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These words choked Old Woman Zhao, leaving her speechless.
Before she could retort, a sharp-tongued woman laughed and said:
“Facai’s wife, when did your family move to the seaside? Why are you so concerned about this?”
“Right. You can tell by how efficient Caiping is that she’s done a lot of work.” Another woman, slightly plump, chimed in.
Ye Caiping recognized them. They were the wives of Tie Niu and Zhuzi, the two women who had gone with her to Li’s village to demand justice.
Although the villagers generally didn’t have a good impression of Ye Caiping,
As she had said, she hadn’t eaten their rice. Whether they were lazy or greedy was none of their business.
Moreover, Ye Caiping not only didn’t eat their rice, but she also shared the method for removing toxins from cassava, giving them an extra source of food for the winter.
As the saying goes, “One who eats another’s food is short of words,” many villagers began to defend Ye Caiping.
Seeing so many people confronting her, Old Woman Zhao became intimidated.
The village head’s wife, with a stern face, said: “Facai’s family, do you still want this cassava? If you don’t, take it back to your own home.”
“Who said I don’t want it!” Old Woman Zhao was startled and quickly clutched the half-cut cassava in her hands.
Old Woman Zhao’s daughter-in-law hurried over, saying anxiously: “Village head’s wife, my mother is just tired and talking nonsense. I’ll take her home now.”
She then turned to Ye Caiping with a forced smile: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Caiping.”
While apologizing, she secretly cursed in her heart, “This old woman’s mouth can’t stay quiet! She’s always attracting trouble.”
She then dragged Old Woman Zhao away.
Ye Caiping ignored them and continued to cut cassava with her head lowered.
Yan Fang snorted and quickly started chatting with the village head’s wife and the women around her.
She said that her Caiping was not lazy, nor greedy, but very diligent. She even took turns cooking with her two sisters-in-law.
In the bustling crowd, a woman in her thirties rolled her eyes and whispered to Du Shi:
“Others are mocking her for being lazy and greedy, but your younger sister-in-law is not ashamed but rather proud, even boasting about it.”
Du Shi slammed her firewood on the stump with a thud, glaring at her: “None of your business, are we eating your family’s rice?”
The woman—Liu Chunfang—was speechless.
She knew that Du Shi and Ye Caiping didn’t get along, so she tried to provoke Du Shi with her words, hoping to create a sense of shared animosity and together they could belittle Ye Caiping and find a sense of belonging.
Unexpectedly, she ended up making a fool of herself.
Du Shi couldn’t stand Ye Caiping’s arrogance, but she also couldn’t stand Liu Chunfang’s insults. She was caught in a complex emotional struggle, and finally, she lost her temper.
Du Shi held back a sigh of frustration, feeling it was pointless, and picked up her firewood and left.
Anyway, one person from each family was enough, so her leaving wouldn’t make much difference.
Because there were many people, the dozen or so baskets of cassava were quickly chopped.
Ye Caiping asked everyone to bring bamboo sieves, place them over the baskets, and tie them with cloth strips.
Then, they carried them to the river and submerged the cassava, along with the baskets, in the water.
To prevent the entire basket of cassava from being washed away, they tied ropes to them and secured them to trees by the river.
“Caiping, how long do you need to soak the cassava?” The village head’s wife asked.
“Seven days.”
“Look, the men are bringing down the cassava again; let’s hurry and get to work.”
…
On the mountain, lunchtime finally arrived.
The men in the cassava grove tossed their hoes aside and hurriedly made their way to the carrying baskets.
“Wash your hands and face,” Ye Daquan shouted. “If you eat without washing, you could get poisoned.”
The men then rushed in a swarm to the mountain stream to wash their hands and faces.
Once they had cleaned up, they took their own bowls and chopsticks and sat down on the ground.
As soon as Ye Daquan and the others opened their containers, they smelled the fragrant aroma of cassava, and their mouths watered.
At the bottom of the bowl was a layer of brown rice, topped with a thick layer of cassava slices, accompanied by some pickled vegetables.
“This is cassava? Daquan, give me a slice.” One man, quick-eyed, reached for a piece with his chopsticks.
Ye Daquan quickly covered the bowl: “No way.”
Ye Erquan and Ye Yong also hurried to cover their bowls.
The men grew anxious. They had heard that the toxic roots could be eaten, and after digging for a long time, they had yet to taste even a hint of flavor, making them restless.
“I’ll give you two bites of brown rice if you give me a slice of cassava.”
Ye Daquan’s eyes lit up; two bites of brown rice were much larger than a slice of cassava. Although he still wanted to eat cassava, he had already eaten enough over the past two days.
So, Ye Daquan exchanged a slice of cassava for two bites of rice.
“I’ll trade too, I’ll trade too!”
“I’ll trade half a boiled egg for three slices!”
Ye Daquan’s portion was quickly snatched up, and soon Ye Erquan, Old Man Ye, and Ye Yong’s cassava was also exchanged by the eager men.
The men finally got to taste the cassava they had been longing for, while Ye Daquan’s family enjoyed rice and even eggs, and everyone felt satisfied.
After a whole day of hard work, half of the cassava on the mountain had been harvested.
Old Man Ye and the others carried their hoes and baskets back home.
Upon entering, they saw Ye Caiping cooking in the kitchen while Ye Jin’er was tending the fire.
“Wow, how did Caiping end up in the kitchen?” Ye Daquan exclaimed, dropping the basket he was carrying onto the floor.
Ye Caiping replied, “It’s my turn to cook today.”
“You can’t cook!” Ye Daquan said anxiously.
Ye Caiping glared at him: “Didn’t I tell you last time not to treat me differently? If you keep talking like that, I’m moving out.”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t.”
Ye Caiping continued, “It’s not much work; I’m just making porridge and cassava, and stir-frying some cabbage.”
Because the family was poor and the meals were simple, even cooking for fourteen people was just a bit more effort.
“Then I’ll go fetch water for you.” Ye Daquan, not minding the fatigue, turned around and picked up a water bucket to fill.
Seeing this, Ye Erquan quickly followed suit.
Ye Caiping didn’t refuse their help.
In household chores, aside from cooking, there was cleaning, washing clothes, fetching water, cleaning the chicken coop and pigsty, chopping pig feed, cooking pig food, mixing chicken feed, and feeding livestock.
However, each household took care of its own laundry, and fetching water was considered men’s work. When it was a household’s turn to do chores, the men from that household would fetch the water.
Since Ye Caiping had no men in her family, it fell to Ye Daquan and his brothers to do it.
Now that all the chickens and pigs were sold, there was no need to clean, and naturally, there was no need to make pig feed or chicken food, so the household chores were quite light.
Soon, the food was on the table.
Ye Daquan looked at the food on the table with a face full of regret: “If I had known that my younger sister would be cooking today, I wouldn’t have traded away my cassava at noon. That was my younger sister’s cooking! I’ve never eaten anything she made before! I actually traded it away at noon!”
Old Man Ye and the others: “…”
Ye Caiping twitched the corner of her mouth.
Seeing Ye Daquan’s fawning and shameless behavior, Du Shi was speechless.
If Ye Caiping weren’t Ye Daquan’s younger sister, she would have definitely started a fight with her.
Note:
Characters
Other Characters:
Heigou – Ate poisonous roots
Heigou’s mother
Doctor Zhao
Zhao Facai – Neighbor
Village Head Ye- Sometime Ye Lizheng (Lizheng is a title that refers to Village Head/Chief)
Ye Bajin – Village Head’s Son
Fubao – Village Head’s Grandson
Tie Niu and Zhuzi – two women who helped Caiping
Places:
Qinghe Village: FL’s Village
Li Family Village
Great Zhou Dynasty