Chapter 54

Because Zhang Haiyao looked like she wasn't joking, Li Qinghe stepped aside to let her in. Though they'd both been busy moving and preparing for the wedding feast, they had a sense that something was happening at home.
She didn't bring Zhang Haiyao into the house; she only pointed to a bench in the yard and motioned for her to sit, then crouched down again to watch Zhou Chengkang's work. "Tell me then," she said.
Zhang Haiyao didn't sit. She kept one hand on her hip and watched Zhou Chengkang as well, unable to help commenting, "Why go to all that trouble? The dog could live under the eaves or in the woodshed. You two seem to want a dog everywhere, why take in an injured one?"
Zhou Chengkang replied casually, "We just happened to find it, so we took it in. We're not going anywhere, might as well find something to do to pass the time."
They left it at that and didn't press her, and Li Qinghe passed him planks, doing the doghouse properly.
Since they didn't ask, Zhang Haiyao wandered once around the yard and praised, "This house is really spacious. The one in my town is even bigger, but it's too far away to be convenient."
As if being closer would let her go back home to live, Li Qinghe didn't bother to look up; she only made a small sound to show she heard.
"You probably won't go back to the old house, will you?" she asked hesitantly, testing the waters.
Hearing that, Li Qinghe immediately understood what Meihua and Zhang Haiyao had been up to recently.
Zhang Haiyao had never been one to hide her thoughts, especially among the Zhou family, and now, feeling candid, she touched her belly. "I'm six months along. After the New Year the baby's due, and when the child comes there won't be anywhere for us to live."
She was asking for a house that would belong to their Zhou household. Li Qinghe waited patiently for her to continue and did not pry.
Zhang didn't need prompting. "Your old house is empty anyway. Why not lend it to us… or rent it to me. I'll pay some rent."
The last line sounded reasonable enough.
Lending is natural when feelings are close, but the bonds between Zhou Chengkang and the eldest and third brothers were distant; it would make more sense to lend it to Li Qingmiao and the others. When feelings weren't there, they'd rather leave it unused. Both branches of the family wanted the place, give it to one and you'd offend the other.
Li Qinghe had no patience for such thankless tasks, so lending was out of the question.
"I won't hide it from you," Zhang Haiyao urged. "Eldest sister-in-law wants that house too. She wants to let Granny Liu live there." Zhang Haiyao put a hand on her hip. "Price's negotiable. Think about it."
Li Qinghe grew interested. "How much a year do you plan to give me?"
Zhang held up one hand. "Five silver coins."
Li Qinghe said nothing. Zhang Haiyao, seeing her pause, added, "Five coins is not small. I know you're not short of money, but your house just sits there, how long will an empty house last? Think it over."
True enough, five silver coins used to be two and a half months' wages when Li Qinghe worked as a helper in town.
With that sum to consider, Li Qinghe nodded. "All right. If you pay, I'll draw up a lease for a year."
Zhang Haiyao frowned. "Can I pay when we move in? I don't have need of it now, I'll pay at the end of the year…"
She meant: hold the house for her but don't demand rent until she actually moved in.
Always scheming.
"That won't do," Li Qinghe shook her head. "If Eldest Sister-in-law comes later, I'm sure she'll pay that little rent."
It wasn't that Li Qinghe needed the money. Taking the rent and using it to show filial respect to Mrs. Zhou felt fitting, after all, Mrs. Zhou's house had been built with her money.
Otherwise, expecting Zhang Haiyao to come up with the silver out of goodwill would be waiting forever. She remembered Mrs. Zhou had a debt of two mace to repay herself.
Li Qinghe's face stayed calm, as if whether the house was rented made no difference; Zhang Haiyao ground her teeth in irritation. "Fine!"
Then she left. In the afternoon Third Brother Zhou came with the town chief and, in front of him, wrote a lease: one year, five silver coins, pay the money before moving in.
While they were signing the lease, Meihua arrived. Seeing the scene, she snapped, "Zhang Haiyao, you have no heart."
Zhang Haiyao smiled and put the lease away. She had woken early precisely to settle this before Meihua returned. Now that the lease was done she felt pleased. "Eldest Sister-in-law, you might hesitate to spend five silver coins for a year's use. Besides, you have the kitchen. If I rent the house, that kitchen will be shared between my family and my mother's. If you rent it, wouldn't I be the one to lose out?"
Meihua was furious. She hadn't planned to rent, she only intended to appeal emotionally to Li Qinghe to borrow the place. She came over right after selling tofu and found she was too late. Once she heard money was involved she felt less disappointed, but she was miffed that the third branch had claimed the house.
Angry, Meihua turned and left. Zhang Haiyao and Third Brother Zhou went off with the town chief. When they left and the door was shut, Li Qinghe pinched the silver between her fingers and said, smiling, "Give it to Mother."
Zhou Chengkang looked surprised. "Give it to Mother?"
"What else?" Li Qinghe retorted.
Zhou Chengkang took the silver. Li Qinghe was willing to give it to Mrs. Zhou because she was his mother, ultimately it was for him, and he was moved. "Qinghe, you're too good."
Because the doghouse was delayed by the hour, it wasn't finished until the afternoon. The big yellow pup was still small; the shelter felt empty inside. It was October, deep autumn: warm by day, freezing at night. Li Qinghe found some old clothes to line the doghouse and a bowl for its food. The pup, named Da Huang, had at last made a home by the doorway.
Zhou Chengkang finished the doghouse and was pretty satisfied. He told Da Huang, "Keep watch over the house!"
Li Qinghe couldn't help laughing from the side. The two of them fed the fish together, then went to check on the chickens.
When they first bought seventy or eighty chickens, more than twenty had died as chicks. Of the roughly fifty left, about half were roosters, and after nearly a year they'd all grown up.
Some hens weren't laying eggs; their calls were different, they wanted to brood.
By now they'd accumulated more than a hundred eggs. Many women in the village knew how to pick hatching eggs, but Li Qinghe didn't. The only person she knew who could was Third Aunt next door at the Li family, and she had been specially invited over.
When they went, Yu Yan was in the yard looking up at the sky, actually she had come out to rest her eyes after embroidering for a long time. She happened upon them, heard they were selecting hatching eggs, and eagerly came along.
In the end they picked out over sixty eggs. Li Qinghe watched and learned; she gave the eggs to five hens to brood. The rest, the ones unsuitable for hatching, would be kept for their own consumption or, of course, could be sold.
Li Qinghe also picked a few to give to Third Aunt. It was only the second day since she had moved; visitors couldn't help talking about the new house, and Third Aunt was no exception. Smiling, she said, "This house is very nice. I remember when you were little and thin; when your mother left, you ran after her crying for a ways. In the end I brought you back in my arms. Back then I never imagined you'd do so well, I always felt sorry for a motherless child..."
"Those things are past; things will only get better," Third Aunt said with a smile as she explained brooding. "You don't need to feed the hens much beforehand, but while they're brooding you must put their food nearby and a bowl of water; don't let them leave for too long or the eggs will be ruined. That would be such a shame."
Li Qinghe wrote everything down. As it was getting late, she saw them out.
Third Aunt sighed along the way, "I would be relieved if Yu Yan could find a good marriage."
Yu Yan pretended not to hear and asked, "Are you going to town in the next few days? It's getting colder. I want to fetch some embroidered goods and the embroidery thread you brought back. I've embroidered a few handkerchiefs and want to ask about the price. If you go, remember to take me along."
This girl came from the big town, and some of her habits never matched those of the villagers. For example, when going to town, people without carts or oxen would think to walk; a few would spend a copper coin to catch a ride. But Yu Yan refused to walk if she could get a ride.
Li Qinghe thought for a moment and said, "In a few days I'll come and go with you."
They had been busy these past days and a pile of dirty clothes had built up. Today the time had slipped by; tomorrow they had to get the laundry done. The weather was getting colder and rain, even snow, might come. If that happened, washed clothes would take days to dry and get a musty smell, making them unpleasant to wear.
The next morning, after breakfast they washed the clothes. It's worth noting that the new house's yard had no well; instead a stream branched off from the spring's source and was channeled into a corner of the yard. There, they had built a small square cistern with bluestone slabs; they drew water from there for daily use, and excess water flowed out through the yard wall into the fish pond.
With the washing done, they headed up the mountain again, not to cut firewood, but to the patch of wasteland. The few acres they'd reclaimed hadn't yielded well this year; Li Qinghe planned to dig some humus from the woods to spread with this year's chicken manure, which should improve next year's crop.
They worked for half a month and finally spread a layer of humus over the wasteland. In late October it rained heavily for several days.
Li Qinghe checked on the brooding hens every day. With the rain keeping them indoors, the two of them took to making charcoal.
Making charcoal meant setting the larger logs alight and burning them down into chunks of charcoal, then placing them in a sealed pit so the flames went out and what remained were pieces of charcoal. This work was best done in rainy weather, the fire kept you warm, you could dry clothes by the hearth, and even roast the hay in a pot.
The dried hay they roasted was for feeding chickens and horses: ordinary weeds cut up and dried, then boiled again to feed chickens, horses, and pigs. In a famine people could eat it too, though it didn't taste very good.
The two of them lived some distance from the village, so visitors were rare; they both rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. Of course, Mrs. Zhou still came often, roughly every three days she would drop by, rain or shine.
Hearing a knock and seeing the rain outside had eased a bit, Li Qinghe knew it must be Mrs. Zhou again.
Zhou Chengkang went to open the door and quickly ushered his damp mother in. Li Qinghe hurried to help her sit by the fire. "Mother, in this heavy rain, why did you come?"
When Mrs. Zhou came in she glanced over the tidy yard, and upon seeing the firewood burning in the stove her expression softened. "It's nothing. I came to check on you."
This wasn't just a casual visit, she had been there only the day before. Li Qinghe smiled and said, "I've steamed some buns; Mother, eat a meal first before you go."
Rising to start cooking, Mrs. Zhou watched her for a moment, then took out five qian of silver. "Keep this, it's for you."
Li Qinghe was a little surprised. That silver had probably gone to pay off debts, why was it being given back?