Chapter 58

"The weather is getting drier and drier, it's been so little rain for several months. Grandpa, when do you think this drought will end?" Song Dingxiang looked at the dry and cracked land, feeling full of sighs in her heart.

Song Xingyi shook his head and said, "Who can say for sure, if it doesn't snow in winter, it's likely to be dry again in the spring."

Song Dingxiang thought for a moment and said, "So much wool has been brought in from the north, I don't think it's a good idea to leave it piled up in the workshop. It might be better to make wool blankets and send them back, they might come in handy."

Song Xingyi said, "You handle this, the dry weather poses a fire hazard, it's not appropriate to have so much wool and hides piled together."

After discussing for a while, Song Dingxiang decided to open the wool workshop, hire more people to work, so they could at least earn some money. In case the drought worsened, they could still sell some food.

"Fourth Granduncle, Fourth Grandaunt!" Wu shi's eldest son, Liujin, rushed in, "Fourth Granduncle, there's trouble in our family."

Tomorrow is the day Song Jiaoxing is getting married, but who would expect that at this crucial moment, Song Jiaoxing would take the family's belongings and run away, and now she can't be found anywhere.

The all members of the Song family were rarely gathered together, Wu shi covered her face and cried, "I've been busy for days, Jiaoxing is usually indoors embroidering her wedding dress, didn't see her go out. Who would have thought, oh... my life is so miserable, what should we do now?!"

With a sullen face, Song Xingzhong, the eldest son of the Song family, walked out of the house. Despite his advanced age of over 70, he rarely ventured out, preferring the quiet solitude of his home.

Among his brothers, the third Song's family had always been the most unassuming, never causing any trouble. However, in recent years, a string of misfortunes had befallen them, surpassing even the turmoil that had plagued the second son's family.

"What are we going to do?" the old man inquired, his voice laced with desperation as he took two deep drags from his pipe, exhaling a plume of thick smoke.

"We must search for her," he declared. "Where else could she have gone?"

Wu shi shook her head and said, "Where can she go? To my mother's house? Not possible, Jiaoxing doesn't like going to her maternal grandmother's house. I've asked her several close friends she usually talks to, and they all say they haven't seen her... If we can't find her, what are we going to do tomorrow?"

Song Xingyi was truly fed up. When Song Taohong caused that trouble before, Song Xingyi thought that they were all brothers, all family members, so it wouldn't be good to make a big scene.

He was also worried that Song Taohong's actions would affect the unmarried girls in the Song family, so he endured it for the sake of Song Dingxiang.

He thought that things would calm down, but who would have thought that Song Jiaoxing would cause trouble again!

Old Second Song, Song Xinghao, said, "She's a grown girl, where could she go? It's already autumn, it's getting cold at night, where could she go?"

Wu shi just kept crying and saying she didn't know, while Song Zhishen had a black face and was sighing as he squatted on the ground.

Old Third Song, Song Xingren, said, "We have to find her no matter what. Have the strong men from each family go out and look around, but keep it quiet for now. If we can't find her... if she's still missing tomorrow, then we'll see."

Song Xingyi said, "What do you mean see? Tomorrow someone is coming to marry the new bride, if we can't bring her out, what are we going to do?"

Song Xingren became a bit upset and said, "Well, then what do you suggest?"

Song Xingyi was simply helpless, "If we go find someone here, we have to be prepared to inform the other party. Think about how to explain it when we return, I will take people out to look for her."

He really didn't want to stay in the house with a group of people with no idea how to proceed. Everyone was clueless.

When Song Dingxiang saw Song Xingyi come out, she quickly asked a few questions.

She thought for a moment and said, "In the afternoon, a caravan passed by on the official road, but they won't take in a woman with an unknown background, it could lead to trouble. If it wasn't the caravan, someone would have definitely seen Song Jiaoxing, such a big person. It's not the time to hide, we are just a few people in this family. We need to ask for help from others in the village."

Song Xingyi muttered, "Your third granduncle is still hoping to find her back tonight, to marry her off tomorrow."

Song Dingxiang said, "We can't hide this, in the middle of night, everyone in our family has gone out, someone should have seen something."

Song Xingyi sighed, "Let your father and your uncle take your brothers to the town and county to search, I will talk to your third granduncle."

Song Xingren's intention was to have his family go out and search, to try to find her and not delay the wedding tomorrow. Even though he was reluctant, there was no other way, they had to sneak out and light a torch to search around.

This area was surrounded by mountains, a young girl could easily hide in a grassy nest where no one could see her. They had no idea where Song Jiaoxing had gone, how she had walked.

They searched all night like headless flies, but didn't see a trace of her.

Song Zhiyuan rushed back with the mule cart, his face pale and tired, "We searched the town, can't enter the county at night, and we looked around the surrounding areas, asked some people too, but nobody saw her. Where could a big girl like her have gone?"

Fang Shi, feeling sorry, said, "What are they doing, always causing trouble? You should rest for a while, their son-in-law is coming to marry their daughter tomorrow morning, who knows what will happen."

Song Zhiyuan washed his face and leaned on the bed, soon falling asleep and snoring.

Song Dingxiang heard the commotion and got up, unable to sleep. She had thought all night about how Song Jiaoxing could have left, and concluded that she couldn't have gone alone.

A girl as well-known as her, everyone in the village would have seen her leaving.

Moreover, the villagers were friendly, even if they hadn't stopped Song Jiaoxing, they would have informed Wu shi. But in the current situation, nobody had seen her leave the village.

"Second daughter, why aren't you sleeping?" Fang Shi helped Song Zhiyuan lie down, feeling restless herself, planning to tidy up the kitchen and keep herself busy. As soon as she stepped out, she saw Song Dingxiang standing in the hall, drinking water from a jug.

"I can't sleep, mom... I keep thinking that something is not right. Jiaoxing definitely didn't leave alone, someone must have helped her. Think about it, that afternoon, did any big carts pass by Fifth Aunt Wu's house?"

Fang Shi replied, "I can't remember, I'll have to ask her. Don't worry about it, even if they find the girl, the groom's family may not want to marry her. It's such a mess. Jiaoxing, or Taohong, they are both good girls, but they have been raised poorly by their family. How did we not see it before..."

Song Dingxiang handed Fang Shi a bowl of water and said, "I think they have always relied on their daughter marrying into a wealthy family to support them. Fifth Aunt Wu now realizes that this is unrealistic. Unfortunately, Jiaoxing has always heard these things since she was young, and Taohong hasn't set a good example either. Like mother, like daughter."

"I can't believe it." Fang Shi drank the water and said, "Come, let's go to the kitchen. Let's knead the dough first and prepare the dishes for lunch. You can make some porridge, we have a shortage of food now, we can't eat dry food in the morning, at least have some porridge to settle the stomach."

"Make some chicken soup for my sister-in-law." Song Dingxiang said.

Qiao Liu had a baby girl a few days ago and her body was weak. In the past, they used to have chickens to eat eggs and drink chicken soup, but now, due to the drought, they had slaughtered some pigs and dried the remaining chickens.

They had to save the remaining ten or so chickens, half for Qiao Liu to eat and half for Zhao Di to regain strength. Her body had also gained weight, probably just for this month.

Fang Shi said, "Let's not stew today. Didn't your grandpa buy some pork? There are still a lot of pork bones left, we can make a soup with the bones."

Wu Shi's daughter is getting married, she can't make it look too bad, so she begged Song Zhiyuan to slaughter half of a large pig and buy some pork and pork ribs. They fried the pork and other things last night and saved it to stew with vegetables today.

They kept some of the remaining pork for themselves and sent the rest to Song Zijin's place.

After the whole family had finished drinking porridge, many people gathered at Third Granduncle's place to help. They didn't seem worried at all, and were still organizing something.

Song Dingxiang felt something was wrong, Song Xingyi was about to go to the banquet, she pulled him aside and reminded him of a few things.

Song Xingyi said, "You have a point, but I still have to go. I'll go over and say I don't feel well, then come back. I won't eat at their place, I'm afraid it will upset my stomach."

Song Xingyi took his two sons and went over after a nap, but soon they heard a commotion over there.

After a while, Song Xingyi returned with a grim face and his two sons.

"What's going on?" Li shi couldn't help but ask when she saw her husband's extremely bad complexion.

With his chest heaving, Song Xingyi said, "This is outrageous! What kind of family is that? How do I have such relatives?"

Then he took out his pipe and went outside to smoke.

Song Zhicheng and Song Zhiyuan also looked uneasy. Li shi anxiously asked, "What's going on? Even if they are causing trouble over there, why did it upset your father so much?"

Song Zhiyuan said, "My third uncle's side is causing a huge commotion. Everyone came to welcome the bride, but they found a girl who pretended to be Jiaoxing. She took a sip of the farewell wine and started complaining of stomachache, then vomited. That wine... was poured by the bride's aunt, what kind of situation is this?"

"No, no, why don't I understand?" Li shi was completely bewildered.

Song Dingxiang came over with hot water, listened attentively, and understood, "Grandma, what my dad means is that my fifth uncle found a woman to pretend to be Jiaoxing, then after drinking the farewell wine from the groom's side, she caused a scene. I suspect it's not just a commotion, did she also extort money from them?"

Li shi looked incredulous, "No way, didn't some people from our village go there? Didn't they see that she wasn't Jiaoxing?"

Song Dingxiang laughed, "I think that girl painted a face similar to my little aunt's back then, so white that it's hard to tell. And... apparently that girl was brought to the third Granduncle's house, with a similar appearance, so no one could tell."

Song Zhicheng slapped his thigh, "Why are you so clever, Dingxiang? You figured it out. Later, dad felt something was wrong and asked my third uncle. He said not to interfere, that it was arranged by the eldest and second uncle, which made dad really angry and he came back."

"My goodness, how could they do this?" Li shi slapped her chest, "This is a marriage proposal, their family is causing trouble, they are setting themselves up for enmity! How is the other family's son going to marry now?"

Song Zhiyuan whispered, "I don't think Sixth Uncle went either. I reckon he knew about this matter and didn't want to go because he felt embarrassed."

Song Xingyi finished a bag of cigarettes, entered the room with a stern face, sat on the kang without saying a word, just looked angry.

Song Dingxiang thought for a moment and said, "Grandpa, Grandma, I have an idea... actually, I've had this idea for a while, but I was afraid you wouldn't like it."

Li shi asked, "What's your idea? Tell us."

Song Dingxiang pursed her lips and said, "I want to buy a farm, a bit further away from here. Except during busy farming seasons, our whole family can live on the farm, to avoid seeing Third Granduncle's family and feeling always angry. And if they keep causing trouble like this, one day they might drag us into it..."

"How much money do we need to buy a farm?" Li shi asked, "In fact, our family hasn't saved much money in these years, calculate if it's enough."

"But are there any farms for sale nearby?" Song Xingyi thought for a moment, "For so many years, I only know about the farm where our Zhijin went, there doesn't seem to be any others nearby. Our area isn't wealthy, few people are willing to build farms here."

"Then let's buy a house in the town." In fact, Song Dingxiang wanted to move the whole family to live in town, "Living in town is more convenient, during busy farming times we can stay in the village, and on regular days, we can live in town, it's easier for buying things and such."

Song Xingyi hesitated a bit, he couldn't bear to leave the old house he built, after all, they had lived there for so many years... and those fields, vegetable patches, lotus pond, how could they just up and leave.

Song Dingxiang knew what Song Xingyi was thinking, so she smiled and said, "Actually, there's no rush at the moment, with the current drought situation, it's more comfortable to stay in the village than go anywhere else. Grandpa, Grandma, think about it carefully. I'm just afraid of being implicated, and with their family causing such a fuss, if our children start emulating them, it could be troublesome."

"Impossible," Li shi said, "Our family doesn't have such people, so we wouldn't raise such children."

"But isn't it distressing to see all this commotion every day?" Song Dingxiang sighed, "Grandma, listen to them over there, still arguing, who knows what kind of trouble they want to stir up. These past few days, every time I see their family, they look uneasy and very uncomfortable."

Song Zhiyuan and Song Zhicheng were listening on the side, also pondering this matter. Song Zhiyuan said, "Moving is easy, land can be rented out, but what about our lotus pond? Will we still feed the pigs in the future? And what about those workshops..."

Song Dingxiang said, "I've thought about all of that too. I plan to ask Mrs. Wang to help us find two reliable families to buy them, let them stay here and help us take care of things, we just need to review the accounts. Then Grandpa and Grandma can rest well, Dad and Uncle can manage the store in town, or think about doing something else. The brothers are still young, they can't just farm for a lifetime and do nothing else, right? Land needs to be cultivated, but it doesn't necessarily have to be done by ourselves."

Song Xingyi said, "Let's think about this matter carefully. Anyway, we're not moving now... Ah, let's all think about it. I've really been troubled by your third granduncle and his whole family. Let's think it over..."

Over on Fifth Uncle's wife's side, the marriage proposal didn't go through, the two families had a falling out, and almost came to blows. But they heard they didn't ask for the betrothal gifts back, so they probably had to swallow that loss.

It was only now that Song Dingxiang realized that Wu shi might not really love Song Jiaoxing. If possible, she also hoped that Song Jiaoxing would marry into a good family and help support her brothers in the future.

But there were no suitable families around her, and she absolutely couldn't let her daughter become a concubine. It's not that she didn't want the money, she just couldn't bear losing face.

If she let Song Jiaoxing become a concubine, she was afraid she would be kicked out of the Song family directly.

Now that Song Jiaoxing had gone missing, Wu shi could still smile and act as if nothing had happened, busy managing everything at home, even managing to swindle some money out of the man's side. Where the money ultimately went, Song Dingxiang didn't want to think about it, she was afraid she would be sickened.

The wool workshop reopened, but they weren't making gloves, they were making wool felt. Making wool felt wasn't difficult, they just had to spread out the processed wool into thin layers like cotton batting, layer by layer, and then beat it with a nail board to make it firm and even.

Because the wool they used was processed, the wool felt they made was very soft, and wearing it in the cold weather kept them warm.

Due to the drought, the winter wheat they planted couldn't sprout. In the last two months before it got cold, every household had planted buckwheat.

Buckwheat could be harvested in two months, and multiple crops could be planted in a year, at least providing some food to eat.

Since planting buckwheat didn't require careful attention, there were more people available in the village to help out. Making wool felt wasn't too delicate either, both men and women could do it, it was just that it was very cheap.

Song Jiaoxing still hadn't been found, and Wu shi seemed to have completely given up hope. She had clearly lost a lot of weight and aged significantly, with a gloomy look in her eyes.

Occasionally, when chatting with her sisters-in-law about her daughter, she would cry for a while, it was unclear whether she was crying for her daughter or for the set of pure silver headpieces.

By the end of October, there still hadn't been any snow, but there had been two rounds of winter rain, just enough to wet the ground.

In November, there was a bit of light snowfall, not enough to bring any joy. Song Xingyi sighed all day long, cursing the unpredictable weather and lamenting over his fields.

If it didn't snow in winter, the winter wheat wouldn't grow well in the spring, and if it continued to be dry, there might be no harvest for the first half of the year.

Song Dingxiang rushed to make a lot of wool felt and sent word to familiar merchants. The merchants quickly arrived with their carts, and most of the wool had been used up, producing several thousand pieces of wool felt measuring two meters long and one and a half meters wide.

These wool felt pieces could be used as blankets or quilts. When the weather got cold, wrapping oneself in one could keep warm without taking up much space.

In addition to the wool felt, Song Dingxiang also loaded up most of the pickled vegetables and tofu from the pickling workshop onto the carts. Due to the drought, people were holding onto their money to sell for food, so they wouldn't buy much pickled vegetables or salty vegetables, as they couldn't be eaten as a meal.

After a long time, these pickled vegetables would become bitter and salty. After discussing it with her family, Song Dingxiang kept some for home use and sent the rest to the northern region.

The carts were not just loaded with wool felt and pickled vegetables, but also sacks of miscellaneous leather used for shoe uppers and bags of dried fruits.

Song Dingxiang was worried, so she wrote a letter to go with the carts, stating that due to the severe drought in their area, they couldn't store the wool for too long for fear of issues, so they rushed to make the wool felt to keep the soldiers warm. As for the pickled vegetables, they were meant to accompany their meals, at least showing some goodwill.

The dozens of large carts carrying these goods set off in a grand procession towards the northern region.

Winter passed without any snow, and it was said that not only was it dry in their area, but also more than twenty counties and two prefectures in the north were experiencing drought. Hundreds of thousands of people were waiting for the heavens to open their eyes and provide a way out for the people.

But it seemed like the heavens were determined, not a single drop of rain fell throughout the spring.

The village was still okay, with the river channels not entirely dried up, providing some water for household use. However, in the town, it was said that the wells had run dry, and many wealthy families had packed up and headed south.

The Song Family's shops in town had closed their doors, and Song Yulan had returned home with her child, Hu Tou and Tudan.

The Wang family was also planning to go south, sending letters and fabric to be carried by others. However, Li Yunsheng and Song Zijin decided not to leave.

With plenty of prosperous food in the village, as long as they dismissed the tenants, they could sustain themselves for a long time.

While others were anxious, Song Dingxiang decided to buy a shop in the county town.

The drought couldn't last forever, and because of the severe drought, many people in the town and county wanted to sell their shops and yards and move elsewhere to make a living.

Song Dingxiang and Song Xingyi calculated the food and dried vegetables at home, and with careful rationing, they could last for a couple of years. They also had enough silver to pay taxes.

If the drought persisted, the court would distribute relief grain, so they wouldn't starve. It was because of this that Song Dingxiang couldn't hold onto her money.

It was her first time in the county town, a county called Wei County, which was said to have originally been Wei Family Village, gradually developing into a county as the population increased. However, there weren't many people with the surname Wei in Wei County now.

The county town should have been bustling with activity, but due to the prolonged drought, many people had moved away, leaving behind only those who couldn't afford to leave. Their faces were gaunt and sallow, and they looked even worse off than the villagers.

The main reason was that the price of food had skyrocketed, tripling from its previous price! Even though it was expensive, they still had to eat, but no one dared to eat their fill, just barely surviving.

The real estate agent was very enthusiastic and said to Song Zhiyuan, "Brother, you've come at a good time to buy a shop and courtyard. Shops that used to cost four or five hundred taels can now be bought for one or two hundred taels. And that big mansion, it's fully furnished, and it's not cramped for a big family..."

Song Dingxiang and Song Zhiyuan looked at several shops and yards, and finally set their sights on a large mansion with a front yard and a shop at the back.

"Why is such a nice mansion being sold?" Song Dingxiang asked.

The official smiled and said, "I won't hide it from you, sister. This yard was originally for a wealthy family's concubine to live in, but with the droughts everywhere nowadays, that family is not willing to maintain such a nice mansion for the concubine and wants to sell it for silver to go south. Normally, this mansion would at least cost fifteen hundred taels, but now it's being sold for eight hundred taels, a truly great deal."

The large mansion had three sections, with side yards on the left and right, and two small gardens. In front of the main gate was an alley where this family lived. In the back, facing the street, three large shops had been set up.

The more Song Dingxiang looked, the more she liked it. After a brief discussion with Song Zhiyuan, they paid a deposit.

"We had initially talked about buying a yard, but we didn't expect to come across such a good one. In the future, we can bring Grandpa and Grandma to live here..."

Song Dingxiang sat in the carriage, chatting with Song Zhiyuan, "Although the garden is a bit run-down, we can plant vegetables once the drought is over. One of the yards can be used for making pickles or brewing wine; since it's far from other houses, it won't bother anyone."

Song Zhiyuan smiled in agreement, but suddenly his gaze halted. "Dingxiang, look over there, doesn't that person resemble Jiaoxing?"