Back to the Countryside

Chapter 67: 传出

After a loud crash of porcelain shattered into small pieces, He Zhen stood in the messy room breathing heavily. His eyes were red, he was extremely angry and full of grievances.

        He felt that his health was getting worse and worse lately, with frequent bouts of dizziness that had caused him to lose his manners in front of the landlord on several occasions.He went to the clinic but the doctor could not find anything wrong.

        Today too, he had spilled the tea on the landlord, causing him to lose his temper. The gloating looks (the original context actually uses this idiom: ‘to take joy in calamity and delight in disaster’ look) from the other concubines were simply so bad that he had to gnash his teeth!

        If this continues, he would lose his favour before he has a child. Until then, what was waiting for him definitely would not be a good result, indeed there were many people who fixed their attention on him.

        He calmed his rapid breathing as he sat down on a stool, looked at the girl who was cowering, not even daring to breathe, and said : “What’s going on in Gu Shui Village? Have you made any inquiries?”

    Although he no longer lived there, he always had people keeping an eye on things there, whether it was the He family or Qi Yue, he wanted to know what they were doing. If there was some bad news coming in, he would treat it as his entertainment and could have a laugh about it.

        The servant girl looked at him carefully, remembering the news she had heard in the last two days. He would definitely be very unhappy if he knew about it.But she couldn’t keep it to herself, so without any better option, she said hesitantly:  “That ger named He Ling, seems to be pregnant….”

        With a ‘bang’ sound, He Zhen dropped the cup he had just held onto the floor. He said with a twisted face and through his clenched teeth, “Sure, he is really lucky!”

    Seeing how ugly his expression looked, the servant girl shut her mouth and dared not to mention it again. She didn’t know what kind of grudge he had against that ger. Every time he talked about the other party, his expression didn’t look so good.

        “What about the He family?” He Zhen took a new cup and poured himself water, taking a sip to calm down.

        Only then did the girl open her mouth again ,”A few days ago they spent money to buy a cow but then somehow it died. When people asked about it, they answered vaguely.They only said that it had died of illness.”

        He Zhen’s hand paused for a moment as he drank the water.This was strange. A cow must cost at least ten taels of silver yet it had died out of nowhere. According to his mother’s temper, how could it be possible that his mother did not go and search the cattle trader to settle this matter? 

Unless that cow was not having a problem at all, but was killed by someone else. Moreover, it was someone they could not afford to mess with. If there was one person in Gu Shui Village who scares them the most right now, wasn’t that obvious? 

        He laughed coldly, this family of his only dared to be rude, but when they met a tough guy, they became soft, really useless!

        He Ling got pregnant but the He family’s cow died, one family was in joy while the other family was in sorrow. He put down the cup; he was prepared to get up and get some fresh air before then he suddenly stopped moving as if he thought of something.

        He hung his head in thought for a while before beckoning his maid to come over, he whispered something in her ear and said : “Go ba, the sooner this matter spreads out the better.”

        The maid excused herself then she turned around and quickly went out of the door.

    He Zhen picked up a piece of the pastry on the table, sent it to his mouth and took a bite. He felt that it tasted very sweet and fragrant so the very bad mood he had just felt seemed to have been lifted up a lot. 

        In recent days, rumours had spread in Gu Shui Village. It was unknown from whom the rumour was started that He Ling had sucked away the fortune that the He family should have had. As soon as he had a child, the cow died over there.

        At first, when people heard such rumours, they just laughed at it and thought that it was funny but when more people heard it, they unconsciously started to ponder about it.

        If you think about it carefully, it might really be true. Since he got married, he has been living better and better. Everything had been going well and smoothly. It was only half a year after he got married that he got pregnant. The He family, on the other hand, had been in a lot of trouble lately, whether big and small, and there had been no end to it. They had observed it all. 

    Moreover, they heard from the person who had married in Shang Zhuang Village and came back to visit her relatives said that He Zhen had been feeling unwell in the recent days, no amount of medicine could even help. On the contrary, He Ling who had been in poor health was getting healthier and healthier, perhaps it was related to the fact that his husband was a doctor. However, who could say for sure about this?

Previously, wasn’t they allways said that he was born from the ‘fox spirit (Hu Mei Zi)’? This fox spirit was the best at robbing people things so the blessings he had now might have been stolen from someone else.

    At the very moment when the rumours were at their peak, something happened to the Lin family. Lin Xiaohu who was studying in Shang Zhuang village got into a fight and had his head injured. He was sent back in a bullock cart by the village mayor’s son of the Shang Zhuang village! 

        The people of the village were even more scared, if something happened to a family close to He Ling, would it be their turn in the future? Especially those elders who believed in supernatural beings. If their grandchildren were sick or their surrounding neighbours fell down, they could blame it all on them. That was why they ran to the village chief’s house when they had nothing else to do, what they actually meant was they wanted He Ling to move out from the village.

    The village chief was so annoyed that his brain hurt, so he could only send the people away with kind words and put the matter to rest for the time being.No one owned that land in this village, the person had paid for the house and had the land deeds in his hands, so they couldn’t just leave even when you tell them to do so. 

As for this matter, He Ling and Qi Yue did not know much about it. First, in order to recuperate, He Ling hadn’t gone out much lately. Qi Yue was with him all the time since he had hired someone to take care of the land. Second, no one would be foolish enough to say it in front of the real person after gossiping behind their back. Besides, everyone avoided them for fear of being sucked out of their fortune.

        Qi Yue re-examined Lin Xiaohu’s wound. Once again, he put medicine on it and bandaged it up. Only then, did he say this to the worried Lin family: “The wound only looks scary. It’s nothing serious. Keep it out of the water for a while and apply the medicine well. It will heal quickly.”

The Lin family breathed a long sigh of relief, the pregnant and emotionally sensitive Wu Yulan couldn’t help but shed her tears, looking at the pale Lin Xiaohu in his sleep, her heart ached with pain, “They all just kids, how can they go down to do something like this?”

    Fang was also distressed, this was her most precious grandson. Usually, she was worried when he bumped into something, not to mention such a big cut on his head!

        Lin Shan and Lin Sheng were also relieved. Lin Sheng scratched his hair in frustration, as he had been busy with the crop recently. Apart from sending him to school in the early morning, he hadn’t asked him much about his situation there.

Her son has been a good boy since he was a child. Although he was a bit naughty, it was normal for a child.Two days ago, he took a day off from school and helped them to send food and water to the farm. He was a very obedient child. How could it be possible for him to suddenly get into conflict with someone?

        He Ling didn’t know how to comfort them as he saw that they were not in a good mood.In the end, he just kept quiet. It was useless to say more at this time. It would be better to hope and expect that Xiaohu will get better soon.

        “All right, since Xiaohu is fine, let your mom take care of your wife. Let us go back to the field! ” Lin Shan and Lin Sheng came back in a hurry when they received the news. Now that they knew the child was okay so they were at ease. They still  had to do the work they needed to do.

        “I’ll go too!” Fang heard him say so and wanted to follow. 

“You don’t need to go! Yulan is pregnant so it’s inconvenient for her to be alone. You stay here ba!” Lin Shan waved his hand at her before he led Lin Sheng out of the door.

        “You guys need not to worry about it too much. Later, I will prepare some medicine to heal him. So soon he will be healthy and lively again!” Qi Yue quite liked this child so he would naturally treat Lin Xiaohu’s injury attentively. 

“We always make you guys worry too.” Fang smiled at them, grateful in her heart.

“Auntie, don’t say that! Two days ago, Xiaohu, this child even helped to notify me. I haven’t even thanked him yet.” Later, Qi Yue told He Ling that it was Lin Xiaohu who had run to the field and said that He Ling had fainted and told him to follow after him. 

Wu Yulan’s emotions stabilized a bit while she wiped her tears and said to him: ” The child is just running an errand, what’s the point of saying thank you!?”

        Before He Ling could say anything to refute her words, the person on the bed moved his body and slowly opened his eyes.

        Fang was the first to notice so she hurriedly went over to him, lowered her head and asked, “Xiaohu, are you alright? Does your head still hurt?”

“Grandma ….” Lin Xiaohu called out to her and tried to sit up from the bed, but she reached out and helped him up.

“Do you want some water?” Wu Yulan also came over and touched his face.

    “Mother, I didn’t fight with anyone, it was them who did it!” Lin Xiaohu just sat down steadily and immediately opened his mouth to talk to her. He wasn’t that kind of bad boy who fought with others.

        “Then tell mother, what’s going on?”

She knew her own child, she was sure he wasn’t the kind of boy who initiated and looked for trouble, so there must be a reason.

        “I don’t know what’s going on either!”

Lin Xiaohu shook his head, “I haven’t spoken much to those people. They came up to me on their own.They said I was poor, not worthy to sit down and study with them. They even ruined the cloth bag that ‘Uncle Fu Lang’ (refer to He Ling) embroidered for me!” 

        At the end of his sentence his expression became depressed, he treasured that bag, he was usually very careful when using it,but it was torn apart when those people pushed and shoved him.

        He was so angry that he wanted to beat them up at that time but the teacher had said that beating people up was something only a barbarian would do.They were educated people, should not do something like beating up people so he endured it. But who would have thought that he was pushed to the ground and hit his head.

        Seeing how sad he was, He Ling reached out his hand to touch his head and said:  “Don’t be sad! I’ll make a new one for you later.”

        Wu Yulan secretly wiped her tears that came out again. It was because their family was not rich that their son was being looked down on by others so it was their fault for being the useless parents. 

        “Xiaohu, if those people bully you again in the future, you can bully them back.Don’t be polite to them!” Qi Yue also patted his head and curled his lips.

        “Huh?” Lin Xiaohu’s eyes widened and his expression was confused, “But the teacher told us that scholars should convince people by reasoning and should not do something as rude as fighting.”

    “Don’t listen to his nonsense!” Qi Yue looked like an elegant and gentle young master but his words were not gentle at all, “When you meet someone who dares to provoke you, you have to beat him up so that he will not dare to bother you again. There is no conflict between this and being a good student.”

        Lin Xiaohu did not really understand yet he still nodded his head, although what Qi Yue said was different from what the teacher said. However, the other party was the person he admired the most, so his words should be the most correct one ba! 

        Wu Yulan and Fang helplessly watched their family child being led astray, but they didn’t know if they should say something to stop it. Qi Yue, this person, the more they interacted with him, the more they realized that he was not as gentle as he seems. In fact, it was quite good to think that at least the annoying to the extreme He family had been taken care of appropriately. 

    Then in that case, what he said to Lin Xiaohu seemed to have some truth to it. At the very least, bullying others was much better than being bullied by others, right?

Thinking of this, they (refer to Wu Yulan and Fang) kept silent and did not refute this comment of his.

        He Ling looked at his husband teaching a child to fight so he was a little amused. He was leading the kid astray and even doing it in front of the child’s elders. However, Xiaohu was still oddly listening to him.

        Qi Yue himself didn’t think he was leading him astray. ‘A nice person is liable to be bullied; a tamed horse is often ridden’ so sometimes, you have to use the tough method in order to be able to protect yourself and the people you care about. Blindly being patient and accommodating only let someone else take advantage of your weakness 1 and ride on your head2. Not all people would be willing to hear your words of wisdom. Sometimes your fists might be more effective.

[人善被人欺， 马善被人骑

A weak person is liable to be bullied; a tamed horse is often ridden.

This proverb warns that weakness is a disadvantage,especially when confronting evil, a person must be tough, otherwise he will be bullied.]