Chapter 80
In October 1977, the wind blew locust leaves through the poplar trees in the B City Military District compound. Xiaonuo rushed home clutching a copy of the People's Daily, still scented with ink. The bold headline on the front page blazed like fire—"Major Reforms in College Admissions"—brightened her red, frozen cheeks. "Brother! The newspaper! It's officially published!"
A rattan chair in the living room was jostled. Xiao Yuji was ticking a yellowed copy of the "Mathematics Handbook" with a red pencil when the lead snapped on the word "Analytical Geometry." He looked up as morning light filtered through the window lattice, falling on his sister's bouncing pigtails. The twenty-something girl was still as impetuous as she had been when she stole pomegranates from the military compound. The strap of her army green schoolbag slung across her shoulder, revealing a half-open copy of "Nine Hundred English Sentences" from within.
"Run slower," he pulled out a bookmark and tucked it into the book, his fingertips rubbing against the little sun he had carved on the title page. "We've been studying for several months longer than everyone else. If we don't pass the exam, I'm afraid that set of 'The Art of War' in Dad's study will fall on our heads."
Xiaonuo slammed the newspaper onto the mahogany table. The enrollment details printed next to the headline still lingered from the heat of the printing factory. She suddenly reached for the telephone on the wall, the cord yanked straight out. "No, that's too much trouble to call them. Better send a telegram to Dong Wenbo! It's too late to write a letter—he's still serving in the army in XXX, and it would take the postman three days on horseback!"
"I've already sent the messenger." Xiao Yuji pulled a sheet of light blue telegram paper from a drawer. The words "Prepare for the College Entrance Examination Quickly, Take Care" were written across the paper. "Dad went to a meeting at the General Staff yesterday and asked someone from the Zhangjiakou Military Sub-district to take a letter there."
The three of them grew up playing glass marbles under a locust tree in the military district compound of Province D. After graduating from high school, to avoid being sent to the countryside, they hitched a train to a military camp in Hebei and served for three years. Last year, Xiao Li was transferred back to City B as the military district commander. The two of them simply submitted their resignations and followed him back to City B. Dong Wenbo hadn't been discharged yet, and he wrote a letter a while ago saying he'd been transferred to XX.
After coming to City B, the two of them stayed at home every day reading old textbooks. The rumor had spread in the compound that the two children of Commander Xiao were dependent on their parents. They didn't go to the factories that were introduced, and they didn't show up for the blind dates that were arranged. They stayed in the house all day long, doing nothing.
No one knew there was a camphorwood box hidden under Xiao Yuji's bed. After the movement, the Qin family was rehabilitated, and a large amount of gold bars and silver dollars were returned. Land deeds in H City and B City were also issued, and at the bottom of the box was a 1948 H City stock certificate. He also bought a lot of foreign books and kept them in his room. Lately, Xiao Nuo has been constantly sneaking into his room, either asking for a copy of "Das Kapital" as a pillow or grabbing a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" to prop up the table legs, euphemistically calling it "getting used to university life early."
"The day Dad was promoted to Lieutenant General, he came back and said, 'We're just waiting for us to earn a college diploma for the Xiao family.'" Xiao Nuo bit the end of his pencil while flipping through the history textbook. Suddenly, he pointed at the page about the May Fourth Movement and laughed, "Do you think Dong Wenbo, with his history grades, can distinguish between the Westernization Movement and the Hundred Days' Reform?"
Xiao Yuji couldn't help laughing. "He's been studying for a long time. If he fails the exam, Uncle Dong will chase him for two miles with a broom."
The exams were fast approaching, and Wang Xuemei personally cooked for her two children early in the morning. She emerged wearing a blue cloth apron, her hair pinned up with a hairpin. Though her fifty-year-old eyes had fine lines, her smile still shone brightly. "Brown sugar eggs," she said, pushing the enamel bowl toward the two. "Your father went to the western suburbs shooting range this morning and hasn't been back yet. I asked Xiao Li to keep the car and take you there. I have a difficult case consultation this morning, so I won't be accompanying you."
She is now the vice president of the Military Hospital in City B. The sharp edge she brought to the hospital as the president of the Military Hospital in Province D is still hidden under her white coat. Xiaonuo always remembers what her mother once said: "A scalpel, like a pen, can heal the nation."
"Don't worry, Mom," Xiaonuo scooped up a poached egg, the yolk burning in her mouth. "I'm definitely going to get into a foreign language university! I'll be a diplomat and fight for our country at the United Nations without losing!" She turned and raised her chin to her brother. "What about you? Study economics and become a capitalist? When I'm stationed abroad, you give me money and I'll send you chocolates."
Xiao Yuji was stirring the frosting in a bowl with a spoon when he heard this. He looked up and smiled, dimples forming. The sunlight filtered through the strands of hair behind his ears, casting tiny specks of light on the cover of Political Economy. "Okay, I'll send you a whole shipload of Maltesers when the time comes."
"You only know how to bully your brother." Wang Xuemei reached out and poked her daughter's forehead, the tip of her finger carrying the refreshing scent of disinfectant. Xiaonuo covered her forehead and hid behind her brother. The chair scraped against the floor, startling the sparrow on the windowsill that always pecked at the inkstone.
When the reveille sounded at 7:00 a.m., Xiao Yuji had already stuffed their admission tickets into a leather briefcase. Xiao Nuo shouldered her army green schoolbag and, as if remembering something, turned back. In the family photo hanging on the wall, she was ten years old, riding on Xiao Li's shoulders, holding a red five-pointed star. And now, that star seemed to jump into her eyes.
After her final politics exam, Xiaonuo snapped the cap of her pen into place as the setting sun stained the exam room's glass windows a honey-colored hue. She rushed out of the teaching building, treading on the scattered paper scraps. She ran into Xiao Yuji, leaning against an old locust tree, flipping through his English textbook. The wind lifted the hem of his army-green shirt, revealing a washed-out vest beneath.
"Brother! We're free!" She threw her canvas schoolbag into the air, and the books scattered all over the ground. The "Historical Chronology" floated under the bicycle wheels and was crushed into a shallow rut.
The days of waiting for the results stretched silently like moss growing at the base of the courtyard wall. Xiaonuo had returned to being a street urchin, dragging Xiaoyuji through the alleys before dawn every day. She counted wild ducks on the icy surface of the moat, snatched the last string of candied haws from the stalls at Longfu Temple, and even snuck into the backyard of the Central Art Museum to copy the English letters from the slogans on the wall.
"You don't look like a native B City girl," Xiao Yuji said, holding the sugar-roasted chestnuts his sister had just bought, his palms damp from the heat. "You're even more outgoing than the Eight Banners kids in the alleys."
"What kind of girl am I from B City? I haven't even lived here since I was a child." Xiao Nuo peeled a chestnut and stuffed it into his mouth. The sugar shell stuck to the corners of his mouth like a layer of gold powder. "Hey, last year I traveled around Beijing with Aunt Zhang, a military family member. Her family belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner. She said there are stories hidden in the cracks in the bricks of this Drum Tower."
In reality, she was harboring something on her mind. The "English Composition Models" in the drawer were dog-eared, and at the end of each essay, Xiao Yuji circled the wrong words in red. At night, she could always hear her brother pacing in the study, the moonlight casting his shadow on the wall like a poplar tree swaying in the wind, and she, too, began to harbor belated, teenage thoughts.
That evening, the two of them squatted outside the grocery store, watching the chef stuff sausages. Xiaonuo suddenly tugged at her brother's sleeve. The aroma of marinated meat mingled with the north wind, and her nose turned red from the cold. "Let's go to Grandpa's house? The coal stove at home is always out anyway."
Xiao Yuji looked up toward the military compound. A few lights were lit in the windows of the family housing complex. Dad Xiao Li was currently conducting exercises in the western suburbs and was said to have slept in a tank for two weeks. Mom Wang Xuemei had just accepted an offer from Peking Medical University, where professors held seminars from morning till night. Their home was always empty, save for the eye-protection lamp in the study, which burned every night until dawn.
"Grandpa sent someone to bring some frozen pears yesterday," he said, tying his sister's scarf tighter, revealing his sparkling eyes. "He said there's a whole jar of them, just waiting for us to eat them."
The bus ride from the military compound to the old alleys took only half an hour. My grandfather's courtyard house was tucked away deep inside Huguosi Street, its stone lions adorning the gate pillars polished to a shine. I pushed open the stained vermilion lacquer door and found my grandfather chopping wood in the yard. The crackling sound of the axe against the jujube wood slabs startled the pigeons under the eaves into flight.
"Finally, you little bastards are here!" The old man threw down his axe, his blue cotton-padded jacket stained with sawdust. "Your grandma has some steamed bean curd, warming it on the stove."
The coal stove in the main room was burning brightly, and steam was rising from the aluminum pot of bean curd. Xiaonuo took a bite, and the sweet bean paste burned her so much that she stuck out her tongue. Grandma sat on the kang, mending shoe soles, her thimble gleaming silver under the oil lamp. "I heard you guys finished your exams? Don't worry, our Xiao family's children shine wherever they go."
Late at night, the brother and sister were awake and huddled on the earthen kang in the west wing, eating frozen pears. The moonlight from outside the window crept in through the window lattice, illuminating the old award certificate posted on the wall - it was the "Three Good Students" award that Xiao Yuji and Xiao Nuo had won when they were in school, and the edges were curled.
"Brother," Xiaonuo suddenly touched his arm, "If you don't pass the exam..."
"If you don't pass, you can take it again," Xiao Yuji's voice was muffled in the darkness. "There's still room for textbooks in Dad's study anyway."
The remaining fire in the kang crackled, casting the shadows of the two people on the wall, just like the shadow play they played in the yard when they were children. The two little figures snuggled together, swaying and growing up.
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