In the 27th year of Jiaxing, a massive earthquake struck Lu County, causing the ground to crack, mountains to collapse, and dams to break. Overnight, tens of thousands of people, along with the collapsed houses, were washed away by the flood.
It has been over a month since fleeing Lu County. Initially, it was the season for planting rice in the fields, and now it was already summer. In the northern part of the Great Wall, in You County, they were just starting to transplant rice seedlings.
Mi Niang stood quietly under a tree, leading a large yellow dog, waiting for the yamen runners to select people to go to You County. She didn’t care whether she went to You County or the northern frontier, any place would do.
“I heard there is a lot of land in You County, and those who go can get ten or twenty acres of land.” A man inquired about the news, swiftly picked up various belongings, and quickly moved towards the front of the line.
“I’m going too. I’ve heard that in You County, I can get a good piece of land. I’m an experienced farmer.” Men who heard the news, carrying their families, eagerly walked forward, enthusiastically volunteering, “Sir, my ancestors have been working the fields for three generations. The crops in our fields are among the best in the village.”
Hundreds of people squeezed forward, and the line was momentarily scattered. The oxen pulling the carts became restless, kicking their hooves. Occasionally, there were cries of pain from those being stepped on or pushed. Mi Niang tightened the dog leash, pulling Da Huang back. She understood the excitement of these people; in their village, only the village head’s family had twenty acres of land, accumulated over generations.
“Stop pushing, or I’ll make you all go back!” a yamen runner, mounted on a bull, brandished a menacing cudgel*, striking the desperate refugees with red eyes, shouting for them to line up. (*a simple blunt weapon that can be used for self-defense or as a tool for various purposes. In historical contexts, cudgels were often made of wood and were shorter than traditional staffs or spears. The term can also be used more broadly to refer to a club or a truncheon used by law enforcement)
“Don’t push, as long as you can farm, we’ll take as many as we can.” An official from You County, with a smiling face, soothingly addressed the crowd. He stood aside coordinating with the officials escorting the refugees, while the newcomers swiftly questioned the refugees’ situations.
“Mi Niang, are you going to You County or the northern frontier?” Qing Niang walked over, regardless of whether Mi Niang responded to her or not, and said in confusion, “Your family at least has land to cultivate. My family’s mountainous land is rented out for growing tea trees. My brother inquired, You County doesn’t allow tea tree cultivation, and neither does the northern frontier. Where should we go?” As she spoke, most of the refugees rushing out of the pass chose to go to You County.
“I’ve never farmed before,” Mi Niang liked beekeeping; she had been taking care of the beehives at home since she was a child.
“I haven’t farmed either. Let’s go to the northern frontier together. We’re from the same town; we can keep each other company.” Another girl walked over upon hearing this. Mi Niang remembered her, named Wan’er; she heard that her family ran a shop. Her parents and brothers were all missing after the flood, and now only an old grandmother was left.
“I’ll listen to my big brother.” Qing Niang avoided Wan’er’s gaze and said to Mi Niang, “Mi Niang, it’s not safe for you to go to a strange place alone. Walk with us. My big brother will protect you if anything happens.”
Mi Niang’s eyelids flickered as she looked down at Da Huang lying at her feet and asked, “Is your big brother planning to go to You County?”
“Yes, he’s taking care of things there.” Qing Niang tiptoed to look into the crowd, not seeing her big brother’s figure. “Come with us, and I’ll ask my big brother to take you along.”
“No need for the trouble; I’ll go to the northern frontier.” Mi Niang made a decision in an instant.
“How can that work? Are you worried you won’t know how to farm? My big brother said, there’s plenty of land in You County, and you can continue beekeeping there. You won’t have to worry about going hungry.” Qing Niang frowned deeply. When they were in the village, her brother liked Mi Niang, but their family conditions weren’t good, and Mi Niang, being both good-looking and skilled at beekeeping, never dared to propose marriage. Now that Mi Niang’s family was reduced to just her, joining her brother wouldn’t be treating her unfairly.
“On the grasslands, there are even more flowers. It’s more profitable to keep bees there, and when you release the bees, you can also tend to sheep.” Wan’er glanced at Qing Niang, grabbed Mi Niang, and walked away. When they were far enough, she whispered, “Don’t listen to Qing Niang. My grandmother said her brother has ulterior motives for you. She just wants to take you away to be her brother’s wife.” Mi Niang was attractive and good at beekeeping. Once settled, she would have plenty of options in choosing a partner, not settling for just anyone.
Mi Niang remained silent. She just wanted to find a place where she had no acquaintances to live. Every time she saw people from the village, involuntary thoughts of her parents and siblings would flood her mind. Listening to them talk about their hometown made her feel an overwhelming sadness.
Her entire family of seven had perished, and their bodies were swept away by the flood. When dawn broke, she didn’t want to live anymore. When the flood swept her away, she felt liberated, and although swallowing water was painful, her heart was calm. However, when Da Huang desperately pulled her out of the water, she lost the courage to attempt suicide again.
She wandered with the refugees, living a life devoid of purpose.
“Ah,” Wan’er sighed, looking at Mi Niang’s numb expression. She felt fortunate to still have her grandmother accompanying her.
“Let’s go, continue on the journey.” A yamen runner shouted, and the procession continued northward.
Mi Niang checked Da Huang’s paws. The dog had been walking for too long, and its paw pads had worn out half a month ago. However, it didn’t make a sound, only licking its paws when they stopped to rest.
“Sir, Da Huang’s paws are almost worn out. Now that the ox cart is empty, could you let it climb up and rest? I won’t take the cart; I’ll walk.” Mi Niang half-dragged Da Huang and went to speak to the yamen runner.”Letting you bring this beast along is already this lord showing kindness. You still want to ride the ox cart? Go ask if your ox ‘boss’ agrees.” The yamen runner glanced at Mi Niang, then at the scruffy dog she was holding. The dog was thin, almost skin and bones, not even good enough for making soup.
“Get lost, get lost. It annoys this lord. If you bring it in front of me again, I’ll slaughter and roast it to eat.” The yamen runner was irritated. Sending these refugees didn’t bring him any benefits, and he had endured a month of sun and wind on the road. He was constantly bothered by trivial matters like this. His impatience made him want to grab a stick and start hitting people.
Mi Niang lowered her head, dragging Da Huang to the side. In her heart, she thought it might be better if he just slaughtered and roasted her. She would even thank him for it.
“Stupid woman.” The yamen runner heard exclamations from people on the ox cart. When he turned around, he saw that the woman had actually picked up the dog and continued walking.
“Big brother…”
“What’s wrong, are you feeling pity? How about you let the ox out for that foolish woman to ride?” The yamen runner knew his subordinate was trying to speak favorably. He spat and said, “Either let her eat her fill or starve her for three days. See if she still has the strength to carry that beast.” Damn, when he was a child, he was chased by a dog for three alleyways and even got bitten on the butt. Since then, whenever he saw a dog, he wanted to beat it to death.
Mi Niang heard the commotion ahead but pretended not to hear. She continued to follow the ox cart from a distance, holding Da Huang. Da Huang was a dog guarding the tea garden on the mountain, fond of stealing honey. Even when its mouth swelled from being stung, it never seemed to learn its lesson. When Mi Niang was harvesting honey, it would show up, and she would give it a couple of pieces. Unexpectedly, it jumped into the water to rescue her when she was washed away by the flood.
After two more days of walking, Mi Niang, panting, looked up at the winding uphill path. Wasn’t it said that the northern frontier was all grassland? Why did it seem even higher in elevation than the tea mountains in her hometown?
“I wish I hadn’t persuaded you to come to the northern frontier. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have suffered like this.” Wan’er watched as Mi Niang shared a portion of her meal with the dog. She handed her a piece of flatbread, saying, “You eat. It’s effortless for me to sit on the ox cart. It’s okay to be a bit fuller or hungrier.”
Mi Niang was indeed hungry. The flatbread she received these past two days was small and thin, and the porridge was so watery that you could count the grains of rice. Her stomach burned uncomfortably at night, but she felt a strange sense of satisfaction from this self-inflicted pain.
“It has nothing to do with you. I decided to come to the northern frontier myself.” Mi Niang didn’t take the flatbread. She went to the stream, knelt down, and drank water from her cupped hands. During the nights when she couldn’t bear the hunger, she would get up to drink water to get through it.
“If I give it to you, it’s for you. I’m taking care of you now, and you can help me later.” Wan’er grabbed her hand, stuffed the flatbread into it, and then ran away.
“Did you give it to her?” the old woman asked.
“I did. If she didn’t want it, I would have forced it into her hands.” Wan’er sat beside her grandmother, rubbed her nose, and said, “I’m fortunate to have you with me. Otherwise, I don’t know if I could survive. Grandmother, I miss my mother.”
“If you miss her, just cry it out. Don’t hold it in.” The old woman looked back and patted her granddaughter’s head, sighing. “Grandmother is here with you.”
“I’ve never seen Mi Niang cry. Grandmother, do you think she cries secretly at night?”
…
The uphill road was challenging. Mi Niang slipped and nearly fell. Da Huang took the opportunity to break free when she loosened her grip. Its paws touched the ground, and it went limp, but it still insisted on staying far away from Mi Niang, not giving her a chance to hold it again.
“Alright, we’re almost at the grassland. With grass, my feet won’t hurt anymore.” Mi Niang pulled some grass from the roadside, twisted it into a makeshift rope, and tied it around her feet. The heels of her shoes had come apart, and she had to tie them to walk.
“Damn it, we’ve arrived.” Standing on the grassland, the first thing that caught her eye was a pile of stones with a monument erected beside it. The monument bore inscriptions in two different scripts.
Mi Niang was the last to pass by the monument. She examined it closely; it was a landmark, and the place they stood was within the territory of the Clear Creek Tribe.
“Why are there so few people?” A Tatar official frowned as he looked at the loosely scattered individuals on about a dozen ox-drawn carts and asked, “Isn’t this fewer than a hundred people? Did you go all the way here for just this many? Or is it that even this many people can’t be accommodated in Dakan?”
“We’ve brought a total of 1,230 people on this trip. Besides these 158 people, the rest were taken to You County.” You County is also under the Tatar’s jurisdiction, but the yamen runner shrugged nonchalantly, “They waited at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, saying every refugee who went there could get ten or twenty acres of land. The vast majority went with them. If you think it’s insufficient, you can go to You County and snatch more people.”
“We’ll allocate houses, and there’s interest-free leasing of cattle and sheep. Once you’re here, we’ll provide rations.” The steward looked at the people on the carts, mostly old or weak, wondering if they could withstand the wind on the grassland.
“We’re just the first wave; more people are coming later.” The yamen runner looked into the distance, where livestock seemed more abundant than people on the vast grassland. No wonder they were so eager to receive refugees.
“That’s good then.” The steward pulled something out of his sleeve and pressed it into the yamen runner’s hand, saying with a smile, “Thank you for helping convey a message on your way back. The treatment in the northern frontier is pretty good, and herding is quite relaxed.”
“Understood.” The yamen runner nodded, satisfied as he slipped what was given into his sleeve.
Mi Niang glanced at the elderly woman and her grandchild standing beside her, and silently followed the Tatar people towards the direction where smoke rose. She didn’t understand why these two had attached themselves to her. Besides Da Huang, she had nothing else. The only thing she was good at was beekeeping, and she didn’t know how she could be of help.
“Woof, woof, woof…”
The aggressive barking startled the people walking, and Mi Niang instinctively tightened the dog leash. Following the sound, she looked towards a man sitting in the nearby bushes, holding the dog’s neck with one hand and calmly looking in their direction.
“Bahu, control your dog,” the guide warned.
The man ignored the warning, his eyes passing over the weary-faced refugees until they paused upon the girl at the end of the line, holding a skinny yellow dog.
One person, one dog; the person seemed indifferent, while the dog remained vigilant.
Author’s note:
Preview of the upcoming story “Fisherman’s Young Wife,” seeking collections.
“Hai Zhu, Aunt entrusted Dong Zhu and Feng Ping to you. Yushu only accepts one child to be taken away by me.”
Suddenly becoming aware, Shen Hai Zhu heard these words. She was unclear about the situation and nodded absentmindedly. Only when the woman took the child and left did she realize that she had been entrusted with the care of the children.
Father died, and mother remarried, leaving two burdens behind; this was the family situation Shen Hai Zhu found herself in when she transmigrated into this body.
Alright then, she borrowed the original owner’s body to survive, and it was only right to take care of her siblings. Here, located along the coast, she possessed the Spirit Pearl that came with her from the other world, allowing her to breathe underwater. With this ability, she could support the two children even underwater.
Having repaired the fishing boat left by her father, Hai Zhu steered the boat out to sea for fishing. While others cast nets and pulled in fish, she jumped directly into the sea with a net to scoop them up.
Lobsters, mantis shrimps, blue crabs, flower crabs, king crabs, and horseshoe crabs… She wanted to taste all kinds of flavors while holding onto the tail of autumn.
Scallops and clams stewed in soup, shrimp balls cooked in porridge, crab meat fried with rice, steamed crab, marinated crab, crab paste hotpot, orange-flavored crab… Hai Zhu was thoroughly enjoying her meals, while her two siblings wore troubled expressions.
“Sister, are we eating these hard shells again today?” Dong Zhu couldn’t take it anymore; she had been eating it for eight years and was tired of it.
Again? Hai Zhu sensed the disdain in her sister’s words. Wasn’t this Versailles-style living? In her era, even the fish and shrimp in the sea had mutated. Watching preserved videos made her drool, but she had to endure it.
“Have it one more time, and tomorrow I’ll keep a few sea fish for us.” She had already planned how to cook them today, and if she couldn’t get it into her mouth, she wouldn’t be happy.
During the fishing season, she dived into the sea for harvest, and during the off-season, she opened a small restaurant to make delicious food for the neighbors. Hai Zhu’s life of raising her siblings was going quite smoothly.
[Note] There is a male lead, but the romantic storyline develops later.
