1962
By late April, the days had already begun to lengthen, but the lingering spring chill in the north still refused to leave. Only the grass beside the road occasionally revealed a hint of fresh green.
In a small room on the second floor of the railway guesthouse, a little heated brick bed just large enough for two people had only just begun to warm up.
Tian Cuifen found it too warm to keep her coat on. She took it off and hung it on the coat rack beside the door, then picked up the bamboo-covered thermos beside the green skirting board and poured a cup of water for each of the siblings sitting opposite her.
“It’s been more than five years since we last saw each other, hasn’t it? When we left, Wanhui was only this tall.”
She held a hand against her chest to indicate his former height.
“I never expected him to grow so much in the blink of an eye. I barely recognised him at the station just now. Unfortunately, the kang at home collapsed, and we’ve been rebuilding it these past couple of days. There isn’t even room to set foot inside, so you’ll have to make do at the guesthouse.”
That was what she said aloud, but in her heart, she wished they would not stay at her house. Better yet, she wished they had never come at all.
During the land reform years, her husband, Old Li, had once worked behind a shop counter as a bookkeeper, making his class background rather sensitive. To avoid being implicated by his former employer, they had been forced to sacrifice their only son by arranging a childhood engagement between him and the daughter of Xia Laosan, the militia company commander.
Xia Laosan was capable and upright. More importantly, his family background was impeccably proletarian. Thanks to that, the Li family passed through that dangerous period with nothing more than a scare.
There was nothing to criticise about the Xia family’s daughter’s appearance either.
Xia Laosan’s wife had always been a renowned beauty in the village, and Xia Shao took after her mother. Even after spending an entire summer beneath the sun, her skin remained so fair and tender it seemed one could squeeze water from it. At the station just now, everyone else had been dressed in the same blue and green clothes with their hair in braids, yet Xia Shao was the one people noticed at first glance.
But no matter how beautiful she was, she was no longer good enough for their Baosheng.
The Northeast was vast and sparsely populated, and there had been a constant shortage of workers since the founding of the country. Old Li had connections, so in 1957, he brought the entire family to the Northeast. He was now an accountant at a vegetable and non-staple food shop, while Baosheng had been recruited as a worker at a machinery factory.
Meanwhile, the Xia family was still scraping a living from the soil in a rural village inside the Pass. When their son could marry a city girl, who would want a country lass?
Unfortunately, Xia Laosan had once helped their family. They could not be the ones to suggest breaking off the engagement, so all they could do was delay matters to avoid being accused of acting dishonourably.
That was why, when Xia Shao turned eighteen four years ago, they had not mentioned marriage at all. They had not even sent a single letter back inside the Pass.
They had assumed the Xia family would understand the situation, realise their daughter was no longer a suitable match, and find her another husband themselves. Who would have thought that, after seeing the Li family prosper, they would shamelessly cling to them and eagerly send their daughter all the way here?
When the letter from inside the Pass arrived three days ago, she and Old Li had been unable to sleep for half the night. Even now, she was still so angry that her liver ached.
Had she known this would happen, they should never have written back to tell the Xia family they had arrived safely after settling here.
Fortunately, Xia Laosan had died during the Three Years of Famine, while his wife was weak and incapable. The Xia family had only sent a half-grown boy to escort the bride, making the siblings extremely easy to fool. When Tian Cuifen said there was no room at home, they had believed her without question and followed her to the guesthouse.
Tian Cuifen deliberately sighed.
“Your Uncle Li received the letter, and we understand why you’ve come this time. It isn’t that we’ve deliberately been putting things off. The truth is that your Brother Baosheng joined the army. To qualify for enlistment, he even changed the age on his household registration to make himself three years younger. His unit has a rule that soldiers must be at least twenty-five before they can marry.”
Li Baosheng was two years older than Xia Shao and was twenty-four this year. Since his official age had been lowered by three years, they would have to wait at least another four years.
But Xia Shao had already waited for four years. If she waited any longer, she would be an old maid of twenty-six or twenty-seven.
Xia Wanhui immediately frowned. Seeing this, Tian Cuifen’s tone became even more apologetic.
“I know Xiaoshao isn’t young anymore. If this continues, people will start gossiping. But your Brother Baosheng insisted on going, and neither your Uncle Li nor I could stop him. If there really is no other choice, you should find another suitable match for Xiaoshao. We were the ones who failed to consider everything properly, so our family certainly won’t object.”
People in the countryside married young. Twenty-two was already considered rather old for an unmarried woman, much less twenty-six or twenty-seven.
Even if the Xia family could endure the gossip, Tian Cuifen would have other ways of dealing with the matter three or four years from now. Xia Shao could not possibly wait until she was thirty or forty.
Sure enough, this time Xia Wanhui did not merely frown. His entire expression changed.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner? Two years ago, my father wrote to ask about the marriage, but you never even replied—”
Xia Wanhui sprang to his feet and was about to continue when Xia Shao tugged his arm.
Xia Shao had barely spoken since they arrived. She had kept her eyes lowered the entire time, as though she were timid because she had come to a completely unfamiliar place. When Xia Wanhui looked at her, she shook her head.
He stared at her for a long moment before sitting back down in a huff.
Tian Cuifen had known that Xia Shao was exactly like her mother—timid and afraid of trouble.
Back then, her daughter Laidi had bullied the girl constantly, ordering her around and making her do one thing after another. Xia Shao had endured it every time without daring to utter a single word of protest.
In any case, all Tian Cuifen needed to do was send the siblings back where they came from. This made matters even easier. Pretending not to have heard Xia Wanhui’s complaint, she took a food bowl covered by a plate out of her cloth bag.
“These steamed buns were made this afternoon. You two should rest early. Tomorrow, I’ll buy your tickets and send you back inside the Pass.”
As soon as she left, Xia Wanhui leapt to his feet again and began pacing anxiously around the room.
As the saying went, a family lowered its head when seeking a wife for its son, but held it high when marrying off a daughter. Had the family not truly been left with no other choice, they would never have taken the initiative to send Xia Shao here.
Xia Laosan had been capable and hardworking his entire life. When others earned ten work points, he could earn twelve.
But no matter how capable he was, he could not withstand the Three Years of Famine, when each person received only twelve catties of grain per month. During the first two years, there had been nothing to eat. Sweet potato skins, elm bark, wheat bran, corncobs—everything had been ground up and mixed into the grain.
Xia Laosan had a large appetite. One day, he ate too much ground corncob in one sitting. He became so badly constipated that he could not relieve himself and died.
Once their father was gone, the eldest brother became the only fully grown, able-bodied labourer in the family. Life quickly became difficult for the younger siblings.
Xia Wanhui was still treated relatively well because Mother Xia secretly slipped him a little extra food. Xia Shao, however, was a girl. If she drank even one extra mouthful of gruel, her eldest brother would rap her with his chopsticks.
After going hungry for so long, she finally reached her limit. During the spring planting, she secretly ate some of the corn the production team had set aside as seed.
To prevent birds from digging through the soil and eating them, those seeds had all been soaked in pesticide.
By the time Xia Wanhui heard the commotion and ran over, Xia Shao was already unconscious, white foam spilling from her mouth. The production team’s barefoot doctor forced five or six bowls of mung bean water down her throat before he barely managed to save her. The corn kernels she vomited up were still completely whole.
Corn kernels were so hard. Who would swallow them whole unless they had been driven mad by hunger?
This time, Mother Xia had truly been frightened. She could not control her eldest son, so her only choice was to send her daughter away to the Northeast to marry.
Yet after travelling such a long distance, they discovered that Li Baosheng had joined the army. Where was Xia Wanhui supposed to find another husband for his sister at such short notice?
Besides, if she could not even wait a few years while her fiancé served in the army, it would sound terrible when people heard about it.
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