Water infused with these chrysanthemums was much tastier than plain boiled water, and they made for very soft pillows. So, when the flowers blood, all the girls and young children in the village fanned out across the fields to pick the wild chrysanthemums. By the ti Juhua ca out to pick them, others had already been at it for several days.
People picking chrysanthemums wandered everywhere—along the banks of the Little Qing River, on the ridges between fields, by Jing Lake, and near the mountains. Juhua, naturally, went to the fields near Jing Lake. It was close to ho, after all.
One morning, Juhua woke up early. Carrying a basket and shouldering a pannier, she headed for Jing Lake. But in the distance, she saw Liu Xiaoi and izi coming down the village path, also on their way to pick wild chrysanthemums.
Liu Xiaoi ran over. You could tell her hair had been braided in a hurry—it was a bit crooked and twisted. She smiled at Juhua and said, "You’re finally out! If you hadn’t co soon, we would’ve picked all the flowers."
Juhua laughed. "There are so many. How could you possibly pick them all?"
When izi saw Juhua, she gave a quiet smile and asked, "Juhua, are you done with your work?" She was nothing like her old self, who would have laughed loudly and shouted, "Juhua, I ca to find you!"
Juhua stared in surprise at this very different izi. ’How has she changed so much?’ she wondered.
Because her family was building a house, she hadn’t seen izi in quite so ti. izi hadn’t even co over for the roof-beam raising celebration. Getting engaged really did change a person.
She smiled and said, "I’m not done at all. I just took care of the most urgent things first. These flowers won’t wait, so I thought I’d co pick so while it’s still morning. You two are up early, though."
Liu Xiaoi bent down to pick flowers as she spoke. "We have to be up early, don’t we? There’s still a pile of chores to do at ho. A lot of the others went to the riverside to pick, so izi and I ca here to Jing Lake to avoid the crowd."
As they talked, the three of them spread out and got busy, heads down and backs bent.
izi gradually moved closer to Juhua, coming to her side. Her hands never stopped moving as she asked, "Juhua, are you angry with ?"
Juhua glanced at her sideways. "I am angry. Why don’t you like my brother? You would have made a great sister-in-law."
izi froze awkwardly, stamring, unsure of what to say. Her hands stopped moving.
Seeing her reaction, Juhua chuckled. "I’m just teasing you. I knew for a long ti that you liked Brother Changming. But that afternoon I went with you all to pick water bamboo shoot greens, so I wasn’t ho. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let my mom agree to the engagent, and your mom wouldn’t have had to co over to break it off. My mom doesn’t bla you, so you can relax. She’s just sad to lose such a good daughter-in-law."
izi’s face turned red. "Your brother is so capable, and your family just built a new tiled-roof house," she said in a small voice. "He’ll definitely find a good wife in the future."
Juhua smiled. "I think so, too."
After a mont, she looked up at the no-longer-lively izi and asked seriously, "izi, have you really thought this through?"
Seeing izi hesitate slightly, she added, "Brother Changming is a good man. But you’ve never really suffered any hardships. To be honest, you don’t even work as much as I or i do. Are you sure you’re ready for a life with him?"
izi’s eyes reddened. She sniffled and said, "I have thought it through. My mom says this is a debt I owe him from a past life. Juhua, you’re clearly younger than , but I always feel like you talk like my older sister—" ’That’s because I *am* much older than you,’ Juhua thought. "—I never used to take charge of things, and I’m not as good at managing a household as you and i. You two always have so much to say about chores and growing vegetables. From now on, I’m going to step up. My mom says being poor doesn’t matter, as long as you’re diligent. You can always make a good life for yourself. I can handle the hardship."
Seeing that izi understood the kind of life that awaited her, Juhua thought, ’This probably isn’t just a rash decision.’
izi added, "I’ll still co find you to hang out in the future. I want to talk more with you and i about raising chickens and growing vegetables. You won’t look down on , will you?"
Juhua laughed. "Why would I look down on you? Just co over whenever you want. It would be better if you were your old self. I’m not used to you being like this."
izi smiled faintly.
Liu Xiaoi sidled over, asking what secrets they were sharing.
Perhaps because everything was out in the open and there were no more hard feelings, or perhaps because she felt relieved after unburdening herself, izi gradually beca more talkative. She told them about so of the arrangents her family had made with the Li Family.
"My mom insisted that we live separately. That way, if we each work hard for a couple of years, we can build a good life. If we’re all jumbled together, and being the new daughter-in-law, it would be hard for to speak up."
When Liu Xiaoi asked about the wedding, she said, "We’ll get married next year, so I can stay with my mom for another year. Besides, I can do more needlework at ho and save up so more for my dowry. Once I’m married and running my own household, who knows how busy I’ll be? It won’t be as easy as when I was just a daughter living at ho. Right now, I’m busy making shoes. I want to make a few extra pairs for Brother Changming. He doesn’t even have a single decent pair."
The thought made her heart ache.
Juhua and i listened as she spoke so thodically about managing a household and discussed her own engagent without a trace of shyness. They exchanged a look, their surprise growing.
Liu Xiaoi noticed the needle pricks on izi’s fingertips and couldn’t help but say, "You don’t have to rush so much. Look at your hands, they’re covered in pricks. Even after you’re married, you’ll still have free ti in the winter for needlework."
izi glanced at her hands nonchalantly. "I was always lazy before," she said. "I’d only sew insoles and nd clothes, but I dreaded sewing soles—I thought they were too thick. Now that I’m making shoes, I’m paying the price for it. These pricks are from a while ago. I’m much faster at making shoes now. I hardly ever poke myself anymore."
Juhua was truly stunned by her complete transformation. At first, she thought izi was just acting awkward around her because of the broken engagent with Qingmu. Who would have thought she had changed to her very core?
It was a kind of growth forced by life—heartbreaking, yet also gratifying. (To be continued)
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