Chapter 54 : Pushing the limits

Since Jiang Sui nodded, Mother Xiao no longer had any doubts and signaled Father Xiao to accept the jade pendant.

She believed Suisui must have her reasons for this.

Father Xiao finally accepted the jade pendant, and Su Yanqing let out a breath of relief.

Before boarding the carriage, Su Yanqing turned back and cast a meaningful look at Xiao Lanlan, who was standing behind him. His eyes were filled with reluctance to part.

Xiao Lanlan was also looking at him, her face bearing a gentle, appropriate smile. But after Su Yanqing’s carriage rolled away, that smile turned faintly bitter.

Jiang Sui, who stood beside her, noticed everything. It was clear that Lanlan had feelings for Second Young Master Su. But that was understandable. A man like Su Yanqing, elegant, graceful, refined was like the moonlight and spring breeze, a gentleman as warm as jade. What ordinary girl wouldn’t be moved by him?

After Su Yanqing and Mr. Zeng left, the Xiao family turned their full attention to preparing their market stall business.

Once the vermicelli and potato starch sheets were dried, everything would be ready, and they could pick a good day to start selling in town.

In terms of personnel, Mother Xiao, Jiang Sui, and Xiao Yi would run the stall together. Xiao Yi would be responsible for driving the ox cart and watching over the goods.

Zhou and Lanlan would stay home to handle logistics, or they could rotate shifts. When Mother Xiao and Jiang Sui needed rest, Lanlan and Zhou could take over at the stall. Besides, Zhou needed to travel to town for acupuncture every two weeks anyway.

They consulted the almanac and decided to open the stall in three days, and Father Xiao would go out with them then.

Father Xiao didn’t stay home long, he returned mainly to report he was safe and to check on the farmland.

It had been nearly two months without rain. The wheat in the fields desperately needed water. Without it, the crops wouldn’t survive, and there would be no harvest in the second half of the year. And without a harvest, how could the family live?

He went out to the wheat fields to have a look. Due to the lack of rain, the wheat wasn’t growing well. Every household had dug irrigation ditches to draw water from the river.

But the river’s water level had already dropped significantly, which was a worrying sign.

When Father Xiao saw the state of things, he was furious because the ditch leading to his wheat field had been blocked, and the water had been diverted elsewhere.

Right next to the Xiao family’s wheat field was the Jiang family’s land specifically, the adoptive mother of Jiang Sui, Chen Jinhua. She didn’t have much land to begin with, yet she had rerouted the Xiao family’s water to her own field. What was the Xiao family’s wheat supposed to drink?

Father Xiao was furious. He already thought Widow Chen wasn’t a good person, especially after how poorly she had treated his fourth daughter-in-law in the past. Without hesitation, he redirected the water back to his own field.

Chen Jinhua was infuriated and immediately stood by the field, shouting and cursing: “You heartless brute! Who stole the water from my land? Just because I’m a widow and don’t have a son, you think I’m easy to bully? Heaven is watching, you’ll get your retribution!”

She dared to scold him? She was the one who stole water first, and now she was yelling at others.

Father Xiao wasn’t afraid of her at all and confronted her directly: “I did it, so what? You blocked my ditch and rerouted the water to your land. I didn’t even call you out for it yet. If you want water, dig your own ditch. Don’t try to mooch off others.”

Chen Jinhua was simply lazy. She thought going all the way to the river to fetch water was too troublesome and tiring, so she decided to steal water from others. And it wasn’t just the Xiao family, several other households had suffered too. But those families were tougher, and Chen Jinhua only dared to bully the ones she thought were weaker. That’s why she set her sights on the Xiao family.

She thought that since they were somewhat related, they wouldn’t make a fuss even if they found out. But she had underestimated how deeply farmers valued their land.

Would a whole family really be willing to starve just for the sake of some distant in-law connection?

Besides, Jiang Sui was just an adopted daughter, and Chen Jinhua never treated her like her own. They had argued constantly since she was a child, so why should she be afraid of her now? At most, she could cut ties, and they could go their separate ways in peace.

Chen Jinhua hadn’t expected Father Xiao to react so fiercely. Just as she opened her mouth to start cursing again, Xiao Yi arrived, carrying a hoe and looking quite intimidating: “Who dares steal our water? I’ll make them pay. I’m staying home to guard the land this year. I won’t go anywhere. Let’s see whose fists are harder!”

In previous years, all the men of the Xiao family would be working away from home at this time, leaving only the women and their not-too-bright son behind. And back then, there was no lack of rainfall, so no disputes like this ever came up. But this year was different. The skies had refused to rain, and the sun only grew hotter by the day. If they didn’t fight for water, they’d have no harvest come autumn.

This year was also unusual because Xiao Yi was still at home. Chen Jinhua had assumed there were no men around in the Xiao household to oppose her and had grown bolder with her scheming. She thought no one would stop her, so she acted openly.

But as soon as Xiao Yi, this burly man stood there with his big frame, her confidence vanished in an instant.

That tall guy if he slapped her, wouldn’t her face be left with five clear finger marks?

Faced with the father and son, Chen Jinhua grew timid. Without another word, she picked up her hoe and fled.

After she left, Father Xiao turned to his third son and instructed: “Once I go back to the county, you’ll need to visit the fields more often. Everyone’s wheat isn’t doing well this year. We can’t afford a water shortage, if we don’t harvest anything, we’ll all go hungry for the rest of the year.”

To farmers, the crops in the fields were their lifeline.

“I got it, Dad. I’ll come out here every day. That Widow Chen’s been stealing our water more than once. I didn’t say anything before and just fixed it myself,” said Xiao Yi.

He had tolerated it because she was a woman, and out of consideration for his fourth brother’s wife. But now the woman had gone too far.

“This is about food, we don’t need to save face for anyone. And besides, that widow treated your fourth brother’s wife terribly before. There’s no reason to be polite. At worst, we cut ties, and we’ll still be able to live in peace,” Father Xiao said firmly.

He’d also gotten a letter from Mother Xiao, who said Jiang Sui didn’t concern herself with the Jiang family anymore. She had neither the time nor the energy to hold a grudge.

In any case, there was no need to worry about Jiang Sui. She clearly wanted nothing to do with Chen Jinhua or her daughter.

Xiao Yi nodded in agreement. The father and son stared at the weak flow of water in the ditch, both feeling uneasy.

This wasn’t going to be an ordinary year.

At dinner, Father Xiao brought the topic up again, sighing that the weather was dry and hot, and the crops in the field had no water to drink. Every household was scrambling for water, and the river had run so low that its bed was visible. If it kept up like this, the river might dry up entirely.

For farming folk, neither drought nor excessive rain was good. But ultimately, their entire year’s harvest depended on just a few key months.

Mother Xiao was worried too, but what could they do? They could only take things one step at a time.

Jiang Sui was chewing a steamed bun, and when she heard the conversation, her brow furrowed slightly.

She thought back carefully to the events of the book.

The heroine, Xia Wanning, was about the same age as her, also fifteen.

She was the unfavored daughter of a marquis’ household. When she was young, her stepmother had sent her away to a rural estate. She had just returned to the capital and was about to meet the male lead. The novel’s main plot was just beginning.

Jiang Sui clearly remembered that in the first year after the heroine returned to the capital, there had been a severe drought in part of the Daqing Dynasty. The crops failed entirely, and the people suffered greatly.

If she remembered correctly, the heroine had returned to the capital in the eighteenth year of the Jingzhao reign during the Qingli era.