The Zhao family's coachman unhurriedly cracked his whip, driving the carriage *clip-clop* cheerfully out of Qing Shui Town: "Dad, look at that man under the tree over there—isn't that Uncle Wang?" Li Menglan had sharp eyes and immediately spotted a man solid as an iron tower outside Qing Shui Town—Wang Tiezhu.
"Brother, please stop the carriage for a moment; I'll go over and greet my elder brother." Li Dazhu heard Li Menglan's words, and upon seeing Wang Tiezhu craning his neck and gazing continuously toward Qing Shui Town, he remembered the agreement he had made with Wang Tiezhu.
Li Dazhu walked over to Wang Tiezhu in a few quick steps, a rather embarrassed smile on his face: "Big Brother Wang, have you been waiting long? I'm truly sorry to have kept you waiting." Li Dazhu was an honest man, and now he suddenly had to tell Wang Tiezhu that he had already taken someone else's carriage and wouldn't be riding his ox cart... these words... were truly difficult to get out.
"Brother, it's this big brother who's in the wrong today." Wang Tiezhu glanced at Li Dazhu, gritted his teeth, and said: "My father-in-law's family had some trouble, so your big brother and sister-in-law can't go home today; if you didn't buy too many things..." By the end, Wang Tiezhu's face was completely red, and he couldn't continue.
"It's fine, Big Brother Wang. I actually happened to have something to tell you as well." Wang Tiezhu's words let Li Dazhu heave a sigh of relief. He pointed with his finger at the black-canopied carriage not far behind him: "Today in town, I met the young master of 'Idle Guest Residence.' The young master saw that I had too many things to carry and specifically had his family's coachman send me and girl Lan home."
"That's good then. I was just worried that girl Lan had only just recovered her health; would she be able to walk such a long distance?" A sincere smile appeared on Wang Tiezhu's dark face.
"It's nothing, Big Brother Wang. Please go ahead with your business!" Li Dazhu waved his hand at Wang Tiezhu and said.
"Brother Dazhu, then it's settled—when your sister-in-law and I return home, we brothers will have a proper drink or two. Your sister-in-law is still waiting for me at home." Wang Tiezhu rubbed his hands together and smiled.
Li Dazhu quickly replied: "Alright! Please go ahead with your business. It's getting late, and I need to get home too."
Only after Wang Tiezhu left the main road and his figure could no longer be seen did Li Dazhu climb onto the carriage: "Dad, what did you say to Uncle Wang? What did you all talk about? Isn't Uncle Wang returning to Shangliang Village?" The moment Li Menglan saw Li Dazhu get in the carriage, she asked anxiously.
"Hehe... Dad's girl Lan is just like a little housekeeper." Li Dazhu said cheerfully: "We didn't say much. It's just that your aunt's family has some matters, so your Uncle Wang isn't going home today."
"Oh... no wonder I didn't see Uncle Wang's ox cart." Li Menglan nodded in sudden realization.
Li Dazhu looked at the pig offal placed in a broken basket, furrowed his brows, and felt somewhat puzzled: "Daughter, nobody eats this pig offal. What's the use of you buying this stuff?"
Li Dazhu was truly curious why his daughter had so many strange ideas. As for what Li Menglan had once said about the mountain god of Crooked Neck Mountain, Li Dazhu hadn't said much.
But matters of ghosts and gods were too uncertain; Li Dazhu neither believed nor doubted. In short... as long as it was his daughter, anything was fine.
Li Menglan looked at those soft, collapsed pig intestines with a silly grin, thinking of a curse word from the countryside: "You're just like pig large intestine—lift it up and it's one long string, put it down and it's a big puddle." This was saying a person was hopelessly bad! Yet at this moment, Li Menglan felt it was especially endearing. These were all good things... once she prepared them well, as long as her family tasted them once; they would definitely fall in love with their flavor.
Here, Li Menglan stared at that nauseating pig offal with a sweet smile, making Li Dazhu, who was sitting nearby, feel strange... could his own daughter have been possessed by a demon!
"Dad, don't worry." Li Menglan said with a smile: "As long as this pig offal is cleaned properly, what comes out of it is all delicious food."
"Good... delicious food, then Dad will wait to eat the delicacies made by my daughter!" Li Dazhu nodded with a smile.
Autumn days were short. When the sun set behind the mountains; when the thin dew of dusk enveloped the fields like a light gauze, the frog songs gradually grew lively.
Sitting in the carriage, Li Menglan curiously lifted the cloth curtain, earnestly examining this unfamiliar world beneath the twilight for the first time; everywhere in the fields, one could see villagers returning in twos and threes with heavy loads, shepherd boys returning late driving their cattle back to the pens; above the distant farmhouses, cooking smoke curled spirally upward.
It rather had the feeling of Tao Yuanming's *Returning to Dwell in Gardens and Fields*; "In youth I'd no aptitude for worldly ways, by nature I loved hills and mountains. By mistake I fell into the dust-filled net, once gone, thirty years passed in a trice. A caged bird longs for its old wood, a pond fish misses the pool where it stood. I cleared wild land at the southern field's edge, keeping my rustic ways, I returned to garden and hedge. My homestead has over ten *mu* of ground, with thatched rooms eight or nine I've found. Elms and willows shade the rear eaves, peach and plum stand before the hall in leaves. Distant villages dimly seen afar, lingering smoke rises from hamlets here. Dogs bark somewhere in deep lanes below, roosters crow atop the mulberry trees aglow. My courtyard is free from dust and clutter, my empty room has leisure to utter. Long trapped inside a cage have I been, now once again I return to nature's scene."
Zhang Yuniang was in the kitchen preparing supper: "Mother, Grandpa, Grandma, I'm back." Li Menglan's vigorous voice rang out from outside the courtyard.
Zhang Yuniang was still worried in her heart, wondering if the sugar-fried chestnuts had sold; had they sold cheap or expensive? Upon hearing her daughter's voice, she wiped her wet hands haphazardly on her apron a couple of times: "Girl Lan, you're finally back; where is your father?"
Zhang Yuniang came out of the kitchen and immediately saw Li Menglan standing in the courtyard with a smile, but didn't see her husband's figure at all; her heart immediately hung in suspense.
"Good granddaughter, was town fun?" Li Fujin and Lin Sanniang, the old couple, came out hand in hand.
"Mm... it was fun." Li Menglan brought a small wooden stool each for Li Fujin and Lin Sanniang: "Grandpa, Grandma, today Dad and I bought many, many good things." Li Menglan deliberately spread her hands wide and said childishly.
"Really? Mm... good granddaughter is capable! Knows how to earn money to support the family; Grandpa is waiting to enjoy a life of ease!" Li Fujin took Li Menglan's words as childish nonsense and didn't take them seriously.
"Girl Lan, where's your dad? Why didn't I see your dad?" Zhang Yuniang asked somewhat flusteredly.
"Dad, Dad is unloading things from the carriage." Li Menglan pointed with her finger at the broken courtyard gate—wasn't there a black-canopied carriage parked right outside the gate? Li Menglan only now remembered her purpose for coming in: "Mother, Grandpa, Grandma, we bought too many things; Dad told me to call you all to come help together."
Thinking of her own carelessness, Li Menglan said somewhat embarrassedly.
"You bought too many things?" Zhang Yuniang was taken aback: "Daughter, what did you and your dad buy? Food or utensils? Where did so much money come from? And whose carriage is that at the door?" Zhang Yuniang fired several questions at Li Menglan in succession.
"Mother, you ask so many questions at once? How am I supposed to answer?" Li Menglan said with a bitter little face.
"Wife, hurry over and help! This brother still needs to rush back to Qing Shui Town; the road will be hard to travel once it's dark." Li Dazhu's voice came from outside the courtyard gate.
"Coming!" Zhang Yuniang quickly responded at the top of her voice, while not forgetting to say to Li Menglan: "Daughter, tell me properly later; understand?"
"Oh."
"Husband, how did you buy so many things? What are they all?" Zhang Yuniang looked at the fully loaded carriage, her eyes nearly popping out.