”
“Before, I was too weak, so I couldn’t protect you. But don’t worry—your sister will become strong. From now on, I’ll make sure you can eat meat until you’re tired of it.”
As she said this, she felt a little guilty inside and secretly glanced at the two children, afraid they might notice something off.
She was not the original owner, so she had to slowly build this “new personality” to avoid suspicion.
Liu Qingyi looked guilty and said, “It’s not sister’s fault. It’s mine. I’m the man of the family, but I couldn’t protect you and little sister. But now that sister has changed, she’s even better. From now on, we’ll all become strong together—we only have each other.”
“Yes! Second brother is right! I like how sister is now too. I also want to become strong and protect you all!” Qingyou said eagerly.
With that, the matter was settled, and Liu Qingyan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Alright, let me teach you how to render lard. Oh right—the new pot needs to be seasoned first before using it.”
Liu Qingyi quickly said, “Sister, Uncle Wang already asked the butcher for a piece of pork skin for seasoning the pot. It’s here.”
He carefully handed it over.
Qingyou asked curiously, “What does seasoning a pot mean?”
Qingyi also looked confused.
Seeing their eager expressions, Liu Qingyan patiently explained:
“Seasoning the pot means using pork skin to repeatedly wipe the inside of the new pot.”
“In this way, the fat from the pork skin slowly seeps into the pores of the iron pot, forming a protective oil layer.”
“With this layer, the pot won’t rust easily in the future. Rust is not edible and is bad for your health. Understand?”
“Got it!” Qingyou said admiringly. “Sister, you know so much.”
Seeing her reaction, Liu Qingyan thought to herself that she should be careful not to appear too knowledgeable. She needed to reveal things gradually.
So she said, “These are things our mother taught me. She knew a lot.”
After all, their mother was gone, and there was no way to verify it—so she could safely attribute everything to her.
As she spoke, she began cutting the pork fat. There were only about two jin of pork suet, and a few slices quickly finished it.