Chapter 359

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

Chai Mi couldn't be bothered to beat around the bush and cut straight to the chase: "Second Aunt, the autumn harvest is coming up soon. My family has a lot of land but not enough hands. I want to ask you to find two strong laborers to help out when the time comes, for about ten days. Wages twenty per day, including one midday meal."

"Twenty?" Second Aunt's hands paused, her eyes rolling as she drew out her tone. "Oh my, Chai Mi, it's not that Second Aunt won't help you, but you know wages have gone up now! To hire a helper, nobody will do it for less than twenty-five! And you have to provide good, filling meals! Besides, your Second Uncle's family asked me about their land too..." Her words carried an unmistakable intention to drive up the price.

Chai Mi sneered inwardly but kept her face calm: "Second Aunt, I know the going rate. Twenty is the fair price — meals with meat and fish every time, white flour steamed buns all you can eat. If you can do it, we settle it today. If you think it's too little, I'll go ask Old Zhang's family on Front Street." She made a move to leave as she spoke.

"Hey hey, don't rush!" Second Aunt hurriedly stood up, her smile growing warmer. "Look at you, child, why such a temper! Twenty it is! Would Second Aunt not help you? Fertilizer doesn't flow to outsiders' fields! Your Second Uncle's land can wait two more days. My husband and your little brother are sturdy as oxen, top-notch workers! When do we start?"

"Wait another three to five days, looks like it's almost time. Let's lock the people down first." Chai Mi set the time. "Sickles, bags — my family has spares ready. Just show up on time."

"Deal! Guaranteed no delays!" Second Aunt patted her chest in promise.

With the labor secured, a weight lifted from Chai Mi's heart, and she pushed the cart homeward.

Mother was home, but Chai Youqing was nowhere to be seen.

"Chai Mi, you're back? Where's Qiushui?" Su Wan asked, her eyes glancing past Chai Mi.

"She went straight home." Chai Mi pushed the inverted donkey into the courtyard and parked it. "Second Aunt agreed. In a few days she'll bring a few people to help, twenty a day, lunch included."

Su Wan let out an "aiyo," her grip on the child tightening, voice dropping even lower: "Th-that wage... did you tell your dad?"

"Tell him what?" Chai Youqing's voice came from the back courtyard, muffled and low.

He carried a sickle ground to a gleaming shine, trouser legs stained with dry mud and grass clippings — clearly just back from the fields. "The money's yours, you earned it, spend it however you like! This old skeleton of mine can't match those strong laborers! No need to report to me!" He didn't even look at Chai Mi, walking straight to the outer room and hanging the sickle on the wall with a loud clang that shook dust off the earthen wall.

Chai Mi frowned at his mud-caked trouser legs and his visibly exhausted, stooped back: "Dad, you went to the fields? Didn't I tell you not to rush, to wait until we hired people to work together?" She knew her family had a patch of early-ripening millet on the east slope — not large, but steep terrain.

Chai Mi's family grew mostly corn, but some mountain land wouldn't yield corn no matter what, so they just planted a bit of millet and foxtail millet there.

"Wait?" Chai Youqing whipped around, his face darkened by fatigue and pent-up anger. "Wait for the big shots you hired? I'm not so old I can't even harvest a few furrows of millet! My own land, I'll harvest it myself!" The more he spoke the more agitated he grew, spit flying, eyes glaring at Chai Mi. "Save that twenty, enough to buy Xiu'er ten iron pencil cases! No need for your blind generosity!"

"Dad! Can you be reasonable?" Chai Mi's voice rose too. "You know how steep that slope is! What if you fall? Is that little savings enough for medical bills?" She looked at his bloodshot eyes and the sweat on his forehead, both angry and frantic.

This man, when he gets stubborn, eight oxen couldn't pull him back!

Chai Mi felt especially speechless toward Song Qiushui.

Utterly speechless!

"I won't fall! Don't curse me!" Chai Youqing roared, grabbed the dry tobacco pipe hanging on the wall, flung the curtain aside and stormed into the inner room, slamming the door so the mountains echoed. Chai Xin was startled awake and burst into wails.

Su Wan hurriedly soothed the child, stamping her foot in anxiety: "Oh my heavens! Can you two not settle down! The child's been frightened! Chai Mi, say a few words less... your dad... he's just got that temper..."

"That temper of his will get him killed one day!" Chai Mi's chest heaved with rage. Staring at the tightly shut inner room door, she knew more words were useless. She turned and went to the well to draw water, the splash of water masking her irritated thoughts about that steep millet slope. No good — tomorrow, whatever it takes, she had to stop him.

Chai Mi knew Chai Youqing's capabilities all too well.

Which is to say, he has none!

If Chai Youqing had any capability, Mother wouldn't have been worked to exhaustion, would she?

The problem is, Chai Youqing is incompetent and unaware of it.

That's what makes it such a headache.

Yet the very next day, at the first gray of dawn — even earlier than when Chai Mi and Song Qiushui set up their stall — Chai Youqing quietly shouldered his sickle and slipped out.

He wanted to prove to Chai Mi that even without hired help, he could still get the field work done and save that "unjust money"!

When Chai Mi woke, she saw only an empty kang and the sickle gone from behind the door. Her heart sank. She rushed to the back courtyard — sure enough, that rickety bicycle usually used to pick up Chai Xiu was also gone.

"Mom! Where's Dad?" Chai Mi rushed back into the room to ask Su Wan.

Su Wan was changing Chai Xin's diaper. Hearing this, she froze: "Ah? Not in the inner room? Did he... go to the slope again?" Alarm crept onto her face. "Oh this man! Doesn't value his life! Went without even eating?"

Su Wan was furious too.

But she still comforted Chai Mi: "Chai Mi, don't panic, it's just a bit of work. You go do what you need to do, your dad can still handle it."

Chai Mi: Heh, like I could believe that.

Chai Youqing is exactly the kind of person who can't accomplish anything but can ruin everything.

And describing him with that phrase is somewhat an insult to the phrase itself.

If it weren't for the fact that Chai Youqing is Chai Mi's biological father, Chai Mi would rather use the relatively kinder "little cutie" to describe her own dad.

That pure, pure little cutie.

And a damn disgusting one at that.

Some people are like this — they can't do anything themselves, but they think they're doing fine.

Chai Youqing is precisely that kind of person.

Not just a matter of lacking ability — he also resents others for not understanding him.

Though Chai Mi was furious, she didn't say another word, just mounted the inverted donkey and rushed out: "Mom, watch the house! I'm going to check!"

The ominous premonition in her heart grew heavier — that steep slope, the dew-soaked grass... she wished she could sprout wings and fly there.

The inverted donkey flew under her, its chain groaning under the strain.

By the time she reached the family millet field, the sun had just peeked over the horizon.

Chai Mi's gaze was instantly seized by the bicycle toppled at the field's edge and the scattered grain heads and sickle lying all over the ground.

"Dad!" She abandoned the bike and ran up the slope.

Chai Youqing lay on his side on the stubble halfway up, face ashen, forehead beaded with cold sweat, one hand clamped tight on his lower back, teeth gritted, throat letting out uncontrollable groans of pain. The earth beneath him was scraped bare — clearly he had tumbled down from higher up.

"Dad! How are you? Where did you hurt?" Chai Mi threw herself over, voice cracking, wanting to help him up but afraid to move him.

"Back... back..." Chai Youqing forced the words through clenched teeth, trembling all over, unable to form a full sentence, only heavy breathing and stifled moans of agony.

Chai Mi's heart turned half-cold. She carefully examined him — no external wounds or bleeding — but his reaction meant nine times out of ten he'd thrown his back out, possibly even damaged bone. She tried to hoist him onto her back, but Chai Youqing was in too much pain to exert any strength; the slightest movement drew a scream.

"Dad, bear with it!" Chai Mi sweated profusely with anxiety. She scanned the surroundings — wild slope, empty fields, not a soul in sight to help. She gritted her teeth, pushed the inverted donkey as close as possible to the slope bottom, then half-dragged half-carried her heavy father, inch by inch, into the cart bed. Every shift drew a sharp intake of breath from Chai Youqing, sweat and tears smearing his face.

"Hold on, Dad, we're going home right now, get a doctor!" Chai Mi's voice carried a tremor she herself hadn't noticed.

Chai Mi rode the inverted donkey, carrying her father, galloping on the bumpy dirt road, the clothes on her back instantly soaked through with sweat.

When Chai Mi, drenched in sweat and covered in mud, half-carried half-dragged the nearly limp Chai Youqing through the front door, the water gourd ladle in Su Wan's hand fell to the ground with a clang, water splashing everywhere.

"Heavens! What happened?!" Su Wan screamed as she rushed over, her face frightened pale.

Chai Xin was scared into wailing loudly by this commotion.

Chai Youqing lay on the kang, curling up in pain, unable to even groan, only heavy, pained, trembling breaths remaining.

"Went to cut grain on the slope, fell from the slope! The waist!" Chai Mi panted heavily, wiped the sweat and mud from her face, voice hoarse, "Mom, you watch Dad, I'll go find a doctor!" She didn't pause to catch her breath, turned and rushed out the door again.

Village clinic Doctor Chen was hauled over by Chai Mi in a frantic rush. After an examination, Doctor Chen frowned tightly: "Old Chai (Brother), you've injured your waist tendons, twisted badly! Fortunately the bones are fine, but waist injuries fear movement most, you must lie still and recuperate! At least ten days half a month lying prone, absolutely no heavy work! If you push it, you'll leave a sickness root, and you'll suffer whenever it's cloudy or rainy from now on!"

Chai Youqing lay prone on the kang, face buried in the pillow, not a sound, only his shoulders trembling slightly. It was from pain, and from shame, and even more from despair. The autumn harvest was right before his eyes, and with him laid up like this, the family's sky had truly collapsed by half.

Su Wan saw Doctor Chen off, returned to look at her old partner lying on the kang like a log, then at her eldest daughter with a face full of fatigue and tightly knit brows, then thought of the corn in the fields waiting to be harvested, and tears she could no longer hold back fell drop by drop: "What are we to do... how are we to live... the autumn harvest... what to do about the autumn harvest..." Little Chai Xin in her arms seemed to sense the oppressive atmosphere too, and began sobbing softly.

Chai Xiu had just gotten up, looking at her dad lying on the kang with a gray, defeated face, then at her tear-wiping mother and silently mute sister, her little face also tensed: "Sister... what's wrong with Dad?"

Chai Mi took a deep breath, suppressed the full heart of fatigue and irritability, said as calmly as possible: "Hurt his waist, has to lie prone to recover." She looked at her father's curled back, the words "told you not to go but you insisted" rolled on her tongue several times, but in the end she swallowed them back. Saying that now would only make the old man feel worse, not the slightest use.

Chai Youqing heard Chai Xiu's voice, his body seemed to stiffen further, buried his face deeper into the pillow, not a sound, only those slightly trembling shoulders betraying his emotions.

Chai Xiu walked to the side of the kang, looking at her father's pained appearance, then at her sister's solemn face, and asked softly: "Then... then the corn in the fields... and our family's grain on the slope..."

"I'll go finish harvesting the grain this afternoon." Chai Mi cut her off, tone brooking no argument, "The corn matter, no need for you to worry. Hiring hands is settled, Second Aunt will bring people in a couple days. You," she looked at Chai Xiu, "study your books properly, come back after school help Mom watch over Xin'er, don't cause trouble."

Chai Xiu let out an "oh", looking at her dad lying there like a heavy mountain, then at her sister's bloodshot yet abnormally determined eyes, for the first time didn't talk back, obediently nodded.

Chai Youqing lay at the kang head, Su Wan sat beside him, using a small spoon to feed him thin porridge bit by bit. He ate with difficulty, every swallow pulling at the severe pain in his waist, fine cold sweat beading on his forehead.

Chai Mi sat on the other side of the kang table, sighed.

Heart irritable beyond measure.

Originally short on hands for work and things weren't going smoothly, now even the person to send Chai Xiu to school was gone.

Truly irritable beyond measure.

Chai Youqing forced down a mouthful of porridge, eyes lifted, looked past Su Wan, landing on Chai Mi's profile. He opened his mouth, a dry, rasping heh-heh sound from his throat, as if wanting to say something.

Shame? Regret? Or resignation? In the end, all complex emotions stuck in his throat, only turning into a heavy sigh almost too faint to hear. He buried his face back in the pillow, body curling slightly from pain and some indescribable emotion.

Chai Mi lowered her head, paused, didn't raise her head: "Dad, don't worry about the money. As long as you recover, that's enough. The field work, there are people to do it. The stall, I'll hold it up. The sky won't fall."

"But, I'll say the ugly words upfront too. You're in pain, so be in pain, the doctor's been called for you. Medicine prescribed for you. The rest you recuperate yourself. This is the last time I'll manage you, you take care of yourself."

Having said this, Chai Mi went out.

"Xiu'er, I'll take you to school. Stall's not opening today."

Then told Su Wan: "Mom, that rice, white flour, and meat, I bought with money I earned. Don't give him any. You know what our family's situation used to be. We were almost starving unable to eat. This kind of person, really no use talking to them. From now on, let him cook for himself, eat for himself. Can't move, then starve him to death."

"Chai Mi..." Su Wan said helplessly: "You should still go set up the stall."

"Can't go. Me, I'll go buy a coffin, wait for him to starve to death, then drag him to the mountain back to bury."

After Chai Mi sent Chai Xiu to school, she returned home with a cold face. Then she really found a carpenter, hammered wood at home, and really made a coffin.

Chai Youqing got a bit scared.

Wanted to drink water, waist hurt, didn't dare move.

Su Wan was also sent out by Chai Mi.

After a day, the coffin was really finished.

Chai Mi hauled Chai Youqing, threw him inside.

Scared Su Wan and Chai Xiu into not daring to speak.

A whole night passed...

By the third day afternoon, Chai Youqing begged for mercy inside the coffin: "I was wrong."

"No use, the funeral procession goes out tomorrow."