Chapter 66: Washing the Bellyband

After beating up Ma Daming, the madwoman, Hei Pi, and Liu Wu, the village head was glowing with satisfaction and could hardly wait as he said, “Come on. Let’s send them to the authorities.”

These were traffickers caught by the villagers of Dongwang Village. When they took them to town and handed them over to the official, he, as the village head, would gain face too.

Someone had already gone home to fetch hemp rope. The men present quickly bound the upper bodies of the four human traffickers tightly.

A boy reached out and poked Tuo Tuo’s arm, then asked quietly, “Can you ask your mother to give us something to eat?”

Tuo Tuo turned back and recognized at a glance that the boy in front of him was the one who had sat behind him in the ruined temple.

Tuo Tuo narrowed his eyes, put on a stern little chubby face, and asked huffily, “Were you the one who peed in the carriage?”

The boy’s face flushed red, and he stammered in denial, “N-no, it wasn’t me.”

“How wasn’t it you?” Tuo Tuo exposed him with one jab. “You stink of pee.”

The boy’s already embarrassed face went completely red. He lowered his head, too ashamed to ask for food again.

“It’s all your fault. I got dirty too.” After Tuo Tuo finished blaming the boy, he saw him hanging his head without saying a word, so he reached out and pushed him, then raised his voice and shouted, “Xiu Niang, I’m hungry. Did you save food for me this morning?”

“I did, I did. It’s in the kitchen cupboard. Come on, let’s go home and eat.” Xiu Niang held Chun Hua and led Tuo Tuo and Xiao Cong back.

The boy lifted his head and looked at Tuo Tuo with envy in his eyes.

“Hurry up and follow.” Tuo Tuo turned back and called to him. “Didn’t you want to eat? Come eat with me.”

The boy froze. A moment later, he hurriedly lifted his feet and trotted after them. He had thought that this fellow who had mocked him would not give him anything to eat. He had not expected Tuo Tuo to so readily bring him home for a meal.

The children had been hungry for more than a day. When they heard someone mention eating, one after another, they began crying out that they were hungry.

The village head stroked his tobacco pouch and said to his wife, “Hongxia, go home and cook. Make the children a meal.”

He turned around and said to the villagers, “It’s already noon. All of you should hurry home and cook too. After lunch, we’ll take the children back together.”

The villagers shoved the four traffickers along as they all headed toward the village head’s house.

From time to time, villagers kicked Ma Daming a couple of times, angrily cursing him for not being human.

By now, Ma Daming no longer had his earlier arrogance. He lowered his head and followed in silence. He was like a dull old ox. Wherever others drove him, that was where he went.

After the madwoman had been hit a few times, she was unconvinced and cursed at the women who had struck her. “May the children you give birth to have no assholes!” “You old shrews!”

“May the children you give birth to have no assholes! You black-hearted thing. Is it because you can’t give birth yourself, so you came up with such a rotten trick to steal other people’s children?” Qin Niang cursed back. “With a mother like you, a child’s entire road to survival would be cut off. Aren’t you afraid of going to hell after death for doing something like this?”

As she cursed, she reached out and pinched the madwoman’s arm. “I heard you’re very good at pinching people? Today, I’ll let you have a taste of it.”

The madwoman’s upper body was bound, and her arms could not move. In her fury, she slammed her body into Qin Niang.

Qin Niang was knocked back two steps. After steadying herself, she kicked the madwoman to the ground. The village women beside her swarmed forward, twisting, kicking, stomping, and hitting, letting this woman who stole children taste what it was like to be beaten.

The village head glanced back at the commotion behind him. Without saying a word, he turned his head and continued leading the children home. Human traffickers did not count as people. They were worse than pigs and dogs. No one would pity them for getting beaten. If others did not help beat them, that was already mercy on account of their still looking human.

Auntie Osmanthus spat hard. “I truly don’t know whether you have children or not. For doing such a wicked, heaven-offending thing, you deserve to have your family line cut off.”

After Tuo Tuo returned to the courtyard, he untied his red bellyband while running toward the water basin. He pressed the red bellyband into the basin, then turned and ran to the wooden tub where water had been set out in the sun for Yun Shan’s bath.

Tuo Tuo bent down, about to scoop up water to wash himself, when he saw his reflection in the water—his swollen face. He immediately began feeling sorry for himself. Like this, he was not good-looking anymore. The two sides of his face were different sizes. Not only was he not good-looking, it hurt too!

When Hua Qi carried Yun Shan into the courtyard, he saw Tuo Tuo holding his head, naked, squatting by the tub, doing who knew what. He walked over, kicked Tuo Tuo’s backside, and asked, “What are you doing?”

Tuo Tuo turned his face. When he saw it was Hua Qi, he immediately gave a “hmph” and twisted his face away.

He did not dare openly blame Hua Qi, so he beat around the bush. “My face got hit swollen.”

“I was just about to ask you that. I saw all the other children were fine. How did only your face get swollen?” Hua Qi had originally expected that after Tuo Tuo was taken away, he would more or less suffer a bit. He had not expected that no one else would suffer, and all the suffering would fall on the little ginseng spirit alone.

“How would I know?” At the mention of this, Tuo Tuo grew angry and poured out his grievances to Hua Qi. “This morning, I met them in the mountains. I said the rabbits were one tael each. They didn’t bargain. They were the ones willing to buy them. Later, they blamed me for selling them too expensively and beat me up. After that, they kept hitting me. No matter what happened, they wanted to hit me! They even stuffed my mouth with a smelly rag.”

Hua Qi consoled him absentmindedly, “Then they were the unreasonable ones.”

“Exactly!” Tuo Tuo very much agreed.

He stood on tiptoe to look at Yun Shan, then touched Yun Shan’s little fleshy hand and said quietly, “Little Temple Master, I completed the task. It was just a little hard.”

Yun Shan looked at Tuo Tuo foolishly, then pulled back his little hand and would not let him touch it.

There was laughter in Hua Qi’s voice. “If you’re going to wash, hurry up and wash. We’ll go along to town later and buy you red cloth.”

At the mention of red cloth, Tuo Tuo finally grew a little happier. He scooped up the well water in the wooden tub, which had been warmed slightly by the sun, and carefully washed his whole body from head to toe. Especially his bottom. He scrubbed it back and forth three times!

Xiu Niang gave the food she had saved for Tuo Tuo that morning to the boy who had followed them home.

The boy held the bowl and wolfed down a bowl of thin porridge in no time, and also ate half a flatbread.

Xiu Niang felt sorry for him and kept saying, “Eat slowly, eat slowly. Auntie will go fry an egg now. In a little while, I’ll wrap it in a flatbread for you and Tuo Tuo.”

Tuo Tuo, who was washing, heard this and immediately said, “I want egg fried with chili peppers.”

“I’ll fry it. Egg fried with chili peppers it is,” Xiu Niang agreed at once.

Xiu Niang checked Xiao Cong from head to toe, then asked him, “Xiao Cong, are you really all right? Does anywhere hurt?”

Xiao Cong shook his head. Wherever Xiu Niang touched, he said it did not hurt.

“How strange.” Xiu Niang looked at Xiao Cong and said, “You just happened to be in the field when the carriage hit you. Who would have known Tuo Tuo was in the carriage too? Xiao Cong, did you feel anything at the time? You two are blood brothers.”

Xiao Cong shook his head. “I didn’t feel anything.” They were not blood brothers at all.

After Tuo Tuo washed clean, he said to the boy, “You come wash too. You smell.”

The boy ran to Tuo Tuo’s side with a red face, took off his clothes, and imitated Tuo Tuo by scooping up water to wash himself.

Tuo Tuo squatted beside the wooden basin and pressed his red bellyband properly into the water. Perhaps because he disliked how dirty his bellyband was, he did not act as he usually did, pressing it a few times before lifting it out of the basin.

He ran beneath the corridor. Tuo Tuo found the wooden laundry club Xiu Niang usually used for washing clothes, dragged out the red bellyband, and beat it messily.

Xiu Niang heard the sound and leaned out of the kitchen. Seeing the boy washing and Tuo Tuo washing clothes, she said with distress, “Tuo Tuo, leave that there. I’ll wash your clothes for you in a bit.”

Tuo Tuo cheerfully put down the wooden club and casually pulled a cucumber from the basin on the table. He began eating it with crisp crunches.

After the boy finished washing, he sensibly picked up his clothes and soaked them in the same basin as Tuo Tuo’s red bellyband.

He shyly hunched his body and ran over to Tuo Tuo’s side to ask, “Can you lend me one of your clothes to wear first?”

Tuo Tuo chewed the cucumber in his mouth, tilted his head to look at him, then looked at the wooden basin. His red bellyband had been completely covered by the boy’s clothes. “No. I only have one piece of clothing.”

“Huh?” The boy froze. It was his first time hearing that someone only had one piece of clothing.

“Then, then don’t you change clothes?” the boy asked Tuo Tuo curiously.

“I don’t. My bellyband is very clean.”

The boy was very shy. Unlike Tuo Tuo, who had no scruples at all and could walk around the courtyard naked without feeling the least bit embarrassed. He sat on a stool, trying his best to curl himself up.

Hua Qi placed Yun Shan in the cradle, then returned to sit under the tree and cut cucumbers.

The boy held a bowl and drank water in small sips. After holding it in for a long time, he finally gathered his courage and said softly to Hua Qi, “Thank you, Auntie, for saving me.” He had heard the villagers say that the woman in front of him had kicked the bad person flying with one kick and saved all of them.

Hearing this, Hua Qi stopped what he was doing and looked at the boy. This was the first time a human had said thank you to him. It was truly interesting. After a long while, he said softly, “No need to thank me.”

Xiu Niang placed the flatbread and egg fried with chili peppers on the small table. Tuo Tuo immediately ran over, picked up a flatbread, tore open a large pocket, and stuffed vegetables straight inside. Only after he had stuffed the flatbread until it bulged did he start eating.

The boy imitated him and also wrapped himself a piece of flatbread.

Xiu Niang sat by the well washing clothes and chatted with the boy. “Where is your family from? How were you stolen by those people?”

The boy said, “My family lives in town. My name is Zhang Mancang. My father is Landlord Zhang. I secretly ran out by myself to play and got lost. I met a female beggar who said she could take me home. So I followed her. She led me into a little alley, and those two men suddenly appeared and tied me up.”

“Your father is a wealthy gentleman, then,” Xiu Niang said in surprise. A wealthy gentleman was one of the richest households in town.

She touched the clothes beneath her hands. The fabric really was good material. Only a child from a wealthy family could afford to wear it.

After eating a bowl of porridge, Zhang Mancang’s eating speed had clearly slowed. Tuo Tuo, beside him, had long since been so hungry his chest was sticking to his back. Only after finishing one flatbread did he finally find time to drink half a bowl of water.

Qiu Sheng leaned on a tree branch and finally managed to shuffle home. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw two naked children lying beside Yun Shan’s cradle.

“Tuo Tuo, where did you go?” Qiu Sheng forced himself to quicken his steps and sat down heavily on the bench. He threw away the tree branch in his hand and began pounding his legs. After running back and forth over two hills all morning, his legs were so tired he could barely lift them.

Tuo Tuo knew Qiu Sheng had gone up the mountain to look for him.

He ran over, stood beside Qiu Sheng with his little belly stuck out, and told Qiu Sheng the entire sequence of events. He especially emphasized that human traffickers were not good things and had kept hitting him.

Seeing the bruises on Tuo Tuo’s arms and thighs, Qiu Sheng could not help getting angry. “Those four are worse than beasts.”

Hua Qi lifted his eyelids. Beasts? That word sounded familiar. The last time he heard that word, it had been from Fifth Auntie, when she was talking about him and Dou Ming.

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