Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 34

Chapter 34

The vegetable garden was ready, so the next day, Ye Xi went down the mountain to Li-ge’er’s house to ask for some seedlings.

When he arrived, Li-ge’er was embroidering handkerchiefs in the courtyard. Ye Xi stood at the fence gate and called out, “I haven’t seen you for a while, Li-ge’er, you’ve become even more refined.”

Hearing his voice, Li-ge’er looked up happily. “You finally came to talk to me!”

He quickly went to get a stool from under the eaves. “You don’t know, ever since you got married, no one has come to talk to me, so I have to embroider handkerchiefs to pass the time.”

Ye Xi entered the courtyard and sat down, looking at the embroidery pattern. “I couldn’t come before visiting my parents, but now that I’ve been back, I came to see you.”

Li-ge’er ran the needle through his hair, teasing him, “You must be enjoying your blissful newlywed life with your husband on the mountainside, like a celestial couple, reluctant to come down and see me.”

Ye Xi smiled, his married life was indeed blissful. “Stop teasing, I came today to ask for some vegetable seedlings. I’ve prepared a new vegetable garden and need to plant them soon, so they can grow before winter.”

Li-ge’er took the basket he handed over. “The seedlings at home are growing well recently, I can give you as many as you need.”

Ye Xi watched as he went to the vegetable garden to choose seedlings. “More radish and cabbage seedlings, and a dozen or twenty of the others will be enough.”

Li-ge’er agreed. “My mother is good at growing seedlings, they have thick roots and long tendrils, they grow quickly after planting, you can plant more if you want, you can sell the extra ones in town when you have too many.”

Ye Xi smiled. “It’s just the two of us, we can’t eat that much. We’ll sell the extra ones. Is it still ten wen for twenty seedlings?”

Li-ge’er said, “Just give whatever you think is appropriate. The seedling season is almost over, and my mother would have to remove them anyway, so you might as well take them.”

Li-ge’er’s mother was known in Shanxiu Village for her skill in growing seedlings. The seedlings she grew were larger and grew faster than others’, and were also easier to care for, so she started selling seedlings. Although she didn’t earn much, she could still supplement the family income by a few taels of silver a year.

Ye Xi shook his head. “Your mother worked hard growing them, I can’t take advantage of her like that. I’ll pay the usual price, so you can give the money to your mother.”

Li-ge’er chose healthy seedlings for Ye Xi in the vegetable garden and said, “Do you know about what happened to the Lin family in the east end of the village?”

Ye Xi shook his head, annoyed. “Their Yao-ge’er pulled off my veil at my wedding and caused a scene. I slapped him twice, and we’re no longer on speaking terms. Why would I care about their family?”

Li-ge’er also felt angry when mentioning it. “That Yao-ge’er is truly unruly, causing you trouble. But he’s been having some bad luck recently.”

Ye Xi looked up and asked, “What happened?”

Li-ge’er smiled. “Now that you’re living a blissful life, you’ve shut yourself off from the outside world. You haven’t even heard about the big news that’s been spreading throughout the village?”

Ye Xi said, “I just got married and have a lot of household chores to take care of. I’m busy with my own life, why would I care about his business? Besides, I haven’t been back to the village for several days, so it’s understandable that I don’t know.”

Li-ge’er became excited and patted the dirt off his hands. “Their family has become a laughingstock, and Yao-ge’er’s reputation is completely ruined.”

Ye Xi listened as he continued.

“Do you know Qian Ma-zi from our village?”

Ye Xi nodded. “The one from the west end of the village, he loves to drink and always owes money to the wine shop.”

“Hey, it was him who discovered Yao-ge’er’s shameful secret!” Li-ge’er said excitedly.

Ye Xi raised his eyebrows. “Shameful… secret?”

“That night, Qian Ma-zi drank too much in the next village and didn’t come back until midnight. He was drunk and got lost in the village, couldn’t find his way home, so he wandered around. He saw a shadowy figure acting suspiciously and wanted to ask for directions, so he followed the figure. Guess what he saw?”

Ye Xi had already guessed it. This was a classic scene from storybooks, a secret meeting.

Li-ge’er returned with the basket of seedlings and continued, “He saw the figure enter the watermill at the entrance of our village. Before he could enter, another person emerged from behind the haystack outside and followed the first person inside.”

Ye Xi asked, “Were they both from our village?”

Li-ge’er said, “The young man was from our village. Don’t be surprised, it was your rival, Yao-ge’er!”

Ye Xi frowned. “How could it be him?” He thought Yao-ge’er was a proud person, how could he do such a lowly thing? But it was none of his business, he would just treat it as village gossip.

Li-ge’er clicked his tongue. “That Qian Ma-zi is a lecherous drunkard. Seeing such a scene, he wanted to take a closer look, so he quietly approached the door. Just as he was about to peek through a crack in the door, he tripped on the stone steps, the door burst open, and he fell inside.”

“The people inside were startled. The man grabbed his clothes and ran away before Qian Ma-zi could react. He didn’t see who it was, just saw Yao-ge’er, disheveled and pale, sitting in the straw. Qian Ma-zi, seeing Yao-ge’er’s good looks and exposed skin, had wicked thoughts and tried to force himself on him. Yao-ge’er, in his fright, hit him on the back with the pestle from the mill and ran away. The commotion was so loud that many villagers lit their lamps and came out to see what happened, and the whole thing was exposed.”

Ye Xi asked, “How did the village chief and the village council handle this matter?”

Li-ge’er picked two tomatoes from the vegetable garden as a snack, washed them, and handed them to Ye Xi. “This matter couldn’t be publicized. Qian Ma-zi was given thirty lashes according to village rules, he’ll probably be limping for the rest of his life, and two acres of his land were confiscated and given to the Lin family as compensation. As for Yao-ge’er, this incident has spread throughout the village, everyone knows he snuck out at night to meet a man, his reputation is completely ruined. Although it’s not supposed to be spread outside the village, it’s hard to control gossip, it will eventually get out. If he’s thin-skinned, he might be driven to suicide by the rumors.”

Ye Xi took a small bite of the tomato, the sweet and sour juice filling his mouth. “He has terrible taste in men, how could he have a secret affair with such an irresponsible man who abandoned him at a critical moment?”

Li-ge’er curled his lip. “Isn’t that right? Now he has to bear the brunt of the ridicule alone.”

Ye Xi didn’t want to get involved in this matter and asked Li-ge’er about his marriage proposal. “How’s your marriage proposal with Li San’s family going?”

Li-ge’er replied, “It’s on hold.”

“What happened? Didn’t your mother like them? You also said Li San’s son is honest, hardworking, and works as a butcher every day.”

Li-ge’er sighed softly. “It seemed good at first, but you don’t know, my mother asked someone to inquire later, and it turned out that Li San has three sons. The one they proposed to me was the second son, the middle child, not favored by either parent. His father dotes on the eldest, and his mother dotes on the youngest, he’s caught in the middle.”

Ye Xi listened quietly to his complaint. Young men were most afraid of marrying into families with biased parents-in-law and complicated family dynamics.

“His parents do have money, but they only favor the other two sons, helping the eldest build a house and get married, and helping the youngest raise his children, often giving them money secretly. But they completely ignore the second son, Li Xi. Even though the youngest son is already married with children, the second son’s marriage hasn’t been settled. If I married into their family, I would have to fight with the eldest and youngest families, and life wouldn’t be peaceful. My mother immediately refused after hearing this, saying we should look for someone else.”

Ye Xi nodded. “Even if he’s a reliable person, if you married into their family, the parents-in-law would find fault with you, and your sisters-in-law would cause trouble for you. There would be constant drama and conflicts. That won’t do. Marrying a man requires considering his family, we can’t just marry into any family.”

Li-ge’er also came to his senses. Although he thought Li Xi was a good person, he couldn’t marry into that family.

“We’ll see, I’ll let my mother look for someone else.”

Ye Xi then chatted with him about other things. At noon, when Lin Jiangshan returned from the fields, he went home with him.

At the Lin family’s house,

Yao-ge’er lay in bed, his eyes swollen from crying like walnuts, his hair messy, no longer his usual handsome self.

Mother Lin had been crying for days in the main room. Father Lin sat on the side, smoking his pipe with a sullen face. Annoyed by Mother Lin’s crying, he scolded, “Stop crying! You two should be ashamed of yourselves! You’ve disgraced the Lin family! I’ve shamed our ancestors by having you two fools!”

Mother Lin sobbed, for once not daring to yell back at her husband. She said between sobs, “It’s all the Cao family’s fault! They haven’t come to propose marriage after so long. How many times have the villagers laughed at us behind our backs? And you too, always bragging about the marriage with the Cao family, letting everyone know that our Yao-ge’er is going to marry into their family. But look, that little bitch from the Ye family is already married, and our Yao-ge’er is still single. Of course he’s anxious!”

Father Lin said angrily, “So he went out to have a secret affair with a man! He has more ideas than the sky! You, as his mother, knew about it but didn’t stop him, even helped him hide it. Now it’s been exposed, and our Lin family’s reputation is ruined! I want to drown him in the river! To save us from being the laughingstock of the village!”

Mother Lin stood up and grabbed his clothes, shouting hysterically, “Then drown both of us in the river, to save you the trouble! Then you can marry a younger woman and have some peace and quiet! Come on, tie us up now!”

Father Lin slammed his pipe on the table, furious. “Stop being crazy! We need to figure out what to do! Yao-ge’er’s reputation is ruined! Who will marry him now! If he can’t get married in a few years, he’ll truly become a laughingstock!”

Mother Lin gnashed her teeth at the mention of this. “That Cao family is truly despicable, abandoning our Yao-ge’er after being caught. If he had any shame, he should have come to propose marriage long ago! There’s been no news at all!”

Yao-ge’er, in his room, heard his parents’ conversation, his teeth gritted. That Cao Bin abandoned him, truly chilling his heart. But now that his reputation was ruined, if he couldn’t grasp this last straw, his life was over. Even if he died, he would take someone down with him. Cao Bin would never be able to get rid of him!