When the pears are green

Chapter 233 Longevity Lock

Under the dim oil lamp, the Song family's father and daughter sat at opposite ends of the wooden table, eating the food on the table.

While picking up food, Song Yue would occasionally glance at Song Changhe who was sitting opposite her, wondering how to explain to Song Changhe that she and Wu Mingde were going to the town together tomorrow.

"Xiaoyue, just tell me whatever you want to say. Don't keep looking at me." Song Changhe put down the bowl he was holding, frowned and asked Song Yue, who was still distracted.

Song Yue hesitantly told Song Changhe, "Dad, I want to go to town with Mingde tomorrow, and may not be back until the afternoon."

"Just you two?" Song Changhe asked, tapping the plate with two pieces of tofu with his chopsticks.

Song Yue was startled by the crisp sound of "dong dong dong" and quickly sat up straight. She explained to Song Changhe in a panic: "Dad, there is also Minghui."

"Didn't Minghui go to the city?" Song Changhe asked, staring at Song Yue with a look of "let's see how you deceive me" on his face.

After all, when Song Yue went out in the afternoon, she said she would be back in a while, but this time lasted as long as an hour and a half.

Feeling guilty, Song Yue looked at the oil lamp beside the stove. The red and yellow flames jumped back and forth on the thin wick.

Song Yue was silent for a while, rubbing her cheeks with both hands and whispered: "Dad, Minghui came back with Mingde. When the county school starts, they will go back to the city together."

Song Changhe temporarily put aside the question about Wu Minghui and asked Song Yue, "What are you doing in town? Didn't you sell handkerchiefs half a month ago?"

Seeing that Song Changhe was still full of doubts, Song Yue had to tell him everything: "Dad, I want to buy a longevity lock for my sister's child. I don't understand these things and I'm afraid of being cheated, so I thought of letting Mingde go with me."

After hearing this, Song Changhe's expression eased a lot, and he asked Song Yue softly: "Then, do you have enough money?"

Song Yue hurriedly ran back to the room to get her purse, and then poured the copper coins from the two purses in front of Song Changhe.

Song Yue proudly told Song Changhe, who was lying on the wooden table counting copper coins, "Dad, Mingde said it was enough. I counted it before, and there were about three hundred copper coins."

Song Changhe paused for a moment while counting the copper coins, then put the few copper coins that were placed aside back into the pile of copper coins.

Song Changhe told Song Yue solemnly: "Xiaoyue, you don't even have half a tael of silver, I'm afraid you can't buy the longevity lock. I think the kid surnamed Wu has no good intentions."

"Dad, I can buy a small one first. Also, didn't you like Mingde very much before? Why do you have such a deep prejudice against him now?" After Song Yue finished speaking, she rubbed her hands unconsciously.

Song Changhe snorted lightly, turned around and walked to the chopping board, moved away the half-person-high water jar, dug out a cloth bag covered in mud from the bottom with his bare hands and handed it to Song Yue.

Song Yue hurriedly caught it; it was quite heavy.

"There are more than 400 copper coins in it, which are all my daily savings. Use them to buy a longevity lock for the child. Since you're going to buy it, buy a bigger one." Song Changhe said as he moved the water tank back to its original position.

Song Yue chased out of the kitchen and asked Song Changhe who was washing his hands at the well: "Dad, does mom know about these you hid?"

Song Changhe didn't bother to wipe his hands, and hurried to Song Yue's side and whispered: "Shh, keep your voice down, don't let the neighbors hear. If your mother knew, would I still need to hide it? Remember, don't tell your mother."

Song Yue nodded like a chick eating rice.

Song Changhe walked to the kitchen while saying to Song Yue who was following behind him: "Xiaoyue, it's not that I have a problem with that boy, it's that he shouldn't say that to an unmarried girl like you. Although you are going to get married in more than two months, you haven't married him yet, how can he not care at all. Also, you came back so late this afternoon, did that boy not let you come back?"

"No, no, Minghui and I played for a while and forgot to look at the sun." Song Yue didn't want Song Changhe to have a worse impression of Wu Mingde, so she had to turn the topic to Wu Minghui.

Song Changhe turned around and asked Song Yue to put away the copper plates on the wooden table. Then he sighed and told Song Yue: "Alas, a girl should not be kept at home when she grows up! Girl, all these together are enough to buy an ordinary silver longevity lock. You must remember that you and the boy from the Wu family are not married yet, so you can't be involved in money. If you want to buy anything, you can tell me or your mother, remember?"

"Dad, I understand." Song Yue lowered her head in shame, and together with Song Changhe, she stuffed all the copper coins on the table into the cloth bag.

Wu Mingde, who was lying on the bed counting the silver in his purse, suddenly sneezed. Wu Mingde rubbed his nose and put the copper coins and silver change back into his purse.

Wu Mingde happily took off his shoes, rested his head on his arms and recalled the afternoon he spent with Song Yue.

Although Song Changhe disliked Wu Mingde, he still left home early the next day after making tofu.

After seeing Song Changhe leaving at the village entrance, Wu Minghui hurried home to find Wu Mingde.

At this time, Wu Mingde was talking to Wu Li in the yard.

When Wu Li heard the sound of the door being pushed open, she turned around and looked at Wu Minghui, who was anxious and hesitant to speak, and smiled and asked Wu Mingde and Wu Minghui to go to the backyard to drive the ox cart.

"Mingde, take it, and buy some things Xiaoyue likes. You will be getting married in two months, and it's time to buy some things a girl like in your house. It can't be just books, paper, ink, pens and inkstones." Mrs. Wu Li said as she threw a heavy blue purse to Wu Mingde.

Wu Mingde reached out to catch it and wanted to throw it back to Wu Li.

Wu Li walked over and stuffed the purse into Wu Mingde's hand, but Wu Mingde quickly refused, saying that he still had some silver.

"Mingde, don't I know how much silver you have? Don't think that you only spend money and don't earn money. Think about it, you passed the imperial examination last year and exempted our family's 50 acres of land from land tax. Your father and your second brother will no longer have to pay silver instead of labor service next year, and you have saved another 200 coins. All this money is saved by you, so it naturally counts as earned by you. Go quickly, don't keep Xiaoyue waiting anxiously." After Wu Li finished speaking, she signaled Wu Minghui to take Wu Mingde away.

Wu Minghui reached out to pull Wu Mingde's sleeve, raised her little face and said to Wu Mingde: "Third brother, let's go quickly. If we delay any longer, it will be noon soon."

"Well, let's go." Wu Mingde put the purse in his hand into his shoulder bag and looked back at Wu Li's back.

Although the early autumn sun is scorching, the wind is cool.

Wu Minghui leaned on Song Yue's shoulder and listened to Song Yue and Wu Mingde talking, occasionally interjecting a word or two.

The three of them soon arrived at the silver shop in the town. After Wu Mingde handed the ox cart to the waiter guarding the door, he led Song Yue and Wu Mingshu into the silver shop.

The silver shop in the town is not big, and the silver jewelry sold is not much, mostly some simple hairpins, earrings, bracelets and longevity locks for children.

The owner of the silver shop was a slightly plump woman. She came forward and asked Song Yue and the other two what they wanted to buy.

Song Yue looked at the counter displaying longevity locks and said, "I want to buy a longevity lock."

The woman looked at Song Yue's clothes carefully and asked her with a smile, "How heavy do you want to buy, young lady?"

Song Yue pinched the copper coins in her bag and answered with courage: "About one or two taels of silver."

After hearing this, Wu Mingde whispered in Song Yue's ear: "Xiao Yue, I still have some silver here, I can buy..."

"No need. My father gave me some copper coins yesterday, which add up to almost one or two taels. It's just right to buy something under one or two taels." Song Yue interrupted Wu Mingde and patted her shoulder bag with a smile.

Wu Mingde followed Song Yue and Wu Minghui dejectedly, watching the two of them enthusiastically selecting the longevity locks recommended by the owner of the silver shop.

"Sister, this is so beautiful." Wu Minghui pointed at the lotus-shaped longevity lock held by the owner of the silver shop. One side of the lock had "long life" engraved on it, and the other side had a lotus root pattern carved on it.

Song Yue also liked it and turned to ask Wu Mingde for his opinion.

Wu Mingde carefully looked at the longevity lock in the silver shop owner's hand, and smiled and told Song Yue: "Lotus roots contain lotus seeds, and lotus seeds are like children. This is good."

"Then let's go with this one." Song Yue turned around and said to the owner of the silver shop.

The owner of the silver shop quickly weighed the longevity lock with a scale, pointed to the scale and said to Song Yue: "Little girl, the longevity lock weighs six cents, and the labor fee is two cents, so the total is eight cents."

After hearing the price, Song Yue breathed a sigh of relief and loosened her hands that were nervously holding the bag.

After paying the bill, the owner of the silver shop put the longevity lock into a green drawstring bag embroidered with auspicious cloud patterns and handed it to Song Yue.

Wu Mingde noticed the changes in Song Yue's expression and felt that it would be more appropriate for him to go alone to buy the things Song Yue liked.

"Xiaoyue, do you want to go to your eldest sister's house?" Wu Mingde asked Song Yue who was playing with Wu Minghui while standing beside the ox cart.

Song Yue glanced at the sun which had not yet reached its zenith and replied in a low voice: "I want to go see my sister."

"Okay, I'll take you there and pick you up in the afternoon." After Wu Mingde said this, he asked Song Yue and Wu Minghui to get on the ox cart and waved the whip towards Jiangjia Village.