Dashuan's wife watched Shen Yunfang bustling around and tentatively asked, "Yunfang, I've heard that in the past couple of days, Shen Dafu's daughter has been getting up at dawn to gather pigweed by the river. Sometimes, she even has to go back in the evening. Do you know about this?"
Dashuan's wife knew that the two girls used to be as close as one. The pigweed that Shen Dafu's daughter had to gather was even contracted to Shen Yunfang to collect. Now, with the current situation, could it be that the two girls had fallen out?
Shen Yunfang paused in her work and then realized that the Shen Dafu mentioned was Shen Yingxue's father.
"Really? She came to me a couple of days ago, claiming she was too busy with school to pick wild vegetables and wanted me to help her with that. Look, she's found the time now. There's always time if you squeeze a bit," said Shen Yunfang, feigning exclamation.
In fact, every morning before going to gather the grass, Shen Yingxue would come and knock on her door. Shen Yunfang would pretend not to hear and wouldn't open the door. She felt that she had made her refusal quite clear. Whether Shen Yingxue genuinely couldn't see it or was just being persistent, she would still come and knock on her door every morning.
"Did you agree to help her?" Dashuan's wife pressed, aware that the entire village had seen through Shen Dafu's daughter's cunning, using Shen Yunfang like a naive girl. It pained her to think that the naive girl herself couldn't see through it. She had once watched Shen Yunfang work for others with a foolish smile, worrying for her, but now she was relieved to see Shen Yingxue doing the work herself. She just feared that Yunfang might not resist being charmed and end up doing unpaid work for others again.
"How could I? My health is like this; I need to rest. I can't overexert myself. Besides, I'm planning to raise a pig next year too. I can't make it hard for my husband, nor can I be a drag on our Gaijiatun," Shen Yunfang replied.
"Ah, that's the right way to think. If you had spent that time gathering pigweed for their family, you could be raising your own pig. Yunfang, I don't mean to be mercenary, but think about it - if you raised your own pig, no matter what, you'd have some savings by the end of the year. Having money in hand eases the worries of daily life, doesn't it?" urged Dashuan's wife.
"Sister-in-law, you're absolutely right. I hardly have any money on hand right now. I'm just thinking about how to earn a bit more." Shen Yunfang wasn't foolish anymore; how could she possibly do unpaid work for another family?
The two were in the middle of their conversation when a knocking sound came from the door.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
"Shh..." Shen Yunfang quickly signaled to Dashuan's wife to keep quiet. Hardly anyone visited her house, and these past few days, it had always been Shen Yingxue knocking on the door.
Dashuan's wife, being quick-witted, immediately shut her mouth, and the courtyard fell silent once again.
However, the adults might have the patience to be quiet, but the kids inside the house didn't have such good endurance. Hearing the persistent knocking at the door and the lack of response from the courtyard, a child inside called out fearfully, "Mommy..."
Upon hearing her daughter's voice from inside, Dashuan's wife quickly got up to go inside, and then the sound from within ceased.
Shen Yingxue listened at the door; she was certain she had heard someone in the courtyard just before, but as soon as she knocked, it went silent. In fact, she had come to knock morning and evening these past few days, but each time, no one would answer. Sometimes, like today, she clearly heard sounds from the courtyard, but as soon as she knocked, everything would go quiet. Even if she was slow, she knew Shen Yunfang was avoiding her, pretending not to hear and refusing to open the door for her.
Shen Yingxue's heart was filled with resentment, and her hands knocked on the wooden door even harder, making it flap loudly, "Yunfang, Yunfang, are you home? It's me, Yingxue..." If it weren't for the fact that she truly had no other option, she would never have come to ingratiate herself with this destitute girl, an orphan without parents, who was also so unfriendly, as if she deserved to be unpopular. Shen Yingxue thought bitterly to herself.
Shen Yingxue usually prided herself on being a high school student, holding herself with arrogant aloofness, unable to be shameless, clinging on even when obviously being ignored. But now, she really had no other choice. Every morning, she had to walk over an hour to school in a neighboring village and wouldn't get home until after five in the afternoon. The time she had to do chores was very limited, and given her family's situation, if she couldn't feed the pigs at home, her mother definitely wouldn't allow her to continue school. So these days she really struggled, waking before dawn, and sometimes having to go up the mountain again after school if the morning's foraged grass wasn't enough. After several days like this, she was worn out. She could only hope that Shen Yunfang would still be as foolish as before and continue to help her. Just holding on for half a year until she graduated high school, then she would definitely deal with Shen Yunfang.
Quietly pulling up cabbage leaves in the yard, Shen Yunfang might not have known exactly what Shen Yingxue was thinking, but she certainly no longer wanted to be taken for a fool. She hoped Shen Yingxue would understand her refusal and that their relationship would gradually fade until they no longer associated with each other at all.
"Yunfang, Yunfang, are you there? Ugh, Yunfang, I really have no other option. You know how my mother is, she's nearly driven me to my death. Yunfang, we've been friends for so many years, please just help me this one last time, just six more months, and I swear I'll repay you next year after I graduate, ugh…"
Shen Yingxue knocked and cried outside the yard for a while, but seeing that there was still no response and noticing the sky darkening, she eventually left in tears.
After the yard fell silent for a while again, Shen Yunfang went inside and called Dashuan's wife out to continue working.
"Has Shen Yingxue been coming by these days?" Dashuan's wife asked curiously.
"Mhm, morning and night," Shen Yunfang replied truthfully.
"My goodness, that's really shameless." Dashuan's wife whispered very quietly, worried that the young lady inside the house might hear her harsh words.
Shen Yunfang just smiled but didn't join in the conversation; at this moment, anything she said would have been inappropriate. It was better to let others be the judge.
Afterward, the two of them didn't mention the incident, continuing instead with their earlier conversation. They laughed and talked, occasionally calling out to the little maidservant inside the house, and they finished their work shortly after, as the tank was small, and ten cabbages were about what it could hold.
Dashuan's wife took the big cabbages and, using the boiling water in the large pot, blanched them briefly before arranging them neatly in the small tank. After laying down each layer of cabbage, she sprinkled a bit of salt on top until the tank was full.
The two women worked together to move the tank to a spot by the west room wall, where the temperature was neither too cold nor too hot, just right.
They then filled the tank with cold water, the level of the water staying a few centimeters from the rim. Finally, Shen Yunfan placed a large, cleaned rock on top, pressing down the cabbages, and their task was completed.
"If the water level in the tank drops tomorrow morning, just add some more. In a few days, the cabbage will start to release water, so you'll need to scoop some out. Just keep an eye on it," Dashuan's wife instructed Shen Yunfang, not forgetting to give a few last pieces of advice as she left with her child.