A Single Flower Of The Village - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

During the day, she hadn’t had time to look closely at the structure of the drum tower, and she hadn’t gone up to see the places above the second floor either. Not knowing how long she would live here, Ruan Jingluo was still quite curious. However, the stairs going up were blocked by a small door with a lock on it, so it wasn’t good for her to ask Lu Shouqiu to open it. She and Lu Shouqiu weren’t all that familiar either. Counting today, they had only spent time together three times.

“Really not going?” Lu Shouqiu squatted at the bedroom door, her small eyes very mournful.

She wanted to take Ruan Jingluo to the Ghost Village to eat late-night snacks, but this person wouldn’t grant her face, insisting she was already full and didn’t want to go out now, telling her to go back and stay in her own room if she had nothing to do and not to wander around in front of her. She really put on grander airs than her, the farm owner. Who exactly was the master of the drum tower after all.

Hearing that the gatekeeper had come, the calico cat, who had run back home to watch the fun, also nestled at her feet, opening its round, glassy eyes to observe Ruan Jingluo making the bed, thinking to itself that this living person actually looked better than the previous ones, it just didn’t know if she was easily frightened.

The quilt covers and sheets brought over were very old and hadn’t been washed, so Ruan Jingluo didn’t really want to use them. She borrowed a new set from Lu Shouqiu, which was that very traditional indigo color, a tie-dye craft using plant dyeing, and the fabric looked like it was woven from an old loom.

She put the thin quilt into its cover, lifting it up to shake it a few times, and said, “I really can’t eat anymore, if you want to eat, go by yourself.”

This was very different from the farm in her cognition. Not only did it have a market and villages, but it also had a night market, which was quite ridiculous, completely catching up with an ancient tourist town.

But she was also truly full. One of the two bamboo tube rices gifted by the shop owner was currently in her stomach, almost bursting her belly. She wasn’t as capable of eating as Lu Shouqiu, whose stomach was like a bottomless pit.

Lu Shouqiu lowered her head to scratch the embroidery on her shoes, “With no partner, going by oneself is quite boring, no one even helps hold the phone when wanting to take pictures.”

Speaking this way, before she came, she hadn’t seen any other people either. Could it be that previously she went to eat with ghosts? She was thoroughly defeated, this person really knew how to make trouble, with sets of small emotions, being frantic and crazily happy one moment, and emo to the point of wanting to die the next second, with eight hundred kinds of states a day, she was almost driven crazy.

Lu Shouqiu emptily raised her eyes to observe Ruan Jingluo’s expression—going to be angered to death right, hoho! After discovering that Ruan Jingluo was easily angered yet couldn’t do anything to her, she became very unbridled, making trouble every now and then to cause the other party to emit resentment all over her body, which was exactly her pleasure and spiritual food.

Ruan Jingluo would not accompany her in going crazy, and after packing her things, she asked, “When do I start work?”

It seemed there was truly no room for negotiation on the matter of accompanying her to eat late-night snacks. Lu Shouqiu wasn’t depressed for long either, quickly becoming alive and kicking again, as if injected with chicken blood, forever possessing vitality.

“Tomorrow morning at six-thirty. There is a small wooden cabin by the side of the main gate, you can rest inside when there’s nothing to do. Usually, the main work is just to watch the main gate and not let outside vehicles drive into the farm. Another thing, if people on the farm lose things, you have to help look for them, en…” Lu Shouqiu thought about it, and changed to another wording, “The meaning is that as long as it’s a matter occurring on the farm, even if it’s trivial as chicken feathers and garlic skins, as long as someone comes to look for you, you have to go solve it.”

Silence was tonight’s Cambridge. Ruan Jingluo regretted making the bed too early.

Lu Shouqiu was innocent, “Is there a problem?”

Since she had already come, what else could be done? Ruan Jingluo said in a bad mood, “No, you are the gold master, whatever you say goes.”

This was pretty much the same as the security guard work she did before, earning that bit of grievance money every month and taking full chunks of grievance, also having to manage every kind of fart matter. Current her was reduced to not even having a decent place to live, where would she still have the qualifications to be picky.

Lu Shouqiu extremely appreciated her awareness of current affairs, and even found two sets of black-bottomed, color-embroidered clothes for her, “Wear them for work.”

Ruan Jingluo took them, “The work time is six-thirty in the morning, then what about the off-duty time? How many days off in a month?”

Even if there was no salary, it had to be asked clearly, one couldn’t work this shift muddledly. Lu Shouqiu said only she and herself lived in the drum tower, which meant that at night there was no one guarding over by the main gate. She better not make her guard from morning until midnight, even a yellow ox wouldn’t be used like this, it would cause exhaustion to sudden death.

“Normally it’s off-duty at seven o’clock, rest assured, I won’t make you work continuously. I’m already looking for the night shift person, hehe, but,” laughing like this never meant anything good, “before finding one, it’ll be hard on you for a bit, guard until ten o’clock at night, if it can be extended that would be even better.”

Ruan Jingluo gritted her teeth, saying exasperatedly, “You piece of pit-tricker.”

Lu Shouqiu would absolutely not carry this big pot, quibbling, “Aiya, you have nothing else to do at night anyway, wandering around here and there and it’ll be ten o’clock, very fast.”

“Heh.” Spoken lightly, Zhou the Skin-Peeler.

Before she was to be angered to death, she brought out her phone to send a message to the part-time milk tea shop manager, telling the other party she wouldn’t come tomorrow. Originally it was a part-time job, working a day and counting a day’s money. The manager didn’t make things difficult either, settling today’s money for her, which wasn’t much either, not even enough for the price of that meal eaten with Lu Shouqiu today.

Even in an unfamiliar environment, Ruan Jingluo didn’t suffer from insomnia, it was just that she slept exceptionally unsteadily tonight, half-dreaming and half-awake, constantly hearing the drum music of sacrifices, alongside the ding-ding dang-dang emitted by the collision of silver ornaments. And under the night sky where a round moon hung high, a young girl danced barefoot at the top layer of the drum tower, behind her was a dong-dong pounding cowhide big drum, the totems on her clothing ornaments also dancing gracefully along with the drumbeats, surrounding the young girl in the center. Scattered bits of starlight eventually converged into the radiant Milky Way, the young girl stopped her dance steps, making a kneeling and bowing gesture, and immediately, bell-like singing pounced toward the green-swarming earth, and the dragon-scale lanterns in the distance grew increasingly bright.

This bizarre and variegated dream made Ruan Jingluo, who woke up in the morning, mentally uneasy. She sat beside the low table in the first-floor lobby, biting her chopsticks and frequently looking toward Lu Shouqiu’s room on the second floor. The girl dancing in the dream had exactly Lu Shouqiu’s face.

The bedroom door was tightly shut, and it was very quiet inside the drum tower. From waking up until now, she hadn’t seen Lu Shouqiu, so she groped around by herself to go to the kitchen to make food.

The kitchen was built separately behind the drum tower, connected, but from the structure, it wasn’t one body with the drum tower. It had a common high stove counter, and also a small fire hearth unique to Yunqian villages, with an iron rack on top that could hold a pot to boil water or stir-fry dishes. When the weather was cold, a wooden board could be placed horizontally across the pot, and the dish bowls placed on top could keep warm, and one could also roast by the fire while eating.

The rice noodles were taken from the food cupboard. Before sleeping last night, Lu Shouqiu briefly introduced the places below the second floor of the drum tower to her, and also said the things in the kitchen could be used and eaten casually, so she simply boiled a bowl of vegetable rice noodles, poaching two eggs.

The big fat cat she had a glimpse of last night leaped down from the roof beam and edged to her feet, letting out a miao while raising its head, its antenna-like tail sweeping back and forth across her calf.

Who could refuse a furry, chubby kitty? Ruan Jingluo liked cats originally, it was just that she couldn’t even keep herself alive, let alone dare to raise such a small thing. Right now there was a ready-made one to stroke, she was of course happy, and under the guidance of the calico cat, she found the exclusive cat bowl prepared for it by Lu Shouqiu, using chopsticks to poke a few strands of rice noodles from her own bowl, breaking them into small sections to give it to eat.

Calico lowered its head eating aowu aowu, en~ this living person’s cooking skill is very good, stronger than the previous one who only knew how to put dark soy sauce and oyster sauce in every dish, Master Shouqiu can be considered to extend the employment relationship.

Ruan Jingluo didn’t know yet that a few strands of rice noodles given out of kindness would actually be exchanged for a life of hard labor in the second half of her life. She tried extending her hand to stroke Calico’s satin-like shiny fur, muttering there to herself, “You are so fat, your belly is soft and really nice to stroke. Do you have a name? How old are you? Are you a boy or a girl? You’re a calico cat, right? Heard you guys are particularly fierce at catching mice, is it true or not, catch one to show me another day?”

“Miao?” Calico’s cry carried doubt and incomprehension. Mice? Wasn’t that Manman? But Master Shouqiu wouldn’t let it bring Manman back to the drum tower, saying Manman’s appearance was too frightening.

Ruan Jingluo hadn’t realized what kind of frightening thing was waiting for her yet. Filling her stomach happened to be exactly six-thirty, and she carried her thermos flask filled with water to walk out of the drum tower. The sun in the east had already risen, dispersing the thick fog of the farm’s early morning, and there were herdsmen even earlier than her driving cattle and sheep passing in front of the door, probably seeing she was a fresh face, all quite surprised.

“You are the new gatekeeper recruited by Qiuqiu right?”

She tugged the stiff corners of her mouth, squeezing out a awkward smiling face, “Yes, right, I’m new here.”

The herdsman was very curious about her, walking close to look at her, and two majestic-looking sheepdogs also gathered over, sniffing and circling around her. Having been chased by a mad dog in the village when she was a child, it resulted in her being afraid later upon seeing dogs, not daring to move.

Seeing she was afraid, the herdsman drove the dogs away, and pulled out several broken-crust buns wrapped in kraft paper from the cloth bag slung along with him, stuffing them to her while smiling, “Going over to guard the gate so early, hard on you, child. Take this to eat, it was made by my spouse waking up in the morning, it’s still hot.”

Not even knowing each other, how could she take other people’s things casually? Ruan Jingluo pushed back in refusal, “No need, no need, I have already eaten breakfast.”

“Even if you’ve eaten you’ll get hungry, take it.” The herdsman stuffed it into her hand involuntarily, then drove the cattle and sheep and walked far away.

Ruan Jingluo froze in place, lowering her head to look at the three still-warm broken-crust buns in her hand, her eye sockets burning a bit, but quickly restoring to normal again. She took a fierce bite of the bun. Under the snow-white layers of crispy skin was wrapped pork and scallion filling, very fragrant. Previously, she only dared to buy two to taste the flavor on the day her salary was issued.

Only when she arrived at the entrance did she find the main gate wasn’t locked. What was the matter with Lu Shouqiu, not knowing to arrange people to lock the door at night. In case ill-intentioned people took advantage of the night to slip in and steal things, what should be done? Heard some people specially drove cars to the countryside to steal vegetables grown by villagers on the roadside. Such a large farm, inside were all agricultural crops, and also cattle and sheep, it was hard not to be coveted by people.

She went into the wooden cabin to take a look, unable to help lampooning, “What a mess, there isn’t even a single surveillance camera.”

The birds and sparrows flying everywhere, upon hearing this sentence of hers, collectively rolled their eyes: Taking us as decorations? Are the surveillance cameras invented by living people as useful as us?

At this hour there were already grandpas and grandmas dragging small carts entering. Those who came frequently all knew the farm originally had a gatekeeper, and this period of time happened to empty the vacancy. Seeing Ruan Jingluo sitting in the wooden cabin today they didn’t feel it was strange either, and some enthusiastic ones even struck up a conversation with her. Except for an awkward smile, Ruan Jingluo didn’t know what to say to these grandpas and grandmas with pensions either. She would never be able to understand the behavior of running so far just to buy vegetables. In her view, even if there was dragon meat here it wasn’t worth a trip.

Guarding this door wasn’t easy either. Too many people came, and cars were all squeezed at the entrance. She had to go out to direct these people to park one by one, trying best not to occupy the main road, and also had to point the way for people coming for the first time. This was awkward. She only came yesterday as well, how would she know how to walk, so she could only let these people go in first, and then ask passing herdsmen, and if it really didn’t work, let those who came frequently lead the way.

What made her break down most was still not these, but the original residents of the farm running over to tell her a pig was lost, wanting her to help look for it.

She suspected her ears had a defect. Didn’t Lu Shouqiu say last night she had auditory hallucinations at such a young age, it must be so, otherwise how could someone let her look for a pig!

“If a pig is lost you check the surveillance, what are you looking for me for? I don’t know where your family’s pig ran to either.”

The immortal citizen sister ran over from far away, her forehead full of sweat, saying while wiping sweat, “The pig is stuck in the ditch of the neighboring mountain peak, you just follow me to drag it up.”

Ruan Jingluo was already in a rampaging state, “I say big sister, can’t you just casually look for a few people to drag it.”

Who knew the big sister said, “Can’t do.”

The farm was divided into many areas, and every piece of land had tenants. Some tenants had harmonious neighborhood relations and thus had no conflicts. What was unfortunate was that the tenant neighboring this immortal citizen sister to the south was a stingy and advantage-loving stubborn old lady, with a toxic mouth moreover, immortal citizens of ten miles and eight villages couldn’t out-argue her. If a pig ran into her family’s mountain peak, then it became hers. The immortal citizen sister went to ask for it herself but couldn’t get it back. There had been this kind of situation before.

Ruan Jingluo was dragged forcefully by the big sister to look for the pig, running such a long way, and also climbing slopes, almost tiring her to death.

“The pig my family lost is exactly inside.” The big sister pointed toward the depths of the woods and said.

Ruan Jingluo bent over supporting her knees with both hands, gasping heavily. After going back, she must definitely settle accounts with this pit-tricker Lu Shouqiu.

A winding path led to a secluded place. The scenery in the depths of the woods was very beautiful, and on both sides of the small path were also many yellow peach trees. Yellowish fruits hung full on the branches, every single one as large as two fists put together, looking very crisp in appearance, and the clear sweetness emitted was also very alluring. That black-haired pig stuck in the ditch was snorting endlessly, and beside it were several yellow peaches that had been gnawed.

This guy, must have slipped in to steal yellow peaches and thus fallen into the ditch.

Ruan Jingluo measured with her hands. Splitting the pig into four would each be heavier than her, how to drag?

“Is there any rope or something like that?” She turned back to ask the big sister, “Or you look for a few more people to come, just the two of us is impossible to drag it up.”

The big sister expressed extreme difficulty, “People there are, but they are all unwilling to come in,” looking at the surroundings like a thief, she lowered her voice and said, “The tenant of this piece of woods is very hard to deal with, people outside are all unwilling to have dealings with her, the old woman curses people too unpleasantly.”

Ruan Jingluo was speechless.

She found a tree vine nearby to loop around the pig’s neck and front hooves, wasting the strength of nine bulls and two tigers before she and the big sister dragged the pig up, her palms rubbed red by the coarse skin of the tree vine.

Determining the pig wasn’t injured, the big sister thanked her a thousand times.

She waved her hand, tired to the point of not wanting to speak, her pants also stained with soil, dirty, making her originally bad mood even more terrible. Just about to go back, suddenly an old lady rushed out from that side of the woods, wielding a cane and about to hit people.

“Good! You gang of thieves, come to steal my peaches again!”

The big sister dragged Ruan Jingluo into a dodge behind, only then not letting the old lady’s cane break Ruan Jingluo’s head into flowers, “Who rarities your few broken peaches, we came to look for a pig, my family’s black-haired pig ran into your family’s woods.”

“Bullshit! This pig is clearly what my family raised this year!”

“Wow! You as expected are still this shameless, your family didn’t raise pigs at all this year!”

“Entering my family’s woods then it’s my family’s, don’t you think of taking it away!”

“Hey old woman, are you still reasonable or not!”

The old lady had sharp eyes, discovering several peaches gnawed by the pig, immediately exploding, pointing at these criminal evidences and saying, “Still saying it wasn’t stealing peaches, what is this? It’s exactly what you stole, compensate money!”

Originally it was gnawed by the pig, the big sister didn’t renege on this account though, “Compensate then compensate, how much money?”

“One thousand yuan for one peach.” The old lady opened her lion’s mouth.

The big sister stared, “Why don’t you go rob!”

The two quarreled inextricably, finally developing into tearing each other’s head flowers, truly opening Ruan Jingluo’s eyes. Wanting to pull them apart she didn’t know where to start her hands, they had already wrestled into a ball.

“Hey, if you guys don’t let go again I’ll call the police.” No one listened. She pressed her throbbing forehead corners, dragging Lu Shouqiu out to curse a full turn.

The old lady suddenly stopped upon hearing the three words Lu Shouqiu, her line of sight sizing Ruan Jingluo up, “You are the new gatekeeper recruited by Qiuqiu?”

Ruan Jingluo was unloving of life, “Yes yes yes…”

Countless people had asked her today already, numb.

The old lady’s attitude took a 180-degree grand turn, letting go of the immortal citizen sister, running up from the ground to tidy her clothes and pants, “Aiyo, why didn’t you say so earlier, isn’t it just a few peaches, I don’t want it anymore, pick as many as you want to eat, the pig is not wanted either, take it back, Qiuqiu particularly likes to eat sausages and cured meat made from black-haired pigs.”

The big sister: “The pig is my family’s okay…”

“You are still loath to gift a pig to Qiuqiu? Heh…” the old lady wrote ridicule on her face.

What kind of play was this staging again? Ruan Jingluo looked suspiciously at this old lady who fought with life and vigor, just saying that during the morning peak one shouldn’t give up seats to that gang of grandpas and grandmas, look, strength was greater than hers, where did she look like an elder of seventy or eighty.

In the end, Ruan Jingluo left holding a dozen large peaches, that old lady suddenly becoming enthusiastic not like a person.

Arriving below the slope where there was a lotus pond, two more people ran over. One of them said the golden frog he raised was eaten by the snake raised by the other, who refused to compensate money and even quibbled saying it wasn’t eaten by the snake, so they quarreled, letting her preside over justice.

Ruan Jingluo: “…How about you guys eat a peach first before quarreling?”

Very crisp and sweet.

This most of the day, she not only had to be busy watching the main gate, but also had to help villagers handle trivial broken matters of chicken feathers and garlic skins. If it weren’t for the three broken-crust buns given by the herdsman in the morning, she wouldn’t have lasted until afternoon.

In the afternoon fewer people entered and more people went out. Ruan Jingluo hung the sign prohibiting outside vehicles from entering at the most conspicuous position, and also closed the main gate, leaving a small door alone for people to enter and exit. After finishing all this, she then returned to the drum tower preparing to make herself something to eat.

Seeing a vegetable basket placed at the entrance of the drum tower, inside were all fresh vegetables and fish meat, and beside it was also a small pickled vegetable jar, not knowing whose it was. She looked left and right without discovering a person, so she shifted the things to the side, waiting for the owner to return and take them away.

“That was sent to Qiuqiu by the immor… villagers, estimatedly knocked on the door and no one came to open, so it was placed here, take it in.” It was still the enthusiastic herdsman who passed by in the morning.

What a coincidence, always able to run into each other.

Hearing the other party say so, Ruan Jingluo then carried it in her hand and went in, thinking to herself that this pit-tricker Lu Shouqiu was quite good at enjoying, vegetables had to be delivered to the house entrance by others, why not be lazy to death, last night she must have gone to act as a thief, actually sleeping until now and still not awake.

“Zhou the Skin-Peeler, sleeping big sleeps at home yourself,” she ran upstairs arriving at Lu Shouqiu’s bedroom door, raising her fist wanting to smash the door, “Forget it, let you sleep to death.”

She returned to her own room to change out of the dirtied pants before going to the kitchen to make food.

That basket of vegetables was extremely much—there was a grass carp, a strip of pork with alternating fat and lean, and also a processed chicken.

She pondered the menu while building the fire to steam rice. She liked to eat that flat rice from last night, and it happened that there was half a bag in the food cupboard.

Not long after, the scorched fragrance of chicken meat lunged throughout the kitchen, alongside the sour-spicy smell of pickled vegetables and chilis paired together, rushing straight into the nasal cavity.

Lu Shouqiu, whose sleeping posture was originally unbridled, abruptly opened her eyes, sitting up from the bedding with a carp kick. The crab doll originally hugged in her arms to sleep together rolled to the bottom of the bed. She picked it up and patted it, carrying a crab leg and following that strand of fragrance downstairs to arrive at the kitchen, her head poking out from behind Ruan Jingluo, staring at the pot stewing with gudu gudu.

“What are you making?”

Ruan Jingluo didn’t know someone was behind at all, scared by the sudden voice by her ear to the point that even the cooking spatula was dropped, letting out an ah and sitting flat on the ground.

Uh-oh~ seems to have scared the person, Lu Shouqiu retreated two steps, pretending nothing happened while twiddling her fingers, saying innocently, “So fragrant, you’re making lunch.”

Ruan Jingluo supported herself on the stove counter to climb up, gritting her teeth, “Lu, Shou, Qiu, you, are, dead, meat!”

“Ah? Can’t understand what you’re saying.” In terms of pretending innocence, she was number one under heaven.

She scratched her ear one moment, tidied her messy hair the next moment, and from time to time also shifted her bare feet stepping on the ground a couple of times, hugging an ugly crab doll, looking like a silly-white-sweet who was brainless to the point of being unable to care for herself in life, making Ruan Jingluo have no place to vent her anger—could a normal person bicker with a psycho?

She took a deep breath, ignoring Lu Shouqiu, turning back to continue using the cooking spatula to stir the sour vegetable chicken that was nearly ready.

The chicken meat was pan-fried. The extra grease of the skin layer forced out happened to be able to stir-fry the pickled vegetables, which was more fragrant than stir-frying with soybean oil. The pan-fried chicken meat being stewed again tasted crispy outside and tender inside.

Lu Shouqiu edged to the side of the pot swallowing her saliva.

“Hey,” her hair was almost falling into the pot, “if you want to eat go brush your teeth and wash your face, what kind of family, sleeping until this hour to just get up, eating food requires people to wait upon, why didn’t it starve you to death.”

Never expecting her dog mouth to spit out ivory, Lu Shouqiu pursed her lips, hopping and bouncing to go wash up.

Ruan Jingluo turned her head staring at her bare feet, and after a round of ideological struggle, she said in a bad mood, “Don’t bounce around everywhere with bare feet, dirty to death.”

Actually she was afraid the pitted bricks of the kitchen would scratch Lu Shouqiu’s feet, and walking barefoot wasn’t comfortable either, and easy to catch a cold.

Lu Shouqiu held the kitchen door poking her head in to stick her tongue out at her, “Lue lue lue~~ when you get wordy you look particularly like Granny Yellow Peach of the yellow peach woods.”

Yellow peach woods? Recalling the scene of dragging the pig in the morning, Ruan Jingluo immediately turned a black face, raising the cooking spatula making a posture to slap someone, “You still dare to say, today I still have accounts I haven’t settled with you!”

“What?”

“I do the work of ten people alone, and also have to help people look for pigs, you must calculate a salary for me!”

Lu Shouqiu’s eyeballs rolled upward, righteously confident, “None.”

Kuang-dang!

She used the cooking spatula to vent her anger, treating the pot as Lu Shouqiu, pounding it hard several times.

Before Lu Shouqiu flashed away she reminded her, “Pounding the pot to pieces requires compensating money, does your wallet still have extra money to compensate me?”

Very heart-killing and soul-executing.

Ruan Jingluo was angered to the point of vomiting blood.

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