Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I was saved by an old man who had risen early to sell wontons.

When he helped me into his home, his wife cracked him over the head with a rolling pin.

“Our son is dead, our daughter-in-law ran off, Tian’er is only three and needs money for everything, and you, you shameless old fool, dare bring a woman home?”

Old Liu clutched his bleeding forehead, his face flushed with panic.

“I-I found her on the road! What nonsense are you spouting?”

Only later did I learn that the old man’s surname was Liu, and his wife’s surname was Yang. They had once had a son, but he had died in battle a year ago. Earlier that year, their daughter-in-law had remarried.

Now the elderly couple raised their three-year-old granddaughter between them: one carrying a shoulder pole to sell wontons, the other staying home to farm.

Aunt Yang did not listen to Old Liu’s explanation at all. She only kept shoving me toward the door.

“Dead or alive, what do I care? My family can’t afford to feed another mouth. Go, go!”

I dropped to my knees before her with a thud and begged her to take me in.

“Why-why are you kneeling? If outsiders see this, they’ll think my family did something to you. Get up. Up!”

I remained kneeling and choked out, “I don’t eat much, and I don’t talk much. I can learn to do any work. At night, you can give me any room at all. Please.”

After dying once, I had finally understood. For someone like me, powerless, without status, cowardly and useless, there had never been much meaning in coming into this world at all.

But so what if there was no meaning?

If others held my life cheap, then I had to cherish it myself.

“So annoying. Crying and sniveling like that. Old man, you brought her back, so you deal with her.”

Aunt Yang threw down the rolling pin and stormed off.

Old Liu helped me up. “Your auntie has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. Don’t take it to heart.”

“Thank you.”

And so, they took me in.

I was not very good at housework. Back at my maiden home, my legitimate mother had never allowed us to do rough labor. All I knew was needlework and managing household accounts.

This made Aunt Yang even angrier.

“What kind of sweeping is that? The clothes I just washed and hung out to dry are covered in dust because of you.”

Aunt Yang pushed me aside and briskly sprinkled a layer of water over the courtyard. I stood to the side and watched her. By that afternoon, I knew how to use a broom.

When Aunt Yang wrapped wontons, I also stood beside her and watched. She glared at me.

“You’ve been staring with those cow eyes all afternoon. Have you learned it yet?”

Though she said that, I knew she was wrapping them more slowly and more carefully than usual.

“I have.”

I wrapped a few for her to see. After watching me make seven or eight, she chased me away.

“Fine, fine. You’re clever, aren’t you? Now hurry up and go. Don’t get in the way of my work.”

She drove me back to my room and would not let me into the kitchen.

At dinner that night, she boiled two eggs and tossed one to me.

“Tian’er can’t eat it. Hurry up and have it. Look how skinny you are. If the wind blows you away one day, I’m not going out to look for you.”

As I peeled the egg, my nose stung.

“Tomorrow, when you go sell wontons, stop by town and get a tonic for stewing chicken. Tomorrow night, I’ll slaughter the hen and make soup.”

The tonic was a medicinal blend. Stewed together with an old hen, it was very nourishing.

Old Liu was shocked. “We only have one hen that lays eggs. Why are you killing it?”

Aunt Yang kicked Old Liu.

“If I tell you to buy it, then buy it. Why so much nonsense? Add some ginseng rootlets to the tonic too. Don’t be stingy.”

Old Liu agreed, then asked if I wanted to go with him so he could buy me a padded cotton jacket while we were there.

I wanted to say lightly that there was no need, but the tears still slipped down despite myself.

The next day, Aunt Yang stood beside me and watched until I had drunk two bowls of soup and eaten half the chicken before she left.

“Drink the rest tomorrow.”

As she went out, she kept muttering, “Who knows what wicked family did this, throwing her out right after she gave birth.”

Slowly, my body recovered, and I became more and more skilled at housework.

I worked quickly too. I learned all the work in the fields. When I used an iron shovel to loosen the soil, several blisters rose on my palms.

When the blisters burst, I kept working, and eventually they became calluses.

Once there were calluses, my palms no longer hurt.

I also wrapped wontons very quickly-even faster than Aunt Yang.

However, I thought the wontons tasted rather ordinary, so I discussed with her whether we could adjust the flavor of the filling.

First, she scolded me. Then she did as I said and beat three eggs and a spoonful of starch into the meat filling.

“Doesn’t it taste a little better?” I asked her.

Aunt Yang ate two wontons, pursed her lips, and said nothing. But the next day, when she mixed the filling, she called me over to season it.

Old Liu’s wonton stall did better and better. Before, he could only sell out by noon. Now, he was back before seven in the morning.

“Why don’t we set up a shed? If we sell at a fixed place at a fixed time every day, business will be even better.”

Old Liu shook his head. “There isn’t any room to set up on this street. And besides, there are plenty of wonton stalls in town.”

Aunt Yang suddenly asked me, “Where do you think we should set up?”

“At the entrance of the school. There are fewer stalls there, so we should be able to find a place for a shed.”

A few days later, Old Liu found a spot, and together we put up a shed. As expected, business was very good.

The children would come eat breakfast before class. At noon, if they disliked the food their families sent over, they would come have a bowl of wontons. Even after school in the evening, they would come in groups of three or five, eat, and then go home.

Old Liu smiled so widely his eyes crinkled with joy. After Aunt Yang and I finished the work in the fields, we would go help at his stall.

During the New Year, Aunt Yang made a new padded cotton jacket for both Tian’er and me.

“Our girl is truly pretty, just a little too thin. Eat more from now on,” Old Liu said with a smile.

“For a poor family’s child, beauty is a curse,” Aunt Yang said.

“No, it isn’t. Auntie isn’t a curse.” Tian’er wrapped her arms around my neck, defending me.

Aunt Yang glared at Tian’er. “What do you know?”

I understood Aunt Yang’s worries. Among my sisters, my looks had not been considered outstanding, but here, they were indeed too eye-catching.

After thinking it over, I picked Tian’er up. “You’re right. How about… from now on, we tell outsiders that I’m Tian’er’s mother?”

If I had a child, then I had a man. Outsiders did not know Tian’er’s father was gone. I thought it should be useful.

Aunt Yang said nothing, which counted as tacit agreement.

“I have a mother now?” Tian’er asked me.

“Yes. From now on, you’re my daughter!”

Tian’er was very happy. I secretly glanced at Aunt Yang and found that she was smiling too.