mijobooks Chapter 402 - 400: Shilian
Chapter 402 - 400: Shilian
The next day, Lin Lan went to the post office to mail the mushrooms. When she returned, she bought some food and supplies, then found Li Wu to help Wu Shufang and her family buy grain.
The following day, the family set off for Shilian. This included Wu Shufen and her husband with their grandchildren, as well as Wu Shufang and her son.
Upon arriving in Dashiqiao Town, Zhou Shitou went to a family that boarded mules, paid the fee, and retrieved their mule, which was laden with grain. The group then headed toward the ferry crossing by the river.
Old Li looked at the old houses lining the street. As they passed a bamboo grove, he smiled at Lin Changyou and said, "My dear in-law, I haven’t been to Dashiqiao since I was a young man. It looks to me like besides the area around the station, not much has changed all these years."
Lin Changyou laughed. "You’re right, not much else has changed. They just added a station and a ferry. Back in the day, they used to pole people across the river in small boats."
The group arrived at the ferry crossing. It must have rained recently, as the river had risen all the way to the gangplank.
The adults shouted for Lin Jun and the other kids to stop running toward the river, and the group waited for the ferry from a safe distance.
After about ten minutes, the ferry came CHUG-CHUG-CHUGGING over, spewing black smoke.
Lin Lan, Li Xiangyang, Old Li, and Lin Changyou, all carrying back-baskets, led the children onto the boat. A moment later, the ferry departed for the opposite bank.
Lin Jun and the other kids, completely unafraid of the water, sat by the boat’s edge, reaching out to play in the splashing waves.
Wu Shufen told them to stop twice, but they wouldn’t listen. Annoyed, she gave each of them a light smack and threatened that if they didn’t behave, she’d take them right back to East Market the moment they got off the boat. Only then did they finally quiet down.
After disembarking, the adults led the children across the gangplank and onto the riverbank.
Lin Jun said to Little Douzi, Lin Qing, and the others, "Comrades! We’ve reached our territory! Our first objective is the high ground up ahead! Charge!"
"Charge! Charge!" the children shouted, waving their arms as they rushed toward the river embankment.
Wu Shufen watched them, smiling and shaking her head. "Just look at them. They’re like wild horses that have broken their reins!"
Wu Shufang laughed. "They must have been cooped up in the city for too long. The city is great, but you just don’t have the space to run free like you do in the countryside!"
The sweet potato vines on the riverbank were blooming with purplish-red flowers. Lin Hong plucked a handful, wove them into a crown, and placed it on her head before gleefully chasing after Lin Jun and the others.
Seeing that the children had already made it to the top of the embankment, the adults quickened their pace to catch up.
When the children saw the adults catching up, they waved and then skipped and hopped away.
After coming down from the embankment, they reached the sloping path leading to Shilian.
Lin Lan took out the pastries she had brought, and everyone had a small snack to tide them over before they continued on their way home.
The cardamom flowers on both sides of the hill were in full bloom. Lin Jun and the other kids scrambled up to pick a few clusters. Each holding a bunch, they huffed and puffed their way up the slope.
The terraced paddies on the slope were already full of seedlings. Their leaves were still a bit yellow, indicating they had been transplanted recently and hadn’t yet recovered.
They hadn’t gone far up the slope before they encountered a small group of commune members. Wu Shufen smiled and exchanged a few pleasantries with them before they continued on their way.
When their next-door neighbors saw them, they came out from their doorways to greet them with smiles. Those who were on good terms with the family exchanged a few polite pleasantries. But there were also those who were jealous of the Lin family. They remarked sarcastically, "Well, now that Lin Changyou and his family are city folk, why are they bothering to come back to this mountain backwater?"
Lin Changyou and Wu Shufen simply smiled without responding. Arriving at their own front door, they took out the key and unlocked it.
Lin Jun threw open the courtyard gate. With a loud CREAK, the wooden gate swung open, and the children swarmed inside.
The children looked around the courtyard. "Whoa! There’s moss growing everywhere."
Lin Hong said, "The weeds in the vegetable garden are so tall!"
Lin Gang added, "Let’s go check the pear trees at the foot of the mountain out back to see if they’re bearing any fruit!"
Lin Changyou quickly called out a reminder to the children. "If the grass is tall, find a stick and beat it around a bit to scare off any snakes or bugs before you go through!"
"Got it!" the children yelled back as they ran toward the backyard.
Wu Shufen laughed and said, "Sister-in-law, Sister, it’s a good thing Xiuqing and our eldest came back to tidy up a while ago. Otherwise, this place would be completely overgrown with weeds by now."
Old Li looked at the overgrown vegetable patch in the courtyard. "A house needs to be lived in. Without people, without that human touch, they fall apart so much faster."
Lin Changyou and Li Xiangyang helped Zhou Shitou unload the grain and remove the pack saddle. Zhou Shitou then led the mule into the vegetable patch to graze on the weeds.
Lin Changyou opened the door to the main hall. Lin Lan and Wu Shufen found a rag, wiped the dust from the bamboo chairs, and moved them out under the eaves. They saw that Li Xiangyang had already grabbed a bucket and was heading to the well to draw water.
Lin Changyou laughed and said to Old Li, "My dear in-law, while the others are cleaning, let me show you my pig farm." ’They had rented it out to the brigade leader’s family to raise pigs before they left,’ he thought. ’I wonder how it’s doing now.’
"Alright!" Old Li followed him toward the backyard.
Wu Shufen gave the keys to the chests and cabinets to Lin Lan, telling her to tidy up the rooms while she went to clean the stove to boil water and cook. Wu Shufen and her sister carried their back-baskets into the kitchen, where they saw that Li Xiangyang had already washed out the large water vat and was beginning to fill it.
Lin Lan opened a bedroom door and pulled the chain for the light. She found that after less than half a year of being empty, the room was already filled with cobwebs and the cabinets were coated in a thick layer of dust.
She found a feather duster, tied it to a bamboo pole, and cleared the cobwebs from all the rooms.
She went out to fetch a basin of water and returned to wipe down the cabinets and bed frames. The water in the basin quickly turned black and murky.
Li Xiangyang came into the room, carrying a bucket of water. "The house is starting to smell musty from being empty," he said.
Lin Lan nodded with a smile. "I know! That’s how it is when no one’s living here. It takes half a day to clean, even if we’re only staying for a few days."
With the two of them working together, the cleaning went much faster. Once the dust was wiped from all the rooms, Lin Lan opened the storage chests and took out the mattress pads to put on the beds.
Li Xiangyang carried a burlap sack into the room; it held the quilts and blankets they had brought with them.
Lin Lan glanced at Li Xiangyang. "Are you going to share a room with Dad, or do you want your own?"
"I’ll take my own room," Li Xiangyang replied with a cheeky grin. "I’m worried I might get groggy in the middle of the night and do something... improper."
In this part of the countryside, influenced by traditional ideas, people still adhered to the old ancestral customs.
In families with a brother-in-law on the wife’s side, a married daughter and her husband were not permitted to share a room when visiting her parental home.
The superstition held that if a daughter and son-in-law shared a room and were intimate, it would steal the family’s good fortune and bring disaster upon her brothers.
Lin Lan gave him a playful slap, then carried a quilt into another room.
By the time the two of them had finished making the beds and came out of the rooms, Lin Changyou and Old Li were back with the children.
The children all looked like little ragamuffins. Little Douzi’s hands and teeth were stained a dark purplish-red, and Lin Lan knew at a glance they had been picking and eating mulberries on the back hill.
"Mama, look at the mulberries we picked!" The moment Little Douzi saw them, he placed the large leaf he was carrying onto the small dining table. The leaf unfolded to reveal a pile of plump, dark red mulberries.
Lin Jun and Lin Hong pulled handfuls of plums from their bulging pockets. "These crunchy plums are so good!"
Lin Gang and Lin Qing pulled several peaches from their own pockets. "Auntie, Uncle, try one! They’re really, really sweet."