Chapter 12: Double Yolk Egg_1

At dusk, Jiang Sanlang returned home and handed eight hundred coins to his wife. "This is the money from selling the deer."

Chunnian took the bag of money, poured out a pile of copper coins, and exclaimed, "So much?"

Jiang Sanlang beamed with pride, and from his bosom drew several strings of coins, "I also have seventy-odd coins in change left here. Tomorrow, I'll go to the town and buy a few old hens for your confinement."

Chunnian bashfully turned away and locked the weighty copper coins into the box, whispering, "There's still plenty of time. Why the rush?"

"Not much time left, according to the midwife we need to prepare early."

They should prepare not only meals but also quilts, swaddling cloths, baby blankets, and diapers. Nothing could be neglected.

And nothing could be neglected, it had to be done double, alas.

Jiang Sanlang looked around and didn't see his daughter, so he asked, "Where's Yingbao?"

"She went over to your brother's. Said she wanted to learn to read with Yuanbao."

"Hey! Our daughter's got quite a knack," Jiang Sanlang laughed, "How old is she to be so eager to learn already?"

Chunnian gave him a reproachful look, "Yingbao already learned some characters a few days ago. She even showed me by writing them with a twig. They were remarkably neat, even neater than the ones Yuanbao writes."

"Really?" Jiang Sanlang feigned disbelief, "When she comes back, I'll have to test her."

The couple chatted for a while. Seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Sanlang got up to bring his daughter home from his brother's house.

At that moment, Yingbao was watching Yuanbao recite the Three Character Classic. Xiaolu lay quietly asleep at their feet.

In the kitchen, Jiang Dasi, who was washing dishes, found it strange:

What had gotten into her son today? He was so diligent.

As soon as he came back from school, he had started writing big characters and then reading. He hadn't rested for an hour. If it weren't for the dinner break in between, she would worry that her son's throat was going to split from all the reading.

Jiang Dabo and Jiang Lao Han were quite relieved.

Their younger son (grandson) was finally showing some ambition.

Their family might even produce a child prodigy.

In Jiang Dabo's eyes, a child prodigy was indeed an extraordinary figure, who in the future could not only teach in the village as a master but also become a shopkeeper in the county town or, at the very least, keep books for someone else.

Wasn't the eldest son of Chen Laoshuan of Xichen Village, Chen Changrong, just keeping books for a wealthy family? He made twenty to thirty taels of silver a year. Although his family still farmed and paid taxes, this large income made their life more than comfortable.

When the time came, Yuanbao could also keep books for people, earning money just by sitting in an office, no longer having to hoe fields or plow the land, and no longer exposed to the sun and rain.

Oh, such a life would be most fulfilling.

You can't blame Jiang Dabo for thinking this way. Every farmer who groveled for a living on the land had a dream of a better life in the county town.

Jiang Laohan had a different perspective from his eldest son. He didn't think so far ahead, he simply felt that his grandson had finally started to show diligence, abandoning his previous laziness.

This was a good thing.

"He's better than his third uncle when he was young," Jiang Lao Han made a candid appraisal, "Although the third one is clever, he didn't use it on studying."

Jiang Liu's wife gave her husband a look, "Compliment when you compliment, why raise one by stepping on another?"

Jiang Lao Han coughed, and turned his head away awkwardly.

In the side room, Yuanbao finally finished reciting an entire Three Character Classic, and turned to look at his little cousin, "I'm done."

Yingbao immediately clapped her hands in praise: "Brother Yuanbao is so amazing! Tomorrow, I'll come with you to school early in the morning, and Xiaolu will walk with you."

Yuanbao chuckled, nodding emphatically, "Okay!"

At that moment, Jiang Sanlang walked into the room and waved at his daughter, "Yingbao, let's go home now."

Yingbao responded and led Xiaolu out of the room, following her father.

Jiang Dabo stood at the door, his sullen face brightened with a chrysanthemum-like smile, and said to his niece, "Yingbao, come over to your uncle's house tomorrow to listen to Yuanbao reading."

"Okay, okay." Yingbao enthusiastically agreed.

Because she would soon be able to write openly and confidently.

Although she learned to read in her past life, she is not good at writing, which has always been a great regret in her life.

So, she decided to learn diligently from Yuanbao and practice beautiful handwriting.

When her younger brothers grow up, she'll teach them to write and read early, so they can become officials in the future and no longer be bullied by others.

...

Days and nights passed like a fleeting horse. In a blink of an eye, more than two months had passed.

The weather was getting colder, leaves started to fall, and the Cold Clothes Festival was drawing near.

The apple sapling Yingbao had planted had grown to eight feet in height. Its trunk was sturdy, its branches robust, and it had become a bona fide miniature fruit tree.

Jiang Sanlang and his wife marvelled at this, exclaiming how incredibly fast the sapling had grown, outpacing even the Speedy Tree.

The fawn at home had also grown significantly and was named Youyou. It was sturdy and gentle, always following Yingbao closely wherever she went, seeming to regard her as a companion.

After the fall harvest, Jiang Sanlang bought two old hens and a rooster. With the two original chickens, they now had five chickens at home.

Under Yingbao's careful feeding, the two old hens had also started laying eggs. Each chicken was laying an egg per day, with every egg having double yolks.

Jiang Sanlang and his wife were astonished.

But they kept this to themselves, not even telling those in the main part of the house.

"Sanlang, isn't that strange?" Chunniang sat at the edge of the kang, sewing a baby bib while chatting with her husband.

"Those hens you bought were past their egg-laying stage, but after Yingbao fed them, they started laying eggs again, and every egg has double yolks."

"That's because Yingbao often digs earthworms to feed them," Jiang Sanlang said, sitting on a stool, cleaning his arrowheads one by one.

Once it started snowing this winter, he would go rabbit hunting in South Mountain to provide a feast for his family.

If they were lucky and caught a few more, they could take them to the market to exchange for some pork or mutton.

"Why aren't other people's chickens laying double-yolked eggs?"

Chunniang found it magical, "The chickens in Big Brother's house are also fed earthworms. Doesn't Dani dig for them with Yingbao every day? Now that it's getting cold, Dani told me that in their house, out of their five hens, they only find two eggs every three days."

Jiang Sanlang had no response to that.

But he couldn't admit that his daughter had magical abilities.

With a smile to his wife, he teased, "Are you saying that you're going to lay double-yolked eggs like those old hens?"

Chunniang's expression darkened as she spat out her husband's name, lightly kicking him with her foot, "Nonsense."

Jiang Sanlang chuckled, reaching out to touch her large belly, "Our little double-yolk should come and see for themselves how your mom bullies your dad."

"You are not serious." Chunniang turned the corner of her mouth upward in a smile, ignoring her husband.

Jiang Sanlang stared seriously at his wife and sighed, "Chunniang, why do I find you getting more and more beautiful?"

Chunniang blushed and turned her body away, "I am an old woman now, what's beautiful about that?"

Jiang Sanlang clicked his tongue a few times, put down the bow and arrow in his hand and reached out to turn his wife towards him, "Indeed you've become prettier. Your skin is fair, almost as fair as Yingbao's. Freckles used to be here and here, now they're gone."

"Really?" Chunniang touched her face, finding it hard to believe.

Which woman wouldn't care about her appearance?

"Uh-huh." Jiang Sanlang nodded, "Before, I thought your skin became fair because you don't go out much, but yesterday when I saw you standing next to my sister-in-law, she looked like a piece of charcoal compared to you."

Jiang Sanlang's sister-in-law had given birth two years ago and had barely left the house to work for the last one or two years, spending most of her time looking after the child. Her skin color was always similar to his wife back then, and it should have stayed the same now.

But when the two were compred yesterday, it gave Jiang Sanlang a serious visual shock.

His wife was too beautiful, even more youthful than when she was young. Her complexion and skin did not resemble that of a village woman at all.

"Stop spouting nonsense, or my sister-in-law will scold you if she hears you." Chunniang gave her husband a glare, but she felt delighted inside.

They didn't have a copper mirror at home, the only dowry copper mirror was sold a few years ago, its value exchanged for bowls of soup which were poured into their stomachs. Thinking back, it seemed quite foolish.

She used to just randomly twist her hair up in front of a basin of water when getting dressed, plus she didn't go out much because she was pregnant, so she didn't dress up much either.

But after receiving her husband's compliment today, she was starting to look forward to it.

"Tomorrow is market day, I'll go to town and buy a copper mirror for you."

Jiang Sanlang also realized his negligence. He apologetically hugged his wife, "I'll also buy a few hairpins. You and our daughter can wear them, it'll look auspicious."

All the flowers had withered by now, leaving the women's heads bare.

He remembered that the women in the county town all wore silk flowers, which looked exactly like real flowers, bright and eye-catching.

Chunniang smiled with her mouth shut,"Also buy a piece of cloth for Yingbao. While I have idle time now, I can make her a new cotton dress."

Their daughter had been mostly wearing the old clothes passed down from Dani and Erni since she came to their home.

Even though she had embroidered and altered the old clothes as much as she could to make them look as close to new, or even prettier, they were still old clothes.

So, Chunniang always felt that she was short-changing her daughter.

"Uh-huh." Jiang Sanlang also agreed, "It's indeed time to make new clothes for Yingbao."