At dusk, curling cooking smoke rose above the village, it was the liveliest time—The adults stood on both sides of the street chatting idly, the children chased and made a racket with one another.
Jiang Chun, pushing a wheelbarrow through the streets, all along the way was either envied or teased by the villagers.
Returned home under great pressure.
And Song Shi’an, who was the center of the gossip, still completely unaware was sitting cross-legged on the kang in the west room calmly copying text.
Jiang Chun washed her hands, walked into the west room originally intending to tell him about this.
But before she could open her mouth, she herself couldn’t hold it in and let out a “puchi” laugh.
Song Shi’an turned his head and glanced at her, then turned his gaze back to the paper before him.
Jiang Chun couldn’t stand his calm appearance—the calmer he was, the more she wanted to tease him.
She rolled her eyes, deciding to launch a reverse attack.
Jiang Chun bit her own cheek with her teeth, forcibly suppressing the smile on her face.
Then, with a serious tone, she asked him: “When you were washing underpants, did someone outside come to the house?”
Song Shi’an paused, as if recalling something, and quickly said: “Auntie Cao from Second House came by, said to let you save her a jin of meat tomorrow—The kind with more fat and less lean.”
“Oh, got it,” Jiang Chun responded first, then gave him a sideways glare and snorted:
“You were at home washing my underpants and didn’t even bolt the door? Now look what’s happened, didn’t Auntie Cao see it?”
Song Shi’an still hadn’t realized the seriousness of the problem, said faintly: “It’s just washing underpants, takes less than half a ke [15 mins], is there a need to bolt the door? As for Auntie Cao, if she saw it, then she saw it—can’t exactly dig out her eyeballs, can we?”
Actually, what he said was sophistry. From the result of being seen by Auntie Cao while washing Jiang Chun’s underpants, it was clearly very necessary to bolt the door.
It was his earlier failure to consider things properly.
After all, as a young master from a noble family, he really didn’t know that villagers when visiting usually didn’t knock— they just walked into other people’s homes directly.
Jiang Chun snorted with a laugh: “Digging out her eyeballs is useless, you’d have to sew her mouth shut instead.”
Upon hearing this, Song Shi’an immediately had a bad premonition.
Sure enough, the next second, he heard her say in a disgruntled tone: “Auntie Cao is our village’s famously big mouth— she saw you washing my underpants just a moment ago, and right after, she already spread it until the whole village knows.”
“Just now when I was pushing the wheelbarrow back with radishes, I got teased nonstop along the way—they said I forced you to wash my underpants. Tell me, am I wronged or not?”
“What are you calling wronged for, wasn’t the matter of washing underpants something you forced me to do?”
Song Shi’an grumbled inwardly.
Then his whole body stiffened.
What?
She said that the matter of him washing underpants had already been spread by Auntie Cao until the whole village knows?
Then wouldn’t his reputation now be completely ruined?
In the future, even if he regained his position As Grand Secretariat, when the villagers bring him up, they’ll only say: “Oh, that’s the live-in son-in-law from the Jiang family who washed underpants for Jiang Chun?”
Looks like silencing Auntie Cao is already useless— might as well slaughter the entire village!
This was, of course, a joke.
Massacring the village— that’s absolutely impossible. He hadn’t yet become that cruel.
But if he didn’t massacre the village, then this hat of “henpecked” [惧内, lit. “fearful of the wife”] was one he’d never be able to take off in this lifetime.
Then thinking it over, he himself had already fallen so far as to be sold into the Jiang family as a zhuìxù, and zhuixù was something people looked down upon to begin with— adding one more “henpecked” hat didn’t seem like such a big deal.
—
“Chun-niang, Chun-niang, you come out here for me!”
Just as Song Shi’an’s thoughts were tangled in endless loops, suddenly Jiang He’s roar came from the courtyard.
Before Jiang Chun could even go out, he was already taking big strides in three steps to enter the west room.
As soon as he caught sight of Jiang Chun, he started a head-on scolding barrage:
“Chun-niang, what’s going on with you? How could you let your son-in-law wash your clothes?”
“Even if the son-in-law is a live-in one from our family, Our family doesn’t have the bad habit of mistreating live-in sons-in-law.”
“You made him, a grown man, wash your clothes, now it’s being talked about like boiling water outside— How’s he supposed to go out and face people in the future?”
Because Jiang He was a man, when the gossiping village women at the entrance teased him, they casually changed “washing underpants” into “washing clothes” — And he just believed it as truth.
—
Jiang Chun: “……”
Jiang He was a traditional man of ancient times—though he dearly loved his daughter, was willing not to take a second wife or have sons for her sake, even spending a hefty sum to buy her a live-in husband.
But he also carried the era’s distinct male chauvinist thinking— believing that chores like laundry and cooking were naturally the domain of women, and for men to do these things was disgraceful.
Jiang Chun didn’t bother arguing this with him. Instead, she directly dumped the black pot [黑锅, a Chinese idiom for shifting blame] onto Song Shi’an’s head.
She said with an aggrieved tone: “Dad, don’t wrongly accuse a good person. It was your son-in-law who insisted on washing them for me, it wasn’t that I forced him. If you don’t believe it, go ask your son-in-law!”
After speaking, she looked up at Song Shi’an and casually used her left hand to give a small knock to her own butt.
The implied meaning: If you dare say the wrong thing, I’ll make you wear the pair of torn underpants that show your butt cheeks!
Song Shi’an: “……”
Can she be even more shameless?
Seeing Jiang He’s gaze shift to him, he pressed his lips together, took a deep breath then spoke with difficulty:
“Dad, it’s not Chun-niang’s fault. It’s just that I saw her slaughtering pigs and selling meat, managing the household and still having to work in the fields during her free time— It was really too hard on her. So I wanted to help by doing whatever lighter chores I could. Who knew it would just happen to be seen by that big-mouthed Auntie Cao…”
Jiang Chun’s lips curled slightly upward— thinking this guy was actually quite tactful— Her spirits rose immediately, and she shouted at Jiang He:
“Dad, did you hear that? He volunteered to do it himself, it’s not my business at all! Hmph, and yet I still got scolded by you for nothing— I really was so wrongly accused!”
Jiang He rubbed his nose and gave an embarrassed laugh:
“Dad just thought it was you bullying the son-in-law. He’s got such a weak body—how could he withstand you bullying him? So Dad got anxious and worried, that’s all.”
Jiang Chun snorted: “Dad, are you still anxious and worried now? If you’re still anxious, Then go find that blabbermouth old hag Auntie Cao and argue it out with her!”
Jiang He gave her a glare: “What are you saying? Dad’s a grown man—how could I go reason with an old woman like her? I think you just want her to scold me so you can vent your anger!”
Jiang Chun gave a cheeky laugh: “Dad, you’re too clever, you actually didn’t fall for it.”
The father and daughter joked and laughed a bit, and the matter was considered over—after all, it wasn’t a big deal to begin with.
But just before Jiang He left the west room, he still gave Song Shi’an a serious reminder:
“Son-in-law, in the future, if you want to help Chun-niang with chores, just sweep the floor or tidy up the yard. Don’t wash clothes again— be careful someone sees and gossips.”
Song Shi’an lowered his head slightly, showing he’d been taught: “Yes, I’ll listen to Dad.”
Only then did Jiang He leave the west room satisfied, and went to the courtyard to unload the radishes from the wheelbarrow.
Jiang Chun glared at Song Shi’an, while going “ga ba ga ba” as she cracked her own finger joints, coldly asking him:
“Speak, do you listen to Dad or do you listen to me?”
Song Shi’an lightly snorted: “Why didn’t you ask this just now in front of Dad?”
Jiang Chun instantly jumped up and stomped her foot: “Are you mocking me for being cowardly?”
Song Shi’an picked up the brush, calmly continued copying out the book.
Jiang Chun, seeing this, gave a mocking laugh and said: “You better answer quickly, because this concerns whether or not I’ll go to the county town tomorrow to pull cloth and buy cotton on your behalf, to make cotton-padded clothes and quilts.”
Song Shi’an: “……”
Threatening him again?
If he dared to answer that he listened to Jiang He, she’d dare to not make him the cotton-padded clothes or quilts.
If so, when the weather turned cold, his body wouldn’t be able to bear it, and he’d surely have no choice but to bow his head to her.
Since he’d have to bow his head sooner or later, why suffer a round of freezing for nothing?
He closed his eyes briefly, and gave up all pretense as he said: “Listen to you. Next time when helping you wash your underpants, I’ll avoid doing it in front of Dad.”
After thinking for a moment, he added another sentence: “I’ll also remember to latch the door.”
Jiang Chun revealed a satisfied smile at the corner of her lips. She took a quick step forward to the kang, reached out and pinched his cheek, laughing as she said:
“So obedient.”
Then turned and fled like the wind.
Song Shi’an: “……”
Dared to take liberties with him — what outrageous behavior!