In the beautiful autumn of August, the scorching sun beat down from high above.
The endless fields were filled with golden rice. As a gentle breeze blew, the rice swayed, creating layers of rippling waves.
Amidst the rolling golden waves stood a young girl dressed in green, her hair tied up high on both sides. With her eyes closed and arms spread wide, she wore a contented expression, savoring the scent of the ripening rice.
"Dohwa! Dohwa!"
A clear, innocent voice, characteristic of a carefree boy, approached from the distance. The voice rode the breeze, spreading quickly across the golden waves.
The girl opened her eyes at the sound and tilted her head. She saw a boy on the ridge of the rice paddy, waving his hand and running swiftly toward her.
Upon seeing the boy, the girl's eyes crinkled into a bright, beaming smile. She waved back at him and shouted.
"Third Brother, I'm over here!"
An Mundo looked delighted the moment he spotted the girl, urging his long legs to run even faster.
The girl in green stood amidst the waves of golden rice, wearing a faint smile. Her eyebrows were lovely without being drawn, and her lips were red without any rouge. Her eyes shone like stars, and her skin was white and soft.
An Mundo had watched this sister of his for nine years, yet she looked pretty no matter how many times he looked at her. It was as if a Jade Maiden attending a celestial immortal had descended to the human world.
"Third Brother, what brings you here?"
As the boy arrived, the girl spoke with a lingering smile. Her two pure white, soft cheeks were slightly flushed from the sunlight. Seeing her like this made her seem even more innocent and adorable.
"Are you asking because you don't know? Why are you out here when the sun is this hot? Aren't you worried your skin will turn black?"
As soon as An Mundo arrived, he took off the straw hat he was wearing and carefully placed it on the girl's head.
"Look at this. Your face is all red from the sunlight. Grandmother will definitely scold you when we get home."
The girl stood obediently, letting the boy put the hat on her. Once the hat was on, she grabbed the boy's arm without reserve and spoke in a charming, wheedling voice.
"If Grandmother gets angry, you have to ask her to let me off, Brother."
"You little rascal!"
An Mundo poked the girl's forehead with his finger as he spoke, but his expression softened immediately, looking as though he couldn't help but adore his sister.
"Let's go. We need to hurry back. A letter has arrived from Eldest Uncle. Grandmother is waiting for you to read it."
"Pardon?"
The girl looked blank for a moment before asking again.
"Why would a letter come at a time like this?"
An Mundo shook his head and answered.
"It's almost time for the harvest, isn't it? He probably asked when we are coming to the County City where he serves as Magistrate."
The girl gave a slight shrug, reacting as if she had no interest in the matter. An Mundo laughed at her reaction.
"Why? Do you not want to see Eldest Uncle and Eldest Aunt?"
The Eldest Uncle An Mundo mentioned, who was the girl's father, had passed the civil service examination the year the girl was born. The following year, he was appointed as a 7th Rank County Magistrate. At that time, the girl was still young, and their Grandmother's health was not good, so the Eldest Uncle could not take the two of them with him. Thus, the girl and the Grandmother remained in their hometown, and eight years had passed since then.
An Mundo cast a pitying look at his sister, who, despite turning nine years old, had rarely seen her parents' faces.
"I do want to see them!"
The girl answered half-heartedly. She preferred the free country life over being confined in the inner quarters of a noble household. If possible, she wanted to live comfortably and freely in this countryside for the rest of her life.
At that moment, the two siblings entered the main road of the village. The number of people around them began to increase.
"Oh my, it's Dohwa and Mundo!" "Third Uncle!" "Master Wu!" "Sixth Aunt!" "Fifth Uncle!"
As the two siblings greeted people with cute and sociable manners, smiles began to spread across the faces of those around them.
"The sun is so strong, why are you out here?" "Why else? Dohwa must have gone out to inspect the rice paddies again."
At that, the people laughed heartily in good spirits. The girl laughed along with them and said:
"I couldn't help but look. It's the only thing our family has to harvest, after all."
"Dohwa, listen to this auntie. Your father is a Magistrate; a noble young lady like you doesn't need to suffer like us. You should go home and enjoy your blessings."
The girl answered with a laugh.
"Auntie, even a Magistrate needs to eat rice!"
"Hahaha! Look at our Dohwa. Knowing how to help the family despite being so young. No wonder the Old Madam adores you so much!" "She deserves to be adored! If I had a granddaughter like her, I would cherish her like gold and jade."
As the people joked happily, the girl kept a bright smile on her face. Holding her brother with one hand and brushing her other hand through the rice stalks by the paddy, she skipped along, heading toward the most imposing mansion in the village.
As the two siblings moved further away, a different set of voices emerged from the crowd.
"What's the point of being adored? She's just a girl after all!" "Lai Er, stop spouting nonsense. Did Dohwa do something to offend you?" "I just hate seeing everyone sucking up to that little girl! If that Magistrate father of hers cared about her even a little bit, he wouldn't have left her in the hometown for eight years!" "Don't blabber about things you don't understand. Dohwa is staying to show filial piety to the Old Madam in her parents' stead." "Hmph! That's just an excuse they say for others to hear! Do you really believe that? Besides, I heard that after Magistrate An took office, he took a woman from a scholarly family as a concubine. They say that concubine gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and the daughter is as pretty as a flower, so the Magistrate cherishes her dearly. Dohwa grew up in the countryside looking like a bumpkin; it would be strange if the Magistrate adored her..."
Since the voice of the rural man was exceptionally loud and the country village was wide open, An Mundo and Dohwa could hear snippets of the conversation even from quite a distance.
"Brother, what are you doing?"
Dohwa grabbed An Mundo, who was turning back to confront them. An Mundo had a sturdy physique; even though he was only thirteen, he was nearly as tall as an adult man. Dohwa almost failed to hold him back.
"They say ivory doesn't grow from a dog's mouth! I'm going to teach that Lai Er a lesson for spouting such low-class trash!"
Dohwa burst into laughter watching An Mundo huffing and puffing.
"Oh my, Brother, you're amazing. You're using difficult idioms now!"
An Mundo was famous for hating his studies. But when his sister teased him, his anger seemed to subside slightly.
Taking that opportunity, Dohwa pulled An Mundo back and continued speaking.
"There is no need to take what irrelevant people whisper behind our backs seriously."
An Mundo wanted to stroke Dohwa's head, but the straw hat blocked his hand from reaching her hair.
"Dohwa, don't listen to the nonsense those people say. You are the Legitimate Eldest Daughter of our An family. That younger sister the concubine bore will definitely be lesser than you. Even if... even if..."
Dohwa tilted her head, looking at An Mundo's face, which had turned red with agitation. She rolled her pretty, round eyes, then smiled brightly and asked back.
"Even if what?"
An Mundo gritted his teeth and answered.
"Even if Eldest Uncle truly cherishes that illegitimate daughter, you have nothing to fear! You have Grandmother, and you have us. We will make sure you are never looked down upon!"
The girl smiled brightly, revealing her dazzlingly white teeth. She rummaged through the rice stalks with her right hand, and upon seeing a rice flower on her palm that had turned a deeper shade of green, she smiled even more radiantly.
"That's right. I have Grandmother, so no matter how high Father's rank is, could he possibly go against Grandmother's words?"
There was not a trace of worry in the girl's tone.
"Dohwa, you naughty girl! Aren't you going to hustle over here to this old woman? Do you really want your skin to burn black like charcoal?"
At that moment, a booming voice rang out from the garden about forty feet away. Just hearing the voice was enough to tell how vigorous its owner was.
The girl shuddered, then with a troubled expression, ran toward the main gate with her short legs. As she ran, she shouted loudly.
"Grandmother! Your cute granddaughter Dohwa is coming!"
"Did you know you had to come back?"
As soon as Dohwa entered the gate, she felt a strong flick of a finger land on her forehead.
"Ouch! Third Brother, save me! Grandmother is bullying Dohwa!"
The girl's clear and ringing voice echoed through the mansion, and soon, a chaotic scene unfolded.
"You bad girl! Just because you haven't been spanked for a few days, you're running wild, aren't you? The sunlight is this strong, yet you don't worry about burning your skin and wander outside every day! Is there gold in the rice paddies? Or is there silver? What is so good out there that you keep going out?"
"There is gold! Grandmother, when you look at the golden waves of rice, doesn't it feel like gold?"
"What kind of gold is that, you nonsense talker! Other families' daughters stay indoors all day, so what is wrong with you? Will you only be satisfied once your skin is burnt black like charcoal?"
"Grandmother, that's unfair! I don't want to be burnt like charcoal. I only wander out because I know my skin doesn't burn easily! Didn't you pass down this good skin to me, Grandmother?"
"Don't give me that nonsense. What use is good skin if you try to ruin it like that?"
Dohwa, dressed in green, darted around the garden nimbly like a fleeing rabbit. And behind her, the Old Madam, with her hair tied up without a single strand out of place, exerted herself to chase swiftly after the girl.
"An Dohwa! Won't you stand right there?"
"No! You stop first, Grandmother!"
"I will definitely catch you today!"
"...Grandmother, I was wrong. I won't go out in the middle of the day from now on."
"You say 'from now on' again? There is no 'from now on' for you!"
"No!"
As the Old Madam and the young girl chased each other without even flushing or losing their breath, the people gathered under the eaves looked on with admiration.
"Mother! Your health seems to be getting better these days!"
An Chigang, the third son of the An family, joked with the two of them while laughing. His wife, Madam Wu, also pursed her lips and chimed in.
"That is true. As long as Dohwa is here, Mother has no time to be idle. People need to move to have energy and stay sharp, after all."
An Mundo looked at his parents, who were only making things bigger, with a look of disbelief.
"Father, Mother. Please stop them. The sunlight is so strong; what if the two of them get heatstroke?"
Hearing this, An Chigang quickly wiped the smile from his face and rushed into the garden. He grabbed Dohwa, whose face was flushed, and spoke to the Old Madam.
"Mother, I have caught Dohwa for you! Now, please go inside and scold her."
Dohwa looked at her Third Uncle's bulging muscles, which could not be hidden by his clothes, and tactfully did not struggle. She simply looked with a pitiful expression at the Old Madam, who was rushing over, panting slightly.
"She is only a child, why are you using so much strength? If you hold her like that, do you think Dohwa can handle it?"
Seeing her eldest granddaughter being held by her third son, the Old Madam immediately became displeased. She glared at An Chigang and quickly took the girl from him.
An Chigang rubbed his nose awkwardly with a troubled expression. He knew this would be the result. Within the entire household, wasn't the child the Old Madam cherished most Dohwa? It was fine for her to scold Dohwa, but if anyone else touched her, the scolding would stop immediately.
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