The Prestigious Family's Young lady and the Farmer Chapter 4: 21 to 30, a manhua/chinese comics/漫画 fanfic

The sedan chair made a full circle around the Luoxia Village, after which it was carried to Yang family house.

In the midst of the noisy sounds of the people, the sounds of children playing, the ear-piercing sounds of firecrackers, Lin Qingwan muddleheadedly followed Yang Tiezhu. Under his guidance, she entered the main house to worship heaven and earth.

After bowing to heaven and earth, Lin Qingwan was then taken into the bridal chamber.

Soon, a group of people gathered in the bridal chamber.

"Lift the veil, lift the veil…" a person beside them shouted.

Yang Tiezhu picked up a stick and gently lifted the red veil.

Lin Qingwan found herself in rare nervousness, unaware of what kind of face she should be making upon facing the crowd and him, as she sat there with her eyes half-drooped, rose-tinted cheeks and both hands firmly clasped under her long sleeves.

Suddenly the scene became silent and once again exploded with noise.

"Such a beautiful bride…"

"Tiezhu, this boy is truly blessed …"

"This boy got it cheap…"

Yang Tiezhu chuckled and giggled foolishly while scratching his head, only knowing to giggle without being unable to speak.

"Alright, alright, the bride and the groom shall drink the wedding wine."

A young woman standing at the side came with a wooden tray with two cups of wine. The wine cups were linked together by a red string.

The noises in the surroundings were very loud. All the people who came to attend the feast gathered around the door outside whilst looking in with smiles.

Lin Qingwan and Yang Tiezhu also didn't care about shyness or whatnot anymore, and quickly picked the wine cups from the wooden tray and drank the wine from each others hands.

Seeing that Yang Tiezhu and Lin Qingwan had finished drinking the wine, a young married woman beside them hurriedly came over to relieve their embarrassment and drove the people out.

"Alright, alright, you stinky men quickly go out for a drink, standing here be careful as to not to scare the bride."

The brisk and termagant woman quickly and effortlessly drove the people out of the bridal chamber.

After the noisy crowd flooded out of the room, the married woman locked the door from inside; only then did the room become calm. Only a few married women from their relatives remained in the room.

"Bride, don't be shy. I am your second tangsao[1], surnamed Nie." The furen then turned her head and smiled.

堂嫂 (tángsǎo): wife of older male cousin via the male line

妇人 (fùrén): madam/mistress appellation used for married woman. Synonymous to Mrs in English.

She was dressed in a pink beizi with white ruqun inside. She had a pair of phoenix eye, and when she smiles, a pair of dimples would appear on both the sides of her peach-colored cheeks

褙子 (bèizǐ): It is a over-knee large coat with big sleeves, a traditional Chinese attire common to both women and men, and was popular in Song and Ming Dynasty. (I have include the picture below for reference)

Ancient Costumes, Traditional Chinese Hanfu Clothing | Chinese clothing, Clothing photography, Clothes

襦裙 (rú qún): Rú means blouse and qún means skirt. It is traditional Chinese attire and consists of a blouse and a wrap-around skirt.(I have include the picture below for reference)

Traditional Chinese Clothing: Ruqun

"Second tangsao." Lin Qingwan called out blushingly.

This second sao is Yang old father's younger brother's second daughter-in-law. She had a termagant and straightforward temperament and was also one with an extremely nimble lips. This time she came to serve as a matron of honor for the Yang family.

嫂 (sao): older brother's wife

"Come, come here, I'll introduce everyone to you one by one." Second sao Nie was quite cordial, "This is your dasao, Wang-shi, this is the third dimei, Yao-shi, and this is Tiezhu's younger sister, called Ermei." Lin Qingwan looked over and greeted them one by one.

大嫂 (dasao): older brother's wife, usually of the eldest brother

弟妹 (dimei): younger brother's wife

These few women were the ones with whom she would have to get along every day in the future – her dasao, Wang-shi was dressed in a quite dignifying manner with a long reddish-purple colored beizi, and a purple-colored horse-face-pleat skirt under it. With a big round face, small eyes, and thick lips, at this moment, she was staring at the interiors of the new bridal chamber.

马面裙 (Mamian skirt): Horse-face skirt/ horse-face pleated skirt is a kind of traditional Chinese dress. It has pleats on both sides of the dress, have a section of smooth surface in the middle, called "horse face". The dresses are worn by women in the Ming dynasty. (I have include the picture below for reference)

4 Secrets about Hanfu Horse Face Skirt

The second sao, Yao-shi was quite thin and weak woman with thin face, pale complexion, and seemed to have worry all over her face. She was dressed in a not-so new green colored beizi, and was smiling timidly.

This day, Yang Ermei was dressed in a pink-green cloured short beizi, along with a light green coloured horse-face-pleats skirt under it. With a round face and big eyes, she was inquisitively looking at her without speaking anything, appearing as if she was one with a very few words.

Lin Qingwan wasn't astonished by the attires of these people. She was aware that here only when going to weddings, women dress themselves in their best attires. Usually the women in the Luoxia village wear coarse plain cotton trousers so as to have convenience when working, and pay particular attention when wearing ruqun and aoqun[9], choosing dark colours as to avoid the clothes from getting dirty when working.

袄裙 (ǎo qún): There are two types of the coat "Ao": the long Ao and the short Ao. The long Ao is always long enough to cover the knees, which is not convenient for acting and moving. Ao(袄) is a coat with lining, suitable for winter wear, there are many kinds of skirts to match Ao, mainly horse skirt. (I have include the picture below for reference)

After the introduction, these few women walked out of the room as they would have to go out and lend a hand in greeting the people who had come to attend the feast.

At this moment, the sky was already dark, and the lights were brightly lit along with a boiling cauldron of voices.

Lin Qingwan calmed down her heart and looked around at her new house.

This room was roughly about 20 square feet, with grey and white walls. The white color on the walls seemed to be recently painted.

The room was partitioned into two sections; the outer one was the bedroom. The entrance door opened into the middle of the room, with k'ang facing the door. Next to the window was a table; on top of it were her dressing-case, bronze mirror, combs, and such things. A wardrobe was placed near the corner, adjacent to which her two chests were put. In the middle of the room was a red-colored round table, with four red-colored stools around it.

A door opened into the wall on the left side. Lin Qingwan walked into the room to take a look.

It was a small rectangle shaped cubicle. Two stoves were built in the direction of k'ang, one of them didn't have a stovetop burner to place the pot; apparently, it was used to heat the k'ang, while another stove had a big iron cooking pot placed on it with a firewood and water vat placed adjacent to it. At one corner, a chamber pot was placed, while on the other side, there was a big bath casket.

This bath casket was carefully selected by her and Yang-shi in the town as a part of her dowry, as she had heard from Yang-shi that it wasn't quite convenient to take a bath in the Yang family. There were many people in the house, but there was only one bathing area.

As she was looking around, Yang Tiezhu suddenly appeared from who knows where.

"Did you like it? I specially arranged it."

When he got to know that there was a big bath barrel in Lin Qingwan's dowry, he specially invited a mason to partition his room to have a small cubicle for them to take a bath. He was also struck with the idea of having a k'ang flue in the small room to heat the k'ang in the winters so that they could boil the water for the bath by themselves and also can heat the k'ang from the small room to avoid being surrounded by flames and smoke.

Startled, Lin Qingwan glanced at him, blushingly.

"Why have you returned this soon?" Doesn't he need to greet and give the guests a toast.

Yang Tiezhu raised the wooden tray in his hand. On it was a rice bowl and a dish, the dish was made up of meat and vegetables, and the rice was sorghum rice. In villages, this sort of food can only be eaten during happy occasions.

"I brought you some food to eat as I was afraid you be getting hungry."

Both of them walked out of the small room, after which Yang Tiezhu put the food on the table.

Truly considerate…

With her head hung down, Lin Qingwan still remained standing there, momentarily not knowing what to do.

Suddenly she was pulled into his embrace.

"Wan'er, finally I married you…" Yang Tiezhu prattled from top of her head, without even knowing what he was speaking about, "I'm very happy… very excited… full of joy…"

He held her shoulders for a while before letting her go and looked at her with gleaming eyes.

"What about you?"

Lin Qingwan's face suddenly exploded; even the bottom of her neck turned red.

After stammering for half a day, she whispered with her eyes half-drooping, "I…I am also very happy…"

Nima, she is a modern-day woman, but unexpectedly because of this simple man from ancient times, she blushed again and again, when in her previous life she didn't even knew how to blush, ah.

尼玛 (ni ma) These are homophonic characters of 你妈, which means "your mother."It is also used for meanings such as Come on! God! Jesus! Really?

When Yang Tiezhu again cheerfully pulled her into his embrace, the heat coming from his body made her dizzy.

After hugging him for a while, she pushed him slightly.

"Aiya… aren't you going out to give a toast?"

It was only then Yang Tiezhu remembered that he still had to go out to give a toast. If the groom disappeared for a long time, the guests would surely start laughing at them.

He quickly let go of her hands and said in a low voice, "I will go out to give toasts, wait for me, okay."

I'll wait… I'll wait for you to become a ghost …

Lin Qingwan bashfully spat out before calming herself down and walked towards the table to enjoy her meal.

Actually, she wasn't feeling hungry yet. This day she had already eaten two meals, and also didn't do much work. The whole day she was lying on the k'ang, as Yang-shi didn't let her do anything.

The room door was suddenly pushed open. Lin Qingwan raised her eyes and saw Yao-shi standing with a bowl in her hand.

When Yao-shi saw her having a meal, she timidly said, "I wanted to bring you something to eat." After speaking, she immediately turned around and ran away.

The third dimei seemed to be a little timid.

Lin Qingwan thought as such while eating.

After eating, Lin Qingwan got up and tidied up the table. She then went to her dressing table, sat down, and opened her hair. Under the reflection of red candles, the woman in the mirror, with her half draped long hair, rose-tinted red face, and spring in her eyebrows, she seemed to be as if she was bashful but not, as if she was frowning but not.

The night was getting gradually deeper...

The noise outside was also gradually lessening. Lin Qingwan, who had been all along listening to the noise outside, inevitably felt a little nervous.

Not long after, the room door was pushed open. Yang Tiezhu, with his whole face flushed red and eyes intoxicated, walked in with the help of Yang Tiegen.

Lin Qingwan saw his drunken appearance and hurriedly greeted him.

"Second sao, second brother had drunk too much."

Yang Tiegen handed over the person to Lin Qingwan, lowered his head, and left quickly after saying this.

Lin Qingwan made Yang Tiezhu sit on the edge of the k'ang, and turned around to lock the door.

"Why drink so much?" His whole body reeked from alcohol as the smell rushed to her nose.

At this moment, Yang Tiezhu only knew how to giggle foolishly.

"I'll help you wash."

Lin Qingwan took Yang Tiezhu's arm, intending to take him to to the small room. Earlier she had already boiled the water on the stove to warm it to make it easy for him to wash his face upon returning.

At this moment, Yang Tiezhu suddenly sat upright by himself. Although his face was red through and through, his eyes were shining clearly, not one bit like a drunkard from earlier who couldn't even walk.

"Wife, I'll do it myself." His usual honest face was full of smiles with a bit of slyness. "I'm not drunk. I pretended to be."

Lin Qingwan was stunned. The always naive and honest person suddenly doing as such really surprised her a little.

"If I didn't pretend as such, today they would have made me drink till death …" he rambled in a low voice, "not only that they would play pranks on us newlyweds … If I didn't do anything, I was afraid that they might cause trouble for you …"

While saying so, he walked into the small room and washed his face.

Lin Qingwan felt both amused as well as touched.

This person truly…

Within a short while, Yang Tiezhu washed his face and walked out. He was bare-chested, wearing only a pair of white pants.

With broad shoulders, sturdy chest, quite strong muscles, well-defined skin texture, at this time water droplets were dripping down from his dark skin….

Lin Qingwan blushed immediately.

"Wife, if you look at me like this again, I can't guarantee that I won't do anything later…" Yang Tiezhu said in a husky voice as his body became astonishingly hot.

Yang Tiezhu was so excited, and felt that he was going to be driven mad by his wife.

His stature was tall and strong, while she was petite, exquisite, and seemed to be boneless. With just a single hand, he easily lifted her and walked towards the bed.

The moonlight was mellow and radiant…

After some clouds and rain*, Lin Qingwan felt as if she was crushed, and her whole self-seemed to be paralyzed.

云雨 (yúnyǔ): Literally cloud and rain; This metaphor is used for sexual intercourse.

This barbarian husband became quite excited, nearly tossing her to exhaustion.

Actually, she felt good, but the pain was too difficult to endure.

Lin Qingwan felt her body sticky and very much wanted to wash, but really couldn't muster any strength, and was also awfully sleepy; thus she could only give up.

It took quite a long time for Yang Tiezhu to calm down properly. It was only at this moment did he realize that unexpectedly he had left quite a lot of green-colored marks on her fair, supple and soft skin. His eyes couldn't help but turn red from distress and berated himself for being quite a bastard.

Looking at the exhausted face of the person in his embrace, who seemingly have already fallen into sleep, Yang Tiezhu slowly and prudently got up. He went to the small room, filled the basin with hot water, soaked cloth, and wiped clean his wife's body.

The more he cleaned, the more his heart throbbed… such a snow-like skin was filled with bluish-green and red traces, there were also swelling and bloodstains…

He ruthlessly slapped himself severely and secretly determined that he must treat his wife properly in the future. Next time he must not be so rough.

After cleaning her up, he once again carefully climbed up on to the k'ang and gently held the person on the bed in his embrace.

Looking at the beam on the roof and then at his wife in his embrace, Yang Tiezhu was both excited and delighted and couldn't fall asleep that whole night.

…

Lin Qingwan opened her eyes as she woke up to see a pair of black eyes and a silly smile on that person's face at the top of her head.

For a short while, she was unable to react and was in a daze for a good while before she could remember that she had married yesterday.

Suddenly she was startled—

"What time is it?" Lin Qingwan raised her eyes and looked outside the window. Outside, the sky was already bright.

In one breath, she hurriedly climbed off the bed, as she reproached Yang Tiezhu, "Why didn't you wake me up? We still have to serve tea to mother and father."

Yang Tiezhu foolishly scratched his head. Even after not sleeping the whole night in excitement, one couldn't also see the slightest bit of exhaustion on his face.

"It still early in the morning. There's still more time for the tea ceremony. I thought you were tired last night, so I didn't wish to wake you up early in the morning." Lin Qingwan glowered at him before quickly climbing out of bed, put on clothes, and then went to the small room to wash herself up.

After washing herself, she took clothes out of the wardrobe and changed her clothes. After which, she combed her hair into a taoxinji* while looking into the mirror. And finished it off by inserting a silver hairpin, making her entire self-looking appropriate and beautiful.

桃心髻 (Taoxinji) It was a fashionable hairstyle during the Ming dynasty. The hair was combed into an oblate shape, and the was decorated with flowers at the top. (See the picture below.)

Credits: ziseviolet

This day she was dressed in a peach-colored short beizi*, and matched it up with the same colored but a lighter shade ruqun*, looking quite festive and gorgeous, very much in accordance with the identity of a new wife.

Beizi/褙子 – a parallel-collar "jacket" with side slits beginning at the armpit or at the waist. It can be secured at the front either with ties or a metal button.

Ruqun/襦裙 – the most basic type of hanfu consisting of a top and a wrap-around skirt. The top is called "ru/襦" and the skirt is called "qun/ 裙", hence "ruqun". Sleeves can be narrow or wide. (Check the image below)

Credits: ziseviolet

At the same time, Yang Tiezhu also finished dressing. He was dressed in a blue colour robes, which Lin Qingwan made for him before the marriage.

Both of them then left the room to go to the main room.

Yang laoye* and He-shi, along with a group of people standing around in the main room, were already waiting for them.

老爷子(lǎoyézi): polite appellation for an elderly male. I have been using old father for this term till now.

Seeing them coming in, He-shi's face sank. She harumphed, "In which household does popo* and gonggong* have to wait for new xifu* to serve the tea. Lao'er*, your wife's arrogance is truly quite big."

婆婆 (pópo): Husband's mother/mother-in-law

公公 (gōnggong): Husband's father/ father-in-law

媳妇 (xífù): daughter-in-law/wife (in this case daughter-in-law)

老二 (lǎo'èr): an appellation used by elders to call the second eldest of the family.

He-shi already did not have a good impression on her second erxifu, and every time she thought of her, she kept recalling those 28 taels of silver and those piles of expensive stuff…making her feel angered and stuffy…

儿媳妇 (érxífu): daughter-in-law

Looking at her again, a sweet weak type, who seemed to be like a willow branch trembling in the wind, her complexion became even worse.

Yang Tiezhu was about to step forward to explain, but Lin Qingwan secretly tugged him.

She took a step forward, docilely lowered her head, "Erxi* is indeed lazy and has learned from popo's teachings." From her drooping eyelids, Lin Qingwan secretly glanced at the legendary He-shi.

儿媳 (érxí): daughter-in-law

(Xifu, erxifu, and erxi are all used as an appellation for daughter-in-law. If you are feeling confused by all thses terms, do let me know, I will use only one of these terms.)

Regarding Yang Tiezhu's mother, she truly has heard so much for a long time but had yet to see her!

She was quite an average rural old woman, with an obese stature, face narrow at the top and bottom and wide in the middle, triangular-shaped eyes, and lips as thin as a blade. Right now, she was sitting upright on the k'ang and was sharply staring at her.

When she was at Yang-shi's place, Yang-shi had told quite a lot about He-shi along with the affairs of the Yang jia. As such, she had some understanding regarding this old woman's conduct and behaviour along with her way of her handling things.

Today, the newly married xifu would have to serve tea to the gongpo*. She was aware that He-shi would use this as an opportunity to suppress her and make trouble for her, startling her. However, she wasn't late for the tea ceremony, yet she was admonished without a good reason. Lin Qingwan felt that she was quite innocent; thus she would also not act as He-shi wants her to.

After all, today is the first day of her marriage, and certainly cannot make any slip-ups. She could only do her best to not let her find any excuses to make a fuss.

He-shi originally had thought to cause trouble for her sweet-looking new erxifu, scare her to tears, then look for lao'er to make a fuss.

But who would have imagined that she would end up punching cotton? She didn't feel even one bit aggrieved and even admitted error on her part to her surprise.

Besides her, Yang laoye broke in to mediate the situation," Eldest xifu still not bringing the tea."

Wang-shi quickly came over with two teacups. Lin Qingwan stepped forward to the praying mat in front of the k'ang, kneeled on it, held the teacup with both hands, and raised the teacup above her head with her head respectfully hanging half down.

"Father, please have the tea."

"Good, good, good." Yang laoye drank a sip, pursued his lips, and then passed a small red envelope to her.

Lin Qingwan, after receiving the red envelope, handed it over to the Yang Tiezhu standing beside her and then took another teacup before offering it to He-shi with the same respectfulness.

He-shi was very much unwilling to receive the tea but had no other choice but to accept it with so many people staring at her hands.

She took a sip before quickly throwing it aside on the k'ang table.

And then, after a while, a small red envelope was thrown into Lin Qingwan's arms.

Lin Qingwan didn't have any being wronged appearance because of He-shi's attitude. Rather she picked up the red envelope with a smile on her face as if she hadn't seen He-shi's attitude.

"Thank you, father, thank you, mother." Her facial expressions and demeanor seemed to be just like any other newlywed little xifus, all the while having a bashful smile with tenderness and loveliness in her eyebrows.

Seeing her sense of propriety made her brother-in-law's, sister-in-law's, and so on standing at the side sigh in secret. To be able to make He-shi speechless with few words was indeed quite rare.

After that, she met the rest of the family members, as Yang Tiezhu introduced them to her one by one.

Along with her dasao Wang-shi, third dimei Yao-shi, and He-shi's unmarried daughter Yang Ermei, whom she had already met, there were also the other male members in the family – Eldest ge – Yang Tieshuan, third di – Yang Tiegen, and also fourth di – Yang Xuezhang.

哥 (gē): Eldest brother

弟 (dì): Younger brother

One by one, Lin Qingwan greeted them. As they all were of the same generation, she gave the customary greetings between equals. Yao-shi and Yang Tiegen were younger than her, so they would have to also serve her tea in return after receiving tea from her.

Yang Tieshuan couldn't conceal his amazement upon looking at Lin Qingwan, thinking that the lao'er's daughter-in-law turned out to be this beautiful. No wonder in these past few days, he was so generous with money and even had conflicts with He-shi. Although Yang Xuezhang was also a little surprised, he felt disdain when he recalled that she was a bought woman.

Next was precisely the group of little carrot heads*. Eldest branch had four children: three sons and one daughter; Yang Dalang was ten years old, Yang Erlang was nine years old, Yang Sanlang was four years old, and Yang Daniu was seven years old. The third branch had two daughters, Yang Erniu and Yang Sanniu. The older one was five years old, while the younger one, Yang Sanniu was four years old, the same age as Yang Sanlang.

* 小萝卜头 (xiǎoluóbotou): Literally little carrot heads. It refers to little kids.

This group of little carrot heads swarmed around her, shouting 'second shen*, second bomu*'. Lin Qingwan smiled, stroking their heads, and gave each one of them a small red envelope.

* 婶 (shěn): wife of father's younger brother

* 伯母 (bómǔ): wife of father's elder brother

After all this, it was already past the time for breakfast. Thus He-shi simply decided to have breakfast and lunch together and instructed Yao-shi to go to the kitchen and prepare the meal.

Originally Lin Qingwan also wanted to help her, but Yao-shi rejected her, saying that newlywed xifu must not cook for the first three days. As such, she could only give up.

Not long after, the food was served.

All the food was leftovers from yesterday's banquet. As the weather was sizzling hot, He-shi didn't lock up the food and add a dish every few days like in the past. Rather she adopted a posture of letting everyone unrestrictedly eat till their stomachs fill.

There were two different tables for eating, one was for adults, while the other was for kids. Lin Qingwan sat at the table for adults along with Yang Tiezhu.

Looking at such an oily food for the first meal early in the morning, Lin Qingwan suddenly lost her appetite. However, contrarily she saw other people eating with relish, including He-shi, who was eating savoringly, and Wang-shi, who was taking big mouthfuls.

Yang Tiezhu saw his wife not eating. Thinking that she was embarrassed, he hurriedly picked up a few chopsticks full of a dish for her.

At this He-shi snorted, but did not speak.

Lin Qingwan also took the chopsticks and ate with everyone, but didn't eat much, eating exceptionally slowly. Staring at the food in her bowl filled by Yang Tiezhu, she was genuinely unable to eat anymore.

Yang Tiezhu saw his wife finish eating and was about to serve even more, but Lin Qingwan tugged him underneath.

When everyone on the table was almost done eating, Lin Qingwan put down her chopsticks.

The newly married couple, both bride and groom alike, didn't need to work the first three days.

As such, after finishing eating breakfast, Lin Qingwan and Yang Tiezhu returned to their room.

As soon as they went in, Yang Tiezhu asked her, "Wife, have you eaten enough? I saw you ate very little."

Both of them went and sat on the k'ang. Lin Qingwan laid down to one side, while Yang Tiezhu sat beside her.

Lin Qingwan shook her head, "I'm not hungry. I don't feel like eating."

After being in the main room this while, she felt her body ache terribly, and on top of that, to eat such an oily food early in the morning made her even more difficult to swallow the food past the throat.

"My mother… her attitude just now, don't take it to heart." After thinking about it, Yang Tiezhu once again opened his mouths, "Wife, you have suffered."

Regarding He-shi, he simply didn't know what good to say. On the first day of their marriage, she showed such a face to his wife.

Lin Qingwan smiled and comforted him, saying: "I didn't regard it as grieviance After all, she is our elder. As long as she is not excessive, it's fine."

After saying so, she shot a quick glance at him, "Don't worry! When I was at eldest gumu's* place, she didn't give me any fewer lessons at home, afraid that I would have to eat loss here. "

* 姑母(gū mŭ): sister of father

"No wonder you didn't appear to be wronged one bit just now." Yang Tiezhu scratched his head suddenly upon suddenly realizing the cause and burst into loud laughter. "Nevertheless, my wife is smart."

Lin Qingwan ignored his naive attitude. She took a quilt from the kang cabinet, and a pillow threw them on the k'ang, and casually laid down.

Looking at the tiredness on her face, Yang Tiezhu thought of rough hands and feet and couldn't help but feel somewhat distressed.

He stood up, held the k'ang table, set it down, and carried Lin Qingwan along with the bedding to the side. He then took a quilt, and let Lin Qingwan lay on it.

Lin Qingwan also didn't speak, as she watched him doing all this stuff. Looking at him, she couldn't help but purse her lips into a smile.

But the quilt was really good, soft and comfortable. She closed her eyes and changed to a comfortable position.

Not long after, she felt another person by her side. She peeked through the narrow slits of her closed eyes to see Yang Tiezhu getting in slowly with a silly smile, lay down next to her, and once again stealthily take her into his arms.

The curve on Lin Qingwan's lips became even wider as she buried her face into the man's embrace, intending to sleep for a while.

The newlyweds were just like honey in the oil kind* phase. Besides, as the newlyweds didn't have to do any work these three days, both of them, apart from going out for a meal, Yang Tiezhu didn't go anywhere, dragging Lin Qingwan too in the room.

*蜜里调油 (mì lǐ tiáo yóu): Metaphor used to describe people who are very intimate and super duper lovey-dovey.

Lin Qingwan also discovered that the man who used to blush previously whenever he saw her could also be this clingy.

However, he was actually truly very good towards her, wishing to just preciously hold her in the palm of his hands, and was even unwilling to let her pour water in foot wash.

These past days, every time he clung to her, she pretended to have body aches. As such, even though he wanted to it, he no longer clung to her. In the end, seeing him restraining made her feel uncomfortable, to the extent that every time she pretended to be unwell, she failed terribly at all times.

This day, Yang Tiezhu finally stopped clinging on to her, so Lin Qingwan decided to arrange the room, wardrobe, and trunk.

While sorting out all the clothing and other personal items, she came to know, to her surprise, that this man's clothes were pitifully low. If each and every piece of clothing were not worn out, they were torn. Only the clothes she made for him were neat.

Lin Qingwan took out the needlework basket from the k'ang cabinet, indenting to stitch Yang Tiezhu's clothes.

She was just about to take out the needle and threads from the basket when Yang Tiezhu, who was leaning on the k'ang, sat upright and took away the needlework basket from her hands.

"My good wife, you must by all means not stitch my clothes."

Lin Qingwan looked at him, astonished. "Why?"

"The new bride must not do any work the first three days, especially you shouldn't touch the needlework."

As they say, if the newlywed bride does the needlework, she would have to work hard for a lifetime. He certainly didn't want his wife to work her whole life!

Lin Qingwan tried to recall it in her mind. Apparently, there seems to be such a saying?! In the end, she sighed and stuffed the needlework basket into the k'ang cabinet.

Bored, she then leaned on k'ang for a while, before abruptly she recalled about one matter.

She got down from the k'ang, ran to the place where her trunk was placed, and opened it before digging out a tiny box from it.

Returning to the k'ang, she placed the tiny box on the k'ang table and opened it. She then said to Yang Tiezhu, "Last time you gave me altogether 58 taels of silver. Of which, we had used 30 taels for the wedding arrangements and 12 taels for preparing my dowry. As such we still have…"

Saying so, she began to count the silver, "We still have sixteen taels** and two hundred and thirty-five wen* coins remaining."

*文 (wén): The denomination used for copper cash in ancient china was wen. It was used in the retail markets and smaller transactions.

**兩 (liǎng): Also called as tael. The denomination for silver ingot was one liang. They were used in wholesale markets and for larger transactions.

Yang Tiezhu took out two pieces of broken silver from his bosom and handed it to her, "I still have three taels left…"

After saying so, he got up, raised half of the woven mat* on the k'ang, lifted the thin slab, then removed a block of k'ang brick, and scooped out a worn-out cloth bag before handing it to her.

*Woven mats are used as beddings on K'ang (Checj the image beow for reference)

"There are also two taels in here."

Lin Qingwan was stunned, looking at his actions. He really had a hidden place to hide his secret stash.

Anyway, she likes it.

Lin Qingwan moved closer and peeked inside to look at the hole. It was about the size of one k'ang brick. She took the small box and held it to the spot to check if it fitted in it, just enough place to put the box in.

She then secretly decided that in the future, she would hide her money in here.

It was not that she was narrow-minded for making a big fuss over a minor issue and whatnot. It's just that Lin Qingwan had earlier found that in these times in the countryside, almost all households don't lock their doors and courtyard gates when going out.

If there happened to be a little thief, then even without any effort, everything would be wiped out. Of course, one of the reasons as to why they left their doors open was that most of the households here are too poor, and there is nothing to steal.

However, Lin Qingwan nevertheless didn't think so. It's a must to prevent the troubles before the event happens – this principle any modern person would be aware of. She was also not any different. After all, when all is said and done, from a young age, she had also grown up behind security doors with numerous locks and steel mesh windows in metropolitan cities. As such, she had already developed a regular habit of avoiding any insecure factors.

Satisfied with the hole in the k'ang bed for future uses, she once again turned around and calculated the silver.

"Adding five taels silver you gave, altogether, we have twenty-one taels and two hundred and thirty-five wen coins." She then took out a small embroidered pouch from the small box," And also adding the bride price you gave…we have 30 taels of silver currently."

After finishing the counting, Lin Qingwan summed up everything.

Looking at his wife with an appearance of being a small money-grubber, Yang Tiezhu wanted to cherish her and generously waved his hand.

"Wife, this money you can keep with you, in future when I earn the silver, I will give them all to you."

Upon hearing these words, Lin Qingwan smilingly looked at him, feeling sweet in her heart.

Who said this man was honest and sincere? She had watched him every day coax her sweetly.

She put all the silver in the small box. After thinking a bit, she once again took out a piece of broken silver and a few copper coins before closing the box. She then asked Yang Tiezhu to put the small box in the hole in the k'ang. He then put the k'ang brick back, covered it with the plank, and spread the woven mat.

After which, she took a few copper coins to put them inside Yang Tiezhu's torn bag, but her brows wrinkled into a frown when putting in the bag. This bag was truly very ugly, and seemed to patched several times. Thereupon she inwardly bore in mind that she should find time to make a new embroidered pouch for him later.

She then put the remaining pieces of broken silver into the embroidered pouch, went to the chest, opened the lid, and stuffed the pouch inside before covering it with the clothes.

After which passed the worn-out bag to Yang Tiezhu, "A man should always have few pieces of silver with him at all times."

Yang Tiezhu held the 'pocket money' given to him by his wife, happily grinning from ear to ear.

Suddenly he recalled some matter and said to Lin Qingwan: "Tomorrow is the day when you would have to return to your natal family. Tomorrow, we will go to dagu's* place." He had already considered about earlier. For Wanwan, who was all alone without anyone to depend upon, Yang-shi's place can be regarded as her natal family's home.

*大姑 (dàgū): father's oldest sister

Lin Qingwan brows puckered up.

"Mother… won't she say anything?" Her tone was full of hesitation and awkwardness. Regarding the dispute between Yang-shi and He-shi, she was very clear about it.

Yang-shi had already told her everything without concealing anything. Furthermore, these past two days, she could also see that He-shi wasn't happy with her. It was merely because they were newlywed and were in the first three days of their marriage, He-shi restrained herself from finding faults with her.

Yang Tiezhu thought for a bit before opening his mouth, "It wouldn't look good if you don't go to your natal family; mother doesn't care about her."

The next day, both of them got up early in the morning. Lin Qingwan even especially dressed herself up for the occasion, as she was dressed in the crimson red colored dress.

After having breakfast, both of them set off with few things under He-shi's black face.

When a newlywed woman returns to her natal family, it's customary for her son-in-law to bring some presents for his mother-in-law.

They were nothing much, just a few eatable kinds of stuff, a pork strip, two packets of fruits, along with some rice-flour noodles and so on.

Yang Tiezhu had already bought these all stuff previously and placed them in his room so that when leaving, he can take them directly.

Usually, the gifts for Yang jia's xifus when returning to their natal family on the third day are prepared using the family's public funds. As such, on the day of going, they would directly take from He-shi.

However, Yang Tiezhu didn't count on He-shi to prepare any presents for this day, especially when they were going to Yang-shi's place.

Both of them walked out of the courtyard and walked towards the west of the village. The place Yang-shi was living was not that far from Yang jia, just a few minutes of walk away.

Seeing both of them coming, Yang-shi was overjoyed. Especially when she saw them coming in with the things that were brought only when a newly married woman returns to her natal family after three days of marriage, her eyes welled up in joy. The three of them then together entered the main house and sat down on the kang.

Seeing both of their happy appearances, and also Lin Qingwan's very good complexion, not a bit like a person who was tormented, Yang-shi guessed she had a good time these past two days in Yang jia, and gave even more gratified smile.

"Good, good, truly good, it seems both of you are getting along well; dagu is also relived…"

Yang-shi murmured, "In the future dagu can have a grandnephew, then dagu can even be happier…."

Lin Qingwan blushingly said "Dagu …"

Yang Tiezhu again gave a silly laugh.

After casually chit-chatting for a while, Yang-shi went out to prepare lunch.

Lin Qingwan wanted to help, but Yang-shi resolutely pushed her on the kang to sit, not letting her leave, saying that the new bride should not do any work first three days. As such Lin Qingwan had no other choice but to give up.

Yang-shi was so happy that she even happily killed an old hen to add a dish into the lunch menu.

The lunch was quite sumptuous with chicken, fish, and meat, in big and small-sized plates spread over the entire table.

Yang Tiezhu and Lin Qingwan repeatedly grumbled that the Yang-shi was too polite, and there was no need to make such a sumptuous meal just for family. Moreover, there were only three of them, how would they be able to finish all of it.

Yang-shi smiled and jokingly said that these meals were made according to the norms when a married daughter returns to her natal family first time. Since you have already regarded this place as Wan'er's natal family, there was no need to be courteous.

Both the guests and hosts thoroughly enjoyed themselves and ate in great delight. The entire atmosphere was also quite nice, unlike the stifling feeling in Yang jia at the dining table. As such both Lin Qingwan and Yang Tiezhu ate till they were full.

After eating, Yang Tiezhu felt full to bursting point and uncomfortable. He also had to stay here the whole day, so he simply said to Yang-shi that her would take Daihei and Erhei out for a walk, also conveniently aid in digestion.

Lin Qingwan also felt full and uncomfortable, so she said she would tag along.

Looking at both of them glowing with health, Yang-shi was also extremely happy and let them go out and have fun, but not before repeatedly reminding them to come before supper as they would still have to return back in the evening. A new bride should not stay in her natal family's house till the sunset before returning to her husband's house.

Yang Tiezhu whistled and waved; the two black dogs immediately understood that he was taking them out to play, and at once sprang to outside the courtyard.

After coming out of the courtyard, Yang Tiezhu led Lin Qingwan to the outskirts of the village.

As it was still afternoon, not many people were present on the trail. Occasionally, they would pass by one or two people, but they also rushed away after greeting them.

Gradually, only two of them were left on that trail.

With two black dogs running wildly at the front, Yang Tiezhu and Lin Qingwan followed them from behind.

At this time, the sun was just right, and a cool breeze was blowing from the trees at the side. The air was also fresh and clean…

Lin Qingwan relished the moment as she took a deep breath. Looking at the two dogs at the front, unexpectedly, she felt a great sense of satisfaction.

It was truly nice…

When she had transmigrated here. She had never dared to fancy this kind of life…

This man was also very good to her…

Yang Tiezhu looked at his relishing wife with his full of affection.

He was a rural man who grew up in the mountains and wasn't aware of any sophisticated words to describe his wife's appearance. He only felt that his wife was very good, very, very good…her temperament, way of speaking, and way of dressing, her smile was also very nice…she was good everywhere…

Unexpectedly it was a bit far as they walked till the foot of Luoxia mountain.

Yang Tiezhu looked around. After thinking a bit, he led Lin Qingwan diagonally into a small trail.

Dahei and Erhei also seemed to be familiar with this place, as they led the path all the way.

Not long after walking further, a small shabby wooden house in a small fenced courtyard appeared in Lin Qingwan's sight.

The cabin was very dilapidated, with everything in the yard completely covered in dust. It seemed to be unoccupied for a long time as the vegetable field in the courtyard became desolate and was filled with weeds.

Puzzled, Lin Qingwan looked at Yang Tiezhu.

Yang Tiezhu smiled and led her in, took two small stools out of the wooden house, wiped them, and let Lin Qingwan sit down before he sat beside her.

After a good while, he slowly opened his mouth and explained to her what this place was.

It turned out that previously, an old hunter, who taught Yang Tiezhu hunting skills, lived in this deserted courtyard.

Because of the old hunter's ugly appearance, he didn't get married throughout his life and had no children. In his early years, he had wandered to this place and originally wished to settle down in Luoxia village. However, villagers were all scared of him and disliked him. As such, he built a small wooden house here and lived alone.

Every day the old hunter would go into the mountains to hunt for few preys and sell them for some daily necessities*. Although he didn't own any land in the village, his days were still going by fine.

Daily necessities: firewood, rice, oil, salt.

When Yang Tiezhu was young, because of Yang-shi reasons, He-shi would always not give him a good face. Usually, all the tasty food and fun playthings were all taken by the eldest son and weren't given to him.

How can little children have the ability to endure all by themselves, as such he would always run to Yang-shi's place or would run away somewhere to cry by himself all alone.

One time, when he ran away to cry alone, he accidentally went too far and ended up running into the old hunter.

The old hunter was actually a pretty good person. As all year round he lived alone, he became reticent. On top of that, he also didn't have any younger generation and such. Thus, when he saw a little brat crying with his face full of tears and snot running here, he also didn't drive him away and asked him few words.

After clearly asking, he then allowed him to stay in the small courtyard.

In order to coax him to stop crying, he also baked him a sweet potato for him to eat.

Children are pretty sensitive and clearly know who is good to them and who is bad in their hearts. He knows who is good to him and who is not to him. As such, when little Tiezhu ran from home crying after that, he would go to the old hunter's place.

During that time, because of him, He-shi went to Yang-shi's place and made a fuss, and even scolded her. In such a situation, he really didn't dare to go to Yang-shi's place again, fearing that she would be troubled. Thus, thereupon every time at home He-shi didn't give him a good face or his eldest brother, Yang Tieshuan bullied him, he would immediately run here.

As the time passed, the old hunter and little Tiezhu became more familiar.

Since a young age, little Tiezhu's temperament had always been good, as such old hunter was also very fond of him. After some time, he even regarded himself almost as his half-son and loved him dearly. Whenever he went to exchange the preys he hunted for silver, he would always buy candies that little children like to eat for little Tiezhu.

Xiao Tiezhu was also aware that the old hunter was fond of him. Although this old grandpa looked a bit scary, he treated him very well. Thus little Tiezhu liked to come here every time.

As such, in Yang Tiezhu's childhood, apart from his dagu, Yang-shi, whom he was fond of, there was another significant person in his heart, the old hunter.

To say, if Yang-shi showered him with maternal love, the old hunter provided him the paternal love he lacked since a young age.

The old hunter not only provided little Tiezhu paternal love but also taught him his entire life's worth hunting skills.

Although in other's point of view this could be regarded as of nothing, but for farmers, it was the skill from which they can earn a living.

Being aware that Yang Tiezhu's family didn't see him in good light, the old hunter wanted to teach him skills so that he could make his own living. Even if he would be driven away one day, he would still be able to eat off on his own strength and wouldn't be looked down upon by other people.

The old hunter's way of thinking was quite simple. In the eyes of farmers, a person without land is considered nothing and would be starved to death. Previously, the old farmer was also shunned and reached rock bottom. He was almost starved to death. Then little by little, he slowly figured out how to hunt and improved himself.

Consequently, the old hunter started imparting some essential knowledge required for hunting. For instance, how to recognize the way through the terrain, how to identify which is not poisonous and which is not in the deep mountains, and also taught him archery. When little Tiezhu became a bit older he even took him to the mountains to let him see how to hunt. However, the old hunter did not dare to take a little kid deep into the mountains, and only dared to take him into a bit outer area of the mountains, and would hunt only a few small animals and such for him to practice…

Yang Tiezhu was thirteen when the old hunter passed away. He left his everything for Yang Tiezhu after his death.

Actually, there wasn't much, just an old wooden house and an old black dog, which had accompanied him for a very long while.

That old black dog was precisely Dahei and Erhei's mother.

The old hunter's funeral arrangements were all made by little Tiezhu with the help of Yang-shi. It was only at this time that Yang-shi came to know that her nephew knew such a person. Although she had seen her nephew being mysterious, she hadn't taken it seriously at all.

Only after listening to little Tiezhu recounting things did Yang-shi also understand that this lonely elderly was truly good to this child. As such, she too did her utmost in arranging the old hunter's funeral arrangements. Although the people from Luoxia village didn't like this ugly-looking old man, they also didn't have the heart to cruely leave his corpse in the wilderness. Thus everyone also helped quite a lot…

The old hunter was buried in a grove behind the small wooden house. Every year Yang Tiezhu would come here to clean the small courtyard, after which he would weed the area around the grave and then burn some joss paper* to offer sacrifices to the old hunter….

*纸钱 (zhǐqián): Literally paper money. Alternatively also called as joss paper or netherworld paper. These paper offerings are physical representations of money and daily necessities like clothing, personal electronics and household goods. The basic notion behind burning joss paper is that an offering is conveyed into the spirit world through the fire's smoke.

Yang Tiezhu was sitting on a small seat in the courtyard, stroking Dahei's back, who was sitting beside him, as he narrated a few happenings in his childhood and about old hunter to Lin Qingwan

Lin Qingwan was sitting beside him, as she listened to him quietly.

At this moment, it was quiet all around them with the occasional cry of insects and birds. Looking at her husband, who was sunk in his memories, Lin Qingwan felt kinda deep admiration in him for that old hunter.

Don't know how Yang Laoye and He-shi would feel upon hearing all of these. The status of one's parents in the heart of their son was not even significant as old hunter, who didn't have any relatives.

老爷子 (lǎoyézi): polite appellation for an elderly male, one's father (In earlier chapters old father was used.)

Anyhow, if a disaster was mandated by the heavens, one can still be forgiven, but if the disaster was brought by oneself, there ought to be retribution. Everything was the consequences of their actions.

A good son was pushed away. He-shi ought to understand one thing – nothing remains the same. And Yang laoyezi also cannot avoid this blame.

Sometimes not doing anything elicits more sorrow than committing an error.

A gust of calm wind passed by. Yang Tiezhu seemed to be in a daze for quite a time before he came back to himself.

He turned his head and smiled at Lin Qingwan, once again becoming his usual and honest self.

"Are Dahei and Erhei born from that old black dog? I had never seen you bringing them home back. Do you keep them at dagu's place?" This question, Lin Qingwan have been wishing to ask for a while but couldn't.

大姑 (dàgū): Eldest aunt; father's eldest sister

She had never seen Dahei and Erhei the past few days she had lived in the Yang family. But contrarily, they spend at Yang-shi's place quite a lot of time comparatively. If Yang Tiezhu didn't go into the mountains, Dahei or Erhei would either stay at Yang-shi's place or go out by themselves to eat.

Yang Tiezhu's complexion became dark. Nevertheless, he still opened his mouth to reply: "My mother prohibits from raising pets in the home, saying raising dogs costs food. So usually, Dahei and Erhei stays at my dagu's place. Only at the time I go into the mountain, I take both of them along with me."

This He-shi….

Lin Qingwan had speechlessness across her whole face. Raising a dog costs food; raising a person doesn't cost anything? By raising dogs, they at the least help in hunting and all, but raising people can also lead to raising a few scums!

Fine, this sentence was somwhant offensive; as such Lin Qingwan also didn't speak out.

"I want to remove the weeds around Wu shu's grave. Do you want to come? Or will you stay stay here?" Yang Tiezhu asked.

叔 (shū): uncle (Wu is the surname of the old hunter)

Is there still a need to ask? She would go certainly. Displeased, Lin Qingwan glared at him and stood up.

Every time Wanwan glared at him, Yang Tiezhu felt he was rather foolish, and could only giggle.

He chuckled and held her hand carefully. As there wasn't anyone around them, he need not be afraid of being seen.

Seeing that there was no one around apart from both of them and the two dogs, Lin Qingwan also didn't try to let go of his hand.

Both of them went around the wooden house to the backyard and walked into the grove. After walking into the grove for a while, they stopped in front of a small grave.

Lin Qingwan was a bit surprised, as there wasn't any stone tablet on the grave.

It was just a blank small grave.

As if understanding her surprise, Yang Tiezhu explained: "Wu shu asked not to have any stone tablet."

Only after hearing 'Wu shu' twice did Lin Qingwan realize Wu was the old hunter's family name.

Yang Tiezhu squatted down and started weeding around the small grave. Seeing both of them stop, the two dogs happily ran to the side.

The small grave was surrounded by a thicket of weeds. If it weren't for Yang Tiezhu stopping here, Lin Qingwan would just have seen it as a bulge, and be unable to identify it as a grave.

Lin Qingwan also squatted down, wanting to lend him a hand. However, Yang Tiezhu refused to let her do so, saying that her hands might get pricked by the weeds, leaving gashes on them.

Then Yang Tiezhu quickly pulled out all the weeds neatly.

Finishing the weeding, he stood up in front of the old hunter's grave for a few minutes before leaving with Lin Qingwan.

Coming out the grove, Yang Tiezhu looked at the colour if the sky and said to her, "It's not early anymore, shall we head back?"

Lin Qingwan nodded. Both of them thereupon directly walked out of the courtyard and headed to the village.

They slowly walked back in the same way they had come from. By the time they reached Yang-shi's place, she had already cooked the supper.

Lin Qingwan looked at the sky outside. The sun hadn't set yet. Recalling that a wife should return to her husband's house before sunset, she could only sit down to have the meal.

As they overate for the lunch, and also were eating the supper early, the three of them didn't eat much. After casually eating a few bites, Lin Qingwan stroked her stomach, unable to eat anymore.

After finishing the supper, Yang-shi sent them off the courtyard gates before sunset.

Lin Qingwan felt that this day the time passed way too fast. In a blink of an eye, the day was already over.

Soon her first three days upon becoming a new daughter-in-law would be finished. Lin Qingwan was also aware that it was unlikely for her to have this kind of carefree days again in the future.

Starting from the next day, her days as a daughter-in-law would truly begin.

Early in the morning, when the sun hadn't risen yet, Lin Qingwan woke up to make breakfast for everyone.

It wasn't that she was diligent and wanted to show off in front of her Popo*; rather, yesterday night, He-shi ran to their room window to remind her that she would be the one cooking today must not wake up late.

* 婆婆 (pópo): husband's mother, mother-in-law

In Yang jia*, all the meals are prepared by xifus*, one per day rotation-wise. Previously, Wang-shi and Yao-shi would take turns to cook. But now, with her also being married over, three of them would take turns to cook.

*家(jiā): family, house

*媳妇 (xífù): daughter-in-law

The rules are for everyone in the family. As such, Lin Qingwan also didn't have any objections.

Knowing that she had to do housework today, Lin Qingwan intentionally dressed herself in a coarse cyan-colored skirt.

As soon as she walked into the kitchen, she found He-shi already standing there waiting for her.

She greeted her, 'Mother'.

He-shi gave an 'en' and pointed towards the chopping board with a blank face before turning around and leaving.

Lin Qingwan was a bit dumbfounded. She walked towards the chopping board pulled it over, only to find a bit of maize flour, millet rice along with a few potatoes, and two capsicums on it.

Lin Qingwan felt someone approaching her from behind; she turned around to see Yao-shi coming in.

"Third dimei." She greeted her.

弟妹 (dìmèi): younger brother's wife

Yao-shi walked towards her side, stood by the chopping board. Looking at things on it, she slowly spoke to Lin Qingwan in a low voice.

"Second brother was afraid that today being your first time, you wouldn't know what to do, and as he also couldn't help much, he let me cove here to lend you a hand." Lin Qingwan smiled gratefully, "Had troubled third dimei."

Yao-shi gave a timid smile and rolled her sleeves to help her with the stuff on the chopping board.

"In our family, the cooking is different from other households. The quantity of ingredients and all are decided and prepared by Popo a day earlier, and will give it to us every day at the time of cooking." Yao-shi explained in a small voice.

She took millet rice in a pot and washed them neatly, added adequate amount of water, and then lit the stove with the fire, before placing it on the stove.

Lin Qingwan also learned at Yang-shi's place how to light a fire on the stove, but wasn't as skilled as Yao-shi.

She then cleaned the board and kneaded the maize flour on it to make steam corn bread.

Steamed Cornbread (wowotou) Credits: Google Images

Lin Qingwan felt a bit dizzy. According to what Yao-shi said, the meals menu is all decided by He-shi. Then how much quantity everyone eats is also fixed? Then if perhaps one day He-shi's is not in a good mood, then everyone in the family won't get anything to eat?

Have to say, her assumptions were actually quite right.

Looking at Lin Qingwan's dumb expression, Yao-shi continued to say in a low voice as she kneaded the dough with her head lowered, "That's why when you are kneading the dough and are dividing them into small parts to make steam cornbread, you have to make sure that they are neither too big nor too small. In our family, including adults and children, altogether they are a total of 16 people. Adults would get two steamed cornbread, while children will get one."

Meaning, in other words, if divided into bigger pieces, the quantity would be insufficient, and if divided into smaller size, the quantity would be too much, making it quite difficult to divide, which might annoy He-shi in the end.

Seeing Yao-shi knead the dough, she took potatos and crouched down to peel them.

By the time she was done with peeling the potatoes, Yao-shi was also done with kneading the dough. Seeing this Lin Qingwan went to help her in pinching the dough into cornbread's shape.

This is not the first time Lin Qingwan has made cornbread. At Yang-shi's place, she prepared a few along with her, however, she could not make them well. The surface of the cornbread didn't come out smooth. Although the size of each cornbread was the same as Yao-shi's, the shape was different.

Not one bit like Yao-shi's cornbread, whose cornbread were just like assembly line in the factories – perfectly round with smooth surface, and also uniform in size. At first glance, all of them appeared to be exactly same.

"Third dimei, your craftsmanship is really good." Lin Qingwan sighed.

In her previous life, she also used to cook, and in this life, she had also cooked in Yang-shi's place, but there were very few people in Yang-shi's place, and things could also be used without any restrictions. Not like this with quantity already determined and the food should neither be excessive nor lacking.

Yao-shi gave a bashful smile, "I have done it many times. Second sao* will also be able to do like this in future."

*嫂 (sǎo): sister-in-law.

Lin Qingwan found out that this third dimei was actually very pretty when she smiles, unlike her usual submissiveness with her head down and silent.

After the cornbreads were shaped, they would have to be steamed. One by one, Yao-shi arranged all of the cornbreads in a bamboo steamer, after which she placed them in another big wok on a stove.

Bamboo steamer

The stoves in the countryside all had two cooking mouths. Usually, one can be used to cook the meals, while the other to steam the buns and breads, extremely convenient. Between the two burners there is one more small burner, which could be used to heat the water and whatnot.

Not exactly same as the one in description, but closest one I could find

Yao-shi squatted down to light the stove. Seeing that there was nothing for her to help here, Lin Qingwan turned around and chopped potatoes and capsicum into long thin strips to make a stir-fried dish after this.

Soon, the porridge was cooked, and the cornbreads were also steamed.

Lin Qingwan brushed the big iron cooking pot and began to stir-fry the vegetables.

The oil was already poured into a tray by He-shi at an earlier time; one portion of oil per one dish.

Lin Qingwan poured the oil into the pot. The oil was too less that it just greased the bottom of the pot so shallowly. To stir-fry two pots of vegetables, this oil is barely enough. Thinking of this, she became speechless.

To say, in Luoxia village, Yang family's financial situation is not too bad, so why does He-shi's mannerism seem like their financial situation is very bad, to be even afraid that when cooking the other person might add too much oil. Or is it for fear that xifus might be ignorant of her oil, and is strict because of that?

Inquisitively, she asked Yao-shi about the salt usage in the family, and Popo's reason for storing away the food ingredients.

Yao-shi calmly replied that the quantity of salt for every month is fixed. Popo doesn't store it away, and keeps it in a salt jar. However, every month the salt is only this much, and upon using it would be over. As for the ingredients, they are all managed by Popo; usually, the quantity of noodles used that day are prepared by her in the kitchen. There is also a vegetable garden in the backyard. We, xifus can take those vegetables to make the meals, but as for how much quantity to be picked for stir-frying is determined by Popo.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qingwan's face became darker. As Yang jia had been like this since the start, she can't say anything. No wonder Yang Tiezhu had asked Yao-shi to teach her how to cook in the morning, as he also seemed to know the cooking rules set in this house.

One after the other, all the members of the family started to wake up. With Yao-shi's help, she also completed making breakfast.

Lin Qingwan placed two bowls of dishes and steamed cornbread on a wooden tray, intending to carry them to the main room.

She had just passed through the kitchen door when she ran into Yang Tiezhu, who quickly took the tray from her hands before asking her in a low voice if she was exhausted. Only after hearing her say she was not tired; did he carry the tray into the main room.

Lin Qingwan smiled and once again turned around to the kitchen to help Yao-shi bring out the porridge.

During breakfast, at one moment, He-shi said the porridge was cooked too thin, and at another moment, she said the corn bread's shape wasn't good, emphasizing the ones that Lin Qingwan precisely made.

Yang Tiezhu wanted to open his mouth to say something, but Lin Qingwan pulled him from underneath, not letting him open his mouth. On the other hand, she deferentially accepted her mistakes to He-shi, and also very respectfully admitted her mistakes and made a self-criticism.

Originally, He-shi wanted to use this as a pretext to find fault with her, but not only the other party's bearing was good, but also quite frankly admitted her mistake and underwent self-criticism as not to let this happen again in the future.

She didn't give her even a bit of reason to use it as a pretext, making her unable to do anything. As such, she could only resentfully pull a long face, not uttering a sound.

After eating breakfast, the men would usually go to the fields to weed, fertilize and water the crops. The harvest season was just around the corner. At this time, the crops ought to be carefully watched over.

The Yang family actually didn't own much land. However, they were also not few; roughly about ten mu. This she came to know when having a casual conversion with Yang Tiezhu after marriage. The men in the family do these sorts of stuff; as such, the womenfolk of the family need not go into the fields.

亩 (mǔ): classifier for fields, one unit area is equal to one-fifteenth of a hectare.

The only exception to this was Yao-shi. After finishing her work, she would always go into the fields to lend a hand.

During the first three days, when Lin Qingwan was a new wife, she always saw Yao-shi going to the fields with a hoe on her shoulder. Wang-shi and He-shi were both habituated to this.

She was unable to understand why Yao-shi would do all this work. Is she by nature hardworking, or is there some other reason? But then again, she thought, for everything, there is always a reason.

At home, the xifus do a lot more than just cooking. They not only had to do all the cooking, but they also had to feed the pigs and hens and also do a few other house chores such as picking beans, drying vegetables, and whatnot. As such, soon after men walked out, Lin Qingwan began to prepare all the stuff for the housework with the help of Yao-shi.

He-shi stood by the main room door with the support of doorframe and looked out.

"To feed the pigs, also you need two people, Yao-shi today you seem to be very idle?" He-shi admonished with a dark face, "If you are too idle, then go to the fields!"

Yao-shi lowered her head and explained in a low voice, "As it's second sao's first day working here and is not aware of the rules of the family, second brother had asked me to help her so as to not to make any mistake and anger mother. "

He-shi snorted, and without speaking, turned around before walking into the house.

Wang-shi stood by the doorway cracking melon seeds, watching both of them with amusement of taking joy in other's misfortunes.

Without paying any heed to Wang-shi, Lin Qingwan looked at Yao-shi worriedly, and whispered to her, "Sorry third dimei, I have implicated you."

Yao-shi appeased Lin Qingwan and smiled, "It's okay, I'm used to it. "

Wang-shi spat out the melon shell in her mouth, snorted, twisted her hips, and went inside the room.

Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi together lifted the pig feed and carried it to the pigsty in the backyard to feed the pigs.

After hesitating for half a day, Lin Qingwan asked in a low voice, "Third dimei, popo… does she… do this often to you?"

Although she hadn't been here for long, she can also see that He-shi doesn't give Yao-shi a good face; her nose is not nose, and her face is not face. On the contrary, even when Wang-shi uses all sorts of excuses when He-shi asks her to do something, He-shi doesn't treat her in this sort of manner.

Yao-shi stopped scooping the pig feed into the pig trough, hemmed and hawed as she said, "Popo…she's…comparatively stricter with me."

After a while, she probably also thought that her words might not be enough, so she slowly started telling in a low voice, "Popo… she… dislikes… dislikes me because I cannot lay eggs. "The voice was very small and very low; however, Lin Qingwan was still able to hear her choke in the middle.

Lay eggs?

Lin Qingwan was in a daze for half a day, before she was able to react. Does this mean that Yao-shi was unable to give birth to children?

Suddenly she somewhat realized as she remembered that Yao-shi only gave birth to two daughters. Those two little girls also seldom talk, just like her parents. Such a young age, yet they are quite sensible and almost had no sense of presence in the family.

Whereas the eldest branch had three sons.

Is this reason why Wang-shi always uses all sorts of excuses to avoid the things He-shi asks her to do? Because she has backing? Moreover, Wang-shi is always fond of pushing her work on to Yao-shi; Yao-shi, herself would also not protest, as if she didn't have any temper always doing the work without saying anything…

Thinking as such, Lin Qingwan suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable. And could also not find any words to comfort Yao-shi . Thus she could only say, "Third dimei, don't worry. There will always be a way."

Valuing males and attaching less importance to female, this kind of thinking had been there since ancient times. Even in the 21st century this kind of thinking wasn't eradicated completely, let alone in the present society.

Yao-shi lowered her and forced a smile, without saying anything.

After feeding the pigs, both of them then went to the front yard to feed the chicken.

Chicken food was quite simple, mince the wild vegetables and mix it with a few brans, that's it.

These wild vegetables are usually dug up from outside by the Yao-shi's two daughters, Yang Erniu and Yang Sanniu. Every day after breakfast, both of them would go outside hand-in-hand and would return each with a basket full of wild vegetables.

Thinking of Yao-shi's two daughters, one was five years old while the other was just four years old. At such a young age, both of them knew to go out, dig wild vegetables to feed pigs and chickens. And there are also those few sons of Wang-shi, the eldest was ten years old, the second one was nine years old, and the youngest one was four years old. But they only know to play wildly outside every day.

But He-shi's attitude was completely opposite. She would indulge them in playing every day, while towards Yang Sanniu and Yang Erniu, she was very strict.

Lin Qingwan became speechless.

As days passed by, Lin Qingwan gradually became accustomed to Yang jia's ways of living. She also got habituated to He-shi's every now and then nit-pickings.

After all, it hadn't been long since she had married; as such, there wasn't an issue of whether she can or can't 'lay eggs.' So long as she does the work she should properly, He-shi also cannot say anything.

As for He-shi trying hard to find fault with her, she usually would either turn a blind eye to it or just let things slide. If not, then she would just honestly acknowledge her mistake in a fine manner.

He-shi also was unable to do anything. Encountering punching cotton also became a common occurrence with her second erxifu. After a long time, it was also unlikely for her He-shi to find trouble for Lin Qingwan only to suffer from anger in the end. What's more, she nevertheless has to take lao'er' feelings into consideration a lot of times.

儿媳妇 (érxífu): daughter-in-law

老二 (lǎo'èr): appellation used for second child in the family.

Although He-shi was unreasonable, she was still aware that lao'er very much cherishes his vixen wife. If you scold him, he would still be fine and also won't utter a word; however, scolding his wife was out of the question. Several times when He-shi scolded Lin Qingwan, her second son looked at her angrily.

It's not that enlightenment had dawned upon He-hi and she felt sorry for her son. Rather, it was because she was well aware that for their family income, they still need to rely on Yang Tiezhu. Once you ruffle his feathers, and ask him to go up the mountain, he would simply fling his head and leave, completely ignoring you.

As such, He-shi had been lenient towards Lin Qingwan all along and numerous times just turned a blind eye, while she was quite harsh and fierce with Yao-shi.

In ancient times, a woman's status was dependent on her husband. If the husband is hardworking, others would surely have to give him a bit of consideration. This principle is not applicable only at home but also outside.

Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi, both of them had a gentle and soft temper, and were with tolerant and mild conduct, also were not the one who would easily get into the conflicts. After interacting for a while, gradually, a sort of friendship formed between them.

As for the Wang-shi, only after interacting with her for a while did Lin Qingwan find she was annoying to the extreme.

In the beginning, she thought Wang-shi was just a bit lazy at best. When He-shi gave her some work to do, she had dilly-dally and use all sorts of excuses, pushing the work away. Also, she would look at her peculiarly, especially when she and Yao-shi would mutually help each other.

It was only later, she found that Wang-shi's personality was truly too annoying.

Usually, whenever it was Wang-shi's turn to cook, she would either call Yao-shi or her for help. In the beginning, she was not aware of Wang-shi's character. Thinking that as her eldest sao had asked for help, she would just lend a hand, it was also not much of a matter.

sao: sister-in-law

But then, every time Wang-shi was doing housework, she would call for help, either letting her feed the pigs or letting her feed chickens, or it was helping her water and fertilize plants in the vegetable garden.

In case if she was truly swamped, one can understand. However, the issue was, once after Wang-shi called her to lend a hand in feeding the pigs, Lin Qingwan, to her surprise, found that she had run away to sleep. Suddenly she felt as if she had swallowed a housefly, feeling disgusted in her heart.

After that, whenever Wang-shi called her out for help, she never went.

Next time, when it was Wang-shi's turn again, she was unhappy. She eccentrically stabbed her with words, saying she was disrespectful to her elders, and even when her saozi called her out for help, she shirked away. Further adding that she was very pampered and no one could move her at all…

Lin Qingwan was also not a soft bun that could be pinched easily. As such, whenever Wang-shi stabbed her with her words, she either completely ignored her or turned her down.

After arguing several times, unless it was necessary, both of them gradually stopped talking.

…

In a flash, it was already the beginning of autumn. Gradually everyone in the Yang jia got busy, as it was time for the many sorts of crops cultivated in the fields to be harvested in batches.

Luoxia Village was situated in the north zone, making the climate here frigid. As such, the crops grown here were all the sort that could be harvested once a year. Thus, autumn was also the time when the nearby eight villages within the ten miles were the busiest.

As for what kinds of crops were planted in the fields, Lin Qingwan was not quite familiar with these both, in her previous life and present life. She was also unclear as to what crops were and were not cultivated in the Daxi dynasty. She was only aware that in the Luoxia village, wheat, sorghum, broomcorn millet, corn, and rapeseeds are grown. But rapeseeds are cultivated less, just sufficient enough to extract oil for household uses in the upcoming year.

But here, no one grows rice, probably because the soil was not fit. Also, very few people here ate rice. If someone wished to eat, it was sold in shops in the small town to buy and eat. However compared with other cereals, it's a bit expensive.

Here the staple food was sorghum rice, foxtail millet rice (little rice), proso millet rice (similar to little rice, but compared to little rice, these are bigger in size and are commonly referred to as yellow rice), and cornmeal. As for wheat, they cultivate quite a lot here, but as wheat flour is considered a fine grain, the farmers could not bear to consume it by themselves. As such, they sell it all after cultivating them.

Yang jia first harvests the wheat. After harvesting of wheat was finished, the next was sorghum, peanuts, foxtail millet, corn, proso millet, and few other crops.

During the autumn harvest, apart from He-shi and Yang Ermei, who stay back to cook and watch the young kids, all adults and children alike in the Yang jia work together in the fields. Even both the eldest boys must go to the fields to help.

Of course, there is also an exception to this – precisely Yang Xuezhang.

Although the institution lets the students go during the autumn harvest, Yang Xuezhang nonetheless doesn't have to go to the fields. The first reason is that He-shi can't bear him doing so. Another reason was that after every year after the autumn harvest, county examinations were conducted. As such Yang Xuezhang had to review his classwork.

Lin Qingwan actually can't hold the sickle to harvest the crops, so her task was to tie the cut wheat stalks into a bundle neatly with a straw and then load them into the ox cart. And also had to pick up all the wheat heads that fell in the fields during harvest.

Autumn's hot spell was wreaking havoc on earth. Even though the farmers working in the fields had to shed a layer of skin under the sun, they also didn't dare to grumble about it much.

Because if the sun was too bright, the harvested cereals would also dry faster under the sun. It was better than having rain, soaking all the cereals, causing the sprouts to grow and making them uneatable.

Lin Qingwan had covered herself entirely along with a straw hat on her head. Even her face was covered up completely, with only on her eyes showing out. Most of the local young women were also dressed as such; because the sun was too fierce. Not only they get tanned, but they can also be sunburnt.

A few men in the Yang jia were also sunburned. Lin Qungwan had found peeling sunburnt skin on Yang Tiezhen's body. This was just the beginning of the autumn harvest, don't know how it would be after the autumn harvest.

Carrying a large wicker basket on her back, Lin Qingwan bent at her waist and picked up the fallen wheat heads.

As the wheat was harvested in a long strip of rows, it was inevitable for a few of them to fall in the fields. Wang-shi's and her task was to follow behind the people harvesting and pick the fallen wheat heads, whereas Yao-shi with a sickle was harvesting along with the men.

With her hands wrapped in a glove, Lin Qingwan picked up the wheat heads, and after collecting a handful of them, she threw them in the basket behind her. Wang-shi was also picking not far from her.

Wang-shi wiped her sweat as she picked the wheat heads, and not long after, she was tired to death. She sat her butt down on the ground, not caring about making her clothes dirty.

"Second dimei, you are really pampered. Wrapping yourself so tightly like that, are you afraid of getting tanned." Unable to bear the heat, Wang-shi had long removed the cloth on her face. It was too hot and stuffy, drenching her completely in sweat.

弟妹 (dìmèi): younger's brother's wife

"Where have these two stinky brats Dalang and Erlang, had run off to, making this old mother tried to death…" Without paying heed to her, Lin Qingwan continued to pick.

She was also actually very tired and was disinclined to speak, fearing that she would lose her strength if she spoke and would also have to collapse on the ridge like Wang-shi.

"Those hand gloves, you didn't even think of making a pair for your eldest sao, truly a miser." Sitting there, Wang-shi fanned her face with a cloth and said without caring if Lin Qingwan was ignoring her.

Still ignoring her, Lin Qingwan rolled her eyes. Wang-shi was very much covetous of other people's things. She would always explicitly and implicitly mention it to you. And if you don't give it to her, you are narrow-minded.

In the beginning, Wang-shi had demanded quite a few pieces of fabric from her. At that time, she wasn't yet aware of Wang-shi's character. When one's eldest sao opens her mouth to say that her family's child didn't have fabric to make clothes, and further added that this fabric's colour would very much suit her family's kids, can one even say that you can't give it to her?

As such, the first time she gave it to her. Second time, Wang-shi changed it to another kid and asked again, so she once again gave it. When she came again for third time, Lin Qingwan finally got furious and pulled her face to say that she also didn't have any clothes to wear, how about eldest sao give some fabric for her. Listening to this, Wang-shi just resentfully turned away and left…however….

However, not long after, seeing that she had made a new set of clothes for Yang Tiezhu from coarse cotton fabric for work, Wang-shi again came to ask if she had any excess fabric. So that she also can make a set for Yang Tieshuan…

Sometimes, Lin Qingwan wondered if Wang-shi, this person belongs to the family of cockroaches. No matter how many times she refuses her, next time, so long as she sees something with you, she would once again come to ask you as if nothing had ever happened….

Lin Qingwan didn't understand what kind of person Wang-shi was till this moment.

To describe it in previous life's everyday used words, Wang-shi was just like a toad crawling over your foot. It wouldn't do anything to you, but it might nauseate you to death.

Wang-shi got up from the ground with one of her hands on her waist as support and walked over to the water jar placed under the tree shade.

"Aiya, I'm very thirsty. I'll go drink some water."

Lin Qingwan still didn't pay her any heed, letting her talk to herself. Finally, when she couldn't persist anymore, she sat down on the ground, gasping for air. After sitting for a good while, she stood up and once again continued to pick.

Suddenly, she recalled that she hasn't heard Wang-shi speak for quite a long time, she turned in the direction of a tree with a water jar in its shade, but there wasn't even a shadow of a person there.

Wang-shi also seems to have run away, Lin Qingwan whispered in her heart.

After continuing to pick up for a good while, Lin Qingwan felt as if her hands have stopped listening to her.

At this moment, Yao-shi unexpectedly walked over and called her out.

"Second sao, don't pick up anymore. Quickly go and have a rest." Lin Qingwan straightened up and gazed to the front, only to see all the men coming back. Breathed a sigh of relief, she stood firm, waiting for the feeling of dizziness to wash away.

Suddenly, she was held into a person's embrace when Lin Qingwan's eyes went dark for a while; only then did she find that the person holding her was Yang Tiezhu.

"Wife, are you alright? Are you tired?" Yang Tiezhu didn't care if others were looking at them. He only knew that his wife seemed to be unsteady when standing up, so he hurriedly held her and walked to the shade of the tree.

Lin Qingwan also didn't have the strength to struggle and let Yang Tiezhu carry her. After reaching the shade under the tree, she quickly let herself from his arms.

"I'm alright. It's just that I have been bending down for long. Thus my head is a bit dizzy, and my eyes are a bit blurry."

"That's good then. Quickly come and drink a bit of water." Yang Tiezhu took the water jug and handed it to her.

Looking at the man's suntanned face and dry lips, Lin Qingwan pushed the water jug to him.

"You drink first."

She untied the cloth covering her face before taking out a kerchief to wipe the sweat on herself. Her whole body was drenched with sweat, making all the inner clothes stick closely to her body.

After wiping herself, she helped Yang Tiezhu wipe. The sweat on Yang Tiezhu's face was actually not that much at all, as all of it had already dried under the sun forming white patches on his skin.

Lin Qingwan was aware that it was actually salt in the sweat forming a layer after the sweat had evaporated and completely dried off. She secretly decided to give him a jar with boiled saltwater later.

Looking at his wife wiping sweat for him, Yang Tiezhu's smile became very brilliant. After a while, upon seeing that she was done with wiping, he hurriedly took the water jug and took it to her mouth, letting her take a sip.

Yao-shi sitting at the side, enviously looked at them.

Yang Tiegen, seeing his wife as such, also hurriedly handed her a water jug.

"Wife, you also take a sip."

Yao-shi face heated up as she glared at him, flustered. Her usual pale and timid complexion was enveloped with rarely seen bashfulness.

After Yang Tieshuan helped her drink water, she completely collapsed on the ground.

"Father, how about stop it for today, and resume tomorrow."

Yang laoye sat on the ground and looked at the sky, "Tomorrow? Can the harvesting of the crops be delayed till tomorrow? The sky is pretty clear. It's better to advantage of it and finish the harvesting."

老爷子 (lǎoyézi): polite appealation used for elderly male/ one's father

Recalling that he hadn't seen Wang-shi, "Where is your wife? Where did she run off to? Lao'er's wife's body is weak, yet she persisted till now. But in a blink of an eye, there is not even shadow of your wife." As for Dalang and Erlang, Yang laoye directly overlooked them. In the end, both of them were still kids, them coming here to help them a bit in this busy time, itself was a great thing.

Yang Tieshuan listlessly replied, "How would I know where she went? Wasn't I with you harvesting at the front?" The words uttered were quite faint without strength.

Yang Tiezhu's brows pursed. He looked at the flushed face of his wife and said to Yang laoye, "Father, later let my wife and dimei, go back. Eldest sao and all of us can do the remaining work. Anyway, not having two women won't make much difference."

After thinking for a while, Yang laoye said, "Okay. In the afternoon, let Lin-shi and Yao-shi go back to take a rest. In the evening, they can come back again to help load the wheat in the ox cart."

Just as they were speaking, someone for Yang jia came to deliver the lunch. The ones who came were Yang Ermei and Wang-shi.

Wang-shi looked embarrassed. He-shi must have scolded her for goofing off and was once again sent back.

Upon hearing Yang laoye's words, Wang-shi spoke out from still five-six meters away.

"Father, then I also don't have to come, right?" The moment Yang laoye saw Wang-shi, his anger swelled up. This husband and wife, both of them, try to evade work stealthily every time. He also didn't care about it in normal times, but Yang laoye detested people trying to act slippery and evading work especially during harvest time. At this time, his temper was also unusual and irritable.

"Not you. You stay here for me this afternoon."

Wang-shi's felt wronged, "When those both can go back, for what reason do I have to stay? Dad, you can't be partial."

"For what reason? You are asking me for what reason? You yourself ran away to goof off, and yet you are asking me for what reason?"

Wang-shi immediately stopped speaking. Usually Yang laoye doesn't say much, but if he says something, he won't leave any leeway for bargaining. At the least in front of his sons and daughters-in-law.

Wang-shi begrudgingly glared at Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi angrily. Both of them didn't pay any heed to her, but a trace of smile engaged in their eyes.

Yang Ermei put the basket in her hand on the ground before leaving. Wang-shi also angrily put the basket in her hands down.

Yang Tiezhu walked over, opened the basket, and picked two bowls of meals before walking back to Lin Qingwan's side. Yang laoye and Yang Tieshuan were also very hungry. As such, one after the other, they too took the food.

All the food was divided properly by He-shi at an earlier time back at home. Everyone gets the same share. But as the work was more tiring, the quantity was also comparatively more.

Yang Tiezhu and Lin Qingwan took a bowl each and started eating after sitting down.

Yang Tiezhu was also extremely hungry, as such he gobbled up quickly. Lin Qingwan had no appetite; for one, it was too hot, and second, the ground under her was too hot, scalding her and making it difficult to bear. Previously, she was feeling a bit dizzy, so she didn't feel much, but now that the dizziness was gone, the uneasy feeling was too distinct.

But at this moment, she also didn't have the strength to stand up. As such, she could only sit there on the hot ground and let herself get roasted.

Seeing that Yang Tiezhu had quickly bottomed up his bowl, Lin Qingwan moved her bowl closer to his and added more than half of the rice into his.

"Wife, you are not feeling hungry?" Yang Tiezhu asked before reaching out his hand to her forehead, "Are you still feeling dizzy?"

Lin Qingwan weakly shook her head. "You eat quickly, I don't have any appetite."

"After you are done eating, you and third dimei quickly go back. The sun is so bright now. Take a nap for a while." Not feeling at ease, Yang Tiezhu added.

"I know."

Lin Qingwan seeing his brows beaded with sweat* as he was eating, hurriedly wiped it.

满头大汗 (mǎn tóu dà hàn): sweating profusely.

Looking at his extremely hungry appearance and then again looking at the bowl of meal without oil and water, Lin Qingwan was truly dumbfounded in her heart.

Lin Qingwan was really speechless by He-shi. In the usual times, it was fine, but in this period of time, they would need more stamina, yet still have to eat this kind of food every day. They are women, so it was okay, but how would these several men who have to do a lot of physical labor be able to endure?

Lin Qingwan was distressed to death in her heart and couldn't eat any rice. So, she simply emptied out her bowl into Yang Tiezhu's. Yang Tiezhu wanted to say something, but looking at his wife's sickly appearance, he knew that she didn't have much appetite to eat. Thinking of those pastries at home he had bought for her, which she can eat if she was hungry, he felt rest assured.

As everyone was hungry, in a short while, everyone was done eating.

Seeing that everyone was done eating, Yang Tiezhu quickly helped Lin Qingwan up and urged her to return home. He also helped her clean the bowls and chopsticks and put them in the basket. Once Yao-shi was also done, Lin Qingwan pulled her, intending to go back home.

"Second dimei, third dimei, later come back soon, don't goof off at home, ah." Wang-shi deliberately said in an ambiguous manner, sitting there.

dimei: younger sister-in-law

Everyone, being aware of her character, coupled with their exhaustion, they also didn't pay her any heed.

Yao-shi originally wasn't intending to go back. As such, Lin Qingwan simply dragged her away.

On the way back, Lin Qingwan whispered to Yao-shi, saying that she was annoying.

It goes without saying who this 'she' was.

Upon returning back, when He-shi saw them coming back, her face immediately sank.

She quickly urged them to put the basket down and go back and not be lazy. Yao-shi lowered her head and secretly tugged Lin Qingwan's clothes, intending to return back quickly.

Lin Qingwan patted her hand secretly before informing He-shi that it was Yang laoye who let them return back, saying that there was nothing for them to do in the fields and also couldn't help much. As such, he asked them to take a rest for a while and come back in the evening again to lend a hand in loading the wheat into the cart. She further added that eldest sao was punished for being lazy by Yang laoye and wasn't allowed to return back in the afternoon.

He-shi suspiciously glanced at them but didn't say anything. She reckoned that it ought to be true, as it seemed to be something like Yang laoye would do. Thus, with a wave of her hand, she let them go take a rest.

Wet with sweat, when Lin Qingwan said that she wanted to take a bath, Yao-shi said that she had lent her a hand in carrying the water to the tub.

Looking at the sweaty appearance of Yao-shi, Lin Qingwan pulled her into her room.

Yang jia only had one bathing area, which was a small room partitioned beside the kitchen.

The whole family took a bath there. It doesn't any bathtub, and only has a big wooden basin. During bathing, the water can be directly scooped out using a ladle, and the splashed water goes outside via a small outlet in the corner. Apparently, people for Yang jia also knew a bit about hygiene. There are more than a dozen people in the family; as such, they have adopted the 'shower' system.

Lin Qingwan also let Yao-shi take a bath in her room, as she had a bathtub in her room. After doing physical work, soaking in hot water would relieve the tiredness. They might as well regain the strength to work in the evening. Furthermore, it also very inconvenient to bath in the bathing area, one would have to heat the water on the stove and have to use a cask to carry the water.

Lin Qingwan scooped out the water from a water vat into a big iron cooking pot to heat it. After the water was heated, she let Yao-shi have the bath first. Because she loves to take a bath, Yang Tiezhu fills up the tank every day.

After Yao-shi was done washing, Lin Qingwan also went to take a bath and also washed her hair, in passing just like Yao-shi.

After washing, both the women sat on the k'ang and dried their hair.

"Second sao, the bathtub in your room is really nice. Can soak in the bathtub however much longer you want." Yao-shi was all along aware that Yang Tiezhu renovated the second room before marriage, but she didn't expect the transformation to be as such. There was even a specialized partitioned bathroom.

Lin Qingwan took a cloth from the kang cabinet and passed on one to Yao-shi to wipe her hair, and also too one for herself to wipe.

"Your second brother built this. Seeing that at dagu's place I would often take a bath, he partitioned the room to make a small bathing area for me to use easily." She said with a smile while wiping her hair.

Dagu: Eldest aunt

"Didn't see this coming. I never knew second brother was this attentive." Yao-shi said enviously.

Whether a man treats you good or not, it can be seen from such minor details; Whether he has you in his heart, can be known by looking at his each and every moment in usual times.

Her family's man is also treated her pretty well, but it's just there was something it was missing.

"Yes, ah. I also didn't expect such a big and coarse guy to be so attentive." Lin Qingwan smiled sweetly.

Since marrying Yang Tiezhu, Lin Qingwan truly felt her days to be full of happiness. Yang Tiezhu's goodness and also attentiveness towards her, she could also perceive them.

Of course, in case if those He-shi and Wang-shi weren't there to create trouble for her every other time, it would have been better.

But Lin Qingwan was aware that it was impossible. Marrying a man is not only about a person but also his family. Having such a popo and sister-in-law, she also can't help it.

婆婆 (pópo): Husband's mother, mother-in-law.

"By the way, third dimei, I think you can also remodel your room like this." Lin Qingwan suggested.

Yao-shu blanked for a while, stopping her movements of wiping her hair.

After thinking for a while, she replied, "It's too troublesome."

"It's not troublesome, I heard your second brother say that he had the wall built near the k'ang fire pit, such that it was on other side of wall, and then he added a burner on top of the fire pit to heat the water."

Second branch room and third branch room are the same. As such, even though what Lin Qingwan said was quite vague, Yao-shi was still able to understand what she was speaking about.

In this way, it wasn't troublesome at all.

Lin Qingwan still tried to persuade her, "There are so many people in the family, it would be very inconvenient to use the public bathroom all the time. Don't you feel very much uncomfortable bathing there every time? In eldest sao's family also there are many kids…" She said very implicitly, only using three words, 'very much uncomfortable' to explain.

Lin Qingwan had seen it many times. Regarding the matter of bathing the children, Wang-shi and Yao-shi seemed to have a bit of trouble.

Little children only want to have a good time and tend to be a bit playful, every day playing till they get dirty, and would have to take a bath in the evening. Adding all the children from the eldest branch and third branch, there were total of six children, and they would always run into each other when going to bath. In such cases, Wang-shi would always disregard Yao-shi, saying 'wait a minute'. Even if the other person had already gone into the bathroom, as long as they haven't begun bathing, they would have to come out right away and wait for them to finish.

Yao-shi being soft and weak-tempered, would always yield to Wang-shi. At times, looking at this makes Lin Qingwan's blood boil in anger at her for not striving.

However, she also can't intervene into other's business. Can she even take this small issue and say Wang-shi's bullying? As soon as she says such thing, Wang-shi would righteously criticize her for not respecting elders and disliking the young (here, the eldest is Wang-shi as she is the eldest daughter-in-law of the house, and the young are the children of the eldest branch). As such, she would be narrow-minded (the other person doesn't even feel that she was bullying) and small-minded (for thinking too much out of nothing). After all, she didn't say she wouldn't let others bathe. She merely said to wait for a moment, no.

Meeting such a thick-skinned shameless person, it was always the person with thin skin ending up losing.

Lin Qingwan, being an avid follower of the principle of avoiding the troublesome-to-deal type of people, also wants Yao-shi to 'avoid' Wang-shi as much as possible, than being at odds whenever meeting.

Yao-shi was also not dumb. Naturally, she also clearly understood the meaning behind Lin Qingwan's three words, ' very much troublesome'.

Recalling these 'very much troublesome' messy matters, Yao-shi felt bellyful of grievances. But she always had the temperament of enduring silently. As such, she could only swallow all grievances into the stomach.

"That person is just like a toad, cannot poison you to the death, but can make nauseous to death. My opinion is as we can't provoke her, we might as well do our best to avoid her as much as possible, thereby reducing the chances of meeting her…" Lin Qingwan paused. "…And also be less aggrieved." This is the main point she wanted to emphasize.

"Besides, Erniu and Sanniu are also slowly growing up. Can they still share the same bathroom as their older brothers every day? Moreover, the stove in the room can be used not only to boil the water, ah. It can also be used for some other stuff too." Saying, so she playfully winked at her.

Yao-shi blinked, "To have a small stove for children…"

Yao-shi's perplexed eyes suddenly flashed with realization, and was once again amused by Lin Qingwan's wink. She broke into a laughter with 'pfft'.

After laughing for a good while, Yao-shi adjusted her expression and asked in a low voice: "Second sao, if not for you giving me this idea, I would never have thought of this." Lin Qingwan glanced at her and also lowered her voice, "Adults are okay, but don't you think Erniu and Sanniu, these two girls are way too skinny? Sometimes you also have to think about the kids. Don't always be like a soft bun, else you can be pinched easily by others.

Towards Yao-shi, Lin Qingwan hated iron for not becoming steel. But she can also relate to her to a certain level. As such she tried to persuade her like.

恨铁不成钢 (hèntiěbùchénggāng): lit. to hate iron for not becoming steel / to feel resentful towards sb for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement.

Yao-shi's face twisted in agony as her head drooped down habitually.

"Popo has always criticized me, saying that I was a hen that couldn't lay eggs. Moreover, in these past few years, there were also no movements in my womb. If it wasn't for my family's man being good to me, I might have been sent back long ago."

"It's not as if you can't give birth anymore. It's just that in the past two years, you weren't able to conceive. Just based on these, are you okay with people coming up with these so-called 'conclusions' about you?"

"So what if I am not reconciled with it? I am also anxious, but I am just unable to conceive." This matter had been gnawing Yao-shi's mind for a long time now. He-shi and Wang-shi had also grasped this matter to 'handle' her.

Regarding this issue, Lin Qingwan indeed didn't know what to say.

There are many unfilial acts, but the worst is unable to bear to son. These two words, 'no son' were just like a spell that tightly bound like a hoop on the heads of the ancient women. You can't not give birth; you also cannot just give birth to girls. It would be best if you give birth to a boy. Just give birth to one is also not enough. The more you give, the better it would be, and will have more backing, just like Wang-shi.

On the contrary, take Yao-shi for instance, even if you eat only bran at home, even if you work no less than men, in the end, if you were unable to give birth to a son, you are still beneath others. Or else, how could Wang-shi be blatantly able to bully Yao-shi like that. It was not because Wang-shi was able to give birth, but because, if in future third branch was still unable to have male offspring, they would still have to beg her to adopt her son to carry on the inheritance.

"Anyhow, I think it would be best if you don't think too much. Sometimes, the more you think about the matter, the less likely it will happen. And, sometimes it happens when you least think about it." This statement was not without basis. Lin Qingwan remembered watching a program in her previous life. It was about the implications of the heart. Year in year out, a person hypnotized himself. Over the years, even when there was no problem, she started to think there was something wrong.

"Mother, are you here?" Erniu's voice came from outside.

Lin Qingwan got up from the kang and went to open the door.

As soon as the two little girls saw their mother in the room, they ran and climbed up to the kang at lightning speed. One sat left, and one sat right as they started chirping 'mother, mother' happily.

Lin Qingwan bolted the door before going back to the kang.

"Aiyaya~~ You saw your mother, but didn't see your second bomu~" Sitting cross-legged on the kang, Lin Qingwan pretended to be angry.

伯母 (bómǔ): wife of father's elder brother / aunt

During this period of time, the friendship between her and Yao-shi has become even deeper. The two children also became quite intimate with her. She also really liked these two lovable and cute kids.

Yang Sanniu quickly climbed Lin Qingwan's lap and hugged her neck. "Sanniu also saw you, second bomu."

Erniu also smiled bashfully, quickly saying, "Erniu also didn't forget second bomu." Smilingly, Lin Qingwan gently pinched Sanniu's small cheeks, as she said imitating their childish tone, "Good then second bomu also didn't forget you both."

Saying so, she opened the kang cabinet and took out a paper bag from inside, "Look, second bomu has also prepared some snacks for you, your favourite cakes."

Yao-shi rebuked her, "You always buy some or the other snacks for them. Why spending money so wastefully?"

Lin Qingwan opened the paper bag, and divided the sugar cakes inside to give it to them, while mischievously imitating them in childish voice, "Niuniu likes eating cakes and second bomu likes Niuniu, as such she lets second bo buy some cakes for Niuniu."

伯伯 (Bóbo): Dad's older brother. (Bo is the short form of Bobo)

The two girls at once broke into sweet laughter, "Embarrassing, second bomu speaks like a little girl."

羞羞脸 (xiūxiūliǎn): (jocularly) shame on you!

Amused, Yao Shi pursed her lips into a smile,"Look at you. You usually look so gentle and graceful on the outside, didn't expect you to be this amusing privately."

Lin Qingwan was also amused by herself, as she rolled into a ball with two girls, laughing.

After laughing for a good while, she sat straight and poured one glass of water for herself and one for Yao-shi. I poured myself a glass of water and poured another glass for Yao. "You are too rigid every day. The sweet laughter of children is just very cute."

Thinking for a moment, Yao-shi also nodded, "Yeah."

Whilst eating the sugar cake, Sanniu spoke indistinctly in a childish voice, "Grandma, little gugu, and little shushu have chicken to eat, I and jiejie have cakes to eat."

姑姑 (gūgu) : paternal aunt/ father's sister

叔叔 (shūshu): father's younger brother / uncle

姐姐 (jiějie): older sister

Erniu immediately turned her around and hit her lightly, "Don't say it. Grandma said if we tell others, she will hit us again."

Lin Qingwan glanced at Yao-shi as her heart sank.

"Niuniu, why did grandma say that she would hit you?" Lin Qingwan leaned close to Erniu's small face and asked in child-like voice.

Erniu nipped a piece of sweet cake, "In the noon, grandma was eating chicken. Also, at that time shushu and gugu were also in the room. Seeing that Niuniu and meimei have seen them, grandma forbid us from saying it out, else she would hit us."

妹妹 (mèimei): younger sister

Thinking a bit, she further added, "Second bomu, don't tell it out, ah. Else grandma will hit me and meimei."

Although she spoke incoherently, Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi understood the gist of it.

Upon hearing this, Yao-shi at once became red, "They are the ones eating covertly, why do they have to hit kids?" Lin Qingwan was also speechless.

One was a grandmother, while the other two were gugu and shushu. They were the ones who were eating covertly but ended up being seen by kids. Not only did they not share with children, they even went as far as to threaten kids to hit them if they said it out.

Originally, she had thought that even though He-shi was a bit of that kind of person, at the least at home regarding the matter of food, she treated everyone equally, apart from Yang Xuezhang. Every time he ate at home, she would give him two boiled eggs to nourish his brain. He-shi said that studying more drains the mental energy. As such, he needs to eat boiled eggs to replenish his brainpower. Well, since the people also say that, they all can understand. Other than that rest of the family eats the same meal, except the men in the family have slightly more portion.

Apparently, saving the food to save money, all of this only was on the surface. It seems that all of this is on the surface. To just block their mouths. However, as for what the other person eats behind the doors, it wasn't their concern.

Truly, it wasn't of their concern, but why does she feel disgust rise in her heart?

This He-shi and Wang-shi always manage to do things that ends up disgust others, as if they have swallowed a housefly in the mouth, making people nauseous.

On the one hand, Lin Qingwan assured the children that she would not this matter slip out, and on other side she tried to appease Yao-shi.

"Well, don't think too much about it. You can't just rush out and make a fuss out of it anyway. Remember well, don't always be sincere just like that. When they said everyone gets an equal share, you truly believe it? All those things are locked in the main room. Who knows whether they are eating or not."

This He-shi is also one exotic flower. In the house, the key to the storage room of foodstuff is always kept by her and is locked all year round. Only when there are no rice noodles will a bit of stuff be taken out. And certainly, all of it would not be stored in the kitchen but in her room. The amount needed for every meal is decided by her.

婆婆 (pópo): husband's mother / mother-in-law

Yao-shi wiped his tears, "It was I who was foolish. I thought when popo was always 'just and honorable, how can I have the nerve to ask for more food for children? Wouldn't that be a slap across popo's face? Who would have thought that they would have a small stove separately in their room and eat chicken, and they even want to raise hands on my kids?"

Hugging the two girls, she wept, feeling aggrieved, "Even though two children are so thin, I never thought of having a small stove built behind their backs. The kids have grown this big, yet they often don't eat as many eggs when compared to other kids."

Seeing their mother weep grievously like that, the two girls quickly stopped eating the cakes and wiped their mother's tears as they listened adults speak, confused.

"Okay, don't cry, don't end up scaring the kids. From here on, make sure you are alert. I will say this again, adults can lose out, but children can't." Sighing, Lin Qingwan tried to persuade her.

She can only give her advice. Can she even possibly go out and confront He-shi? That will only make things even worse.

Yao-shi took a deep breath before wiping her tears. "What you said is…" Glancing at the sky outside in the middle, "You hurry up and take a break. I will go back to the room, then after a while, we will go to the field to transport the cereals."

Lin Qingwan nodded and saw them out. After which, she bolted the door, intending to take a small nap for a while.

Apart from a lump in the hearts of Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi, initially, they thought this troublesome matter was over. However, they didn't expect a dumb person to go on their own accord and shoot her mouth off at He-shi.

This person was precisely Wang-shi.

In fact, from Wang-shi's point of view, her day went out very bad was unlucky.

First, she was tired to the death, and with great difficulty, managed to run away and have a breath stealthily. But was red-handedly caught by He-shi and was sent again to the fields. After which, her running away made everyone angry. The second branch and third branch's wives were allowed to go back and take a rest, but she head-on bumped into Yang laoyezi's muzzle of gun….

老爷子 (lǎoyézi): appellation used to address elderly males/ Old father.

(Note : I have made a small mistake in previous chapters, I got confused between 老爷子 (lǎoyézi) and 老爷(lăo ye). Though both of them look similar, their pinyin is different, and their meaning is also different.

老爷子 (lǎoyézi): appellation used to address elderly males/ one's father.

老爷(lăo ye): the lord, master of the house. I have corrected this in the previous chapters as well.)

Usually, Yang laoyezi was taciturn, but he was particularly irritable during the time of harvest. He was always worried that the heavens would not help them and cause rain in the middle of harvest. As such, every time, he would be eager to harvest all the crops quickly and store them in the storehouse. Only after this would he feel relieved. A such, he immensely detested the people who would retort to the tricks to escape from the work.

After being caught and working tirelessly in the field the entire afternoon, Wang-shi was tired to death. Initially, she didn't have much thoughts; she was just a little bit sullen, thinking that she was truly unlucky to be caught in the act and throwing herself onto the muzzle of a gun. But, who would have imagined, when Wang-shi returned home in the evening, what her Erlang told her, made her completely explode…

往枪口上 (wǎng qiāng kǒu shàng): literally "throw oneself onto the muzzle of a gun") bring about one's own destruction, ask for trouble

Today, it wasn't only Wang-shi who was out of luck. He-shi was also actually very unlucky today. Originally, the fourth one, Yang Xuezhang, feeling that there was no meat in the dishes recently, grumbled a bit to her a few times. As such, taking advantage of all the family members working in the fields, she thought of treating her son a bit.

No sooner had she placed the chicken in the pot than she saw Wang-shi sneaking back. Seeing this, she quickly scolded and drove her away, and in passing, let her deliver the packed lunch along and sent her with Yang Ermei so as to let her watch Wang-shi.

After having lunch, He-shi quickly drove out all the little kids to go out and play. Doing so, she at long last closed the door to enjoy the food at ease.

Who knows how, but when she, along with Yang Xuezhang and Yang Ermei were in the midst of gorging themselves, they found Yang Erniu and Yang Sanniu watching them eat chicken from outside through the windows. As soon as He-shi saw them, she swiftly ran out and grabbed them. Then, after chiding them a bit, she repeatedly warned them and prohibited them from speaking out.

She assumed these two little girls of the third branch to be reticent just like her mother and were also usually obedient. As such, she drove them out after giving few warnings. However, what she didn't expect was that it wasn't just Yang Erniu and Yang Sanniu, who saw them, but even the first branch's Yang Erlang saw them.

After all, Yang Erlang was a few years older than the two little girls and knew how to hide himself. Thus as soon as he saw He-shi running out to grab them, he swiftly escaped. However, that delicious smell of chicken kept lingering around his nose all along. He was aware of the viciousness of his grandma. As such, he didn't dare to ask her and waited for his mother to come back. Eventually, when Wang-shi came, he couldn't bear it anymore and asked her for chicken…

After all, kids are young and cannot comprehend all the twists and turns. However, adults can understand at a glance. This is pilfering food behind everyone in the family's back, ah!

Wang-shi was already feeling sullen since earlier. But, this time, it was just right; her rage directly went up to her brain. Not saying anything further, she rushed towards the main room to look for He-shi.

At this time, Lin Qingwan and Yang Tiezhu were in the middle of taking a bath in their room. After such a busy day, everyone was covered all over with sweat. As such, after returning, everyone would usually take a bath before going to the main room for dinner.

Just as Lin Qingwan was getting dressed, she heard noises coming from the main room. They were Wang-shi's and He-shi's voices. Wang-shi's cry of rage seemed to be especially ear-piercing…

She quickly got dressed and opened the door to go out. The third branch's husband and wife couple were also standing by the door of their room, peeking towards the main room.

The door of the main room was wide open. Wang-shi was hopping mad inside while saying something to He-shi, who was sitting on the kang. He-shi's complexion seemed to be extremely unsightly. However, her appearance couldn't hide her guilty conscience…

Seems interesting!

This thought flashed across Lin Qingwan's mind.

It was getting even noisier over there. Everyone was aware that the entire family is present at home now. With the main room being such, it won't look good if they didn't go even now.

Soon Lin Qingwan and Yang Tiezhu, along with the third branch husband and wife couple, entered the main room. Upon seeing the second branch also coming over her, her complexion became even darker, resembling the bottom of a pot. At the same time, Wang-shi was quite overjoyed at the turn of events, with her expressions seeming as if a wronged person running into a just and incorruptible official. And pulled Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi over to reason things out….

"Second dimei, third dimei, you came just in time. You have to judge the things here. While other people were working themselves to death in the fields, on what basis are the people who didn't go to the fields were getting preferential treatment at home?" Supposedly Wang-shi was also blowing her top, as she spoke such words without filtering.

弟妹 (dìmèi): younger brother's wife/younger sister-in-law

"…Eh? Every day we go to the fields and work tiringly, but there is not even a little bit of meat in our foods. Apart from having a little bit more quantity, how is it any different from usual times? In other households during the harvest period, even people with poor backgrounds know to buy a bit of meat to nourish everyone's health. Is our household poor to such an extent? Contrarily, our household is one of the best in the village. If others became aware of the food style of 'one of the best households of the village', we would let them have a good laugh…"

Regarding the recent meals in the family, the ever-gluttonous Wang-shi was already dissatisfied since the start. Usually, lao'er would go hunting from time to time and gave everyone a sumptuous feast in the family. That time, when lao'er got married, the house was in a mess. And till the harvest, he hasn't gone to the mountains for a long while. Apart from during lao'er's marriage banquet, not even a bit of meat was bought in the house. Coupled with this time, catching He-shi giving preferential treatment in the house, Wang-shi just vented out altogether.

lao'er: an appellation used to address the second child of the family.

He-shi's old face became red with embarrassment; however, she also can't make a fool of herself in front of her sons and daughter-in-law. As such, she could only pull her face and sit there.

Yang laoyezi had just come back from the field and hadn't had the time to take a rest before it became noisy as such. He also didn't know what to say to his wife.

Seeing that the old couple was sitting there without saying anything, Wang-shi felt even more courageous. Ever since she had married Yang Tieshuan, she was never able to exhale freely and expand the eyebrows in front of He-shi…

扬眉吐气 ( yángméitǔqì ): idiom, exhale freely and expand the eyebrows/ feeling of exaltation upon fulfillment/ feel proud and elated

"…Eh? So, all the good things in the house are being taken by the mother to favor a person. But this is also not a way to give a special favor. Usually, we are not even allowed to eat eggs, but the other person not only can eat eggs but can also eat a fat chicken. Ah right, all us adults, should we just go and die? Then you can properly use all the good stuff at home to favor one person….

All this time, there hasn't even been a sign of activity from the west room, the place where Yang Xuezhang resides.

Seeing that there was a lot of noise at this side, all the children at home also ran over and stood by the door, inquisitively peeking inside.

He-shi was beside humiliation and anger by Wang-shi's exaggerated reprimand. As it became ever noisier, not only the second branch's and third branch's couple came over, even the all the children of the family came to watch the show. Initially, she felt as if she being pinched by her hands and neck, feeling somewhat shameful. But now, looking at Wang-shi making the fuss without any restraint,

He-shi's anger hit the ceiling, and the last string in her head snapped.

Just then, she happened to see Yang Erniu and Yang Sanniu also standing by the door. With a swish, she shot up, and without even wearing her shoes, she dashed to the door before ruthlessly hauling Yang Erniu into the room.

He-shi's actions were too fast and very abrupt. No one expected her that she would dash to Yang Erniu, rendering anyone unable to react.

By the time they were able to react, Yang Erniu was already hauled into the room by He-shi. The child was small with a skinny frame. He-shi was ballistic, and to one's surprise, lifted the child in the air, looking very scary.

After hauling Yang Erniu in, taking advantage of everyone's lack of response, He-shi raised her hand and slapped her twice.

"Didn't this old lady ask you not to talk drivel anywhere, yet you went and spoke whatsoever nonsense…"

With a 'woah' Yao-shi dashed up quickly and pulled Yang Erniu from He-shi's hands into her embrace. Probably Yang Erniu was dumbfounded by her grandma's swift series of motions, not knowing how to react right away. Only when she was in her mother's embrace was she able to come to her senses and started bawling.

The little girl cried so hard that she was gasping for air, with a clear big red handprint on her face. With the little kid's face only this small, and He-shi's hand being very big, the size of handprint was nearly the same size as that of her face, looking extremely scary.

At that moment, Yao-shi only knew how to hold the child in her embrace and weep, not knowing what to say.

Yang Sanniu, looking at her sister getting thrashed and her mother squatting there and holding her older sister whilst crying, also ran over to them before hugging them starting crying too. One adult and two little ones crouched there whilst crying bitterly.

"Mother, what are you doing? What did you hit Erniu?" Yang Tiegen quickly dashed over to see the child.

"This old lady precisely beat her. I asked her no to speak whatsoever nonsense anywhere. Such a young age, yet she didn't learn to follow good examples and already learned to chew her tongue. Let's see who would want such small rotten goods in the future.."

嚼起舌根 (jáo shé tou gēn): chew one's tongue, gossip or talk nonsense

He-shi always yelled at people without filtering her mouth. To actually curse at your own granddaughter, a 5-year-old kid, this unpleasantly.

Lin Qingwan was trembling with anger from head to foot, not knowing how to block He-shi's mouth. Finally, she dashed over to Yao-shi to help her stand up from the ground first. And then, took over the child to take a look.

"Paining bomu…" Erniu indistinctly mumbled with her face in a hideous mess from all the crying and a bit of blood oozing out from the corner of her mouth.

剥亩 (bōmǔ): one's father's elder brother's wife.

Yang Tiegen was unaware of what He-shi meant. However, she and Yao-shi have clearly understood. He-shi probably thought it was the second girl who spoke about it everywhere, provoking Wang-shi to come and make a fuss.

Lin Qingwan carefully tried to touch the child's face. However, she didn't know where to put her hand. Yang Erniu's face had already swelled up. The big bluish-black patch on the child's tender and soft skin looked truly frightening.

This old lady….

F*ck this old lady….

Lin Qingwan wished to burst out with all these obscene words but quickly controlled herself. She took in a deep breath and exhaled out. After a good while, she controlled herself.

A daughter-in-law swearing at her mother-in-law is very disgraceful and a grave breach of the norms of society. Once these abusive words come out, no matter how justified or unjustified you are, it would entirely become you being unreasonable. At this moment, Lin Qingwan very much loathed this sort of suppression from 'filial piety' and this unequal ranking in the relationship of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. No matter how one's mother-in-law is wrong, a daughter-in-law cannot object even a bit.

Lin Qingwan calmed down all the raging thoughts in her heart, angrily glaring for a moment into space, and then said: "Mother-in-law, Erniu and Sanniu are both kids, as such it is unlikely for them to learn to chew on their tongues. Moreover, children are usually not sensible, thus upon returning back, in front of me and third dimei, they accidentally blurted out, however…"

She turned around and glared at He-shis triangular eyes, "…We didn't speak about this to anyone else, because for one we don't possess such skill of gossiping, second, we don't have such thoughts, and third, we promised the kids to not to speak about it outside. Because…" She paused and once again took a deep breath, "Because the kids said that their grandmother had warned them that if they spoke about it anywhere, they would be slapped hard…"

When everyone heard these words, several pairs of eyes turned to He-shi, making He-shi wish to drill a hole in the ground and hide.

When Yao-shi heard about slapping her kids, she cried even louder.

Seeing Lin Qingwan taking the initiative to stand on behalf of them, she also spoke out with trembling lips.

"…The child…is so young, mother-in-law…you…you hit so heavily…even more so you want to slap my kids…"

"Mother, ah…Mother…You…" Yang Tiegen also didn't know what to say. It was his mother who hit his child. He couldn't move or scold. He can neither do anything nor say anything. He could do nothing but crouch down with his head in his hands and yell helplessly. Such a big man with a sullen appearance looked truly dejected.

Yang laoyezi pointed at He-shi with a trembling finger, but even after pointing at her for a good while, he also didn't know what to say. As such, he could only put his hand down with a dejected sigh.

At the side, Wang-shi was staring blankly. Wonder what she was thinking.

Although Yang Sanniu didn't quite understand adults' talk, however, she understood that grandma hit her older sister because she thought she and her older sister had tattled on her.

The little girl's face became red from all the choking. It took half a day for her to speak those words out: "At that time, it wasn't just older sister and me. Older brother Erlang was also there. So, Grandma, why are you only hitting older sister?"

At that time, it wasn't just her and older sister who came to look after being attracted by the smell, but Erlang of the eldest branch also came. However, Erlang was quick-witted and quickly ran away after hearing the sound.

He-shi's eyes turned towards Yang Erlang, who quickly ran away like a wisp of smoke upon seeing his grandmother looking at him.

Lin Qingwan didn't bother to pay attention to this side. Instead, she quickly picked the child before dragging Yao-shi out of the main room. Yang Tiezhu also caught up with her, took the child in his hands, and went with her.

"The child is still young and is not good to get beaten. Shall we invite a physician to take a look?"

Placing the child on the kang, Lin Qingwan asked Yang Tiegen to go to the village to find a physician.

Yao-shi sat at the edge of the kang. Upon looking at the child's red and swollen small face, her tears kept dripping down. Contrarily, it was Erniu who was no longer crying, probably because her face hurt even more when crying.

Lin Qingwan sat beside Erniu and coaxed her, "Come Erniu, tell bomu, is your face hurting badly?" Erniu wanted to open her mouth, but her face was hurting so much, so she could only nod her head.

"Okay. Erniu is a really good child. Then tell the second bomu, do you feel a buzz in your ear? Can you hear the second bomu speaking to you?"

Puzzled, Erniu looked at her, unable to understand what buzz meant.

As such, Lin Qingwan could only change the wording, "Do you feel as if some flies flying around your ears?" She asked again while mimicking the manner of having flies flying around.

伯母 (bómǔ): wife of father's elder brother/ paternal aunt

This time the child understood and nodded.

"Okay, good girl." She then stroked Erniu's little head and asked: "Then, does Erniu feel dizzy or nauseous?"

This time Erniu understood the meaning of feeling dizzy and nauseous, so she quickly shook her head in denial.

Lin Qingwan finally let her heart at ease.

"Wife, what are you asking Erniu all of these for?" Yang Tiezhu asked her from the side.

"Many adults tend to beat kids. Sometimes, if they are heavy-handed, a slap can make them deaf. Moreover, if hit on the head, it is best to be even more cautious."

Concussions and such, Lin Qingwan, didn't explain much. And even if she explained, they would be unable to make sense out of it.

In her previous life, she often saw on the news about adults hitting children and slapping them on the ears, resulting in them becoming deaf or having concussions. However, she wasn't sure of how good medical science here was. As such, she could only determine how serious Erniu's injury was based on her knowledge.

When Yao-shi heard Lin Qinwan saying that slapping a child can make them deaf, she quickly stood up and looked at the child in fluster but didn't know where to put her hand.

Seeing Yao-shi like that, Lin Qingwan pulled her out, lest she becomes even more anxious.

"You go and get a basin of water to give a child a cold compress."

Yao-shi quickly covered her mouth with a sniffle and ran into the courtyard to fetch water.

After Yao-shi brought the water, Lin Qingwan again asked for a clean and soft cloth. She then soaked the fabric in the basin and squeezed the excess water, leaving a sufficient amount of water absorbed in the fabric before applying carefully on Erniu's face.

Unfortunately, there were no ice cubes. If they had ice cubes, the effect would have been better.

"Erniu, be good, second bomu will give you a compress, after which it will no longer hurt."

Erniu was obedient, letting Lin Qingwan give her a compress in her left cheek.

Such an obedient child, how could He-shi bring herself to raise a hand on her?

Recalling the scene of He-shi hitting the child, Lin Qingwan trembled with anger.

At this time, Yang Tiegen came back with a physician. The physician seemed to be 50-60 years old with all of his hair and mustache white. Nonetheless, his body seemed to be robust, without trembling when walking.

As soon as the physician came, Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi stepped aside.

"Physician, please come and take a look. The child's grandmother hit the child in anger. I was afraid that the slap might cause some ailments. As such, I asked you to come here to take a look." Saying so, Lin Qingwan removed the cloth from Erniu's face.

Upon taking a close look, the physician immediately took a deep breath in.

"This is utterly ridiculous. How can one be so heavy-handed on a child." The elderly physician rebuked and asked Yang Erniu if she could hear everyone speaking.

Yang Erniu nodded.

"Hearing is okay," the elderly physician set his heart at ease and turned around to speak with the adults, "The child's ears are of no problem. I will prescribe herbal medicine, make a paste of it and apply it to the child. If she feels dizzy or nauseous, take her to the medical center in the town. You must also be aware that this old man's medical expertise is only this much; I can only look at minor problems such as headache and slight fever."

头疼脑热(tóu téng nǎo rè): headache and slight fever / slight illness. It refers to general minor diseases.

Yao-shi and Yang Tiegen hurriedly nodded their heads.

Yang Tiegen went along with the elderly physician to bring back the herbal medicine. Lin Qingwan, too once again cautioned Yao-shi: "Be careful. If the child showed any symptoms of dizziness and nausea, quickly take her to the town."

Yao-shi wiped his tears before nodding. Nonetheless, her tears still dripped down as she nodded.

Seeing Yao-shi like this, Lin Qingwan also didn't know what she can say. Such a rigid and inflexible mindset has been deep-rooted for many years in them and is not something that can be changed in one morning and evening. Besides, in this place, a grandmother hitting a disobedient granddaughter is not something that is unseen. So, where can they even go to demand justice? Even an honest and upright official will face difficulties in resolving a family dispute. It is of no use to even talk about it, especially when these husband-and-wife pair don't seem to care about He-shi's manner.

一朝一夕 (yīzhāoyīxī): lit. one morning and one evening (idiom) / fig. in a short time/overnight

Imaginations even ran in Lin Qingwan's mind as to what she would do if He-shi treats her children the same way in the future? However, without much thought, Lin Qingwan was aware that she would never let He-shi be. When your own child was being hit, what's there to speak about filial piety?

This is the gap between modern and ancient people; their thinking is not that rigid and inflexible.

As soon as Yang Tiegen brought the herbal medicine, they made a paste of it and applied it to Erniu. Seeing this, Lin Qingwan and Yang Tiezhu went back to their room.

The entire house was unusually quiet. Over there in the main room, it was pitch dark, without even lamp lit.

It seemed as if the family didn't have any intention of cooking dinner tonight. Anyways, Lin Qingwan also had no intention of eating. She had enough of these people.

After both of them had the cakes bought by Yang Tiezhu, they freshened up and went to bed. After such an exhaustive day, and once going through such a fuss in the evening, everyone was tired out.

Just when they were about to fall asleep, Lin Qingwan suddenly spoke.

"Your mother is truly not a human!" Then, after pausing for a second, she once again added, "In the future, if your mother dares to treat our kids like that, Yang Teizhu, then don't say that I didn't warn you in advance. I will definitely have a fallout with her."

Upon hearing her say so, Yang Tiezhu didn't say anything but simply embraced her tighter.

After a while, he replied, "Wanwan, this kind of thing will never happen for sure, don't worry!"

However, by this time, Lin Qingwan was already fallen asleep and couldn't hear him.

On the other side, in the third branch's room, ever since Lin Qingwan and they have walked out, Yao-shi's tears never stopped dripping.

Both the children had already fallen asleep, and no one also dared to mention hunger. Moreover, they were also still young; after all the crying and fuss, they were already tired and fell asleep.

Yang Tiegen had been all along squatted on the ground with his head in his arms, listening to his wife's sobs.

After a good while, he stood up and came to Yao-shi's side.

"Wife, don't cry. I will make it up for you."

Yao-shi turned her head in the opposite direction and wiped her tears.

Yang Tiegen sighed in distress as he pulled his hair.

"You say, she is my mother, what can I say to her, ah?!" His heart was also very much very uncomfortable. His mother, younger brother, and younger sister were stealthily eating in the house, and in the end, were caught by children, whom she threatened to hit them if they happen to speak about it anywhere else. Who would have imagined that not only Erniu and Sanniu saw them, but the eldest branch's Erlang also saw them and told it to Wang-shi, who ended up making a din. Ultimately, after all this fuss, their whole family was caught upon in misfortune.

But what can he even say, ah? Can he even hit or scold his mother?

When Yao-shi heard Yang Tiegen say as such, she turned around. Her eyes were bright red, don't know whether it was because of crying or hatred.

"Yes, yes, yes, what you said is reasonable. She is your mother; thus, she cannot distinguish red-green or black-white, and can hit Erniu. She is your mother, so she can give preferential treatment to some. And when children happen to see it, she can even threaten them to beat them?"

Yang Tiegen had pain across his whole face, but he, too, didn't know what to say.

Tears started to drip again on Yao-shi's face. With a sorrowful sob, she said, "Yang Tiegen, you tell me, it has been several years since I have married you. Apart from not being able to give you a son, where have I ever let your Yang family down? All the meals were managed by your mother; thus, I didn't even dare to eat much. Both the kids have grown so much, yet they couldn't even get to eat an egg when they wish to…I always ate the least amount of meals, yet I didn't work less than you. Am I still not good? What do I do?!" Yao-shi seemed to be agitated, "…Your mother, your eldest sao, both look down upon me. Even our two kids are pitiful and are every day suppressed by the eldest branch's sons. Both of them are only 4-5 years old, yet the food is snatched from them by their elder brothers. Still, they never uttered a voice and would only come back and cry to me…"

Yang Tiegen's eyes also welled up as he took his thin and weak wife into his hands.

"I'm sorry, wife. Blame me for not having any ability. However, she is my mother, ah… what can I even say to her…"

It wasn't that Yang Tiegen wasn't aware of how his wife and daughter are treated at home. But by nature, he was inarticulate and was honest and filial by conduct. Unfortunately, sometimes even upon seeing his mother harshly criticizing his wife and children, he was also rendered motionless.

When his mother hits or scolds him, he can neither hit nor scold back. So even if she makes a fuss, he doesn't stand a chance against her. And could only be suppressed and manipulated by her.

Yao-shi and Yang Tiegen are both orthodox by nature with filial piety as big as the sky. As such, she also didn't wish for her husband to do anything. Because she knew that her man was filial, and her mother-in-law, He-shi, was an unreasonable and temperamental type.

However, after working hard without any complaint for years, few thoughts arose in her heart. Just like her second sao said, even if adults can be ignored, one must still look after children.

At night, Yao shi laid on the kang without sleeping for a long time. Second sao's words kept swirling around inside her head…

The next day, early in the morning, everyone got up, as usual, washed their face, and rinsed their mouths.

He-shi was the one who made breakfast this morning. After making breakfast, He-shi stood in the yard and called everyone in a loud voice to have breakfast and go for work.

Originally, He-shi didn't want to get up and prepare it, but Yang laoyezi forced her saying if she doesn't cook, how can everyone go to the fields for work. Could it be that they have to starve again, just like last night? He-shi had no choice but to angrily get up and cook.

老爷子 (lǎoyézi): old father, an appellation used for an elderly male.

When having breakfast, everyone was unusually quiet; neither adults nor children spoke. Yao-shi and the two kids didn't come for breakfast. Yang Tiegan came and took their share and left.

He-shi wanted to say something but gritted her teeth and did not speak.

After breakfast, everyone got ready to go to the fields for work. Yang Tiegen went to Yang laoyezi to inform that Yao-shi would not go today and be at home to look after the child as the doctor had said that she was hit a bit seriously and need to be taken to town if she felt dizzy and nauseous.

Upon hearing this, Yang laoyezi at once nodded his head and instructed He-shi to send a few eggs to her as nourishment. Hearing that child was struck a bit by her, she also didn't object. But she had a long face, not knowing what she was thinking.

Lin Qingwan's work was the same as what she did the previous day. Today, Wang-shi was also unusually sincere; perhaps after venting a bit yesterday, she had a bit lingering fear, fearing that He-shi would seek her to look for trouble.

All the time harvesting, harvesting, and again harvesting; Although Lin Qingwan was only helping them a bit, doing this all day long every day, she was also extremely tired.

Only at this moment was she truly able understand the classical Chinese poem she had learnt in her previous life, and understand the meaning of 'Hoeing cereal in the midday sun, his sweat drops and nourishes the grain and the earth, but only few people know that his supper is nothing but hard work.' All the cereals are the sweat of families of farmers.

But, the only thing worth rejoice was that after them stealthily eating incident, don't know what Yang laoyezi said to He-shi, but there was also meat in the meals for the next few days packed by He-shi. Although it was only bits and pieces of diced meat, it was still a bit more appetizing than previous lunches.