CHAPTER 147: CHAPTER 146: I COULD DIVE IN AND PULL MY BROTHER-IN-LAW OUT MYSELF

Yu Xiaolian ultimately couldn’t win over Zhao Erya and ended up sleeping on the bed, but she called Sanyan to join her.

When Yu Xiaolian got up the next day, she sneaked a peek at her watch; it was already six in the morning.

They had finished all the steamed buns and dumplings yesterday, so the family had wontons at a stall in the town for breakfast today.

Yu Xiaolian found that ancient people really had big appetites; they finished so many buns and dumplings in just two meals.

Knowing one bowl of wontons wouldn’t be enough, Ms. Sun asked Yu Xiaolian to buy twenty more buns from the neighboring stall—two vegetable buns for three coins and two meat buns for five coins.

The prices have gone up! She remembered vegetable buns used to be one coin each, and meat buns two coins each.

Yu Xiaolian bought ten vegetable buns and ten meat buns, handed one silver coin to the bun seller, and got twenty coins in change.

"Here come the hot buns!"

"I’m full, no need for me!" Sun Fengshou waved his hand.

He had finished the wonton soup and was feeling very full.

Yu Xiaolian passed the buns around, but only Little Tiger reached out for a meat bun; the others didn’t eat.

Ms. Sun said, "Let’s wrap them up and save them for the road!"

At this pace, it would probably take five to six days to reach Bohai City.

Today the carriage pulled by Big Red was especially lively; Little Tiger picked up a few stones to play toss with Sanyan, while Yu Xiaolian and Zhao Erya kept to the side so as not to disturb them.

Accompanied by cheerful laughter along the way, their family faced another day of bumpy hardship.

That night, darkness fell before they could reach the next town, so they had to stay over at a farmer’s house.

Ms. Sun gave the old lady two hundred coins in exchange for a big kang bed and a meal of coarse rice porridge.

Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou watered the horse and fed it the farmer’s dried straw, as there was no fresh grass; it was barely sprouting from the ground and too weak to cut for feed.

But the dry straw lacked grain feed, and the two horses were not very keen on eating it.

This couldn’t go on; they couldn’t let the horses starve. Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou decided together to buy some hay at the next town and tie it to the back of the carriage.

The farmer’s old lady was a widow with a simple-minded son, struggling to get by. Ms. Sun’s two hundred coins made her very happy.

The next day, as they were leaving, Yu Xiaolian secretly left a few potatoes and sweet potatoes in the dilapidated kitchen.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes were common in this world, but their low yield and few cultivators meant people mostly planted corn and rice to pay taxes, which the court accepted while rejecting other grains.

There was also the option to pay in cash, but if grain could be given, no one wanted to pay money.

As soon as they hit the road, Little Tiger complained about the damp kang bed he slept on last night, saying it was uncomfortable.

Yu Xiaolian also felt the bed was damp; when she woke up this morning her back was itchy, presumably due to the damp bed.

A kang that isn’t heated regularly will become damp.

Little Tiger scratched his arm and muttered, "It’s still better to stay at an inn. Next time, if we can’t reach a town with inns, let’s sleep in the carriage. I refuse to sleep on a damp kang again!"

Seeing his arms turning red from scratching, Yu Xiaolian told him to stop.

Little Tiger wouldn’t listen; he was itching!

With no other choice, Yu Xiaolian pretended to reach into her pocket and pulled out a tube of Hundred Skin Balm.

"Stop scratching. Extend your arm."

"Sis, what are you rubbing on me? It’s cooling and not itchy once applied!"

"It’s for itchy skin; I always carry a tube because I often itch too. Who else is itchy? I’ll apply it for you!"

Zhao Sanyan, who had been holding back, extended her arm, "Sister Xiaolian, my arms and back are itchy."

"Alright, I’ll rub the balm for you!"

"Tiger, turn your head away."

After applying balm to Sanyan, Yu Xiaolian asked Erya, "Are you itchy?"

Zhao Erya shook her head, "My skin is thick and tough, I’m not feeling itchy. Maybe they’re too young, with tender skin."

Yu Xiaolian was itching too, but she felt she could endure it. She planned to bathe with a tub of water once they reached the inn at night, then apply the balm.

At noon, they passed by a town but decided it was too early to stop, so they grabbed lunch and continued on the road.

This time, Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou found a spot to feed the horses well and bought two bags of hay to keep handy.

Unexpectedly, after missing that town, they wandered until dark without reaching the next town.

Ms. Sun complained to Yu Changhe, "Next time, check the map and ask how far it is to the next town, so we have a sense of it. We were flying blind."

Now there was neither village nor shop, and they’d have to spend the night outdoors.

Yu Changhe protested, "The map only has names of big cities and significant towns; tiny towns aren’t even marked."

Ms. Sun griped, "Whoever drew this lousy map sure isn’t reliable, yet it’s sold so expensively."

Her daughter had spent a whole tael of silver on this map, and the bookstore owner claimed it was hand-drawn with the most accurate routes.

Yu Xiaolian recalled the map’s signature, "Fu Yi, the map was drawn by someone named Fu Yi."

Ms. Sun spat, "This Fu Yi really knows how to make money unethically!"

Thinking about the unclear paper made her feel ripped off.

Yu Xiaolian thought, the original version might have indeed been drawn by Fu Yi, but he’d never duplicate them endlessly like a printing press.

The ones sold in bookstores were likely pirated, and she bought this map from River Bend Town, a small place unlikely to have Fu Yi’s original works.

Yu Xiaolian wanted to discuss this with her mother, but the road was so rough that afternoon she’d gotten carsick and didn’t feel like talking.

Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou unloaded the horses from the carriage and tied them to the only crooked tree by the side of the path, feeding them hay.

Yu Changhe, with sharp ears, heard the sound of flowing water nearby. He walked around carefully and listened intently, "There should be a small creek over there; I’ll go fetch some water for the horses."

"I’ll go too." Sun Fengshou and Yu Changhe each grabbed a wooden bucket and went to fetch water.

Ms. Sun worriedly reminded them, "It’s really dark, be careful not to fall into the river."

Sun Fengshou laughed heartily, "Rest assured, if Brother-in-law falls in, I’ll dive in and fish him out."

It was true, Sun Fengshou was renowned for his swimming skills in the area, especially holding his breath underwater; no one from nearby villages could outlast him.

Although Yu Changhe could swim, he wasn’t as skilled as Sun Fengshou.

One could say that boys growing up around River Bend couldn’t avoid swimming; they all washed and played in the river from a young age.

Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou soon returned with two full buckets of water for the horses.

At lunch in the town, they’d bought a large batch of steamed buns.

Now, with neither village nor shop in sight, dinner would consist of those buns.