After breakfast, her parents and older brother went back to work in the fields—the corn harvest wasn't finished yet.
Juhua, meanwhile, picked up a large basket. Inside were the clothes her mother had scrubbed that morning, and she was going to wash them by the Little Qing River.
The Little Qing River flowed not far from her house, with a narrow, winding dirt path leading to its bank. The grassy areas on both sides of the path were covered in clusters of small, golden wild chrysanthemums. They bloomed with wild abandon, vibrant and bold. They lacked the grace and elegance of cultivated flowers but possessed a rustic charm and vigorous life all their own!
'After I finish the laundry,' she thought, 'I'll pick some wild chrysanthemums to take home. I can dry them and make tea. It's great for clearing heat and detoxifying the body!'
When she reached the riverbank, she dumped the clothes onto the grass, rinsed the basket in the water, and set it on a clean spot behind her. Only then did she squat before a large, flat stone and begin to wash the clothes, one by one.
The clear river water flowed slowly. Juhua held a dirty garment and swished it back and forth in the current, letting the filthy water be carried away. Then she placed it on the stone slab, beat it a few times with a wooden mallet, scrubbed it, and swished it in the water again. Just like that, it was fresh and clean.
As she placed the clean clothes into the basket behind her, Juhua gazed at the crystal-clear Little Qing River. She felt as if her very soul was being cleansed, and the knot of gloom that had long been stuck in her chest loosened considerably.
'This kind of life might not be so hard to bear after all!'
'Being ugly doesn't matter. Not being able to get married doesn't matter. But not having enough to eat or warm clothes to wear... that's a different story.'
'I don't have the ability to make a fortune,' she thought, 'and I don't want to waste the energy trying. Isn't that the kind of life I escaped from in my past life? It's better to just quietly raise some pigs, chickens, and ducks to make the family's life a bit more prosperous.'
'The goal may be small, but it won't be easy to achieve. I still have to work hard!'
Meticulously considering her new goal, Juhua quickly finished the laundry. She then picked up her basket and, bathed in the golden autumn sunlight, walked through the field dotted with countless golden wild chrysanthemums. A sudden feeling of lightness and contentment washed over her.
When she got home, she hung the clothes to dry in the small courtyard. Two thick wooden posts had been planted in the front of the yard, one on the left and one on the right, with a thick hemp rope strung between them. It was a very convenient clothesline.
Seeing it was still early after she finished, she grabbed a large wicker basket, took an extra cloth bag as well, and headed to the shore of Jing Lake to pick wild chrysanthemums.
The autumn sky was clear and blue, high and streaked with wispy clouds. Although the last vestiges of an Indian summer lingered, Juhua didn't feel the slightest bit of oppressive heat. Instead, she felt invigorated by the crisp autumn air.
Jing Lake was surrounded by a large expanse of grassland, with farmlands lying beyond it. She bustled about the grassland picking wild chrysanthemums, weaving back and forth, feeling like a butterfly flitting among the flowers.
Her hands flew nimbly, pinching off one fresh, bright wild chrysanthemum after another at the base of the calyx. The fully bloomed flowers went into the bamboo basket—she planned to dry them for pillow stuffing. The small, unopened buds went into the cloth bag—these were for making chrysanthemum tea.
The small, golden-yellow wild chrysanthemums bloomed with such a lively clamor that they made anyone who saw them feel a surge of joy. It was strange. The flowers were clearly just swaying quietly in the wind, but to her, they seemed to be smiling, carefree and uninhibited, brazenly flaunting their brilliant golden hue.
Overcome by the moment, she almost happily tucked a blooming wild chrysanthemum into her hair, but then she remembered her face, and her raised arm fell back to her side.
'How pathetic,' she thought, pursing her lips. 'Looks like I do care about this after all.'
'Then again, what woman doesn't care about her appearance? Even one who's decided to become a nun would surely want to be a beautiful nun! Saying I don't care is just a way to comfort and encourage myself. Otherwise, who am I supposed to look so miserable for all day?'
Suddenly, the sound of children's laughter drifted over from the distance.
She looked up and saw a group of children bursting out from the village to the east and running toward the shore of Jing Lake. Their shouts and laughter filled the open fields, and the joyful atmosphere was so infectious that she began to hum a happy tune as she lowered her head to continue her work.
However, her happiness didn't last long.
The group of children spotted her from a distance and began to shout in unison: "Scabby girl, no one will wed! She'll jump in Jing Lake 'cause she's so mad! Scabby girl, no one will wed! She'll jump in Jing Lake 'cause she's so mad!" The voices were neat and rhyming. In the crisp autumn air, the clear sound of their chanting was exceptionally loud and melodious. 'How on earth did they even come up with that?'
Juhua straightened up, her mouth hanging open as she stared at the distant group of children. She watched, dumbfounded, as they sang and skipped toward her, at a loss for how to react.
'I've actually been "honored" with my own nursery rhyme,' she thought. 'This is... I'm moved to tears!'
'Children are innocent and guileless, but their naive words often cut straight to the truth, which makes them the most hurtful of all.'
'Juhua remembered a time in her previous life when she was holding and playing with her friend's sweet two-year-old daughter. The little girl, who had been pressing her cheek against Juhua's, suddenly looked up, her big, dark eyes wide, and said, "Auntie, you have little black dots on your face! One, two..."'
'Watching that chubby little hand move across her face, she had felt a jolt of panic. She'd quickly pulled the girl's hand down to stop her from counting, but the little girl had just stared at her with wide, innocent eyes. Her friend, meanwhile, was bent over laughing, gasping for breath as she insisted she had absolutely never taught her child to say that.'
Now, she just stood there motionless, staring blankly as the children ran and skipped in circles, all while chanting the "Scabby Girl" song. Their faces were excited, their smiles radiant, as if they were thrilled that their sheer numbers had intimidated the monstrously ugly girl.
'If you ignored the lyrics of their song,' she thought wryly, 'the scene of village children at play would actually be quite delightful!'
Just as she stood there, at a complete loss, a loud shout erupted from behind her. "Shi Tou, what are you doing?" The angry voice made her jump.
She turned and saw it was Doctor Qin, the man who had saved her right after she'd arrived in this world. He was a traveling physician temporarily staying in Qingnan Village.
Qin Feng wore a silver-gray cotton robe, his hair pulled up into a topknot and secured with a wooden hairpin. He looked to be in his early twenties, with a handsome face and sharp eyes.
He was glaring furiously at the group of naughty children.
He must have carried some authority in the village. The leader of the pack, a sturdy-looking boy of about five or six, saw his furious expression, stuck out his tongue, then turned and bolted. Seeing their leader flee, the other children scattered in his wake.
Qin Feng turned and looked at Juhua with concern. Seeing that she had already regained her calm silence, he offered a gentle smile. "Kids are just naughty, they don't mean any real harm. Don't pay them any mind."
After a pause, he added, "I'll keep an eye out for certain herbs and ask around among my peers. If I find a way to treat the scars on your face, I promise I'll come and help you."
Juhua saw how hard he was trying to comfort her and thought, 'This man truly has a healer's heart.' However, she didn't say much. 'Interact with people as little as possible,' that was the rule she had set for herself, especially since this body now housed a different soul. But it seemed wrong not to say anything at all.
So, she pressed her lips together and replied softly, "I'm fine. Thank you." Then she picked up her basket and turned to leave.
Qin Feng watched Juhua's retreating figure, feeling that something about her was different, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
'After a moment's thought, he realized what it was. She was much calmer.'
'The old Juhua would lower her head whenever she saw anyone, timid and insecure. But the Juhua just now showed none of that fear. She seemed perfectly calm and detached—even when those children were chanting that awful rhyme, she had only seemed startled.'
Watching her figure in the distance, still bent over picking wild chrysanthemums, he fell into thought. After a good while, he finally started walking toward the shore of Jing Lake.
He dug up a few common medicinal herbs by the lake and prepared to head up Little Qing Mountain. Before he could turn, he heard the children, who had moved to the edge of Jing Lake to play, erupt into a commotion filled with shouts and screams.
He hurried over and saw Gou Dan shouting in a panic, "Shi Tou fell in the water! Shi Tou fell in the water!"
The other children were backing away in fear. Ripples still spread in concentric circles across the surface of Jing Lake.
Qin Feng's heart lurched. He quickly grabbed Gou Dan and asked, "Where did he fall in?"
Gou Dan pointed with a trembling hand. "R-Right... there!"
Before the words were even out of his mouth, Qin Feng had jumped in, not even having time to take off his clothes.
After what felt like a long time, he broke the surface to take a deep breath before plunging back down again.
Seeing him come up empty-handed on the first try, some of the children started crying and ran back toward the village for help. Hearing the uproar, people working in the nearby fields dropped their tools and came running. Some were parents of the children playing there, and worried for their own, they naturally had to come see what was happening.
Juhua, despite the humiliating episode with the children, didn't dwell on it and continued picking her wild chrysanthemums.
'Hmph! I'm a woman who has traveled through time and space; I've seen the world. Why would I lower myself to arguing with a bunch of little brats!'
Looking at her now-full basket, she stretched and prepared to head home to make lunch.
But a clamor arose from the direction of Jing Lake, mingled with a woman's hysterical sobs. She turned to look and saw a large crowd had already gathered. On the village path in the distance, more people were sprinting toward them, clutching their straw hats as they ran.
'Did someone fall in the water again?' Juhua wondered. 'From the looks of things, they must have.'
'This Jing Lake is really bad luck,' she thought. 'In just a few days, two people have fallen in. The original owner of this body also fell in by accident—she didn't jump. By the time she was pulled out, she wasn't breathing, which was right when I arrived.'
Watching the crowd by the lake grow, she frowned. She didn't want to get involved, but for some reason, as if compelled by an unseen force, she started running toward the commotion.
'I'll just go take a look,' she thought as she ran.
That sorrowful wail gave her an ominous feeling. It was just like her mother's cries on the day she had first arrived in this world—a desperate, shrill sound that filled anyone who heard it with a dreadful anxiety, making the hair on their arms stand on end.
Who on earth had fallen in the water?