Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Li Nan's Mother felt much lighter after visiting the grave. The offerings were bought with hard-earned money, and of course, she couldn't bear to leave them at the Grave Mound for wild dogs to take away. She brought them home, just in time to improve her own meals.
She chose a large Apple and roasted it over the fire, filling the Kitchen with a fragrant aroma of fruit. Eating it while it was hot warmed her up. With her body warmed, she began to feel drowsy and yawned as she returned to the Bedroom, where she noticed the Medicinal Wine on the table.
As soon as Li Nan's Mother opened the Medicinal Wine, she recalled the dream from last night, causing her to ponder. Before she started drinking Medicinal Wine, she never had Nightmares. Why was it that after drinking Medicinal Wine, she started dreaming? Could it be that there was something wrong with this Medicinal Wine?
Thinking this, she decided not to drink the Medicinal Wine anymore and lay down in bed, wrapping herself in the blanket and falling asleep.
As soon as her eyes closed, she entered a dream. Li Nan's Mother knew something was wrong but couldn't wake up no matter how hard she tried.
In the dream, she found herself in her own yard, kneeling on the steps with a few familiar Apples in front of her.
Corpse Granny sat above her, poking her head with a cane: "You good-for-nothing Da Kui's wife, these Apples were bought to honor us both. How did they end up in your stomach?"
"Mother! You misunderstand!" Li Nan's Mother said, feeling pain from the poke of the cane but knowing that the other party was a ghost and dared not cover her head: "It's not that I am greedy; I just couldn't bear to leave these good fruits in such a desolate place. You know our family's situation; while we are better off than beggars on the street, we cannot afford such wasteful living. These are all lessons you taught me. Don't worry about these fruits; I will offer them to you shortly. I beg you, considering all these years I've devoted myself to our Li Family, please don't make things difficult for me!"
"Da Kui, look at what your wife is saying! How can food meant for me be left in a desolate place? Is she cursing me to death? And just now I said one thing; she rattled off a long string of words! Does she want to rebel and ride on my neck?"
The old lady became so angry that tears streamed down her face as her cane tapped loudly on the ground.
Li Kui darkened his face and slowly walked over to Li Nan's Mother, kicking her down to the ground.
"Kneel! Kneel! In our Li Family, even in this Golden Tang Dynasty, there is no daughter-in-law like you." The old lady pointed at Li Nan's Mother with her cane: "You infuriate me! You infuriate me! Da Kui, keep an eye on your wife; she must kneel until dark and is not allowed to get up. She can't eat dinner tonight or sleep in bed. I see there’s still plenty of firewood in the yard; let her chop wood tonight. Lazy and greedy—what does she need sleep for?"
Li Nan's Mother felt wronged lying on the ground. She wanted to jump up and curse at Corpse Granny but felt pain in her ribs from that kick by her dead husband. Even if she wanted to curse or speak up, it hurt too much for any sound to come out.
Just then, it started raining after a clear day. In the cold winter months, this chilly rain felt like ice blades against her skin. Li Nan's Mother shivered and tried several times to get up from the ground but when she looked up, her dead husband's cold gaze was fixed on her from under the eaves, making her heart sink.
Seeing his cold gaze and watching the rain fall continuously onto the ground made Li Nan's Mother feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity with this scene. Only this time, it was herself standing under the eaves while Safflower knelt in the yard.
At that time, what mistake did Safflower make?
Yes, she quietly ate a leftover bun.
Ever since she learned that Safflower was with her son, she felt uneasy. Why should her son, whom she had raised with great effort, willingly treat another woman well? If Safflower came from a wealthy and powerful family, it would be one thing, but her family was just as poor, barely scraping by.
However, the Li Family was also poor, and being poor made it difficult to be close. Seeing that her son had reached the age to marry, and with no other girls willing to come into their home besides Safflower, she reluctantly agreed. After all, Safflower was a good daughter-in-law; since entering the household, she had never spoken back. If told to go west, she would not go east; if asked to cook, she would not wash clothes. Although there was no filial piety in her obedience, she managed household affairs meticulously, allowing her mother-in-law to enjoy a period of peace.
But people are never satisfied. Even though Safflower did everything well and left her no room for criticism, the better Safflower performed, the more displeased she felt. She often wanted to scold her or hit her a few times.
When Safflower returned late one day, she deliberately spilled the food and refused to let her eat. With red-rimmed eyes, Safflower said nothing and turned to go back to her room. Angered, she punished Safflower by making her chop firewood in the yard.
Safflower complied; although she might have been upset with herself, she obediently went to chop wood. That night, she woke up in the middle of the night and heard noises outside. Glancing out, she saw the kitchen light on. When she entered, she found Safflower gnawing on a bun. The bun was leftover from earlier; although it wasn't spoiled in the cold weather, it was as hard as a rock.
Worried that she would be angry, Safflower hadn't even started a fire and was squatting in the corner of the kitchen eating the cold bun. She initially felt a bit soft-hearted but then noticed that Safflower looked up at her with fearful, pitiful eyes filled with pleading. In that moment, she felt like an utterly wicked person.
Li Nan's Mother disliked this feeling even more and hated Safflower's delicate and pitiful appearance. So she punished her by making her kneel in the yard until dawn.
What started as an angry outburst turned into rain during the night. Concerned that Safflower wouldn't be able to withstand it later on, she didn't say anything to let her up. As a result, Safflower knelt in the rain all night long and when morning came, they discovered that Safflower had fainted on the ground.
Her son shot her an angry glance and went to call for a doctor; just the consultation fee cost thirty coins. Adding in the medicine afterward, it totaled up to about one tael of silver. It was during this visit that the doctor diagnosed Safflower as being pregnant.
For the Li Family, having children is a joyous occasion; as a mother-in-law, she naturally hoped that Safflower would give birth to a healthy grandson. However, on another level, she felt anxious. She worried that if Safflower gave birth to a son—who would be favored because of his mother—she would lose her authority in the household. With these conflicting feelings in mind, she began to impose more difficulties on Safflower.
Who would have thought that Safflower would disappoint her again by giving birth to a girl? Naturally, she seized this opportunity to discipline Safflower properly so that if she were to have a boy later on, she'd truly forget her place and try to overshadow her mother-in-law.
Li Nan's Mother believed that the granddaughter's death was not her fault. The child had been weak from birth; it was due to poor prenatal care from Safflower as a mother—what did it have to do with her as a grandmother? Safflower cried and pleaded for money for medical treatment for the child, but the little money she had wasn't easy to come by. Since Safflower didn't manage finances herself, she didn't understand how difficult it was; earning money was hard while spending it was easy. If it weren't for serious illness, even if it were just a newborn girl—she herself wouldn't spare money for soup or medicine.
Moreover, the money given by the neighbors was not something she intended to seize. She was worried that Honghua, being so naive, would spend the money recklessly. Although this money was contributed by the neighbors, once it was in Honghua's hands, it became their Li Family's money. As both Honghua's mother-in-law and the head of the Li Family, it was only right for her to take the money and manage it properly.
Did she not care about her granddaughter? In all honesty, she had even hired someone to look after her. It was just that the girl did not have as good a foundation as her mother, Honghua; she was fated to be tough and ended up leaving so soon. Perhaps it was for the best; a maternal family member born into their Li Family could hardly be considered fortunate. She felt she was helping that child to die early and be reborn, allowing her to live a better life sooner.
As Li Nan's Mother recalled this, she felt warmth spreading throughout her body. She curled up on the ground, tightly hugging her legs with her arms, then raised her head and smiled faintly at her deceased husband standing under the eaves.
Li Nan returned home but did not see his mother and did not worry too much. Instead, he went back to his room and nestled himself in the quilt. He dozed off until evening before finally coming out. Seeing that the kitchen was still cold with unlit stoves, he knocked on his mother's door. After knocking several times with no response, he pushed the door open and found his mother curled up on the bed, drenched all over without knowing where she had gotten wet. Her lips were blue, and her face was pale, looking frightening.
"Mother! Mother, what happened to you?"
Li Nan's Mother groggily opened her eyes and looked at the person in front of her; he resembled her son Li Nan but also looked like her deceased husband. She chuckled softly, her eyes clouded over like a madwoman on the street.
Li Nan was stunned. He stared at his mother for a while before finally realizing something was wrong. He hurriedly ran to a neighbor's house, which belonged to Li Siniang's brother, for help. Li Siniang's brother was a kind-hearted man; although his own son Li An was still ill, he still drove a donkey cart to take Li Nan and his mother into town for medical assistance.
After wandering around town for a while, they eventually stopped in front of Ruyi Rouge's shop. At this time, the rouge shop had already closed for the night; the clerk Li Mao was lighting lamps when he saw the three people in the cart and grinned as he asked, "You all have arrived?"
"Brother, that's a strange question. Did Miss Xing predict we would come?"
"Our shopkeeper is not a deity; how could he predict so accurately? It’s just that during dinner time tonight, he casually calculated that there would be familiar guests coming soon and instructed me to attend to them carefully. Just now when I hung up the lanterns, I spotted this donkey cart from Brother Li’s family and didn’t expect there were other people on it as well. Upon closer inspection, I realized I had seen them before. If I’m not mistaken, this young gentleman also has the surname Li and lives next door to Brother Li’s family, right?"
Comment 0 Comment Count