Transmigration: A Farm Girl's Brocade-Chapter 36 - Other Names for Xia Grass_1

Chapter 36: Chapter 36 Other Names for Xia Grass_1

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Chapter 36: Chapter 36 Other Names for Xia Grass_1

Qian Yixiu quickly climbed onto the bed and hugged Cheng Yue, saying, “Mother, don’t be afraid, the bad man has been chased away. Listen, there’s no more sound outside the door.”

She rested her head on Cheng Yue’s shoulder and gently rubbed against it. Gradually, Cheng Yue’s stiff body began to relax. Suddenly, she remembered something, and with her right hand, she pulled Qian Yixiu into her arms and said anxiously, “Xiu’er, hide quickly, there’s a bad man outside.”

Qian Yixiu, lying in her arms, said, “Mother, don’t be afraid, the bad man has already run away. Father is at home, the bad man can’t hurt us.”

Just as Qian Sangui expected, within an hour, the news that Hua Dianzi, in his hunger-induced madness, had molested Old Woman Qian on the western edge of the village, spread rapidly among the villagers. In their minds, a little child could not fabricate such lies; Hua Dianzi was known to have this kind of problem, and indeed, several people saw him running frantically to the north from the western edge of the village, some even witnessed him “running while pulling up his pants,” so the story had to be true.

In the wheat fields and at the edges of farms, the story spread from one person to ten, then from ten to a hundred, growing more twisted with each retelling, until it morphed into a tale of Hua Dianzi pinning down Old Woman Tang, Tang LaoSan’s mother, in a ditch with ill intentions, until a little child spotted them and raised the alarm. There were even rumors suggesting that Old Woman Tang gave mixed signals, seemingly half-resisting and half-accepting.

Old Woman Tang, now sixty-one, liked to wear makeup when she was young and had a bit of a reputation for being flirtatious.

Hua Dianzi’s wife, Hua Niangzi, heard the rumor and, in her fury, rushed home to thrash the hiding Hua Dianzi in the firewood shed, a beating so severe that his cries were said to be heard from afar. Their two sons, too indignant to face their father’s disgrace, knew their mother was home dealing with Hua Dianzi and chose not to return home to intervene; instead, they continued to work in the fields.

Old Woman Tang was furious too and found several witnesses to prove that she was not at the western edge of the village at the time but was washing clothes by the creek on the eastern side.

No matter how Hua Dianzi and Old Woman Tang explained themselves, the villagers took the tale of Hua Dianzi accosting the old lady as truth, and they talked about it with great relish for a long time.

When Qian Yijin heard this rumor, he hastily dropped the basket in his hands and ran home. Reaching home, he pounded on the courtyard gate so hard it rattled, and just as Qian Yixiu opened the door, he burst in like an arrow.

He grabbed his little sister’s shoulders tensely and asked, “Today, Hua Dianzi was near our house molesting Tang LaoSan’s mother, he didn’t dirty mother’s and sister’s ears, did he?”

Qian Yixiu was startled and indicated she didn’t understand.

Seeing that his sister knew nothing of it, Qian Yijin felt relieved. He briefly recounted the events, sighing, “Ah, our house is so secluded, bad people always choose to do bad things here. With mother being so beautiful and sister so pretty, it’s downright unjust if they heard those filthy affairs. It’s good that I’m at home. I’ll throw a few stones to drive them far away.”

After that, he vented his anger with a few curses through gritted teeth.

He still didn’t know that the girl who had yelled so loudly was her. Indeed, in the eyes of the villagers, Qian Yixiu’s voice was like a mosquito’s buzz; how could she possibly have such a loud voice? Not to mention, the story had twisted so drastically.

A twitch appeared at the corner of Qian Yixiu’s mouth as she glanced at the little champion who didn’t bother wiping his sweat. Although the child wasn’t his biological offspring, he was precocious just like him. She also silently apologized to Old Woman Tang, who was an innocent victim caught in the gunfire.

Qian Yijin let go of his sister and ran inside the house. Seeing their mother sitting on the bed with a pale face, too scared to come down, he consoled her a few times, then blamed himself for a while. He went outside, picked up a few large stones, and hurled them onto the wasteland, shouting to the sky, “Any bastard who dares to come here and do wrong, see if I don’t smash them to death with stones.” Only then did he feel that he had let off all his steam.

Lady Wu and Qian Manxia also talked about this incident when they came back. Lady Wu, frowning, said, “That Old Woman Tang really has no shame, to still act so indecently at her age, not leaving any face for her children and grandchildren.”

Qian Sangui kept shaking his head, smiling, without revealing that the loud-voiced child was Qian Yixiu. He said, “No one saw Hua Dianzi and Old Woman Tang together; we shouldn’t just follow the crowd blindly.”

By mid-May, they had harvested the wheat and threshed the grains; Lady Wu, along with Qian Dagui and others, took all the wheat to sell in town. Qian Sangui, who originally wanted to keep a few pounds, did not agree. After paying the taxes, only two guan and a little more than two strings of coins remained. Adding what they earned from selling wild rabbits, the total was two guan and four strings of coins. After paying one hundred wen to the second branch and five hundred wen to the first branch, only one guan and eight strings of coins remained, and they still owed Qian Xiang one guan of money.

The family looked at the small amount of money with extremely low spirits, wondering how they were going to get through the year.

Qian Sangui took out five strings of coins and said to Lady Wu, “Mother, you go to the county town tomorrow and first return the five strings of coins to Xiang Niang. We can borrow again if it’s not enough, but we cannot say we won’t pay back. Don’t worry, my health is better now, there’s no need for more medicine, and I can weave some grass mats to sell for money.”

Upon hearing that Lady Wu was going to the county town the next day, Qian Yixiu got up and ran back to the left wing room, then came out holding a small jar. Inside the jar were several wild lotus stems along with some Xia Grass (Gypsophila). The golden-yellow large blossoms looked all the more delicate and eye-catching against the pure white Gypsophila, giving the entire bouquet a more three-dimensional and fluffy appearance.

Qian Manxia exclaimed, “Xia Grass goes so well with the wild lotus! Yixiu has been all secretive and busy these past few days, so this is what she was up to.”

Wonder filled Lady Wu’s eyes as well, “Yes, it’s truly beautiful.”

The little mother rarely spoke up, “Mm, the flowers are pretty.”

Qian Yixiu made a cute expression and said with her thin, small claws, “It’s not just the wild lotus it goes well with, it pairs nicely with many flowers. Like the Chinese rose, peonies, rosebuds, lotus flowers, ah, it’s a lot.”

Qian Sangui was also amazed, saying, “I really never thought that Xia Grass, seemingly unremarkable, could look so different when paired with other flowers.”

Qian Yixiu added, “Of course, isn’t it the same in plays? If there’s a protagonist, there must be a supporting role to make the play attractive and full. It’s the same with flowers, they need main and supporting roles to look good and not monotonous. Although bright flowers should be set off with green leaves, just green leaves with bright flowers, if seen too much, becomes aesthetically—uh—stale.”

Qian Manxia teased, “Wow, Yixiu is quite the expert. She’s talking about protagonists and supporting roles without even having seen a play.”

Qian Yixiu replied, “I heard it from grandma.” Old woman Qian had seen a few plays in her youth and often talked about them to this day.

Qian Yixiu placed the small jar on the table and ran back to the room to bring out two small flower baskets. The baskets were not large, with a diameter of about twenty centimeters—one yellow, woven from grass, and one green, woven from fine willow branches. These two baskets were woven by Qian Sangui in the past few days following his granddaughter’s design, both small and pretty.

Since there was no modern potting soil available and they couldn’t afford the tray used for flower arrangement at the time, Qian Yixiu mixed soil with plant ash, water, and wrapped this mud with banana leaves to put in the baskets, then inserted the flowers. Although this makeshift potting soil wasn’t nice-looking or refined, regularly sprinkling it with water could be somewhat effective. As the banana leaves got pierced by the flower stems and the mud was exposed, which wasn’t aesthetically pleasing, she picked some colorful pebbles by the creek and sprinkled them on top along with buds of Gypsophila.

The yellow basket had about a dozen red rosebuds, with spaces filled with Xia Grass. The green basket had about a dozen pink wild roses, also filled in the gaps with Xia Grass.

Yellow with red, green with pink, plus the specks of white Gypsophila made it seem dreamy and hazy, graceful and elusive.

Qian Yixiu emphasized again, “Xia Grass has another name, Gypsophila. Look, when lots of Xia Grass are put together, don’t they look like specks of stars in the sky?”

…………………

Regarding the section about the makeshift potting soil, dear readers, please don’t take it too seriously.

Thanks to the purse from Life Like Water, the peach blossom fan from Milan Two, the gifts from ‘Not Strong but Pretending to Be’ and Hera@Qianlin, and thank you all for your support and recommendations. Please continue to click, recommend, and collect.