Mrs. Mei's Survival Diary - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Turn of Time

It felt like it was still daytime as the silver moonlight covered the courtyard.

Rong Yinshuang, who rented a cart from the city in the evening, put the digging tools and peach wood sword inside the cart and pushed it into the house through the back gate. Because it was late at night, no one was on the road, and it made it easier to do her work.

When she came to the old locust tree, she stopped the cart with a heavy heart.

Suddenly a cold wind blew, making her shiver.

Rong Yinshuang turned around and saw Qiu Rong, dressed in plain white, kneeling behind her.

Rong Yinshuang ignored her and started excavation work. After Zhao Qian killed the maid, she was afraid of being discovered, so she buried the body very deeply. It was a full four feet deep. If Qiu Rong had not informed her of the location, she wouldn’t have believed there were three bodies underground.

After digging for a long time, Rong Yinshuang felt that her physical strength was almost exhausted. Suddenly something hard appeared under the hoe, like a straw mat. Rong Yinshuang paused and mentally prepared herself for what would happen next. After seeing the scene, she took a deep breath before continuing.

The three straw mats appeared. Rong Yinshuang did not dare to stop at all. She jumped into the pit and tied two ropes to the head and tail of the straw mats. Then she climbed up to the ground and pulled the two ropes hard.

After a moment, she could pull out the corpse wrapped in the bamboo mats. Taking a deep breath, she opened the mats and saw the corpse. They rotted, and their skeletons appeared. In one, there seemed to be a small black mass between the chest and abdomen. She thought this was Qiu Rong.

While she was filling the pit, she said to Qiu Rong, “I found a place for you in the cemetery outside the city. I will move you there later. Do you have any other wishes?”

Qiu Rong kept lingering next to the cart and listened. After Rong Yinshuang’s words, she stood up, glanced at her abdomen resentfully, and then slowly shook her head.

After Rong Yinshuang filled up the pit, she sprinkled some dry soil on top, then wiped her hands clean, walked up to Qiu Rong, and said, “You can’t look back on the past. Only by letting go of your obsessions can you gain new life. Your parents and children went back a long time ago, and you should let go of your obsession. Everything in this world has laws. Zhao Qian has done many evil things, and there will be bad consequences in the future.”

Qiu Rong did not speak but nodded and said in an ethereal voice, “I know everything is over, and I don’t dare to stay any longer. Qiu Rong can only repay her kindness in the next life to the madam.”

Rong Yinshuang was silent for a moment and then asked, “Does the baby in your belly have a name?”

Qiu Rong said sadly, “There is a nickname given by my father, called Huzi.”

Rong Yinshuang nodded. She glanced at Qiu Rong one last time, picked up the money, peach wood sword, and cart, and recited the stanza. A golden light emitted from the sword and floated up into the clouds on the night wind, dropping copper coins.

Rong Yinshuang took out the small bag and picked up all the copper coins one by one. There were eighty-six zeros in total… four and a half coins.

Looking at the four-and-a-half copper coins that looked like they had been cut by someone, Rong Yinshuang felt sad.

Sighing, she put them all into a small bag and then pushed the cart. She buried the corpses, made tombstones, and hung white flags. By the time everything was finished, the first red glow appeared in the sky.

Rong Yinshuang first lit some paper on the three graves to warm the graves, then turned back to the Taoist temple and parked the cart outside the temple.

Her two sons were still sleeping.

Rong Yinshuang took out the small bag, used an embroidery needle to embroider the names of Qiu Rong and Huzi on the mouth of the bag, and then put it back in the box she had prepared temporarily.

While the children were still asleep, Rong Yinshuang hurriedly went to the kitchen to boil a pot of water, scrubbed herself carefully, and put on clean clothes. After she cooked some breakfast and put it in the pot, she went to the house to wake up her children.

After dressing them and washing their faces, the family had breakfast and went out.

Rong Yinshuang asked the two children to sit on the cart. As they passed by the incense shop, she bought a lot of ingots and paper money and then rushed to the cemetery outside the city.

The eldest son was sitting in the cart and felt very distressed when he saw his mother pulling the cart. He asked from behind, “Mom, where are we going?”

Rong Yinshuang concentrated on pulling the cart and felt that her body was about to collapse. “Da’er, we are going to a cemetery later. You should follow Mom and don’t go far. After the rituals are done, we will go back, and Mom will buy braised pork for you two to eat,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Mom, I understand, but what is a ritual?”

Although the eldest son was sensible, he was still young after all, so naturally, he would not understand a lot of things. Rong Yinshuang didn’t want to explain too much to him at this time, so she continued to concentrate on pulling the cart.

The whole day was spent doing rituals. There was no one to help, and Rong Yinshuang took on all the tasks that needed to be done. She hadn’t rested since yesterday, just working hard the entire time. If it weren’t for her strong will to keep going, she would have probably collapsed by now.

After the ritual process was over, Rong Yinshuang sat on the cart, gazing at the three new graves. After a short break, she loaded the two kids back into the cart and headed toward the city.

On her way, she stopped by Wuxiangju to grab two big pieces of braised pork. She also picked up two fresh steamed buns, placed them on the cart, and reminded the kids to wash their hands before eating when they got home.

Once back, she helped the kids wash their hands, changed their clothes, and let them enjoy their pork and buns. Meanwhile, she boiled some water in the kitchen and cleaned herself up. After finishing her chores, she ate the leftover cold porridge from breakfast, then trudged back to her room and collapsed onto the bed, completely drained.

She had never felt this exhausted or humiliated. As she thought of her husband’s warm smile from before, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of being his wife and living happily as a family once more.

Rong Yinshuang slept until noon of the next day and was woken up by the scorching sun shining through the window. After opening her eyes, she quickly sat up and shouted, “Children, where are you?”

After a while, two children poked their heads in from the door, and they all ran to Rong Yinshuang’s bed and exclaimed happily. “Mom, you wake up.”

Rong Yinshuang touched their little faces, looked at the sun, and said, “Oh, it’s so late; you must be hungry. Mom will cook for you right now.” 

Pointing to the table, the elder son said, “Mom, my brother and I have eaten. We didn’t finish the meat and steamed buns you bought for us yesterday. We just ate them for breakfast.”

Mo’er came over pulled her trouser legs and said, “Mom, drink water.”

Rong Yinshuang picked up Mo’er and said, “Okay, Mom will boil the water.”

Rong Yinshuang looked at the two sensible children and felt that no matter how tired she was, it was worth it.

While walking towards the kitchen, she thought that last night’s dream was so good.

After the family finished eating, Rong Yinshuang sat in the yard drawing patterns.

Uncle Bao came after some time. After seeing Rong Yinshuang, he happily said to her, “Madam, good news. I just spread the news that the house was for sale the day before yesterday, and someone immediately came to inquire. He was a foreign businessman. He had made a lot of money over the years and wanted to buy a house in the city. I have been here for a long time. That man also knew the eldest young master and had business dealings with him in the past. Now he wanted to buy it as soon as I told him. I offered a price of one thousand five hundred taels. I originally wanted him to make a counteroffer, but I didn’t expect him to look for the house. He agreed to the price and paid a deposit of five hundred taels. He agreed to prepare the remaining money and sign the contract tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.”

The news brought by Uncle Bao was so good. The amount of silver Uncle Bao put into her hand was so heavy that she was surprised and delighted.

“This, this… was sold so quickly?” Rong Yinshuang couldn’t believe it. She glanced at Uncle Bao in surprise and said, “But the house Zhao Qian bought has not been sold for a long time. “Why are you so quick this time?”

Uncle Bao chuckled and told the truth, “Hey, that woman Zhao Qian has a vicious heart and a vicious mouth. I sincerely don’t want to do anything for her. She looks down on me, so I’m not mentally ill to help her. It’s not like I can’t sell the house, but I didn’t want to!”

Rong Yinshuang knew that Uncle Bao must have been a capable person when he did business with her husband. ‘I never thought that he could be so powerful.’

Uncle Bao came by again and set up a meeting for two days later. He brought along the contract and the rest of the cash for her.

Rong Yinshuang expressed her gratitude repeatedly.

Uncle Bao wasn’t much of a talker and left in a rush.

Holding the silver in her hand, Rong Yinshuang paused for a moment, then grabbed her purse from the house and emptied all the silver out. She had saved up five hundred taels before, but she had to use some to buy Zhao Qian’s house, so she took out two hundred taels. Now with the five hundred taels Uncle Bao gave her, she pulled out the pawn ticket from her purse and let out a sigh. The ticket stated that if she wanted to redeem the pawn within six months, she’d need to pay an extra 50% in silver. She had pawned a piece of gold for 520 taels, meaning she’d need to cough up 780 taels to get it back. Luckily, she had enough cash now.

After a moment of hesitation, Rong Yinshuang made up her mind.

Some things were better done sooner rather than later. She gathered her stuff, grabbed the pawn tickets and cash, and headed out to the pawn shop.

End of chapter 14

Have a nice day!