Chapter 15: The Water-Carrying Maiden

  He slept very soundly, and when he woke up, the sky was already bright. He was woken up by the sound of chopping firewood in the kitchen. Hurriedly getting out of bed, rubbing his eyes, the window was already shining brightly, but due to the small size of the window, the light coming in was scarce, and the room was still quite dim.

  He knelt down and folded the quilt, came down from the stairs, opened the door and went out to the main room. He saw that the fire in the kitchen was already burning brightly, and his mother, Liang Shi, was squatting there chopping wood. He hurried into the kitchen: "Mother, let me do it!"

  "Get out! What kind of man enters the kitchen? You're useless! Hurry up and fetch water, then sweep the floor. Open the door and sweep the snow at the entrance, don't let the visitors who come to see the patient slip!"

  "Oh!" Zuo Shaoyang hastily came out and opened the door of the medicine shop, taking a step forward to take a look. The main street was covered with a thick layer of silver-white snow, but it had already been trampled by early risers, making it look very disheveled. On the eaves of the house across from his own medicine shop, icicles hung down in a row.

  Zuo Shaoyang stretched his waist and felt that the air in ancient times was particularly refreshing. He moved his hands and feet, and just as he was about to turn back into the house to fetch a water bucket, he suddenly saw several people coming from the front street. They were dressed like officials from an ancient costume drama, carrying something on a wooden board, shouting for bystanders to clear the way, and passing by.

  Zuo Shaoyang poked his head out from under the sleeve, took a glance and was startled. He saw that on the door panel lay a frozen person, with tattered clothes, seemingly a beggar, eyes wide open, hands curled up in front of chest. Like an ice sculpture, motionless. But from this posture, Zuo Shaoyang could determine that this person must be dead.

  The head of the soap shop saw him and greeted him, saying: "It's young Mr. Lang, isn't it? You're opening up so early?"

  Zuo Shaoyang heard that this person knew him, and thought to himself, "That's right, my brother-in-law Hou Pu works in the government office, although he's just a minor clerk, but people in the government should also know him." He accompanied his words with a smile: "Ah, yes... what happened to this person? Is he dead?"

  "Yes, a beggar, froze to death in the heavy snow last night, just in the alley up ahead. This is already the seventh one found this morning! Damn it, if this old heaven keeps snowing like this, all the beggars on the streets will be dead! Alas, let's go!"

  Left Shao Yang stared blankly as they carried the frozen beggar away, his earlier pleasant mood vanished in an instant. So many vagrants had frozen to death on the streets since early morning, alas, people's lives were indeed hard in ancient times. Turning back to think of himself, if he couldn't pay the rent before New Year's Eve and was evicted with his family, would they also end up with such a fate? A chill suddenly ran down his spine.

  He returned to the kitchen in low spirits, carrying a bucket of water, and silently went out the door. Following the direction indicated by Xiang last night, he turned right at the gate and trudged through the snow that reached his ankles, creaking with each step, looking around to see where the river was. Xiang had said that the well was on the riverbank.

  Across two streets, the view suddenly opens up, a clear and quiet small river winds its way through, with fluffy white snow covering both banks of the river. The grass and reeds along the riverbank are bent over by the accumulated snow. A series of stone steps made of bluestone slabs lead all the way down to the river's edge, where there is a stone archway covered in bluestone, next to which several young women and daughters-in-law are standing, with buckets at their feet, chatting away.

  A round-faced young woman looked up and saw Zuo Shao Yang standing there with a water bucket, smiling: "Hey, it's Little Husband! What are you standing there staring at?" She said, pushing the plump-waisted young woman next to her: "Are you secretly peeking at our little sister? Why don't you come down and take a closer look? Hehehe."

  "You're going to die!" The little sister's fist pounded on the young woman's shoulder, "You dare to make fun of me? Just you wait and see if I don't throw you into the river!"

  The two of them burst out laughing and started fooling around.

  The two lively girls' happy mood infected him, and Zuo Shao Yang temporarily got rid of the gloom in his heart. He stood there with a silly smile on his face, carrying a water bucket, thinking that these Tang Dynasty girls were not inferior to those from the Song Ming period, and they could almost keep up with modern girls.

  As he came down, the two women stopped making a fuss. The young daughter-in-law who had gone ahead to fetch water had already filled the buckets and was carrying them on her shoulders. As she walked past him with a swaying gait, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, giggling, and left behind a trail of fragrance as she went up the stone steps.

  Why are all the water carriers young women? Zuo Shao Yang thought for a moment and suddenly understood that this was during the early years of the Tang Dynasty, after decades of war at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Many young men had died in battle, and many who hadn't died were serving as soldiers, so most households only had women and children.

  It's that little sister's turn now, she held a gourd ladle in her hand, her cheeks flushed red, and smiled at Zuo Shuangyang: "Hey! Come over, you go first. I'll scoop for you!"

  "Oh my, you really know how to make people suffer!" The joking woman chuckled and glanced at Zuo Shuangyang with a slanted gaze. "Hey! Did you hear? My little sister has been waiting for you for a long time and wants to give you the first pick. Aren't you coming over? This water is just the token of love, haha!"

  "I really don't want to live with you!" The little sister fetched a water scoop to hit the young woman, and the two of them giggled and made a big fuss.

  Zuo Shaoyang is also a relatively introverted person in modern society, rarely joking with girls. Wherever he passes by, his face suddenly turns bright red, and he smiles awkwardly: "No, no, you guys go first, you choose first, I'm not in a hurry."

  "Hehe, embarrassed him!"

  Two women listened, and couldn't stop laughing. One of them quickly scooped up water, put it on her shoulder, and with a flirtatious swing of her hips, walked past Lao Shao Yang's side. The joking woman said: "Hey! Young Master Lao, my little sister has heartache, we'll come find you tomorrow to take a good look, okay?"

  "Go on!" Zuo Shaoyang habitually curled up the corners of his mouth and dryly laughed twice, then hastily shook his head and said: "I... I won't diagnose illnesses, my dad doesn't let me diagnose illnesses."

  The two women looked at each other with wide eyes, burst out laughing like a silver bell, and went up the stone steps with their shoulders swaying.

  He was afraid that the two girls would tease him again, so he didn't dare to look back, and quickly filled up the water, carrying it back to the hall, pouring out the water, and then carrying the bucket nervously towards the riverbank, fearing that he would meet those two playful young women again, but in his heart, he was thinking about meeting them and chatting with them.

  Arrived at the riverbank, but didn't see those two women, slightly disappointed. Continued to fetch water several times but still didn't meet them, presumably they had already fetched enough water or perhaps took a different route and missed each other.

  After carrying the water bucket, Zuo Shao Yang was really a bit tired, but he couldn't rest. He took out a long-handled broom from behind the door and swept away the snow near the left side of the entrance, then swept the snow on the road to both sides, and also casually swept away the snow at the entrances of his neighbors' homes.

  At this time, the door of a grocery store opposite also opened, and an old man came out with a broom. He saw that Zuo Shao Yang had already swept away all the snow in front of his own door, and was very surprised: "Ah, big brother, how did you suddenly change your ways? In the past, you were too lazy to even sweep the snow in front of your own door, so why are you being so diligent today and sweeping ours as well?"

  The experience by the river just now left Zuo Shao Yang in a good mood, and he smiled as he swept the snow: "Isn't it nice to be diligent? If you think I'm being too much trouble, next time I won't sweep, leave it for you to slowly enjoy!"

  "Haha! This kid has really changed his ways and is teasing you, Uncle Cai. Haha, thank you so much!"

  Zuo Shaoyang swept the snow clean at the gate, went back to the house, changed a small broom and swept the house, took a rag to wipe off dust.