Chapter 80: Chapter 71: Preparing Gifts
Grandpa said, "Mr. Sun has been sick for many years and doesn’t see anyone. I’m worried he won’t be able to teach Xiao Man for very long!"
"If he can’t teach, why would he take Xiao Man as his apprentice?"
Xiao Man quickly explained, "That’s not it, Grandma. Mr. Sun didn’t say he was taking me as his apprentice. He just said I have a lot of talent and was willing to ’lend’ me this precious set of medical books to study. When his direct descendants return someday, I have to give them back!"
"But didn’t you just say he was willing to teach you? If he’s teaching you, how are you not his apprentice?"
"Well... teaching is one thing, but he never mentioned taking me as an apprentice."
Grandma frowned slightly. "What kind of arrangement is that?"
Grandpa said, "Mr. Sun is a famous doctor and a patriarch of his family. Taking on an apprentice is no simple matter for him! Just as I thought, he can’t even guarantee how long he can keep it up. And Xiao Man hasn’t even finished elementary school; she barely knows any characters. It would be incredibly difficult for her to really study this!"
Xiao Man said, "Grandpa, I actually know a lot of characters! I finished second grade and learned all the pinyin and everything. In the past, when Xiao Feng and Xiaoqiang were too lazy to do their homework, I was the one who did it for them after they came home. They have a Xinhua dictionary, and I looked through it every day. I can recognize almost all the characters in it now!"
Grandpa was astonished. "Really?"
"I’m not lying! Also, their family’s vegetable garden is behind the school, and I used to take care of it. Whenever I went to work in the garden, I would listen carefully to the teachers’ lessons. I understand all the material for the third, fourth, and fifth grades! I just haven’t had a chance to tell you, Grandpa. When school starts, I’m not going to first grade. I want to go straight to fifth grade! I borrowed Mo Shuixia’s textbooks the other day and looked through them. The teacher can test me on anything, and I’m sure I can answer every question!"
"Oh?" Grandpa looked even more shocked.
But Grandma smiled. "See? Our Xiao Man is just that smart! No wonder Mr. Sun could tell she had talent with just one look!"
"..."
And just like that, Xiao Man spent the better part of the morning laying everything out for Grandpa and Grandma—both her desire to study medicine and her plan to skip straight to the fifth grade.
Grandma was fully supportive, without a second thought.
As for skipping to the fifth grade, Grandpa said he would wait and see. He would talk to the principal and arrange a test for Xiao Man.
As for studying medicine, Grandpa still hoped Xiao Man would be cautious. It wasn’t that he wanted to stop her, but he felt a girl didn’t need to trouble her mind with such difficult things. Of course, if Xiao Man insisted on learning, and with Grandma’s support, he had nothing more to say. However, he did have a condition for Xiao Man: she had to be discreet about Mr. Sun being willing to teach her and not publicize it. No matter what she learned, she was forbidden from diagnosing or prescribing medicine to anyone until she officially became a doctor and obtained a license to practice!
Xiao Man agreed to it all.
Next, they discussed the matter of gifts, which Grandma brought up. Leaving aside the medical books, Mr. Sun had given Xiao Man so many clothes, all of them valuable, fine things. They couldn’t just accept them for free; they had to give a gift in return!
Grandpa nodded. "We should give a return gift. We don’t have much of anything good here in the countryside. How about this: we can buy a cage of young hens and some eggs, then find some dried mushrooms picked from the mountains to help Mr. Sun build up his strength. Many years ago, I gave Mr. Sun a few catties of tea seed oil and he really liked it. When I have time, I’ll spend a day and a half going deep into the mountains to Inner Mountain Village, and I’ll carry out about ten catties of it to give to him all at once!"
Xiao Man asked, puzzled, "Our village has lots of tea seed trees over by Qingniu Mountain. Can’t we just pick some seeds and press the oil ourselves?"
"Absolutely not. Those belong to the production brigade. Who would dare to press oil privately these days? Even when the brigade organizes people to pick the seeds and press oil, that oil is handed over to the state purchasing station. It’s supplied to the cadres and workers in the city, who can buy it with oil coupons. Those of us with rural household registrations don’t get any!"
"What about Inner Mountain Village...?"
"Over there, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away—no one bothers to manage them. Besides, the tea seed trees were sown by the state forestry department from airplanes many years ago. The brigade can’t spare the manpower to manage them, so it’s a windfall for the villagers there."
"I see."
As they discussed gifts, they naturally had to prepare something for Uncle Man Cang’s family and Secretary Mo’s family as well. Grandpa said that the next day was market day. He would come back early from the reservoir, go to the commune, and buy two cuts of pork, each about two and a half catties. He’d also add some sweet pastries, cigarettes, liquor, and noodles—the proper things for a thank-you gift. As for Secretary Mo’s family, the usual token of appreciation for borrowing the ox-cart would suffice.
As for a cage of five or six free-range chickens and half a basket of eggs, they could get all of that just by privately asking villagers house by house. These were items for visiting relatives, so no one would say anything. After all, who doesn’t visit their relatives?
Nearing noon, the neighbors from behind, Qiu Xiaohu and Jiang Xuehua, came to the courtyard to draw water from the well. Just as they opened the gate to let them in, several other people walked straight in.
It was the couple Mo Laoer and Second Aunt Mo, followed by a grandmother-and-granddaughter pair: the grand-aunt and Liang Xiaoju.
As soon as Mo Laoer and Second Aunt Mo entered the courtyard and saw Grandpa, they swarmed him, one shouting loudly and the other weeping hysterically. The grand-aunt also joined in, jabbing her finger toward Grandpa’s forehead and scolding him with spittle flying everywhere. "You old fool! You won’t listen to good advice! You don’t know how to enjoy your good fortune, insisting on this hard-knock life raising a jinx, a harbinger of bad luck, who will drag down the future generations of the Mo family..." Xiao Man and Grandma were sitting at the kitchen entrance, one picking sweet potato leaves for cooking, the other grinding chili salt with a wooden mortar. When they heard this, neither could remain seated. Xiao Man helped Grandma up and was about to head toward Grandpa when she suddenly saw Liang Xiaoju slip away and run toward the east room where she slept. Xiao Man quickly helped Grandma sit back down, told her to wait a moment, and hurried after Liang Xiaoju into the room.
But she was a few steps too late. Liang Xiaoju had already spotted the bundle of new clothes laid out on the bed. Quick as a flash, she grabbed the new fruit-green sweater and held it up against herself, her face flushed with excitement as she shrieked, "Grandma—"
Xiao Man ran over, snatched the sweater back, put it away, and tied the bundle’s opposite corners into a knot before tossing it to the back of the bed. Then, she forcefully dragged Liang Xiaoju out of the room, slammed the door shut with a CLANG, and locked it!
Remembering the sweet pastries on the main room table, she decided to close the doors to the main room as well. She took a piece of rope and tied together the round iron rings on the two door panels. Padlocks also cost money; in the rural seventies, most families only had locks on important rooms. The main gate just had two round iron rings and no lock. When the owner was away, they would tie the rings like this, and anyone who wasn’t family would not presume to untie them and enter.
Liang Xiaoju glared at Xiao Man. For one, she couldn’t figure out how this person had suddenly gotten so strong. Just a few days ago when she was still here, Xiao Man couldn’t have won a test of strength against her. For another, Mo Xiaoman’s attitude, so blatantly treating her like an outsider, was more than Liang Xiaoju could bear.
"Mo Xiaoman, how could you? This is my room too! My grandma said I’m still going to live here and be Great-uncle’s granddaughter! There were so many new clothes on the bed just now—you have to give half of them to me!"
Xiao Man walked past her. "You got your one look. Don’t even think about touching them again!"
"You! Mo Xiaoman, you’re shameless!"
