The Comments Section Said She Was My Wife - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: It’s Time to Change the Recipe

During the autumn harvest, the entire village was buried in work in the fields.

Farmers who had been busy all year were naturally happy to see the golden rice, but there was still a great deal of exhaustion and labor ahead to bring all the grain back home.

Liu Sheng was a farm boy, and this wasn’t his first autumn harvest. However, in previous years he had been young, so his parents and elders had spared him from the hardest labor.

But this year, he was fifteen, an age where a farm boy was already expected to work like a grown man. From the very first day of the harvest, his father had pressed a sickle into his hand and taken him to the fields.

At first, Liu Sheng hadn’t thought much of it, as he was used to doing chores, chopping firewood on the mountain and weeding the fields were things he’d been doing for years. Besides, the harvest only lasted a short time,  ten days or so of hard work and it would be over.

But once the harvest truly began, he spent his days buried in the fields without a moment’s rest, and Liu Sheng finally realized the bitterness of farming.

It wasn’t a lie when he said he envied Xia Shi for hunting, but his father was right: their family didn’t have the skills of a hunter, and he couldn’t make a living off of hunting. Yet, he was still exhausted. So, when Xia Shi didn’t appear as expected and the villagers discussed going up the mountain to find her, he shamelessly tagged along, climbing a mountain was hard, but at least he could stand up straight,  a trip like that was equivalent to half a day of rest.

Big Liu naturally saw through his son’s little scheme, but seeing how tired and thin Liu Sheng’s face had become in just a few days, he didn’t have the heart to stop him. After grumbling a few words, he let him join the others from the village to head up the mountain.

Following the worn mountain path, the group soon found the hunter’s small courtyard. Only, the familiar figure of Xia Shi was nowhere to be seen. Instead, sharp-eyed men spotted a strange woman through the fence.

By the time Chu Tang realized someone was coming up the mountain, it was a bit late. She had intended to heed Xia Shi’s words and hide inside, but she was caught off guard by a shout.

“Hey, you, that young lady, is Xia Shi home?” The man in the lead, a villager surnamed Tian, was big and burly, standing a head taller than the fence. He caught sight of Chu Tang getting up to return to the house and quickly called out to her.

Hearing him mention Xia Shi, Chu Tang guessed these men must be from the village at the foot of the mountain and likely knew her. She hesitated for a moment but stopped. She didn’t go to open the gate, though, preferring to speak to them from the doorway across the fence. “She’s out and isn’t home right now. Why are you gentlemen visiting?”

Her tone was cold and indifferent, and she wasn’t particularly warm, but the men felt a bit awkward. They looked at each other for a while before Liu Sheng, who was young and bold, stepped forward to ask: “Who are you? Can you make decisions for Xia Shi?”

Chu Tang lowered her eyes in thought. When she looked up again, her tone was calm and firm: “I am her wife. I should be able to make decisions for her.”

The men were startled, never imagining the little mountain hunter had quietly gotten married, let alone to such a beautiful wife. Those already married didn’t think much of it, but Liu Sheng let his gaze linger on Chu Tang with a hint of disappointment, she was prettier than any girl in the village, and he had assumed she was a relative of Xia Shi’s, not her wife.

Despite his disappointment, the villager next to him picked up the conversation: “Is that so? That’s fine, telling you is the same. It’s the autumn harvest in the village now. In previous years, Xia Shi would buy grain from us. We’re here to ask how much she intends to buy this year?”

When it came to grain, Chu Tang honestly had no idea, though the grain in the kitchen did look low. Since it was an established custom, she didn’t want to make them walk for nothing. After some thought, she said: “There is one more person in the household now, so let’s make it twice as much as last year.”

They hadn’t been living together for nothing these past few days; Xia Shi, intending to build a relationship with Chu Tang, had shared much about her life. Chu Tang knew her adoptive father had passed away three years ago, and Xia Shi had been living on the mountain alone ever since. They were both women, and while Xia Shi’s appetite was much larger than hers, it wouldn’t hurt to buy a bit more.

Remembering something, Chu Tang asked: “Is a deposit needed?”

Tian Er, the leader, waved his hand: “No, no. We’re all old neighbors. Besides, the harvest isn’t even finished yet, so why would we need a deposit?” He paused, then raised the item he was holding over the fence: “However, since we’re here, we were hoping to exchange some grain for meat. Since Xia Shi isn’t here, can you help us with that, young lady?”

The bag in Tian Er’s hand was small, holding about ten catties, enough to exchange for two or three catties of meat. The other villagers with him were similar, each carrying a small bag of grain, hoping to exchange it for a few catties of meat.

Chu Tang hadn’t originally known much about the price of fuel and rice, but she had learned a lot during her time in exile. She thought for a moment and headed to the kitchen.

While Xia Shi was a hunter and didn’t lack for meat, fresh meat wouldn’t last long in the heat, so smoked meat was what they had the most of. Chu Tang walked into the kitchen and looked up; there were at least twenty or thirty strips of smoked meat hanging from the rafters.

After observing for a moment, she took down a few strips that had been hanging the longest, walked outside, and said to the group: “There’s no fresh meat left, only smoked meat.”

Tian Er and the others didn’t object and agreed to the exchange.

Chu Tang still felt uneasy about interacting with these strangers, so she walked to the fence with the smoked meat but still didn’t open the gate for them. “Three catties of grain for one catty of meat…” She paused slightly as she saw their faces light up with joy, then added, “However, smoked meat is dense, I’ll trade three and a half catties for one. You’re getting the better deal.”

The villagers had no objections and thanked her, which put Chu Tang at ease. Neither side had a scale, but after weighing them by hand, they had a rough estimate, and the exchange was completed over the fence.

As they were leaving, Tian Er instructed Chu Tang: “The autumn harvest in the village will be done in another four or five days. If Xia Shi wants to buy grain, she can come over then. As for the price, we’ll follow the old rules and use the city prices.”

Villagers sold grain to Xia Shi for convenience; if it were cheaper than in the county seat, they would rather haul it to the city to sell.

Chu Tang didn’t want to take advantage of them and agreed immediately. After they left, she moved the bags of grain one by one back to the kitchen. Fortunately, the amount of grain the farmers were willing to trade wasn’t much, and the small bags made it easy to carry.

Once all the grain was piled up in the kitchen, Chu Tang felt a sense of satisfaction. But when she opened a bag to look inside, she had expected white, hulled rice, only to find unhusked paddy rice.

Exchanging three and a half catties for one, I took a loss after all.

Xia Shi returned two days later. She didn’t bring back a deer, like last time, she had sold it as soon as she hunted it.

After that trip, it was already noon by the time she got home. As she climbed the mountain path, she saw smoke rising from her own kitchen. A wave of joy suddenly welled up in her heart. She ran up the mountain and knocked on the courtyard gate with a bang-bang.

Chu Tang soon came out of the kitchen with a smudge of soot on her face. Hearing Xia Shi calling from outside, she immediately went to open the gate. Her eyes swept over Xia Shi first; seeing her disheveled but energetic and uninjured, she felt relieved. “You’re back? Did you hunt a deer?”

Xia Shi nodded, then pulled an oil-paper package from behind her back like a treasure. “I caught one and already went to the city to sell it. Look what I brought you.”

Chu Tang glanced at the package and immediately recognized the stamp on it: “He Fang Zhai, you bought pastries?”

Xia Shi looked down at the package in her hand, realizing in hindsight: “You can read?”

Chu Tang looked at her and nodded slowly.

Xia Shi’s look at Chu Tang changed immediately. Not to mention that she was the only household on Cloud Mist Mountain, but in Shitian Village at the foot of the mountain, there were twenty or thirty households, yet only the village head could read. For this reason, the villagers held the village head in high respect, and even Xia Shi, who dealt with the village often, felt that being literate was an amazing thing.

It was the first time Chu Tang had been stared at so intensely by Xia Shi, and she felt a bit uncomfortable. She turned to walk back. “Reading isn’t a big deal. I can teach you.”

Xia Shi hurriedly followed, feeling happy but also a bit insecure: “Don’t get annoyed if I’m slow.”

Chu Tang paused. Regardless of whether Xia Shi was slow, she felt she was quite slow herself. After the two walked into the kitchen one after the other, she pointed to the small grain bags in the corner and said to Xia Shi: “The villagers came up to trade for meat. I traded smoked meat with them, three and a half catties for one. I thought they were new rice, but they’re unhusked paddy rice.”

Hearing the frustration in her tone, Xia Shi couldn’t help but let her lips curl up. Not waiting for Chu Tang to look over, she quickly said: “It’s no big deal, it happens all the time. Just pound it yourself and it’ll be fine. I didn’t pay attention to those things when I traded with them in previous harvests, and we don’t even have a scale in this house.”

She said it nonchalantly, and it was the truth. She turned and lifted the lid of the pot on the stove.

A pot of white rice porridge, not enough to be full. It was time to change the recipe.