Chapter 12After the Dragon Boat Festival, quite a few leftover zongzi were used for breakfast. The small, pointed rice dumplings were unwrapped from their reed leaves, revealing plain water-boiled zongzi with nothing inside. Sprinkled with a bit of fine white sugar, they formed a sweet and soft, chewy texture in the mouth.Mrs. Jiang had bought two large bags of crispy rice crackers from the street. She was used to eating this kind of crunchy, fragrant snack, and before she knew it, she had eaten nearly half a bag. Coming back to her senses, she saw Yingniang had eaten two zongzi, her cheeks puffed out full like a rabbit's cheeks. She couldn't help but laugh: "My little Yingniang is truly adorable."Yingniang smiled with her lips pressed together, but inwardly she had not let down her guard. Those ruffians had dealt with Old Father Lian and directly caused the death of Young Master Cheng. But she had been abducted to Shandong—at least she had been taken by kidnappers. The ruffians had left so quickly; there was no way they would have had the time to find a human trafficker to sell people off.Second Uncle Feng was locked up for half a month before being released, and he had lost quite a bit of weight. Both he and Mrs. Lai loudly proclaimed their innocence. Old Woman Feng said a word: "This is still the in-law match you two found for yourselves—you nearly dragged us down with you. The most pitiful one is that young master of the Cheng family, so handsome and lovely, and just like that, he was killed."Hearing this, Second Uncle Feng and Mrs. Lai hung their heads and said nothing.It was Second Uncle Feng who changed the subject and asked his elder brother Old Man Feng: "When will Dalang return?"Old Man Feng laughed: "Before the double rush, he and his younger brother will both come back."The double rush was cutting the early rice and planting the late rice, lasting only about ten days or so, like going to war. It was a nightmare for who knew how many children. But since both sons were coming back, the parents were naturally delighted.Second Uncle Feng was also envious. The eldest branch still had a big house—two brothers could live together with room to spare, unlike him and his wife. Alas!At the end of the sixth month, Feng Li returned first. Yingniang had already started wearing a sweat-shirt that bared both her arms, with trousers underneath. Only after her repeated pleas had she been allowed to leave the ranks of split-pants children.Feng Li only learned of this matter after arriving home, and he was extremely shocked. "So close—our Yingniang could have suffered that undeserved calamity too. From now on, people with criminal records like that, it's best to stay far away from them."After saying this, he comforted Mrs. Jiang: "Wife, you must have been frightened, right?"Mrs. Jiang nodded heavily: "That day, fortunately it was our Yingniang who said she didn't want to go. Though it was an accident, I haven't slept well since that incident.""Now that I'm back, you can rest easy." Feng Li had failed the provincial examination last year, and in another two or three years he planned to try again, so there was nothing to be done about it. He had to focus on his studies. As long as he passed the provincial exam and became a juren, he would be part of the gentry class, big or small. Even if he didn't become an official, managing the family estate at home, no one would dare bully them.After Feng Li returned, Feng He soon came back as well. This was also the first time Yingniang met this younger uncle. He had a fair, delicate appearance, a few pimples on his face, and a thin, lanky frame.His temperament was completely different from Feng Li's. Feng Li was shrewd in worldly affairs and very capable, while Feng He was a typical scholar—he did almost nothing besides reading.Old Woman Feng also called out to Old Man Feng: "Hurry and carry over the hot water to help scrub our son's back." She then slung a basket over her arm and went to the street to cut some beef, bought two plates of pastries, braised pig ears and pork head meat, and made several hot dishes to welcome her younger son home.Yingniang thought that although Grandmother was usually good to her father and even to her, in her heart she probably favored the younger son more. But since she lived in the eldest son's house, she still tried her best to keep things fair.The meal left everyone flushed with wine and food. When Mrs. Jiang came back, she said: "I think Father and Mother are far too generous with the younger uncle. We owe so much in loan-shark debts, and we're barely scraping by ourselves—why don't they subsidize us a little?"But Feng Li waved his hand: "Don't say that. If money is mixed together and used jointly, then are these fields public property, or are they mine, Feng Li's? In the future, when Hedi studies, would I have to be responsible for all of it? That would never end. I already told them long ago—when Hedi marries in the future, he should set up his own household. Father and Mother can live with me, or they can help him take care of the children and do chores, but when it comes to their old-age support, everyone pays half. So don't worry about this matter, or you'll lose the big for the small.""What you say is right—I was being petty." Mrs. Jiang gave an embarrassed smile.Feng Li laughed: "I know you were standing up for me, that you mean well for me."Soon it reached the seventh month, and Cloud Water Town began to heat up, with sweat pouring like rain. Yingniang couldn't sleep in the morning, so she went to the kitchen to find Mrs. Jiang. Mrs. Jiang was cooking dishes early in the morning—a big bowl of braised fish chunks, a large basin of stir-fried greens, a large basin of spicy-sour stir-fried lotus root cubes, a plate of peas stir-fried with oil and salt—and for the workers, each got a bowl of rice piled high.Beside the rice, a big pot of mung bean soup was also simmering.Mrs. Jiang got up before dawn to cook. After these people finished eating, Feng Li went there to make a few inspection rounds and only returned at noon. Even so, his face was sunburned bright red.Two days later, even Feng Li himself brought his younger brother Feng He to personally plant the late rice in the fields. As for the early rice, after harvesting, it was carried to the threshing ground and piled into straw stacks. The rice ears were beaten with flails to separate the grains, then winnowed with bamboo trays to remove the shriveled husks. After that, a wooden shovel was used to toss the grains into the air, and finally, the rice was milled to remove the husks before being transported to the Feng household.Feng Li's own courtyard had five or six empty rooms, so he had everyone move in there. By September, they began picking cotton. Once the seed cotton was collected, the seeds had to be removed to produce ginned cotton. Ginned cotton sold for thirty wen per catty, and each mu of land could yield roughly twenty-five catties. With forty mu of cotton fields, he earned nearly thirty taels in total.Selling it this way wasn't cost-effective—it would be better to weave the cloth themselves. The standard cloth commonly used among the people required two catties of ginned cotton to weave one bolt, while the smaller cloth only needed one and a half catties.One mu of land could produce twelve bolts of cloth, and forty mu would yield five hundred bolts. Each bolt could sell for two to three qian of silver, meaning he could earn around one hundred taels in total.Thanks to improvements in looms, a nimble woman could now weave as many as twenty bolts of cloth in a month. Mrs. Jiang simply had her two older sisters and the women who wove during the slack farming season begin producing the cloth.Mrs. Jiang herself did the same, working from dawn to dusk without pause. By the end of October, the late rice was ready for harvest, along with the grain paid by the tenant farmers. After the late rice was handed in, rapeseed or beans would be planted next.Feng Li personally went to press for the payments. Any tenant who paid early would have their contract renewed for the following year. This way, he could collect a sum of silver before the new year and pay off part of his debt at the Wu family's usury shop.Squire Wu said to Feng Li, "Feng Dalang, you're certainly a straightforward man.""Squire Wu, you flatter me. I worked hard all year just to scrape together this much." By year's end, with two hundred bolts of cloth, after deducting labor costs, he only had twenty-eight taels. The early and late rice brought in around two hundred taels, and after accounting for labor and farming tool costs, he had just over two hundred taels in total.He paid the entire two hundred taels back to the usury shop. Squire Wu smiled and wrote out a receipt, then said, "There's still over four hundred taels left. No need to rush."Feng Li sighed inwardly—how could he not be in a hurry? He still wanted to earn more money to build an embroidery tower for his daughter.

Yingniang