Villagers here always chatted in a loud voice but on the other hand, they thought that Li Hongmei and the other two were women so they were easily bullied, so in this case they did not even lower their voices while gossiping behind others’ backs. Li Hongmei and Ye Xiaoxian had heard all of it.
Xiao Baozhu was young with less nerve. Every time she heard others talk about her family affairs she would feel so embarrassed that she wished that there was a hole which she could just crawl into.
Li Hongmei didn’t wish to hear others’ gossip, and what’s more, she could deal with gossip about herself but not about her son and her daughter-in-law.
She was just about to put down her handcart to argue with them when Ye Xiaoxian, who was behind Li Hongmei, stopped her. “Ma, don’t lower yourself to their level. It doesn’t benefit us much even if we win.”
Li Hongmei turned around to face Ye Xiaoxian. “But they’re talking about you. Don’t you need to think about your reputation?”
“We earn our reputations by relying on our abilities, not by arguing with them. Those people are green-eyed. If we stoop to arguing with them we would be indignant by lowering ourselves to their level. Life is long so let’s wait and see!”
What Ye Xiaoxian said made Li Hongmei feel much better.
“Little Ye, you’re right. So let’s just ignore them and let them say what they want to say. We’re very generous and we don’t care about those trivial matters!”
As soon as she finished talking, Li Hongmei made a “spitting” sound to the banyan tree. “We don’t even bother to talk to you green-eyed people!”
Ye Xiaoxian. “…”
…
Not long before they arrived home, dark clouds were flooding the sky and within a split second came drizzling rain from the sky and the wind was blowing stronger and stronger.
Qinghe is a southern village; but although it is not at the seaside, sometimes there are still typhoons. A typhoon was fiercely approaching and small trees in the village were wavering east and west in the wind which was gusting through the house and all the tiles on the roof were almost blown away.
Once Li Hongmei and Ye Xiaoxian reached home they hurried to bring in their clothes and close the windows and doors.
Seeing that the rain was getting heavier, Li Hongmei suddenly said, “Little Ye, Baoshan should be home soon. I guess he didn’t bring an umbrella or anything with him. He might get soaked, right?”
“Then I’ll pick him up!” Actually Ye Xiaoxian thought about Xiao Baoshan as soon as the typhoon came. She began to worry about him when she realized that he didn’t have an umbrella.
As Li Hongmei said this, Ye Xiaoxian hurriedly picked up a bamboo rain hat, a cloak and the only oilcloth umbrella they had and then ran out.
Li Hongmei was folding clothes but as she realized that it was not the proper weather for picking up others, Ye Xiaoxian had already run out of the courtyard. Li Hongmei immediately ran out after her and shouted, “Little Ye, don’t go…sigh, be careful!”
But her voice was devoured by the wind and the rain.
“Little Ye she really likes our Baoshan!” murmured Li Hongmei.
Ye Xiaoxian didn’t realize the danger of this typhoon until she had run far away. She was thin and the wind almost blew her away.
When the typhoon struck, all the villagers hid inside their homes. Both the rain and the wind were heavy and her vision started to become blurry. She could almost not see a thing except for the wind and the rain. All the roads in the village were made of earth which became soggy every time the rain came and her shoes were already covered with mud.
The situation was even worse outside of the entrance to the village. Ye Xiaoxian was soaked from standing in the wind and rain for a short while. The temperature was dropping once the rain came, and moreover her whole body was soaked with rain so she began to shiver.
She didn’t know why Xiao Baoshan had not come back home yet or when he would come back. She knew that it would not do any good just by standing there and waiting.
She did not know why she ran out impulsively like this!
She waited for a while longer but Xiao Baoshan still did not return, and she began to shake.
Would she catch a cold like this?
It was getting late and if the sky was getting dark, she may not be able to find her way back, which would be more dangerous.
Her sanity was telling her this but her body wasn’t doing the same thing. She just waited and waited and would not leave until she saw Xiao Baoshan.
She waited a while longer and finally she saw a larger, tall figure appearing in the rainstorm.
It is Xiao Baoshan!