Don't Even Think of Extorting Me
Su Yuhe said impatiently, "Hurry up and go. Why should we worry about his son-in-law? Maybe he wants a new one. His Wenxiu is a licentiate, after all. She's got plenty of silver to buy another government slave."
Second Sister Li looked back at Ruan Puchuan, who lay there like rubbish, and gritted her teeth. "I shouldn't have meddled. Now an old wretch like you might latch on and extort me. Don't drag me into it when the authorities come to investigate."
With that, she strode back to the ox cart. Liu Xiaobo's mind whirred. If this one died, the family had no money to buy another.
He hurried over to grab Second Sister Li, smiling ingratiatingly. "Hey, wait! I want a ride too. I'll pay, I'll pay."
Second Sister Li pried his hand off, but the moment she removed it, he latched on again. She declared firmly, "No. I don't want the authorities calling me in for questioning."
Liu Xiaobo gripped her hand tightly and dropped to his knees. "I'll pay, I'll pay. Help me take my son-in-law home. I won't get on."
Seeing that she had achieved her aim, Second Sister Li was just about to agree when Su Yuhe cut in. "If he doesn't get on, it'll just be me and my husband back there. What if he says I groped his son-in-law and tries to extort money from me?"
The woman looked at Liu Xiaobo, her gaze sharp. Su Yuhe had a point. This shrewish, boorish man was capable of just such a thing, and he might rope her into his extortion too.
This shrew might have no shame, but she still did.
Liu Xiaobo glared at Su Yuhe. "Who asked you to speak? What farm boy would fancy that scrawny little body of yours? You ought to go to a brothel in town. You'd be sure to please the rich young masters."
Su Yuhe's looks had been average in the modern world, but here she could be called good-looking. Her skin was much fairer than that of the people around her, and her teeth were white and even. If she had not been shorter and frailer than the women here, who averaged 1.7 meters tall, she would have been quite popular in the countryside too.
Country men liked tall, sturdy women, while wealthy men in town preferred the delicate, scholarly sort.
Lu Mingyi was so angry he wanted to curse. Those words were far too insulting. Before he could speak, Su Yuhe snorted. "Send your Wenxiu instead. I hear plenty of rich young masters like disabled wife-masters. They take them into their households as live-in wives, and once their wife-masters die, they can stay home openly and honorably and never marry for the rest of their lives."
"You!"
Liu Xiaobo made to strike her, but Second Sister Li caught him, her face dark. "What did she say that was wrong? You provoked Lady Su first. You're not riding in my cart. Find your own way home while you still can."
As the three bickered, Ruan Puchuan struggled out of his stupor on the ground and slowly climbed to his feet. Several cuts from the stones marked his palm-sized face, making his beauty look all the more shattered.
Su Yuhe noticed first. Suppressing the strange feeling in her heart, she tipped her chin toward Liu Xiaobo. "Your son-in-law's up. Aren't you going to help him? Another fall and he'll be disfigured."
Only then did Liu Xiaobo turn around. He went over, cursing. "You money-losing wretch! You can't let Wenxiu bear children, and you can't do a scrap of work. I've really taken in an ancestor to wait on."
Watching the shrew scold and shove the boy, Second Sister Li sighed and shook her head, then consulted Su Yuhe. "How about we give them both a lift?"
Su Yuhe did not answer. Instead, she called loudly to Liu Xiaobo, "Are you riding or not? If not, we're leaving."
Hearing that they were leaving, Liu Xiaobo dragged the boy over at a hurried pace. Reluctantly, he fished fifteen copper coins out of his robe and handed them to Second Sister Li. "This one of mine weighs no more than a dog. He's not worth ten coins. I'll pay five at most for him."
Second Sister Li waved impatiently. "Fine, fine, hurry up and get on. I'm in a rush to get home for dinner this time. Don't think you can settle it with five coins next time."
Liu Xiaobo climbed onto the ox cart and muttered, "It's not as if I'm made of gold. I've got legs of my own. I don't need your ox cart."
Su Yuhe delivered her verdict without mercy. "That's called getting a bargain and still playing innocent."
The middle-aged man's long, thin, horse-like face stiffened, and his small eyes swept over the cart. "You're the one getting a bargain and playing innocent, you outsider named Su. We both paid, so why do you get to take up so much room?"
"Hire the whole cart if you can. Then all the space is yours."
He pinched pennies even over fifteen copper coins. Asking him to hire the whole cart would be asking for his life.
Liu Xiaobo snorted and stretched out, taking up more than half the space. Su Yuhe and Lu Mingyi both sat hugging their knees. The vegetables they had bought at the market took up some room, and he claimed all the rest.
His son-in-law fared even worse, huddled beside Lu Mingyi in a pitifully small space.
Su Yuhe nudged the shameless middle-aged man with her foot. "Move over. Look how cramped you've made my husband. If you turn around and say my husband groped your son-in-law and demand money from me, I'm not paying."
Liu Xiaobo pulled some straw over his belly, utterly unconcerned. "He's lucky I'm willing to pay for a seat for him at all. If you think it's cramped, hire the whole cart."
Unable to control himself, Ruan Puchuan slumped against the boy beside him. He could distinctly smell the soap-pod fragrance on him. His cotton-padded clothes were soft and thick, clearly newly made.
He was so fortunate. Even after falling on hard times, he had found a good buyer.
The ox cart jolted along, and memories flashed through his mind, frame by frame, like the revolving lantern he had held as a child.
Yet the more he thought, the colder his heart grew.
The South Sea pearls in his memories could not buy him a single flatbread now.
Clusters of flowers and swathes of brocade flashed past, leaving only the rooster strutting imperiously in the chicken pen.
The bustling streets as the evening lanterns first lit were covered by the pitch-black roof of the woodshed.
Second Sister Li lived near Liu Xiaobo, so she took Su Yuhe home first. Lu Mingxi and Meng Zhixian were waiting at the gate and hurried forward before the ox cart had even stopped.
The moment Su Yuhe stepped down, Lu Mingxi hugged her arm. "Wife-master, why are you only back now?"
Lu Mingyi got off too and gave his youngest brother a cool glance. "Let's unload the vegetables first."
Only then did Lu Mingxi glance at the vegetables piled in the cart bed. He ushered Su Yuhe inside. "You've been working hard all day, Wife-master. I made dinner. Go and eat first. We'll handle things here."
Liu Xiaobo watched for a moment, then looked at his own son-in-law huddled in the corner. They had all been bought from the authorities, yet the difference was enormous.
Second Sister Li also helped him and Meng Zhixian unload the vegetables and chickens. "All right, nothing left on the cart?"
Lu Mingyi looked around and nodded. "That's right."
"All right, then. We're off."
Meng Zhixian carried the cabbages they had bought into the cellar, trip after trip. A light came on in the kitchen, where that brat Lu Mingxi was busy at the stove.
He certainly knew how to claim credit. Meng Zhixian had washed the rice, and Lu Mingyi had chopped the vegetables for Meng Zhixian to stir-fry. That half-grown brat had only tended the fire, yet now it had become a meal made by Lu Mingxi, without a single mention of Meng Zhixian's contribution.
Lu Mingyi carried two cabbages into the cellar and checked the count. Seeing Meng Zhixian's displeased expression, he took an oil-paper packet from inside his robe and handed it over. "Wife-master bought some steamed buns."
Meng Zhixian took it and headed toward the kitchen, his dissatisfaction with the brothers Lu Mingyi and Lu Mingxi growing even stronger. Cutting his hand just chopping vegetables-he did not need to ask to know that another considerable sum of silver had been spent.