CH 39

Chapter 39 – New Year’s Eve (1)

“Mother, can I wait for Father outside the house?  I’m afraid he may have lost his way, so I’ll hold up a torch to show him the way.”

Shuangming, who was playing with Little Sister Yue, could not sit still any longer and jumped off the bed wearing woolen socks made from rabbit fur.

“No, the wind outside is very strong, the torch will be blown out.”

What is the matter with this man?  He knows the whole family is waiting for him but still comes home late.

Li Jing’er had once told the children a story of an old man who guarded the lighthouse.  Shuangming, who listened to it once, could still remember the story and wanted to imitate the old man who lifted a torch in his hand to guide the people who had lost their way in the night to find their way home.

“The sky had turned dark.”  He reiterated.

“Yes, Mother is aware.”

The snow had been falling intermittently for the past few days and the ground and treetops were all covered in white making the way up the mountain even more difficult to access.

For the first time, she regretted living too high up in the mountain.  If she lives at the foot of the mountain, she need not have to worry too much about the person returning home on a windy rainy night.  The candle-lights in the village twinkled from the distance as if hinting to the people traveling far away from home……..home is here, quickly return home, hot meals are awaiting, and the white-haired parents are craning their necks yearning for your return.

“Mother, will Father fall down the ravine, the place where you said the side of the mountain had collapsed?”

It was very scary.  A whole piece of land slid down and covered up the originally flowing stream to form a flat land.

Upon hearing this, Li Jing’er’s heart skipped a beat.  She missed Xiao Jingfeng terribly.

“Don’t speak nonsense.  Your Father is very agile and can jump several feet high.  He will be fine……..”

Knock!  Knock!  Knock!  Knock!

“Mother, there’s a knocking sound on the door.”  Shuanming’s eyes lit up instantly.

“Perhaps it’s the wind………”

She was hoping for the same in her heart but at the same time, she was worried that the blowing mountain winds had carried stones from the bottom of the valley and they were hitting the door one by one.

Knock!  Knock!  Knock!  Knock!

“Mother, it’s Father!”  Father is home!

“Wait a moment.  First, look through the window to see who is outside and after confirming it’s not someone bad, then you can remove the latches.”

As a woman living alone with three children in the mountains, it’s only right that she practices caution at all times.

“Alright.”

The window opening was very small and the window frame was formed by four to five bricks.  In summer, grass curtains would be hung on the window to prevent mosquitoes from flying in.  In winter, the opening would be sealed with a square frame made from animal skin.  If one wanted to look outside of the house, one had to use a wooden stick to lift the square frame and the frame would turn into a shield to ward off the rain.

The stone house used to be a cave and there were traces left behind by the people who lived there before.  A piece of thick wooden plank blocked the small cave entrance and was used as a door with both sides of the entrance chiseled out for bolts to hold the door in place.  The chiseled spots were on the upper, middle, and lower levels to keep the door from toppling over due to strong winds.

After Li Jing’er came, she installed cylindrical gadgets on the upper and lower parts of the door that looked like poem scrolls.  Round shafts were then nailed to the corners of the wooden plank and when the round shaft was snapped into place, the door panel would not tilt when pulled inward.

Therefore, Shuangming, who was not tall, only had to look out of the window.  After confirming that it was the person he was waiting for, he moved the wooden ladder away which took him a lot of effort.  First, he removed the bottom latch and put it beside the door, then he removed the middle latch and put it beside the first latch.  Finally, he lifted the top latch, threw it aside, and pulled the door open.

“Father!”

The cave entrance was indeed not high and with Li Jing’er’s height, she could just pass through the opening.  However, Xiao Jingfeng had to bend over with his head down when he walked in through the entrance.

“Good boy…….was Shuangming the one who opened the door for Father?”

Warm air rushed toward the man’s face and he inhaled deeply to take in the aroma of delicious food.  The man lifted his son high in the air and put him down again amidst the child’s excited screams.  His initially tensed expression relaxed to reveal a bright smile of a healthy man that could make people blush.

“Father is back!  I opened the door for Father.  Initially, I wanted to wait for Father outside the door but Mother won’t allow it, so I had to wait inside the house.”

Shuangming suddenly turned into a chatterbox, talked non-stop, and jumped around his father in a lively and adorable manner.

“That’s right, you should listen to your Mother.  In the family, Mother is the most authoritative and even Father has to listen to her.  Otherwise, your Mother will turn into a big tiger when she gets angry.”

Xiao Jingfeng looked at the woman who was cooking soup and she made a threatening gesture as if to splash soup on him.

“Hou!  Hou!……. Mother is a big tiger, a big tiger!……..”

Shuangming was laughing and acting like a tiger about to pounce.  He bared his fangs and claws and scratched lightly on his sister’s face.

“Tiger, tiger, I’m a little tiger……..meow……..”  Little Sister Yue who was afraid of the cold did not want to move, so she made meowing sounds and had a quilt covering her feet.

Shuangzhen, who was adding firewood to the stove, was very happy when she saw her father had returned.  She ran over to touch his big hand and then giggling, she ran back to the stove to continue adding firewood.

With a man in the family, the atmosphere was indeed very different.  Joyful laughter filled the house while the adults and children showed big happy grins on their faces.

“Sister, only cats will meow……..tigers roar like this!  Hou!  Hou!……..”

His younger sister is stupid, so as an elder brother, he has to teach her.

“Meow, meow…….tiger…………”

“Tigers don’t meow, they roar……….”  Shuangming stretched his neck and roared like a tiger.

The children were playing happily and finally, Xiao Jingfeng was free from the clingy children.  He walked quickly to his wife’s side, wrapped his arm around her waist, and stole a kiss.

“Jing Niang, I miss you……”  So fragrant, really wants to swallow her in one gulp!

“Go behind the curtain, I’ve prepared hot water for you to wash and soak to get rid of the cold.  Don’t catch a cold during the New Year, I won’t take care of you.”

With a red face, Li Jing’er pushed the man away and pointed at the steaming big wooden tub of water.

“Jing Niang, you treat me the best.”  He came up to her again and hugged her from behind.  After pulling her into his arms, he brushed away her soft hair and kissed the back of her smooth white neck.

“Xiao Jingfeng, your whole body is freezing cold and you dare to touch me!  Hurry up and soak in the hot water or else you’re not allowed to eat New Year’s Eve dinner.”

While speaking, she pushed him behind the cloth curtain, a section that was used as a washroom, to prevent him from acting improperly and teaching the children bad morals.

When he saw the water tub that was half the height of an adult filled with water, Xiao Jingfeng’s eyes turned hot, and was so moved that he almost cried.

This is his woman…….and she had done this just to wait for her husband who came home late.

“Jing Niang, it’s snowing and freezing outside.  How many times did you go back and forth to fetch the water and keep it hot?……..”

She had to continuously boil the water and reheat it when it turned cold to wait for his return.  White steam was still rising from the hot water……..it was hard work for her.

“The water was fetched by you earlier on.  I only added a bit more, it’s not troublesome.  Two pots of water are boiled in turn and they’re left on the stove and don’t need to be watched over.  Once the water turns cold, a pot of hot water is added to keep the temperature at an acceptable level.”

She never mentioned how hard she worked to fetch the water and that her hands had turned red.  Instead, she casually talked about the mischievous deeds of the children.

The water in the hot spring never stops and gushes all year round.  Occasionally, when the weather is too cold, a thin layer of ice forms on the water’s surface but with just a light tap, the ice layer will break and the spring water will continue to gush up.

Li Jing’er likes this hot spring very much and thinks it has a unique curative effect.

She and the children had never suffered any illness after drinking the water from the spring.  No matter how cold the winter was, they had never experienced a cold.  The water can be consumed and life has been smooth sailing and peaceful.

To be honest, if she has to leave the stone house one day, she will be a bit reluctant to leave.  Especially, that hot spring which made her very grateful and gave her the encouragement to continue living.

“I know you’ve put in a lot of effort…….my parents were never this kind to me.  Jing Niang, please never leave me!”

Soaking in the hot water, he felt the warmth in his body as well as in his heart.

“Xiao Jingfeng, are you crying?!”  Li Jing’er was standing behind the curtain and her voice was very soft.

“No…….no, I’m not crying.  A man doesn’t cry, why should I cry?……..”  He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand so that no one could see his weak side.

“If you want to cry, just do it!  I won’t laugh at you…….there will be times when one feels vulnerable.  The winter last year was especially long and the grains I stocked up were not enough.  At that time I was thinking…….God, are you playing with me?  If you want me to die, just let me die happily and make a landslide happen, or else, give me a miracle!  As a result, as soon as I finished speaking, a fat rabbit crashed into a tree and died in front of me.”

At that time, she was dumbfounded.  God is indeed efficient!

“…….Are you telling the truth?  I’m not a child, so don’t try to fool me.”

How can such a mysterious thing happen?  This fabrication is a bit too much!

Li Jing’er laughed softly and a little charmingly.

“I’m not fooling you.  It was because a fox was chasing it ferociously.  After looking at the snow for a long time, the rabbit was temporarily blinded and crashed around.  There are many trees in the mountain, so it crashed into one of them.  I picked up a stone and flung it at the fox.  I hit it and it fainted.  So I carried the rabbit and the fox in each hand and went home.”

This is called ‘Heaven will never hinder the path of man*’.    

(Heaven will never hinder the path of man means that even if in a desperate situation, there is always a way out.)

“Jing Niang, it’s all my fault.  I didn’t fulfill my responsibilities as a husband.”

He had made her suffer a lot for no reason and she was forced to live in the mountains to support herself.