Chapter 66: Have I Got Your Heart
Translator: Fan Translation Studio
Proofread by Claire.KK
‘Since this Ye Xiaoxian had remarried to Xiao Baoshan she had completely changed. If it was in the past she would not dare say no to what I ordered her to do but now…huh, she’s more spoiled than a rich young lady in the town.’
Wong Mudan actually felt thankful to Ye Xiaoxian for sparing the children some leftover last night but since Ye Xiaoxian refused her now, the little bit of gratitude of her had once for all been erased.
‘It was just some leftover, wasn’t it? Baocheng, Baoyang and Baoxue are her cousins and what’s the big deal for them to eat some of her food?’
…
This was a big grain-sunning ground in Daliang Village and after villagers threshed the rice crops they would take them here to dry.
The principle of doing farm work for villagers was “the earlier, the better”; besides, the grain-sunning ground was not big enough for all the families of the village to dry their crops so they had to come earlier to occupy a good place, so although Xiao Baoshan had come early in the morning there were already quite a few villagers drying their grain.
When the tall and large Xiao Baoshan appeared with a big bag of rice on his shoulders, all the villagers started staring at him.
There were a lot of gossips about Xiao Baoshan in the village.
Some said he escaped from the battlefield. The war in the north was at its critical time and men were wanted yet he came back at this time, so except for being cowardly what else would he be?
Some said that he had long left the military but hang around with gangs and the head of the gangs was finished off by others so he came back.
Some even said that he had eaten too much in the military and the military could not afford his expense and that was why he came back.
What was more, Xiao Baoshan married his sister-in-law, little Ye, when he just came back, so the villagers tended to gossip about him more behind his back.
Xiao Baoshan found an empty place in the grain-sunning ground, put his grain down, poured them slowly onto the ground and spread them up evenly.
He had just done spread his grain and saw an elder called Uncle Chen shouldering his grain and coming.
This Uncle Chen had a son but he died before he even got married and two years ago Uncle Chen’s wife had gone too, and he farmed all his land by himself.
Uncle Chen looked that he had strained himself by carrying the grain. Seeing this Xiao Baoshan came to Uncle Chen and helped him to put down the bag of grain.
“Let me!” said Xiao Baoshan.
Uncle Chen felt surprised and flattered, looking at Xiao Baoshan in a puzzled manner.
Xiao Baoshan seemed not to be needing the slightest effort to carry this bag of grain. Not only did he help Uncle Chen unload it but spread the grain on the ground tidily.
“Bao, Baoshan, thank you,” said Uncle Chen gratefully.
“You’re welcome.” Xiao Baoshan replied precisely.
…
He just sorted Uncle Chen out and there was a Granny Wong coming over with grain on her shoulders.
This Granny Wong was a pitiful woman too. She had two sons and two daughters-in-law but the two sons had long split and lived apart in a raw and both of them treated her as a burden, so they only offered her half mu of land and left her to die alone.
Granny Wong was also struggling to carry her bag of grain and Xiao Baoshan gave her a hand too.
Under the shades of the trees nearby many villagers were resting there and guarding their own rice grain. They saw that Xiao Baoshan actually helped Uncle Chen and Granny Wong and they could not help chattering.
“Don’t they say that Xiao Baoshan was a man who disdains to recognize his kinsmen? The elder Mrs. Xiao nee Wong was scolding him yesterday, saying folks in the second household are the most selfish ones and they wouldn’t give a hand to them when they were nearly exhausted to death.”
“But I heard that when the second household originally lived apart they did not get any field but they’ve now somehow gained half mu of field, but with such a little field I’m afraid they could just barely cover the taxes, am I right?”
“If you ask me, the elder Mrs. Xiao has occupied so much land and she still got her husband and why should the second household help her?”
“You’re right there and I find Xiao Baoshan very warm-hearted.”
“…”
It was quite a strange thing if you thought about it because in the past no one dared to speak to Xiao Baoshan, but since they saw him help Uncle Chen and Granny Wong, some of them who came later felt more daring to ask Xiao Baoshan to give them a hand if they were in need.
Xiao Baoshan was not talkative though, he helped them as much as he could and then went back to the shade silently to guard on his own family’s rice grain.
Surprisingly he had gained much appraise from villagers this day.
…
Ye Xiaoxian did not idle around when she stayed at home.
Xiao Baofeng and Xiao Baozhu were practicing writing and Ye Xiaoxian was tidying up the courtyard and cooking along with Li Hongmei.
Meanwhile, Chen Ju’s little daughter Baoxue came back from the field with a crying face. There was no one in the third household and Baoxue dared not to go to Old Mr. Xiao so she went to find Ye Xiaoxian.
“Second Sister-in-law…” she hadn’t finished talking but started to cry with tears.
“Baoxue, what’s wrong?” Ye Xiaoxian could not bear to watch kids crying without pitying them so she hurriedly came to her and clamed her down.
“Pa and Ma were fighting in the field and Pa even hit my brother saying he slacked off in work, boohoo…” Baoxue continued crying.
Ye Xiaoxian thought that it must be for the reaping thing that Xiao Tieshu and Chen Ju had an argument and Baoyang became their doormat.
“But why you’ve run back?”
Baoxue only cried, “I don’t know how to work and Ma said she’d rather not see me there and let me get lost.”
“Puff!” Ye Xiaoxian chuckled but she then found it a bit mean so she held her laughter back.
She fetched two sweets Liu Qianqian brought yesterday and inserted them to Baoxue’s hands and said, “Don’t cry already. Why not having some candy? You might as well want to be lost in my place, what do you say?”
Baoxue nodded seriously.
Ye Xiaoxian went back to the kitchen and cooked while Li Hongmei who was making a fire asked Ye Xiaoxian worriedly, “I say shall we go down to the field to give them a hand? They were…”
Li Hongmei had a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
Ye Xiaoxian smiled slightly. “Ma, we don’t have to. It was actually a test for them and if they can manage to survive from this busy farming season, the lives of the two aunts can more or less become easier than before. If they cannot survive, even if we help them out this time we can’t help them every time so leave them to their fate.”
“I…I’m just afraid that others in the village will talk.”
“This is our own life and we don’t live it for others and why should we care.” Ye Xiaoxian scorned.
Li Hongmei gave it a thought and found it rather correct.
‘Ever since little Ye went to do business in town, she became more and more confident.’
Something suddenly occurred to Li Hongmei and she said hurriedly, “Little Ye, Baoshan was drying rice grain in the grain-sunning ground and he won’t be back at noon. Do you want to take the meal to him?”
“Well…” Ye Xiaoxian hesitated. There must be a lot of people in the grain-sunning ground.
“You’re afraid of others’ talking? Have you just said that we live our own life and not for others so why should you mind them?” Li Hongmei quoted little Ye’s remark to silence her.
Ye Xiaoxian could only reply, “Right, I’ll take the meal to him.”
…
Ye Xiaoxian carried a lunchbox to the grain-sunning ground.
Rice was the life of farmers and they were keeping a close eye on every grain of rice and not even a sparrow was allowed to peck a grain.
So the grain-sunning ground was packed.
Ye Xiaoxian became the topic of the chattering as soon as she approached to the grain-sunning ground because she nearly married twice and she argued to live apart from other Xiaos once she got married; moreover, she dared to go to town to do business. There were many gossips about her in the village.
Some said she was a coquettish doxy with no shame and she should die soon; some said that she was an unusual woman and very rare and they admired her.
Of course people with the former idea are in the majority.
Ye Xiaoxian was sometimes stared by others in a strange way but it was the first time for her being watched publicly as if she was a clown.
She was fine though.
She had participated in quite a few cooking contests in her previous life and there were tens of thousands of audience watching her in some big-scale contests. She was a people person so by no means would she feel afraid of those villagers.
She was searching for Xiao Baoshan in the crowd.
How strange. So many people had been staring at her and Xiao Baoshan should have long spotted her but why did he come out?
While she was looking for him, at the moment, Uncle Chen who was helped by Xiao Baoshan stood up and asked Ye Xiaoxian, “Little Ye, are you here to bring food for Baoshan?”
“Yes, have you seen him?” asked Ye Xiaoxian politely?
“He asked me to help him guard the rice and then he went to the rear of the mountain and I wonder if he was going to hunt?”
Hunting?
Ye Xiaoxian found it very possible.
“Why don’t you go home first? I’ll tell Baoshan you dropped by when he goes back,” said Uncle Chen warm-heartedly.
“Fine, thank you very much and sorry about troubling you with the rice,” replied Ye Xiaoxian smilingly.
Uncle Chen paused and only found this little Ye very polite who shared not a trace of similarity of the one others had gossiped.
After Ye Xiaoxian left others in the grain-sunning ground asked Uncle Chen, “Uncle Chen, what did Baoshan’s wife say to you?”
“She said ‘thank you’ to me,” said Uncle Chen loudly.
“Huh, she’s pretty polite then.”
“Surely she is. They are both good kids,” sighed Uncle Chen emotionally.
…
Xiao Baoshan went to the mountain before noon.
He did not really worry the rice in the grain-sunning ground. All the villagers seemed afraid of him so who dared to steal his grain?
He once more shot some hares in the mountain this day.
He could have hunted more with his skill but he was afraid that his families would worry about him so he went home earlier with his prey.
“Baoshan, you hunted hares again?” Li Hongmei was washing pot in the courtyard and felt surprised when she saw her son went back carrying some wild hares.
No wonder little Ye Xiaoxian could not find him when she took his lunch for him.
“Yea, Ma, I shot some wild hares. Is there anything to eat at home?” Xiao Baoshan was long starving.
Ye Xiaoxian happened to be in the kitchen, seeing that Xiao Baoshan came back and looking starving, so she hurriedly went to get the food in the lunchbox.
This food was saved for him and no one touched it.
Li Hongmei saw both of them were in the kitchen so she said immediately, “Then I’ll wash the hares.”
She then dashed away.
“The food has gone cold. Shall I reheat it for you?” Ye Xiaoxian hold the food and asked.
‘Don’t worry. It’s hot now so it’ll be fine,” said Xiao Baoshan.
Ye Xiaoxian always put more oil in the food she cooked so the cold ribs looked kinda greasy, but Xiao Baoshan did not care at all, mixing rice and dishes together and tucked in.
Seeing that he was wolfing down the food Ye Xiaoxian felt a bit pity for him.
“Is it enough? We still got some porridge in the wok or shall I stir fry some vegetable for you?
“It’s enough and I’m good.”
“Then…I’ll cook hare meat for you tonight,” said Ye Xiaoxian again.
“I was going to hunt hares just for eating the hare meat you cook.” Xiao Baoshan smiled.
“Oh? Is it?” Ye Xiaoxian was suddenly in the mood of teasing him. “As an old saying goes, if a woman wants to grab a man’s heart she must grab his stomach first. Do you mean I have grabbed your stomach?”
“…” Xiao Baoshan who was eating like a wolf suddenly stopped.