Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 364: In front of the widow's door
"Bang!"

The axe blade cleaved deep into the wooden stake, causing Mo Xiaoshan's hands to go numb from the impact.

He shook his hands, which were red from the cold, and his breath condensed quickly in the cold wind.

"Why are you here again?" Mo Xiaoshan asked without looking up, his voice colder than the weather.

He deliberately increased the force with which he chopped the wood, sending wood chips flying towards his muddy boots.

"Hehe..." Li Ergou stomped his foot at the gate of the courtyard, and chunks of snow fell from his deerskin boots.

In his left hand he carried a piece of pork belly wrapped tightly in oiled paper, the fat glistening with oil seeping through the paper; in his right hand he held a blue and white porcelain jar, the mouth of which was tightly tied with red cloth, and the snow-white sugar inside could be vaguely seen.

"A scholar doing this rough work, his hands must be calloused by now," Li Ergou said, taking a half-step forward, his boot soles grinding a semi-circle in the snow. "Tell your mother to call me, and I'll finish chopping this pile of firewood before evening. It's almost New Year's..."

"My family's firewood is none of outsiders' business." Mo Xiaoshan suddenly swung his axe, and the pine log, as thick as a bowl, split in two.

When he straightened up, the stray hairs on his forehead were stuck together in clumps by sweat.

"Hey, Xiaoshan, you're being too polite!" Li Ergou chuckled and touched the frostbite on his nose.

A row of corn cobs was piled up at the base of the courtyard wall, and strings of corn cobs and red peppers hung under the eaves; he had helped them get them last month.

The faint sound of a spatula could be heard from inside the house; Chunniang was probably making lunch at this time.

"Is your mother inside?" Li Ergou tiptoed and peered into the main room. "This white sugar is a new product from the city; it's much more expensive than brown sugar. And this meat..."

"Who cares about your New Year's goods?" Mo Xiaoshan said rudely. "We can buy our own sugar and pork; we don't need you to fawn over us!"

"..." Li Ergou stopped at the gate of the courtyard, not knowing whether to go in or go back. He stood on tiptoe and peeked into the house. "It's almost New Year's, so I'm bringing you some New Year's goods."

"unnecessary."

"..." A hint of embarrassment appeared on Li Ergou's face, and he stammered, "Xiaoshan, wouldn't it be good if I were your father?"

"I have a father!"

"Your father...is dead."

"boom!"

Upon hearing this, Mo Xiaoshan slammed his axe into a wooden stake, making a loud noise that startled Li Ergou, who instinctively took two steps back.

“Xiaoshan…” At this moment, a woman came out of the house, wearing an apron around her waist. She first glared at her eldest son, then smiled and looked at Li Ergou at the gate of the courtyard.

“Brother Er Gou is here. You said you could just come in, sit down, and chat. Why did you bring New Year’s goods? If you bring these things over, what will your Da Ni and Er Ni eat?” Chun Niang wiped her hands on her apron. Her hands were so rough that they didn’t look like those of a woman in her early thirties. Her knuckles were all cracked from the cold.

“Chunniang…” Upon seeing the woman come out, Li Ergou immediately grinned. “I also bought some white sugar and pork for my two children to eat! I was thinking that you have a heavy burden at home, and Xiaoshan is studying, so you probably don’t have much work to do.”

“A few days ago, we went to the west coast to hunt some furs and exchanged them for a lot of money. We thought we would send some New Year’s goods to you and your children.”

“Brother Er Gou…” Chun Niang’s nose immediately stung with tears upon hearing this.

She glanced at her still indignant son, and for a moment she couldn't find the words of gratitude to express her gratitude. But after hesitating for a moment, she still extended an invitation, "Come in and sit for a while, I'll pour you a bowl of sugar water."

"..." Li Ergou glanced at Mo Xiaoshan and saw that his face was tense, his teeth were biting his lower lip, and his eyes were spitting fire as he looked at him. He sighed slightly, "No. I'll give you the New Year's goods and won't stay here any longer. Hehe, I have to go back and make lunch for Da Ni and Er Ni."

As she spoke, she gently placed the New Year's goods in her hands by the courtyard gate, smiled and waved to Chunniang, then turned and walked outside.

"Brother Er Gou, wait a minute!" Chun Niang sighed, then took half a basin of fried dried fish from the kitchen and walked up to Li Er Gou. "It's almost New Year's, so I fried some snacks. Take them back for Da Ni and Er Ni to eat."

"Oh dear, what should we do!" Li Ergou quickly backed down. "You have many children at home, keep it for them. Da Ni and Er Ni want some fried dried fish, I'll go to the market and buy some. You...you should take it back quickly!"

"Brother Er Gou, just hold on, there's still half a pot left on the stove!" Chun Niang's voice was as soft as falling snow. "The soybean oil you brought last time..."

"Hmph..." Watching his mother tug and push the man, Mo Xiaoshan, who was standing to the side, snorted coldly, kicked over the firewood that had just been stacked, and turned to go into the house.

The slamming of the door startled an icicle from the eaves, which snapped off with a "crack".

Li Ergou and Chunniang shook at the same time, and shards of ice fell all over the ground.

“Brother Er Gou…” Chun Niang shook her head helplessly, “Xiao Shan… he just realized it all at once. Let’s… give him some more time, maybe he’ll figure it out someday. This child, sometimes he’s just a bit stubborn, like my deceased one…”

"Hehe, it's nothing, it's nothing." Li Ergou said casually, "Kids, they've read a little, so their minds are a bit quick, but their ideas are also... a bit old-fashioned."

If this were in Liaodong, a widow who wanted to remarry and start a new family would never have to consider her son's opinion.
Tell me, a family of four or five, without a man to support them, would probably starve or freeze to death.

It is only within our Xinhua area that the government and villages provide you with some living allowances, and with the help of neighbors and fellow villagers, the whole family is not driven to despair.

Even so, it is extremely difficult for a woman to support a family and raise four children.

Three years ago, when Li Ergou's wife was giving birth to their third child, she suffered a severe postpartum hemorrhage and died on the way to a hospital in the city, losing her unborn child as well. He was then considering finding a local woman to remarry and give him a son so that the Li family line could continue.

What a coincidence! Oh, no, it should be that Chunniang encountered some bad luck. Two years ago, her husband went into the forest with a group of people to hunt for furs. He accidentally slipped and fell off a low cliff, breaking his head and leaving his mother and children crying and wailing.

Although Chunniang had given birth to four children, she was still quite pretty and only about thirty-four or thirty-five years old.

If he marries her, not only will he find a stepmother for his two daughters, but they might also have a few children together, adding more descendants to the Li family.

To be honest, although Chunniang is a few years older than me, she knows me well, is fertile, and is a Han Chinese woman, so the children she gives birth to will naturally be pure Han Chinese.

It's still better than a clueless, unsophisticated woman.

Well, at least you don't have to rack your brains to teach your wife how to do all sorts of housework, only to end up making a mess of things.

After being persuaded by others, Chunniang initially ignored them, focusing solely on taking care of her children and the crops in the fields.

Later, with his constant and attentive care, Chunniang's heart gradually softened, and she began to have the idea of ​​remarrying.

In fact, within Xinhua territory, the government does not encourage women to remain widows and remain faithful to their husbands. On the contrary, it strongly encourages widows to remarry and form new families.

Furthermore, to encourage widowers or widows to remarry, the government will provide certain subsidies to reduce the expenses required for marriage.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the union of a widow and a widower is a perfectly normal thing, and there are no moralists to preach against it.

Since both parties are willing, Li Ergou felt that it was only natural to win the heart of the beauty and bring Chunniang home to warm his bed.

Unexpectedly, Chunniang's eldest son, Mo Xiaoshan, who was studying at a middle school, was unhappy and strongly opposed his mother's remarriage.

This little brat, has he gone crazy from studying so much that he's interfering in his elders' marriage?

What a rebellious son!

"Chunniang..." Li Ergou called softly.

“I know.” Chunniang rolled her eyes at him. “Kids are stubborn, they’ll understand in a few days.”

What if he can't figure it out?

"..." Chunniang was stunned for a moment, then said with embarrassment and anger, "I am his mother, the head of this household, so I am the one who makes the decisions!"

"Hehe..." Upon hearing this, Li Ergou's face immediately broke into a smile. "Chunniang, don't worry, after you marry me, I will treat Xiaoshan and the other three as my own sons and daughters."

"I believe you!" Chunniang looked at him and nodded emphatically.
-
On the way back, Li Ergou hugged the fried dried fish tightly to his chest.

The wind picked up, stinging his face. He remembered the drafty windows at Chunniang's house—last winter, when he went to help paste paper on the windows, he found that half of the window frames were rotten.

"Dad!" Da Ni's voice pulled him back to reality.

A seven-year-old girl stood at the gate of the courtyard, holding the hand of her five-year-old sister. Their little faces were blue from the cold.

Li Ergou hurriedly pulled out the still-warm dried fish, and the two children's eyes lit up immediately.

The stove was as cold as an icebox, and the room was pitch black.

He fumbled in the dark to light the oil lamp and found the bowl of porridge left over from lunch still untouched on the table.

The two children were afraid of wasting lamp oil, so they would huddle under the covers and dare not move as soon as it got dark.

"Dad, why does Brother Mo always yell at you?" Da Ni asked suddenly while munching on dried fish.

Li Ergou's hand trembled, and he almost knocked over the oil lamp.

“Scholars…have many rules.” He mumbled a reply and stuffed some firewood into the stove.

In the firelight, Mo Xiaoshan's fiery eyes and Chunniang's frostbite hidden in her sleeves came into view.

He saw it clearly during the spring plowing last year; the child's palms were covered in blisters, yet he absolutely refused to let him help him hold the plow.

Li Ergou suddenly gripped the fire tongs tightly.

Tomorrow is the Little New Year, it's time to go and give the Kitchen Goddess candy.

I heard that city students all go back to school to study after the Lunar New Year holiday, perhaps...

He looked in the direction of the Mo family and smiled slightly, his Adam's apple bobbing.

(End of this chapter)