In the afternoon, the site of “touching autumn” was again buzzing with activity. All the villagers came back there after having lunch.
Ye Xiaoxian and her family were going as well.
The douhua and cold jelly had already sold out in the morning and they were coming only for the entertainment in the afternoon.
The real “touching autumn” only began in the afternoon. The host of the activity would hide hyacinth beans and small pumpkins in a lot of remote places and ask all the village women to find them.
Whoever finds pumpkins is said to become pregnant with a boy the following year, because the first character of pumpkin (Nan南) and that of male (Nan男) share the same pronunciation. Whoever finds hyacinth beans is said to become pregnant with a girl since another name for hyacinth beans is “beauty beans” which means girls.
Whatever they found they could take home and cook, which was a kind of welfare for the farmers offered by the landlords.
Li Hongmei said to Ye Xiaoxian as soon as they arrived at the site, “Little Ye, do your best to find them so our dinner will be assured.”
Ye Xiaoxian was not very willing.
She and Baoshan only did it once and she was obviously not pregnant as her menstruation had come last month. So whatever she found she would not be pregnant with anything.
She was just about to tell Li Hongmei that she’d leave it but Li Hongmei also said to Xiao Baozhu, “Baozhu, make sure to do your best to look for stuff. Anything.”
Xiao Baozhu said with discontent, “I am not even married. Why should I do this?”
“I’m already an old woman and I’m going to find stuff as well, right? In order to find more vegetables to eat and save some money.”
Still, Xiao Baozhu curled her lips in displeasure.
Ye Xiaoxian had understood now that Li Hongmei did not care if she’d be pregnant or not as she only wanted to get some freebies.
It was understandable since Li Hongmei had been poor for half of her life without enough food or clothing, so why should she not get a little greedy about free stuff?
The “touching autumn” in the afternoon was not held on the same lawn as in the morning but at a wood beside the lawn.
The wood had been separated already and only women were allowed to enter while men were not, but the women who entered needed checking too as anyone not of the proper age was not allowed to go in, for example, women under twelve and older than thirty-five were forbidden to enter.
Rules were rules but they were in a village after all and who wouldn’t wish to covet a few advantages when there were some to be had.
Not only did Li Hongmei have the cheek to queue up but Wong Mudan was also in the queue and happened to be somewhere not far from Ye Xiaoxian.
But Wong Mudan was stopped by the guard.
The guard asked her, “Aunt, how old are you…yet you still want to have a baby?”
“Yes, why not? I’ve only got two girls and a boy and I want to have another boy to accompany my Baocheng,” said Wong Mudan, acting hard-headed.
The guard obviously did not believe her. “You look like you’ve already been a grandmother and you still want a baby boy? Go home and ask your husband’s opinion first. Next!”
“Ah, young man, well…I…” Wong Mudan tried her best to make the miracle happen but got thrown out by the guard.
Wong Mudan was furious and stamped her feet on the ground. “I only look at thirty years old okay? Why won’t you let a thirty-year-old have a baby?”
Seeing that Wong Mudan was kicked out Li Hongmei immediately chuckled at her misfortune. “Tsk, a woman in her late forties still pretending to be thirty-year-old, how ridiculous.”
Ye Xiaoxian didn’t make a sound because she worried about Ye Xiaoxian too.
As expected, when it came to Li Hongmei, the guard sized her up for a long while and then asked her, “How old are you?”
Li Hongmei gave him a sweet smile. “I’m only twenty-eight.”
“Ye Xiaoxian. “…”
The young guard obviously was not convinced that Li Hongmei was only twenty-eight so he pointed at Xiao Baozhu and asked, “What’s your relation with her?”
“Her? She is my…younger sister.” Li Hongmei did not even blink when she was lying.
Xiao Baozhu. “…”
Li Hongmei continued to chuckle. “Dear me, Mr. Guard, why should I lie to you? Some look older than their age and some look younger. Look at little Ye in front me. She’s already twenty-two but she only looks about fifteen or sixteen, doesn’t she?”
Li Hongmei referred to Ye Xiaoxian.
Ye Xiaoxian. “…”
She really wanted to pretend that she didn’t know Li Hongmei at all.
However, although Li Hongmei had did her best to act, the guard did not buy it but said coldly, “Elder, you better leave the queue and let the young ones enter.”
Li Hongmei ended up leaving the queue disappointed.
Wong Mudan was also staring at Li Hongmei. Li Hongmei was laughing at her and now it was her turn to laugh back. “Oh, I only dared to pretend to be thirty and you actually said you were twenty-eight.”
“You dared to say you were thirty and I dare to say I’m twenty-eight. So what?” asked Li Hongmei.
“Nothing, but we’ve all been thrown out now and can only watch from the outside.”
“…”
They were almost fighting again.
There was a big crowd in the wood. They could see clearly what was going on inside.
Li Hongmei soon found Xiao Baoshan and when she saw him she said with upset, “Ah, I was thrown out. I could’ve looked for pumpkins with little Ye in there.”
Seeing that Li Hongmei was so upset, Xiao Baoshan smiled. “Don’t worry, our family can’t eat that much anyway.”
“I don’t know if little Ye could find a pumpkin. If she can’t we can only eat wild herb congee for dinner.”
“Baozhu is in there too, isn’t she? Wild herb congee doesn’t sound too bad and we did not work this afternoon, so we don’t have to eat much.”
Li Hongmei had been cheered up already by her son, so once again she turned to the wood.
“Baoshan, can you see little Ye and Baozhu?” Li Hongmei stood on tiptoes.
“Over there.” Xiao Baoshan pointed casually.
Li Hongmei still could not see anything though she had already tried her best standing on her toes.
“Baoshan, I sometimes doubt if you are my birth son. Your pa and I are both short, why are you so tall?”
Xiao Baoshan smiled. “Sometimes you have one or two tall ones.”
“It makes sense. Maybe it’s because you went into the army and you had better food there. Not like here where you have to put up with the other two households’ bullying, and very often you can’t get enough to eat.”
Xiao Baoshan turned to Li Hongmei. “Ma, don’t worry. I will let you have enough to eat and you can eat whatever you want.”
Xiao Baoshan actually felt sorry and self-reproached. If he was more capable, his ma, his little brother and sister would not lead such a tough life and his ma would not be so greedy for small advantages like the pumpkins and beans in this activity.
Li Hongmei, however, had soon come back to herself and asked her son, “Baoshan, what do you want little Ye to find? Pumpkins or hyacinth beans? Do you prefer boys or girls?”
Xiao Baoshan paused. His gaze lay on Ye Xiaoxian and, despite the long distance, he could still see Ye Xiaoxian’s figure. She was searching for things in the wood swiftly, as if she were a little rabbit looking for her food.