Chapter 5 Gratitude of an Ungrateful Female Lead 5 – Developing a New Line of Business

4:30 a.m.

A rooster from who knew whose house had actually started work, letting out the first crow of the morning.

Zhou He carefully leaned forward, added more oil to the Everlasting Lamp¹, then adjusted the wick so the flame burned a little brighter.

The two mahjong tables next door seemed to be finally packing up to go home and sleep. She could hear them discussing tonight’s wins and losses. Their voices gradually faded away around a street corner she couldn’t see.

The clamor that had lasted all night was gone. The rooster never crowed again, and even the lamp seemed to burn in silence.

The night wind stirred the prayer banners², but they made no sound.

The world felt so lonely it was as if only Zhou He remained in it.

She heard footsteps, coming from far away and drawing closer.

She pricked up her ears, making sure it wasn’t her imagination.

Her heart was pounding fast, but Xie Qingjia was still sleeping on, completely unaware.

The footsteps came closer, and she hesitated over whether she should wake Xie Qingjia.

A moment later, the sound stopped outside the mourning hall³.

Before anything else, the first thing Zhou He noticed was a shadow.

Thank goodness, thank goodness, it was a person.

First came the shadow, then a pair of feet in straw sandals, above them dark blue-black trousers, and a white mourning garment⁴.

The person who had come was Father Xie, and he was holding a flashlight.

When he saw the state the two of them were in, he froze for a moment. Then he walked in, tapped Xie Qingjia with the flashlight, and said, “Get up. Go back and sleep.”

Xie Qingjia sat up, still bleary-eyed.

“How did I fall asleep?” He checked the time. “I slept that long…”

Father Xie gave his son a reproachful look, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end said nothing. He only urged, “Take Xiao He back to sleep.”

Xie Qingjia reached out to pull Zhou He up.

“Hiss…” Zhou He cried out in pain.

“What is it?”

“Don’t move. My leg’s numb. Ah… no, no, no, I’ll do it myself.”

She had kept the same posture for several hours, and now her leg was so numb she could hardly feel it. The slightest movement felt like tens of thousands of needles stabbing into her all at once. There was no way she could stand up anytime soon.

Xie Qingjia folded up the fleece blanket and handed it to Father Xie, then crouched down and lifted Zhou He onto his back.

“Quit fussing. I’ll carry you back.”

On the way back, Xie Qingjia asked, “Why didn’t you wake me? Are you stupid?”

Zhou He was grimacing from the pain, but she still gave a silly little laugh. “Only one person needs to keep watch over the lamp⁵. I thought if you could sleep a bit, then you should sleep a bit longer, and before I knew it, this much time had passed.”

Xie Qingjia didn’t say anything else. He seemed a little angry.

Zhou He also fell silent. In truth, she had always been a little afraid of him. Back then, it was probably because she had ulterior motives herself, so she felt guilty and never dared go against him. Now, her silence was just habit.

Zhou He had her own room in the Xie Family home. After all, in name, they still hadn’t officially held the wedding yet.

In this regard, the Xie Family had always treated her with proper boundaries. She had even once overheard Xu Meijuan reminding Xie Qingjia to behave properly around her and not cross the line. At that time, she had still been underage.

But later on… probably no one would believe it, but even now, she and Xie Qingjia still hadn’t had a truly intimate physical relationship.

Part of it was because they spent more time apart than together, and part of it was because Zhou He had deliberately avoided it. Yet strangely enough, Xie Qingjia had never strongly insisted either. At most, there was some kissing and hugging.

She had always avoided the issue, and so they had never discussed it. Zhou He herself had never thought too deeply about it either. She would have been delighted if Xie Qingjia kept forgetting about it forever.

But now that she thought about it, it seemed a little abnormal.

Xie Qingjia was already twenty-nine…

It was hard not to wonder.

Zhou He had always been very confident in herself. Back then, when she had gone directly to ask Xie Qingjia to marry her, one of the biggest advantages she had relied on was that she was pretty enough.

Everything she had experienced over the years had only confirmed her belief. She had never lacked suitors, but she knew all of that was superficial. Only by becoming strong enough through her own efforts could she completely break free from a fate controlled by others. She had never paid those suitors any attention.

So the problem definitely wasn’t on her side.

Then if it was Xie Qingjia…

Was he really that good at holding back, or did he have some kind of problem? Or maybe he didn’t force her because he’d found someone else…

Once those thoughts took root in her mind, she couldn’t shake them off.

Zhou He couldn’t help thinking this way. They had never lived in the same city, and she had rarely gone to the place where he was.

At the same time, though, she was absolutely certain that Xie Qingjia loved her. But the more experienced girls she knew all said that for men, their brains and what was in their pants didn’t always work as one.

Her thoughts in a mess, she couldn’t help looking at Xie Qingjia with a hint of scrutiny.

“What, are my clothes dirty or do I smell?”

“No…” She couldn’t exactly ask something like that at a time like this, so she whined instead, “Is your head made of iron? My leg still hurts right now.” What she meant was that the pain had twisted her expression into something fierce.

—

Zhou He slept all the way until nearly noon, and no one woke her.

When she got cleaned up and went over, she discovered that the doorman service she had developed yesterday was already facing fierce competition. The younger generation had basically all returned yesterday. Now, the ones greeting guests at the courtyard gate were not only Xie Chonghu and his younger brother, but also Meng Qiu, the daughter of Aunt Xie.

They had perfectly copied the workflow of the business she had pioneered yesterday, and she realized there was no place for her there at all.

Just as she was wondering what else she could do, Mother Xie pulled her away.

They had just been about to eat lunch, but there were even more people today than yesterday, and seven or eight tables simply weren’t enough.

Xu Meijuan had originally meant to squeeze her in somewhere, but after circling around twice and finding there was simply no room, she gave up.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the kitchen to eat.”

The dishes at a rural banquet were homestyle. The taste wasn’t exactly stunning, but they definitely went well with rice and filled you up. That was because if you sat at the tables, you’d have to fight for your food.

Xu Meijuan found a stool for her in the kitchen, then took a big sea bowl and filled it with rice, topping it with braised pork and dried green beans drenched in sauce, stir-fried wild mushrooms, and radish with pork ribs.

The bowl was bigger than Zhou He’s face and piled to the brim. She almost didn’t know where to start.

“It’s fine. Eat as much as you can. If you can’t finish, just leave it,” Xu Meijuan instructed generously.

She was afraid Zhou He wouldn’t get enough to eat, but also afraid she’d force herself to finish. She was completely treating her like a child.

One of the aunties helping in the kitchen saw this and teased, “Oh my, Meijuan really dotes on her daughter-in-law~”

The future mother-in-law shot back cheerfully, “Go on, go on. Our Xiao He is such a good girl. If you had a daughter-in-law this wonderful in your family, wouldn’t you spoil her too?”

“Oh, it’s because we don’t have your good fortune that we’re jealous.”

For a while, the kitchen rang with lively laughter.

Zhou He didn’t join in their conversation. She just buried her head in eating.

But after eating for quite a while, she realized she had barely made a dent.

How troubling…

She couldn’t really just leave it there to go to waste, could she?

Then she spotted Xie Qingjia passing by the back door after finishing up, and her eyes lit up. Hugging the huge bowl, she hurried after him.

“Did you just finish? Have you eaten yet?”

Xie Qingjia had gone with the others to move stones at the burial site today. Right now, his clothes and legs were covered in mud, and he was standing at the tap washing his hands.

He looked at Zhou He, then at the big bowl she was holding, and immediately understood. “Can’t finish it?”

She nodded.

“Mom was worried I’d be too embarrassed to go pick dishes for myself and wouldn’t get enough to eat, so she gave me this much all at once.”

Xie Qingjia splashed water on his face.

Then he asked, “Are you full?”

Zhou He answered quickly, “I’m full. I was full ages ago. I don’t think I’ll need dinner at all.”

Xie Qingjia held out a hand to her. “Give it to me.”

She promptly handed it over.

Every year during the New Year, on the first day, Grandmother Xie loved making tangyuan⁶ by hand, the kind as big as a fist.

The old lady was superstitious and believed tangyuan had to be eaten in even numbers, so every bowl had at least two. Zhou He didn’t like glutinous things, and even if she stuffed herself, she could only manage one. The other one she would always secretly pass to Xie Qingjia and have him help her eat it, even though after he finished it, he would wear the same utterly lifeless expression and not need to eat for the rest of the day.

So Zhou He was already very practiced at this kind of thing.

Xie Qingjia looked like he was starving too. The moment he took the bowl, he shoveled in a huge mouthful, beads of water still clinging to his face.

“Your face is all wet.”

Xie Qingjia didn’t care. At that, he just lifted the hem of his T-shirt and wiped his face a few times at random.

His clothes and pants were dirty anyway. With no stool to sit on, he simply sat down on the stone steps beneath the eaves. Zhou He squatted beside him and watched over him as he ate, even seeing him pick up the grains of rice that had fallen onto his pants and toss them into his mouth.

“I’ll go get you some more.”

“Mm.”

So Zhou He ran back to the kitchen with the big bowl in her hands.

She was actually a little embarrassed to ladle food out of the large pot. It felt like she was getting special treatment, like she was eating from a private stove and was somehow different from everyone else.

But her boyfriend was still waiting to be fed, and with Xie Qingjia’s mom not around, she had no choice but to do it herself.

She was obviously eating in her own home, yet somehow it felt like she was sneaking around like a thief.

She added some more rice and dishes, then brought out a bowl of soup too.

Just as she was about to go out, the auntie who had teased her earlier came in. Seeing her adding more food, she casually joked again, “You’re such a tiny girl, but you’ve got quite the appetite.”

Zhou He: “…”

This was a bit complicated to explain, so she decided not to explain it at all.

Zhou He gave an awkward smile and went to find Xie Qingjia.

She told him what the auntie had said.

Xie Qingjia: “Oh.”

“Oh? Because of you, people now think I’m a total glutton, and all you have to say is ‘oh’?”

“Fine then.” Xie Qingjia stood up with the bowl in his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“So people won’t get the wrong idea about you, I’m going to stand at the front gate and shout: I ate these two giant bowls of rice, Zhou He is a little fairy who only drinks dew.”

She quickly pulled him back down.

“What is wrong with you!”

“Oh, then can I keep eating now?”

“Just eat!”

The fact that she hadn’t liked this man before was definitely not entirely her own fault!!!

“Were you scared last night?”

Xie Qingjia asked, sounding casual.

She smiled. “It was okay.”

“Mm.”

“…”

That was it?

Hmph. Zhou He decided to stop talking to him for five minutes.

She dusted off her butt and stood up.

“You can return the bowls yourself.”

—

Zhou He went back to figuring out what exactly she could help with.

Xie Qingjia’s group did seem short-handed moving stones, but she knew that with her build, going over there wouldn’t help much. If anything, she’d just get in the way.

She was wandering around aimlessly when she ran into two kids fighting.

Well, it wasn’t really fighting. The two children were just pushing and shoving, and both of them were crying.

There were a lot of people here today, which naturally meant a lot more children too. Kids love a crowd, after all. Wherever there are lots of people, that’s where they want to go. The problem was that the adults were too busy to watch them, so the little ones would easily get into squabbles.

Trying to calm noisy children was every parent’s second-biggest headache.

The biggest headache was helping them with homework.

Zhou He went over to find out what had happened. Ah, nothing new at all. It was just the usual, fighting over toys and candy.

She crouched down and wiped the tears from both children’s faces. “No more crying. You’re both big, brave boys, so what are you crying for? It’s just a brand-new Golden Cudgel⁷. I’ll count to three, and whoever stops crying first gets a new Golden Cudgel from me.”

“Alright, ready? I’m starting now. One, two, three, tears away!”

The two grimy little kids both stopped crying at once and looked at Zhou He expectantly, tears still hanging on their lashes.

“…”

Uh… was the Golden Cudgel really that irresistible?

It wasn’t just those two grubby kids. The other children nearby were all staring at her too, their eyes shining.

One bold child even volunteered himself. “I hate crying the most. I’ve never cried before.”

Zhou He felt like she had found herself a new line of work. She could help watch the kids. If she managed to gather in this whole pack of troublesome little rascals, their parents would probably be grateful to her, right?

Translator’s Notes