Chapter 22: When You’re Not Liked

Chapter 22: When Not Liked

Two persimmon trees stood in front of the Shen family's house, and this year's harvest was quite good. In the morning, Shen Liang picked the ripe persimmons from the tree. Shen Yun, thinking of Wen Xi, hadn't even eaten one himself before bringing a basket over to him first.

The persimmons he had carefully selected were each golden and plump, looking tempting enough to make one's mouth water.

Chen Lanfang invited him in, taking the basket while smiling her thanks. When Wen Xi came out, she said, "Little Xi, you keep Yun-ge company for a while. I'll go put these away."

Wen Xi nodded. Once they were the only two left in the courtyard, Shen Yun looked at Wen Xi curiously and said, "Why's your face even redder than our persimmons?"

The warmth that had just faded from Wen Xi started creeping back up. A light pink flush spread across his cheeks, and he said softly, "I heard from Tao'er that you'd come over, and I got a little worked up. It's cold outside—let's go sit in the house."

Shen Yun, an unmarried young man, didn't get the whole married-couple thing. Hearing Wen Xi say this, he didn't think twice about it.

Wen Xi led him to the main reception hall of the Yan family and said, "I'll go see if there's hot water in the kitchen."

Shen Yun stopped him: "I'm not a guest of honor, don't go to all that trouble. I didn't come for anything important—our family's persimmons turned out well this year, and my brother said to bring y'all a basket."

Wen Xi said gratefully, "Tell him he shouldn't have bothered. Thank him for me."

Shen Yun snorted: "What're you thanking him for? I'm the one who's been taking care of those trees. If you're going to thank anyone, it should be me."

Wen Xi smiled. "Thank you too."

"Oh, I was just kidding, and you actually thanked me. Don't be so formal with me." He glanced outside, and seeing no one else, lowered his voice and said to Wen Xi, "The Yan family's place is huge."

Last time he'd just stood at the gate and didn't come in, but today he couldn't help taking a good look around. The Yans were really one of the richer families in the village—even their house was more impressive than most people's.

When Wen Xi first married in, he'd felt the same way as Shen Yun. But after living here a while, he got used to it.

"There's a lot of folks here. If the house weren't big, we'd be on top of each other."

True enough. Shen Yun's house was quiet, just the three of them, so a smaller place didn't matter. For a family as big as the Yans, if the house weren't roomy, it'd feel way too cramped.

Footsteps sounded from outside, and before long Chen Lanfang came in and returned the basket to Shen Yun: "We don't have anything special at home—these are carrots and sweet potatoes Xi and the others dug up yesterday, and some dried tofu I made myself. Take 'em home and let your mom and the rest try some."

Shen Yun blushed and refused: "I can't take these. My brother'll chew me out if I bring 'em back."

"They ain't worth much. What's he gonna scold you for? We took your persimmons, but you won't take our veggies? That don't make sense. Take them."

Since they'd brought something over, it wouldn't be right to send 'em back empty-handed.

Shen Yun's mom was sickly. To pay for her treatment, Shen Liang became a peddler, renting out most of their land and keeping just a small plot for themselves. Compared to other families, they had less food from their fields.

Shen Yun couldn't argue with her, so he had to take the stuff. Chen Lanfang was nicer than he'd expected, so Shen Yun worked up the nerve and said, "Auntie, I'm heading to the county seat tomorrow to sell persimmons. Can Xi come with me?"

Chen Lanfang smiled and glanced at Wen Xi. "You'll have to ask him that yourself."

Wen Xi had never been to the county town. He'd heard it was way livelier and a lot bigger than the market town. He wouldn't dare go alone, but with Shen Yun along, he started to get excited.

"Mom, I... I wanna go with Yun-ge."

Chen Lanfang said, "If you wanna go, then go. But you gotta tell your husband first."

Wen Xi looked down and nodded. "I will."

With that settled, Shen Yun didn't stick around long. Unless it was something special, folks in the village didn't eat at other people's houses. Chen Lanfang and Wen Xi walked him together to the courtyard gate. As he left, Shen Yun held up the basket and said, "Thanks, Auntie."

After seeing him off, Chen Lanfang closed the door and said to Wen Xi, "Yun-ge's a good kid from a decent family. I'm comfortable with you two being friends."

This reminded Wen Xi of things from the past. Both were mothers, but Chen Lanfang was warm to her son's friends, unlike Li Qiaozhen, who not only beat and scolded him daily but never had a nice word for Shen Yun either. When Shen Yun came to the house to play with him, she'd mock and put him down until he'd slink home, embarrassed. After that, he never dared set foot in the house again.

When Shen Yun stopped coming around, Li Qiaozhen still wasn't happy. Seeing those persimmons hanging like lanterns outside the Shen gate, with none sent to the Wen family, she felt a nagging irritation. In her own house, in front of Wen Xi, she badmouthed Shen Yun in every way imaginable.

One moment she'd say he had no father and no upbringing, the next she'd say his mother was a wasteful invalid. Shen Liang never gave her a discount when selling his wares, so Li Qiaozhen had nothing good to say about him either.

Hearing all this, Wen Xi felt worse than if he'd been scolded himself.

Because he wasn't liked by Li Qiaozhen, even the friends he made were degraded by her. For this reason, even though he treasured Shen Yun as a friend, Wen Xi didn't dare interact with him too frequently.

Fortunately, all that was in the past. The Yan family valued him, and by extension respected his friends. Those filthy words would never reach his ears again.

Thinking of all this, Wen Xi felt a pang of sadness, and was even more moved when facing Chen Lanfang. A thousand words stuck in his throat, and all he could say, with reddened eyes, was, "Mother, thank you."

Chen Lanfang thought he was like Shen Yun, still bothered by the matter of the vegetables. She patted his arm and said, "You kids are always saying thank you, thank you. It's such a small thing—isn't reciprocity just common courtesy? If I'd let him go back empty-handed, the Shen family might have thought we had no manners."

Wen Xi said, "Yun-ge wouldn't think that way."

Chen Lanfang smiled and said, "No matter what he thinks, we can't owe anyone favors. Saying that, you probably think I'm being too formal with him."

Wen Xi shook his head. "No, I'm the same as you. I don't like owing people favors either."

Since she'd brought it up, Chen Lanfang went ahead and said a bit more: "Those vegetables and persimmons—what are they worth? What matters is the sentiment. He's sending goodwill, and we're returning courtesy. With give and take, your friendship will last. If you only take and never give back, once or twice is understandable, but after too many times, people will see you for what you are. No matter how deep the bond, it can't withstand that kind of drain."

"I understand, Mother."

These simple truths, with just a little prompting from someone, Wen Xi could sort out on his own. It was just that at the Wen house, his parents never taught him such things. When they instructed Wen Liu, it was all about how to take advantage of others, which was how Wen Liu had grown into such a character.

Thinking of this, Wen Xi felt somewhat fortunate. It was a good thing his parents hadn't seriously taught him, or he might have grown into the same kind of detestable person.

Seeing his obedient demeanor, Chen Lanfang reached out and patted his head. "Go tell Fengan about going to the county town tomorrow."

Wen Xi returned to the room, and the events from earlier came back to him. He hung his head, staring at his feet, his fingers unconsciously twisting the fabric of his clothes as he said quietly to Yan Fengan, "Yun-ge asked me to go with him to town tomorrow to sell persimmons. I agreed."

Yan Fengan happened to have business in the county town as well. Hearing Wen Xi say this, he said, "Then I'll go with you."

Wen Xi thought he didn't trust him to go alone, and said, "No need, I can go by myself."

He was a grown person now—surely he didn't need Yan Fengan to accompany him for everything.

Yan Fengan smiled and said, "I've been idle lately and my hands are getting itchy. I was thinking of going to the bookshop in town to pick up some copying work to supplement the household income. So let me go with you tomorrow."

"Oh." So he'd been flattering himself. Realizing his mistake, Wen Xi felt his cheeks burn uncontrollably again.

Yan Fengan couldn't bear to see him deflated: "The work is secondary. The main thing is to accompany you."

Wen Xi tried hard to suppress the smile tugging at his lips. He walked slowly over to Yan Fengan and asked softly, "Are we still practicing calligraphy or not?"

Yan Fengan raised an eyebrow. "You don't quit things halfway. Of course we're practicing."

He had already written out the first characters stroke by stroke for Wen Xi to copy.

Although Wen Xi was fun to tease, Yan Fengan knew when to stop. He didn't want to make Wen Xi uncomfortable, nor did he want to truly anger him. After handing Wen Xi the brush, he moved to the side to read on his own.

Seeing that he was no longer teaching hand-over-hand, Wen Xi breathed a sigh of relief, though at the same time a vague, indescribable feeling stirred in his heart.

He shook his head to stop his wandering thoughts and focused on writing Yan Fengan's name on the rough paper. It was difficult and clumsy at first, but after filling a full page, it began to take some shape.

Although Yan Fengan held a book in his hands, his attention was entirely on Wen Xi, reminding him from time to time about his brush grip.

If a beginner doesn't get into good writing habits from the start, they'll be hard to correct later on, so from the very beginning, he had to be strict with Wen Xi.

Seeing Wen Xi learning so earnestly, he thought to himself that there wasn't much ink and practice paper left at home. With Wen Xi learning to write, they'd likely use even more of it, so it seemed he'd need to buy more writing supplies at the bookshop tomorrow.

He still needed his parents to cover next year's academy fees, and as a married man now, he couldn't very well ask them for money for such small expenses.

He still had some silver left from selling old clothes last time, but that little bit certainly wouldn't last the two of them. Yan Fengan figured that besides copying books for the bookshop, on market days he could also go to town to write letters, draft legal complaints, and compose epitaphs for people.

Back when he was young and unmarried, his parents hadn't wanted him to be out in public doing such things, but now there was no harm in trying it out.

Early the next morning, before dawn had even broken, Wen Xi and Yan Fengan set out.

It was getting colder this time of year, and the morning wind stung their faces. Fortunately, Wen Xi had put on He Jin's old padded jacket, so he didn't feel as cold.

The two waited at the village entrance for a short while before Shen Yun arrived together with Shen Liang.

Shen Yun came over empty-handed and said to Wen Xi, "My brother happens to be going to town on business, so I asked him to come along with us. You don't mind, do you?"

Wen Xi shook his head. "I... he's also going to town on business."

Wen Xi had meant to say "my husband," but stumbled over the words and couldn't bring himself to say it, so he just glossed over it vaguely.

Yan Fengan exchanged a glance with Shen Liang, who was carrying a shoulder pole with baskets, and the two men shared a knowing smile. After a round of pleasantries, the four of them set off into the morning wind.

Author's note:

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