Chapter 34: Feet Unbound, Free to Go and Stay

Jiang Nian didn’t go straight to the mountain, but turned a corner and went to Li Rui’s place.

He lived near the pond, and you could hear the ducks quacking from afar.

The fields weren’t very busy now, so he was focusing on taking care of his ducks.

When Jiang Nian arrived, he was picking up duck eggs in the shed.

Anyone who has raised these animals knows that no matter how clean you keep chickens, ducks, or pigs, you can’t avoid some stench.

It was really not easy for Li Rui, a young man from the city, to overcome this.

Seeing Jiang Nian coming, Li Rui held the duck eggs and said happily, “It’s smelly here. Go to the house and wait for me. I’ll be right there.”

There was only one room where he slept, and it was a bit messy. Jiang Nian simply took a stool and sat at the door.

Usually, he went to Jiang Nian’s place, and she rarely came over. Li Rui immediately guessed, “You have something to ask me?”

“Is raising ducks hard?”

Jiang Nian asked a question that wasn’t related to the topic.

Li Rui smiled, “What kind of work isn’t hard? Fortunately, the results are pretty good so far. Look, I have 18 duck eggs today. I’ll bring you a few back later.”

“There’s something now. If you do it well, it’ll be a great opportunity for you. It’ll definitely bring you results faster than raising ducks. Maybe it can even make you famous. Do you want to do it?”

“What is it?”

Li Rui was really scared of being tricked by Niu Aixiang.

“Write an article based on Zhou Xiaoju and her mother as prototypes, and send it to the newspaper to apply for publication.” Jiang Nian had carefully considered this issue beforehand, “Li Rui, although everyone has been calling for gender equality since the establishment of the new society, we haven’t been here long, and we can still see the reality of women being at the bottom of society. Compared to men, their biggest predicament is not that they can’t survive, but that they have no one to rely on, no home to go to. I remember you saying that you have a good writing style. I hope you can put aside your gender prejudice and speak out for rural women.”

Maybe some people would think, “If you have hands and feet, and you work hard, how can you have no way out?”

But they didn’t know that women had no autonomy in the production team.

Once divorced or abandoned, they would lose their collective labor qualification in the production team where their husband’s family lived, and the production team on their mother’s side wouldn’t accept them either.

Even the most diligent person, if they couldn’t integrate into the collective and didn’t even have the right to work, how could they make a living?

Of course, the only way out was to remarry, integrate into a new production collective, and become a dependent of a male family again.

After listening, Li Rui was deeply shocked.

He had always been puzzled. Xiaoju’s mother wasn’t afraid of death, why couldn’t she be brave and live a good life?

At that moment, he suddenly realized.

Leaving her husband’s family, she faced not only a lack of housing, but also a lack of collective labor qualification.

Why did the villagers not welcome them, these intellectuals from the city? Besides labor, there was another reason: limited resources. More people in the collective meant more resources being used.

To give an example, if 10 people grow 20 watermelons, they hand in half and can still divide the remaining 10 equally.

But if 11 people grow 20 watermelons, there will be 11 people to divide the remaining 10, even if that person only takes up a small part, it will still cause everyone else to lose a little, so they wouldn’t be welcomed.

He understood the importance of this article and keenly grasped the key point.

To change this situation, the most important thing was to help women gain collective qualifications. Even if they didn’t occupy the property of their mother’s or husband’s family, they needed a place to survive.

He looked at Jiang Nian, nodded, and said, “I understand. I will do my best to write this article.”

When helping one group of people gain benefits, it inevitably affects the interests of another group. So, if this is done well, it will bring both fame and fortune, but if it’s not done well, it could also lead to attacks.

But Li Rui felt that helping others was more meaningful than all of that.

Jiang Nian went back after taking a walk, and Li Rui insisted on giving her a few duck eggs. She found it inconvenient to carry them, so she put them all in her space.

Looking at Zhou Xiaoju’s busy back, she didn’t know how much work she had here.

People who love to be busy can never stop. Even though the room and yard looked clean, she still went around and swept up a lot of dust.

Since she came, the room and yard had been cleaned, the kitchen had been tidied up, and she had even built a fence in the yard to raise a few chickens. They were all roosters that people used to offset their medical bills. Originally, Jiang Nian would put them in her space, but now she was raising them. She would occasionally eat one, and there were also wild animals that Jiang Nian brought back from time to time. Life was indeed much more enjoyable.

Zhou Xiaoju turned around and saw her still busy. She said, “Several people came to see you for treatment just now. I sent them away according to your instructions.”

Although she knew that there was no shortage of herbs at home.

Jiang Nian hummed in response and called her, “Don’t be busy for now. Come in, I have something to tell you.”

“Oh.”

She obediently followed her in and heard Jiang Nian ask her, “Do you want to learn from me?”

Zhou Xiaoju was stunned for a moment, then suddenly knelt down, “I do. As long as Doctor Jiang is willing to teach me, I will study very hard. I will listen to you for the rest of my life. Although I know you may not need me, but… I really don’t know how to express my gratitude.”

Tears fell, tears of excitement, which she wiped away.

Jiang Nian said calmly, “Don’t get too excited. Learning from me isn’t easy. It’s not just medicine, but other aspects as well. You have to be able to endure hardship. And my skills are passed down from my family. If you become my apprentice, you will have to listen to my orders for the rest of your life. If you can’t do that, then consider today’s matter as if I never mentioned it.”

“I can do it.” Zhou Xiaoju didn’t hesitate for a moment. She kowtowed, “Master, please accept your disciple’s bow. I swear that I will listen to my master’s orders for the rest of my life. If I violate them, I will be ground to dust.”

Even without this apprenticeship, Zhou Xiaoju had already regarded Jiang Nian as her salvation.

She had nothing. The only thing she had was this lowly life.

Zhou Xiaoju wasn’t ungrateful. Jiang Nian had been so kind to her. It was only right that she listened to her.

Jiang Nian didn’t dodge. She accepted her bow, which meant accepting her as an apprentice.

“Nowadays, the saying ‘Once a teacher, forever a father’ is also part of the old way of thinking. We’ll just know it privately. We don’t need to call each other master in public. Don’t call me teacher anymore.”

Jiang Nian told her some rules. Since she was now her apprentice, she couldn’t be as casual as before.

“Master, since you are my master now, please give me a new name. I don’t want to be called Zhou Xiaoju anymore. I hate them, and I don’t want to be a Zhou either.” Zhou Xiaoju suddenly said.

Jiang Nian hadn’t really thought about this issue, “Do you want to take your mother’s surname?”

“I want to take my master’s surname.” Zhou Xiaoju was a little timid when she said this, “My mother has two uncles. After my mother was forced to death, the two uncles just used this incident to demand some compensation. They don’t care about me anyway, and I don’t want to take their surname either. If Master minds, I can take any other surname.”

“Taking mine is not appropriate.” The Poison Doctor Valley had a precedent for accepting apprentices, but there was no precedent for giving them a surname.

She didn’t plan to set this precedent.

Once she gave her a surname, it would have a different meaning. Zhou Xiaoju hadn’t reached that level in her heart yet.

“Strings move, tunes change, fallen leaves tell of autumn. Still waters run deep. Since you don’t want to be called your old name anymore, then from now on, you will be called Ye Zhiqiu. May you have no ties to your feet, free to go and stay.”