That morning, beside the broad river in Anhe Village, villagers washed clothes in twos and threes, chatting as their hands kept pounding and beating the laundry. The noisy chatter made for a lively scene.
The riverside could be considered Anhe Village's information hub. Family affairs, scandals, and gossip all passed through here before spreading swiftly to every household.
Today's conversation centered on Rong Zheng. This scholar had suddenly pulled himself together lately, working in the fields and hunting in the mountains. It really was astonishing.
"Have you heard? Rong Zheng's suddenly changed his ways. He's become so hardworking. He dug up the rice seedlings in his fields these past few days. Seems he couldn't look after them properly, and they'd all turned yellow and weren't going to survive."
"Heavens, he dug them all up? He'll have to spend money buying grain to pay his taxes again."
"I've even seen him heading into the mountains with hunting gear every day! With those skinny arms and legs, who knows if he can manage it? But he doesn't have a choice. If he keeps doing nothing, he won't even be able to pay the land tax. At least he's willing to work."
"Hunter Rong's family used to be quite well-off. They lived in a blue-brick house with a tiled roof and could even support a scholar. Who would have thought they'd fall on such hard times?"
"That boy Rong Zheng is still very filial. He spent his entire family fortune treating his mother's illness back then. Such a pity she died of it in the end anyway."
"His parents treated him so well. Studying costs a fortune, dozens of taels a year, but they gritted their teeth and paid for it. If he hadn't treated his mother, he'd have deserved to be struck by lightning."
The group sighed and lamented, talking eagerly. Some truly sympathized, some merely saw it as another topic of conversation, and some took pleasure in his misfortune. Whatever their reasons, nothing dampened their enthusiasm for joining in.
Ye Yun had come early to wash clothes. There was only so much space for washing, so naturally he heard every word of the others' conversation, but he had no time to pay it any mind.
There was a whole basin of clothes belonging to his eldest uncle's family, all for him to wash alone. He worked deftly, laying the clothes on a rock and pounding them with a wooden laundry bat before rinsing them in the river, wringing them out, and tossing them into the wooden basin.
His movements flowed smoothly, but they were also numb and mechanical.
He had to finish washing and hurry back, or Chen Guihua would find trouble where there was none again. Whenever he returned late from work, she would first take it out on his younger brother, Ye Chen, ordering him to do heavy chores. Back then, he had not even been five.
Once, he had been delayed while working, and Chen Guihua had made Ye Chen drag a pot of hot water into the courtyard.
Ye Chen was thin and small. How could he have that much strength? Halfway there, the pot tipped over, spilling hot water all over the ground. Some splashed onto Ye Chen. Children already had delicate skin, and the burns made him burst into tears.
Seeing this, Chen Guihua came over and whipped Ye Chen with a rattan switch until he curled up, sobbing uncontrollably, while she hurled ugly insults:
"All you know how to do is eat. You can't even do a little thing like this."
"Good thing the pot didn't break, or I'd beat you to death."
"And that brother of yours, too. Taking so long over a little job outside. He must be slacking off."
"Pah, a pair of money-losing goods"...
That day, Ye Yun had been sent into the mountains to cut firewood. He had slipped on the path and fallen, hurting his foot, so he was late getting back.
When Ye Yun returned and saw how badly Ye Chen had been beaten, his heart filled with anxiety and pain. He threw down the large bundle of firewood on his back and flung himself over Ye Chen, enduring the piercing pain in his foot.
Chen Guihua struck a few more times before stopping, then pointed the rattan switch at the brothers:
"Yun-ge'er, I'm warning you. If you ever dare slack off outside and come home late again, Ye Chen will do your work. If he does it badly, he'll get the switch."
Grief and anger filled Ye Yun. His eyes reddened and his lips trembled. "I understand, Aunt. I twisted my ankle coming down the mountain. That's why I was late."
But Chen Guihua did not care what reason he had. "Who knows if you're just making excuses to slack off? Hurry up and heat another pot of water. Pah, what rotten luck."
She tossed aside the switch and waddled back into the house.
Ye Yun quickly wiped away Ye Chen's tears. Seeing the red burns on his thighs and calves, he hurriedly took him to rinse them with cold water.
Fortunately, the water had not been freshly boiled, but the burns still left Ye Chen in searing pain.
Ye Chen was still quietly sobbing, his little chest heaving with his cries.
Wiping his own tears, Ye Yun held Ye Chen and stroked his back.
"Don't cry, Xiao Chen. I'll come home earlier from now on. Sit here for a bit. I'll light the fire and heat the water first, then take you to Doctor Ye's house to ask how to apply medicinal herbs."
His hands trembled as he lit the fire, and it took several tries before it caught. Watching the flames roar in the stove while Xiao Chen still sobbed softly beside him, he felt tormented and miserable.
At the time, he had been living with Eldest Uncle Ye for less than half a year and had only just turned thirteen.
Ye Yun's eldest uncle was named Ye Liqiang. He seemed quiet and reserved, but was actually sly and calculating. He never personally carried out the beatings or scoldings, leaving it all to his wife, Chen Guihua, while he watched coldly from the sidelines.
Their eldest son, Ye Yao, was an inveterate gambler. He roamed around town with a few thugs, bullying the weak, and expected meals to be served to him when he came home.
They also had a daughter, Ye Bao, who was a year older than Ye Yun. She was extremely petty. Though she had not been born into wealth, she loved putting on the airs of the rich.
Both followed their mother's example, shouting orders at Ye Yun and his brother and treating them like servants. In short, not one person in that family was decent.
Four years ago, Ye Yun and Ye Chen's parents had been killed by bandits on the road, leaving behind two children, one thirteen and the other four, along with thirty taels in savings and ten mu of paddy fields.
At the time, Eldest Uncle Ye had hypocritically offered to care for the brothers and taken them into his home, then seized the opportunity to take over their thirty taels and ten mu of paddy fields.
When they first arrived, the family still exercised some restraint, merely shouting and cursing at them to hurry up with their work. Gradually, they began hitting them without restraint.
Who knew whether Eldest Uncle Ye refrained from hitting them out of regard for his deceased younger brother? But by pretending to be blind to what happened right before his eyes, wasn't he encouraging Chen Guihua's abuse in another way?
To keep Ye Yun more firmly under her control and working, Chen Guihua would find excuses to trouble Ye Chen.
Ye Yun had an enormous amount of work to do every day. After finishing in the fields, he had to go into the mountains to cut firewood and dig up wild vegetables. Back home, endless chores awaited him: washing clothes, cooking, and cleaning the courtyard and rooms.
Ye Chen, who was only a little over four, also had to work. Chen Guihua made him feed the livestock at home. Their feed basins were so heavy he could not even lift them and could only drag them slowly over.
None of the family could stand to see the brothers rest. The moment they stopped, someone would find fault with them.
Ye Yao and Ye Bao also copied Chen Guihua's bossy ways. They snatched away all the ornaments and toys the brothers' parents had bought them while alive, and made the brothers serve them tea and water. If they disobeyed, they would shove them around and complain to Chen Guihua, getting her to shove them too.
Chen Guihua also forbade them from eating at the table and always made them eat leftovers. With too little food and so much work, the brothers sometimes had nothing but wild fruit and cold steamed buns to fill their stomachs.
Remembering all this, Ye Yun washed even faster, pounding the clothes without pause.
Washing beside Ye Yun was Ming-ge'er from the same village, another pitiful soul. He had an older brother, a man, and a younger sister. Stuck in the middle and a ger besides, he received no affection at all, and all the exhausting chores at home fell to him.
Although the status of gers had improved somewhat in this era, rural areas remained isolated, and some people still considered gers lowly. Even their marriage betrothal gifts were smaller.
One slightly fortunate thing was that Ming-ge'er's parents did not beat him brutally. They merely worked him to the bone and wore him down. He never got a share of the good food at home, but he could at least eat his fill.
Their shared misfortune had brought the two pitiful gers closer. They washed clothes together in the mornings and occasionally went into the mountains together to dig up wild vegetables.
Ming-ge'er saw the alarming blue and purple bruises on Ye Yun's arms where he had rolled up his sleeves. Though he had seen them many times, his heart still ached for him.
His own circumstances were poor too, so all he could do was give him a steamed bun now and then. Knowing that Ye Yun secretly gathered medicinal herbs, he would help him collect them.
"Yun-ge'er, that Rong Zheng dug up all his rice and planted vegetables instead. What's he going to do about the land tax? Selling vegetables won't earn much. A scholar like him probably won't have an easy time hunting, either. That's much harder than working in the fields."
Ming-ge'er wrung out the clothes. Hearing everyone around them talking about Rong Zheng, he joined in as well.
Ye Yun recalled seeing Rong Zheng before the graves last time. His face had been pale and haggard, the bloodstains on his forehead conspicuous. There had been bewilderment in his eyes, but no despair. Perhaps he had thought things through, so Ye Yun replied:
"He seemed to buy grain from other villagers to pay his taxes before. Being able to start working now is a good beginning."
Ming-ge'er said, "True. Better than hiding indoors drinking all day."
Ye Yun wrung out the last piece of clothing and replied, "However hard things get, you can make it through. I'm finished washing. I need to go home and get ready to head into the mountains for wild vegetables and firewood. Want to come?"
"I have to go to town today. My family needs to buy some heavy things, so they're making me go along to carry them back."
Ming-ge'er never got a share in the pleasure of browsing around town. Almost every time, he was only there as a laborer, carrying heavy things home.
Ye Yun replied, "All right, next time, then," picked up his laundry basin, and went home.
Ming-ge'er stared fixedly after Ye Yun's retreating figure, lost in thought for a long time.
Ye Yun lived under someone else's roof with his young brother. On the surface, he seemed to meekly accept everything, showing no strong intention of resisting Eldest Uncle Ye's family's harsh treatment, beatings, and scoldings. Yet strangely, there was not the slightest trace of servility about him. It was as though he possessed a resilience deep in his bones, and no amount of oppression could make him submit.
Over the past three years, he had secretly gathered herbs to sell, hoping to save enough money to take Xiao Chen away from his eldest uncle's home.
At first, Yun-ge'er had barely been able to read anything besides his own name. But to gather medicinal herbs, he had picked up an old herbal book someone had thrown away. Its pages were yellow, and the printing had faded and blurred.
He noticed what looked like drawings of medicinal herbs in it, so he used the indistinct pictures to identify plants one by one in the mountains. There were countless wild plants up there. For someone unfamiliar with them, identifying medicinal herbs from those unclear illustrations alone was an enormous amount of work.
But Yun-ge'er was very patient. He gathered many similar-looking plants and, whenever he had time, took them to pharmacies in town for the apprentices to examine one by one and tell him which were useful. When an apprentice grew impatient after identifying a few and tried to drive him away, Yun-ge'er would remember those already identified and continue on to the next clinic.
He kept this up for three months. Though the results were meager, he did manage to learn about a dozen common medicinal herbs. Later, while gathering wild vegetables in the mountains, Doctor Ye's wife saw Ye Yun with his young brother, searching for medicinal herbs with a book.
She already sympathized with the brothers, so she invited Ye Yun to their home and had Doctor Ye teach him to identify medicinal herbs directly. She also promised to buy his herbs at town prices.
Ming-ge'er was truly happy for Yun-ge'er. Whenever they went digging for wild vegetables together, he would help the brothers gather medicinal herbs as though pumped full of chicken blood.
He did not know why he wanted so much to be close to Yun-ge'er. Was it because their difficult circumstances made them sympathize with each other and become friends?
Or was it because seeing Yun-ge'er try to resist and escape his predicament filled him with admiration?
He could not work out the reason, but felt this was simply what he ought to do.
He knew he was someone with no hope. Once he was older, his parents would find any family offering a large enough betrothal gift and marry him off. They had always despised him for being a ger, calling him a money-losing good.
He had no courage to do anything to change things. Meekly accepting whatever came his way had almost become instinct.