Giving Tickets
Su Su cautiously glanced back at Lin Chuan, seeing his cold and stern expression as he said, “Comrade Su Su, please correct your attitude.”
“What did I do?” Su Su was startled. Since she had known Lin Chuan, he had never been this angry.
“A young girl like you shouldn’t keep talking about these things. You need to maintain proper conduct,” Lin Chuan said with a frown, simply wanting the young girl in front of him to stop talking about these matters. It was the women who would suffer from such loose talk.
“How am I not being proper? Asking if you have feelings for each other before getting married—what’s wrong with that? If you don’t have feelings, are you just going to get married blindly? You have many years ahead of you, how will you live like that?” Su Su glared at him, feeling wronged as she expressed her viewpoint.
Lin Chuan opened his mouth, then finally said, “That’s how it’s always been.”
“Hey, you…” What kind of answer was that? How unambitious.
But seeing him turn and walk away, she could only follow silently.
The village had no streetlights, and the dirt roads were hard to navigate. Used to walking on paved roads, Su Su didn’t pay attention and tripped on a dirt mound.
She yelped and lunged forward, instinctively grabbing onto something to keep her balance.
Her hands ended up around Lin Chuan’s waist, and her face brushed against the area just above his rear.
It was incredibly awkward.
She felt him stiffen, then a large hand lifted her up.
“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“Watch your step.”
Su Su could only walk carefully after that. Afraid of falling again, she quietly asked, “Lin Chuan, can I hold onto your clothes? I’m afraid of tripping.”
Lin Chuan didn’t respond.
Thinking he wouldn’t agree, Su Su inwardly cursed him as a straight-laced guy, destined to be dumped. Suddenly, a small stick was thrust into her hand.
“Hold onto this.”
She was speechless.
Silently holding the small stick, Su Su returned to the Lin household and, feeling aggrieved, complained to Mother Lin, “Auntie, I think I got a splinter in my hand. It hurts.”
“How did you get a splinter? Let me see,” Mother Lin took Su Su’s small hand and, seeing the black splinter, brought the oil lamp closer to remove it.
“It was Comrade Lin Chuan. I couldn’t see the way and asked to hold onto his clothes, but he gave me a stick he picked up from the roadside,” Su Su explained, hoping Auntie would take her side.
However, the strictness of the times was beyond her expectations. Mother Lin smiled and said, “Lin Chuan joined the army in his teens. The military is very strict about conduct, so he wouldn’t let you get close. If rumours spread, it could ruin your reputation.”
“In the dark, who could see?” Su Su retorted, thinking it was improbable.
“It’s always better to be cautious. I’ll tell him next time to make sure the stick doesn’t have splinters,” Mother Lin said, making Su Su laugh despite her frustration.
Meanwhile, Lin Chuan felt a headache coming on. The young girl actually came back to complain, even though he was only looking out for her. Her tone had been so aggrieved. Fine, next time he would check for splinters first. Who knew her hands were so delicate?
Thinking about the moment she had hugged his waist, his heart inexplicably fluttered. Silently, he took off his clothes and lay down. Although he was about to get married, thoughts of his fiancée brought no warmth, while the memory of the young girl’s touch was unsettling.
Indeed, he needed to stay mindful of proper conduct.
He realised he was getting distracted. Even though he had been meeting and communicating with his fiancée for nearly a year, he had never felt this kind of excitement.
What was happening to him?
No, he couldn’t let his thoughts wander before the wedding.
Feeling wronged, Su Su returned to her room that night, still thinking about how to save Lin Chuan. His behaviour indicated he might follow through with the marriage out of a sense of duty rather than love. He seemed determined to fulfil his promise, regardless of his feelings. The times were different from those decades later when such behaviour would be considered foolish.
Sitting on the kang, she stroked her chin, recalling the story’s plot.
This part was actually a flashback from the heroine’s perspective. She always complained that Lin Chuan didn’t know how to take care of a woman. Before their wedding, he made her clean the house and didn’t help with chores. He only gave a hundred yuan as a bride price and expected her to marry him with that, providing nothing else—not even a new quilt.
What the heroine didn’t know was that Mother Lin was discussing with Lin’s father late into the night about selling a couple of their chickens and borrowing money, yet still struggling to gather a hundred yuan. Then there was the issue of fabric coupons. Although Lin Chuan brought some home each year, it was enough for clothes but not for making a quilt, which required more money to exchange for coupons.
Every family worried about getting a bride, but the Lin family, having just paid off their debts, had an empty household. This wedding would require borrowing more money, adding to their burdens.
“Sigh, after this boy gets married, our second son will be next. We can’t give less for him than we did this time, so we’ll have to scrape together even more,” Mother Lin said.
“We’ll manage somehow. Children are a lifelong debt.”
“I wish we had a daughter. Unfortunately, the girl we raised married and never comes back.”
“She lives far away. Alright, I’ll go to town tomorrow to see if I can trade some grain for fabric coupons.”
“We barely have enough grain to eat as it is. With the eldest’s family to support, how will we manage?”
“We’ll have to manage. We’ll eat a little less each meal and tighten our belts.”
Su Su couldn’t listen any longer. They were willing to tighten their belts for fabric coupons while she had been eating their food for two days. This family was indeed kind and treated her well. She decided to help them. Under the dim light, she found her wallet and took out two fabric coupons. Money could be borrowed, but in these times, coupons were more valuable.
“Auntie, Uncle, may I come in? I have something to discuss.”
“Come in, dear. What are you doing out here so late? It’s freezing,” Mother Lin said as she saw Su Su in her fluffy pyjamas, shivering in the cold.
“Get into the bed,” Mother Lin said, lifting the quilt. Su Su didn’t hesitate and climbed onto the kang, into the warm bed. In rural Northeast China, politeness could be a disadvantage in winter. She didn’t dislike Mother Lin, so she felt comfortable.
“Auntie, I overheard that you need coupons. I happen to have some, so I brought them for you,” Su Su said, placing two fabric coupons on Mother Lin’s pillow and tucking the quilt around her legs.
Mother Lin looked anxious, “This isn’t right. These are your things, we can’t…”
“Auntie, you need them urgently now. I have enough clothes, and I don’t need the coupons right away. Let’s just leave it at that. It’s too cold, I’m heading back to my room,” Su Su said as she swung her legs off the bed. Just as she opened the door, she ran straight into a solid wall.
Leave a Reply