Chapter 108: The Silly Little Dog
Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen returned home at the end of the Hour of the Monkey(3 p.m. to 5 p.m) in the afternoon.
The sun was setting in the west, and the workers were preparing to pack up and go home after finishing their last wave of work.
Seeing the two of them return, they all asked about Feng Er’s family’s old ox.
Lin Shuang smiled. “I went with the two of them to Doctor Xue’s place yesterday. I didn’t ask for the details of how they talked, but from what I saw, they were quite satisfied, so I didn’t interfere anymore. Later, Huaizhen came to pick me up, and I came back.”
Jiang’s older sister-in-law knew that Jiang Huaizhen had gone for an execution today, but she didn’t want Old Madam Jiang to know. After she had told the others in a low voice, everyone stopped talking about it and just envied Feng Er, fantasizing that one day, they could also receive a big pie from the sky.
After Jiang Huaizhen returned, while it was still light, she took her tools to her room, folded the quilts on the bed and put them on a nearby chair, rolled up the mat, and began to repair the bed with a clatter.
Hearing the sound in the room, Old Madam Jiang walked over and took a look. “Your father has slept on this bed for over twenty years. Now it creaks whenever you turn over. It’s time to get a new one.”
Jiang Huaizhen hummed in agreement. “I don’t have time to make a new one yet. I’ll just repair the old one and use it for a few days.”
It would take a day or two to make a bed, and she was busy with the house now. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t do anything these few nights.
Lin Shuang entered the door and, seeing her busy repairing the bed, and thinking of the commotion the two of them had caused in that courtyard in the city last night, her ears couldn’t help but burn. She didn’t stay and, after pretending to get something, she came out of the bedroom and went to make dinner.
Ping’er came back from playing outside, with a little dog behind her. The dog’s face was swollen like a large basin, and its eyes could barely open.
Lin Shuang was startled and asked, “What happened? Was it stung by a hornet?”
Ping’er looked up and complained, “Not a hornet, a bee. It was stealing honey and got stung. Brother Caitou asked me to bring it back for Auntie to treat.”
Hearing this, Lin Shuang was at a loss for words.
She quickly went outside to find some mint and aloe vera and pounded them into a paste with a mortar and pestle.
“Hold it down. I’ll apply some medicine for it.”
Ping’er grabbed the little yellow dog and pressed it to the ground. “Little Yellow, Little Yellow, don’t move. Auntie is applying medicine for you. You can only get better after you’ve had the medicine.”
Lin Shuang was amused by its silly appearance and, hearing it whimper, felt sorry for it. She lowered her head and carefully searched its body, found a few bee stings, and then applied the medicinal paste bit by bit.
The little yellow dog was so stung it couldn’t even cry out. It had originally resisted a little, but as the herbs were applied, it seemed to feel comfortable. Its two front paws were tucked under its chest, and it looked at them with its innocent big eyes, obediently letting them handle it.
Old Madam Jiang came over and, looking at this silly, big-headed little dog, found it cute. She reached out and teased it a couple of times. “The more rustic this little dog is, the more fiercely it eats shit.”
Ping’er was stunned.
Lin Shuang secretly smiled. After she had finished applying the medicine, she went outside to wash her hands and asked, “Where did you run off to today? How come you didn’t get stung?”
Only then did Ping’er come to her senses from what Old Madam Jiang had just said and replied, “There’s honey under a cliff behind Dahua’s house. Everyone wanted to eat honey, so they had Brother Caitou go and get it. Then Brother Caitou took a bamboo pole and poked it, and then the bees all came buzzing over. Dahua, Xiaohua, and I quickly ran back. Little Yellow saw that Brother Caitou had been stung and ran back… and then, and then he was also stung.”
It had been almost a year, and the little girl’s speech was much clearer.
“Did you get to eat the honey in the end?” Lin Shuang imagined the scene of the few little ones being chased by the bees, and it was quite vivid.
“No,” Ping’er shook her head in disappointment. They had prepared for a long time, bringing clothes to cover their heads, and also a long bamboo pole with a sickle tied to it. In the end, they hadn’t gotten a single drop of honey, and Caitou and Little Yellow had even been stung.
“Auntie, why don’t you help us get the honey tomorrow… that honey is so sweet,” Ping’er pleaded.
Lin Shuang raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t even had it. How do you know the honey is so sweet?”
“I touched a little with the sickle today. Brother Caitou licked it and said it was very sweet.”
“He licked the sickle?”
“Yes,” Ping’er nodded hard, her drool almost falling.
“He didn’t let you lick it?”
“No. He said the sickle would cut my mouth.”
Lin Shuang really didn’t know what to say about the few little ones’ actions and said to her, “Let your big sister go. She can climb up and down. Let her go and get it for you.”
Hearing this, Ping’er was instantly happy and turned to run to the east room.
But just as she reached the door, she stopped, turned her head, and asked, “Auntie, can I tell big sister that it was Auntie who asked her to get the honey?”
“What, are you afraid your big sister won’t help?”
Ping’er hummed in agreement. “Big sister only listens to Auntie.”
She didn’t even listen to Grandma sometimes, but big sister would always listen to Auntie.
“Alright.”
Getting her permission, Ping’er excitedly ran to the east room again.
Lin Shuang followed and listened behind the door.
Sure enough, as soon as Ping’er reached the east room, she saw Jiang Huaizhen half-kneeling by the bed, nailing a wooden board.
“Big sister,” Ping’er moved closer to her. “Auntie said to have you help us get the honey tomorrow.”
Jiang Huaizhen stopped what she was doing and asked, “Where are we going to get it?”
“Just on the mountain behind Caitou’s house…”
“Did your aunt say to have me go?”
“Yes,” Ping’er quickly said. “Auntie also said that big sister is the best at getting honey. If you don’t believe me, you can go and ask Auntie.”
Jiang Huaizhen said “oh.” “Alright. When are we going tomorrow morning?”
“As soon as we wake up,” Ping’er said impatiently.
Jiang Huaizhen said “alright” and bent down to continue her work.
Getting a definite answer, Ping’er ran out happily but bumped into Lin Shuang outside the door.
She was happy at this moment and hugged Lin Shuang’s thigh, looking up at her. “Auntie, we’ll have honey to eat tomorrow.”
Lin Shuang was infected by her innocence and patted her head. “Alright. Go and see your little yellow dog. Don’t let it shake off the medicinal paste on its body.”
Ping’er agreed and skipped away.
Only then did Lin Shuang enter the room.
Jiang Huaizhen looked up.
The woman before her walked straight toward her, bent over, and stole a kiss from her lips. “Work hard. I’m going to cook.”
Jiang Huaizhen looked at the retreating figure, who had just come in and had gone out again, and gently licked her lips, then lowered her head to continue to nail the wooden board.
Dinner was relatively simple. She made a white-cut pork, a dipping sauce, and a vegetable dish, and that was it.
The meat was pork belly, stewed with ginger, scallions, and peppercorns. After simmering over low heat for half an hour, it was ready to be taken out of the pot and sliced thinly.
The dipping sauce was a mixture of chopped scallions, minced garlic, and sauce, with a little vinegar and sesame oil.
The meat slices were dipped in the sauce and put in the mouth. It was fat but not greasy, lean but not tough. The old woman’s teeth were not good now, and she loved this. She ate with relish.
Halfway through, she looked at the bracelet on Lin Shuang’s left hand and asked, “When did you buy this? I’ve never seen you wear it before.”
Lin Shuang glanced at Jiang Huaizhen and smiled. “My mother left it for me. Before, when I knew that the Lin family was going to sell me, I secretly gave the bracelet to Huaizhen to pawn. Now that we’ve earned money, we’ve redeemed it.”
When Jiang Huaizhen had said that she had bought Lin Shuang with her own money, she hadn’t gone into detail about the bracelet. Only now did Old Madam Jiang understand.
“So that’s what happened. It’s good that you’ve redeemed it. You can keep it as a memento.”
If it were in the past, she would have inevitably thought a little more.
Especially a while back, when the two children seemed to have had a little tiff, she had been worried that if the two of them became estranged, would Lin Shuang have to take back the money she had earned? But in the past few months, the two of them seemed to be fine again, and her own granddaughter no longer mentioned the person she liked, so she was also at ease.
But seeing that the two children were getting older and older, she also had the thought of bringing up their marriages.
But for the sake of the money, she didn’t want to break the current balance, so the words of urging marriage reached her lips and were swallowed back.
The family was now harmonious and happy. If an outsider were to be inserted, it would definitely cause a rift.
Lin Shuang looked at Jiang Huaizhen. “Tomorrow morning, let’s go with Ping’er and the others to see how much honey there is. If there’s a lot, we’ll make honey chicken legs tomorrow.”
As soon as her voice fell, Ping’er immediately stood up and cheered, “Auntie, I want to eat honey chicken legs.”
Lin Shuang said helplessly, “We don’t even know how much honey there is yet.”
“There is. There’s a lot, a lot.”
“You’re so greedy,” Old Madam Jiang said. “Is honey really that sweet?”
“It’s so sweet, sweeter than sugar. The juice is golden and yellow, and it’s both beautiful and delicious,” she said, as if she had really had it.
Old Madam Jiang had never had honey before and was stunned by her words. She was old now, and her mouth was bitter. She also had a preference for sweet things, so she said, “If there’s no honey on the mountain, you can have your big sister go and buy some outside.”
In just a few words, she had assigned a task to Jiang Huaizhen.
Jiang Huaizhen said nothing and ate her meal slowly.
After she had finished eating, she found a chipped small bowl, soaked the leftover rice in the soup, chopped up the meat, added a few vegetable leaves, and mixed it into the rice bowl.
She then placed the rice bowl in front of the little yellow dog.
The little yellow dog’s face was swollen, and it had long been drooling at the smell of their food. Seeing the food brought to it, it didn’t care about the pain in its mouth, stumbled up, buried its face in the rice bowl, and began to wolf it down.
Lin Shuang’s gaze traced her gentle profile. After a long time, she reluctantly looked away and said to Ping’er, “See? You just pick it up and don’t feed it. If it weren’t for your big sister, how long would Little Yellow have had to go hungry?”
Only then did Ping’er realize how unreliable she was and smiled sheepishly. “I haven’t finished my meal yet…”
After Old Madam Jiang had finished eating, she moved a chair to the door and sat down to rest.
Seeing that Jiang Huaizhen had already dealt with the little yellow dog, Ping’er swallowed the last mouthful of rice, also put down her bowl, and slipped out.
Lin Shuang shook her head and got up to clear the dishes.
Jiang Huaizhen had already gotten some hot water by the stove. When she had put the bowls in the basin, she began to wash them with her head down.
Seeing that there was no one in the kitchen, Lin Shuang hugged her waist from behind, her cheek pressed against her back, and listened to the beating of her heart through her body.
“Jiang Huaizhen…”
“Hmm?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to call you.”
“Silly.”
Lin Shuang giggled.
