Chapter 16.1

Translated by Aviana

At last, there were whereabouts of the woman Yang Tiezhu bought two days ago. She was residing in his aunt, Yang-shi’s house…

This news rapidly spread in the Luoxia Village.

No wonder! Say how would that woman abruptly disappear; they also didn’t see Yang Tiezhu taking her back home. Those people who had witnessed the entire incident occurred in the market that day muttered in their hearts.

Yang-shi’s small courtyard was suddenly bustling with noise and excitement. There were always some or the other women and young married women dropping by to borrow some stuff; this one came to borrow scissors, while that one came to borrow salt, with innumerable reasons to mention individually.

Yang-shi was also fully aware and let them come by to borrow stuff, pretending not to know anything.

Lin Qingwan was even pulled out to meet a lot of people.

Lin Qingwan was clear in her heart what these women had come for.

Just as Yang-shi said, the women in the countryside usually had nothing to do; thus, they would form groups to gossip and chew their tongues. However, they also don’t have any ill intentions and were merely fond of gossiping and chewing their tongues about other family matters to take part in the fun.

Thus, she also went along with ‘when entering a country, follow the local customs. If she saw an older woman, she would call them ‘Auntie’, and if she saw younger women, she would call them ‘elder sister’. If she came across anyone asking about her past, she would also narrate little by little with a bashful and pained smiling expression on her face, gaining sympathy and affection from many older aunties and young married women.

When you enter a country, follow the local customs(pinyin: rù jìng suí sú): It is a chinese idiom, which translates into english through an equivalent phrase ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do”, meaning when you are in a foregin place, you ought to follow the local customs.

She had narrated her past in such a manner: She was a personal maid working under a madam from rich family. She was sold in this place because she hadn’t done an errand well and had offended the master.

She was intending to say similarly to everyone, including Yang Tiezhu and Yang-shi.

As for Lin Qingwan’s ‘past’, just let it slowly and silently sink into the torrent of history. She didn’t intend to go back to that home and also couldn’t go back. Her only worry in her heart was her ‘older brother ‘…

As for whether both the brother and sister can meet again in the future, it could only be determined by fate…

Thereupon, about Lin Qingwan’s past, it was spread throughout Luoxia Village by the mouths of these aunts, young married women, and so on.

It was said that this female appeared beautiful, gentle, and magnanimous…

It was said that this female was good at work, and her embroidery skill was amazing…

It was said that this girl had a quite miserable past and was all alone…

Some busybodies even ran to the Yang family to let He-shi listen, deliberately angering her.

Upon hearing this, He-shi immediately became crazy with anger as she rained curses on her second son, Yang Tiezhu, for being unfilial and going as far as to put the women he bought by spending their money in Yang Chunhua’s place, for which reason and such.

So much that she was even willing to break her own claim ‘to forever not to step on the Yang Chunhau’s family gates’, intending to go Yang-shi’s house to cause havoc. But in the end, she was stopped by Old father Yang.

At this, He-shi’s anger rapidly shifted, and had a huge fight at home with the Old father Yang. Usually, it was He-shi entirely hitting, and Old father Yang trying to block. Only when Old father was annoyed, he would hit her back a little bit.

For a time, the Yang family was jittery, as several outsiders were mocking as they watched the show.

However, everyone in the Yang family was aware that people in the village were watching for them to see a joke. Contrary to their expectation, they also didn’t go to Yang-shi’s family gates to see the ‘vixen’ bought by spending 20 taels of silver.

……………………………….

At night, under the lamp, Lin Qingwan was making her bridal dress.

Yang-shi was already asleep, but she was feeling somewhat restless and couldn’t sleep. Thus she lit a lamp in the room and started making her bridal dress.

These past few days, there were many people dropping by to pull her for her a chat. Thus, she was unable to take out time to make it. Only in the evening was she able to find the time to stitch a few stitches.

It was said to be a bridal dress, but actually was a set of ordinary red-colored female clothing. In the countryside, most of the wedding dresses were as such, without any embroidery on them, just a simple red dress.

Lin Qingwan was also intending to go with ‘when entering a country, follow the local customs’. And not making it too fancy, as to avoid being criticized by the people.

But after all, it was her first time getting married and wearing a bridal dress in both lifetimes. In her previous life, she was a leftover woman and didn’t have a chance of wearing a wedding gown 3 . In this lifetime, she couldn’t wear a wedding gown, but she could wear a bridal dress. She had always wanted to have something different to satisfy her own dream of a wedding dress.

Leftover woman is a term used for a single woman with successful career.

In this context author had used two terms, one 婚纱(hūnshā), and the other 嫁衣(jiàyì). 婚纱 refers to the white wedding gown which we usually see in the Christian marriages, while 嫁衣 refers to the bright red wedding dress usually seen in the Chinese traditional marriages. A s both the words when translated into English seemed to be synonymous, I tried using ‘wedding gown’ for western wedding dress and ‘bridal dress’ for traditional Chinese wedding dress. If there is an even more appropriate wordings for these terms, do correct me in the comment box below.

She didn’t embroider much on the dress but merely embroidered some dark red wave-shaped patterns on the edge of the sleeves and skirts. Apart from this, she also intended to embroider a strip of the red and black patterned belt as a decoration.

With her head lowered, Lin Qingwan was silently doing the needlework.

In the countryside, the night was awfully quiet. From time to time, one could hear the dog barking from far away, and then it would become quite once again.

He still hadn’t returned…

This was already the seventh day since he left.

Lin Qingwan couldn’t hide the anxiety in her heart. In these past two days, she could see that Yang-shi was also somewhat anxious.

Though Yang Tiezhu said that he would merely be away for a few days and didn’t mention when he would return, but as the days gradually passed by, without him returning, Yang-shi, who was always calm, couldn’t help but showing a worried expression from time to time.

Lin Qingwan was feeling uneasy and anxious as she gazed at the flickering flame of the oil lamp in front of her in a daze…

Suddenly a burst of the sound of knocking on the door came from outside, making the sound especially distinct in the stillness of the night.

Lin Qingwan was startled entirely, such that the embroidery needle in her hands pricked her finger.

She raised her head and looked out the window. As there wasn’t a moon tonight, it was pitch black outside, rendering her from seeing anything outside.

Once again, a burst of knocking on a door came from outside…

Yang-shi ran out whilst draping clothes over her shoulders. Lin Qingwan also hurriedly put down the embroidery work in her hands and stood up.

“Who is it?” Yang-shi opened the main room door as she asked the person outside.

“Aunt, it’s me…” A man’s voice was faintly heard from outside, followed by a bark of a dog.

Yang-shi hurriedly picked up the oil lamp from the table and walked out. Lin Qingwan also followed after her.

“Is it Tie Zhu?”

“Aunt, it’s me.”

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