Inside the camp, the bells beneath the livestock’s necks rang out crisply, from morning to noon to evening, the clear blue sky gradually deepening into grey.

Several women returned from the stream, cradling washtubs of laundered clothes in their arms, leading their own “property” by hand, their voices as gentle as if calling to their own children as they spoke to the sheep.

“Don’t you dare wander off, or the people in that camp will catch you — tonight they’ll turn you into mutton soup, hee hee!”

They laughed together and slowly wandered off into the distance…

Smoke rose from the camp kitchens, the smell of salt from the big pots of stew drifting out, drawing a wave of swallowing throats.

Dinner was served. Meng Wanquan ran back to camp, got his own portion, and personally carried it out to the old lady. He himself had nothing to eat — he just went bowl to bowl, taking a mouthful here and a mouthful there, until he’d made his way around and was about half full.

Teacher Cheng felt sorry for the poor fool and gave him his own portion of fine-grain steamed bun. Meng Wanquan couldn’t bear to eat it himself and gave it to the old lady instead, who tucked it into her robe to save for when Qiqian’er came back to eat.

Seeing the old lady utterly distracted with worry, Meng Wanquan felt for her all day, full of guilt all day, so he went back to camp and pinched a bit of tobacco from this person and that, gathering together half a pouch’s worth for the old lady. He came back and packed her a full pipe to comfort her, saying, “If you’re tired, go on back and rest — I’ll keep watch.”

The old lady looked at him and asked, for perhaps the tenth time, the question she’d already asked dozens of times: “Wanquan, tell me, they left at mealtime — what hour is it now?”

Meng Wanquan answered without a trace of impatience, “The hour of bu.”

The old lady took a drag, puffed out a cloud of smoke and smiled. “This hour already, huh — they’ll be back soon. Nothing to worry about, just wait. That child doesn’t know you well — if she comes back and there’s not even one familiar face waiting at the crossroads to look out for her, she’d feel so lost and anxious…”

Meng Wanquan nodded, and looked off into the distance with her, asking slowly, “Is she really that good?”

“Good!” The old lady nodded with certainty. “She said she’d take care of me in my old age.”

The old lady’s tone was filled with a settled sense of peace from now on; the moment she said it, even the empty clouds seemed to take on color.

Meng Wanquan was happy too, and said with a smile, “Well, that’s good then — she’s a filial one.”

“Mm, good…”

The old lady’s brow was smooth and untroubled. She knew, she was certain, that the one she was waiting for would surely come back — whole and complete, not missing an arm or a leg, she would come back.

Several fast horses came from the distance, the riders cracking their whips, galloping into the camp with a great whoop, the ground shaking beneath them. At that very moment, Qiao Shi came slowly from the estate in the distance.

Qiao Shi walked up to the ancestral hall entrance, showed off a bowl of hot noodle soup, handed the Xique on her back over to a woman to look after, and then swayed her way gently toward the big willow tree.

As she drew near, she didn’t speak to the old lady first, but instead said with a light laugh to Meng Wanquan, “Wanquan, you’re here too.”

She always had a certain confidence when it came to men — especially this bunch of rough soldiers who’d gone so long without a woman around, their nerves strung tight; they were the least able to withstand gentleness. It seemed that the moment they encountered softness, it could draw out endless pity and total submission from these tough men.

Si Niu was just like that — he’d melt the moment he threw himself against her, pressing his whole body tight against her bones and flesh, even in his sleep he had to search against her chest, like a child startled awake in the night, crying out, reaching a hand out and finding his mother again — only then could he sleep peacefully through the night.

That grown man would often sob quietly in his sleep, and she would hold him against her chest like a child and soothe him, patting him again and again, saying, Si Lang, Si Lang, don’t be afraid… Si Lang, Mother’s here…

And the man would softly sob out “Mother” and fall back into a deep sleep.

Sometimes Qiao Shi couldn’t understand it — Chen Si Niu’s own mother was right next door, so why did he always search for his mother in her body instead?

Later, one day, she overheard the old lady say something offhand and suddenly understood.

That day the old lady had told someone, back when I was home, I was the gentlest of women too — go ask Si Niu, when he and his brothers used to misbehave, could I ever bear to slap them?

Ah, so that was it. The mother in Si Niu’s memory was the Chen Wu Shi of peaceful village days, not this present Chen Wu Shi who’d been through war and turned fierce and hardened.

From then on, Qiao Shi had grown more cunning about it — she learned the flavor of the old lady’s cooking, learned the old lady’s manner of doing housework… Now, Chen Si Niu couldn’t do without her.

Today, she once again called out to Meng Wanquan in that same gentle, loving tone… no man in the whole camp could withstand that.

… A few crickets sang merrily somewhere in the distant grass.

In the past, Meng Wanquan had truly been shy around Qiao Shi, though he’d still respected her, and because of the old lady’s “mistreatment” of her, he’d secretly slipped her extra help many times.

But today was different from before. Qiao Shi turned on the gentleness, yet Meng Wanquan didn’t even turn his head, as if struck mute by heaven and earth, and simply left Qiao Shi hanging there.

Standing there awkwardly, her calculations thrown off balance, she stood a moment before laughing it off again, and said to the old lady, “What’s this now — old lady, come quick and look, I made you fine noodle soup, see here, the last bit of sesame oil we had left at home, I put it all in for you — try it, see if it tastes good.”

Hearing this, the old lady finally turned her face and glanced at her, said nothing, but took the bowl of soup and set it aside…

This grain had partly been hers to begin with — why shouldn’t she eat it.

Qiao Shi looked at the bowl of soup, then at Meng Wanquan, then at the women watching from afar, and felt a bitter resentment welling up inside. She took out a handkerchief, faded from washing, from beneath her collar, and dabbed at sweat that wasn’t there, still smiling brightly.

After laughing a few times with no response, she said, “Ah, look how late it’s gotten — Wanquan, have you eaten yet? If not, my portion’s still untouched, warming on the fire — should I bring it to you?”

Meng Wanquan said nothing, not daring to make a sound.

Qiao Shi, looking for another way out, glanced off into the distance and said, “Ah, look how late it’s gotten, hurry and get the old lady something hot. Old lady won’t eat, and you, her foster grandson, won’t even coax her into it… This Qian’er really has no sense of propriety — not that I’m one to talk, old lady, but you really are too trusting. What does she know of the world, a young girl still so naive — if she’s not careful and gets tricked by someone, that would be no small matter. That’s a whole camp of unmarried soldiers, and we haven’t even had the wedding ceremony yet…”

In the past, the old lady and Qiao Shi had fought nearly every day — the old lady would curse her, hit her — but secretly, it was the old lady who came out the worse for it. Blunt and straightforward as she was, she was no match for this merchant-family girl from the county town; every time she suffered in silence, and grew ever more determined to find ways to be petty in turn, only daring to strike Qiao Shi when there was a crowd to back her up, since Qiao Shi liked to put on a show in front of others.

There was one thing the old lady had never told anyone: Qiao Shi hit her too, ruthlessly, twisting hard, always when no one was around, pinching the flesh under her arms, tormenting the flesh of her inner thighs — at her age, she couldn’t very well go around stripping off her clothes to show people the marks.

This world was strange like that — no humanity, no order, gods didn’t watch and ghosts didn’t care, elders weren’t treated as elders, and people weren’t treated as people.

The old lady knew herself — she was just putting up a bluff, barely able to protect what was hers. But she was old now, and every morning when her whole body ached too much to get up, she knew that one day she’d simply collapse, and from then on fall entirely into Qiao Shi’s hands.

So the old lady had long harbored a thought: if that day ever came when she fell, she’d find a way to end her own life — she wouldn’t endure even half a day of that kind of humiliation.

But things were different now. Ever since Qian’er had arrived yesterday, she knew she had someone looking after her, so she no longer prepared to keep fighting with Qiao Shi — now even exchanging one more word with her made her feel sick.

She no longer wanted to look at that watery, deceptively serene face, watch those thin lips flicking like a snake’s tongue, swallowing her whole bit by bit day after day.

Now that she was safe, the old lady finally let herself seriously consider the thing she’d never dared touch before — that she had actually been afraid of her all along… yes, afraid.

But afraid as she was, she couldn’t let Qiao Shi throw filth at Qian’er now. Without a second thought, the old lady flung the bowl of hot noodle soup straight at Qiao Shi’s face.

Qiao Shi let out a scream. She thought she’d finally gotten her wish — the old lady had struck her in front of everyone again — but never had she imagined the old lady would go so far as to destroy her most cherished grain just to ruin her.

Her eyes blurred, her face burning, Qiao Shi wept with an ugliness she’d never shown before, her temper flaring hotter than ever before.

Tonight, no matter what, she would have her revenge.

Over by the ancestral hall entrance, Xique, who was deeply attached to Qiao Shi, heard her mother crying from a distance and immediately burst into heartrending sobs herself.

Guo Yang Shi, Yu Wan Shi, Gao Shi, and the others heard it and came running over together.

Arriving close by, they looked first at the old lady, then at the utterly miserable Qiao Shi, and Guo Yang Shi, unable to bear it any longer, turned on the old lady:

“Old lady! You’re getting on in years now — whatever Lanxiang’s done wrong, you’ve hit her, you’ve cursed her, and yet the very next day she still wipes her tears and goes right on serving you food and drink, washing and mending your clothes. But this time — this is too much! Something scalding like that, how could you throw it right in her face?”

Washing and mending?

The old lady’s mind instantly flashed to that early morning she’d stepped out the door and found a washbasin full of dirt-caked clothes blocking her path, tripping her and covering her whole face — she’d said afterward that not a single soul in this world would believe her!

No one believed her — what to do then? Right! Right! Things weren’t the same as before now.

The old lady didn’t bother defending herself. She simply looked around at the circle of women until she’d quieted all of them down, then turned to Meng Wanquan and said, “Wanquan.”

Meng Wanquan hurried over at her call.

The old lady clutched at her chest and forced a smile as she said to him, “Your sister-in-law here is only just turned fifteen — she hasn’t been through much in life. I, your grandmother, don’t ask you to say anything else today — I only ask you to give me a fair judgment. Will you?”

Qiao Shi’s crying stopped abruptly, and she suddenly tried to bolt, wailing, toward the village. The old lady, all too familiar with her tricks, blocked her path first, grabbing her arm and saying, “Don’t you run! Today I swear before all the gods in heaven — if you run, I’ll drop dead right here on the spot!”

Meng Wanquan cried out in alarm, “Grandmother, what are you saying?”

The old lady looked at him and smiled. “I mean it. If she runs, that’s her forcing me to my death — if she doesn’t want me alive, then I’ll grant her wish.”

For someone her age to speak such fierce, final words stunned the whole group into silence.

One of the women hurried over to smooth things over. “Old lady, you mustn’t talk like that — if you say that, Qiao Shi will have no way out at all.”

The old lady glanced over, saw it was Yu Wan Shi, and smiled. “No matter — if she runs today, I won’t live either, so it makes no difference either way. I just want Wanquan to give a fair judgment — why can’t that be? Must you let her run off and force me to my death?”

“We’re listening! Listening! How could we not listen…” they said one after another.

Meng Wanquan looked at Qiao Shi. The old lady’s accusation had landed today, and thinking it over, connecting it with things Qiao Shi herself had said, he saw the woman more clearly than ever. But he was, after all, an honest and upright man, and since Qiqian’er’s reputation was at stake too, he didn’t repeat the details — he simply said to the group of aunties, “Qiao Shi’s words were truly vicious, damaging to someone’s reputation — she deserves to be punished. The old lady throwing that soup at her was already going easy.”

Those had been words meant to drive someone to their death.

Because of his regard for the old lady, and out of his own good nature, Meng Wanquan had always done his utmost to look after the families following the camp, so now that he said Qiao Shi was in the wrong, everyone believed it.

Guo Yang Shi slowly released Qiao Shi’s arm, looking at Meng Wanquan. “So that’s how it is! But where did this all come from — how did it turn so vicious?”

Qiao Shi was all alone, so delicate and weak — why would she say something so vicious, damaging someone’s reputation? Vicious? Qiao Shi couldn’t possibly deserve such a judgment.

Hearing this, Qiao Shi nearly fainted from indignation.

The old lady sneered. “She said my granddaughter-in-law shouldn’t be out and about with a bunch of rough soldiers. Now, how many years have all of you followed this army? By her logic, that would include me too — we’d all be unchaste by now, wouldn’t we? Fine then! Since we’re all unchaste already, let’s all go hang ourselves with rope when we get back and be done with it…”

And indeed, over the years of war and fleeing, in the days before there were carts and horses, when someone got left behind at night, there’d been more than one kind soul among the men who’d gone back ten-odd li to find them and carry them back.

If they went by the old rules, then everyone, one by one, might as well give up on living.

Qiao Shi panicked, set down her no-longer-hot face, and dropped to her knees before the old lady, kowtowing. “Old lady, I was young and thoughtless, I was anxious too — it’s been a whole day, I spoke without thinking… I don’t even know what I said myself. Please, forgive me! I really didn’t mean it…”

Qiao Shi’s confessions were always thorough — her head knocked against the ground with loud thuds.

Yes, indeed, Qiao Shi herself had been with the group over three years now — if she’d really meant it, wouldn’t she be condemning herself too?

The women who’d shared hardship together inevitably had some family sympathy for one another, and several began speaking up to smooth things over, when they heard someone shouting something in the distance.

As the sky dimmed, Qiqian’er returned to Quanqian Estate. While still a good distance from the estate gate, she stood up in the mule cart and shouted toward the estate, “Grandmother!! I’m back!!”

Chang Lianfang jumped, startled by her shout, then laughed. “Sister-in-law, you’re really something — it’s dinnertime right now, the old lady got back long ago.”

Qiqian’er shouted twice more, then sat back down smugly and said to him, “You don’t understand — the old lady’s definitely waiting for me.”

Sure enough, no sooner had she sat down than someone at the estate gate called out, “Isn’t that Brother Chang up ahead!”

Chang Lianfang laughed and called back from his horse, “Yes! We’re back!!”

“Got it! The old lady says to tell you to go slow, it’s getting dark! Watch the road carefully!!”

“Got it! Watching carefully!!”

As they spoke, they rounded a bend, and Qiqian’er saw quite a crowd of people gathered by the big willow tree and millstone, looking their way.

Quite the reception!

By the time they arrived, the old lady paid no attention at all to the three full cartloads of goods — instead she ran up to Qiqian’er like she’d found a treasure and said, “You, you’re back.”

Then she started crying, looking thoroughly wronged.

Qiqian’er felt at ease, went over and put an arm around her, comforting her. “Aiyo, aiyo, I wasn’t even gone overnight. Look at you, missing me this much?” Then she cupped the old lady’s dry, wrinkled face in her hands, turning it left and right to examine it, and laughed. “Really missed me?”

The old lady turned bashful, spat and swatted at her a few times. “Shameless, talking such nonsense!” Having hit her, she then triumphantly pulled out the steamed bun from inside her robe like a treasure and said, “Hurry, eat! You must be hungry. Grandmother kept it warm for you…”

As the two of them carried on affectionately with each other, the sharp-eyed women swarmed over to the carts at once.

The first cart was half full of books, the other half piled high with all sorts of new bedding, stacked as tall as a person. The second cart held the household’s well-windlass parts, along with assorted iron tools and black sauce jars. As for the third cart, it was a jumble of half-new, half-worn things — sheepskin coats, rough wooden kang-tables and stools, all sorts of odds and ends that didn’t look like much at a glance, but still — this old Chen family had struck it rich, truly rich!

No one had ever heard of a dowry like this — this was the first time anyone had seen such a thing.

When these families cooked, everyone shared a single clay pot — but look at this family, iron pots alone ranging from big to small, six of them, and they had two whole sets.

That was iron, real iron.

The women’s eyes turned red with envy. Qiqian’er pulled the old lady over to the first cart, grabbed a set of new bedding and said to her, “Grandmother, look what this is?”

The old lady of course knew exactly what it was, but her mouth couldn’t quite name it — she just said, delighted, “This — what is this?”

“Brand new fabric, brand new pattern, fine new cloth — good bedding, new through and through. Just pick whichever you like, Grandmother — tonight we’ll both sleep under something new!” Then, leaning close to the old lady’s ear, she added, “And new clothes for you to wear too.”

The old lady was overjoyed to the point of tears — she’d never in her life imagined such a thing. Why so much, why so much! Goodness, was Heaven going to let her die tomorrow or something?

She stammered, “I don’t want it! Don’t want it! I have my own, plenty good enough… such fine things — the last time I had something like this was my own dowry, when my mother gave me a new set, and even that wasn’t as thick as this. By the time I brought it to your grandfather’s house, that place was crawling with poor hungry mice, and he wouldn’t even let me use it — locked it away, said he’d save it for when the boys got married. Such a stingy old wretch, wasn’t he? I… do I even have the fortune left in this life to sleep under something new?”

At this she recalled something, and stroked the bedding fondly, then turned to Qiqian’er and said earnestly, “Qian’er, ah, Grandmother wants to ask you for a favor.”

Seeing her so happy, Qiqian’er felt happy too. “Go on, ask.”

“Well… if you give this to me, I’ll set it aside and keep it just for that — this exact set, I love this color too — so, so when I’m gone someday, will you let me be buried in this, use it for my burial clothes?”

At this, Qiqian’er’s face turned indignant. She had money! She was rich now! Real money!

Gold, mountains and mountains of gold — she didn’t even dare touch it, it scared her so much.

Chewing on her steamed bun, one arm around the old lady, she said grandly, as if she were an emperor commanding the realm, “What are you even thinking! Just this? Cotton bedding for your burial clothes? Are you trying to shame me?”

The old lady was mortified, and turned to look at her. “No… it won’t do?”

“No, it won’t! Don’t you go pining after this shabby old thing! I won’t give it to you! You’ll just have to make do with this in the meantime. Look how much of it there is — you want to save it for the mice to nest in? Look at you, still lively and spry, with decades of life left in you! Why are you even thinking about this? Never mind cotton — you’re an old dowager of a founding lord’s household now. If you trust me, leave this matter to me…”

The old lady, touched, looked at her earnestly and said, “I trust you!”

Chewing her steamed bun, still holding onto the old lady, Qiqian’er made her rounds of the carts one by one. “Just wait — when spring comes with its blooming flowers, when summer turns the mountains lush and green, when autumn arrives golden and mellow, when winter brings a bountiful snowfall — once this world of ours is at peace, I’ll spend the money then, top-grade snow-white silver, and have people go up into the mountains to find you the finest hundred-year-old timber — nothing less than two or three armspans thick will do.”

The old lady was thoroughly alarmed, not even daring to imagine it, and could only tremble out, “Thin — thin, just a thin coffin! As long as it’s not cold, that’s enough!”

“That won’t do — a double layer! You’re a founding lord’s old dowager, you’re entitled to a double layer. We’ll carve the outer coffin from fine bluestone with flowers — won’t that keep out the cold? Never mind mice, even wolves couldn’t gnaw through it!

Listen to me — I’ll have that timber brought back, and hire the very best craftsmen from the capital to make it. I’ll have the coffin surface lacquered in gold dust, painted with phoenixes and peonies in five colors… but that’s a story for later, we won’t speak of it now.”

“Ah… what am I even doing, dreaming like this — a story for later?”

“For later! And it’s true, too! Rest easy — when that day truly comes, I’ll see to your burial clothes from head to toe myself, thirteen layers of them, each one in fine silk and satin, and the outermost layer will be that fashionable red brocade with cranes woven in gold thread, the kind popular in the capital. Under your neck I’ll place a big jade pillow, and beside your head, on the left, I’ll put fifty taels of silver ingots, and on the right, fifty taels of gold ingots…”

If one wasn’t enough, she’d put two — after all, she had the money, hah, she really did have money!

These were women who’d never seen real wealth, some who’d never even left their home county — they had none of Qiqian’er’s worldly knowledge, and before long, without anyone quite noticing, they’d all fallen silent, following along behind Qiqian’er and the old lady, listening as if to a grand opera.

Qiqian’er, in her past life, had had no children of her own, and back then she could only plan for her own burial herself. Lacking such things, she used to imagine it all in her mind over and over, constantly adding fine things she didn’t actually have to her imaginary coffin.

Whenever she heard of some old lady’s coffin having this or that, she’d add it to her own fantasy, just to amuse herself.

Now she finally had an old lady to share the game with, and she grew addicted, launching into her own dreams.

“…On your head, I’ll give you a full set of gold hair ornaments, and on the side hairpins, I’ll set pearls as big as your thumb. And your face — for your face, I’ll get the finest jade, have skilled craftsmen carve the best pattern for you. After you’re gone, thirteen layers on your body, a jade cicada in your mouth, your eyes, mouth, nose, ears, all taken care of — and your hands mustn’t be left idle either…”

“Even my hands won’t be left idle?”

“Of course not — what would they be idle for?”

The old lady looked at her own hands, cracked and wrinkled, and said, “By then I’ll have kicked the bucket already — what’s there to keep them from being idle?”

Swallowing the last bite of her steamed bun, Qiqian’er nodded firmly. “No, they won’t be idle! You’ve got to hold something — I’ll have you clutch a golden ruyi scepter, set with all sorts of gems…”

Meng Wanquan, listening beside them, twitched at the sheer scale of this young wife’s boasting — this was unheard of. Was this burying an emperor, or burying an empress?

And this is just your old lady? Thirteen layers of burial clothes? What a waste of good things!

No one believed Qiqian’er, and the old lady certainly didn’t believe a word of it either — but she loved hearing it all the same. When you’re old, what else is there to look forward to, except a dignified coffin to be buried in.

She was overjoyed to the point of tears — even if it was just a dream, it was the finest dream she’d ever had. She murmured softly, “Really that good? That good! And gold ingots too? So good… I’ll wear thirteen layers…”

“At least thirteen!”

“That’s too hot!”

“…You’ll already be dead.”

“Oh, right, forgot! Ahahaha!”

Qiqian’er, utterly shameless, went on like this until the old lady couldn’t bear it any longer — she wrapped her arms around Qiqian’er’s head and, no longer minding her sparse hair, planted a kiss right on her forehead.

The moment she did it, she froze; Qiqian’er, startled too, looked at the old lady’s flustered face, and the two of them stood there, both embarrassed and unsure what to do.

“This… why so happy?”

She knew perfectly well no one believed the things she’d said.

The old lady laughed. “You’re this generous with me — how could I not be happy?”

Having lived two lifetimes without anyone ever showing her such affection, let alone a kiss like that, Qiqian’er felt awkward, and fumbled her hands nervously against one of the iron pots, saying, “Well, well, you — you just pick whatever you like from the carts.”

At this the old lady burst out laughing, clapping her hands and stamping her feet with joy, as delighted as if she’d endured every hardship in the world only to have her dead children and grandchildren return to her.

“Tell me! What were you in your past life? How did you end up in my family? We don’t even have a parasol tree planted at home — how did you come flying in?”

The old lady wept with joy, and everyone around burst into laughter — truly everyone was delighted, feeling that this young wife was so endearing, her words and manner so full of cheer.

While grandmother and granddaughter played happily together, a dead fly buzzed nearby all the same — Qiao Shi couldn’t stand to hear it and came over to stir up trouble.

She too was a formidable woman, but seeing all these goods now, her heart was truly clawing with envy — her eyes couldn’t take it all in fast enough, glancing around with unconcealed longing, watching and watching, until she heard Qiqian’er say the old lady could pick whatever she liked.

This could not be allowed! Even if she had to smash her own head against something today, she wouldn’t let the old lady have the better of these things.