Chapter 17: The Turtle Was Actually Himself?

“Your name is Lu Qiniang,” Xiao Yan said.

“My name?” Lu Qiniang asked, a little excited. She rubbed her hands against her body, then carefully picked up the piece of paper and studied it closely, her eyes filled with joy. “So this is how my name is written.”

“Didn’t anyone ever show you before?”

“Sigh, what would I have looked at? I can’t read,” Lu Qiniang said, her eyes tracing each stroke of her name.

It didn’t seem that difficult after all.

“So ‘Qiniang’ only has these two strokes for ‘Qian,'” Lu Qiniang stared at the “Qi” for a moment, “Well, losing something, isn’t that easy?”

“Lost something?” Xiao Yan paused for a moment. “The character in the middle of your name means ‘abandoned.’ Wasn’t it a name for a seventh child in the family?”

“No, I was ranked…” She thought for a moment. “Fourth, I should be. I have three older sisters. So my mother wanted to sell me, to make me a concubine for my husband and bear a son. After I came to the Zhang family, my father—well, my father-in-law—said he wanted to use the character ‘Qi’ so that the heavens would show me more favor.”

Although she didn’t really understand what that meant.

But it was just a name, not like calling me a cat or a dog, so she didn’t really mind.

Xiao Yan hadn’t expected Lu Qiniang’s background to be so tragic. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I wrote it as ‘Qi’ for the seventh child.”

“You scholars, your words are always so kind. What’s there to apologize for? You don’t know my family’s matters, and I don’t know yours. Isn’t that normal?” Lu Qiniang didn’t care at all.

“Besides, speaking of it, my parents abandoning me might actually have been the right thing to do.”

“Why?”

“Because I have a hard fate,” Lu Qiniang said self-deprecatingly. “You know what they say about me outside? They say if you marry a fierce woman, the household will be in chaos; but if you marry Lu Qiniang, not even the chickens and dogs will be left.”

“Personal destiny, what does that have to do with you?” Xiao Yan said. “If there really is such a thing as hard fate, then you should throw yourself into the enemy camp directly. Why would our soldiers have to risk their lives?”

Lu Qiniang burst into laughter.

“Alright, alright, I see, it’s still the scholars who speak so smoothly. From now on, if anyone speaks ill of me, I’ll just throw it back like this. Actually, I don’t believe any of that. I live honestly, never done anything to harm others. Good people should be rewarded, right?”

Good people rewarded, huh?

Xiao Yan’s heart was bitter. Did that mean he had done so much evil that it had led him to his current fate?

In fact, today he had a sudden, enlightening realization.

It all started when he lay there, playing dead, listening to the two girls’ hoarse, exaggerated cries. Suddenly, he thought—after death, this was the feeling.

No matter what noise came from the outside world, it no longer had any effect on him.

He had once firmly believed that a person should leave a name behind, just as a wild goose leaves a sound as it flies by. He had been burdened by the weight of reputation, but what had come of it?

He had carefully guarded his image, only to end up with a reputation worse than he could have imagined.

Living for fame, weighed down by it, and being used by others… that had been the first half of his life—seemingly full of glory, but in reality, all a muddled mess.

“Since this piece of paper is useless now, could you do me one more favor? Help me give Daya, Erya, and Sanya some proper names,” Lu Qiniang said.

Xiao Yan thought for a moment, then began to write on the paper one by one.

“Zhao Zhao.
Zhuo Zhuo.
Jiao Jiao.”

He read them aloud one by one to Lu Qiniang.

Though he hadn’t known her for long, he had already gained some understanding of Lu Qiniang and her three daughters’ personalities.

The three daughters, though different in character, all reflected aspects of Lu Qiniang in them.
Zhao Zhao inherited her resilience, Zhuo Zhuo magnified her boldness, and Jiao Jiao embodied vitality and life force.

Lu Qiniang could only say, “Good, good, good.”

“Xiao Yan, you’re the most knowledgeable person I’ve met, apart from my husband.”

Xiao Yan remained silent.

Lu Qiniang, already overjoyed, took the paper and hurried out to show her three daughters.

However, she still felt that “Daya,” “Erya,” and “Sanya” rolled off the tongue better.

That evening, the whole family enjoyed some meat porridge.
But with so many people and not enough porridge, each person only got one bowl.

After finishing her meat porridge, Er Ya felt unsatisfied and said, “Mother, can we have beef tomorrow? Let’s make beef porridge when we get home at night. I’ve never had beef before!”
New Year’s is really nice; there’s meat every day.

“I have plans for tomorrow. After you’re done eating, help wash the dishes,” Lu Qiniang replied.

Erya hummed in protest. “My throat hurts.”

Lu Qiniang had made money today.
“Washing dishes doesn’t require your throat.”
Erya fell silent.

Sanya was licking her bowl clean when Lu Qiniang passed her the remaining half of her own.
Sanya glanced at Daya and Erya, hesitant to take it. She pushed the bowl back to Lu Qiniang. “Mother, I’m full.”

“Look at your big sister and second sister,” Lu Qiniang said, “You’re the youngest, and when you’re growing, you should eat.”

“But your health isn’t good. You should take care of yourself!” Erya grumbled, turning her face. “We agreed on one bowl each. Why does she get more?”

Daya also protested, “Mother—”Lu Qiniang had no choice but to finish the remaining meat porridge herself. “Wait, tomorrow we’ll have beef soup.”

Later that night, she poured all the copper coins onto the table, her eyes gleaming as she began to count.
The sound of the coins clinking together was like music to her ears, almost heavenly.
She strung a hundred coins together with string, counting and re-counting them several times before stringing them again.

Finally, when she finished, Xiao Yan noticed that she had gone back to “scratching the door.”

“Are you keeping accounts?” he couldn’t help but ask, his curiosity piqued.
She scratched the door when there was a lack of money, and when she had money, she still scratched the door, which made him wonder.

“Yes!” Lu Qiniang said, her eyes full of joy, as she carved something onto the coins.

Xiao Yan moved closer and then realized that she was holding a thick needle in her hand.
With these needles, she was leaving marks on the door that only she could understand.

“What is this?” Xiao Yan asked, pointing at a crooked tree.
Lu Qiniang lowered her voice, “I’ll tell you, but you mustn’t tell anyone.”
Xiao Yan became serious, “If it’s inconvenient, then forget it.”

He wasn’t sure why curiosity had suddenly arisen within him, perhaps it was just out of sheer boredom.
Lu Qiniang, on the other hand, smiled with her brows curved in amusement. “This is for Li Zheng. He’s always looking for trouble, so I’ve marked him as the crooked tree.”

Xiao Yan suddenly realized that Lu Qiniang’s eyebrows were long and heroic, her eyes round and bright. Her features were strikingly beautiful, and her gaze, filled with cunning, made her appear much younger.

“Look at this—” she proudly pointed at the turned-over broken straw sandal. “This is from the peddler. I once asked him to sell me some straw sandals.”

“And these three strands of hair belong to the butcher who slaughters pigs. I owe him three pounds of fat meat. Meat, that’s fine, but you can’t do without oil…”

“Is all of this your debt?”

“The debts from before, I’ve already repaid,” Lu Qiniang replied. “There are still some that others owe me.”

“And none of them are repaid?” Xiao Yan asked.

Lu Qiniang sighed, “Forget it, everyone has their own struggles. When you lend money, you have to be prepared for it not to come back. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have lent it.”

This truly matched her way of doing things.

Xiao Yan suddenly noticed another crooked turtle in her drawing.

“Who’s the turtle supposed to be?” he asked.

“And what’s with the five chicken feathers drawn behind it?”

“Ah, it’s just random doodles,” Lu Qiniang quickly replied. “Stop asking, I’ve already forgotten what I was supposed to mark today, don’t make me mess it up.”

She seemed a bit guilty, as if trying to cover something up.

Xiao Yan said nothing, watching as she drew a box, then added a chicken feather behind it, along with two strings of candied hawthorn.

He understood.

Xiao Yan quickly pieced everything together.

Each chicken feather represented one tael of silver, and each string of candied hawthorn symbolized a string of money. The five chicken feathers drawn earlier meant five taels of silver. They were newly added, still in their pristine form, showing the raw wood color without any dirt on them.

Five taels of silver… recently added?

He paused.

It dawned on him.

The crooked turtle… it was him?!