Chapter 47: Digging the Cellar and Building the Chicken Coop

On the way back from the town, Jiang Li did not deliberately slow down her pace to wait for Xue Man and A Ning. She walked at her normal speed while Xue Man and A Ning chased after her by running. After running for two quarters of an hour, they were already panting and shouting for Jiang Li to slow down and wait for them.

"We have barely gone anywhere, and I am still carrying flour on my back, yet the two of you cannot even catch up to me by running? And you have the nerve to ask me to slow down and wait for you?"

"You are not safe lagging behind. Run ahead while I walk in the back. Do not let me catch up!"

Jiang Ning gritted her teeth and persevered, while Xue Man asked, "Mother, aren't we learning martial arts? Why do we need to run? Is running useful?"

"How is running useless? Even if you learn martial arts, there is always someone better than you. Can you honestly say you can beat every single person you encounter? What if you cannot win? You have to run! Do you expect to just stand there and let someone beat you to death?"

"Hurry up and stop talking."

Thinking her words made sense, Xue Man said no more and continued running forward in silence alongside A Ning, with Jiang Li following closely behind.

Judging that they had covered about half the distance, Jiang Li finally allowed them to stop and walk. The brother and sister had flushed little faces, sweat streamed down their cheeks, and their hair was thoroughly soaked.

After arriving home, Jiang Li boiled an egg for each of them.

While the brother and sister sat in the courtyard eating their eggs, Jiang Li paced back and forth inside the house, deliberating whether to dig the cellar in the courtyard or inside the house.

If intruders were to break in and ransack the place, the interior of the house would undoubtedly be thoroughly looted. Should someone accidentally step on the cellar entrance inside the house and discover something unusual, it would be impossible to keep it hidden.

If she dug it in the courtyard, she was somewhat worried that observant people might spot the entrance.

However, she figured she would not be entering or exiting the cellar in broad daylight to retrieve or store things anyway.

She decided to dig it in the courtyard after all, and build a chicken coop right above it, placing the cellar entrance at the back of the chicken coop against the courtyard wall.

After pondering for a moment, she planned to make the chicken coop rather long and partition it in the middle. To the casual observer, it would look entirely like a chicken coop, but in reality, the back portion would conceal the entrance to the cellar.

Once she made up her mind, Jiang Li prepared to take Xue Man and A Ning to fetch yellow clay.

However, her own back basket had been sold, and only Xue Man and A Ning had baskets at home. She needed to check with Zhao Jiaxiu to see if the new ones were finished yet; if they were woven, she would take a new basket to haul the clay, and if not, she would simply have to borrow one for the time being.

When Jiang Li arrived, Zhao Jiaxiu and her husband had only just returned from working in the fields a short while ago.

Zhao Jiaxiu was whittling bamboo strips, while Xue Chengwen was finishing the rim at the top of a back basket.

Because the baskets were large, they were woven from bamboo strips over an inch wide. To ensure the back remained flat and comfortable against the body, wider strips of about an inch were used, and the shoulder areas were crafted to be smooth and gentle on the shoulders.

No matter how Jiang Li looked at it, she was thoroughly satisfied.

Zhao Jiaxiu said, "Since you will be carrying heavy loads in this, you can make a reed cushion or a chaff pad to line it so it won't chafe your shoulders."

"Alright."

A purely handmade new back basket truly looked pleasing, and when Jiang Li finally held it in her hands, she felt a twinge of reluctance to use it for hauling sticky yellow clay.

As soon as she voiced her thought, Zhao Jiaxiu laughed. "When the spring planting arrives, you will still need it to haul manure. If you are too precious to use it now, how will you carry anything then?"

"Reluctant is one thing, but I will still have to use it."

After collecting the back basket, Jiang Li went to Grandma Zhao's house to borrow the mold for making mud bricks.

Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao fetched it for her and smiled as she asked, "Do you need Brother Qingzhu to come over and build the chicken coop for you? He can finish it in a single day."

Lately, everyone was busy with farm work, so Jiang Li hurriedly declined.

"Sister-in-law, there's no need. A chicken coop is simple enough; I can handle it myself."

"Well, if you need any help, just let us know."

"Alright, if I really can't manage it myself, I certainly won't stand on ceremony."

After retrieving the mold and returning home, the sun was already close to setting, and people busy in the fields were successively packing up their tools to head home.

Jiang Li had originally intended to take the siblings to fetch some yellow clay, but if they went at this hour, it would likely be pitch black by the time they returned, and she would have to cook in the dark. Better to forget it and tackle the task tomorrow.

They had bought flour from the town during the day; A Ning wanted to eat sweet potato pancakes, Xue Man wanted egg pancakes, and Jiang Li... she simply wanted a plain, unadorned flour pancake.

Those who wanted sweet potato pancakes went to wash and boil the sweet potatoes, those who wanted egg pancakes went to dig wild garlic sprouts, and Jiang Li went to fetch two loads of water.

As she carried the water back through the village, wisps of cooking smoke rose from the chimneys of every household.

Children darted back and forth through the alleys, playing and shouting, their cries, laughter, and playful shrieks endless.

Passing by with her shoulder pole, people young and old, some familiar and some not, greeted her: "Mistress Jiang, fetching water?"

Jiang Li smiled and acknowledged them as she walked through the entire village.

After fetching the water, Jiang Li began kneading the dough. Because everyone wanted a different flavor, the dough was prepared separately.

Jiang Li's plain pancake and the egg pancakes were easy to manage. Once the sweet potatoes were boiled, Jiang Li set them by the stove and fried her own pancake first. A Ning had just finished chopping her small wild garlic sprouts, stirred them into her bowl of flour batter, and brought it over. Jiang Li fried that one next, then turned her attention to helping Xue Man mash the sweet potatoes.

Fortunately, it did not take long. Once the sweet potato mash was ready, an egg was cracked into it, followed by the prepared flour, and the mixture was stirred evenly before being brought over to the stove for Jiang Li.

Cooking over a fierce stove was fast, and in no time at all, all the pancakes were fried.

With three different flavors, they were originally meant to eat their own respective portions.

Yet Xue Man wanted to taste A Ning's and tore off a piece, while A Ning wanted to sample Jiang Li's and did the same. Holding his sweet potato pancake, Xue Man asked Jiang Li, "Mother, would you like a small piece of this too?"

Jiang Li reached out her hand, and with a cheerful grin, he tore off a piece and placed it in her palm. A Ning also tore off a piece and handed it over.

In the end, each of them tasted all three varieties of pancakes.

Before dark, and without bothering to cook any dishes, the three of them simply took low stools and sat at the kitchen doorway to eat. Looking up, they could see a breathtaking expanse of sunset glow across the sky. The courtyard gates stood wide open, and the four chickens that had been out foraging wandered back leisurely, accompanied by soft clucking sounds.

Jiang Li sat in the middle. The two little kids not only ate until their cheeks bulged, but they also kept giggling at each other.

They looked rather silly, but their joy was entirely genuine.

Meanwhile, back in Luowan Village, the old matriarch had been lying in bed since returning yesterday, groaning incessantly and hurling curses. Liu Tie had lingered at their house ever since coming back yesterday, refusing to leave under the pretext that he had been beaten and injured, claiming he could not work for at least two months and demanding that the Liu family support him during that time.

Luo Dayuan was so enraged he wanted to resort to physical violence, but Liu Tie stuck out his neck and told him to hit him—hit him hard, preferably paralyzing him so he could live here for the rest of his life.

Madam Liu hurriedly held Luo Dayuan back and glared at Liu Tie. "Cousin, aren't you going too far? We helped you arrange a match and even paid the matchmaker's fee for you. You got beaten by that shrew, so go find her! Why are you latching onto us? Have you no conscience?"

Liu Tie sneered. "You arranged a match out of the goodness of your hearts? Weren't you just trying to sell that little girl and using me as a stepping stone?"

"Considering you are my cousin, I am only making you support me for two months. If it were anyone else, I would stay for a lifetime!"

"I lost blood and teeth yesterday, and my head is still dizzy today. Tonight, I want to eat sweet wine-poached eggs to build my strength back up. Go cook them—three of them." Then he changed his mind and added, "No, make it four!"

Madam Liu: "..."

Liu Tie was an orphan with no parents, a bachelor who idled away his days wandering around the village and occasionally resorting to petty theft like stealing chickens when he had nothing to eat.

Now, he had seized this golden opportunity to latch onto the Liu family.

When the old matriarch saw Madam Liu cooking eggs for Liu Tie, she flew into a rage and stormed out, cursing up a storm. She herself had a wounded hand and couldn't bear to boil even a single egg for herself, yet Madam Liu was actually cooking them for Liu Tie. She lunged forward, reached directly into Liu Tie's bowl, fished out two eggs, and crammed them fiercely into her mouth.

Liu Tie had only managed to eat two, and the remaining sweetened broth was also quite delicious, but alas, having been pawed by the old matriarch's grime-stained hands, he found it somewhat repulsive and told Madam Liu to take the bowl away, whereupon it all ended up in the old matriarch's belly.

Ever since they returned from Daqiu Village, apart from hurling curses, the old matriarch had said nothing else. Madam Liu desperately wanted to ask whether they were simply giving up on those ten taels of silver, but she did not dare to bring it up.

Luo Dayuan, obsessed with those ten taels of silver, felt restlessness stirring within him and sought out the old matriarch alone.

At the mere mention of Jiang Li and A Ning, the old matriarch started cursing again.

"Mother, are we just going to let those ten taels of silver go like this?"

Glancing at her son's unreconciled expression, the old matriarch replied indifferently, "Since we cannot manage to send that wretched girl A Ning away, let's send Yinyin instead."

Luo Dayuan paused, listening as the old matriarch continued, "Yinyin needs to be married off sooner or later anyway. In a household like that, even if her husband dies, she will never go hungry or cold. Is that not far better than marrying someone ordinary in the village?"

"The day after tomorrow morning, we will send Yinyin to the town."

Luo Dayuan nodded in agreement and stepped out of the old matriarch's room.

Luo Yinyin was currently mixing chaff to feed the chickens. Watching her, Luo Dayuan said, "Yinyin, Father has found a good marriage prospect for you in town. The day after tomorrow, we will go meet him."

"Really, Father? Is he a wealthy man in town?"

Luo Dayuan replied calmly, "He is a wealthy man."

*

Early the next morning, Jiang Li woke up early with Xue Man and A Ning, and the three of them set off to dig for yellow clay.

The spot where the yellow clay was located was not very far; Jiang Li had followed along to haul some when building the house previously, but this was her first time actually digging the material herself, and it felt completely different from tilling ordinary soil.

The earth in the fields, no matter how hard, would not stick to the hoe, and once moistened by rain, it became loose and crumbly, leaving almost no mud clinging to the tool. But with this sticky yellow clay, a single strike of the hoe would bury the blade so deeply it could hardly be pulled out, and when forcefully extracted, thick clumps of clay adhered stubbornly to it, requiring considerable effort just to shake them off.

When Xue Man and A Ning swung their hoes, they found themselves unable to pull the tools back out and tumbled over backward. Neither of them hit anything hard as they landed squarely in the mud; it didn't hurt, but they looked thoroughly disheveled.

Rising to their feet, they saw Jiang Li pressing her lips together in an effort to suppress a smile, and before long, they burst out laughing themselves.

"Mother, if you want to laugh, just laugh. Don't hold it in."

Unable to hold back any longer, Jiang Li bent over with laughter. Just moments ago, she had watched Xue Man tumble over like a round little ball, rolling around like a hedgehog turning over.

"Never mind, the two of you stop digging. I'll dig and you two can shovel."

Jiang Li dug the yellow clay out block by block, while Xue Man and A Ning scooped up the earth and tossed it into their back baskets.

The two small baskets filled up after holding just a few heavy lumps, but Jiang Li's large back basket seemed like a bottomless pit, seemingly impossible to fill no matter how much she shoveled in.

By the end, even Xue Man began to suspect whether he had somehow missed tossing the earth into the basket at all.

When they returned home and dumped the loads out, Xue Man realized he hadn't missed a thing: what poured out of their small baskets looked like mere shovelfuls, while what emerged from Jiang Li's single basket formed a towering heap.

Inspecting the pile of yellow clay on the ground, Jiang Li estimated and said, "If we make two more trips hauling it, that should be just about enough."

With Xue Man and A Ning in tow, they made two more trips. By the time they finished hauling and returned, it was long past lunchtime, and all three of them were ravenous.

After putting down the baskets and washing their hands, Jiang Li brought out the flour, kneaded the dough, and pulled it into noodles, simply boiling a pot of egg noodles flavored with a touch of wild garlic and Sichuan peppercorn oil. The fresh fragrance of eggs and wheat flour blended together, enhanced by a couple of drops of sesame oil, resulting in a remarkably savory taste.

After a satisfying midday meal, Jiang Li went to fetch water and then set to work making mud bricks.

She worked steadily until dusk, prepared an early evening meal for them to eat, and then took some wood ash to mark the ground, clearly outlining the positions for both the chicken coop and the cellar entrance.

With the lines drawn, she began digging downward, placing a wicker scoop to one side and shoveling the excavated earth directly into her back basket.

"Mother, do we need to dig just to build a chicken coop?"

Jiang Li smiled and lowered her voice. "The chicken coop is being built right alongside it, but what I'm really digging is a cellar to store things. You must not speak of this to outsiders."