CH 50

Seeing the man pitifully begging for food, Mo Yan felt sorry for him and his family.

She walked inside, smiled at the little girl, picked up their gong and rang it.

“My fellow villagers, the Upper Valley has suffered a disaster. This family came to our village to try and earn a living relying on their trade. If you thought their performance was good, please don’t just ignore them. Give them an amount you think is suitable.”

Seeing that there was a basin next to their cart, she took it and put it in the middle, “They’ll accept whatever you can offer them.” The man nodded hurriedly beside her.

After another round of offerings, the man’s straw hat still didn’t contain many copper coins, but they had a lot of dry biscuits and a piece of white bread. The basin in the middle was also half-filled with wheat.

The man happily put his straw hat behind him and gave the white bread to the girl. The girl took the bread and had a bite. Seeing her brother watching, she split it in two and handed half of the bread to her brother.

The little boy pushed it back to her, “You’ve worked hard, you should have it.”

Seeing that, Mo Yan’s eyes immediately turned red. There is nothing scary about being poor. As long as the family was united and worked together, things will change sooner or later.

Seeing that the girl had finished eating, Mo Yan beckoned her to come over,”You can hold the monkey and let it perform. They love watching it, and it saves your energy.”

The little girl was indeed more popular with the crowd than her father. She led the monkey to do somersaults in the field, and made the monkey bow to everyone and imitate people’s movements, which made everyone laugh. The atmosphere was lively and their basin had been filled with wheat.

The whole family was grateful to Mo Yan, and Mo Yan handed the gong to the man, “There are few people in this village, and no matter how hard you work, you won’t make much money. Tomorrow is the market day in Qianshui City. You should go there, you’ll make more money than you will in the village.”

The crowd dispersed as the man took the lantern down from the tree and dimmed it. In the dim light, the woman removed the stove on their cart and unrolled a bedroll. It looked like they were planning to spend the night here.

Mo Ling found her sister and dragged her home. When Mo Yan looked back, the lantern had already been extinguished.

Lying on the kang, Mo Yan kept thinking in her mind, The little girl doing acrobatics is lying on their small cart right now. The couple should’ve let their two children sleep on the cart, while they slept on the ground.

The next day, she and her sister were doing business in the city when she heard the sound of a gong from a distance in the direction of the threshing field.

“Sister, they’re really here!”

Mo Ling replied while scrambling eggs, “Yeah. It’s a pity those two children have to keep moving around.”

At this time, the group of little beggars ran out from behind the road and ran towards the threshing field. They must’ve been going to watch the fun.

When they closed up shop and went home, they walked near the threshing field and heard a lot of laughter coming from there. Did they perform for half a day?

“Sis, I want to go take a look.”

Mo Ling was worried that she would go alone, so she followed. They could see from afar the threshing field was so crowded that it seemed impossible to squeeze in, so Mo Yan simply found a high vantage point beside the road to stand up to see.

Inside the circle, the girl was entertaining the crowd with the monkey, and after a while, the man removed his hat and asked for money. Mo Yan could see a lot of people extending their hands from a distance. Even if they didn’t give much, they would’ve gotten a few dozen dollars at least.

There were people coming and leaving from the crowd constantly, so each time he collected money, he received a lot.

After the girl played, the man led the monkey, and the little boy and the woman also came to join in. They were reluctant to finish for the day even after it reached noon. It seemed that they had really made a lot of money, so they could have a good meal today, and maybe stay in an inn instead of sleeping out in the open.

They just got home and haven’t eaten yet, when there was someone calling Mo Ling at the gate. His voice sounded familiar, and they heard Mrs. Liang say in the yard, “Zhong Cheng, you’re here? Come in quickly.”

It turned out that it was Zhong Cheng, here to deliver the duck eggs. Actually, Mo Yan could get the basket of duck eggs back. They had bought several jars before and Mo Ling could push them back with a cart. However, they were much heavier than this basket of duck eggs.

Zhong Cheng carried the duck egg basket into the kitchen, and when he saw Mo Ling, he asked, “Did you just return from the market?”

Mo Ling responded in the affirmative, “Next time, you don’t have to make a special trip, we can bring back these duck eggs by ourselves.”

Zhong Cheng nodded and said, “It’s the same if I send the eggs to the market or here. Next time, I’ll come early and put down the duck eggs before going to the market.”

“Alright.”

Zhong Cheng said goodbye and left, without even taking the basket which contained the duck eggs. Mo Ling and Mo Yan were having lunch. and Mrs. Liang was counting the duck eggs, “There’s a few more again. With how often he comes over, we’ll have gotten a lot of extra eggs very soon!”

“Record down the amount of extra eggs.” Mo Ling said.

Mrs. Liang sighed softly, “Unfortunately, Xiahe Village is a bit far from our village.”

A few duck eggs won her heart? She’s really short-sighted. Mo Ling slammed her rice bowl on the table, “What, do you think I should find a vulgar peasant like him?”

Mrs. Liang glared at her fiercely, “You are a farmer’s daughter, but you want to find an official to be your husband? Your expectations are higher than the heavens!”

When the mother and daughter were just about to bicker again, someone came to the gate, “Is Mrs. Liang at home?”

It was Ms. Li, the servant of the Cao family. Mrs. Liang immediately got up and went out, “Yes, I’m here, come in and sit down.”

She knew that Mrs. Li coming meant that Mrs. Cao wanted to have salted chicken eggs again, so Mrs. Liang was very polite to her.

Ms. Li is an outgoing and cheerful person. She waved her hand and said, “There’s no need, I still have a lot of work to do at home! Mrs. Cao told me to ask you if you still have any salted chicken eggs left in your family.”

Mrs. Liang replied with a smile on his face, “The salted chicken eggs are gone, but we still have some salted duck eggs. The egg yolks are still glistening.”

“That’s fine, give me a few for Mrs. Cao to taste. How much do they cost?”

The Cao family had helped them a lot, so asking for money for a few salted duck eggs made Mrs. Liang feel a little embarrassed. Ms. Li said, “There’s nothing wrong with paying money for goods. Besides, Madam Cao didn’t tell me to come here just for the sake of talking, so you can say how much the salted duck eggs cost!”

“Well, we sell them for four dollars each at the market.”

“Ok, we’ll go with this price then. Get me ten salted duck eggs.”

While Mrs. Liang went into the kitchen to get the salted duck eggs, Ms. Li stood at the door and looked around, suddenly remembering Zhong Cheng who she had met in the alley, “I saw a young man leave your house just now. He wasn’t from our village, so is he here to discuss marriage with Mo Ling?”

Mrs. Liang quickly denied it, “Don’t talk nonsense. He’s a person from Xiahe Village who delivers our duck eggs. I don’t want my daughter to marry someone that far away!”

“So you want her to marry closer to home, huh. She’s sixteen, it’s about time for her to be considering marriage. Tell me if you’ve found a good match for her, I’ll help you look into him.”

Post-edit notes: I think Mrs. Liang makes sense about how Mo Ling has really high expectations for her future husband. She really should be more realistic about this. Also, Chapter 50! Nice.