Hui-niang repeatedly stepped back, almost failed to stand firm.
The two words beast made her eyes red, fingertips trembling from anger.
She could not stand hearing even half a word of insult toward Wei Shen from Zhuang Mei’s mouth.
“You better not bully people too much.”
With Zhuang Mei making such a scene, everyone looked over.
However, Zhuang Mei not only didn’t find it shameful, but took pride in it, raising her chin high.
“Mother lives with us, yet I don’t see you all giving any money to show filial respect on ordinary days. How do you even have the face? It’s not like Mother only has our Shoucai as a son!”
“I just want to see what you bought!”
Zhuang Mei lunged forward, lifted the cloth covering Hui-niang’s basket.
When she saw a few bones stripped clean of meat inside, along with some shabby pig intestines, her eyes filled with disdain, retreating a few steps in disgust.
“Stuff nobody wants, and you can actually swallow it? What, ran out of money? Planning to cry poverty again?”
“I’m telling you now, don’t come borrowing money from the main house. We’re not going to plug your bottomless pit.”
She deliberately tried to scare Hui-niang: “Originally I thought you were pitiful, so I suffered a bit of loss. But now that everyone’s here, I’ll just lay it out—when Wei Shen dies, if you turn around and kneel to beg me again, I still won’t agree to pass a son over.” [“过继儿子” means to pass a child, especially a son, for adoption to another family branch, often to carry on the ancestral line.]
These few sentences stabbed straight into the heart.
Hui-niang’s face turned pale as death.
And just then, came a crisp and pleasant laugh.
Everyone turned to look over in confusion.
Yu Tingwan casually said: “Sorry.”
“Seeing someone so thick-skinned, I couldn’t hold it in.”
Zhuang Mei glared over.
She knew how sharp Yu Tingwan’s mouth was. Just as she was about to curse, she was held back by Wang-Shi who had come over to buy pig’s blood.
“Don’t stoop to her level.”
Wang-Shi sneered: “She didn’t name you, right? If you take it seriously, she’ll just float over with a sentence like ‘I didn’t say you, don’t insert yourself into the seat,’ won’t you become the joke?”
She totally understood Yu Tingwan’s devious little tricks!!!
Zhuang Mei, hearing this, thought it made sense.
But right then, Yu Tingwan lazily let out an “ah.”
“But…”
She didn’t play by the rules: “I was talking about her.”
Wang-Shi: ???
Zhuang Mei: !!!
She rolled up her sleeves: “You little cheap slut…”
The lizheng came out from the house.
“What are you all yelling about?”
The only people here who didn’t need to show Zhuang Mei any face were Yu Tingwan and the lizheng. Yu Tingwan was just hard-headed, but the lizheng had age and status on his side.
“Did Wan Niang say anything wrong? Did you forget how you knelt on the ground back then to beg Hui-niang? Don’t you feel ashamed?!”
“You didn’t want your son to be conscripted, so you spent money to treat the yamen’s registry constable to drinks and directly put your nephew’s name in his place. If I don’t bring up what happened that year, would you have forgotten it completely? How do you even have the face to argue with her now?”
With him bringing it up, the older women all recalled it too.
That year, it was also a snowy day.
Back then, Zhuang Mei wasn’t so domineering like now. Rarely seen lowering herself, she knelt in front of the near-broken Hui-niang.
[“It was my fault in this matter, but I had no choice. Being a soldier is so hard—one careless moment and you could lose your life. Your family’s Wei Shen runs up and down all day and can even go into the river to catch fish. At a glance, he’s a great seedling for martial training.”]
Even the gentle-tempered Hui-niang had gone mad then, raising her hand and slapping her hard across the face.
[“So my A’Lang deserves to die?”]
[“You can’t bear to send your own son to die, so you shove A’Lang out instead?”]
Wei Shen was two years younger than Wei Qintian!
Zhuang Mei’s expression shifted.
“T-That… was so many years ago already, what’s the point of bringing it up now.”
Seeing this, some people shook their heads.
“So she does know she has a guilty conscience.”
“Hasn’t Wei family’s A’Lang already returned for quite some time? Still haven’t seen their main house go over and pay a visit. Really unkind.”
“Right, Qintian’s already married and become a father. His paternal cousin got injured like that…”
So long as it didn’t involve his own interests, the lizheng was still especially fair and willing to uphold justice.
His face turned cold: “People do things, Heaven is watching. Aren’t you afraid of retribution? Eating up an heirless household isn’t something you just eat like that.” [“吃绝户” (eat the heirless) is a cultural idiom referring to someone taking advantage of a household that has no male heir to defend its property, often with connotations of cruelty or greed.]
Zhuang Mei was displeased: “It’s just a squabble between women, what’s the big deal.”
“You’re the lizheng, this isn’t your concern.”
The lizheng didn’t get angry either, too lazy to argue with such an unreasonable person.
“If you’re not convinced, then let your man come and argue with me!”
“Your mother-in-law too. The Wei family boy needs peace and quiet to recover, and she goes over to raise hell every day—what kind of ah-nai [阿奶, dialect term for elderly woman/grandmother] is she?”
How could Zhuang Mei swallow this insult? She stomped her foot and threw harsh words at Hui-niang.
“You just wait!”
What’s so great about being a lizheng!
She turned her head and ran outside, wanting to go back and find someone to back her up.
Yu Tingwan seemed to be thinking of something.
These past days, it wasn’t hard to see just how much Wei Shouzhong and his wife valued Wei Shen.
She was just puzzled.
“If the name was wrong, they could’ve reported it to the yamen.”
Why was it still Wei Shen who ended up taking the place?
Li Lian, who was closest to her, shook her head after hearing this: “Where could it be that simple.”
Seeing the girl’s eyes like autumn water gaze gently over, Li Lian was also willing to explain to her: “Back then, Shoucai and his wife, along with Old Lady Wei, covered things up very tightly.”
When the time came, those listed on the registry had to go to the yamen, and then the yamen would collectively send the names up.
Once above, they would be gathered for drills. Each military camp would send people over one after another to select. If selected, they would be taken away.
“On the day they went to the yamen, it was the main house husband and wife who accompanied them. Old Lady Wei said, since they were brothers, let Wei Shen come along too and send them off.”
Who would’ve thought there was something fishy and calculated behind this?
Who would have expected that Wei Shen would never return.
And Wei Qintian, who was originally supposed to be conscripted, followed his parents and came back.
“When Hui-niang chased to the yamen, Wei Shen had already been sent off.”
“How could this kind of matter be raised into a fuss?”
Yu Tingwan understood.
But the lizheng’s grandson’s wife who was holding a child was confused: “Why can’t they go raise a fuss at the yamen?”
Without even waiting for Li Lian to answer, Yu Tingwan said gently: “Conscription isn’t a small matter. If the wrong person was sent, it counts as the county magistrate’s negligence. How would he dare take that case.”
“If Aunt Hui and the others really didn’t care about consequences and managed to make a fuss all the way to the military camp, the entire Wei family would probably have to lose their heads too.”
And the Wei family hadn’t divided households.
In this matter, the second branch wouldn’t gain any benefit either.
“Wei Shen going to the military camp was already a done deal and couldn’t be changed. Aunt Hui still has a daughter. Old Lady Wei had calculated precisely on these two points, which is why she dared to be so bold.”
Li Lian was surprised by how clearly Yu Tingwan saw through everything, understanding it all at once.
She sighed: “If you were a man, you’d probably be no worse than Yaozu.”
Yu Tingwan smiled, seeming thoughtful.
And so, on the third day, next door made pickled cabbage pig intestines.
No one knew how Hui-niang made it — there wasn’t the slightest off-putting smell. The aroma was extremely overbearing, drilling straight into Yu Tingwan’s nose.
It seemed very delicious, even stirred up her craving bug.
The mushrooms were all eaten, and at home there were only boiled wild vegetables.
Left for too long, the wild vegetables had all wilted. No flavor, no taste.
She hugged the little broken pot, went to sit in the courtyard, and looked in the direction of the neighboring house, but could only see a high wall between the two households.
The little girl hung her head dispiritedly, falling into a long silence.
For the first time, she gave birth to a thought she shouldn’t have had.
If she married Wei Shen, would she also be able to eat pig intestines?