’Zhang Huai is such a fool,’ he suddenly thought. ’All the boys in this village are fools!’
’Am I going to be a fool too? Of course not! I never even cared about Juhua’s looks. I think she’s wonderful, so I’ve never thought there was anything wrong with her face.’
He wondered again, ’Is it because Juhua’s face is covered, and I can’t see it, that I’m thinking this way?’
’No, that’s not it. It’s not like I’ve never seen her scarred face before. I never thought about it in the past, but she was still little then. Besides, I’d barely seen her a few tis, and we never interacted. Now that she’s good friends with my sister, I see her a lot more.’
As he mulled this over, everything suddenly beca clear. He felt a mix of joy and sorrow. He was happy that he’d co to his senses early; Juhua was still young, so she definitely wouldn’t be marrying soone else anyti soon. But he was sad because he couldn’t stand living this poor, frustrating life anymore, and he didn’t want a wife like his sister-in-law.
’If I marry Juhua, we can definitely build a different, happy life together. All that stuff about looks is just bullshit.’
He stood there in a daze, watching Juhua and i bustle about, not moving for a long ti.
Liu Xiaoi turned and asked strangely, "Third Brother, why aren’t you going to plant the seedlings?"
Liu Sanshun was jolted back to reality and hurriedly said, "I’m going now. Juhua, this must be hard on you, having to work so hard alongside i."
Juhua smiled. "Listen to you. Hasn’t i been keeping company for many days too? Brother Sanshun, you’re being too formal!"
Liu Xiaoi couldn’t help but laugh too.
Seeing Juhua beaming at him, Liu Sanshun’s heart pounded in confusion. His face flushed red, and he quickly ran off.
However, the stirrings of first love he felt today would lead to countless troubles later on. Happiness, it turned out, was not as easy to obtain as he thought.
Juhua was busy until after dinner, only then did she head ho with her father under the faint moonlight. The night was still cold. Juhua quickened her pace to catch up to Zheng Changhe and asked, "Dad, can we finish planting tomorrow?"
Zheng Changhe smiled. "We can. You saw how many people there were today. We’re working fast. Hua, you must be exhausted from cooking for so many days. After tomorrow, you take a good rest for a few days. Let your mom do the cooking."
Juhua couldn’t help but laugh. "Hasn’t Mom been tired for days too? If I’m just cooking and feeding the pigs at ho, I don’t feel tired. Even if I do, I can sneak in a break! It’s not like the busy farming season, where there’s not even a mont to catch your breath. As soon as lunch is over, you have to start on dinner."
Zheng Changhe chuckled. "That’s just so we can finish planting the seedlings as early as possible. Good thing we only grow one crop a season. If we were like those in the south who have to plant two rice crops, wouldn’t that be even more exhausting?"
Hearing this, Juhua’s heart stirred. She asked, "Dad, why haven’t you all thought about planting two crops a season? If you did, would you have to plant the seedlings even earlier?"
Zheng Changhe said, "So people do. But the late rice isn’t harvested until well into autumn, which doesn’t seem very suitable. So, most people don’t bother, planting one or two mu at most. So families switch to planting winter wheat instead. But so of the fields are paddy fields, so you can’t grow wheat in them."
Juhua, however, secretly took note. ’This region’s climate seems perfectly suited for double-crop rice,’ she thought. ’We’re too busy to manage it right now. I’ll look into it later.’
They arrived ho as they were talking.
Mrs. Yang asked, "Were there a lot of people at the Liu Family’s place today?"
Zheng Changhe laughed. "Don’t even ntion it. There were tons of people. Those brothers have exchanged a lot of labor with others."
Mrs. Yang asked Juhua worriedly, "Then aren’t you exhausted? Did i’s mother go to the fields too? Was it just you and i cooking at ho?"
Juhua quickly replied, "i’s mother didn’t go to the fields. I think I’m okay. I’ve gotten used to it after cooking for so many days. Dad said their family can finish planting tomorrow, so it’s just one more day."
Qingmu, who was reading a book by the oil lamp, heard this and put his book down. "That’s fast. How did their family get so many people to help that they could finish in two days?"
Zheng Changhe sat down on a stool to catch his breath and said, "You have to think, Ershun, Sanshun, and your Uncle Liu, how much labor have they exchanged with others? They all ca to help. And today, Fatty Liu even got into a fight with his daughter-in-law."
That’s how it was in the countryside. The smallest little thing would spread around and beco a topic of discussion. For an incident like the one at the Liu Family’s today, even those who saw it and wouldn’t gossip about it outside would surely talk about it once they got ho.
Zheng Changhe recounted, blow by blow, the story of how Qiufeng had caused a scene over a piece of cured at. He wasn’t a great storyteller, so Juhua chid in with details. She was also deeply affected by it and had sothing she wanted to say to her parents and brother.
Mrs. Yang sighed after hearing the story. "There’s nothing to be done when you marry such an inflexible wife. So thick-headed. I wonder how her mother raised her. To make i’s mother lose face in front of the whole village over a small piece of at... doesn’t that just an she raised her son for nothing!"
Seeing Qingmu lost in thought, Juhua said, "Dad, Mom! Thinking about Second Aunt, and now seeing this Qiufeng, I really think you can’t be careless when it cos to finding a wife. We have to be very careful with Brother’s marriage. Otherwise, Brother is the only son in our family. If we end up with a wife like Qiufeng, wouldn’t it be like not having a son at all? At least i has three older brothers. Besides, all this arguing is just pointless."
Zheng Changhe imdiately grew tense. "That’s not happening. We don’t want that kind of daughter-in-law. Our lives are going just fine. If we get soone like your Second Aunt or Qiufeng, I’d probably die from frustration. In the past, even when we were poor, your mother and I never had to put up with such nonsense. When your mother married into this family, she never once argued with your grandmother. If we brought a troubleso one ho, the two of us probably couldn’t handle it."
Seeing his reaction, Mrs. Yang shot him a look. "Who would want to marry soone like that? It’s just that you don’t know beforehand! Marrying a wife, that also depends on luck."
Qingmu said in a heavy voice, "If I really married soone like that, do you think I wouldn’t step in? If I couldn’t control her, I’d just send her back to her family. That’s all there is to it." (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit qidian to leave a recomndation or a monthly vote. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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