Chapter 8: Something Happened

Fresh air rushed into her lungs, and the warm autumn afternoon sun spilled over her. Yang Ruoqing squinted comfortably and raised her arms to stretch.

“Ghost?”

“Bang!”

A woman’s shriek suddenly erupted from the doorway of the main house, followed immediately by the sound of a wooden bucket crashing to the ground.

Yang Ruoqing followed the sound and saw a middle-aged woman of medium build, wearing a coarse hempen jacket, standing at the kitchen entrance. The woman’s clothes were covered in patches, but the stitches were crooked and twisted, looking like hideous centipedes—utterly unsightly.

The woman’s hair was a mess; a few strands hung behind her ears, while several others, wet and sticky, clung to her face, obscuring half of it. A smudge of black soot from the bottom of a pot was smeared across the exposed part of her face.

Her eyes were fixed squarely on the west wing, her mouth agape wide enough to fit an egg. The terror written in her murky eyes was palpable, and she trembled uncontrollably, looking as if she were about to burst into tears.

She wore a filthy apron around her waist, and her hands were still held in the posture of carrying something. A wooden bucket lay overturned at her feet, the slop inside spilling all over the ground, instantly filling the air with a nauseating, sour stench.

Yang Ruoqing recognized at a glance that this disheveled woman, standing in the slop without even moving her feet, was none other than her aunt, Jin-shi.

“Sister-in-law, don’t be afraid! Qing’er isn’t a ghost; she’s still alive and well! Look, she has a shadow!”

Sun-shi immediately realized what had happened, knowing that Qing’er’s grandmother must have spread misinformation. She hurriedly explained loudly to Jin-shi.

Sun-shi’s explanation didn’t snap Jin-shi out of her stupor, but it did disturb Tan-shi, who was taking an afternoon nap in the east wing across the yard.

Tan-shi glanced into the courtyard from the propped-open window frame. Seeing Sun-shi indeed supporting Yang Ruoqing as she stood at the base of the west wing wall, Tan-shi said sourly, “Living is just suffering anyway, what’s there to be happy about?”

Sun-shi lowered her head, not daring to say anything more. She whispered to Yang Ruoqing, “Qing’er, standing is tiring. Let Mother help you sit down.”

Yang Ruoqing looked at the small stool by the wall and felt a bit of doubt. With her current tonnage, could this frail little stool hold her weight?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Sun-shi pressed her shoulders down onto the stool. Just as Sun-shi let go and stood up to leave, the stool beneath Yang Ruoqing’s millstone-sized backside suddenly let out a groan of protest, and the few earthen bricks it was propped on collapsed with a loud thud.

The stool tilted to one side. Seeing her daughter about to fall onto her bottom, Sun-shi gasped in alarm and reached out to grab her.

But to her surprise, her daughter, who should have fallen, nimbly braced her palms against the ground and stood up. The stool tumbled away, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

“Qing’er, are you alright? How are your wrists? Let Mother see…”

Yang Ruoqing originally wanted to say she was fine to put Sun-shi at ease, but remembering there were two other pairs of eyes watching, she pouted like a terrified child. She used the excuse to nuzzle into Sun-shi’s arms—a gesture akin to acting spoiled—while shielding herself from Tan-shi’s gaze.

Her hand, hidden behind Sun-shi’s back, gently patted her mother’s spine and gave a secret wink.

Sun-shi was slightly startled, then recalled her daughter’s earlier instructions. Realizing the situation, she let out a sigh of relief.

Under the east window, Tan-shi, who had been watching the commotion, scowled and snorted coldly, “With all that blubber on her, what’s a little fall? Look at how nervous you are. You’ve been wailing all afternoon—can’t a person even take a nap?”

Sun-shi lowered her head guiltily and said nothing. She found another brick to prop up the stool, helped Yang Ruoqing sit down under the eaves, and then picked up two empty bowls from the side, walking quickly toward the kitchen with her head down.

Her sister-in-law was a bit clumsy, so she only did odd jobs in the kitchen. Qing’er’s grandmother had long ago given orders that Jin-shi was not to touch delicate tasks like washing dishes, and Sun-shi was in a hurry to get back to the kitchen to tend to the bowls and chopsticks in the pot.

In the east wing, Tan-shi glared with disgust at Yang Ruoqing, who was sitting on the ground and grinning foolishly at her. Just as she was about to pull her head back, she suddenly sniffed the air hard.

Her sparse eyebrows furrowed immediately. Why did it smell so sour?

Sensing something was wrong, Tan-shi threw on an outer garment, stepped into her small shoes, and stomped out of the east wing. Upon entering the courtyard, she immediately spotted Jin-shi at the kitchen door and the slop spilled all over the ground at her feet.

Tan-shi’s face turned black. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed a broom from the side and marched toward Jin-shi.

Seeing Tan-shi’s aggressive demeanor and the familiar broom in her hand, Jin-shi’s soot-stained face turned deathly pale.

Yang Ruoqing expected Jin-shi to run, but she only trembled, her feet seemingly nailed to the ground. She watched helplessly as Tan-shi approached and brought the broom down on her head and shoulders. Jin-shi could only cover her head with her hands and let out miserable cries of “Ouch! Ouch!”

Tan-shi scolded her while she struck: “You clumsy, stupid woman! You can’t even pour a bucket of slop without making the whole yard stink to high heaven! You stupid thing, if it weren’t for the fact that you bore four sons for our Yang family, I would have had the eldest divorce you long ago. You useless, disgraceful thing!”

After a few strikes, Tan-shi’s arm likely grew tired. She stopped, grumbling as she threw the broom aside and stomped back toward her room.

Behind her, Jin-shi was covered in tears. Her exposed arms were welted red in several places, and some spots had broken skin and were oozing blood. Even so, Jin-shi didn’t dare to cry out loud, nor did she bother to tend to her wounds. She hunched her shoulders, crouched down, and scrambled to pick up the slop bucket.

Yang Ruoqing watched, dumbfounded. This little old lady was truly formidable.

Honestly, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law dynamic in this ancient era was truly terrifying. No wonder they said that a daughter-in-law eventually becomes a mother-in-law, but why must women always make things difficult for other women?

Yang Ruoqing couldn’t fathom the question. Just as she was about to look away, she felt a strange gaze fixed upon her.

Catching a glimpse of Tan-shi’s suspicious eyes from the corner of her vision, Yang Ruoqing shoved the hand she had been using to dig in the dirt directly into her mouth. She tilted her head back, grinned, and gave a few ingratiating chuckles at Tan-shi. A trail of saliva slid down the corner of her mouth, glistening in the afternoon sun…

Tan-shi’s brows knit tightly together. She glared viciously at Yang Ruoqing, turned, and entered the east wing. With a loud bang, the door slammed shut behind her.

The warm sun shone on her, making her feel lazy. This spot at the base of the west wall was sheltered from the wind; if she could just take a nap here, it would be much more comfortable than that damp, musty bed inside.