Chapter 45

Before the county market day, Qin Xiaoman and Du Heng planned to take some of the clear oil they had at home to sell. They would rather make an extra trip than go to the Ge family again.
Before packing up the oil to sell, Du Heng thought it over and decided to have Qin Xiaoman bring some clear oil to his second uncle’s family as well. Farming families always thought of those close to them when they had something good, and more importantly, they had previously used Qin Xiong’s name to avoid a disaster.
Qin Xiaoman was frugal, but he was not stingy. Seeing that Du Heng had this in mind, he readily agreed.
The two of them brought the oil over and also packed some dried spring bamboo shoots.
“What’s wrong with this match? Li the Fifth is capable and dotes on you. Among this generation of young people in the village, he’s outstanding. You pick at this and that—are you trying to find some immortal or divine being instead?!”
“All you know how to do is scold the young men! What kind of father are you? There’s only this one young man in the family—are you trying to force him to his death?!”
Qin Xiaoman and Du Heng had just reached the courtyard gate when they heard fierce arguing coming from inside the house.
Country folk had loud voices, and Qin Xiong was hot-tempered, while Li Wanju was sharp-tongued. When the two of them clashed, the commotion was tremendous.
Qin Xiaoman was already used to it. After all, the couple argued often—it was nothing unusual.
“Xiaoman, Du Heng, you’re here?”
The one who came to greet them was the Qin family’s new daughter-in-law, Sun Dongmei.
She was petite, unlike Zheng Cai’e’s plump build, and she spoke softly and gently. Qin Wei, a big, burly man, was especially fond of this wife.
They had been married for a month or two, and the couple was very affectionate.
Sun Dongmei liked Xiaoman and Du Heng very much. Though her mother-in-law often spoke ill of them, when she married into the family, she had personally received a thoughtfully prepared wedding gift from the two of them.
Who had a good heart and who didn’t—she knew very well.
“This is clear oil pressed from rapeseed we grew this year, and some dried spring bamboo shoots. We brought a bit over for you to try.”
“These are such precious things—you don’t even舍得 eat them yourselves, yet you brought so much over.”
Sun Dongmei hurriedly wiped her hands on her apron and accepted the items with both hands.
“Are Big Brother and Second Brother not home?”
“They went to the fields,” Sun Dongmei said. “The family has been arguing fiercely over Xiaozhu’s matter. Your big brother and second brother can’t really say anything about it. With all the noise at home, the only thing they could do was hide out in the fields.”
She couldn’t hide. Having married in as the eldest daughter-in-law, all the cooking, laundry, and cleaning at home naturally fell to her.
Though there were endless trivial chores, in this day and age, which family’s daughter-in-law didn’t do these things? At least the Qin family was well-off; life was much better than marrying into a poor household.
Sun Dongmei had married in from another village and had no close acquaintances here. She spent all day circling around household tasks and had no one to chat with.
She liked Xiaoman. Every time he came over, he would talk with her for quite a while.
“The Li family is a good match. Father-in-law, Qin Wei, and Qin An all think it’s good. Li the Fifth is also a fine person. But Xiaozhu and Mother aren’t happy about it.”
Qin Xiaoman was surprised precisely because he couldn’t understand why Qin Xiaozhu and Li Wanju were unhappy. By all logic, Li Wanju was such a snob—since the Li family were landlords, she should have been delighted.
Sun Dongmei sighed. Only after hearing the arguments at home did she learn that earlier in the year, Qin Xiong had taken Li Wanju and Qin Xiaozhu to the county to make courtesy visits for the New Year.
It was during that trip that they somehow got acquainted with a matchmaker from the city. Li Wanju hit it off with her right away, and seeing that Qin Xiaozhu was of marriageable age, the matchmaker mentioned that there was a good family in the county seeking a match.
Li Wanju listened casually. She heard that the family’s ancestors had been scholars, but unfortunately they had been single-line descendants for three generations, with very few members. Now the family’s only son had already passed the preliminary examination and become a licentiate, and they were looking to marry.
That family looked down on county families, thinking that the young men and women there were too pampered and physically weak, fearing they would have trouble bearing children. The previous two generations had suffered because of this.
So now they wanted to find a village family. Still, as a scholarly household, even if they were choosing from rural families, they wouldn’t pick one that was too poor. A family like the Qin family was just right.
At the time, Li Wanju hadn’t agreed to anything and only treated it as idle talk. Yet not long ago, the matchmaker had actually come by again.
And so now, mother and son had begun to take the matter to heart, keeping it firmly in mind.
Unfortunately, before they even had the chance to discuss it with Qin Xiong, Li the Fifth had already returned to the village. As soon as he came back, he said that his father would come over to formally propose marriage.
Back when Li the Fifth used to return once every year or two, Qin Xiaozhu had actually been quite fond of him. Every time he came back, Li the Fifth would bring Qin Xiaozhu some novel trinkets from outside. How could a young man’s heart not be stirred by that?
But now that things could finally be said to have cleared, Qin Xiaozhu suddenly refused outright. He said he wanted to marry a reasonable, bookish scholar and did not like crude, rough men.
As she said this, Sun Dongmei glanced at Du Heng.
Qin Xiaoman frowned. He had grown up with Qin Xiaozhu, and though the two of them didn’t get along, he understood Qin Xiaozhu’s thoughts very well.
After hearing his sister-in-law’s explanation, he immediately said, “What, does he want to find someone like Du Heng?”
Sun Dongmei smiled and lightly patted Qin Xiaoman’s arm, lowering her voice so only the two of them could hear. “Who told your Du Heng to be so eye-catching? Once you’ve seen flawless jade, how could you still make room in your heart for a plain silver hairpin?”
Qin Xiaoman puffed out his cheeks. He had known it. Qin Xiaozhu had always disliked coming to their house, and over the past year, even when delivering things, he preferred to make the trip himself.
He had sensed something was off long ago. Fortunately, he had been on guard.
“Well, anyway, Father and Mother are endlessly quarreling over this matter. I don’t dare say much either. In the end, they’ll make their own decision.”
Qin Xiaoman figured that no matter how the arguments turned out, they would likely end up choosing one family from the two. Either way, it meant there would be wedding wine to drink again.
“I won’t go in and interrupt Second Uncle and Second Aunt’s arguing. If they see me show up, they’ll just fight even harder.”
Sun Dongmei nodded knowingly.
“Sister-in-law, when you have time, come over to my place and chat a bit. Staying cooped up at home all day is too stifling.”
Sun Dongmei smiled and answered, “Alright!”
Du Heng hadn’t leaned in to listen to what the two were whispering about. He only saw Qin Xiaoman finish speaking and then grab him, pulling him straight toward the outside.
“What’s wrong?” Du Heng asked, looking at the young man striding ahead while tugging on his wrist.
“I told you to keep your distance from Qin Xiaozhu, but you insisted on being polite and courteous. Look at how fierce the fighting is at home now—all because of you.”
Du Heng’s eyes widened. “Because of me?”
In an instant, a whole mess of scandalous family drama—about a cousin falling for his cousin-in-law—flashed through Du Heng’s mind.
He suddenly grew nervous. If this got out, it would sound terrible.
Would they still be able to keep contact with Second Uncle’s family after this? And if they did, how would he face Qin Xiaozhu again?
Should he go find him and make things clear?
But the problem was—he hadn’t done anything at all!
“Hey, hey, hey!”
Seeing Du Heng lost in thought, Qin Xiaoman hurriedly waved a hand in front of his face. “What are you thinking about?!”
“They say there’s a scholarly family in the county city that’s also taken a liking to Qin Xiaozhu and wants to propose. They’ve run into the Li family head-on. Qin Xiaozhu saw that you’re a scholar and thought that was good. Now he looks down on those who haven’t studied and has his eye on that county family instead.”
Du Heng let out a long sigh of relief and rubbed the tip of his nose. “You scared me half to death.”
Qin Xiaoman planted his hands on his hips. “You actually thought there might really be something going on?”
“How could there be!”
“So what, do you think Qin Xiaozhu looks better than me, and has a gentler personality too?”
“I’ve hardly had any contact with him, and I’ve never even looked at him closely. How could I compare him to you?”
“Hmph!”
Du Heng stepped forward and took Qin Xiaoman’s hand. “Alright. You know exactly what’s in my heart.”
Qin Xiaoman snorted and grumbled, but the two of them still tugged and pulled at each other all the way home, ultimately staying out of the Qin family’s business.
The next day, Qin Xiaoman went to the county city to sell the clear oil. While he was there, he also needed to buy some fermentation starter to keep on hand, so that once the sorghum ripened, they could brew wine.
There wasn’t much work in the fields for the time being. Du Heng could have gone to the county city as well, but since he had free time now, he chose to stay home and read.
There weren’t many days left in June. Once July arrived and the sorghum and soybeans ripened, there would be endless work again. Since he could read more now, he decided to read as much as he could.
Du Heng spent the day reading and writing at home. At noon, he ate a simple meal. It wasn’t until late afternoon that Qin Xiaoman finally returned on the ox cart.
Aside from some basic household necessities, Qin Xiaoman also brought back a large bundle of night-blooming jasmine wood. From far away, one could already smell its rather unpleasant odor—so much so that even the old yellow ox twisted its head and flicked its tail.
“I took a detour specially to cut these flowers. They’re not very pretty, and they smell awful, but they can repel mosquitoes.”
Qin Xiaoman handed them to Du Heng, motioning for him to put them in the vase on the desk in the inner room.
In addition to that, he had also brought back a big bundle of mugwort. The mugwort, having grown old, had already lost its vitality after an afternoon under the sun.
Mixed with straw, it was twisted into ropes and dried. At night, it could be thrown into a charcoal brazier and lit, producing smoke that also repelled mosquitoes.
Farm households couldn’t afford the good mosquito repellents sold in the city. This was their homemade, simple mosquito smoke.
Du Heng was skeptical about how effective it would be, but Xiaoman was very serious about dealing with mosquitoes. Seeing Du Heng tossing and turning at night, unable to sleep from mosquito bites, he was always thinking of ways to fix it.
That evening, while Du Heng was busy in the kitchen, Qin Xiaoman ran into the inner room early.
There were few mosquitoes during the day, but once night fell, they swarmed out, spiraling around the lamplight in clusters.
They could close the windows early to block some of them out, but summer was already hot. Shutting the doors and windows meant no airflow at all, making it unbearably stuffy.
So Qin Xiaoman took out a mosquito net and cut it into a curtain, hanging it over the windows. This way, they could keep the windows open for ventilation while still keeping mosquitoes from flying inside.
After setting up the window netting, he lit their homemade mosquito incense early. Wisps of white smoke curled upward, and along with the burning mugwort, the room filled with its distinctive scent.
After all that fuss, they finished dinner.. When Du Heng returned to the room, he smelled a house full of mixed floral and herbal odors—not sweet, but a blend of mugwort and night-blooming jasmine wood. It wasn’t pleasant, but it wasn’t unbearable either.
And he had to admit—after all that effort, once things settled down, the constant buzzing of mosquitoes that usually lingered around his ears was finally gone.
Du Heng’s efficiency studying by the oil lamp visibly improved; at night, he could even finish writing an entire essay in one sitting.
Qin Xiaoman disliked reading and writing. When his father was still alive, trying to teach him to write even a couple of characters, he would sit in his father’s arms for less than a quarter hour before wanting to slide down off his father’s lap. Compared to the little river crickets outside, writing characters was infinitely more boring.
In the end, he never learned many characters. To avoid writing, however, he did learn how to grind ink.
The nights were quiet. After Qin Xiaoman finished grinding the ink, while Du Heng read, he picked up one of the bamboo-handled brushes from the brush holder. The crudely made brush was poor quality to begin with, and it had belonged to Mister Qin back when he was alive. Now the bristles had long since splayed out, messy and puffed up like frizzed fur.
Sitting beside Du Heng, Qin Xiaoman plucked the stray hairs from the brush. After fussing with it for a while, he quieted down, but he couldn’t sit next to Du Heng for even the time it took one stick of incense to burn before he started nodding off.
Du Heng sent him back to bed. After sleeping for a bit, Qin Xiaoman woke up and still saw the room lit.
In the stifling heat of the first half of the night, he waved a palm fan, glanced at the figure still studying diligently by candlelight, and muttered a reminder for Du Heng to come to bed and rest.