Chapter 17

When she finished speaking she glanced at the silent Zhao Wanwan, ignored the flustered Madam Qian behind her, and went inside.
Once inside she suddenly remembered she hadn't eaten, so she went to the kitchen to steam some buns. While she was at it, Zhao Wanwan came in. "Sister, I'll help."
Li Qinghe glanced at her. "You want to get married?"
"A girl grows up, doesn't she have to marry?" Zhao Wanwan sounded a little bewildered. "The Hu family is decent. Sister, you know I always envied your work, you earned silver every month and saved it yourself." She lowered her head and poked the fire into the stove. "I think this is my best chance of getting that kind of work. I really don't want to let it slip."
After all, this was really just another push to get her betrothed sooner. Li Qinghe wasn't particularly hurt by it, she had never been very close to Zhao Wanwan and had only helped her a few times. Besides, most people are selfish.
Li Qinghe cut vegetables in silence and ignored her.
After waiting a long while without an answer, Zhao Wanwan tested the waters. "Sister, are you mad at me?"
"Not really," Li Qinghe answered casually. "But it's too early for me to be betrothed. Whether you hurry or not makes no difference."
Zhao Wanwan's face fell. "I know about you and Fourth Brother Zhou... can't you nudge him for my sake?" She hesitated, then added, "He disappears for days at a time, he doesn't seem eager to be betrothed. You don't have to just wait for him. My cousin would be fine; he has a trade and he cares for you."
Li Qinghe couldn't be bothered to listen. When the buns were done she took the food back to her room.
It was one thing for Zhao Wanwan to complain that Zhou Chengkang wasn't attentive, that was true enough, but when she started boasting that Li Qinghe had once personally rejected Qian Laiman, that was irritating. Besides, that man was already betrothed; saying such things, was she doing it on purpose?
She spent two more days cutting grass by the pond; Li Kui was still helping her tamp down the soil along the pond's edge.
Two days later she took Zhou Chengkang's cart to town at dawn. Today was the day they'd agreed to pick up the fingerlings.
They certainly knew how to handle fish, in two large buckets there were only a few belly-up. "Don't let them suffocate on the way back, put them in water quick. When I hauled them I had five hundred and fifty; at worst there weren't fifty dead, so count it as five hundred," the seller said.
He was refreshingly straightforward. Li Qinghe paid the silver, Zhou Chengkang had put in three taels, and without delay they loaded the fingerlings onto the cart and headed home. In half an hour the fingerlings were already swimming in the pond.
Watching the faint shapes of the little fish, Li Qinghe felt a small weight lift. This life really was different from the last.
She stared at the pond while Zhou Chengkang looked at her and asked tentatively, "I heard your sister is going to be betrothed?"
"I don't know," Li Qinghe answered casually.
Zhou Chengkang opened his mouth, wanting to ask why she hadn't told him, but the question felt awkward, she had never spoken of betrothal to him. After a long moment he said, "If she gets betrothed first, your position would be awkward."
Li Qinghe looked up at him. "I don't feel that way."
Zhou Chengkang's face grew complicated and hard to read. Suddenly he blurted out, "Then shall we get engaged?"
He only realized how forward it sounded after the words left his mouth. He quickly looked away, stealing anxious glances at her face.
Li Qinghe seemed not to notice and answered offhand, "You haven't even hired a matchmaker. How would we get engaged?"
Zhou Chengkang's expression flickered, first stunned, then full of surprised delight. "If I hired a matchmaker, would you agree?"
Li Qinghe glanced at him. "You haven't even tried, and you're asking me this... Besides, what about your third brother?"
Matters of seniority were strictly observed, especially with marriage. That was why he had warned that if Zhao Wanwan, who was younger, got betrothed first it would make things awkward.
The Zhou family had more problems than just finding brides, they had housing issues too. Right now the family lived in three rooms, which barely sufficed. After marriage, with each person needing a room, the current houses couldn't be split up.
Zhou Chengkang picked up some of the fish feed they had brought and scattered it into the water. "I'll find a way. Also, I've got some things to take care of these days. Later I'll teach you how to feed the fish..."
"You're going into the mountains?" Li Qinghe frowned.
Zhou Chengkang fell silent, which was as good as a yes.
Seeing him like that, Li Qinghe felt uneasy. "There are many ways to earn money, yet you insist on the most dangerous one. If something happens to you, I won't wait."
Zhou Chengkang's expression turned serious. "I'll be careful."
Li Qinghe was indeed short of cash. After thinking it over she said, "Why don't we think of some ways to make money together?"
Zhou Chengkang's heavy mood brightened at her use of "we." "What do you have in mind?"
She spoke matter-of-factly, "Cook up some tasty food to sell in town. That should work. We'll go to town together tomorrow. The harvest is in a few days, and you won't have time then."
She never once tried to hide that he accompanied her. That only strengthened Zhou Chengkang's resolve to earn the silver and formalize the engagement quickly. Even if they couldn't actually marry, having a betrothal would allow them to be seen together openly without gossip. As far as he knew, many in the village already suspected their closeness and whispered about it; if they didn't fix an engagement, it would harm her reputation.
They fed the fish, waited another half hour with no sign of any surfacing, then headed back to the village.
At the Zhou gate, Li Qinghe said goodbye and was about to leave when Mrs. Zhou began to wail, "Are you trying to kill me...?"
Zhou Chengkang's face changed; he opened the door and rushed in.
Li Qinghe was puzzled. A moment later she heard the voice of the third son, Zhou Chengcai, accusingly: "Mother, I want to marry her. The bride price is a bit high, but you can afford it, why won't you agree?"