Chapter 45 Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 20: She Played the Sweet, Silly Innocent¹.

They were all just petty little tricks used to wear down a new daughter-in-law, not even enough to count as real tactics.

They didn’t hurt much, but they were disgusting.

Shi Lan wasn’t angry, and she didn’t even blame them.

When they got married, they had been controlled and pushed around the same way, suffering bitterness and grievance themselves. So once they gained even a little say in things, they passed it on to the women who came after them. Only like this could they barely soothe the suffering they had once endured. In that kind of environment, they couldn’t save themselves. This was also a helpless kind of self-healing.

Shi Lan understood all of that, and she wasn’t going to stoop to their level. In the end, they were all victims. They couldn’t push back against the people sitting at the other table, so they picked on her instead, the lowest-ranking person at this table.

But that didn’t stop her from finding them annoying.

There were two kinds of people at the table. One kind, like Eldest Sister-in-law and the aunties, openly tried to trip her up. The other kind, like Second Sister-in-law, kept their heads down and ate without saying a word. That still made them accomplices.

If Shi Lan were really going to live here with them in the future, she might have had to accept acting obedient, as a kind of admission ticket to keep moving in this circle. But she wasn’t. She played dumb, acted harmless and sweet, and from time to time jabbed back with a sentence or two, always hitting people right where it hurt. Not one of them came out ahead. Every face at the table looked sour.

The only pity was the spread of dishes. She was in no mood to enjoy any of it.

After the meal, Eldest Sister-in-law still refused to give up. Seeing Shi Lan sitting there without moving, she urged her on in a teasing tone.

“It’s the perfect chance for the new bride to show how virtuous she is.”

She was trying to get Shi Lan to volunteer to wash the dishes.

Shi Lan couldn’t even be bothered to roll her eyes.

She was pretending to be a sweet, clueless fool. Did they really think she was stupid?

Shi Lan sat steady and unmoving.

“But I’ve never washed dishes at home since I was little. What if I don’t know how?” she said, propping up her face gloomily. “After I got together with Du Heng, he was always the one cooking too. I wanted to learn, but Du Heng said he’d handle it all and wouldn’t let me. Eldest Sister-in-law, does Eldest Brother treat you like that at home too?”

Eldest Sister-in-law was so choked up she couldn’t get a word out.

Shi Lan thought, If you don’t mess with me, I won’t bother with you. But if you insist on making things hard for me, then serves you right for getting mad.

What she didn’t know was that this had hit Eldest Sister-in-law right in her sorest spot. Shi Lan only learned later that Eldest Brother was the laziest glutton at home.

Shi Lan didn’t take part in dishwashing. Eldest Sister-in-law and Second Sister-in-law were quick with their hands, and the other women helped too, so they all got busy in no time.

Once all the women had started moving around, Shi Lan, sitting there doing nothing, became far too conspicuous. Everyone passing by her gave her a long look. It made her skin crawl.

Mother Du, however, didn’t say anything about making her join in the work. She even told her she’d already soaked the glutinous rice and would make ciba² for her that evening.

Shi Lan took the chance to bring out the gifts she had brought from the suitcase.

There was Melatonin, Longmu Calcium Granules, and Gaizhonggai³ high-calcium tablets that were all heavily advertised on TV, plus an electric razor for Father Du and a heavy silver bracelet for Mother Du.

Everyone in the room gathered around to look. Whether they actually worked or not was another matter, but if something had been on TV, then it had to be good.

The older generation especially couldn’t stop touching them, so envious they practically glowed.

Father Du and Mother Du kept saying, “Why spend so much money?” but they were smiling so hard their mouths nearly split open.

She had originally brought gifts for the two sisters-in-law too, but right now Shi Lan didn’t feel much like giving them.

She had embarrassed them at the dinner table, and now because of the gifts, she had earned huge favor with the elders and stirred up even more resentment among her peers. No one came to talk to her or keep her company. Shi Lan stepped out and sat on a wooden stump by the doorway, bored out of her mind.

She saw Du Heng seeing Liu Fei off at the courtyard gate, even slipping him a pack of good cigarettes. She found it novel. She hadn’t even known when he’d bought them.

After Liu Fei left, Du Heng stood at the courtyard gate and waved to Shi Lan. “Come on, I’ll take you around the village.”

Shi Lan hesitated for a moment. She didn’t want to trudge through mud, but she wanted even less to deal with the women’s snide remarks. Anyway, her shoes were already dirty, so she happily followed Du Heng out.

The village paths weren’t that slippery, and whenever they came across puddles too big to cross, Du Heng simply lifted her around the waist and carried her over.

The oranges were at their reddest this season, so Du Heng took her to pick some.

They weren’t a premium variety, but the red ones on the tree were sweeter and fresher than the artificially ripened ones sold at the market.

The orange tree was already quite old, and even the lowest fruit was still out of reach for someone of Shi Lan’s height. Seeing that she wanted to pick them herself, Du Heng simply lifted her up in his arms like a child, making her let out a startled scream.

Du Heng tipped his head back and grinned at her. “You’re steady. Hurry and pick.”

Shi Lan picked a whole bunch, every one of them red and round, and she was delighted.

A herdsman drove a group of cattle down the road opposite them, cracking his whip and whistling at them.

Shi Lan slid down with a hand on Du Heng’s shoulder. Du Heng chuckled, greeted the cattle herder, and even tossed a few oranges over to him.

After the man left, he explained to her, “There aren’t many people in the countryside. Everyone visits everyone, so there’s basically nobody you don’t know.”

With the oranges gathered in his arms, Du Heng took her to find a place to sit and eat them.

It was a very large, tall building with a ceremonial archway. It didn’t look like a residence.

There was another archway in front of the building too.

Du Heng said, “This used to be an Opera House. Grandma said that when she was little, there were performances here on the first and fifteenth of every month, and people from several nearby villages would all come watch. It stopped being used long ago. After the founding of the country, during the campaign against the Four Olds⁴, it was turned into a grain storehouse for public grain⁵.”

What a pity. This was an old relic.

If it had lasted just a few more years, then once tourism took off, this archway alone could have been developed into a scenic spot.

Du Heng walked to the main entrance of the Opera House. “Come look at this.”

He meant the couplet⁶ carved onto the door pillars.

Upper line: False scenes upon the stage, liang heng the affairs of a hundred generations.

Lower line: True feelings within the play, performing the people of a thousand autumns.

It was a perfectly ordinary couplet. Shi Lan had no idea what he wanted her to look at.

Du Heng said, “My name is in it.”

Huh? Oh, right. There was indeed a heng in the couplet.

But so what?

Seeing that she still didn’t get it, Du Heng added, “All three brothers in my family have our names in it.”

Shi Lan thought for a moment.

Eldest Brother Du Jing, Second Brother Du Liang, and Du Heng. The three characters were right next to each other.

“What a coincidence?”

Du Heng said, “Not really a coincidence. My dad didn’t know many characters, and back when we were kids, boys in the village were usually given names like Guo, Hua, Fu, De, Quan, things like that. There were tons of duplicate names. My dad didn’t want that. But it was also a special period then, and it was hard to even see a piece of paper with writing on it. The only place where you could openly look at words was the couplet on this village Opera House. So my dad picked a few characters from it and used them as our names.”

She hadn’t expected there to be a story like that behind it.

Shi Lan said with genuine admiration, “Your dad was really clever with that move.” Then she laughed. “Good thing your family stopped at three. If there’d been one more child, you probably wouldn’t have found another nice-sounding name.”

Du Heng savored the couplet for a moment too, then laughed.

They stayed at the Opera House until it was almost dark before heading back.

The Opera House stood on high ground, and Du Heng stood beneath the eaves telling her where he had herded cattle as a child, where he had fought with other people, which road he had taken to school…

It was as if Shi Lan had followed him through his whole childhood.

That night, they really did make ciba at home. While the glutinous rice was still hot after steaming, they pounded it smooth with a wooden mallet, then coated it in freshly roasted soybean powder mixed with white sugar. It was sweet and fragrant.

Shi Lan didn’t usually like glutinous rice, but she still ate two fist-sized lumps in one go.

As expected, she ate too much, so full she couldn’t even sit still. Late at night, she paced back and forth in the courtyard to help digest it.

Du Heng kept her company and didn’t even know what to say to her.

“But this soybean flour ciba was just too good,” Shi Lan said, regretting that she hadn’t brought any digestive tablets. “I don’t think I’ll need lunch tomorrow at this rate.”

Du Heng: “…”

“We haven’t even had the winter jujubes your dad picked yet.”

Father Du had specially gone to a relative’s house to pick them. It was more than a twenty-minute walk. There wasn’t much, just a small basket about the size of a plate, and when he brought it back, he handed it straight to Shi Lan. He didn’t even say a word before leaving. It was only after Eldest Sister-in-law made a few snide remarks that Shi Lan realized he’d picked them especially for her. She was both surprised and flattered.

They were already calling everyone to dinner by then, so Shi Lan only tried one. It was crisp, sweet, and full of juice.

Du Heng: “…I saved them for you. Digest this meal first, then we’ll talk.”

That night, Shi Lan was arranged to rest in a room on the second floor of the small single-story house. There was quite a lot of stuff piled up in the room, and only about half a meter of space in front of the bed was empty. The bed itself was very clean, but the quilt was a little too thin for Shi Lan, and the mattress padding wasn’t quite thick enough either.

She noticed it when she lay down to sleep. At first, she thought it might be another one of those “little tricks.” She deliberately checked the other bedrooms and found that none of the beds were very thickly made up.

That made it hard for her to say anything. Whether she’d be misunderstood was one thing, but if she asked for an extra quilt and the family didn’t have any spare ones, that would be even more awkward.

She figured it was only for two or three nights, so she could just make do.

She hadn’t expected the nights in the mountains to be this cold. The first half of the night was all right, but by the second half it was so cold she could hardly sleep. In the middle of the night, she got up and spread all the thick clothes from her suitcase over herself before she finally managed to drift off in a daze.

Early the next morning, while standing by the doorway, Shi Lan had stones thrown at her by a little boy.

“Bad person! You’re stealing our family’s things!”

They hurt quite a bit, and after throwing them, he ran off.

Shi Lan recognized him as Eldest Sister-in-law’s youngest son, a milky little toddler only three or four years old. She didn’t bother arguing with a child and didn’t take it to heart.

Eldest Brother’s family had two boys, and Second Brother’s family had one girl. Over the past two days, Shi Lan had gotten them all straight.

Father Du and Mother Du both treated Shi Lan fairly well. At least for now, Mother Du hadn’t tried to lay down rules⁷ for her. It was always Eldest Sister-in-law who liked stirring up trouble for no reason.

But from that, Shi Lan could also tell that Mother Du held rather old-fashioned views.

She was proud of having given birth to three sons. Compared with the quiet, hardworking Second Sister-in-law, she clearly liked Eldest Sister-in-law more, since Eldest Sister-in-law had also borne two sons.

At mealtimes, she would pick food for Eldest Sister-in-law and Shi Lan, but not once for Second Sister-in-law.

Some relatives came to visit, a middle-aged couple with a little girl. They were probably the godparents of Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law’s child. The little girl called them Second Grandpa and Second Grandma.

The little girl’s name was Chen Yu. She was only four or five, but already had a sharp eye for work, and as soon as she arrived, she started helping the adults with this and that.

They said they were visiting relatives, but really, they had just found an excuse to come look at Shi Lan, the new daughter-in-law of the Du family.

Shi Lan let them look as openly as they pleased. If she got along with someone, she’d chat a little more. If not, she’d just smile at them with an innocent, sweet expression. In any case, this wasn’t the only group that had come to look at her over the past two days.

While they were still talking, someone else came, a girl around Shi Lan’s age. Her clothes looked very new, and apparently she was especially skilled at embroidering shoe-pad patterns⁸. Second Sister-in-law had invited her over to make shoe pads together.

At first, Shi Lan didn’t think much of it. Then the girl brought three pairs of crocheted wool shoes as gifts. Two pairs were for Father Du and Mother Du, and one pair was for Du Heng. That made things rather thought-provoking.

“The wool shoes I made for you before must’ve worn out by now, right? You haven’t come back these past few years, and I knitted so many pairs. Some of the ones I left sitting around even had their threads chewed through by bugs. This pair is newly made this year. Try them on.”

Was she really doing this as if no one else were around?

Was this girl foolish, or was she provoking her?

Shi Lan continued acting sweet and harmless, holding the shoes in her hands and praising them. “Wow, your handiwork is really amazing.”

Du Heng shot her a sidelong glance, snatched the shoes away in one motion, and returned them to the girl.

“My feet sweat easily now. I don’t wear wool shoes.”

The girl was quite persistent. “Then I’ll make you cloth shoes. I’ve got thousand-layer soles in your size at home. Once I stitch on the uppers, you can wear them.”

Shi Lan looked at the two of them and said lightly, “You two chat. I’ll go take a walk.”

How could Du Heng let her leave? Quick-eyed and quick-handed, he caught her by the wrist, rejected the girl’s feelings in a few short sentences, and cut off any future hopes she might have. Only then did he follow Shi Lan outside.

Shi Lan still jabbed at him. “You were pretty harsh. The poor girl’s eyes are all red.”

Du Heng sighed and explained, “She fell into a pond once, and I happened to pass by and save her. When I pulled her out, my shoe got stuck in the mud at the bottom and couldn’t be found, so she made me a pair. Her craftsmanship really was good, so I praised it once, and then she said she’d make all my shoes from then on.”

“Oh? So it was a hero saving a beauty.”

She struggled to pull her hand free and refused to let him hold it.

Du Heng held on tightly. “That was all a long time ago. Back then, both families did have the idea of matching us up, but I never once agreed to it.”

Shi Lan said, “You never mentioned her before! If you weren’t feeling guilty, why were you hiding it? When I asked if you had any romantic history, you said no.”

“…There really wasn’t any. There was nothing between me and her. I treated her the same as everyone else in the village.”

Shi Lan said, “She likes you!”

Du Heng was struck speechless. “I only just realized that myself. Before I met you, I didn’t even know what liking someone meant. She treated me well before, and I thought it was just gratitude toward the person who saved her life.”

Shi Lan seized on his wording. “Before you met me?”

Du Heng looked a little troubled, but he still told the truth. “To be exact, it started when you began your boxed meal business. Little by little, I felt like I finally understood things and came to know what longing and liking felt like. As for those early days when we had just gotten together… looking back now, I can barely remember them.”

In an instant, Shi Lan’s mood turned bright and sunny.

But on the surface, she still put on the look of someone jealous and angry, so to cheer her up, Du Heng found a ladder and took her up to the second floor of the wooden house next door.

He said, “The floorboards above the fire pit are slatted. There’s Dried Sweet Potato drying up there. You definitely haven’t tried it before.”

Shi Lan really hadn’t. Raw sweet potatoes, slowly baked over the years by woodsmoke, had turned rich and syrupy inside, even with a molten center. They were absolutely delicious.

Du Heng picked up a big handful of Dried Sweet Potato and moved with her to a brighter spot by the eaves to sit and eat.

He held out his large palm for her, using it as a little tabletop.

From where they sat, looking down, they could see a large water vat carved from stone.

Shi Lan saw Second Sister-in-law come out carrying a basin to scoop water, and not long after, Second Brother Du Liang followed her out.

Second Brother lowered his voice, anger in it, as he said, “Don’t go looking for trouble when there’s none.”

Second Sister-in-law threw down the ladle she had been using to scoop water. It struck the stone vat with two loud clanks.

“What have I done?”

“You know perfectly well what you’ve done. You knew Du Heng came back this time with his wife, so why did you invite Niu Jinghua over? You could’ve made shoe pads together any day, but you had to pick when Shi Lan was here.”

Second Sister-in-law let out a cold snort. “By your logic, just because Shi Lan is here, I can’t even live my life normally?”

“You know what I mean. I just saw Du Heng and his wife arguing because of Niu Jinghua!”

Second Sister-in-law finally smiled. “Good. The more they fight, the better. Best if your precious little sister-in-law goes back to the city and stops marrying Du Heng!”

Shi Lan: “!!!”

She had thought she’d accidentally stumbled onto some gossip about Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law. Who could’ve guessed the gossip would end up involving herself?

Then she looked at Du Heng beside her. His face had darkened to a frightening degree.

Translator’s Notes