The Fortunate Lady and Her Mountain Man

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Fluffing Cotton

"Mother, I bet you didn’t know that little bitch was such a good cook, did you? Those pork cracklings she rendered, and the noodles she made... I’ve never seen anything like it. I could tell how delicious it was just by the smell, even through the wall..." Mrs. Zhu gestured wildly as she spoke, not noticing the drool dripping onto her sleeve.

Aunt Kang shot her a disgusted look, and only then did Mrs. Zhu hastily wipe her sleeve with her hand.

"Mother, you tell me, where did that damned girl get the money for meat? Don’t tell me someone’s secretly funding her, are they?"

As Mrs. Zhu said this, her eyes kept darting toward the members of the first branch of the family.

Ji Liansong and Yang hung their heads even lower, while Ji Mingfang stared at her, his face a blank mask.

But Aunt Kang wasn’t swayed by Mrs. Zhu’s insinuation.

’It wasn’t that she trusted the first branch all that much; she just knew they didn’t have the nerve. Besides, she had squeezed them completely dry. They would have a hard time buying a single chicken feather, let alone meat.’

"Then it can’t be Widow Xie, can it? Her family is dirt poor. They probably haven’t had a whiff of meat in years. How’d she suddenly get rich enough to eat not only meat, but white flour too?" And here their own Ji Family was, still eating noodles made from coarse grains!

Mrs. Zhu concluded maliciously, "Widow Xie must have been sleeping with a bunch of men again!"

"Watch that foul mouth of yours! Can’t you see the children are here?" Although the interruption had dampened Aunt Kang’s anger, she still snapped at Mrs. Zhu.

Still, what Mrs. Zhu said perfectly matched her own suspicions.

’She knew exactly what that little jinx was capable of—which was nothing. Earn enough to eat meat on her own? Not in this lifetime! And that stinking whore, Widow Xie... absolutely shameless. Spreading her legs in exchange for meat. It’s a wonder they can even stomach it!’

Mrs. Zhu pursed her lips. "I was just worried about that bit... Wuan. She’s been living at Widow Xie’s for a while now. I’m afraid she’ll end up selling her body in the future too! Wouldn’t that bring shame on our family?"

"She hasn’t been a member of the Ji Family for a long time. She has absolutely nothing to do with us, so there’s no need for you to worry your pretty little head about it," Aunt Kang said, her face grim as she picked up her bowl. "Can’t even eating shut that mouth of yours?"

That was the signal to begin the meal, so everyone else picked up their bowls.

Aunt Kang didn’t want to disgust herself further by bringing up that jinx, but Mrs. Zhu hadn’t accomplished her goal yet. Why would she give up now?

With a furtive glance, she gave Ji Mingmao a little pinch.

Ji Mingmao burst into tears with a loud "WAAH!" He rubbed his eyes with his chubby hands, wailing, "I want meat too! I want to eat meat! Even that jinx gets to eat meat, and Fourth Uncle gets meat when he visits! Why don’t I get any? Waaaah... Grandpa, Grandma, you’re playing favorites..."

The mother and son’s coordination was almost too perfect. It was clear Mrs. Zhu had coached him.

Ji Qingshan had remained silent ever since Ms. Kang had started her tirade. He had long since disapproved of his third daughter-in-law’s uncouth ways and thought it might be good to let Ms. Kang use this opportunity to teach her a lesson.

However, when Mrs. Zhu made it an issue of all being "children and grandchildren of the Ji Family," his eyelid twitched. ’Isn’t this an indirect accusation that Ms. Kang and I only dote on our fourth son?’

And just as he’d feared, his little grandson Ji Mingmao had shouted it right out loud.

What’s more, no one in the hall had tried to silence him.

Ji Qingshan’s worst fears had come to pass.

’The other branches of the family were already growing resentful over supporting the fourth son. If he didn’t fix this quickly, that resentment would fester into outright hatred. And once that happened, wouldn’t this family be torn to pieces?’

Ji Qingshan cleared his throat and called Ji Mingmao over, patting his head. "Who said Grandpa doesn’t dote on you? My dear grandson wants to eat meat, so I’ll have your father go to town tomorrow and get a nice, big piece!"

"YAY! YAY! YAY! We’re getting meat! We’re getting meat!" Ji Mingmao immediately began to clap his hands and cheer.

Aunt Kang reacted as if pricked by a needle, her voice turning shrill. "Husband! Where do we have the money for meat?! Have you forgotten about our fourth son...?"

"What about the fourth son!" Ji Qingshan shot her a subtle glare. "Are we supposed to stop eating meat just because of him? I said to buy some, so we’ll buy some. Enough of this nonsense. Watch out, or the children will start saying you play favorites."

Only then did Aunt Kang realize she had almost run her mouth and blurted out the business with the thirty taels.

’Her husband was just afraid of provoking the collective anger of the other family branches. If that happened, they might refuse to work to pay for the fourth son’s education.’

It was a concern she shared.

"Eat, eat, eat! Why don’t you just gnaw on this old bag of bones and be done with it!" She shot to her feet in a huff and stormed into the east room, the door curtain slamming shut behind her.

Mrs. Zhu couldn’t care less if the old woman was storming off. As long as she got her meat, everything was fine!

She picked up her chopsticks and began rummaging through the serving bowl again, not forgetting to call out to the others. "Hurry and eat, Father, the food’s getting cold! Eldest Brother, Sister-in-law, why aren’t you eating...?"

Ji Huan had no idea that her simple meal of meat had provoked all sorts of wild speculation from Aunt Kang and Mrs. Zhu, or that it had kicked up a small storm within the Ji Family.

Right now, she was engrossed in watching a craftsman fluff cotton.

The craftsman was a man named Master Liu from a neighboring village, practicing a trade that had been in his family for generations.

He didn’t rely on it entirely for his livelihood, however. In the spring and summer, after the busy farming season, he would take on other odd jobs. It was only when autumn and winter set in that he began traveling from village to village, going door-to-door to make quilts. The colder the weather grew, the more his business boomed.

Fluffing cotton inevitably sent fibers flying everywhere, so the work was set up in the courtyard. A large, old sheet was spread on the ground, and on top of it sat a wide work board where the clumps of raw cotton were placed.

The first step of the process was called "fluffing." Several children, including Ji Huan, gathered around to watch with curiosity.

’To be honest, she had never seen such an ancient trade before.’

Afraid of getting hard-to-wash fibers in her hair, she had wrapped a cloth tightly around her head, leaving only her eyes exposed. The look was utterly comical. Hu Dacheng and Hu Ximei had been giggling nonstop at the sight. Xiao’an and Hua, their little tag-alongs, laughed along with them without understanding why. Ji Huan rolled her eyes and pretended she was going to rap them on the head, which finally made them quiet down.

Master Liu had a curved bamboo pole sticking up from his back, with a large bow tied to its tip and suspended in front of him. He held the bow with one hand, pressing the bowstring—made of sinew—against a clump of cotton. With his other hand, he wielded a wooden mallet, striking the string with a frequent, even beat. The vibrations caused the string to whip against the cotton, shaking the tangled clumps loose. Fibers billowed up and danced in the air like little drifting clouds.

The courtyard filled with the sound of the mallet’s strikes—BANG, BANG, BANG. The rhythm was bright and complex, almost like being at a grand performance of folk music.

Before long, the clumps of raw cotton had been transformed into soft, fluffy batting. It was time to lay out the yarn for the netting.

First, a quilt frame was set on the ground. Its border was made of short, upright bamboo strips, packed as densely as a miniature bamboo fence. Red and white cotton threads were wound around these strips, crisscrossing to form a net. Then, the fluffed batting was laid out in layers over the netted frame until it formed a quilt-sized sheet of uniform thickness.

The next step was "pressing." This involved using a pressing disc, which looked like the lid of a large farmer’s wok. It was placed on the fluffy batting and pressed down—either by hand or by a person standing on it—and rotated back and forth repeatedly. This motion tangled the cotton fibers with the yarn netting, compressing the batting and making it solid.

Of all the steps so far, this one looked the easiest. The children were all eager to try, but it turned out they couldn’t even lift the heavy pressing disc. All they could do was stare at the batting and sigh.

After one side was finished, the entire sheet of batting was flipped over so the other side could be fluffed, repeating the whole process.

Next, another net was created with cotton yarn, woven in a crisscross pattern over the top of the batting to keep the fibers from poking through.

After that came the "edge-locking," which involved carefully stitching the borders of the batting with cotton yarn to prevent the filling from shifting around.

For a wedding quilt, there was often an extra step before locking the edges: using colorful wool yarn to embroider all sorts of patterns onto the top netting.

Master Liu asked Ji Huan if she wanted a large "double happiness" character stitched on it. Ji Huan frantically waved her hands in refusal, and her mortified expression sent Widow Xie and the others into fits of laughter.

Peals of laughter echoed through the courtyard. Outside the gate, Mrs. Zhu stood on her tiptoes, watching for a moment longer, before quietly slipping back to the Ji residence.

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