Traveling Through Those Years Of Farming (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 16

The death of her husband feels like the sky has fallen for Madam Tang. 

The family has no money. The villagers know she has sold the last two acres of land to send her husband to the county for medical treatment, but they don’t know that she has also mortgaged the old Tang family house.

Madam Tang believes that as long as her husband is alive, she and Yuan Ge’er will have someone to rely on, and the money for medical treatment can be earned back slowly. Perhaps she briefly considered how to fill these gaps if her husband can’t be saved, but that thought was fleeting; her desperation to save him overshadowed everything.

Unfortunately, fate is not on her side.

In the countryside, if you lack land, you can rent from those who have more, but without a house to shelter from the wind and rain, there’s nothing you can do. Now, the Tang family has neither house nor land.

The Tang family has been a single-line lineage for generations. In her husband’s case, there are no brothers, and she has only given birth to one son. With her husband gone, only she and Yuan Ge’er remain. Although Yuan Ge’er is healthy, he is only eight years old and cannot take on any work. His small frame is no match for physical labor, and Madam Tang’s health is only slightly better than that of her ailing husband. Simple tasks like fetching water and chopping wood feel overwhelming for her.

As for her natal family, her father is dead, and her stepmother is now in charge. Since her brothers are not born of the same mother, their feelings are indifferent. They would hardly be willing to support two burdens.

Madam Tang senses that the strain and worries of recent times have seriously undermined her health, and she fears she will need medicine constantly in the future. Living like this feels like a burden to her. 

In addition, Madam Tang is troubled by another concern: the tuition fees for the students studying at the school for early autumn. Her husband has fallen ill after only a few days of school started. Normally, those fees should be refunded, but how can Madam Tang possibly produce that money now?

She can vaguely see the future: her beloved Yuan Ge’er’s thin body crushed under such a heavy burden, his once-bright smile replaced by worry. 

How can she bear to let her son live like this?

Others think she fainted from the grief of her husband’s death. In truth, at that moment, Madam Tang was extremely clear-headed. She has begun to contemplate her son’s future. 

She thinks that if she can no longer live, then perhaps her death can provide her son with a different outcome.

The villagers of Sandangkou live comfortably, and the community spirit is simple and honest. The vast majority of the townsfolk are kind-hearted and generous, and during her husband’s lifetime, he taught many students, establishing some connections with these families. If Yuan Ge’er were to become an orphan, the village would certainly not turn a blind eye. If she guesses correctly, the village chief would likely arrange for a family to foster Yuan Ge’er.

But if the villagers are so kind and Tang Xiucai has good relationships with many wealthy families in the village, why does the scholar’s wife decide to die? 

In addition to her fear that her health will deteriorate, making her another Tang Xiucai in need of countless medicinal supplies to fill this bottomless pit, she is primarily concerned that external rumors will tarnish what little affection remains.

She still remembers the fate of Xu Gu Fu in the neighboring village. 

The Xu Gu Fu family was small, just like hers. Her husband had been killed by a black bear while all the men from the village went into the mountains to hunt during winter. As a result, the surviving men took good care of Widow Xu.

At first, everything seemed fine. The strong men in the village took turns helping her family fetch water and firewood, and they assisted with her fields during the busy farming season. However, as time went on, some women began to gossip about Widow Xu.

Many rumors circulated about her, especially since young, strong men frequently entered and exited her home. Although their wives might not have voiced their concerns openly, they began to feel uneasy.

Gradually, the rumors multiplied and twisted; some claimed to have seen Widow Xu committing adultery. Over time, to avoid suspicion, the men in the village stopped helping her altogether.

In the end, Widow Xu abandoned her two children and returned to her parents’ home to remarry. The children were adopted by relatives, but due to their mother’s tarnished reputation, they faced exclusion from the other village children and lived difficult lives.

Having learned from this lesson, Madam Tang is even more afraid to gamble. 

But if she dies, the villagers’ attitudes will be different.

Women who are also mothers would blame her, despising her for abandoning her young child for love. The more they fail to understand her actions, the more they would sympathize with Yuan Ge’er. 

Men would admire her; because in their eyes, a woman who dies for her husband is loyal and chaste, and they naturally treat the children left behind by such a woman with more kindness.

Madam Tang isn’t sure if her calculations are correct, but she believes that dying is far better than living. 

As the white silk falls from the beam and she stands on the round stool, Madam Tang still thinks most about her son. 

Yuan Ge’er will blame her, blame her for abandoning him like this.

Then let him complain…

Madam Tang closes her eyes, kicks over the round stool, and resigns herself to suffering in the eighteenth level of hell. All she hopes for is that Yuan Ge’er will have a smooth life, free of worries.

******

“Mom—wake up! Wake up!” No matter how smart Tang Dingyuan is, he is still just an eight-year-old child. Faced with the death of his parents, he cries hoarsely. “Uncle and aunt, please find a doctor for my mother. I will pay you back.”

He kneels down and kowtows to the elders, begging them to find a doctor for his mother. 

The sight brings tears to everyone present. 

How can the scholar’s wife be so foolish? Her husband is gone, but she still has a son. Yuan Ge’er is so young; how can she bear to abandon him?

Just as Madam Tang predicts, the women present feel a deep sense of compassion for Tang Dingyuan.

“Yuan’er, stop kowtowing. Your mother is dead. Her body is already stiff.” Lu Miao goes over to pull Tang Dingyuan up. The child is kowtowing so hard that he bruise his head, and she worries he will hurt himself further. “If your mother were alive, she would not want to see you like this.”

Tang Dingyuan struggles against her grasp, making it difficult for Lu Miao to hold him.

“But my mother is dead. She doesn’t want Yuan’er anymore.” He points at the two bodies in the simply decorated mourning hall. “My parents left me behind. Who will care for Yuan’er when he is tired, hungry, thirsty, or in pain?”

Everyone falls silent.

“Yuan’er, your uncles and aunts are here. Many people will love you in the future,” the village chief speaks gently.

Tang Xiucai is a kind man; in the past, he never charged villagers for writing letters, couplets, or naming their children. Everyone benefits from his generosity. Now, with the Tang family left with only one child, they cannot simply stand by and do nothing. 

However, how to care for him and who to entrust him to remains a dilemma.

The village chief’s words do little to comfort Tang Dingyuan. How can anyone else’s care compare to the love of his parents? He continues to cry hysterically until he finally passes out.

“He cried until he fainted.”

Doctor Wang is invited to check Tang Dingyuan’s pulse. He has truly cried until he fainted. 

However, having learned from the example of the scholar’s wife, everyone dares not be careless. After carrying Tang Dingyuan back into the house, they find two women to watch over him.

“What should we do now?” an elderly man with a high standing in the village asks.

“Let’s not even consider how much Tang Xiucai has contributed to our Sandangkou Village in the past. Now that they have both passed away, leaving behind only one child, if our village does not handle this matter well, I fear other villages will mock us.” An old man speaks slowly, but every word is clear and resonant, causing those around him to nod in agreement.

“The Tang family is the only branch in our village, with no relatives. The scholar’s wife has several brothers, but we haven’t seen them interact in recent years.” The village chief looks around and says, “As soon as dawn breaks, we should send someone to inform the scholar’s wife’s family. Regardless, since the scholar’s wife is dead, someone from her family must come to the funeral. However, everyone should be prepared; I fear they may not be willing to raise this child. With Tang Xiucai having only this one heir, I’m not comfortable letting them raise him.”

“Yuan Ge’er is a good child. We’ve all watched him grow up and know his character; he is definitely not an ungrateful person,” someone in the crowd speaks up.

“Yes, Yuan Ge’er is very obedient. He studies well and is as smart as Tang Xiucai. Tang Xiucai was delayed by an accident back then; otherwise, he might have already become a juren by now.”

“Alas, the Tang family is unlucky.”

The crowd murmurs, but no one steps forward to take him in. 

There is no way around it; adding another mouth to feed is no small matter, especially since Tang Dingyuan has a special status. If he is not raised well, those who foster him will likely face criticism. No matter how much sympathy they feel for him, everyone must consider the implications carefully.

“The Tang family has always intermarried with our village’s old surnames for generations. Surely, we can find a few families that are closely related to them.”

The village chief sighs. He understands the villagers’ concerns. As the village chief, he should take the initiative to adopt the child, but unfortunately, despite his position, his own family bears many burdens, and their living conditions are at best average. Raising Tang Dingyuan in his home might not be the best choice.

The village chief wants to ask several wealthy families in the village to adopt Yuan Ge’er, hoping he can continue his studies. If he can successfully pass the imperial examination in the future, Sandangkou Village will have a strong backer. 

But he also understands that this is too much to ask. Training a scholar is no small feat; not all families can invest in one’s own children to succeed in their studies, let alone children with no blood ties.

“My family can’t manage that. We have six children, and life is already hard enough.” A man shook his head. Though, in terms of seniority, Tang Dingyuan’s grandmother was actually his aunt, his own family had too many mouths to feed. With his two eldest sons about to get engaged, they still needed to borrow money for the weddings—how could they possibly take in another child? “But if someone is willing to raise Yuan Ge’er, my family can contribute 20 kilograms of cornmeal and 50 kilograms of sweet potatoes each year.”

This offer is clearly insufficient for raising a child, but it is the limit of what he can contribute.

As the discussion continued, they traced the Tang family’s genealogy back four generations and discovered that Old Lady Lu Miao was actually a cousin to an ancestor of the Lu family, both having married around the same time. If it weren’t for an elder present who remembered attending that wedding as a child, neither Old Butcher Lu nor Lu Miao would have known about this distant familial connection between the Lu and Tang families.

To be honest, this relationship is already too distant to be meaningful.

Should they adopt Tang Dingyuan or not? Lu Miao has to make a difficult decision.