CH 21

Chapter 21 – Life In The Mountains (2)

Li Jing’er rolled her eyes at him.

“Who wants to pinch you?  I told you to come over to show you the way the children get along with each other.”

She walked over to Shuangming and held his hands lightly.

“Shuangyue, did Elder Brother bully you?”

Little Sister Yue opened her innocent eyes wide.  “Guo-Guo played with me…….not bully.”

“Does it hurt when he pokes you?”

Li Jing’er poked her daughter at the same time.  Little Sister Yue thought it was fun and giggled.  She poked her mother’s hand that was jabbing her and thought they were playing a game.

“No……..play, Guo-Guo, play……..poke again……….”

She became addicted to playing the game of poking and asked everyone around to poke her.  After her brother and sister had poked her, she dared not let Uncle poke her because he had a very fierce look and hid shyly behind her mother to peek at him.

When he saw his daughter walk up to him and then shrink back, Xiao Jingfeng, who felt happy at first, was at a loss and did not know what to do.

What can he do to make her come to him?

“Xiao Jingfeng, you have to apologize.”

Adults can make mistakes too and he has to show the children a good example.

“Apologize?”  He was surprised.

“Don’t do evil for small things and don’t avoid doing good for small things.  Since you have wronged someone, you should have the courage to admit it.  Even though the other person is still young, wrong is still wrong.  That should be the responsible attitude.”

Mistakes do not vary from person to person and have to be corrected.

“Don’t do evil for small things and don’t avoid doing good for small things……….”   He repeated the words over and over again.  Suddenly, he was enlightened.

“Shuangming, Uncle is wrong, can you forgive me?”

Shuangming tilted his head to think for a moment and then generously patted his hand.

“Alright, I forgive you.  You mustn’t do it again in the future.  My mother said that admitting one’s mistake and showing a willingness to correct is the greatest act of all.”

“Yes!  Your mother is right, she has great wisdom.”

The timid Jing Niang in his memory had changed completely to become bold and decisive.

“Yes, yes!  My mother is very smart and no one can match her!”

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He had a proud look on his face and it seemed that praising his mother made him happier than eating an extra bowl of rice.

“Mother is smart…….no one can match her.”  Little Sister Yue clapped her hands.

Shuangzhen was always hanging onto Li Jing’er’s skirt and although she called Li Jing’er ‘Mother’, she still has some lingering memories of the past.  Therefore, she knew Li Jing’er is not her biological mother, and compared to both Shuangming and Little Sister Yue, she was not as close to Li Jing’er and was even a little estranged.

“Ha, ha……..don’t praise your mother too much or Mother will feel shy.”

The child will only remain pure and innocent these few years but once he gets older, he will become a firecracker and cause trouble all day long.

She never harbored the thought of raising the children to look after her in her old age.  It was their fate to be mother and child.  It was enough to have an entanglement with them at some time in her life and not hope for anything in return.  Her only wish is for them to grow up safely and peacefully, don’t break the law, can support themselves, and be righteous people.

“Mother, shame, shame………”  Little Sister Yue said.

Her brother corrected her.  “No……it’s ‘shy’.”

“Guo-Guo……..hug.”  Her feet felt sore.

As Shuangming was about to reach out to pick up his sister, Xiao Jingfeng who was much quicker pulled up the little girl into his arms.  Hugging his daughter in his arms, his eyes inexplicably heated up.

“Guo-Guo……..”   When she saw the wrong person had picked her up, Little Sister Yue looked around anxiously.

“Uncle Xiao, that’s my sister.   Please return her to me.”

Shuangming wanted to be a polite child, so he stretched out his hand to show his intention.

You want to snatch my wife and also want to snatch my daughter?!  Stinky boy, you haven’t fully grown up yet!

“I just want to hold her for a while.  Little Sister Yue is fragrant and soft…….”

Unbelievably soft.

He did not dare to use too much strength for fear of breaking her small arms and plump legs.

“Uncle, I want Guo-Guo……..”  Little Sister Yue who was full of milky scent looked at this strange uncle and ‘slapped’ her small hand on his nose.

Just the word ‘Uncle’ gave rise to a sour feeling in Xiao Jingfeng’s heart……..but he is her father, her biological father!

“Little Sister Yue, I am your………”

“Xiao Jingfeng!”  It is not the right time yet.

As soon as Li Jing’er shouted, Xiao Jingfeng forced back the tears in his eyes.

“Why don’t you let me acknowledge her?”

“Her surname is Li.”  The child has nothing to do with your Xiao Family.

“Her surname was originally Xiao.”  She is Xiao Jingfeng’s daughter.

“Ask your mother.”

Not every grandmother is as ruthless as her who severed family ties with her grandchild!

Ruthless!

He was unable to retort.

“What should I do before I can hear her call me………”

…….Father.

She pursed her lips and looked at her son.

“She is always learning from her brother.”

“He?”  His face darkened.

In other words, it is necessary for him to first settle the one who has always been giving him a headache.

Stinky boy, why is it that everything has something to do with him?

“Alright, it’s getting late.  If we don’t go into the mountain early, all the ripe fruits would be pecked and finished off by the birds.”

The dew had yet to dry and it was still damp.

Li Jing’er was actually more worried that it would rain.

When the rain comes, the cold will follow.  Once the autumn rain comes, winter will soon arrive.  The birds and beasts in the mountains will start to decrease day by day.  Usually, at this time, she would gradually go out less and start to prepare for winter.  Last year, she had stored up a lot of sun-dried mountain vegetables.  After a heavy snowfall, she was unable to go down the mountain to buy food, so she soaked the mountain vegetables until they turned soft and then chopped them up into fine shreds and cooked a fragrant wild vegetable porridge.

Winter in the north is particularly long and lasts for 4 months.  The wild vegetables will only grow after the snow melts and when spring arrives.  All in all, they would not get to eat green leafy vegetables for 5 months.  Therefore, she is anxious to prepare food stocks lest the season ends early and by then, it would be too late.  At the same time, some root plants can only be dug up after their leaves had withered.

“Let me carry Little Sister Yue.”

Xiao Jingfeng was reluctant to release his daughter.  Her softness filled his chest………she is his flesh and blood, the continuation of his descendent’s line.

“Can’t you see she is about to cry?”

Li Jing’er pulled her daughter over and placed her in the bamboo basket that was padded with hay and animal skins at the bottom.  “The other two are yours.”

She pointed at Shuangming who showed a reluctant expression and Shuangzhen who had a grievous look.  Li Jing’er thought to herself………his affinity with the children is truly so bad that no one wants to be close to him.

“Alright.”

He has no objection at all?

Xiao Jingfeng was carrying a very large square bamboo basket behind his back.  After putting the children inside the basket, there was still enough room for the two of them to fight.  His original plan was to lighten Li Jing’er’s burden.  He wanted to carry his daughter and carry the other girl on his back.  He was more inclined towards the girls and the stinky boy was an eyesore to him.

However, his daughter was not familiar with him.  When she saw the person was not her mother or brother or sister, tears that were as big as beans swelled in her eyes and it made his heart ache terribly.

Left without a choice, he had to accept the change of people.  Since the two older children were with him, it was easier for his wife to walk inside the mountain and she could move at a faster pace.

“Mother………rabbit.”

A gray-white rabbit was struggling in a dug-up pit with a rope tied tightly around its hind leg and even if it wanted to flee, it could not.

“Mm, I’ll skin it and make a scarf for you.”

The prey that she caught consisted mostly of rabbits and squirrels.  Even pheasants were hard to capture since they were good at flying.

“Mother…….Yue-yue wants one too.”   Rabbits are good to play with.

“Alright, I’ll make it for you and your sister.  Each of you will get one and also a pair of earmuffs.”

The pair she made last year had become dirty and moldy.

“Thank you, Mother.”  Shuangzhen said in a small voice.

“Why are you so polite with Mother?  Next year, when I catch centipedes and earn some money, Mother will get you a silver anklet with bells.”

The melodious ringing sounds are nice.

As soon as he heard the word ‘centipedes’, Xiao Jingfeng’s expression changed and he coughed.

“I’ll buy you a few acres of land and after planting rice, you’ll get the returns.”

“Do you have money?”  A reality question.

After the famine passed, the prices of land skyrocketed and rose to 12 taels of silver per acre.

“This……..”  A coin can force a hero to his death*.  It’s true, he does not have any money.

(A coin can force a hero to his death means a hero can be rendered helpless or cornered due to lack of money.)

But he can borrow.

“And…….I don’t know how to work in the fields.”

She had been to the countryside but only went there to observe.  She does not know when to plant rice or when to patrol the fields.

Upon hearing this, he stared at her with suspicion.

“Doesn’t your maternal family have 5 acres of land?  At that time the matchmaker said that you were good at growing crops.”

Without showing any guilt, Li Jing’er said confidently.  “If the matchmaker’s words can be trusted then sows can also climb trees.  When she came to my house to matchmake, she also said that you had an impressive appearance, talented, and with martial arts that were better than Guan Er Yeh*.  The in-laws were kind, sisters-in-law were friendly and brothers-in-law were amiable.”

(Guan Er Yeh is a deity that people worship and pray for the protection and safety of the family.)

The more he listened, the redder his face became, and used his hand to cover his face in embarrassment.

Apart from knowing a few martial arts moves and being able to read a few words, nothing the matchmaker said was true.  A marriage arranged through matchmaking is beset with lots of problems and the words of the matchmaker can never be believed completely.

“On the left side of that stone is an orange tree.  The fruits should be half-ripe by now.  Let’s pick all the oranges and keep them for 10 days or so to let them ripen.”

Some oranges can be stored in the cold cave and they can keep for a long time.  Some can be made into an orange jam that tastes sweet and sour and can be smeared on flatbreads and eaten.

After walking deep into the mountains for about an hour, they could see fruits hanging from the trees that bear fruit in autumn.  Although the fruits were not many, they still amount to dozens of catties.  However, it was enough for Li Jing’er who only have 3 children at home since the children did not each much.

This time, they did not only pick oranges but also persimmons, mountain plums, mountain peaches, wild pears, etc………there were dozens of varieties.  They picked a little from here and gathered a little from there and eventually, the big basket behind Xiao Jingfeng was half-filled.  With all the red and yellow fruits piled up together, they formed very bright colors.

The bamboo basket carried by Li Jing’er was small and it was filled with relatively light mountain produce such as mushrooms and vegetables.  Inside her basket was also a mixture of some rare and precious medicines that she accidentally came across such as Codonopsis Root, Gastrodia, Cicada Slough, Poria, Rhizome Imperatae, Ginkgo…….

It can be said that silver is found everywhere in the mountains and will never be exhausted.