CH 56

Chapter 56 – Petty

Man Bao’s eyes shone brightly as she silently clutched the two privets.

Old man Zhou and Mrs Zhou who were sitting on the edge of the bed saw, by the candlelight, the brightness in their daughter’s eyes. It was as bright as the stars in the sky. Both of them sat quietly in a trance.

Man Bao raised her head happily, and stretched out her little hand to show her parents, “Father, Mother, what do you see?”

Mrs Zhou snapped out of her trance, and asked with a smile, “What is it?”

“It’s Ligustrum. Today, my fifth brother picked two bunches for me. It turns out they look like this when dried, and they can treat Mother’s illness.”

Mrs Zhou smiled and stroked Man Bao’s hair. The little girl was kneeling on the floor and was excitedly telling her mother that they could buy one herb less when they purchase medicine in the future.

Mrs Zhou smiled, listened but didn’t tell her that the medicine is prescribed by the number of packets, as opposed to individual herbs.

Man Bao said, “Let the eldest brother and third brother bring home all the Ligustrum, and dry them for Mother to eat.

Mrs Zhou nodded with a smile, “Okay, Mother will ask your eldest brother to go tomorrow.”

Man Bao was so excited that she didn’t want to sleep on her own. She put the privet down, climbed onto the parents’ bed, rolled directly to the innermost side, and kept still.

Then she looked at her parents with sparkling eyes.

Old man Zhou couldn’t help patting her fat little bum, “Aren’t you ashamed to sleep with your parents when you have already grown up?”

“Not ashamed, not at all. San Tou also sleeps with eldest brother and sister-in-law.”

“San Tou only managed to utter all the words not too long ago. He is still young. Of course, he has to sleep with his parents.” In Old man Zhou’s mind, although his third grandson is about the same age as Man Bao, actually two months older, he thinks she is much older. 

This can’t be helped, rural children are late bloomers, they can work, but they are rather slowpokes when it comes to comprehending things.

Their children can be considered early learners. That is because the family can provide them with adequate food. There are some families whose children lack food and clothes. Those kids look as if they are four or five years old when they are already seven or eight years old and they can’t speak very well.

But no one can beat Man Bao.

In the entire village, not even Master Bai’s eldest son can toddle within nine months, and call “Father, Mother” in 10 months.

For this reason, they all feel their Man Bao is the smartest child in the entire village, and the whole county. 

Precisely because she was smart and sensible at a very young age, she wanted to sleep on her own.

When she was just slightly over a year ago, she complained to Mrs Zhou that she couldn’t sleep because her father’s snoring kept her awake. 

In reality, she sleeps like a dead pig and even thunder can’t wake her up.

By the time she was two, her resentment grew, and she complained to her mother that her father didn’t wash his feet and his feet stank. 

So Old man Zhou gritted his teeth, stomped off and took his sons up the mountain to chop down a tree. He paid someone to make a small bed for her and asked his second son to weave a bamboo wall to partition the room. Only then, did the little girl stopped complaining.  

Since then, Man Bao rarely made any fuss about wanting to sleep with her parents. But it was good for the child to be intimate with her parents. So, Old man Zhou didn’t kick her off the bed. Instead, he got out of bed and brought her little quilt over to her.

Man Bao hugged her little quilt, rolled on the bed, and told her mother all about the funny things which happened in school.

Mrs Zhou listened quietly, asking a few sentences from time to time to lead her to talk more.

So, Mrs Zhou knew Man Bao now knew a lot of words, that Mr Zhuang not only teaches them to read and write, but also arithmetic. Her best friend is the young master of the Bai family named Shan Bao.

Man Bao talked a lot about Shan Bao, about him being bullied by Bai Er Lang, and his family’s plan to build a house.

Man Bao also told Old man Zhou, “Father, I’ve already told Shan Bao, that when the time comes, eldest brother and the others will go and help him build his house. Call more people, so that the house would be built within three to five days, so he would no longer be bullied by Bai Er.”

Old man Zhou’s eyes flickered slightly, and he asked, “Did the young master said when will his family be building the house?”

Man Bao yawned and said, “Soon, soon, it will be built as soon as they have confirmed the location.”

Old man Zhou was pondering in silence when Man Bao urged him, “Father, do you agree to help?”

“Yes, hurry up and sleep, you still have to go to school tomorrow.”

Man Bao’s breathing gradually lengthened, and when he saw that she had fallen asleep after just one sentence, Old man Zhou shook his head and laughed, “This child is just like her father, she falls asleep as soon as she closes her eyes.” (Translator: suspenseful and dramatic music…what does Old man Zhou mean??)

Mrs Zhou gave him a warning look.

Old man Zhou quickly moved on and said, “I was going to talk to Dazhu and ask him to take Da Lang and San Lang out to do hard work, but since the Bai family is building a house, there’s no need to do this anymore. They can stay home.”

Mrs Zhou agreed, “The mansions are different from ours. They will need an abundance of stones and wood, all of which requires labour.  The boys will have work even after winter.”

The family needed money. Although Master Bai needed short term workers to prepare the land, it was after all, after the autumn harvest, so work was limited, and Da Lang and San Lang had nothing to do in the past two days.

Originally, Mrs Zhou wanted her two sons to pack up and go to the county to do hard labour, even if they couldn’t earn money, it would be good if the men can get enough food for themselves. The family could, at least, save some food.

It is a happy occasion for the Zhou’s since the Bai family is going to build a house.

Early the next morning, while Man Bao was washing her face with her eyes closed, Mrs Zhou instructed her three sons, “Go with old five and let him show you what privets are. Pick all the ripe fruits.”

Man Bao, who was washing her face, was instantly energized. She eagerly ran back to her bed and pretended to take out a bunch of privet from the bottom of her bed, but she actually took the privets from Keke.

She gave them to her eldest brother, “Privets look like this, eldest brother, if you see any rare plants in the mountains such as those which can’t be found around here, be it flowers, plants, or fruits, pick them and bring them back to me.”

Da Lang and his brothers knew that Man Bao had always been fond of flowers and plants since she was a child. She used to go to the vegetable garden and ruin the seedlings. She had to pull out everything she saw.

He glanced at his mother, agreed, took the privet and left.

Only then did Mrs Zhou said to Man Bao, “Hurry up and eat breakfast or you’ll be late for school.”

Man Bao replied in affirmation and ran to the hall, but instead of going to the kitchen to eat, she slipped into Si Lang’s room.

Si, Wu and Liu Lang room together. Si Lang was ready to leave with his hoe, while Wu Lang was prepared to step out as well. Man Bao muttered to him, “Fifth brother, pay attention on the way. If you still see Ligustrum, pick them all back, they are mother’s medicine.”

Wu Lang didn’t understand how the privet transformed into his mother’s medicine overnight, but he nodded in agreement and asked, “Man Bao, can you talk to your friend and get us more sweets the next round? 100 sweets are not enough.”

He said, “I’m going to ask Miss Fu to introduce us to a few more customers, I think selling sweets is more profitable than selling flower baskets. Didn’t you buy 10 sweets for a wen?”

Man Bao couldn’t bear to spend her points that way. She still wants to buy medicine for her mother, so she refused, “100 sweets a day is more than enough. Sell less to Miss Fu. She eats all the sweets by herself and eating too much sugar will cause tooth decay. When you go to the county this time, if she still wants to buy sweets, tell her that people with tooth decay are particularly ugly.” (Transator: Ahhh Man Bao, our frank sweets peddler…)

Wu Lang …saying this to a girl…does he want to die, or does he want to lose Miss Fu as a customer?