Chapter 19: A Pair of Red Embroidered Shoes
The sky was growing dim.
Brother and Father had not yet returned home.
Jiang Mianmian was being carried by her sister under the big tree at the courtyard entrance, pacing back and forth several times.
How amazing.
Even though she was so young, she already had people she longed to see return home.
Especially when standing under the big tree waiting and gazing into the distance.
Seeing a small black dot appear at the village entrance always made her heart beat a little faster, a little more joyfully.
But if they didn’t come after a long wait, she would feel a bit anxious and worried.
To Jiang Mianmian, the outside world was like a giant beast; she knew nothing of it and felt it was incomparably dangerous.
After standing under the tree for a while and still seeing no one, her sister Jiang Yu carried her back to the courtyard on her back.
In the courtyard, Mother was tidying up some wild boar meat.
Just now, when Mother opened the basket and took out those smooth, piece-by-piece cuts of meat, Jiang Mianmian felt her little heart stop for three seconds.
Sister Jiang Yu, however, was full of excitement: “Mother, Mother, you bought meat? We have meat to eat!”
“I didn’t buy it. I went to the forest today and encountered a wild boar. It stupidly ran into my spear and accidentally got stabbed to death,” Qin Luoxia said in a calm tone.
Jiang Mianmian:… Mother is lying. Wild boar hair is very, very long. How could it have absolutely no hair, just white skin… It’s impossible that Mother killed the boar on the mountain, de-haired it, cut it piece by piece, and washed it clean, right? Does Mother have OCD? Is she Hannibal?
Then she saw Mother laying out the meat, neat and tidy, like building blocks…
Finally, adding the pig’s trotters and head, the whole wild boar was there, perfectly arranged.
The pig hair wasn’t thrown away either; Mother had arranged it neatly, tied with straw rope, sorted by length into six bundles.
If she hadn’t seen the pig, Jiang Mianmian would have thought these bundles were pine needles…
She had never seen a pig dismembered so completely.
Is this an ancient version of LEGO?
Seeing the meat, sister Jiang Yu was even more excited than her. Without thinking too much about it, she excitedly carried her on her back and spun around, occasionally going to the door to check if Father and Brother had returned, so they could eat meat sooner.
Jiang Mianmian watched as her sister wiped the corner of her mouth from time to time… She was really drooling.
Then her sister would also wipe her drool from time to time, smiling and asking: “Are you greedy? Does Mianmian also want to eat some meat?”
Jiang Mianmian:… No, it’s because my infant nervous system isn’t fully developed, my body control is poor, my mouth is always open, and I can’t control my facial muscles, which is why I’m drooling, not because I’m greedy… Forget it, it’s too hard to explain. She looked at her sister, smiling foolishly, and followed along by yelling “Iya-ya.”
It was actually quite nice. Just because of a meal of meat, her sister’s eyes curved into crescents when she smiled, looking even more like Father—carefree and simple-minded, making anyone who saw her happy as well.
Finally, when the sky was pitch black, Father and Brother returned.
Without going out of the courtyard gate, Jiang Mianmian identified them by the sound of their footsteps.
She relied on the spiritual spring water for hydration every day.
Aside from those few days when she pooped more than her body weight, the most obvious feeling was that her five senses had become more sensitive.
She felt that her hearing, smell, and vision had all improved significantly.
And her sense of taste; things that didn’t taste good became quite an experience in her mouth… She could taste all sorts of strange flavors.
As for touch, since she was currently only with her family—she liked it when her sister kissed her and when Mother held her—she didn’t know how to perceive if it had improved, but she could feel that her family loved her very much.
Really, even though she was a small baby, she truly felt like the center of the universe; they all liked her very much, full of love.
It was like when her sister pinched her cheeks with the same hand she had just used to touch her bottom; the smell was a little strange, but the touch was still gentle and loving -_-||.
Jiang Mianmian heard Brother’s footsteps; they were quite steady, but occasionally there was a bit of a bounce, indicating he was in a good mood.
Father’s footsteps were almost non-existent, very even and light; if her hearing hadn’t become stronger, she wouldn’t have been able to hear them at all.
“Iya-ya, iya-ya” (Open the door, open the door), Jiang Mianmian also called out, feeling a bit excited.
She hadn’t seen them all day and missed them.
Sure enough, Jiang Yu opened the door, and there were Brother and Father.
Both of them were carrying quite a lot of things on their backs.
Perhaps because there was so much, they waited until it was dark to head home, fearing being seen.
They were scared of poverty; even with a little bit of money, they worried about it being exposed.
Jiang Yu was curious about what they had bought.
Seeing the neatly wrapped packages, she was very excited.
Much more excited than when she saw the pork Mother brought.
After all, these were bought with money, and things bought with money were precious.
Jiang Yu picked up a bag, shook it, curious about what it was, and even brought it to her nose to sniff.
Jiang Mianmian knew without smelling it that it was traditional Chinese medicine.
The smell was very strong.
Jiang Yu smelled it too and obediently put it down.
Then she said, full of excitement: “Father actually bought fine grains. That’s great! Little sister didn’t have anything to eat today and cried for a long time.”
Jiang Mianmian:… I cried because you kept force-feeding me, not because I wanted to eat -_-||.
Then Jiang Mianmian heard her sister shriek. “Ah! Ah! Ah!”
Jiang Mianmian was startled. What happened? Did Father’s basket also contain neatly arranged meat? De-haired?
It turned out that her sister was holding a pair of embroidered shoes.
There were no butterflies or tiny beads on them, but they were very new, with exquisitely embroidered surfaces, and they were red.
“Father, Father, did you buy these for me?” Jiang Yu asked, running into the room with the shoes.
Brother and Father washed up as soon as they returned.
Jiang Mianmian noticed that her family seemed to be quite good about this; they were rather conscious of hygiene.
Brother came over to hold her after washing up, carrying her as he leaned against a bamboo chair.
Then she heard Father say in the room: “Embroidered shoes? I don’t know. I didn’t buy them. Ask A-Feng.”
Then her sister ran out like a gust of wind. “Brother, Brother, did you buy these for me? Are they brand new?”
Jiang Feng, holding his sister, nodded proudly. “It’s just a pair of embroidered shoes.”
Jiang Yu was extremely excited.
Sitting on a small stool, she took off her own shoes, but didn’t try the new ones on; instead, she hurriedly took the embroidered shoes and went back to the room.
Jiang Mianmian was stunned, then remembered: this is ancient times, there are strict gender boundaries. Maybe one can’t show their feet in front of men, not even a brother.
But after a while, her sister ran out with the shoes again.
She sat down in front of her, took off her shoes, and diligently put on a pair of socks?
They weren’t elastic, just loose and wide.
Jiang Mianmian had indeed overthought it; they were barely getting enough to eat and still had to work in the fields, so they didn’t have those kinds of formalities.
It was probably that her sister was worried about getting the new embroidered shoes dirty.
She saw her sister carefully put on the embroidered shoes and walk around, very happily.
The smile never left her face.
She walked very steadily in her new embroidered shoes, one step at a time, not wobbling at all.
She even jumped up lightly, though she didn’t dare jump too high, worried that the weight would wear out the shoes, but she still couldn’t help but hop a little.
“So, wearing new embroidered shoes doesn’t make your feet hurt,” Jiang Yu said, walking back and forth.
She even walked up to Brother and asked: “Do they look good?”
Jiang Mianmian, in Brother’s arms, nodded: “Iya-ya.” (They look good.)
Jiang Feng snorted and didn’t answer, but he laughed heartily.
Jiang Yu spun around and said excitedly: “I’m going to wear these embroidered shoes to show A-Cui tomorrow.”
