Volume 1: Peasant Life 006: Conceptual Issues

  She took a bite of the mantou, and Fú Qiūlián let out a muffled cry, her face contorting in pain - this mantou was too hard, like a rock! As she glanced around with the corner of her eye, she saw that the people beside her were eating with gusto. There were two children who should be from Old Two's family; the smaller one looked to be about three years old, and the bigger one couldn't be more than five or six years old. They sat on the edge of the kang, shoveling rice into their mouths, their faces smeared with food, their collars wet and stained, occasionally making smacking sounds as they ate...

  Two children eating and dropping at the same time, a bowl of soup was spilled almost half!

  Fu Qiu couldn't help but purse her lips in disapproval, "Are you going to let them dress themselves like this?"

  This meal, Fu Qiulian didn't move her chopsticks at all!

  When they returned to their three-room house, Lian Qing looked at her with some hesitation, "If you're not feeling well, just say so." Isn't it said that pregnant women need to eat a lot? Just now, she didn't seem to have eaten anything, and she used to be the one who ate the most. Lian Qing's cautious and expectant gaze made Fu Qiu Lian feel dizzy, and her appetite, which had been somewhat present, disappeared as she lay down on the bed.

  It was just a lie down, and then the problem came again - she used to be a northerner too, and had heard some people talk about what a kang is, but having heard it doesn't mean she really slept on this thing before. Now that she's worn one, she actually slept in a kang! But you say kang or not, anyway they're all places for sleeping, and before it wasn't her who was sleeping, so even if she wanted to oppose it, it wouldn't work.

  But can you put down a few more mattresses and stuff?

  It's as hard as sleeping on a pile of soil. But indeed it is sleeping on a pile of soil.

  Kang isn't just a broken earth bed?

  "You go to sleep first, I'll read for a while. If you're thirsty, just call me..." Lian Qing carefully dimmed the lamp again, making the already dim light even fainter. The cautious and anxious look on his face made Fu Qiu Lian feel like gritting her teeth, and she couldn't help but retort, "Turn up that lamp a bit, don't worry about me, I'm not afraid of bright lights." At the same time, she was also thinking to herself, did he always read in such dim light? Can he even see clearly?

  "It's nothing, I can see." Lian Qing opened his mouth and looked at Fu Qiu Lian with a complex expression, then immediately shifted his gaze away. After a moment, the rustling sound stopped, and Lian Qing was sitting properly in the only chair in the room, reading a book as if he were an old monk in meditation, not daring to glance sideways. Although it seemed like he was seriously reading, to Fu Qiu Lian's eyes, it gave her a feeling - Lian Qing was avoiding her!

  "Lian Qing, Lian Qing..." After calling out twice, Lian Qing finally heard and put down the book in his hand. He looked at Fu Qiu Lian with a puzzled expression, as if he had only just noticed the title Fu Qiu Lian was using to address him. His eyebrows slightly furrowed, and he looked seriously at Fu Qiu Lian who was half leaning against the kang (heated bed). "Madam, you can't call me that way, it's not proper."

  Alright, Fuzhao Lian smiled sweetly, "Then tell me, what should I call you?"

  "You, you can call me husband or master, just like when we're having a meal..." Lian Qing's face turned red before he even finished speaking, and the book in his hand was clenched tightly. He looked up at Fu Qiu Lian and said, "What did you want to call me for, wife? If it's nothing important, I still need to continue reading. I hope you won't disturb me."

  "This bed is too hard, it's so uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep."

  “——”

  "Besides, this house is too cold. Not to mention a heater, there isn't even a brazier. It's freezing and I'm shivering with cold. I don't feel like sleeping."

  "——" Lian Qing sighed silently in his heart, wondering how he could have been so calm at dinner, when all along, this was waiting for him? Putting down the book in his hand, he stood up and bowed to Fu Qiu Lian, "I've caused you distress, it's really my fault as a husband. But I'm not making excuses, our family's circumstances are just like this——"

  "I'm so cold I couldn't sleep." Fu Qiulian blinked her eyes, staring at Lian Qing who remained silent.

  "But our home doesn't even have any quilts! And besides, the kang in Eldest Sister-in-law and Second Sister-in-law's homes only had straw mats, but ours still had a padded quilt. You're still complaining..." The words that followed were not spoken out loud, but Feng Qiulian heard them as clear as a mirror - wasn't it just that they looked down on her, thought she was lazy and useless, always picking faults and causing trouble?

  "Yes, I'm to blame for being ignorant and suffering the consequences." As she said this, her body began to move and she curled up into a ball, diving under the covers. Qing was confused, thinking that just moments before she had been complaining about the kang being too hard and the blankets being too few, yet now she suddenly fell asleep?

  Looking at the ball on the kang, Qing got up and put his only worn-out cotton-padded jacket on Fowei Lian's body - a good man doesn't fight with a woman, let alone this woman who is carrying his child, the future mother of his child. He yielded.

  In the middle of the night, Fu Qiulian was awakened by the cold, her hands and feet were icy, and her whole body was trembling. She was about to freeze to death, under the dim yellow light, it was Lian Qing's profile intently reading a book. Fu Qiulian couldn't appreciate it anymore, if this continued she would be frozen to death, so she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Lian Qing, husband, Lian Qing husband——"

  Qing's mouth twitched, could she have another husband with a different name? Rubbing his brow, he looked at Fu Qiulian, "What's wrong, do you want to drink water? I'll help you get some——" He lifted his foot to leave, but was stopped by Fu Qiulian, "Wait, don't go down, I'm not thirsty, I'm freezing to death, think of a way to start a fire for me."

  "Possible, but how to start a fire?" It was the third watch of the night, and the snow outside had only stopped falling by dusk. How could he think of a way to start a fire?

  "If I had a way, would I still ask you?" Fú Qiūlián glared at Lián Qīng, got out of bed with the quilt on, and her lips were trembling. "Is it true that there isn't even one quilt left at home? Or else, can you look again?"

  "No need to look anymore, there isn't one."

  "Or else, can you help me find a bottle or something, fill it with boiling water for me to use as a hot compress?"

  "Are you going to boil water at midnight?" Lian Qing continued to persuade in a soft voice, "You didn't used to be like this before. If not, I'll find two more clothes to cover the quilt." What's the use of covering with just one layer of cloth? Under the dim light, Fu Qiu Lian looked around and suddenly had an idea when she looked down at the floor, "I say, Lian Qing, isn't our bed a kang that can be heated?" It should be able to be heated, she remembered her grandfather's generation used to say something about how warm it was to heat the kang before going to sleep at night. Why is Lian's kang so cold?

  Isn't it the same thing?

  "The kang can be burned, but our family's kang——" Lian Qing paused for a moment, with a hint of awkwardness, "Only Dad and Mom's kang, as well as Xiao Si's kang can be burned. The other rooms are not allowed to burn the kang."

  Fú Qiū Lián was furious, "How could you?! This is abuse! This is discrimination!" Her eyes were wide with anger, "I don't care, go get the firewood now, I'm going to burn it. Now, immediately." Looking at Lián Qīng's scrunched up face, she added, "And not just tonight, from today on, every day and every night, I'll be burning. If anyone dares to stop me, I...I..." She glared at Lián Qīng, "If you don't let me burn it, I'll go back home and find my dad."

  "...now you've burned the firewood, tomorrow morning's meal won't be enough for the firewood."

  "I don't care, you go get it or not? If you're not going, I'll go myself." Fu Qiulian put on her clothes and got out of bed, heading outside. She didn't care about whether there was enough food to eat now; what she cared about was making the kang warm enough, otherwise she wouldn't make it till tonight!

  Digression

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