Chapter 13: CH 13

Climbing up those moss-covered stairs again, Hua Jin smelled a delectable aroma. She turned her head to look around before seeing a cloth sign hanging from an entrance of a shop with “Wolf Tooth Potato*” written on it.

*Note: Wolf Tooth Potato are savory “criss-cut fries” doused in a special sauce and toppings. Typically spicy.

Wolf tooth potato can be regarded as a specialty snack in the Shu Province, but as a local, Hua Jin had only eaten it once before. This memory of hers happened too long ago, so she could only vaguely remember her eating it very slowly and meticulously, because she was reluctant to waste any of the sauce at the bottom of the disposable plastic bowl.

“Sister, come try some authentic wolf tooth potatoes.” The owner of the shop was a slightly fat older sister. When she saw Hua Jin looking into her shop, she greeted her warmly, “It’s eight yuan for a bowl, and I guarantee that you will still want more after that.”

Pei Yan squinted at the dilapidated and cramped storefront and said nothing while Hua Jin stepped forward, “Two bowls please, and don’t make it too spicy.”

“Turns out you guys aren’t locals.” The owner remarked when she heard Hua Jin speak. She then skillfully poured some cut potato strips into a frying pan, “Are you guys here on your honeymoon? We’ve got a lot of old wine cellars here, so if anyone in your family likes drinking wine, buy them some, and we’ll even deliver them for you.”

‘Honeymoon?’

Hua Jin frowned: ‘With whom? Me and Pei Yan?’

“I didn’t expect tourists like you to come here and buy a pair of red dragon and phoenix umbrellas. Nowadays, younger generations usually get a car when they get married, so this kind of red dragon and phoenix umbrellas are basically useless.” The owner flipped the potatoes before continuing, “This whole street’s authentic umbrellas are made by the old Chen Family’s Workshop and they aren’t cheap.”

Hua Jin smiled before explaining, “You’ve misunderstood. We’re only friends.”

The owner quickly apologized when she heard her clarification and then embarrassingly explained why she misunderstood, “In the past, people getting married might sometimes encounter sudden rain showers on their wedding day, and in those days, it was considered unlucky to carry different colored umbrellas, so wealthy families would often prepare two big red dragon and phoenix umbrellas before the ceremony, because dragons and phoenixes means immortality, and immortals have red clouds hover overhead.

In Chinese, the words for “umbrella” and “scatter” are phonetically the similar (Sǎn & Sàn), and for people who were more superstitious, in order to get even a bit more luck during their wedding day, they’d rarely use a normal umbrella.

After listening to the owner’s explanation, Hua Jin couldn’t help laughing. She suspected that the uncle who sold them the umbrellas just now also misunderstood the relationship between Pei Yan and her.

When the wolf tooth potatoes were ready, Hua Jin gave the other bowl to Pei Yan, “I’ve asked the boss to cut down on the spiciness, so give it a little try.”

The potatoes were sour, spicy and fragrant, and the taste wasn’t bad at all, but Hua Jin found that it wasn’t as delicious as she remembered. Maybe some things in the past, no matter how much you try to relive them, can’t display the same feelings as before.

When she turned to look at Pei Yan, she saw that he was blushing from his face to his neck, and his eyes were glistening with tears. She was taken aback, “What’s wrong with you?!”

“Spicy.” Pei Yan threw the unfinished potatoes into the trash can, “Is this what you call less spicy?!”

Hua Jin: “…”

Putting less spice was already the biggest compromise they could make with regards to tradition. A non-spicy wolf tooth potato was something that would get someone expelled from their ancestral home. 

Meanwhile, the other party’s lips were as red as blood, and his eyes were still full of tears, looking like he was greatly wronged. Hua Jin’s heart softened when she saw him like this, so she went to the store next door to buy him a bottle of water. “Drink some water. It’ll make you feel better.”

Pei Yan drank half the bottle in one breath, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” In her heart, Hua Jin silently added, ‘Anything for the hunk.’

The two continued holding the two red oil-paper umbrellas over their heads until they both recalled the words of the owner of the wolf tooth potato shop, before tacitly searching for the nearest express delivery station through their mobile phones and sending the two umbrellas away for delivery.

Pei Yan didn’t even know why he wanted to keep this thing, but it probably had to do with Hua Jin saying, “Since we’re already here, we can’t go back empty-handed.” Perhaps that is why he subconsciously decided to keep the umbrella.

The rain had finally stopped, but a cool breeze was still blowing. Hua Jin saw that Pei Yan’s lips were still red so she commented, “I thought Mr Pei was from the Shu Province, so I assumed you’d be able to eat spicy food.”

“Early in the previous century, my great-grandfather had already moved away from here.” Pei Yan’s tone still sounded a bit lazy, as if the spiciness had sapped most of his energy away. “Why do I feel like you know more about the culture of the Shu Province than I do? Is it because you’re learning Shu embroidery and eventually fell in love with its place of origin?”

“I was originally from the Shu Province. I lived here for more than ten years, so of course I’d know about the lifestyle and dialect here better than you.” The road had a slight incline so Hua Jin walked very slowly. “I haven’t been back for seven to eight years, and a lot has changed since then.”

“Seven to eight years?” Pei Yan glanced at her dazzling face, “You’ve never been back? Is your place very far away and transportation is inconvenient?”

“Yeah.” Hua Jin smiled casually, “My home is in a very remote small town. About eight years ago, the transportation was really bad, but I don’t know how it is now.”

Pei Yan walked forward in silence for a while before suddenly saying, “If you want to go back there for a visit, I can accompany you after I’ve completed worshiping my ancestors.”

“Thank you.” Hua Jin smiled a little bit more, “But no.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” Pei Yan looked at Hua Jin, wanting to confirm if she just refused out of politeness or if she really didn’t want to.

“Yes.” Hua Jin nodded with a smile. “I really don’t.”

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“Okay.” Pei Yan nodded. “Let’s continue to my hometown early tomorrow morning.” 

He didn’t continue to ask Hua Jin why she didn’t want to go back to her hometown, nor did he bring it up again.

Pei Yan’s hometown was in a small county under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu City. After the two finally arrived at the village, they were warmly welcomed by the residents. Hua Jin saw Pei Yan take out a lot of books, medical supplies, and toys from the trunk of the car before handing them over to the elderly and the kids of the village. When he went to offer incense, Hua Jin didn’t go with him. She opted to stay in the village and ask some of the grandmas about how things were decades ago.

Unexpectedly, these grandmas didn’t want to talk about anything close to the embroidery style decades ago, instead were only interested in when she and Pei Yan are going to get married. Even though she tried her best to explain that she had nothing to do with Pei Yan and that they just happened to travel together, these wizened grandmas only knowingly smiled more, seemingly saying, “We’ve been there, done that. We understand.”

Having seen these kinds of smiles, Hua Jin had no choice but to give up trying to explain further as these people here only knew Pei Yan and not her, so it was better to let him handle this misunderstanding himself.

Meanwhile, the villagers were incessantly praising how good the Pei Family was, like with the amount of money they donated for the road’s construction or the fact that the processing factory nearby was built by the Peis.

“Although Pei Yan’s parents passed away early, his grandparents are reasonable people, so they’d definitely not wrong you if you married into their family.” The grandma who was talking had a head of gray hair and was a bit on the thin side, but she was still in good spirits, “Don’t you agree, young lady?”

Hua Jin couldn’t refute her so she could only ‘agree’ with a smile. In the end, she tried to steer the topic towards the martyr who died for the country.

“Those years were really difficult.” Some of the older grandmas could still recall a few things about those years, but very few of those memories were about embroidery. Most of what they could remember was the hunger and the panic during the war.

Hua Jin even took the opportunity to see the dowry of an old grandma. Because it was too long ago, the once white pillow had yellowed and the embroidery of mandarin ducks playing in the water on it had become stiff. Though the stitching was quite rough, as though it was a rush job by some ordinary embroiderer, the grandma was still very proud of it, because, during those days, not many brides could manage to have an embroidered piece in their dowry.  

When Pei Yan came back from worshiping his ancestors, he saw Hua Jin and several old ladies sitting around the yard, with a small table in front of them that was full of melon seed candies. The way she sat there denoted how comfortable she was. He couldn’t quite figure out what he was feeling just then as he looked down at his muddy feet. When he got closer to the circle of ladies, he heard the older ones teaching Hua Jin how to make men obedient.

It could be said that the women of the Shu and Chongqing Provinces were very good at making their men obedient. When he heard what they were talking about, it would seem that their reputation was well deserved. At that moment, Pei Yan felt that as a man, he had no place setting foot into the inviolable realm of women. 

Fortunately, the village chief who accompanied him to the ancestral tomb brazenly stood out and interrupted the old ladies’ makeshift school, by loudly announcing Pei Yan’s arrival and inviting him to sit and rest.

By and by, a handsome young man would always be liked by old ladies. As soon as Pei Yan sat down, the grandmas all greeted him, showing their sincere concern for his well being. The Young Master Pei, who was known to be unapproachable and intimidating in the outside world, was unable to resist the sincerity of the old ladies, only escaping the complete circle of caring warmth by excusing himself away to escort Hua Jin to look around their area.

There were many mature rapeseed flowers in full bloom, so a large golden area full of fragrance was made. However, as Hua Jin looked at her muddy shoes, she sighed, “Mr Pei, regardless of your own muddy feet, did you have to pull me down with you to suffer as well?”

Pei Yan noticed that Hua Jin was having a hard time walking with her small leather shoes, so he simply turned around and started to walk back, “Then let’s go back.”

“Don’t be in such a rush.” Hua Jin stopped him. “The cauliflowers are so beautiful, so help me take a picture with them.”

Pei Yan looked at her with a sullen face, “I’m sorry that I haven’t had many girlfriends yet, so I’m not that good at taking pictures.”

“It’s okay. I don’t dislike that about you.” Hua Jin held her face with both her hands, “Quick, just take photos like this to illustrate how my face is so small.”

In the end, Pei Yan took out his expensive mobile phone and took a dozen photos of Hua Jin before bringing her back.

At lunch time, the village chief came to greet Hua Jin but paused before saying, “This is…?” He turned to look at Pei Yan, who had been busy the whole day and hadn’t even introduced the name of this beautiful girl.

In turn, Pei Yan just looked at Hua Jin, waiting for her to introduce herself.

“Hello. My name is Hua Jin, but you can call me Xiao Hua.” Hua Jin said with a smile. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you today.”

“You haven’t at all.” The village chief simply gave an honest smile. “We’re very grateful to the Pei Family for everything they’ve done for the village. We’re also elated that you guys are able to be here today, so how could you be a bother? You have a good name that is colorful and vibrant, just hearing it brings good fortune. 

“Then may luck also be with you.” Hua Jin smiled lightly. As for whether he will really be lucky in the future, who knows?

When they were leaving the village, Hua Jin and Pei Yan collected a lot of souvenirs. So much that the back seats were full of them.

“The people in your hometown are so warm.”

“It’s normal for them to be warm to me, but why are they so warm to you?!” The country road wasn’t very spacious, so Pei Yan had to drive the car very slowly.

“Maybe they think I’m your girlfriend?” Hua Jin sighed, “Unfortunately, my reputation as a beautiful single girl, that I’ve maintained for many years, has been ruined just like that.”

Pei Yan: “…”

If such a misunderstanding had occurred, just whose reputation will really suffer? 

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The Author has something to say: [Pei Yan]: Objection! We need to have equality between men and women! Who will protect the reputation of a single man?!

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