CHAPTER 206: FIGHT
In addition to the buns, Li Man also simmered a pot of thin gruel. She ladled each person a bowl of it in the kitchen while everyone were talking outside. She placed them down on the dinner table, and after that she also placed the chopping block that she wiped clean on the middle of the table, putting the bamboo steamer filled with buns on top of it.
She made a mark on the three kinds of different stuffed buns and let them pick what they’d like to eat themselves.
She found that no one hadn’t come in after she appropriately prepared dinner, so she brought with her the small oil lamp and went out to call on them, “Come and eat.”
“Oh, I’m coming.” Li Shu answered while patting Little Five’s shoulder, then he came inside the kitchen, followed by Li Mo and Li Yan.
“Wife, your buns are really delicious, the taste is strong and its even more delicious than what they sell outside.” Li Shu reached out his claw and grabbed a meat bun, biting into the soft white body with impatience resulting in a scalded mouth, but he still didn’t want to spit it out even for a bit. His mouth chewed aggressively while praising his own wife to high heavens.
Li Man hurriedly passed him a pair of chopstick, “Use chopstick to eat, they just came out of the stove, they must be scalding hot ah.”
“Third Brother, eat slower. With this much food, no one will fight with you to eat.” Li Yan wasn’t used to see the Third fawning like that, letting his mouth scalded in order to curry favor with wife.
Saying this, Li Yan also took a pair of chopstick and leisurely clipped a meat bun, placing it in front of him and carefully looked if there’s anything that’s still not satisfying. After a long while, he finally let out a ridiculing sentence, “Although the appearance is passable, but the size is a bit too small. Third Brother could finish one with only two bites.”
“How can it be?” Li Shu just gobbled one bun up and wanted to clip another while he listened to what Li Yan said. He felt embarrassed, was he really that ravenous?
Li Man knew that Li Yan had another meaning in saying this, so she clipped some big buns and gave them to Li Shu herself, “C’mon, don’t hesitate to eat. It’s because you love to eat so I made this much, I’m still worried that there would be some leftover.”
When Li Shu heard what his wife said, he was suddenly radiant with joy and he cockily raised one of his eyebrow toward Li Yan. When Li Yan wanted to took one of the buns with his chopstick, another chopstick quickly snatched the bun, “If Second Brother thought the buns were only passable, you could just not eat it. Anyway, wife made it for me. Hmph.”
Li Yan paused for a bit, his eyes dimmed. He didn’t take the buns anymore as he bowed his head and drank the porridge one mouthful each time.
Because she made many buns for dinner, she thought that very watery porridge was still okay for accompaniment, so she only grabbed a handful of rice to make a big bowl of porridge. At this moment, she looked at him silently drinking that watery gruel while the others were eating buns, he looked really pitiful.
“Second Brother, this bun is really good. Man Er knows you like light flavoring so she specially made this with less salt.” Li Mo clipped a bun and put it inside Li Yan’s bowl.
What? Li Yan looked at Li Man with doubts.
Li Man lowered her head, remaining silent while eating a bun, secretly upset with Li Mo’s big mouth, and also, she was just afraid of using too much salt because of the pickles, so she put away that last spoon of salt.
Looking at her eating silently, Li Yan trusted what Big Brother said, and he naturally was glad to accept the steamed bun. He bit into it, and his eyebrow slightly frowned immediately, “Not much salt, the taste is especially bland.”
Almost at the same time, all the people at the table glared at him with wide eyes.
Li Man furiously bit into the vegetable bun, “If you don’t like, then don’t eat it.” Li Shu and the others clearly said that the buns were really delicious, the taste was stronger than the buns sold at the market. [T/N at the bottom]
Li Mo can’t help but sighed inwardly, what’s wrong with Second Brother? Normally he was such a clever man, how can he today chose to do stupid things? Saying it like this, does he think that he could make wife like him? Looking at him missing wife until he shout her name in his dreams, Li Mo didn’t know what Second Brother really thought about in his head at this moment.
Li Shu was astounded and played the same old trick, “Second Brother, if you really don’t like it, then don’t eat ah, I’ll leave some for tomorrow to eat again. Anyway since it’s what wife cooked, I won’t be fed up even if I have to eat them everyday.”
Looking at them, they were sure brothers, but how can their difference so big? The words Li Shu said really let people feeling warm ah.
Li Man’s expression eased up a bit and she gave Li Shu a warm smile while gently saying, “You can’t eat this everyday. Even if you’re not fed up eating, I’d be fed up cooking it. But I see that you like eating food made from wheat flour. I can also make dumpling and wonton, I’ll cook them for you next time.”
“En.” Li Shu deeply nodded, his face lit up like a light bulb, kissing Li Man’s cheek without holding back.
With a wave of noises, everybody was startled and surprised. Li Man’s face flushed red like a boiling shrimp looking at the sheepish and gentle smile of Li Shu, but at this moment, she still can pretended to be calm and collected, silently finishing one bun in her hand.
After she finished the bun, the others started to return to their consciousness.
Li Mo spontaneously looked at Li Yan, the look in his eyes was quite clear that he was studying Third Brother.
Little Five was a clever child, he secretly gave a look of disdain toward Li Yan. He already gave Second Brother a lecture this noon and he immediately forgot about it? Alright, he’ll give him an example.
“Sister, I love eating too, can you cook for me too?” Little Five sat down beside Li Man, slightly raising his head up while blinking his limpid and clear big eyes, its as if he’s cutely fawning on her. The eager and cute expression immediately set Li Man’s heart soft just like a puddle of water.
Li Man stretched her hand and gently rubbed Little Five’s cheek, “Whatever my Little Five likes to eat, sister will cook it all for you.”
“Sister, what kind of food dumpling and wonton is? I never eat, I also want to eat it.” Little Five licked his lower lip just like a little glutton.
Li Man was amused with his expression and her heart was gushing with tender love, “What you say you like to eat, I’ll give them to you tomorrow. Luckily we still have some leftover stuffing ah.”
“En, sister is the best.” saying this, Little Five suddenly pouted his little mouth and gave Li Man’s cheek a little peck.
At this time, it provoked the three brothers with jealousy and envy.
However this time, Li Man only laughed and didn’t have any awkwardness like before, on the contrary, she dotingly rubbed on Little Five’s head, “Alright, don’t show off your cleverness again, I’ll cook them for you next morning. There are still many buns left, quickly and eat them, don’t let them become cold.”
“En.” Little Five nodded his head while laughing, then he gave a meaningful sideways glance toward Li Yan.
Li Yan suddenly burned with jealousy.
He also had tried to ingratiate himself to her ah, but she didn’t eat any soft or hard food that he gave. [T/N: soft or hard way]
Should he go and look into their Eight Characters? What if they’re not suitable? He dared to say, if he acted like Third Brother or Little Five, he would certainly still be given her scornful gaze.
“Man Er, don’t keep on talking, let’s quickly eat, lest the buns will be cold.” Li Mo said as he clipped the already cold bun from her bowl to his own bowl, then he clipped the still hot bun from the steamer and gave it to her.
Li Man gave him a sweet smile and bowed to eat the bun he gave her.
Li Yan felt like his blood was flowing backwards, even a simple and slow man like his big brother can also learn how to coax a woman? Should he ram his head into a block of tofu?
Finally, he couldn’t resign himself to this situation anymore. Li Yan was looking down on how the others acting like this, so he just clipped a meat bun and gave it to Li Man, “En… you shouldn’t just eat vegetables, eat some meat, you look too thin.”
It was originally a good-willed words, but because of the last sentence it instead became hateful, as if he was hinted on something else entirely.
This made Li Man couldn’t swallow anything, so she put the meat bun back into his bowl, “I can take my own bun myself.”
Li Yan choked looking at her small face fuming with anger, he immediately explained, “I only feel sorry for you, I never said that your thin self isn’t good looking.”
The more he tried to explain, the more he dug his own grave, as if he disliked her being thin and not good looking.
Li Man’s face became even more black, which woman doesn’t like being called beautiful?
“That’s right, wife is beautiful no matter how she looks.” Li Shu ate the buns while sizing up Li Man’s body up and down, like his wife’s figure was really good with her bosom bulging and her thin waist, however, if only it could be bigger in some places…
Li Shu nodded secretly in his heart, she really should eat some more meat and make those parts bigger.
Li Mo gave Li Yan a glance, trying to help him out of the predicament, but after he thought until his head became heated, he said, “I think being thin is good, if fat…” before he even finished his words, he got the others’ look of suspicion, his face suddenly flushed with crimson color, I should just die, where did my thoughts went to?
She couldn’t eat anymore of this dinner, Li Man swallowed her last bun and put down the chopstick as she busily stood up and walked away.
“Man Er.” Li mo was vexed incessantly, he was afraid and called her out.
“I’m done eating.” Li Man answered without looking back as she went out the door and walked toward her own room.
The brothers looked at each other in dismay, everyone was criticizing each other in their eyes.
Little Five looked at Third Brother and gave a long sigh as he continued eating his bun with his head lowered. Anyway, he didn’t care how angry sister was because she’s not angry at him so it had nothing to do with him.
Once Li Man walked away, those brothers felt like the buns became tasteless suddenly, they could only finished what’s inside their bowl blankly.
After a silent night, at the early morning the next day, Li Man woke up and rolled some dough, and using the leftover stuffing, she made some dumplings and put them inside a pot to cook.
It wasn’t enough to fill the tummy of those big men with just thirty dumplings, but luckily there were still some leftover dumplings from last night, so they ate until they became full.
After they ate breakfast, Li Shu urged Li Man to go together to the market and sell yesterday’s wild garlic. Anyway, Big Brother said that today was the day to round the room, so he wanted to spend all noon with wife alone to cultivate love ah… Thinking about that, Li Shu thought that it was the best way.
Li Man used a clean bag to place some buns and brought along some water, then she went along with Li Shu.
When she just went out of the village’s gate, Li Shu let her sit on the cart.
She didn’t want to sit, but she was finally shoved to sit on the cart. Li Shu had his own agenda though, because he thought they would round the room tonight, so he didn’t want wife to waste anymore energy. If wife became tired from the noon’s activities, then he would be the one who suffer when she couldn’t do it at night ah. So he became determined not to make Li Man tired.
And because of that, Li Man found out that Li Shu was just like a beast or a superman. He could easily passed through the most difficult road in the mountain while pushing the cart loaded with two baskets of wild garlic and a person, can he also fly?
So, after this easy journey, they arrived at the market two hours earlier, and so there were still a lot of people buying vegetables there.
So Li Shu stood there attracting customer, while Li Man serving the customers. He shouted with his sexy and loud voice and its no wonder that in just a short time, many people came over to buy.
The people who bought the vegetables all came from neighbouring towns as they came everyday. There were some who bought Li Man’s wild garlic two days ago, so when they saw her, they were all excitedly surrounding her.
“Girl, are you coming to sell more wild garlic? How come we didn’t see you ah. These wild garlic are really fragrant, I want to buy two jin. Its even tastier than the garlic sold at this market ah,” a big lady grabbed two handful of wild garlic and gave them to Li Man to weigh.
Li Man wasn’t familiar with this kind of steelyard (a type of balance), so after she received it, she let Li Shu weigh them instead. After weighing them, Li Shu collected the money, Li Man then gave a handful more for the lady.
The big lady was really satisfied that she can’t help but praised, “This lady is really good ah.”
Other people around started to surround them to buy wild garlic too, they also praised Li Man’s beautiful appearance. Such a good woman, if they could marry her, they would be really fortunate.
Immediately, there’s someone who asked with curiosity, “Girl, why are you not with your husband today?”
“He…” when Li Man wanted to gave an ambiguous answer that Li Mo was at home, Li Shu raised his eyebrows and answered with a big voice, “How can he’s not here? I’m here.”
“Eh?” The big lady who hadn’t went far away turned back and looked at Li Shu up and down, “You are? How can it be so different?”
“Different? What part is different?” ‘different from wife’s husband’, this sentence was just like an insult to Li Shu. According to him, he was born handsome, while wife was born pretty, he’s tall and big with a well-built physique, while wife was cute and lovely, there’s no one who’s more suitable than them.
“That’s right, I really think that you’re not the same. Young man, are you sure the one before was really you? Do I have blurry vision now?” Another old lady squinted her eyes and carefully looked at him.
“Granny, how much do you want to buy? I’ll help you weigh it.” Li Man didn’t want to really be entangled with this topic so she helped the old lady picked some fresh wild garlic.
But the old lady still gazed at Li Shu, “Ah, haven’t meet for two days, didn’t expect that young man became more handsome.”
“That’s of course.” Li Shu cockily laughed and said, “It was my Big Brother before.”
“Your big brother? It’s no wonder you’re younger than him.” the big lady nodded and smiled, “Why isn’t your Big Brother coming today and let you accompany your sister-in-law to sell vegetables?”
“What sister-in-law? She’s my wife.” Li Shu laughed boisterously while packing the wild garlic to the old lady, “Granny, it’s three jin, I’ll add a little more for you.”
“Wait, wait.” The old lady’s expression became dark and her sight sternly stared at Li Man, “Girl, so who’s your husband at the end? Is the one before not your man? How come you’re bringing another man today?”
Li Man was panic-stricken with the old lady’s interrogation, “Grandma…”
“Girl, how can this be?” the big lady also looked at her with dubious expression.
How to explain this? Li Man was depressed with them, furthermore, this topic was breaching her privacy.
“What ‘how can this be’?” Li Shu saw those several old women made things difficult for his own wife so he immediately became angry and waved his hand towards the crowd, “Do you want to buy or not? If you don’t want to buy then go away.”
“Yo, how can this youngster’s temperament this bad?” someone was displeased and glared at Li Shu.
“What? Do you guys come her to buy or just to talk indiscriminately like a gossipy woman?” Li Shu criticized them in anger.
Some of the old ladies standing at the side became ill at ease when suddenly, one of them pointed her finger to the two of them, “Oh I see, you guys come from Goddess’ Ravine right?”
“What’s wrong with Goddess’ Ravine? I don’t welcome you ah.” Li Shu answered hastily.
“It’s no wonder.” several woman’s faces revealed a disdainful expression, along with those who praised Li Man before, they all put back the wild garlic that they bought to Li Man’s basket. The big lady said with pity, “Girl, you’re a good woman, how can you go to that place? You even become several man’s wife, do you not want your reputation anymore? Because of what you do, you will be sawed by little devils when you go to the underworld.”
Reputation? Li Man was stunned, there were many families in the Goddess’ Ravine that did thing like her Li family, if they still want reputation, then those women in Goddess’ Ravine couldn’t live anymore.
However, what she didn’t know was that other places weren’t like Goddess’ Ravine, even all the girl from the city nearby took chastity as a really important virtue, so her village was seen as barbarian and low in others’ eyes, the people that came from there were also like that.
“Go, go, go, we don’t have any shit relation with you all.” Li Shu busily chased away those flies that liked to gossip, then he turned back and comforted Li Man, “Wife, don’t care about their shortsightedness.”
After experiencing these kinds of things in these few days, Li Man actually already accepted becoming a shared wife somewhat. But what she couldn’t accept was the scorn and disrespect from people’s eyes towards Goddess’ Ravine. Furthermore, those people’s attitude towards them suddenly changed, looking at them like dirty pestilences.
Some of the housewives that were chased away by Li Shu looked down upon them, some pitied them, and some even became angry at them, they then went away.
“Wife, don’t be angry anymore. Those housewives just love to wag their tongues, don’t think too much about them.” Seeing Li Man staring in a daze, Li Shu busily comforted her gently.
Li Man shook her head, “No problem.” She actually felt uncomfortable being stared at like that by people for the first time. It was just like when she went to a hospital with her mother as a child, she also received disdainful looks that she couldn’t forget until now.
“Really?” Li Shu wasn’t rest assured so he once again consoled her, “Wife, you really shouldn’t hear what they say. What with King Yama’s little devils, even if you die, there’s still me, there are still us brothers accompanying you, even King Yama wouldn’t dare think to make a move against you.”
Hehe, hearing Li Shu’s clenched fist’s crackling sound, it was like King Yama going to pull and punish her now, she can’t help letting out a chuckling sound, “Alright, King Yama is a busy man, how can he has time to deal with this trivial matter?”
If a woman marrying several men should be sawed, how about man that married so many wives? Especially the ancient emperor, wouldn’t he be chopped into a minced meat by then?
“Wife, are you not afraid?” Li Shu gazed at her with suspicion.
Li Man looked back at him with a smile, “Don’t I have you guys?”
Li Shu became happy this time, “En, wife, don’t be afraid, we brothers wouldn’t let anyone bully you, even King Yama and those little devils wouldn’t.”
“Alright, don’t talk about something horrifying at noon ah.” Li Man rubbed her arms, then looked at the messy wild garlic inside the basket with a disheartened look, “Look at it, we couldn’t sell them.”
“If we don’t sell then don’t sell, we could just eat them by ourselves.” Li Shu answered with a huff.
Li Man was helpless, “There’s only this way.”
They tidied up their things, and when they were just about to leave, a group of men came in from the market’s gate.
Those men looked like scoundrels, when they saw Li man, all of their eyes became green immediately.
“Young master, the beauty is here oh.” One of them turned his head and shouted towards the back, several big thugs clustered around a skinny and wizened middle-aged man.
That man was holding a fan while walking over, covering his nose with a disdainful look. Soon afterwards, his gaze followed along the pageboy’s finger and landed on Li Man, his triangular eyes suddenly widened, lust immediately dyed his face, “Yo, that Wang Pozi didn’t deceive this father this time, there really is a beautiful goddess in here.
“Young master, do we directly tie her up and bring her back?” That pageboy coaxingly asked, his own eyes squinted when he saw Li Man, the corner of his mouth flowing out a stream of drool without him knowing.
The bony man heavily struck the pageboy’s head with his folding fan, “Tie what? If you dare hurt this father’s beauty, this father will bake you in the sun. You guys scatter up, this father will come personally.”
The servants who wanted to head on first became obedient and made a path. The skinny man swaggered and walked to the front, his obscene gaze measured Li Man up and down, but he still pretended to be elegant when he introduced himself, “Young lady, this scholar gives respect to you. This scholar is only a native from the capital city, my father…”
“Scram!” Li Shu originally didn’t want to provoke these thugs, but when this man nauseatingly came over with bad intention to Li Man, he suddenly burned with anger and wanted to lift his foot to kick that skinny man’s crotch.
Li Man hurriedly held him back. These guys in front of them clearly weren’t good guys, but the most troublesome one was definitely this skinny man clustered by a dozen burly-like-ox men, she’s afraid Li Shu would suffer losses.
“This gentleman, may we trouble you to make a way for us to walk?” Li Man tried her best to be as courteous as possible while wishing there would be people who see this scene and help them report to the government official or something. That’s right, doesn’t the vegetable market not have someone to maintain order?
“Lady, where do you want to go? The day is still young, how about we sit down together in my residence? This scholar will serve lady carefully, I’ll make sure to make lady very comfortable…” The skinny man didn’t just block their way, but he also stretched his bony hand to grab onto Li Man’s.
Li Shu’s blood’s boiling, he pulled Li Man and shielded her with his body, he resolutely lifted his foot and swung it directly to the man’s face.
The man was kicked to the ground. He stretched his hand out and felt the bump swelling on his face, his mouth spitted out blood mixed with saliva.