Chapter 60
60 Foreboding of Drought
Not long after Li Yu went up the mountain, she hunted two wild goats and three mules. She put them into the space and hunted some pheasants, hares, and turtledoves along the way. She even hunted a mule.
Li Yu walked towards the ravine. When she reached the ravine, she realized that the water in the ravine had also become shallow. The stones in the ravine were exposed, and small fish and prawns were jumping on the exposed stones.
Li Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She hurriedly walked towards the pool downstream.
When she reached the pool, Li Yu saw that there was very little water in the pool. After seeing this, Li Yu believed that the possibility of a drought was very high. For a moment, Li Yu’s mood became gloomy.
Li Yu looked at the pool unhappily and saw a few large fish floating out of the water. Li Yu took out a net from her space and fished out a few fish. After knocking them to death, she stored them in her space. She was in no mood to hunt anymore. Along the way, she picked some dandelions, fishy grass, motherwort, and wormwood and carried them back to the ditch in front of the house. She washed the herbs in the ditch before carrying them home.
When Li Mei saw Li Yu return with a bag of herbs, she smiled and said, “Yu’er, didn’t you say that you wouldn’t be home until the afternoon? It’s only past noon!”
Li Yu glanced at the happy Li Mei and swallowed the words that were about to come out of her mouth. She forced a smile and said, “After I went up the mountain, I saw two hunters also going up the mountain, so I picked some herbs and carried them back.”
“That’s right! I knew it! Today is a good day. You should stay at home.” Li Mei looked at Li Yu lovingly. “You must be tired! I’ll make you something to eat.”
Li Yu looked around but did not see the two sisters. She asked curiously, “Where did my two cousins go?”
Li Mei pointed in the direction of Butcher He’s house. “Butcher He’s Xiaoyu came and called the two of them over. She said that she has a new trick for Zhaodi.”
After dinner, Li Yu kept feeling a faint pain in her stomach. It felt like the menstrual cramps she had in her previous life.
Li Yu quietly cut some thin cotton cloth and overlapped it with the oilcloth. She made more than ten period bandages and made a stack of sanitary pads with cotton wool. She boiled water and took a shower. When it was dark, her period came. Li Yu worked overnight and made two more stacks of sanitary pads before she felt at ease.
The next morning, Li Yu cut off all the rapeseed moss in the ground and placed it in her space. She went to the town pharmacy to buy various pills and herbs to store them before going to the seed shop to buy seeds for rapeseed and cabbage. She scattered the radish seeds in the ground and prepared to collect some vegetable leaves to store.
The official matchmaker hired by the Zhou family made several trips before settling the marriage between the two of them. When the Zhou family carried dozens of betrothal gifts to the Li family, Li Mei and Li Qing carried the wedding pancakes to the village to distribute them. The villagers in the east and west villages were discussing how the eldest daughter of the Li family, Li Yu, who had been rejected by the Zhang family, was now engaged to the young master of the Zhou family.
Two days later, the news of Li Yu and Young Master Zhou’s engagement reached Zhang Defa’s ears in Green Mountain City. Zhang Defa was so angry that he threw his bowl on the ground. “This bitch. I don’t know what despicable methods she used to actually seduce Young Master Zhou.”
When Zhang Guixiang heard this, she refused to believe it. She was so angry that she cut the embroidered cloth she was holding and threw it on the ground.
Chen Zhaodi looked at the embroidered cloth and picked it up with heartache. She looked at Zhang Guixiang and scolded, “Look at you. You’re already so old, yet you still lost your temper and cut the embroidered cloth into pieces. I got it for you from your sister-in-law.”
Zhang Guixiang screamed, “I don’t care. Mother, I’m about to die of anger. Why isn’t that bitch Li Yu dead yet?”
Chen Zhaodi looked at Zhang Guixiang and thought about how she had chased Li Yu and her brother away in order for her son to marry Zhu Qiaoyu. She had even spent all the money that she had painstakingly saved at home. Her family still owed a lot of foreign debt and still had to support Zhang Decai’s family.
The more Chen Zhaodi thought about it, the angrier she became. She slapped Zhang Guixiang’s face and pointed at her as she scolded, “It’s all your fault. If you hadn’t pushed her into the bathtub, she wouldn’t have given up on your brother and asked your father to return the money. Yet, you’re still complaining here. I think you’re the one who should be blamed.”
Zhang Guixiang covered her face and looked at the livid Chen Zhaodi. She didn’t dare to shout anymore. Her lips trembled as she shouted miserably, “Mother, don’t you want me anymore?”
Chen Zhaodi looked at Zhang Guixiang and then at her hand. She couldn’t believe that she would hit her precious daughter. Chen Zhaodi hugged the crying Zhang Guixiang and the mother and daughter cried.
The only person in the Zhang family who was most happy about Li Yu’s engagement was Zhang Guisheng’s wife, Zhu Qiaoyu. When she heard that Li Yu was engaged, Zhu Qiaoyu pulled Madam Jiang happily. “Nanny, since that girl from the Li family is finally engaged, my husband will finally give up now!”
Madam Jiang looked at Zhu Qiaoyu and sighed. “Miss, you really don’t have to take the Li family’s daughter seriously. The Zhang family broke off the engagement and married you. The Zhang and Li families have already formed a feud, not to mention that it involves the feud of the previous generation!”
Zhu Qiaoyu retorted unhappily, “Nanny, Hubby said that the Li family made those up. Hunter Li was greedy and was injured by the bear.”
Madam Jiang was also angry at Zhu Qiaoyu for being bewitched by Zhang Guisheng. “Then why don’t you believe him when he said that he has already broken off the engagement with Miss Li?”
“I…” Zhu Qiaoyu looked at Madam Jiang, speechless.
Madam Jiang looked at Zhu Qiaoyu and sighed inwardly. She advised earnestly, “Miss, you can’t continue like this. You’re the officially married daughter-in-law of the Zhang family but you think about such nonsense every day. There’s still such a long time in the future. How are you going to live?” Zhu Qiaoyu lowered her head and didn’t say a word.
Li Yu didn’t know that her engagement could actually anger the Zhang family. If she knew, she would probably laugh out loud.
She spent most of the month quietly taking out the pheasants, wild ducks, rabbits, turtledoves, and fish in the space. She cleaned them up and rubbed them with salt before putting them back in the space. She also took out the wild sheep, wild boar, and deer and smeared them with salt. She then steamed them with ingredients before storing them in the space.
Zhou Jia bought a cow and two large mule carts in the city. He then went to find someone to make a few large wooden buckets to take home and fill them with water before placing them in the cellar.
Li Yu prepared the meat and vegetables and began to busily brush the burlap cloth with tung oil. From her memory, she made more than a dozen tents with double-layered tung oil cloth. Then, she used a layer of fine cotton cloth and a layer of tung oil cloth to make more than a dozen raincoats according to the approximate sizes.
February passed in the blink of an eye, and soon, it was March again. In the past, there should have been spring rain in these two months, but this year, not a single drop of rain had fallen since December.
When Li Mei’s family and the Li siblings went to the grave, they saw that the water in the ravine had already dried up. The villagers they met when they returned home were all discussing. Li Mei also felt that the sky was probably going to dry up.
Along the way, Li Mei saw the villagers discussing if there was going to be a drought. Everyone looked at the sky worriedly. Only then did Li Mei and her husband think of storing food.
After returning home, Li Mei took out some silver and said to Li Yu, “Yu’er, tell Aunt Zhou to help buy some food in the city. Aunt only has about ten stones of food left.”
Li Yu pulled Li Mei back into the house. “Aunt, don’t worry! I’ve long stored the food in a secret place. Remember to keep it quiet. Also, let’s take advantage of the fact that there’s still water and wait for our crops to grow thicker. We’ll pull them out and dry them.”
Li Mei smiled in disbelief. “When did you start saving? We didn’t know at all. A few days ago, I was still thinking that those vegetable mosses were about to bloom. I was wondering why you had to cut them? So you started preparing at that time. I’m really useless. I’ve lived for so many years and I’m inferior to a junior like you.”
Li Yu smiled and said, “Since I’ve saved it for you, why should I make you worry?”
Li Mei looked at Li Yu and was touched. “Yu’er, thank you.”