12 Chapter 12: Double Yolk Egg_1


    Trantor: 549690339


    At dusk, Jiang Sang 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 eximed, “So much?”


    Jiang Sang 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, ording to the midwife we need to prepare early.”


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


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


    Jiang Sang 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 Sangughed, “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 Sang feigned disbelief, “When shees back, I’ll have to test her.”


    The couple chatted for a while. Seeing that it was gettingte, Jiang Sang got up to bring his daughter home from his brother’s house.


    At that moment, Yingbao was watching Yuanbao recite the Three Character ssic. Xiaoluy 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 vige as a master but also be 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 Vige, 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, thisrge ie made their life more thanfortable.


    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 thend, and no longer exposed to the sun and rain.


    Oh, such a life would be most fulfilling.


    You can’t me Jiang Dabo for thinking this way. Every farmer who groveled for a living on thend 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 previousziness.


    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 youpliment, 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 ssic, and turned to look at his little cousin, “I’m done.”


    Yingbao immediately pped her hands in praise: “Brother Yuanbao is so amazing! Tomorrow, I’lle with you to school early in the morning, and Xiaolu will walk with you.”


    Yuanbao chuckled, nodding emphatically, “Okay!”


    At that moment, Jiang Sang 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,e 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 be 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 nted had grown to eight feet in height. Its trunk was sturdy, its branches robust, and it had be a bona fide miniature fruit tree.


    Jiang Sang and his wife marvelled at this, eximing 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 apanion.


    After the fall harvest, Jiang Sang 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 startedying eggs. Each chicken wasying an egg per day, with every egg having double yolks.


    Jiang Sang and his wife were astonished.


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


    “Sang, 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 eggying stage, but after Yingbao fed them, they startedying eggs again, and every egg has double yolks.”


    “That’s because Yingbao often digs earthworms to feed them,” Jiang Sang 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 chickensying 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 Sang 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 toy 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 Sang chuckled, reaching out to touch herrge belly, “Our little double-yolk shoulde 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 Sang 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 Sang 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 be 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 Sang 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-inw, she looked like a piece of charcoalpared to you.”


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


    But when the two werepred yesterday, it gave Jiang Sang a serious visual shock.


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


    “Stop spouting nonsense, or my sister-inw will scold you if she hears you.” Chunniang gave her husband a re, 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’spliment 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 Sang 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 Sang also agreed, “It’s indeed time to make new clothes for Yingbao.”