The Lady Butcher and the Delicate Bride - Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The three days passed quickly. Chu Yu suspended the business of her meat stall for a day. Shi Man, knowing her family was harvesting grain, said he would bring his betrothed along to help.

Shi Man’s fiancée was named Wang Xiaoxi. Her family saw that his partnership in the meat stall was thriving, and although he lived alone, there was no mother-in-law to mistreat her, which they felt was a good thing. They were quite happy to marry their daughter to him. The two were betrothed, with plans to organize the wedding once the farming season passed and the weather turned cold.

Wang Xiaoxi also happened to be sixteen this year. She had two younger brothers at home. Looking at the thin calluses on her hands, Mu Dingxiang knew this girl hadn’t had an easy life either, and she felt a momentary lapse of focus as she thought of herself.

Auntie Ji, knowing her son-in-law was going to the Chu family to collect grain, brought the eldest Ji son and his wife across the river early in the morning to wait for work to begin.

Combined with the two long-term laborers hired by Master Liu, there were nearly ten people in total. Harvesting ten mu of land in one day was no problem at all.

Although Ji Yunniang hadn’t stepped into the fields much since marrying out years ago, she had been a skilled worker at home in her youth. Though she was a bit rusty, she worked with vigor once she adapted.

Auntie Ji didn’t know what the conditions were like at the Chu house. She hadn’t crossed to the opposite bank in a long time and only knew the Chu family’s house had collapsed. Fearing they didn’t even have a pot to cook rice, she stayed up late to fry over a dozen large flatbreads, bringing them along so anyone who got hungry could eat them directly.

When Mu Dingxiang saw these dozens of flatbreads, her eyes instantly turned red.

Chu Yu hadn’t expected Auntie Ji to bring flatbreads. She had risen early to simmer a full pot of bone marrow porridge. Now that she and Mu Dingxiang were one, she couldn’t stop the surge of gratitude in her heart seeing Auntie Ji so thoughtful toward them.

The bone marrow porridge was served with a few stir-fried dishes. As soon as the people arrived, she invited them to eat first. The rice was made from a small patch of the field harvested early and dried; the grains were crystal clear, the porridge was thick and sticky, and the fragrance of rice was intoxicating. It was simply too delicious.

Everyone ate heartily, pairing the flatbreads with the porridge in a lively scene.

Even Master Liu, who prided himself on having tasted all the delicacies of the Great Zhou, downed three large bowls of porridge in a row before patting his belly and heading into the fields with the rest.

However, just as they entered the field, he bumped into Mu Dingxiang and was momentarily stunned.

During his mother-in-law’s sixtieth birthday feast some time ago, when Mu Dingxiang and Chu Yu arrived, he was busy toasting and drinking with a group of men and hadn’t paid them much attention.

A few days ago when he came to check the grain, the girl’s hat had shaded half her face, so he couldn’t see her clearly. Now, standing face-to-face, Master Liu was dazed for a long while.

Master Liu now had a large estate and didn’t strictly need to help harvest rice, but since he hadn’t worked in a while and his mother-in-law’s family was all here, he wanted to join the fun of a rare gathering.

But the girl’s pretty, delicate face before him made his eyes flicker. Mu Dingxiang greeted him with a smile, calling him “Uncle.”

Even after they moved past each other, Master Liu kept staring at her retreating back in a daze.

Ji Yunniang, following behind, saw this scene, and her eyes dimmed.

Auntie Ji was completely unaware of all this. She looked inside and outside the cave entrance and said, “Poor San-ya. When she was with the Mus, she slept in the fields all day, and now that she’s married over, she still has to sleep in a cave.”

Mu Dingxiang hurriedly caught her words: “Auntie, this cave is much more comfortable than a big house. It’s warm in winter and cool in summer. Now that it’s so hot, we don’t even need a fan inside the cave; it’s very peaceful.”

Auntie Ji was about to say there were so many mosquitoes in a cave, but seeing the gauze curtain over the bed, she stopped scolding. It was obvious that Chu Yu was reliable. Looking only at the arrangement of this small cave—though the sparrow is small, it has all five internal organs everything that should be there was there. Mu Dingxiang even had seven or eight sets of clothes piled together, all made of good fabric.

Everything in the cave was tidy, and a few pots of small flowers were planted. When the wind blew, the cave was filled with fragrance, making one feel refreshed.

Chu Yu hadn’t mistreated her. That was enough.

Because the cave was the residence of two women, the men lingered at the entrance and glanced in but did not enter. After finishing their porridge at the entrance, they headed into the fields.

Having eaten and drunk their fill, everyone had endless energy. The women were responsible for snapping the corn off and putting it into baskets, while the men handled the transport onto the horse carriages. After the corn was finished, they cut the rice. The labor was divided and cooperative; it was a very lively scene.

Mu Dingxiang had a headscarf wrapped around her head and wore thick clothes, bending over to cut rice in the field. Master Liu, supporting his beginning-to-be-plump body, stayed beside her, cutting the same patch of rice and occasionally chatting with her about trivial topics.

Regarding this third daughter of the Mu family, he didn’t know much—mostly just that her parents didn’t love her and nearly sold her to a widower. He knew nothing else.

Because he was Ji Yunniang’s husband, Mu Dingxiang patiently answered his questions. The two of them were squeezed together, and Ji Yunniang, seeing this, took on a rather unpleasant expression.

Eventually, Master Liu felt too tired and couldn’t take it anymore, so he ran to the shade of a tree to rest for a while, but his eyes remained glued to Mu Dingxiang.

Ji Yunniang followed immediately, putting down her work and sitting beside him, blocking his line of sight.

Master Liu’s view was blocked, so he shifted outward, only to find his entire field of vision blocked again. He looked up in confusion to find his wife standing in front of him with a darkened face.

“Liu Heng, what is the meaning of this?”

“What do you mean, ‘what meaning’?” Master Liu was completely puzzled.

“Don’t play dumb with me. You’re an old man nearly forty; what do you mean by staring at that little girl all day?” Ji Yunniang said with some anger. “Mu San-ya is Chu Yu’s wife; surely you know that.”

Master Liu was startled by her words and hurriedly stood up, looking around to see if anyone had heard. He then lowered his voice and said to his wife, “What nonsense are you talking? Don’t you know what kind of person I am? If I wanted to find someone else, I would have found her years ago, why wait until now?”

“Then what do you mean, constantly staring at her?”

“Oh, wife! Haven’t you noticed that San-ya looks exactly like you did when you were young? It’s because I met you at that age that I never forgot you. The way you looked at sixteen is something I’ll never forget in this lifetime.”

Ji Yunniang’s face turned beet red upon hearing this, but she still said stubbornly, “Even if she looks like me, you shouldn’t keep staring at her. You’re old enough to be her father.”

“I know, I know. In the past, I thought the daughter we had should look like you—melon-seed face, willow-leaf brows, nimble and pretty. I just didn’t expect Niannian wouldn’t inherit those traits of yours; she probably takes after my ugly looks. But this little girl looks just like the one I saw in a dream while you were pregnant.”

Ji Yunniang turned around to look toward Mu Dingxiang. The girl was bent over, working hard at cutting the rice, her small face flushed red from the sun and her exposed neck dripping with sweat.

“Does she really look like me? Mother said so before too.”

“She looks most like you right now. Back then, I was a traveling peddler passing by your family’s fields. You, your eldest brother, and your father were in the field cutting rice. You also had a flushed little face and worked even more nimbly than your brother.” Just that one glance and he could never forget. Thus, he visited more frequently, becoming familiar over time until the good deed was finally done.

Ji Yunniang watched Mu Dingxiang for a while. Thinking of something, she turned and went into the cornfield to find Auntie Ji.

Auntie Ji was shucking corn. Seeing her daughter come in without even wearing her hat or headscarf, she hurriedly wrapped her own headscarf around her. “A grown person like you doesn’t even know to cover your neck. If it gets scratched by a leaf and it starts itching when you go home to sleep, don’t cry like you did when you were little.”

Ji Yunniang didn’t take the words to heart, asking in a low voice, “Mother, back when I gave birth to Niannian, wasn’t Sister-in-law Mu next door also about to give birth?”

Auntie Ji didn’t know what she wanted to ask, but she still had some impression of the matter. “There was a flood at that time. The village head was afraid the houses would be flooded, so he gathered everyone in the ancestral hall to settle down. You and that wicked woman gave birth together. I don’t remember if it was you first or her after; anyway, there was no more than a two-day difference.”

Ji Yunniang was instantly lost in her memories. After marrying Liu Heng, to give his wife better living conditions, Liu Heng had saved some money and started a food business. He was so busy during that time that his feet hardly touched the ground. His parents had passed away early, and she happened to be pregnant then. Her husband couldn’t look after her, so she even gave birth in a small shed near the Ji house. This matter was gossiped about in the village for quite a while until Liu Heng’s grocery and food business grew larger and the voices faded.

The only interaction with Mother Mu back then was in that ancestral hall.

Ji Yunniang’s expression darkened, and an unknown fire flashed in her eyes. Without a word, she walked out again.

Auntie Ji, startled by her question, hurriedly followed her out.

In the Mu family’s fields across the river, Mother Mu looked at the large expanse of rice soaking in the water, her face turning black. She shouted at the top of her lungs, “Where has Er-lang gone! Day after day he says he’s coming to the field, yet weeds are growing everywhere and not a shadow of him is seen.”

Usually, six mu of land could yield three to four thousand catties of grain. Looking at it now, two thousand catties would be the limit. With so little grain, it wasn’t even enough for their own family to eat, let alone trading for money to pay for the eldest son’s tuition.

Mrs. Zhou (Mother Mu) felt a surge of rage. If not for that Chu Yu, how could things be like this? Thinking of the case Chu Yu had set up before, Mother Mu connected the dots and felt Widower Zhang’s misfortune must also have been her doing. If Widower Zhang hadn’t gotten into trouble, San-ya would have married over and could still look after the farm work; why would she need to worry about these wretched matters? They could have even saved a few taels of silver throughout the year.

Thinking of this, Mother Mu’s teeth itched with rage.

Looking at the grain being transported back and forth on the road since early morning dozens of trips and still not finished—how could that little place produce so much grain? Mother Mu was so jealous her face was twisted.

San-ya, that ungrateful wolf. They raised her for so many years for nothing, and now she goes and does the work for someone else’s house with such success. It was truly outrageous.

If it were the carpenter’s house in the next village, Mother Mu would certainly go and make a scene. But now that the target was Chu Yu, she didn’t dare. After all, that female butcher was the one who sent her to the yamen for twenty strokes and a dozen days in jail. With a belly full of anger and no place to vent it, Mother Mu was about to burst.

Now every household was starting the autumn harvest. No matter how poorly her six mu had grown, they had to be harvested soon. After all, the whole family relied on this grain to survive.

During dinner that evening, Mother Mu brought up the autumn harvest to Old Man Mu. Old Man Mu frowned and said, “The employer has been pushing hard for unloading cargo these few days; it’ll take at least another ten days or so. You go harvest with the second son first. Harvest as much as you can, so the rice doesn’t rot in the water.”

Mother Mu was incredibly unhappy hearing this. It had been years since she worked the fields; asking her to bend her old back to cut rice, wasn’t that just killing her?

Beside them, Mu Jueming acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing, keeping his head down to eat.

“Er-lang, did you hear me? Tomorrow you are to go into the fields with your mother to harvest the rice.” Old Man Mu glared at his son.

“I’m not going. I have to go to the county tomorrow.” Mu Jueming refused without a second thought.

“What are you going to the county for? If you have money, you’d better save it for me to keep for your elder brother. Once he passes the exams, won’t you, as the younger brother, also enjoy the glory and wealth?”

Mu Jueming burst out laughing. “Mother, as for waiting for Big Brother to pass the exams… I’m afraid it’ll be a long wait.”

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