The two of them sat in silence for a long while.
Cao Wen fixed his gaze, pain, such pain.
He knew that bringing this up so suddenly might be too abrupt, but now that he’d remembered everything, he knew all about the original body’s cowardice, and how he and Zheng Kui had forced Xu Duoyan and her mother.
Now that things had come to this, he couldn’t hesitate and delay Xu Duoyan any longer.
Though marrying and then divorcing was terrible for a girl’s reputation, if Xu Duoyan had hated this marriage from the start, hated every day spent in the Cao Family, and kept living there for the sake of so-called reputation, facing a face she hated every day—wouldn’t that be even more painful?
While it was still early, before anything had happened between them, while she was still young, he offered this solution, and whatever she chose, he would respect her decision.
Xu Duoyan looked at Cao Wen’s calm and earnest face, and once she was sure he wasn’t speaking nonsense, her heart surged with stormy waves.
What did he mean?
What did he mean by “no need to pretend anymore, won’t get close anymore, but still…Divorce…”
So, he knew she was a man now!
Xu Duoyan opened her mouth, a bit dazed.
She couldn’t even be happy, her mind full of suspicion: how did he know?
Did Zheng Kui tell him?
But Zheng Kui also…
“You’re a good girl. No matter what you decide, I won’t blame you. It was my fault before, I shouldn’t have bullied you and your mother, forcing you to marry in.”
Hearing this, Xu Duoyan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
So, he didn’t know after all.
But then why bring up divorce!
Xu Duoyan felt a strange, indescribable feeling in her heart, and thought,
“He said he likes me, but if he really liked me, how could he suggest divorce?”
She really was being self-indulgent, all for nothing.
But why bring up divorce out of nowhere?
Did he think she was just a troublemaker, that she’d caused him to fall out with his cousin and now he was sick of her?
Or did he just want a clean break, so Zheng Kui wouldn’t come looking for trouble at their house anymore?
Well, after all, they’d been cousins for years, even if they fought, they were still family, there was always a chance to make up.
Unlike her, who was always an outsider.
He could just divorce and marry someone else, and now that he could earn money, it’d be easy for him.
That was fine, anyway, she hadn’t wanted to come to the Cao Family in the first place.
If it hadn’t been for the two brothers’ relentless pressure, she wouldn’t have married for that bit of Dowry money.
It was over.
If she’d really been so desperate for money, she’d have seduced someone or found a high bidder to cheat.
Xu Duoyan didn’t say a word, but with a bit of stubbornness, nodded her head immediately.
All these days in the Cao Family, she hadn’t lost a thing, in fact, she’d lived pretty well, and now she could divorce and go back home easily, it couldn’t be better.
Anyway, she didn’t care about what people said, she’d just save up some money and leave town when the time came.
But when everything appeared so simple, right before her eyes, without any difficulty, she found she wasn’t as happy as she’d imagined.
Cao Wen, getting Xu Duoyan’s answer, suddenly looked up.
He gritted his teeth—she really, she didn’t ask or say anything, didn’t even hesitate for a moment before nodding.
Had he really not treated her well these days?
Even if she wanted to leave, couldn’t she at least hesitate a few seconds and pretend it was hard for her, just to pay back the sincere way he’d treated her as a wife?
Thunder rumbled.
Cao Wen’s mouth tasted bitter, but he still kept up a man’s composure and dignity: “Alright, I’ll go write the Divorce Certificate.”
With that, he strode into the house.
Xu Duoyan glanced at his back, but didn’t follow.
The wind outside whipped the trees in the wild, the sky darkening, dense clouds at the horizon rumbling with muffled thunder.
In summer, such winds and skies often meant a thunderstorm was coming.
Xu Duoyan took a deep breath, suppressing her untimely emotions, telling herself to hurry and pack up, so when she got the Divorce Certificate she could go home quickly and not get caught in the rain.
She looked at the clothes fluttering in the courtyard wind, thinking that the last thing she could do for him was to collect the clothes for him.
In just a short while, they’d already dried.
Hugging the clothes as she went inside, Xu Duoyan saw Cao Wen standing at the door, awkwardly glancing at her.
“All set? I’ll sign and stamp it right away.”
Cao Wen coughed: “There’s no paper or brush in the house.”
Xu Duoyan: But it wasn’t a scholar’s home, so it was normal not to have paper or brush.
“Just let me know when you’ve prepared it, and I’ll sign.”
Cao Wen nodded.
“I’ll go home first, then.”
Cao Wen’s eyes widened: “You’re leaving already? The wind’s picking up outside, it’s about to pour.”
Of course Xu Duoyan knew—a storm was coming, but she wasn’t worried about her mother being afraid of the rain.
It was just that their thatched, broken house would leak everywhere once it rained.
Her mother would start coughing, and then she’d have to run around catching the leaks, plugging the drips—how could she stand such torment?
“Wait till the rain’s over before you go.”
Xu Duoyan shook her head and went inside to pack up.
Seeing this, Cao Wen sat in the main room chair, sulking and refusing to pay her any more attention.
Xu Duoyan had come with a small bundle, and left with the same bundle.
As she was leaving, she glanced at the person sitting quietly in the room, wanting to say something, but he turned his head away, so she just tightened her bundle and left.
“Wait.”
Xu Duoyan reached the fence gate, but heard him call, and then he handed her an oil-paper umbrella.
She wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, but seeing Cao Wen, she still took the umbrella.
Cao Wen gripped the umbrella handle, looking deeply at Xu Duoyan.
“Everything I said still counts. If anyone bullies you in the future, tell me, I’ll definitely help you deal with it. Take care.”
Xu Duoyan’s lips trembled, she snatched the umbrella and hurried off, afraid that if she lingered even a moment longer, she’d waver.
Watching her walk farther and farther away, Cao Wen leaned gloomily against the fence, his heart full of bitterness.
She really hated him.
Not only did she agree to the Divorce, but she even packed up and rushed home before the Divorce Certificate was even signed, as if she was afraid she’d be stuck if she waited a moment longer.
She didn’t even stay for lunch.
The leftover pork lung from yesterday’s pig slaughter hadn’t been eaten, and he’d bought noodles and the salt she’d asked for.
Even the wind and rain couldn’t make her stay—she was determined to go home.
Cao Wen couldn’t help but feel disheartened.
Maybe she’d liked someone else even before marrying him.
She wouldn’t go and remarry in just three days after going back, would she!
Years ago, after years of war, countless soldiers died on the battlefield, common folk were displaced, and uncountable numbers died of hunger and disease.
The population dropped drastically.
After the wars ended, the Emperor, to encourage population growth, issued orders encouraging childbirth and widows’ Remarriage.
Now, widows remarrying was common, and no one dared say otherwise—it was encouraged by the Imperial Court, after all.
Xu Duoyan was good-looking and had nothing bad about her, so surely…
Thinking of this, Cao Wen’s heart grew more complicated.
In the afternoon, a flash of lightning cut through the daylight, followed by a thunderous crack that made him jump.
Thunder in broad daylight with no warning flash, just a sudden boom, sent chills down his spine.
After the thunder, big raindrops started pounding down, and soon the wilds were echoing with the sound.
Cao Wen, who was eating in the main room, put down his chopsticks at the sound, watching the gray curtain of rain outside, calculating that Xu Duoyan should be home by now.
Thinking she shouldn’t have gotten wet, he felt a little relieved, but had no appetite to eat.
He left the food on the table and wandered to the eaves, quietly watching the steady drip of water turn into a continuous curtain.
The rain was heavy enough, but with the wind and thunder, it felt as if heaven and earth were merging into one.
Cao Wen thought that with rain like this, there was no way to go out, and since it was still early, he might as well take a nap.
He glanced at the hen squatting in the corner under the eaves, its tail and wings damp—maybe it had gone out in the rain just now for fun.
It looked miserable, and man and chicken stared at each other.
Cao Wen sighed, thinking he should take the chicken into the kitchen to shelter under the stove.
But when he looked in, he saw water dripping inside too—somewhere the roof had sprung a leak, and rainwater was running in.
Leaking.
Thinking of the grain he’d just brought home today, Cao Wen realized how serious it was and rushed inside.
The mud-brick thatched house was cool and breezy in summer, but when it rained, you learned the misery of poverty.
On good days, aside from more mosquitoes, it didn’t seem so bad.
But when it rained, you realized everywhere was broken.
Cao Wen used the biggest washbasin to cover the rice and flour, then rushed to the bedroom to put smaller basins on top of the bed to catch leaks, then went to plug the leaks in the firewood pile under the stove.
The house wasn’t leaking badly, but there were many spots dripping.
With limited containers, he could only cover the most important places first, then fetched a ladder—climbing up to patch from inside.
He spent the whole afternoon patching the roof.
By dinnertime, the rain finally started to ease.
Big-bodied, thin-winged flood moths filled the yard and eaves, and the hen, dozing in the corner, blinked at him when he came out.
Cao Wen gulped down a bowl of water, stood under the eaves with his hands on his hips, watching the rain lighten against the gray sky.
He wasn’t sure if it was patching the roof all afternoon or what, but his heart was restless.
The storm had swept away the summer heat, but the fire in his heart wouldn’t go out.
He wandered from front to back room, annoyed by the early hour and the stuffiness inside, so he shut the door, pulled his straw hat off the wall, and stepped into the drizzle.
With the river and fields sure to be swollen after today’s rain, and the oxygen in deep water reduced, fish and shrimp would swim to the edges for air and bugs—perfect for catching them.
Maybe catching a couple of fish to make soup would cheer him up.
Leaving home, Cao Wen realized just how fierce the afternoon storm had been.
The village roads were all muddy, little streams everywhere, and the late-planted rice seedlings were battered flat.
Everywhere there were broken branches and even uprooted trees.
Passing by, he saw every household busy patching their roofs, people climbing up and down.
Though the rain was a blessing after a drought, it was so fierce it almost did more harm than good.
Walking along the riverbank, Cao Wen watched the post-rain countryside, every household busy with repairs, and he couldn’t help but worry about Xu Duoyan’s home.
He’d been to the Xu Family once; their house was hardly better than a tenant farmer’s.
With such heavy rain, they couldn’t have escaped disaster.
It wouldn’t be easy for mother and daughter to fix the roof, climbing up and down, and if they fell, what would happen?
Maybe…
No!
He’d just talked about divorce, and now he was running to his ex-wife—what was that about?
Cao Wen quickly scolded himself, but just then the splash of something in the river caught his attention.
He jumped off the ridge to the riverbank.
As expected, the river was swollen, the waterline much higher than usual, covering the rocks and even flooding the grass at the edge.
A few silver-backed grass carp were hiding their heads in the grass, struggling against the current.
If it hadn’t been for the splash, it would’ve been hard to spot them.
Cao Wen crept closer, put down his basket and straw hat, and tiptoed along the riverbank.
With the water rushing and the drizzle still falling, the fish were less alert than usual, and Cao Wen, in a sudden leap, pinned down two fish—barehanded fishing was all about speed, precision, and force!
He grabbed them by the gills and hauled them out, and the other fish, startled, darted away into the current.
Judging by the commotion, there must’ve been at least four or five.
But with two in hand, he wasn’t greedy.
Both fish were lively, each about two or three jin.
Afraid they’d escape, he quickly put them in his basket.
Two or three jin of river fish wasn’t huge, but the village river was only a meter or so wide, usually shallow, and the deeper spots were always busy with people washing clothes or vegetables, so big fish were rare.
Even if there were fish, they were just an inch or two long, and only old men with patience could catch them—getting two for soup in an afternoon was great.
Cao Wen looked around to see if there were more, when suddenly a faintly translucent red appeared—a red-tailed carp was swept over by the current.
He waited at one end and intercepted it as it came.
The carp wasn’t as big as the grass carp, but it was fat and perfect for soup.
Fish after fish, and Cao Wen realized these weren’t river fish at all.
The storm must’ve broken a fish pond upstream, and the farmed fish had escaped.
Looking at the three fish in his basket, Cao Wen knew that even if he took them home, no one could prove they’d come from someone else’s pond.
But after all, someone had raised them with hard work.
There was no fish feed now, just grass cut for the fish.
It wasn’t easy for poor farmers to raise livestock or fish, and if the fish escaped, all that work was for nothing.
Thinking of this, he decided to do the right thing and walked upstream to find which pond the fish had come from.
He’d let the owner know, so maybe some fish could be recovered.
It turned out to be the Qian Family’s big fish pond, usually managed by Zheng Kui.
He remembered how Zheng Kui used to order the Qian Family’s tenants to cut grass for the fish and keep the pond’s edge weed-free.
Cao Wen rolled his eyes: what bad luck!
Without another word, he carried his basket home, then, when no one was looking, took another basket and dustpan back to the river.
He set the dustpan in the river on the slope nearest the fish pond, and the two- or three-inch carp and crucian swept out of the Qian Family’s pond fell right in.
When the dustpan was full, he dumped them into a basket lined with banana leaves and went back for more.
He repeated this seven or eight times, and as dusk fell and the rain threatened to return, he finally carried his basket home.
By then, the sky was dark, the wind carried fine rain, and it was getting heavier—another big storm was coming.
But even if it rained all night, Cao Wen wasn’t worried.
He’d spent the afternoon repairing the roof, patching every weak spot.
Thatched and even tiled houses needed constant checking and patching—none were very sturdy, and over time, problems multiplied.
He lit an oil lamp, carefully covering it with a lampshade.
In the warm yellow light, the fish in the vat looked gilded, clustered together in a lively group.
If he wasn’t afraid of the Qian Family coming to make trouble, Cao Wen would’ve told all the tenants to catch fish from the river—after being worked like beasts for the Qian Family, they deserved a little reward.
But since it couldn’t be made public, it was just a matter of luck—if someone happened to see the fish in the river, they’d be lucky.
Cao Wen stood with his hands on his hips, pondering what to do with the fish.
Selling them in town was out of the question; too many people, and word would get back to the Qian Family.
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