CH 7

Chapter 7 – A Firefighter’s Skills (2)

“Before helping, you must always look at the situation.  An adult must be present when cooking with fire.  The soup is too hot so let Mother handle it.  Your little hands are so thin, it’s easy to get burnt.”

She held out her hands and compared them with the two little hands that were raised by the little girl.  The little palms looked pink and healthy.

It was difficult to find a doctor in the mountains.  The temperature in the mountains was lower than the temperature on the lower grounds, so to prevent the children from falling sick when they encounter the cold winds, Li Jing’er picked a lot of wild chrysanthemums, honeysuckle, Isatis root, dandelion, and houttuynia cordata and boiled them in a pot to drink as tea.

Perhaps it was due to her meticulous care for the children that none of them fell sick all winter.  At most, they would just cough a few times and have runny noses.  However, after drinking two bowls of brown sugar water boiled with ginger and sweating it out, they would soon recover.

As a singleton in her previous life, Li Jing’er had never raised a child before but she took care of the children very well.  It could be said that she gave them meticulous care and it was in line with the modern legal norms that she knew.

In actual fact, she doesn’t like children and detests noise.  Even if they were the relatives’ children, she was too lazy to take another look and believed that children were debt collectors who came to collect debts.  She vowed to stay single and never marry for the rest of her life.  She had a house and savings and did not believe in love.

However, when she saw the baby that looked like a wrinkled monkey crawling out of her stomach, she took a liking to the little child instantly and breastfed her like raising a pet.

Anyway, having the first one means there would be a second.  Both the annoying Shuangzhen and the sensible Shuangming made the matter of raising children not that difficult to accept.  As long as they do not scream and make noise, she could tolerate any other situation.

“Mother, I will be very careful and not let myself get hurt.”

Shuangming emphatically believed that he was the ‘Family Head’ said firmly.  Boys were supposed to support and take care of the family and should not allow the ‘women in the family’ to work.  It was only right for his mother to stay home and do embroidery.

Upon seeing him act like a little adult with a stubborn expression on his face, Li Jing’er no longer corrected his stubborn thoughts.  A child’s temperament should be allowed to develop naturally and not be suppressed.

“Alright, but then you have to be careful.  Have you practiced writing the characters that Mother told you to do?”

Shuangming was literate and could actually memorize the ‘Three Character Classic’ and ‘Hundred Family Surnames’ in one go.  It could be seen that his family was of good standing and he grew up in a scholarly environment.

She did not have the heart to let him give up his studies, so a sandboard was made for him to practice writing in the sand.  She bought him a copy of  ‘A Thousand Characters’ to teach him to read and planned to let him practice calligraphy with a brush when he grows older.  She has always disapproved of children using their arms to write too early as their bones are still developing and raising their arms too early may result in permanent damage.

“I’ve written a hundred times and my hand is sore.”  Shuangming cutely raised his little arm high and showed the heart of a child who wanted his mother to help him rub.

He blushed and his eyes were filled with hope.

“Mother, I wrote too.”  Shuangzhen, who likes to emulate her brother, lifted her chin.

With a smile, Li Jing’er rubbed her son’s forearm first and then pulled her daughter into the house.  She poured out the basketful of harvest onto the ground and the egg-sized sour pears rolled out, followed by the huge chestnuts, dates, and 40 to 50 red persimmons while mushrooms filled the remaining half of the basket.

At the bottom of the basket was a gray rabbit that was dead for a while.  Li Jing’er dealt with the rabbit first and skillfully skinned and deboned it.

“Mother, there’s meat to eat!  I want to eat that dish……..stewed rabbit meat with shredded potatoes!”

Shuangzhen, who was drooling, no longer showed any interest in the pancakes that were sticking to the side of the pot.

“Fried rabbit meat tastes better and must be spicy.”

Influenced by Li Jing’er, Shuangming likes spicy food as well but if the food is too spicy, he could not stand it.

Li Jing’er tapped lightly on the noses of the two greedy children.

“Was the meat we ate too little?  Meat is the most abundant food found in the mountains and last winter you ate a lot of snake meat.”

Once the words ‘snake meat’ was mentioned, two pairs of bright eyes turned simultaneously to look at the pot of hot snake soup sitting on the stove.  They were not tired of snake meat and it was the most common meat eaten in their family followed by rabbit meat and there were also pheasants.  Pheasants were caught alive and raised in a chicken coop built under a grass shed next to the house.  In this way, they could have chicken meat every day.

Occasionally, she would be able to catch deers and antelopes but the animals would not be eaten.  Instead, the animals would be sold for money because they were dead and could not be raised.  Actually, Li Jing’er wanted to raise a mother goat that produces milk since milk is good for nourishing the body.

“Mother……”  Shuangyue looked cute when she woke up.  She rubbed her eyes and climbed off the stone bed.  The child who is one and a half years old loves to grind her teeth and munch on the dates as soon as she picks them up.

“No, Little Sister, the fruit hasn’t been washed yet, it’s dirty.”

With the aura of an elder brother, Shuangming grabbed the fruit from his little sister’s hand and then scooped a ladle of water from the water tank to wash it before returning it to her.

“Thank you, Guo-Guo*.”  The little girl smiled so sweetly and cutely that it was enough to melt a person’s heart.

(In Chinese, the character ‘Guo’ means a pot.  The pinyin for ‘pot’ and ‘elder brother’ is similar but not the same and to children, the words may sound the same.  The word ‘Elder Brother’ is ‘Ge’ in Chinese.)

“It’s Ge-Ge, not Guo-Guo.  Come, repeat after me.”  As an elder brother, the little boy was very patient with his little sister and coaxed her to call him again, but……..

“Guo-Guo!”  Little Sister Yue shouted cheerfully and gritted her teeth.

Dead wood can never be carved!

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Smiling, Li Jing’er hugged one daughter in each arm and laughed at her son’s fruitless effort.

This child is destined to be a master of worries.

“Two days later, we’ll be going into the city.”

As soon as Li Jing’er told them the news, the two elder ones shouted with joy and the house became boisterous.  They ran wildly around in circles and laughed with joy while Little Sister Yue, who did not know what was going on, followed behind them foolishly, and ran in circles happily.  Their high-pitched laughter almost shattered the stone house………

Shuiyuan Village was not far from the city.  To reach the city, one would have to walk for half a day but it was faster to ride an ox cart which would take less than two hours.  The villagers often go to the city to sell their crops from the fields and the people in the city also like to buy freshly picked fruits and vegetables that were cheap and fresh.  As a result, there were often ox carts moving back and forth between the two places.  For every trip in an ox cart, children were charged one coin while adults were charged two coins.  If the goods they brought along were a lot, there would be extra charges.

Nowadays, for a female to set up a household, one must possess assets of properties or land such as a house or a field of at least an acre.

When she first arrived, she had nothing so she had to stay at the village chief’s house.  Later, when she made some money selling snakes, she bought a small courtyard in the village. The small courtyard had three houses within the yard.  The stone house in the mountain was not considered a house and at the best, it was only a cave where people could stay.  Therefore, their household was registered in this courtyard but they rarely live there.  At the most, they would use the courtyard as a place to rest when they come down from the mountain or to store some miscellaneous stuff.

She would usually enter the city about three times in two months.  The purpose was to sell the mountain commodities she had collected and the herbs that were specifically requested by the medical halls.  Then she would buy the necessary rice grains and daily necessities that she needed.

The originally empty stone cave slowly changed under Li Jing’er’s skillful hands and it gradually looked like a home.  The stone bed was laid with a thick layer of straw and pressed down with the quilt.  The heavy quilts were placed beside the pillows that were stuffed with rags.

There was a stone table, some wooden chairs, a tangram, a seesaw, and dried bamboo sticks hung on the walls as decorations.  The windows were covered with cloud-blue floral curtains and there was even a canopy outside the house.

All these did not happen instantly but gradually accumulated over time.  Li Jing’er also transplanted two mountain grape plants and cleared up a small plot of land to grow vegetables.

This year, she need not buy vegetables for the pickles from the farmers anymore.  There were leftovers even after consumption and the balance was used to make several jars of pickles that could last them until next year.

“Madam Li!  Are you taking to the children to the city?!”

The old man who was the driver of the ox cart showed a missing tooth as he greeted her.  He helped to load the goods and after arranging for seating space, he carried the children up the cart.

“That’s right!  Our family is short of money and it happens that I collected some commodities that can be sold so I’m going to the city to sell them and buy shoes for my children.”

Li Jing’er always practiced reservation when she speaks.  Whenever they go out, she would never let the children wear good clothes to avoid drawing attention.

“You’re blessed.  Your three children are well-behaved and lovable.”

The clothes on the children were a little old but clean, not patched up, and looked comfortable.

“That’s because you haven’t seen them when they’re naughty.  Sometimes when they’re so naughty that I have the urge to hit them with a cane.”

Fortunately, the children were all obedient and did not make trouble.

“Ha,ha,ha……..how can they be children if they’re not naughty?  The bullheads in my family rampage all day long without a moment of silence.”

Seeing other people’s children so well-behaved and sensible, it is inevitable that there will be some comparisons.  However, people must never compare because once there is a comparison, the difference will be too big.

Li Jing’er smiled then counted out 5 copper coins and handed them over.

“I’ll charge you a total of 3 coins.  It’s not easy to raise children.  The little one is not considered as occupying a seat since she is sitting on your lap.  Save the money and buy some candy for the children.”

The old man returned 2 coins to her.

“Uncle Niu, rules are rules.  It won’t be good for your business in the future.”

She insisted on paying for the fare and did not want to be an exception as she had not reached the point where she needed sympathy.

“Don’t refuse or I won’t ferry you.  It’s only a few coins, why are you being so petty?”

Uncle Niu pretended to be unhappy and said in a rough tone.

“Uncle Niu…….”  She refused to take advantage of others.

“Your children are lovable and I like them when I see them.  Madam Li, shouldn’t feel bad about this.  The four of you, mother and children, don’t even take up space that is comparable to Auntie Fu!”

He only received 2 coins from Auntie Fu and taking 3 coins from Madam Li made him feel bad because it was like bullying Madam Li.

Speak of the devil!  The monster had arrived……..the sturdy Auntie Fu had arrived.

She was big and heavy and the moment she sat down, the ox cart tilted very obviously.  In addition, she was carrying various sizes of bags in her hand and they occupied a full one-third of the cart which could accommodate about 3 to 4 adults.  At the same time, she felt the fare was too expensive and bargained with Uncle Niu.  A coin saved was a coin earned and it would be better if she need not pay anything so the money can be used to buy steamed buns.

However, in the end, she still had to pay 2 coins.

She angrily slumped on the cart and lay down horizontally and treated it as if it was a sleeping couch.  In the process, she almost pressed against Shuangming who was sitting in front.