Chapter 38: offend

After the experience of the rabbit being harmed by wild animals last time, when the other mother rabbit was about to give birth, Kang He arranged the hutch in advance with extra care, guarding against wild cats, weasels, and other such creatures from the mountain.

The two mother rabbits gave birth only about half a month apart, but by the time the four new kits were born, the three from the earlier litter already had full coats of fur, though they hadn’t learned to eat grass yet.

Now, with two litters in the house, there were a total of ten rabbits. Although it was still uncertain how many of the seven kits would survive to be sold, the number had finally gone up.

Kang He added partitions in the hutch to separate the three adult rabbits, mainly to keep the buck apart.

This was because rabbits breed quickly, and the doe could become pregnant again immediately after giving birth.

Fan Jing watched him work on the hutch and, upon hearing this, said, “If they can get pregnant right away, wouldn’t keeping them together mean even more kits sooner?”

Kang He replied, “That may be so, but breeding too frequently is bound to harm the mother’s body. People always say ‘three years, two children’ sounds nice, but who really knows the pain of childbirth behind closed doors?”

Fan Jing had nothing to say to that.

Kang He continued working on the hutch and instructed Juner that the kits would start eating grass after twenty days. She should cut some mushu, dry it, and feed it to them. Eating it would help the young rabbits grow better.

They mustn’t be fed fruit or other things with too much moisture, as that could cause diarrhea and, if untreated, death.

When the kits reached about two months old, they’d need to be separated, as rabbits mature quickly. If siblings weren’t separated, it would lead to inbreeding.

Juner was attentive and remembered everything carefully.

Qiaor had gone with Chen Shi to the town early in the morning to sell Steamed Bean Curd. The little girl had a sweet tongue and was good at calling out to customers, helping Chen Shi with the selling.

Juner, however, was shy in town. She found it hard to speak up when customers came by, let alone shout to attract business. She felt she wouldn’t be of much help in town, so she preferred to stay home and do chores.

Now, with so many chickens and ducks, plus ten rabbits of various sizes, a pig in the pen, and a young donkey, there was plenty to do each day.

The donkey needed grass, the pig needed to be fed, the chicken and duck droppings needed to be cleaned… There was always plenty of work.

These things had to be done by someone, and Juner was happy to stay home and do housework. She wasn’t good with words, but she was diligent and quick with her hands, so she could get things done.

Kang He tried to teach everything he knew to the family, just in case he and Fan Jing went up the Mountain and no one at home knew how to take care of the rabbits.

After all, getting to the point where they could breed had taken a lot of effort.

Just as they were in high spirits talking about it, Fan Father came running in from outside. He hadn’t even stepped into the courtyard before his voice rang out.

“This is bad, this is bad!”

Kang He and Fan Jing, who were in the backyard, both looked outside in surprise. Fan Father was usually slow and easygoing, rarely ever this anxious.

They dropped what they were doing and hurried out.

“Father, what’s wrong?”

Fan Father was clearly just back from the fields, wearing straw sandals caked in mud, with one pant leg higher than the other.

Fan Shoulin, seeing Kang He and Fan Jing, quickly said, “That Sun Dasheng, he’s dead!”

“What?”

Kang He couldn’t help but ask when he heard the news, and Fan Jing frowned tightly.

Fan Shoulin swallowed and said, “It’s that guy from the other village, the one Da Jing was supposed to meet before—Qin Xiaozhi. He was out hunting in the Valley and saw him.”

“He was lying in the Valley, half-buried by leaves and branches. Qin Xiaozhi shot a pheasant, went to pick it up, and saw some clothes. He thought it was strange, so he dug through the branches and leaves—turned out, it was a person. The body was already decomposing; no one knows how long he’s been dead!”

Kang He and Fan Jing exchanged glances after hearing this.

Juner was frightened and didn’t dare listen any further.

“Are you sure it’s him?” Kang He asked Fan Father.

“Qin Xiaozhi came to the Village to tell us. I was in the fields and just happened to run into him. Li Zheng has already gathered some people to go up the Mountain with Qin Xiaozhi, and he told everyone not to gossip around Sun Dasheng’s mother.”

Even though Fan Shoulin disliked Sun Dasheng, it still made him uneasy for something like this to happen in the Village.

He couldn’t help but worry, “Da Jing, with Sun Dasheng dying on the Mountain, do you think Li Zheng will blame our family?”

Fan Jing said nothing.

Kang He replied, “Life on the Mountain is always uncertain. It’s not like we killed him. Even if you want to blame someone, it shouldn’t fall on us.”

Fan Father said, “Sanlang, you don’t know—Sun Dasheng was Li Zheng’s cousin. When he went up the Mountain, Li Zheng even asked our Da Jing to look after him.”

“How are we supposed to look after him? Even if the Mountain isn’t hundreds of li across, just one peak is several li wide. He has two legs—today he’s here, tomorrow he’s there. Are we supposed to follow him everywhere? Only if you hire a servant to stay by his side could you do that.”

“And besides, the place where the Qin Family boy hunts is far from where we go. I’ve been up the Mountain so many times and never once gone there. Why did something happen to him there?”

“Don’t worry, Father. This can’t be blamed on us.”

Fan Father felt a little more at ease after hearing Kang He’s words, but he still looked worried.

“Well, when they bring the body back, let’s go take a look.”

Sun Dasheng had annoyed him from the start, and after hearing from Zhang Shili about his usury and the way he forced himself on good women, he disliked him even more.

Now, hearing he was dead, Kang He felt it was justice and didn’t want to get involved in his affairs.

Still, it was proper to offer condolences, especially since his mother had lost her husband and now her son.

Most importantly, as Fan Father said, it was a matter of respect for the family.

So Kang He and Fan Jing discussed it. Even though Li Zheng hadn’t called them to help, they decided to go up the Mountain anyway, since they knew the place well.

The news of Sun Dasheng’s death spread quickly through the Village. No one shouted about it, but everyone was talking.

Sun Dasheng’s mother, Ren Shi, eventually heard the news. She hadn’t even seen the body yet and had already cried several times. The villagers, afraid she might do something rash, kept an eye on her.

When it was almost dark, the group that had gone up the Mountain finally returned.

Two men in the group carried a stretcher covered with a cloth.

Li Zheng, Chen Yushun, wore a very somber expression, more serious than usual.

“My son!”

Before the stretcher even reached the Sun Family house, Ren Shi rushed out, pushed past everyone, pulled back the cloth, and, seeing the familiar clothes, broke into a loud, wailing cry.

The crowd hurried to support and comfort her as she fainted and revived several times in her grief.

Exhausted, she leaned against the bed, tears streaming, clutching Chen Yushun’s hand. “Yushun, little brother, now that Dasheng is gone, how can I go on? When I was young, I had no say in things. Now, in my old age, I have to suffer through this. Why is my life so bitter?”

Seeing his cousin in tears, Chen Yushun also felt miserable inside.

“Life is unpredictable. Don’t grieve too much and harm your health. I’m still here for you.”

Chen Yushun’s wife, Xiao Shi, heard that Sun Dasheng’s body had been brought back and went to the Sun Family, only to walk in on this scene.

Hearing Ren Shi call her husband “Yushun, little brother” over and over, and seeing Chen Yushun act as if he himself had lost a son, Xiao Shi couldn’t help but scowl.

But on such a day, there was nothing to be said.

Sun Dasheng’s death on the Mountain was strange and unclear. Chen Yushun called for The Coroner to conduct The Autopsy. The verdict was death by misadventure—he slipped, fell unconscious, lost too much blood, and no one found him in time. It was not a case of homicide.

The body had been dead for some time and was already in poor condition. It couldn’t be kept at home for long, so arrangements were made for burial as soon as possible.

On the day of The Funeral, everyone in the Village came to pay their respects out of regard for Chen Yushun.

“Dasheng’s passing is a real blow to the whole community. My heart has felt like it’s being fried in oil these past days. Li Zheng entrusted him to us, and we didn’t take good enough care of him.” When the Fan Family came to offer condolences, Fan Father brought generous gifts and apologized to Chen Yushun.

This should have been done by Fan Jing and Kang He, but the family knew Fan Jing’s temper and feared he might offend someone, so Kang He, always a considerate person, didn’t want to go either. In the end, Fan Father had no choice but to ask his brother Fan Shoulin to go with him to apologize to Chen Yushun.

Chen Yushun didn’t blame them. On the day of the incident, Kang He and Fan Jing had gone up the Mountain to help, and the Fan Family had brought gifts for The Funeral, fulfilling all social obligations.

He was about to say a few polite words when Ren Shi’s sharp voice rang out: “What’s the point of pretending to be so kind! My Dasheng died because of you!”

Ren Shi’s loud accusations at the funeral caught everyone’s attention.

“Madam Ren, everyone in the Village is grieving for Dasheng. But even in your sorrow, you shouldn’t say such things!” Fan Father was startled and his brother Fan Shoushan quickly tried to defend them, saying such an accusation was too much to bear.

Ren Shi, eyes red and furious, pointed at them.

“When Dasheng didn’t come home, I was so worried. I asked you two to help look for him. You scolded me, a Widow, for trying to use Li Zheng’s influence, and as neighbors, you wouldn’t even do this little favor.”

“If you’d just agreed to go then, would my son have lain in the Valley, exposed to the elements, for so long? Now you show your faces here—are you trying to stab me in the heart on purpose?”

Ren Shi’s grief over her son’s death had nowhere to go, so she blamed Kang He and Fan Jing.

Kang He hadn’t wanted to come in the first place—it was only because Fan Father insisted on keeping up appearances that he did. Now, hearing Ren Shi accuse them, he didn’t want to speak, preferring to let his elders handle it. But finally, he couldn’t hold back.

With Li Zheng and the Sun Family supporting her, and the whole Village gathered at the funeral, even if she cursed them, he wouldn’t say a word. But he replied, “Madam Ren, one should act with a clear conscience. You say we scolded you for using Li Zheng’s influence, but everyone knows what kind of person Li Zheng is. If you want to blame us, so be it, but why smear Li Zheng’s name too?”

“When did I smear Li Zheng… you have a wicked tongue!” Ren Shi wanted to curse him, but for a moment, she didn’t know what to say.

Chen Yushun was left speechless as well.

At this point, Kang He said, “We only came to offer condolences out of respect for our neighbors. If Madam Ren can’t bear to see us, then we’ll leave.”

With that, they really left without eating a single bite at the Sun Family’s house.

Everyone who’d come to pay their respects was silent after this scene.

Seeing Fan Jing and Kang He driven away without even a meal, most felt Ren Shi had gone too far.

They thought, Fan Jing had been working on the Mountain for years and had always looked out for newcomers like Sun Dasheng. How could he suddenly refuse to help, as Ren Shi claimed? How could he have said such harsh words?

Just because Fan Jing and Sun Dasheng were both on the Mountain, and he didn’t look after Sun Dasheng, she blamed him for the death? If Sun Dasheng had died in the Village, would she blame everyone for not taking care of him?

No one knew if Fan Jing and Kang He were really as harsh as Ren Shi claimed, but everyone saw that when trouble came, they helped bring the body back.

Still, there were some who envied the Fan Family’s improving fortunes and thought, if not for Ren Shi’s accusations, why would Fan Shoulin bring generous gifts to apologize to Li Zheng? Clearly, they felt guilty.

But since the dead must be respected, no outsiders dared to get involved in the quarrel between the two families. They just tried to smooth things over, “Madam Ren is just overcome with grief.”

“We’re all neighbors—harmony brings wealth…”

Chen Yushun said nothing, and no one knew what he was thinking.

With so many households in the Village, quarrels were common, but most were forgotten the next day.

Kang He and Fan Jing figured they had little to do with the Sun Family anyway. Sun Dasheng was a beast, and his mother wasn’t reasonable either. They decided not to associate with Ren Shi anymore.

With spring busy for every farming family, this matter soon faded from everyone’s minds.

In the last ten days of the third month, the Village was abuzz with news that the County Office, to increase taxes, had reallocated much of the Wasteland to the local villages.

Depending on the quality of the land, it was sold below market price.

Anyone with the money could register to buy land with Li Zheng.

“Did you find out what price the Wasteland is going for?” Chen Shi couldn’t help but ask as soon as Fan Father came home.

“I heard from the folks at Li Zheng’s that barren land goes for eight strings of coins per mu, and the better barren land for ten strings.”

Chen Shi was delighted. “That’s really below market price. Now that it’s peaceful and land is valuable, even the worst Wasteland outside goes for ten strings a mu. The Court is selling it for two strings less!”

Fan Father nodded, saying this price was sure to please the farmers.

And The Law of Land Sale from The Court forbade local gentry from buying up all the land, to prevent too much land from falling into a few hands.

This way, ordinary households could buy land without fear of the gentry grabbing it all, hiring tenant farmers, and squeezing the poor.

The Fan Family looked into the matter, not just to follow the crowd—they wanted to buy land too.

That night, the family gathered to discuss it.

“We have seven mu of land for six people, and now we’ve got half a mu planted with Steamed Bean Curd—things are tight,” said Fan Father. “Even one more mu would be a relief.”

They’d wanted more land for a while, but couldn’t afford it before.

Even reclaimed Good Land cost fifteen or sixteen strings per mu, and Wasteland had gone for ten.

“Now’s the time, with prices low. Buying Wasteland is extra work, but the two mu we have now were once sandy, unwanted land. We reclaimed it and it’s been good these years—one mu can yield two strings a year.”

Kang He was pleased to hear the family wanted to buy land. Fan Father was willing to invest in farming, not just drift through each day.

“For a farming family, land is the foundation. One mu only brings in one to three strings a year, and it takes years to earn back the purchase price, but land is always there. If you sell later, it’s a big sum.”

“Exactly,” Fan Father agreed, though he hesitated. “Your mother and I only have enough for three-tenths of a mu. I don’t know if they’ll let us buy so little. Your uncle’s family is also buying, and they’ve sent Xiangxiu to fetch money from home—they won’t lend us any.”

Kang He understood what Fan Father meant. “Fan Jing and I have some money. Land is a big deal—let’s pool our resources and buy it together.”

Fan Father looked at Fan Jing, who said nothing and let Kang He decide. He felt reassured.

So the family planned to put together fourteen strings and try to buy one and a half mu.

Kang He and Fan Jing put in eleven strings, and Chen Shi and Fan Father scraped together three more.

It was only because of their small business these last two months that they had any savings at all.

After buying the land, Kang He and Fan Jing’s money would be tight, but money left in the box wouldn’t grow—they’d just have to keep working.

Fan Shoulin took the family’s silver and hurried to Li Zheng, Chen Yushun’s house, which was bustling like a banquet.

Everyone in the Village, whether they had money or not, was flocking there.

“So, how much has been sold?” Fan Shoulin asked the group of idlers in the courtyard.

“The Zhao Family bought a mu, the Qian Family bought seven-tenths, Old Zhang bought half a mu…”

Everyone was enthusiastically listing which families had bought how much, and who planned to buy more.

“Fan Second, you’re buying land too?” someone asked. “Didn’t your family just buy a donkey last month?”

Fan Shoulin replied, “Bought a donkey but have no land to farm—now’s the time to put it to use.”

“How much are you buying? Want help reclaiming it?” the villagers joked.

Fan Shoulin ignored their teasing and didn’t say how much he was buying, but went straight into the Village Hall at the Chen house.

Chen Yushun was registering buyers at a table, surrounded by villagers. Fan Shoulin squeezed his way in.

“If you’re not buying, don’t crowd in here—you’re smudging the ink! What are you doing here?” Chen Yushun snapped, frustrated after a long day of work.

Fan Shoulin felt like Chen Yushun was picking on him and instinctively shrank back, but then straightened up again.

“Fan Second, you’re buying land?” Chen Yushun called when he didn’t leave.

“Uh… yes!”

Chen Yushun frowned, “How much?”

“I heard we don’t have to buy a full mu. I want one and a half mu.”

“Old Fan, you’re something, buying that much!” the others said. Most were only buying a few tenths of a mu, rarely a whole mu.

Fan Shoulin was proud but kept a straight face. “Our land is tight. Now that the County Office is selling to us at a good price, even if we have to borrow, we’ll buy it.”

Chen Yushun said, “Did you bring the money? Once you’re registered, you have to pay—no IOUs, not like tax season when you get reminders.”

Fan Shoulin felt a bit embarrassed; in tough times, he’d delayed paying taxes before. But he quickly pulled out the money. “I brought it—all of it.”

Chen Yushun eyed him, then asked, “Are you buying for yourself, or someone else?”

“What do you mean?” Fan Shoulin asked.

Chen Yushun, busy with his work, didn’t look up. “The County Office is strict about not letting the gentry buy up land through others. If you’re buying for someone else, and they find out, you’ll be fined or jailed—so think carefully.”

The room fell silent.

Fan Shoulin, who had only been a little embarrassed before, now felt truly ashamed.

No one had said this to the other villagers, but now Chen Yushun seemed to be accusing him of being someone’s lackey, buying land for the gentry.

The Fan Family might have been poor before, but now they’d saved up honestly. Was it so wrong to buy a little more land than others?

Fan Shoulin felt humiliated but didn’t dare argue. He just stood there, face darkening.

Chen Yushun pressed, “So, Fan Second, you really want one and a half mu, and you’re not buying for someone else?”

“I’m buying for my own family to farm.”

“Don’t go selling it to someone else in a few months, or I’ll have to come check your land,” Chen Yushun said. “The County Office is strict, and as Li Zheng, I have to do my job.”

The others in the room whispered among themselves. Those who could afford land were all decent families, and they could all sense Chen Yushun’s attitude toward the Fan Family.

No one spoke up for Fan Shoulin. Instead, they flattered Chen Yushun: “Li Zheng works so hard for the Village. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have this chance.”

Fan Shoulin, who had gone out happy, returned home much earlier than expected, feeling dejected.

Chen Shi was at home making Steamed Bean Curd and hadn’t gone to buy land, trusting Fan Shoulin to handle it.

When she saw him back so soon, she was puzzled. “It’s done already? Didn’t you stop to chat with the others?”

Kang He and Fan Jing had just come back from the fields. They’d seen Fan Father leave full of spirit, but now he looked like a drowned rat.

“What’s wrong, Father? Didn’t you get the land?”

“I got it. In a couple days, we’ll go to the West Suburb for the survey.” He told them what happened at the Chen house.

Chen Shi, who’d been happy, slammed the basin down on the stool. “What’s Chen Yushun’s problem? Wasn’t he just looking down on us in front of everyone?”

“He’s always looked down on us. I bet he’s still holding a grudge over Sun Dasheng’s death! What bad luck—looks like we’ll have to be careful around the Chen Family from now on.”

Kang He frowned. Chen Yushun hadn’t said anything at the time, but it seemed he’d taken his cousin’s words to heart and was now holding a grudge. He couldn’t think of anything else they might have done to offend the Chen Family.

Fan Shoulin, humiliated in front of everyone, couldn’t get over it and shut himself in his room, skipping dinner.

He stayed home for two days, not even drinking, and the family left him alone, knowing he’d been wronged.

On the third day, the Village began surveying the land, and he pulled himself together and went out.

Kang He and Fan Jing, still worried, followed after him.