Proofread by Claire.KK
After dinner, the day has been dark.
Xiao Baozhu washed the bowls and came back to Li Hongmei. “Ma, it’s sticky all over me and I stink with sweat. I want to wash up in the river. Do you want to go with me?”
There was a small river at the entrance of the village. After dark, villages would go to the river to take a bath. There were both men and women, but men and women would naturally divide themselves into two groups, and one group bathed in the upstream and the other were in the downstream.
Men could bathe with their top naked while women were wearing clothes. Women would quietly wipe themselves with towels under the water when nobody noticed, coming home in wet clothes and changed into another dry outfit. That was basically what a bath in the river meant to them.
Though it sounded simple, it was much better than wiping themselves in their rooms.
All households carried river water back home these days and they couldn’t use too much water so they at most fetched a basin of water to wipe their body, which was not a bath in the slightest.
Hearing that Baozhu was going to take a bath, Ye Xiaoxian said excitedly, “Baozhu, I’m going together. I want to wash up too.”
They had been busy for a whole day and they were soaked with sweat. Just thinking about the cool river water made Ye Xiaoxian thrilled. She was rather to dive into the river and washed herself from in and out, head to toe.
Li Hongmei wanted to go too so she said, “Good. Let’s go together.”
…
The whole family went to the river bank with the dim light of the dark.
Since it was still summer, there were many people coming to bathe in the river. They did not want to cause any gossip among the villagers, so Xiao Baoshan and Xiao Baofeng went to the downstream of the river and the three women went to the to upstream which was over ten metres far from the downstream.
The river was shallow and where they chose the river lay smoothly. The depth of water only reached to their chest even in the deepest spot.
Ye Xiaoxian sank her whole body into the water. After she was wrapped with the cool river water, she felt it was so refreshing and pleasant.
She then wore down her hair directly and washed it too.
Li Hongmei and Xiao Baozhu buried their body under the water. They were not able to swim so they could only stay in the water and enjoy the bath time.
Ye Xiaoxian could swim and she always went to swimming in the modern times. Swimming helps one get fit and be in shape. She couldn’t resist the lure of swimming after she finished washing her hair.
“Ma, look at Sister-in-law! She knows swimming!” Xiao Baozhu pointed at the swimming Ye Xiaoxian.
“Ah, you’re right! She’s doing really nice!” said Li Hongmei.
Li Hongmei was full of admiration for Ye Xiaoxian. She found her Little Ye being skilled of everything and she was almost going to treat Ye Xiaoxian as a goddess. Li Hongmei shouted to Ye Xiaoxian, “Little Ye, swim a bit far and let’s see how far you can reach.”
Ye Xiaoxian would like to swim far as she wanted to make the most of it and she swarm out several metres away before she was aware.
…
She was almost reaching where Xiao Baoshan bathed and she paused hurriedly, beginning to swim back.
But when she just dived again into the water and started to move her arms, a slippery thingy touched her hand which wriggled slightly in her hand.
Snake!
Though Ye Xiaoxian was a chef, she feared snakes the most. She never dared to cook food like snake soups and she always asked other chefs to do such things for her.
At that moment, she jumped out of the water regardless of anything else. She paddled in the water, trying to get to the bank and was afraid of that the snake would rush into her and wind on her body.
In panic, Ye Xiaoxian suddenly found a person standing in front of her. At that time, she could not spare any time to see who this person was. She just rushed to the person, and then tightly wrapped around him like a sloth.