Blissful Days After Widowhood

Mrs. Wang used to love listening to operas when she was at home. When Father Wu was still at home, he took her to the county town market every month to listen to operas.

Her first reaction was to follow Mrs. Xu, but when she turned around and saw that the stall was still there, she stopped and said, “I won’t go. You can listen to it yourself, and don’t forget to tell me everything when you come back.”

Gu Yin was amused, so she grabbed a few coins from the money box and gave them to her, “If you want to, go see it, mother. Take Wu’an along, buy some snacks and watch it while you eat. Anyway, there are fewer people at this time, so I can handle it alone.”

Mrs. Wang was pushed out, took the copper coins in one hand and pulled Xiao Wu’an in the other, and before leaving, she told her, “I kept the cotton robe on the bench, remember to give it to the child when he comes. Don’t work, wait for me, I’ll clean up when I get back. I’ll just be gone for a while.”

Not long after they left, the faint sound of gongs and drums reached the pier.

Most of the people in the town did not have any entertainment activities, and when they heard the news, they scrambled to watch the excitement.

The pier, which had already passed the morning market, suddenly lost more than half of the people. Other vendors saw that there were not many people, and they closed their stalls to join in the fun.

Gu Yin didn’t want to watch the fun, and thought about giving the robe to the child, so she stayed for a while.

Fortunately, when it was almost time to close, the child came silently again.

She had long been looking at the table where he used to hide, and she saw him as soon as he came.

Just as she was about to stand up and pick up the small cotton robe, someone came to the stall. A dark-brown-haired, white-skinned, dark-eyed boy just sat at another table.

“Bring whatever you want over!” The young man was wearing only a thin jacket

 His face was pale and his lips were blue, and he couldn’t stop rubbing his hands.

Gu Yin had to put down the robe first, then turned around and put down a bowl of wontons.

When the hot wontons were brought to the table, the young man took the soup bowl and gulped down a big mouthful, exhaled a breath of hot air, and finished a bowl of wontons in seven or eight mouthfuls.

After eating, he didn’t rush to leave, but said, “Storekeeper, I heard that your pier is usually very lively. Why are there only so few people here today?”

His accent sounded a bit strange, not like the dialects of that area, nor like Mandarin.

It was the first time that Gu Yin had seen a mixed-race child since she had transmigrated and she couldn’t help but glance at him more.

Who knew that the young man suddenly became impatient and slapped the table, “I asked you something, why are you staring at me?”

Gu Yin was not frightened by him, but she was afraid that he might frighten the child under the other table, so she immediately replied, “Usually there are indeed many people, but today there is a play in the town, so everyone went to see the excitement.”

After hearing that, the other party didn’t embarrass her any more, but continued, “As per what you said, you should have been setting up a stall here for a long time, right?”

“It’s been a few months.”

“Then have you seen a three or four-year-old child on this pier?”

“It’s strange to ask me. There are people coming and going on the pier, some are on the road with their children, and some are bringing their children to the stall. I naturally have seen three or four-year-old children every day, but I don’t know what you’re looking for. What does he look like?”

The boy scratched his head and muttered to himself, “I haven’t seen him before, how do I know what he looks like?” Then he added, “Of course I am not asking about a kid accompanied by his parents, but alone…”

The child who was alone on the dock was close to her, but people treated him as cargo by an ocean-going ship. The man even came to ask. The person in front of her was clueless, so Gu Yin naturally shouldn’t tell him anything.

It was also at that time that the child under the table jumped out silently like a dexterous cat.

“What?!” Although the young man didn’t look in that direction, out of the corner of his eye he still saw a black shadow passing by, subconsciously pressing toward his waist. But there was nothing on his waist, so he put his hand in the air.

Gu Yin looked solemn and stepped forward to block his vision, “There’s nothing, just wild cats and dogs on the dock.”

The boy pushed her away and stood up and began to examine his surroundings carefully.

Gu Yin was also worried, but fortunately, he walked around the stall for a long time and found nothing.

He looked at her suspiciously, and felt more that his actions just now went too far, and his right hand touched his waist unconsciously.

“What are you doing?!” Mrs Wang rushed over from the intersection, stood in front of Gu Yin, and said viciously, “In broad daylight, you are molesting a woman from a good family, isn’t there law on the land?!”

The young man was startled by her, and after hearing what she said, a blush appeared on his white cheeks, “What molesting a good woman? What did I do?”

Mrs. Wang turned her back on the customer and grabbed his arm, “Don’t deny it, I just saw with my own eyes that you looked at my daughter-in-law from head to toe with malicious intentions, were you not flirting? Let’s to the yamen!”

The young man’s face changed when he heard the word “yamen”, but he couldn’t break free from Mrs. Wang’s iron pincer-like hand, and finally he could only reluctantly twist his arm.

Mrs. Wang was also horrified when she heard the crackling sound, and quickly let go of him.

The boy clutched his arm and lifted it again, putting the dislocated joint back in again. Then there was a thud without looking back, as the fierce man jumped into the river.

“Are you all right?” Mrs. Wang asked Gu Yin, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead.

Gu Yin helped her to sit down and said, “It’s okay, you have misunderstood. That person didn’t do anything to me.”