Chapter 65: Little Ye Is Going With Me
Translator: Flying Lines
Proofread by Claire.KK
Ye had no option but to point at Xiao Baoshan who was working in the field.
Xiao Baoshan was still threshing. He was a large man and as strong as an ox. Beads of sweat were as big as peas streaming down his face with more charm added on him, which made Liu Qianqian’s eyes suddenly glitter.
“Right, Little Ye, no wonder you’re not willing to work for me. It turns out that you have got such a handsome and strapping husband.
Ye Xiaoxian answered hurriedly, “Your Ladyship, please stop joking. It’s not because of him!”
“Not because of him? Then would you rather I say to him that I want to hire you to cook for my family and let’s see if he’s willing to let you go?”
Ye Xiaoxian thought that she had already talked about this with Xiao Baoshan and Xiao Baoshan was not that kind of person who would take the liberty to decide anything for her, so she smiled. “It’s up to you.”
She did not expect that Liu Qianqian really shouted to the field, “Hey, Xiao Baoshan!”
Xiao Baoshan stopped beating the grain and looked towards Ye Xiaoxian’s direction.
“Baoshan, your little Ye had already agreed to be my cook. Do you agree to it?” shouted Liu Qianqian.
Xiao Baoshan looked at Ye Xiaoxian and only smiled lightly. “I agree to what little Ye agrees.”
“Then don’t you regret. Little Ye is going back with me to town tonight!”
Xiao Baoshan nodded.
Ye Xiaoxian said to her, “Your Ladyship, if you still don’t leave I’m afraid I can’t cook for you. Look, it’s going dark and aren’t you afraid of being harassed by hooligans.”
“Go away, you. Even hooligans won’t be interested in a skinny girl like me, but I do feel rather hungry. Let’s hurry go back and cook some food.”
All his families had left and only Xiao Baoshan himself was still working in the field.
He was beating the grain while pondering on what Liu Qianqian just said.
‘Is little Ye really going with her to town today? Didn’t she say that she got other plans?
Or was she moved by Liu Qianqian’s sincerity?’
No matter what it would be the case, he respected little Ye’s decision.
In the rice fields nearby, some villagers who overheard Liu Qianqian and Xiao Baoshan’s conversation began to whisper to one another,
“whoa, a rich lady from the town turns out to be quite a bold gal. She actually flirted with Baoshan in front of little Ye.”
“She actually got down the carriage. I thought all the rich ladies in town were like shutting themselves in their rooms and doing needlework and we common people had no chance to take a look at them, but this young lady’s manner is pretty coarse, isn’t she? She’s no difference from the gals in our village. She was also shouting without any hesitation.”
“Tsk, but she’s rich and rich gals shout confidently. Not like our village gals, they just shout and howl randomly.”
…
Liu Qianqian indeed brought a lot of ingredients including chicken, duck, fish, meat and various seasoning, which were what Ye Xiaoxian normally used in Lord Liu’s kitchen.
Liu Qianqian said, “I’m not fussy about food today. I just want to eat the fish filets in hot chili oil and sour and sweet ribs.”
Ye Xiaoxian watched Liu Qianqian’s servants unloading half a basket of meat and said, “Miss Liu, what you bring is enough for two whole days. Don’t tell me that you’re coming again tomorrow?”
“I won’t really. Just save the rest if there’s any left and cook them by yourselves. My family has more.” Liu Qianqian smiled.
“Well then, so Miss Liu is actually coming and flaunting her wealth!” smiled Ye Xiaoxian.
Liu Qianqian sized up the row of rooms made by earth and said pitifully, “I can’t do much really if you put it this way, and after all the living condition of yours is really bad. What my servants live are far better than yours.”
“Young lady, you might want to watch the way you speak or you might get beaten up someday, you see?” Ye Xiaoxian reminded her kindly.
“I got so many servants around and who dares to beat me?” said Liu Qianqian confusedly.
“Well, as long as you’re happy. Speaking of that, my living condition is like this and I hope it won’t make you lose your appetite.”
“I won’t make a fuss about this as long as I can sit down and eat.”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled and asked Xiao Baozhu to accompany Miss Liu and she went to cook with Li Hongmei.
Perhaps all the villagers had heard of this honorable guest of Xiao Family who rode in a horse-drawn carriage, so it did not take a minute when Liu Qianqian’s carriage was surrounded by many children.
Liu Qianqian had also anticipated this situation so she let her servants to give out sweets to those children. Finally the servants shouted “There’s no more sweets and go home”.
Those children were yet to go away but stared at Liu Qianqian who was in the courtyard.
“Aren’t rich ladies all white and chubby? They should look like Miss Bodhisattva in the Spring festival posters but why this lady looks so skinny?”
“Dunno, maybe she doesn’t like eating food?”
“Crap, there’s nobody in the world who doesn’t like eating food.”
“I don’t know then, or maybe she’s like Uncle Ban’er in our village. He always eats more than half of bucket rice everyday but he still looks like a skinny monkey, right?”
“You has a point!”
It was not the first time that she had heard such gossips. She was kind of angry at the beginning and thinking if she should ask her sweets back, but Xiao Baozhu beside her also asked her a question, “Miss, Miss Qianqian, why didn’t you like eating before?”
Liu Qianqian’s anger had been erased right away.
“Because what my cook cooked is not tasty so I starved, but don’t worry, I will gain my weight back very quickly because…your sister-in-law is cooking for me now.”
Liu Qianqian swore to God that she would gain her weight back to stop those village kids looking down on her!
“Miss Qianqian, your novels are great.” Xiao Baozhu were obsessed with romantic novels and now she saw the owner of those books so she could not help but talk about what she read.
“Oh, those novels, alas, they are all made-up stories. You might as well just read for fun but don’t take it seriously,” Liu Qianqian reminded her.
“Ah? They are all made up? Why?” Xiao Baozhu could not believe her ears.
“Think about it, all those stories are about scholars who fall for common village girls, a princess swearing love to her guard and a married man who develops affection towards his wife’s younger sister. These are all craps and no such things have ever happened in real life,” said Liu Qianqian in a serious tone.
“But if they’re not real why people should write them into novels? They are somewhat touching,” asked Xiao Baozhu.
“They are perhaps made up to deceive young girls and after all, only unmarried little girls read those. However, I am going to write some novels and overthrow all those existing tacky stories and don’t forget to read through them when I finish my work.” Liu Qianqian patted Xiao Baozhu’s shoulders.
Xiao Baozhu thought about Scholar Wong so what Liu Qianqian just said sounded not convincing to her, but she felt honored by talking with a rich young lady.
With Liu Qianqian’s presence, Li Hongmei worried that they would not be able to eat in the room and what was more, it was not appropriate to let a young lady cram with them in a shabby room.
Li Hongmei then went to her next-door neighbour Mrs. Zhao’s to borrow a table and several stools, and served the food outside in the courtyard.
When the food was ready, Xiao Baoshan also arrived home with a huge bag of rice grain.
Liu Qianqian saw him and teased him once more. “Xiao Baoshan, little Ye is going back with me after dinner.”
Xiao Baoshan paused in a daze.
He then carried the bag of grain to the room silently.
Liu Qianqian said this twice and Li Hongmei was almost convinced so she glanced at Ye Xiaoxian in confusion but Ye Xiaoxian whispered, “Don’t listen to her.”
Li Hongmei had got the idea of Liu Qianqian so she asked her as soon as Xiao Baoshan went out. “Miss Qianqian, if little Ye works for you as a cook, do you provide food and accommodation? Can she visit home regularly?”
Liu Qianqian said, “Our staff only have two days-off every month and so does the cook.”
“Then only Baozhu and I are going to sell cold jelly. Well it sounds okay to me. We can do different work and make more money.”
Liu Qianqian then said, “That’s right. There’s no big difference for little Ye working for me or staying here. She just needs to cook some time and after cooking, she goes back to her own room and sleep alone so it’s no big difference for her to have a husband or not.”
Li Hongmei sighed. “It’s different alright because little Ye will have better food to manage and better room to live in your home but still, it’s true that she sleeps alone.”
“…”
The two of them spoke to one another until Xiao Baoshan came to join them at the table.
Sometimes people should not “push things too far” and the more they talked, the more it sounded fake.
Xiao Baoshan had already guessed what they were up to and there was a faint smile on his lips when he sat at the table.
“Let’s hurry up and eat, and by the way, has anyone taken food to grandpa?”
Xiao Baofeng said, “Yes I did. Grandpa doesn’t like the spicy fish so I brought him ribs and rice.”
“Good. We have a honorable guest today and hope this guest could enjoy the dinner.” Xiao Baoshan glanced at Liu Qianqian.
“Enjoy, yea, I will enjoy. The most enjoyable thing is I’m going to take little Ye with me tonight and I couldn’t enjoy it more,” said Liu Qianqian.
Xiao Baoshan smiled lightly again.
Ye Xiaoxian looked at Xiao Baoshan’s expression and she could tell that Liu Qianqian and Li Hongmei had overdone their acting. She knew that Baoshan was clever enough to just sit there quietly, watching the show without revealing them.
…
Wong Mudan and Chen Ju came back home after dark.
They were both physically and mentally exhausted. When their men went to the field, they worked alright because all the rice fields in the village were connected, so if they slacked off in the field, they would be gossiped by other villagers.
However, the two brothers were not willing to help and every time Wong Mudan and Chen Ju made single mistake, the two men would complain the hell out of them.
When they just stepped in home they smelled the fragrance of fish. It was the fish filets in hot chili oil that they tasted last time with another dish, sweet and sour ribs.
Looking at their own home, since everyone went out to work and they only had half pot of white porridge left and pickles.
Seeing this, Xiao Tieshu and Xiao Tongshu started again and children were crying for food.
Wong Mudan had no other way out but turned to Ye Xiaoxian, asking her if they had any leftover to feed the children first and the adults could wait.
Ye Xiaoxian was an easygoing person and they happened to have some food left so she agreed right way but she also said that those leftover were only enough for children but not for adults.
Wong Mudan breathed a sigh of relief and then went to cook food for adults with Chen Ju.
They were so worn out that their waist was nearly broken.
…
Although Ye Xiaoxian did not go with Liu Qianqian, Xiao Baoshan still somehow worried.
That night, when Ye Xiaoxian washed dishes alone in the courtyard Xiao Baoshan joined her as well.
Ye Xiaoxian said hurriedly, “Why are you here? Didn’t we ask you to take a rest? You alone threshed so many rice grain and you must be tired.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not tired!” as Xiao Baoshan replied, he took the bowl Ye Xiaoxian just rinsed and washed it clean.
One was washing and the other was rinsing, which looked rather harmonious.
Xiao Baozhu was trying to give a hand but when she saw there was no place for her to squeeze in, she went back to her room hurriedly.
They day had become completely dark and they could only borrow the moon light to wash dishes. Neither of them spoke and they only touched each other a bit while passing the bowls.
Under the blurry light of the night, their contact with each other was also blurred which made this night rather romantic.
…
The next day, Wong Mudan once more got up at daybreak.
They had not reaped half of the rice crop and they must finish them all by the end of today.
Once she thought that they had to thresh after harvest she then sighed and wondered when would such a life end?
She was kept working a whole day yesterday so she had a mood this morning and woke up Xiao Tieshu early in the morning.
Xiao Tieshu was also exhausted by working yesterday so he was not happy to get up, but Wong Mudan decided not to put up with his willfulness but forced him to get up.
Wong Mudan almost cried, “We have so much field and if both of you and third brother don’t go there to help, the whole village will laugh at you!”
“Men are meant to do great things and how can we do such chores everyday?”
“What’s wrong about those chores? The work in the rice field is the greatest thing waiting to be done and so many people in our families need feeding. Do you wish to starve to death the next half of the year?”
“Give me a minute!” Xiao Tieshu tried to fall into sleep again.
“No way, look at Baoshan, he went to the grain-sunning ground early at dawn to dry the grain!”
“Baoshan, Baoshan and you keep nagging me with his name. Do you hate me? Huh? I at least make more money than him.”
“You…Xiao Tieshu, I don’t want to speak nonsense to you today. Anyway, you get up and work right away!”
“…”
There was a terrible fighting going on in the first household and the third household was in the same situation. The only difference was that Chen Ju was not good at fighting and she was not used to shouting. She was only crying with tears which made Xiao Tongshu feel so annoyed that he was forced to get up.
The first and third households were finally going out but when they went out, Wong Mudan saw Ye Xiaoxian combing her hair under the eaves and she asked Ye Xiaoxian, “little Ye, don’t you go to the field today?”
Ye Xiaoxian replied subconsciously, “We have done our quota, haven’t we?”
“You don’t go to town to sell cold jelly either?”
“I don’t think there will be anyone still coming and buying cold jelly during the farming season, so we’re off today.” There was a farming season break going on and there would not be many people in town.
Ye Xiaoxian planned to open up shop after the break.
Wong Mudan asked randomly, “Since you’re free now, how about helping us harvest rice crop in the field?”
“We’d rather not. It’s hot down there,” said Ye Xiaoxian frankly.
Wong Mudan was almost choked to death.