Chapter 62: Devision of Labor

Translator: Fan Translation Studio

Proofread by Claire.KK

Ye Xiaoxian did not anticipate that she would see Scholar Wong today as they just mentioned him last night.

They happened to see him in town.

When Scholar Wong saw Ye Xiaoxian he asked her in a tentative way, “Aren’t you Baoshan’s sister-in-law? We have met before.”

“Oh, Mr. Wong!” It took Ye Xiaoxian sometime to recall who this was.

“I am coming to town to purchase some stationery and I happen to meet you here!” Scholar Wong looked at Ye Xiaoxian and said.

“Right…how do you do!” Ye Xiaoxian imitated Scholar Wong’s tone.

Scholar Wong then turned to Li Hongmei. “Who is this…”

“This is Baofeng’s mother. Ma, this is Scholar Wong, Baofeng’s teacher!” Ye Xiaoxian introduced them to each other.

Li Hongmei had very hearty characteristics and as soon as she heard that he was her son’s teacher, she hurriedly asked Scholar Wong to sit down. Scholar Wong had not had a chance to speak while Li Hongmei had already placed a bowl of cold jelly in front of him.

This era valued knowledge and featured paying respect to teachers. Li Hongmei felt an urge of giving a free bowl of cold jelly to Scholar Wong or she would consider herself disrespectful to the teacher and failing Baofeng.

Scholar Wong was a man of letters and he was somewhat self-contained so he would not accept this bowl of cold jelly that easily.

“Sir, please drink it, drink it!” Li Hongmei was almost tempted to feed him herself.

Scholar Wong could not resist her hospitality and drank it at last.

Naturally, he was trying to pay for it but Li Hongmei resist to his request determinedly; furthermore, she said that as long as he would teach Baofeng well, this bowl of cold jelly was nothing.

This was probably the very reason that Scholar Wong was not willing to drink the cold jelly.

Ye Xiaoxian who was beside them found it so amused.

Scholar Wong glanced at Ye Xiaoxian when he took his leave. “Well then…I’ll buy some of your cold jelly next time around.”

Ye Xiaoxian only smiled. She stopped to get busy again as someone came to buy her cold jelly.

Scholar Wong started at Ye Xiaoxian for a while and a verse occurred to him: Thou eyes fair; thy graceful flowers blooming.

Simply put, it meant that beneath Ye Xiaoxian’s coarse clothes, there was an interesting soul hidden there.

…

“Working as a cook for your family?”

At noon, after Ye Xiaoxian cooked lunch Housekeeper Liu began to talk with her about Lord Liu’s plan.

“Yes. Our master said that if you’re willing to work as a cook for us, we can offer you three taels of silver per month, or…even five taels.”

Ye Xiaoxian was steaming sweet-scented osmanthus cakes and taro cakes when Housekeeper Liu mentioned this to her and she just smiled.

Housekeeper Liu said again. “Actually five taels a month is a lot of money given the average payment in Qinghe, which is several taels more than attendants in government office earn. Actually the reason I’m here to talk with you about this is because my master really admires your cookery; moreover, you don’t have to open up shop to sell cold jelly day by day. How long can you depend on selling cold jelly? You may not have much business once autumn is coming.”

Still, Ye Xiaoxian did not answer.

Housekeeper Liu then asked again, “Ms. Ye, are you afraid that your family may not agree to it? Do you want to discuss it with Mr. Xiao back home to see if he agrees or not?”

Ye Xiaoxian replied, “The busy farming season is coming and I don’t know if I’ll be needed to help with work back home. Let’s talk about this later. By the way, if I’m busy during the farming season, I might not be able to cook here. I’ll cook some more snacks which last longer so you can let Miss Qianqian have some time by time.”

“Right, I see!” Housekeeper Liu looked somewhat disappointed.

…

That day, Ye Xiaoxian came out of Lord Liu’s a little bit late.

When she just stepped out of the gate she saw Xiao Baoshan again. With a large and tall figure he was standing at the gate quietly once more.

“Why are you here again?” asked Ye Xiaoxian.

“Ma just came to find me saying you hadn’t gone back, and let me to come and check.”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just it took a bit longer this time to make the pastries. I had to wait for the dough to be ready and then steam them. Kneading the pastries in shape also took time.”

“Is it that complicated to make pastries?”

“The young lady of the Liu’s is kind of picky. She won’t eat if her food is not elaborated.” Ye Xiaoxian smiled bitterly. “Ladies are all like this, different from us poor village girls. We got no one to spoil ourselves.”

Xiao Baoshan moved his lips but did not speak aloud and only walked next to Ye Xiaoxian.

Ye Xiaoxian then asked him, “Are you off from work? Do you need to go back to the government office later?”

“I’m not going to the government office. I’ll just walk back home with you,” said Xiao Baoshan.

Ye Xiaoxian felt a bit surprised and she did not oppose.

It was the first time only the two of them went back home together. It was more than ten li (a traditional Chinese distance unit) which took nearly an hour by walking.

Ye Xiaoxian felt a bit self-conscious at the beginning because he did not speak anything but when they reached the center of the town, Xiao Baoshan spotted a Tanghulu (a traditional Northern Chinese snack of candied hawthorn) stall and he asked Ye Xiaoxian, “Little Ye, do you want some Tanghulu?”

Ye Xiaoxian nodded. “Sure, one for me.”

Xiao Baoshan then went over and bought two of them.

They walked while eating Tanghulu which resembled modern girls who went shopping with bubble tea in their hands. She felt more relaxed in this way.

“Do you like it?” Xiao Baoshan actually spoke to Ye Xiaoxian.

“Not bad.” Ye Xiaoxian ate while answering.

Xiao Baoshan seemed relived.

Ye Xiaoxian then smiled. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid that I don’t like it?”

“Because what you usually cook are delicious and I’m worried that you may find this Tanghulu bland.”

“Are you kidding? Tanghulu taste the best in this era. They are sugary and sour with fruity fragrance and sweetness,” said Ye Xiaoxian.

“This era?” Xiao Baoshan did not understand.

Ye Xiaoxian then changed the topic. “Well, Lord Liu’s housekeeper today asked me if I want to work for them as a cook. They’ll pay me five taels a month but I haven’t confirmed yet.”

Five taels a month in Qinghe County was considered a very fine payment yet Ye Xiaoxian did not say yes.

Still, Xiao Baoshan replied, “You must have your own plan.”

Ye Xiaoxian smiled and asked, “What kind of plan do you think I have?”

Xiao Baoshan then looked at her with a light smile. He spoke up after a while, “Though I’m not sure yet, I know you’re a very profound girl. Just do whatever you think is right.”

He then added, “I will support you.”

“Thank you! Well…” Ye Xiaoxian asked. “Do you do this for the sake of Ma or me your wife?”

Xiao Baoshan was just chewing a bead of Tanghulu so he did not speak until swallowed it and then he looked at Ye Xiaoxian, “Both.”

“…” The two of them chatted while walking and they soon reached home.

…

As Ye Xiaoxian expected, Old Mr. Xiao asked all the three households to gather up that night.

It was mainly about the busy farming season.

As usual, men were sitting in the front and women were standing behind.

Old Mr. Xiao said, “Although you’ve been living apart, during the harvest season the tax you pay by grain is on me, so all of you must take part in this busy farming season including the second household although you’ve separated from us.”

Li Hongmei said immediately, “Pa, you didn’t give us any farming land when we decided to live apart. Haven’t we agreed that we pay money instead when we’re required to pay tax by grain.”

Old Mr. Xiao stared at Li Hongmei with a look of deep disappointment. “Is your family Xiao or not? Are you one of the Xiao’s?”

…

Li Hongmei murmured silently. ‘My family is not Xiao already.’

Old Mr. Xiao patted his hips once more. “Your man has long gone but you still live in our Xiao’s house and your identities are still classified as farmers. Don’t tell me you want to be changed into commercial tenant, which is a disgraceful.”

“I…” Li Hongmei still tried to argue but Ye Xiaoxian patted her thighs to give her a hint of being quiet.

Instead, Ye Xiaoxian began to speak. “Grandpa, we will help with the busy farming season for sure but as you can see, my ma, I and Baozhu did most of the work in the rice field before like loosening land and transplanting. Now that the rice is ripe, it’s no problem for us to participate in it, but we have a request. When we are required to pay the tax by grain, our quota should be included in the total bill of the Xiao’s.”

Wong Mudan spoke up, “Are you sure? Your second household has five people so it’s five dou (ancient Chinese weight unit, about 15kg) in total for all of you. If you insist that we pay the tax for you, we can only pay three dou and you pay the rest by money.”

“You damn…” Li Hongmei posed, rolling up her sleeves and tried to start a fight.

Still, she was stopped by Ye Xiaoxian. Ye Xiaoxian said decisively, “If you don’t pay our tax fully, we won’t help with the farming work then; besides, it’s not acceptable for you to divide the work per capita.”

Wong Mudan, “In which way do you want to divide the labor then? Just like before, you second household harvest the rice, the first household thresh the rice and the third household dry them.

Every farmer knew that harvesting was the most exhausting work than the rest procedures. If the second household was responsible for harvesting all the rice, they would not finish the work by working three days day-and-night in a roll.

In this era, the yield of rice was not very high. It would already be impressive if they could gain five dou of rice per mu (Chinese area unit, about 666 squaremeters). One dou equals to thirty jin, and the Xiao family had three mu of land.

Ye Xiaoxian said, “Since this year our household can only pay the tax by grain but gain no share of rice, we can only be responsible for half of the land including harvesting, threshing and drying the rice. And as for the rest, it should be your work.”

“Urgh, half of the land? You have no sense of shame. We might as well do it all by ourselves then,” said Wong Mudan.

The rest of them protested as well including Xiao Tongshu and Xiao Tieshu.

Men in the Xiao’s always agreed that women should do all the domestic work since it was enough for men working outside to make money. During the busy farming season, the government office gave them a three-day break and both of the two brothers would just lie down in their rooms because they felt they worked so hard in the office day by day, and during the rare break they had to take a very good rest.

Not only did the women in the Xiao’s have to do farming work but were obliged to take care of the two “lords” as well as the old one and the little ones. They were so worn out that their waists almost broke out.

Old Mr. Xiao was listening to Ye Xiaoxian and Wong Mudan’s back-and-forth conversation and his stare at Ye Xiaoxian contained increasingly more disdain.

Since all the family members had expressed themselves, Old Mr. Xiao then sneered and looked at Ye Xiaoxian. “Since when women are allowed to be so talkative? You do what the men in your family tell you to. How dare you bargain with me? Hasn’t Baoshan taught you how to be a wife?”

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