Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 6
How About Becoming a Storyteller?
Mo Yan’s ducks had grown their flight feathers and they could finally swim now. She took the ducklings there; the combined weight of twenty ducklings and their duck cages were too much for her to lift, so she dragged them there.
“Yan’er, be careful not to break the duck cages.”
That was Mo Yan’s second grandma. She was going to the well to fetch water, and had taken a clay pot as a container.
She held the clay pot with one hand and helped Mo Yan carry the duck cages with the other, walking to the side of the pond.
They put down the duck cages in an area of the pond’s banks that wasn’t too slippery. At first, the ducklings were scared to enter the water and quacked loudly, refusing to swim. They kept flapping their wings and trying to return to the shore. Mo Yan kept pushing them back into the water again and again, “Go and swim! There’s fish in the water, go and eat them!”
After this back-and-forth exchange happened several times, the ducks finally took a liking to the water and started playing around in the pond. After all, no one could stop something like an animal’s innate nature!
Mo Yan was worried about the ducklings, so she didn’t rest under the shade of the willow trees. Instead, she watched them from the banks of the pond and encouraged them by clapping her hands.
“Ducklings, you can do it!”
“Ducks have a natural affinity for swimming. Do they need to be encouraged?”
Second grandma went back home after fetching water from the well, so who’s speaking? Mo Yan looked at where the sound was coming from. The person speaking was a teenager. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t exactly place where she had seen him.
The teenager spoke, “My name’s Lu Junming.”
No wonder he looked familiar. So he was the one who was standing on the other side of the pond the other day, the one who second grandma said was Sir Lu’s grandson.
Lu Junming didn’t look bad, but Mo Yan thought his eyes were dull and lacking in spirit, so wasn’t as handsome as Cao Zhang and his clear eyes.
She had previously heard second grandma say he had only arrived at Chenzhong Village recently, so he probably wasn’t very familiar with the villagers. So Mo Yan became braver as she wasn’t afraid of messing up and letting something slip.
“Where are you from?” Mo Yan asked.
“I’m from the Upper Valley. It’s around a hundred kilometres from here.”
“That’s really far away. How did you get here?”
“By horseback.”
Second grandma had also previously said that his dad was a famous general, his family’s financial situations were probably rather good. Without any other indicators, you could already tell by his clothes. Instead of wearing linen clothes, his clothes were made of cotton brocade, which was tougher and thicker than silk brocade. Aside from that, the piece of jade on his waist was high-quality and finely carved. It definitely cost a lot.
On the other hand, she was wearing biege linen clothes. She didn’t even need to say that they were ugly, and they were also incredibly wrinkled. His family’s servants might actually wear better clothes than her.
“Why are you always standing around this lake?” Mo Yan asked.
“It’s peaceful here.”
“So does that mean I’m disturbing your peace?”
“This pond isn’t mine.”
Looking at the big-eyed and sharp-tongued girl in front of him, Lu Junming softened a little. His face became slightly warmer, and a faint smile appeared.
She continued, “If you come here and stand around so often, why don’t you grab a fishing rod and start fishing? It’s a pretty good way to while away the hours.”
After contemplating this for a moment, Lu Junming’s eyes brightened, “How did I never think of that? There are fish in this pond?”
She nodded, “Yeah, I’ve seen them before, but they aren’t very large.”
The next day, Mo Yan went to release the ducks to the pond and saw Lu Junming again.
He had found a fishing rod and had started fishing under the shade. It might’ve been because he didn’t know how to fish, or because there weren’t any big fish in the pond, but he didn’t catch a single one.
He didn’t speak and just stared at the surface of the water, like something was troubling him.
He was from the city, so he’d probably know more than most of the people from the village. Mo Yan thought, Why don’t I ask him how to make money?
“Lu Junming, do you know any good money-making methods?”
Mo Yan hated greeting anyone and everyone with honorifics, as it made them seem like they were jokes. Since they didn’t have an established relationship, why not just call him by his name? After all, it’s not like she was afraid of him going to the village and telling random people she lacked manners.
Not only did Lu Junming not object to her calling him that, he even found her thought process quite useful, he also called her directly by her name, Mo Yan.
When he heard her question, he subconsciously furrowed his brow, “It’s not going to be easy to use any money-making methods without any capital. You’d be better off learning a trade.”
A trade? Aside from sewing and embroidery, what other trades can girls in this era learn?
“So what should I learn?”
“In the Upper Valley, there are seamstresses in shops who not only sew, but also embroider. There are waitresses in restaurants, who make and serve tea to customers. There are female workers in workshops, and some family businesses have their daughters help run them.”
“What does your family do?”
Lu Junming paused for a second before replying, “My dad is a minor official in an administrative office of the government.”
Who would believe that! Even his clothes weren’t something normal people could afford. It was obvious his family was well-off, but if he was unwilling to tell her that, Mo Yan would pretend to be oblivious.
“If I go to the Upper Valley one day, can I come find you?”
“Sure. After all, we’re friends,” Something in Lu Junming’s eyes flashed as he said warmly.
Mo Yan could see there was something on his mind, but she didn’t want to ask him directly, and instead tried to help enlighten him.
“I’ve heard a saying that there is no question in the world that can’t be answered, nor a situation that can’t be solved.”
Knowing that she wanted to learn more about him, he replied, “So why don’t you tell me a joke and see if you can make me laugh.”
You want a few jokes? Game on!
So Mo Yan casually told him Ma Sanli’s ‘Just Messing with You.’ [1]
Lu Junming smiled so much his eyes became slits and his teeth showed. Looking at his much brighter expression, Mo Yan felt happier as well. She didn’t have many friends here and she was afraid to speak to anyone freely. She could only speak her mind when she was around him.
On the following days, she told him some more jokes and stories, none of which he had ever heard of. They laughed so hard, the birds on the willow trees flew away.
Lu Junming no longer seemed like he had as much on his mind, and he joked, “Mo Yan, why not be a storyteller? You’re good at telling stories, you might be able to make money from it.”
Become a storyteller? Well, if telling a few stories could earn us some money, Mo Ling wouldn’t have to work so hard. With how weak my body is, it’s not like I can do anything else.
During dinner, Mo Feng said excitedly, “A storyteller’s arrived. Eat quickly so we can save a spot to listen to him!”
Every year after the wheat harvest, Chenzhong Village would invite a storyteller to tell stories as a way to celebrate. Everyone sat down on the threshing field and listened to stories while relaxing, and it wasn’t a bad way to spend your time.
Mo Yan turned to look at her sister, who hastily shovelled food into her mouth while saying, “Yan’er, of course I’ll go with you.”
After eating dinner, Mo Ling didn’t even wash up and dragged Mo Yan to the threshing field as soon as she had finished eating, with little straw mats in her hand.
Mo Yan asked, “Do you think mum will yell at you in public for just leaving like that?”
Mo Ling smiled, “She can yell all she wants, it’s not like I care enough. Let’s go!”
The threshing field was at the south of the village, not far away from where the Mo family lived. By the time they arrived, there were already children finding good spots to listen to the storyteller’s tales.
The threshing fields were filled with straw mats and heaps of wheat. The two found a good spot and laid their straw mats on the ground.
It was the new moon, but the sky was clear and full of stars. It made anyone who could see it marvel at its beauty.
Edited August 20, 2023, to try and get the rest of the story up to the current standards. This includes using the current terms and polishing up the translation. Thanks for reading!
[1] This is an actual Chinese book from 1992, about a bandit called ‘Just messing with you’ who deceived a small child and stole clothes his mother had put out to launder. When the child found out, he told his mother, but she thought he was just messing with her (hence the name) and so the child was punished. I’ve never actually read it, but that’s a rough translation of the synopsis on the Baidu page.
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