Calls of "Grandma!" rang out one after another. Fang Honghua looked at the wheat spread thickly across the courtyard and nodded in satisfaction. Her youngest son's family had enjoyed a fine harvest too.
"Mother, it's hot outside. Come in and sit," Miao Qiulian called, coming out to greet her. Gu Tieshan was holding his youngest grandson, Gu An, and urged his mother inside as well.
Gu Lanshi poured some tea. When she entered, he smiled. "Grandma, have some water."
"Our Lanshi is such a good boy." Fang Honghua accepted the bowl with a smile. Gu Tieshan was her youngest son, and his children were younger than the others. She had helped look after Gu Lanshi for a short while when he was little. He'd always been pretty and sweet-tongued, so she was naturally fond of him.
Seeing her three little great-grandsons, she laughed and pretended to scold them. "These little monkeys drove me mad the other day, running everywhere so I couldn't catch them. Just wait until I teach you a lesson!"
During the wheat harvest, Zhang Chunhua and Li Yue had been too busy to look after the children. It was dangerous for little ones to stay in the scorching fields; heatstroke was no small matter. So they'd steamed rice cakes, brought some eggs, and asked her to mind the children at the ancestral house during the day.
Fang Honghua was elderly, her hair completely white. She had raised four sons and two daughters, and now had a great crowd of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The family lived reasonably well, so she no longer had to do fieldwork. Several other old women and elderly husbands envied her, saying that she was enjoying the rewards of a long life: she didn't have to do a thing, and her children supplied her food and drink.
Even so, she was proud and independent. Since her husband's death a few years earlier, she had never made trouble or demanded that her daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law wait on her every day. She cooked and washed her own clothes without asking anyone. She kept a little money, though she never had to spend it on the monthly rice, flour, and eggs supplied by her four sons. Sometimes she helped care for the great-grandchildren. Considerate grandchildren and their spouses brought her little treats, and when one household had trouble making ends meet, she didn't make a fuss.
"Have you eaten, Mother? If not, we have meat in the house, and I steamed extra rice this morning. We can warm some for you," Miao Qiulian asked briskly.
The little old lady rarely came to eat at their house, but on the occasions she visited, they always asked.
"I've eaten. Don't trouble yourself." Fang Honghua smiled, then scooped up Gu Heng, the naughtiest of the children, despite all her complaints about them. Her thin, old hand stroked Gu Man's head. "You little monkey. You even managed to choke on an egg. I don't know what you were in such a hurry for."
She'd boiled eggs for the three children the other day, only for little Gu Man to choke on a mouthful of yolk.
"I bought plenty of meat. Mother, take some home when you leave and fry yourself a bowl," Miao Qiulian said, hurrying to the kitchen to cut some.
Fang Honghua didn't stop her. Now that meat had been mentioned, she rather fancied some.
Outside, Gou'er and the others took turns rolling the wheat and turning it to dry, occasionally coming inside to drink water, escape the heat, and exchange a few words with Grandma.
The great matter occupying the family now was Gu Lanshi's marriage. Fang Honghua asked repeatedly about the Lin family, about the new clothes being made for Lanshi, and about buying red cloth for his wedding attire. She also reminded him to embroider a pair of mandarin-duck wedding pillows. The conversation wandered through countless small family matters and lasted a long while.
After noon, when the sun grew a little less fierce, Fang Honghua carried a bowl of cut meat and a bowl of cooked rice home. Passing the house of the eldest Qian brother, she snorted, her face full of dislike.
The eldest Qian, who'd been about her own age, was already dead. His wife was Cao Xiaoqiao. Miao Qiulian had just told her how the old woman had tried to take advantage of the Gu family and had even raised a hand against her grandson. Naturally, Fang Honghua was furious. If the eldest Qian hadn't been a decent man in his lifetime, and his sons fairly honest, Cao Xiaoqiao would scarcely have been able to get by in the village with such a grasping, detestable nature.
*
After more than twenty days of work, the family had set aside enough grain to pay when the tax collectors arrived. At last, all the thoroughly dried new wheat was poured into storage jars. These were prosperous years, and the imperial court took some care of the common people. Land taxes and corvée labor were lighter than twenty or thirty years earlier, so more households had enough to eat.
Because times were good, Gu Tieshan took the donkey to the stone mill at the village entrance and ground half a sack of the new wheat into flour. For two days, the whole family enjoyed fine-flour noodles and steamed buns.
The busiest period had passed, and the weather was hot. Many households in Little River Village rested for a few days. Families with plenty of land and a good harvest rarely ventured outside in the midday sun.
Only when the sun shifted westward in the afternoon did people begin gathering in the shade of the big tree near the village entrance.
The ancestral Gu home stood among the frontmost houses. Fang Honghua had finished eating when she noticed two old women passing her gate, each carrying a stool. She fetched one herself and went to sit in the shade, where she could gossip while cutting the uppers for a new pair of shoes.
An elderly male spouse from the Sun family was waving a palm-leaf fan and talking about the Zhou family's second son, who was to marry next year. Seeing someone approach, he called, "Isn't that Xingwang's wife? Not busy today?"
Ye Jinrong, Pei Xingwang's wife, came over carrying a small winnowing basket and a stool. "Grandma, it's stifling inside. There's a breeze out here, so it's cooler."
She sat beside the elderly Mr. Sun. Her small basket held a pile of cotton and a spindle. As she listened to the older people talking, she spun thread and occasionally added a remark. When she heard the Zhou family's second son was already engaged, she said at once, "Our Huzi is about old enough too. Auntie, if you know a suitable girl or dual-born youth, find him a match as well. I won't forget your matchmaker's wine when the time comes."
Old Madam Zheng smacked her lips. The matchmaker's wine usually accompanied a proper gift. She had rarely arranged marriages and wasn't particularly good at it, but the prospect tempted her. Unable to think of any eligible young girls or dual-born youths, she could only sigh enviously and listen while the others listed which families had daughters and which had dual-born sons.
Fang Honghua kept her head lowered over her shoe uppers and said nothing. She didn't meddle in other people's business even at home; why interfere outside? Besides, she had never thought much of Pei Xingwang's family.
The six or seven people talked over one another, reviewing the affairs of not only Little River Village but the neighboring villages as well.
In the middle of the lively conversation, an elderly husband surnamed Yang, whose tongue was quicker than his judgment, spotted a figure entering the village. Without thinking, he asked, "Isn't that your second boy? He's older than Huzi, come to think of it. Still not married?"
At once, everyone beneath the tree fell silent. They looked at Pei Yan approaching, then glanced at Ye Jinrong's face.
The elderly Mr. Yang pressed his lips together and dared not make another sound.
Under all those eyes, Ye Jinrong was both furious and embarrassed: furious at the little beast Pei Yan for humiliating her, and furious at the old gossip for speaking without a thought. Of course she knew the rumors circulating in the village. That cursed bringer of calamity had been born solely to ruin her life.
Pei Yan, his legs and feet splashed with mud, passed along the road in front of the tree. His eyes lowered slightly, his already expressionless face seemed colder and more unyielding than ever. He spared the woman who was supposedly his own mother not a trace of warmth.
Ye Jinrong's face was equally dark and cold. As soon as he had passed, she snorted, rose with her stool, and left. She had no desire to look at that crowd of old busybodies any longer.
Mr. Yang had seen her glare. Watching her go, he spat on the ground and rolled his eyes. "Bah! Who does she think she's fooling? Does she imagine everyone else is blind? That whole family's ungrateful. They bully their second son half to death. What sort of mother is that? She's worse than a stepmother! Any girl who marries into that family will have eight lifetimes of bad luck!"
After Ye Jinrong had humiliated him like that, he certainly had no kind words for her. It wasn't as though he was genuinely fighting for justice on Pei Yan's behalf.
"Quite right. You couldn't find another family in this village that behaves like them," old Mr. Sun agreed. Beside him, Old Madam Zheng felt rather better now that none of them would be getting matchmaker's wine, and joined the criticism of Ye Jinrong.
"Oh, everyone's here!" Cao Xiaoqiao approached with a basket over her arm. Whatever good fortune she'd enjoyed that day, her wrinkled face was wreathed in smiles.
"Auntie Cao, where have you been?" Only Old Madam Zheng greeted her. Everyone else either kept silent or gave her a disdainful sideways glance.
Cao Xiaoqiao was panting after her walk. There happened to be a stone beneath the tree, so she sat on it with a pleased little sigh. "Nowhere special."
Old Madam Zheng immediately spotted the large peaches in her basket. They were covered with a cloth, but as the wind lifted it, a bright red peach appeared. Stretching her neck to look more closely, she smacked her lips. "Those are quite a few peaches. They look lovely and juicy."
Cao Xiaoqiao moved the basket protectively to her other side. She'd only intended to rest her feet and hadn't expected anyone to notice. "I met a relative on the road. They gave me a few," she said, trying to brush it off.
"Well, if they were free, they're not worth much. Why don't you share half of one with me?" Old Madam Zheng stared hungrily at the basket.
Cao Xiaoqiao's expression changed at once. "With you? You see a peach this big and decide it's worthless just because you say so? You've got the nerve to beg someone else for food? Go take a piss and look at your reflection!"
The words were so vicious that Old Madam Zheng lost face. She spat toward Cao Xiaoqiao, who quickly dodged aside.
Not to be outdone, Old Madam Zheng cursed, "You filthy old whore! Even if your peaches were made of gold, your Granny Zheng wouldn't beg a bite from you. Who gave you permission to strut around barking orders?"
"You greedy, rotten-hearted lowlife! Too useless to get even a peach of your own, so you go begging from others. Bitch!" Cao Xiaoqiao fired back.
The insult touched Old Madam Zheng's sorest spot. She jumped up, pointing and cursing. "You filthy, shameless wretch! Go spew your filth somewhere else! You cheap whore, how dare you order me around?"
"Enough, enough! Stop disgracing yourselves out here," old Mr. Sun urged.
He waved at Cao Xiaoqiao. "Go on, get moving. Stop making trouble. Soon even the men will gather around, and then you'll both be mortified."
The others tried to make peace too. But Fang Honghua glanced at the basketful of red peaches and sneered. "I doubt any relative gave her those. They're probably stolen."
Cao Xiaoqiao had only just quieted down. Hearing that, her eyes went wide and she shot to her feet.
"I've never heard of any of your relatives growing peaches," Fang Honghua said, rising angrily herself. "You're always stealing melons and snatching vegetables. You've already plagued every relative you have. Who'd willingly give you peaches? I'd wager you stole them!"
"What are you so guilty about? Could it be she hit the mark?" With an ally at hand, Old Madam Zheng grew bolder and shouted, "Cao Xiaoqiao's been stealing again! Now she's even stealing from the neighboring villages. Heaven-cursed thief! She deserves to be cursed to her face!"
"What are you shrieking about, you deadbeat pauper? You're the one who begs with a shameless grin," Cao Xiaoqiao retorted. She couldn't stand Zheng, who was poor, greedy, and always trying to take advantage of others. As for Fang Honghua, the two had old grievances. The Gu family's prosperity had eaten at her for years. Pointing at Fang Honghua's nose, she cursed, "You old hag, may lightning strike you dead for spreading lies! May your tongue and mouth rot!"
Being called a pauper struck at Old Madam Zheng's deepest humiliation. Her face turned bluish with fury. Her teeth clenched, she couldn't catch her breath and toppled backward. Old Mr. Sun and the others hurried to catch her, rubbing her chest and pressing beneath her nose in a panic.
Fang Honghua planted her hands on her hips and launched into a tirade. "Nothing but filth comes out of that dog's mouth of yours! You heartless wretch! You wouldn't even save your own granddaughter when she was dying. When you finally croak, you won't be able to spend a single coin of the money you're clutching inside your coffin. Save it to decorate your rotten bones, you damned bitch! May you fry in a cauldron of oil after you die!"
Seeing Cao Xiaoqiao open her mouth to retort, Fang Honghua raised her voice and cut her off. "You beast worse than a pig or dog! You peer through people's gates and envy so much as a vegetable growing there. The Zhang family at the front of the village, the Li family at the back—you break their persimmon branches full of fruit and trample the bean seedlings just sprouting in their fields. You even stole someone's duck! They caught you red-handed, and you insisted it was yours. There's no household you won't try to cheat, no morsel too small to steal. You took our wheat and tried to hit my grandson. Did you think I'd let you off today?"
"You!" Cao Xiaoqiao had been struck precisely where it hurt. Another person would already have fled in shame, but she'd always been shameless. She wanted to return the insults, yet could find no vulnerable point to attack. All she could do was jump about shouting filthy abuse.
The two old women cursed each other without pause, trading insults as though they'd been mortal enemies for ten lifetimes.
Cao Xiaoqiao had done so many despicable things that she couldn't refute any accusation thrown in her face. Losing the argument to Fang Honghua made her face swell with fury. Then she spotted Gu Lanshi coming back from weeding the fields. At once she seized on what she thought was a weakness and snapped, "Well, look who it is. The shameless little whore."
"You old beast!" Fang Honghua flew into a rage. She stormed over, slapped Cao Xiaoqiao across the face, and grabbed at her cheeks, wrestling with her.
Two little old women were fighting, one of them his own grandmother. Gu Lanshi and Gou'er hurried over and, together with old Mr. Sun and the others, pulled them apart.
Before reaching the village, Gu Lanshi had heard his grandmother's powerful voice hurling abuse at someone. He didn't yet know the cause, but after hearing Cao Xiaoqiao's filthy insults, he couldn't hold back. While helping separate them, he viciously pinched Cao Xiaoqiao several times. She howled in pain and tried to strike him too.
Gou'er was a young man and couldn't very well trade blows with an old woman, so he could only seize Cao Xiaoqiao's arms to keep her from moving. Fang Honghua took the opportunity to land two more slaps.
More villagers gathered at the commotion. Old Mr. Sun beckoned toward the second branch of the Qian family to have someone take Cao Xiaoqiao away.
"That's enough, Auntie. Stop cursing and go home," Qian Yihe said. He despised the disgraceful spectacle his elder aunt had made of herself, but family obligations forced him and his wife to escort her back to the old house.
As she left, Cao Xiaoqiao made sure to take her basket of stolen peaches. She cried and cursed at the top of her lungs, but no one paid her any mind. Her son hadn't yet returned from the fields. His husband was home caring for the children, but when she entered, he didn't so much as lift his eyelids, let alone ask after her.
Fang Honghua had suffered little in the fight. Gu Lanshi smoothed her disheveled white hair and straightened her clothes, then helped Gou'er support her as they walked home.
