SLH | Chapter 30

I Like You Too

A few aunties’ faces changed immediately upon hearing this.

“Zhu Ge’er, what do you mean by this? We’re all neighbors here, helping to teach a kid shouldn’t be a problem. At the beginning of the year, when you married Huzi, we put in a lot of effort too.”

“Is it because you think the gifts we gave were too light, and insulted you as a teacher?”

“I told you they look down on us, but you didn’t believe it. He’s a precious young master from the prefectural city, how could he possibly value our few trifles?” The woman who earlier boasted about her good crops snorted, “Fine, let’s leave. We don’t want to be chased out with a broom later.”

She bent down to pick up a handful of greens casually tossed by the courtyard wall and turned to leave.

Seeing this, the other women also took back their things, except for the aunty who brought eggs, who awkwardly smiled at Song Tingzhu.

“Zhu Ge’er, I’ll leave now. It’s no big deal if teaching doesn’t work out. The eggs in the basket are from our own chickens, not worth much, just keep them to nourish yourself.”

Before Song Tingzhu could respond, she hurriedly left the courtyard.

“Sister-in-law’s husband, did someone come over?” Liu Xiaomei was woken up by the noise, rubbing her eyes as she opened the door.

“Don’t worry about it, go back to sleep,” Song Tingzhu said as he bolted the courtyard door.

“Oh.”

The little girl, still half-asleep, went back to the bedroom with her eyes half-closed.

In the afternoon, Song Tingzhu taught Xiaomei and the others ten big characters. Including the ones from the morning, they learned fifteen characters today. Seeing that it was getting late, he asked his father to take Jinning and Wen Ping back to Shanghe Village.

Liu Dasheng was going to town to deliver firewood, and Shanghe Village was on the way.

Before they left, Song Tingzhu reminded, “No need to come tomorrow, make sure to memorize the characters. I’ll test you the day after tomorrow.”

Ruan Jinning nodded, “Got it, sister-in-law’s husband.”

As soon as the three left, Ruan Xiulian and Tang Chunxing returned from the fields, both looking a bit upset. Tang Chunxing threw her hoe down and cursed, “A bunch of freeloaders. Zhu Ge’er teaching our own kids, who does it bother? Why must he teach your kids too? Did you pay him or something? How can you be so shameless!”

Liu Xiaomei was cooking in the kitchen and came out upon hearing the commotion, asking, “Mom, what’s got sister-in-law so upset?”

Ruan Xiulian replied irritably, “She’s mad at those shameless people.”

Ruan Xiulian and Tang Chunxing heard from afar some women badmouthing, saying her son-in-law’s heart was wild, coming from the prefectural city, writing letters and teaching characters, only teaching girls and young men, obviously looking down on the young men of Yunxi Village.

Today, the village’s girls and young men were all interested in learning to read and write, leaving their chores undone. Who knows what trouble they’ll cause tomorrow? Such restless young men are bad luck for whoever marries them.

The worst was yet to come. A few old women, emboldened by their age, dared to say anything, making up rumors, saying Song Tingzhu was like a seductress from a storybook, attracting the attention of the village men. Keeping someone so improper at home would surely lead to trouble!

Even Ruan Xiulian, with her good temper, couldn’t help but confront them.

Tang Chunxing initially tried to stop her, considering the old women were quite old, and it wouldn’t be good if they got sick from anger. But who knew those old hags had mouths like dung buckets, even dragging her three-year-old Xia Ge’er into it.

Xia Ge’er was only three, and those old hags dared!

So the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law teamed up to make the old women submit, and only then did they reveal the truth.

It turned out those women were trying to ruin the Liu family’s reputation after being snubbed by Song Tingzhu.

Ruan Xiulian carefully explained what she could, worried her son-in-law would get upset, and said, “Zhu Ge’er, don’t take it to heart. In farming families, with not much to do, people love to gossip. Which household hasn’t been talked about or had rumors spread about them? If we held grudges for all of it, how could we live?

We just need to close our doors and live our lives, mind our own business. Whatever others say, just ignore it. Besides, I and your sister-in-law have already stood up for you. After today, those women will behave themselves for a while.”

Song Tingzhu felt warmth in his heart, and he said nonchalantly, “Don’t worry, I’ve always let those words go in one ear and out the other, never taking them to heart.”

Just some cold words, compared to what he endured at the Song family, it’s nothing.

By the time of You, the Liu brothers who went out to work came back one after another.

Seeing the sky turning, Song Tingzhu wanted to move the table outside into the storage room, but Liu Hu quickly stepped forward.

“Wife, don’t move, let me do it.”

Song Tingzhu then stepped aside and prepared a basin of water in the courtyard after the work was done.

“Wash your hands and get ready to eat.”

Liu Hu grinned and responded, “Okay.”

From the moment he entered, the man’s smile never faded. Song Tingzhu was curious and asked, “Why are you smiling like that? Did something good happen?”

“Wife, come with me into the house.” The man held his chest, looking mysterious.

Once inside the west room, Song Tingzhu saw his husband take out more than half a tael of silver from his pocket, looking surprised, he asked, “Where did you get so much silver?”

Liu Hu happily explained, “Yesterday, the traps I set on the back mountain caught two wild rabbits. When I was carrying the rabbits down, I came across a flock of wild chickens. They tried to fly away when they saw me, so I picked up some stones and threw them. Luckily, I hit a few.”

Wild chickens are expensive, about eighty coins each, and wild rabbits are about a hundred coins each. Three wild chickens and two wild rabbits sold for a total of four hundred and eighty coins, plus today’s earnings from work, making a total of five hundred and eighteen coins. Liu Hu handed all of it to his wife.

Holding the heavy copper coins, Song Tingzhu felt a heavy heart.

His husband treated him sincerely, and he was naturally happy about it, but he didn’t know how long he could stay with his husband. Recently, he had been waking up from dreams in the night, initially thinking it was just fatigue that would pass with rest, but it didn’t help. The feeling of heart palpitations became more apparent, and he felt dazed even when washing up in the morning.

“Wife?” Liu Hu called out when he saw him standing there in a daze.

Song Tingzhu snapped back, forcing a smile, “Let’s go eat, father and mother are waiting.”

“Okay.”

After putting the silver away, the couple headed to the main room together.

－

In summer, they plant eggplants, and in autumn, they harvest them. After the start of summer, everyone in Yunxi Village started planting eggplants, and the Liu family was no exception. Early in the morning, Liu Dasheng and his wife took their hoes to the fields, and Tang Chunxing went later, closing the courtyard door after finishing the housework and taking freshly brewed tea with her.

In the courtyard, Song Tingzhu was leading Xiaomei and the others in practicing characters on fine sand. The three older ones had good memories and could recognize and write most of the characters learned these days. The younger ones mostly played, but they could recognize quite a few characters, though their writing was crooked, like earthworms crawling.

“This stroke needs to be longer,” Song Tingzhu pointed out an error to Xiaomei.

“Oh, I forgot it should be short on top and long on the bottom,” Liu Xiaomei rubbed out the sand and rewrote the character. After getting approval, she frowned with concern, “Sister-in-law’s husband, did you not sleep well last night? You don’t look good.”

Ruan Jinning looked up, “I noticed when I came in this morning that you didn’t look well, sister-in-law’s husband. If you’re not feeling well, you should go lie down. Xiaomei, Xiaoman, and I can take care of Xia Ge’er and the others.”

Song Tingzhu indeed felt quite unwell today, and the soup medicine he drank in the morning had all been vomited out. Other than that, he didn’t feel any other discomfort, so he didn’t take it to heart, but he didn’t expect the two of them to notice.

“Alright, I’ll go rest in the room,” he said, patting Xia Ge’er on the head with a gentle voice, “After practicing characters, remember to wash your hands with your little friends. Dirty hands can make you sick.”

The little guy frowned, urging, “Xia Ge’er remembers, little uncle, go to sleep.”

“Okay, I’m going.”

Lying in bed, listening to the children’s deliberately lowered voices outside, he unknowingly fell asleep.

This nap was deep, and when he opened his eyes, it was already the time of You, and Liu Hu, who had gone out to work, had just returned, carrying a bowl of herbal medicine into the room.

“Wife, you’re awake.” The man looked at him with a mix of concern and guilt, “It’s all my fault. If I had noticed you weren’t feeling well earlier and called a doctor, you wouldn’t have suffered so much and fainted.”

“How could it be your fault? I didn’t feel it was serious myself,” Song Tingzhu said, looking at the man with a weak smile, “Besides, you told me to rest well in the morning, and I didn’t listen, which is why I got dizzy. But when did I faint? I didn’t even realize it, I thought I just took a nap.”

“I don’t know either. When I came back, I heard you talking in your sleep. You didn’t respond when I called you, and you were sweating a lot. I was worried, so I got Doctor Liang, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong. So I went to town to get Doctor Zhou.”

Liu Hu set the herbal medicine aside to cool and draped a coat over him, saying, “Doctor Zhou said there was an ingredient in the previous prescription that conflicted with you. Changing it would stop the palpitations and nausea.”

Song Tingzhu was slightly stunned, “Doctor Zhou said it was a prescription problem?”

Not a problem with his body?

Liu Hu nodded, “That’s what Doctor Zhou said. He said your health is quite poor and needs proper care.”

Liu Hu didn’t mention the latter part, where Doctor Zhou sternly advised against any intimate activities.

Hearing this, the knot in Song Tingzhu’s heart eased considerably.

“Wife, don’t worry. Doctor Zhou said this condition can be cured, but the first step is to keep a calm mind and not dwell on it.”

“Okay, I won’t dwell on it.” Song Tingzhu smiled, reaching out, “Give me the medicine, it’ll taste worse when it’s cold.”

“Let me do it. You’ve been lying down all afternoon, you probably don’t have the strength.”

Song Tingzhu was held by the man, who fed him the herbal medicine and carefully wiped his mouth with a cloth.

His face turned red, and he took the cloth from the man’s hand, a bit embarrassed, “Why do you always treat me like a child?”

“You’re my wife, I want to take care of you. I’m a few years older, it’s only right.”

Song Tingzhu’s heart was moved.

“Silly, there’s no such thing as right or wrong. You care for me because you like me, otherwise, why don’t you care for others this way?”

It’s not that his husband didn’t care for his family, but only when facing him did he become attentive and considerate, wanting to do everything for him.

Thinking this, he took the man’s hand, blushing, “I like you too, so I’ll take care of myself, live longer, and hopefully stay with you for a lifetime. If possible, I’d like to have a child who looks like you, they’d be so cute.”

Liu Hu frowned, “It’s not good if they look like me. You look good, they should look like you.”

“Husband doesn’t look bad either, tall and handsome. Even in the prefectural city, people would call you handsome.” Song Tingzhu sat up, looking at his husband, “But there’s one thing not so good.”

Liu Hu got nervous, “What’s not good? Tell me, and I’ll change.”

Seeing him flustered, as if greatly affected, Song Tingzhu decided not to tease him anymore and smiled, “It’s not a big problem. It’s just that when our family business starts, we’ll have to deal with outsiders. If you keep speaking in our hometown dialect, people might look down on us and take advantage.”

“Do you mean you want me to learn to speak Mandarin with you?”

Song Tingzhu nodded with a smile.

———————–

Author’s Note: Had to go out unexpectedly, will update more tomorrow (there’s a 2,000-word draft that hasn’t been edited, so I won’t post it yet). Also, happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. Be happy even without a partner, being single is priceless, I love being single!!