Chapter 1 Yan Xue: Twenty years on the east side of the river, twenty years on the west side of the river.
Early January is when the weather is at its coldest.
Even in the relatively warm interior of the country, the snow fell and melted, melted and fell again, and still accumulated in a small layer on the ground, thinly covering the dirt road leading to the village.
Yan Xue came in from the village entrance carrying a basket on her back. Smoke was already rising from many houses.
Yanjiazhuang, where she lived, wasn't a large village, with fewer than 200 households. There was no supply and marketing cooperative in the village, so to buy groceries or sell surplus agricultural and sideline products, she had to go to the market held every five days in a nearby village.
The Dazhao family, where we went to the market today, is a bit far away. It takes more than 30 miles to go back and forth, so it is inevitable that we will waste some time.
Yan Xue stomped the snow off her shoes outside the gate. As soon as she entered the yard, she saw a figure rushing out of her door like a monkey.
The Yan family's courtyard wasn't large, with four main rooms housing Uncle Yan's family of eight and his widowed second grandmother. The one and a half wing rooms to the east were built when Yan's father got married, and now housed Yan Xue and his younger brother, Yan Jigang. Because they were small, they were only five or six meters from the courtyard gate.
Uncle Yan's eleven-year-old third son, Yan Jizong, was clinging to the door frame, still shouting inward with a playful grin, "Stop imitating other people's speech. I'm not imitating other people's speech."
Yan Xue knew without a second thought that her brother Yan Jigang must be so anxious that his face would turn red and his neck would become thick. However, the more anxious he was, the harder it was for him to speak fluently.
Ever since his father was killed by falling rocks from the mountains last year, and nine-year-old Yan Jigang accidentally saw his father's bloody death, he has developed a stuttering problem, suffered nightmares all night long, and occasionally had convulsions.
This psychological stuttering could actually be cured, but their conditions didn't allow it. Yan Jizong and his children would imitate Yan Jigang's speech all day long, just for fun, which made Yan Jigang even more afraid to speak and even afraid to leave the house.
Sure enough, a stumbling sound came from inside, "You, you are, just..."
"I, I, it's me!" Yan Jizong continued to learn and couldn't help laughing.
Yan Xue looked at him, took a few steps forward, and slapped him on the back of the head. "Have you finished your homework? Why are you running around?"
The force was quite strong, and a crisp "pa" sound was heard.
Yan Jizong immediately covered his head in pain. When he turned around and saw it was her, he almost jumped up, "I was just joking with Jigang, why did you hit me?"
"I was just joking with you. When did I hit you?"
There was no anger on Yan Xue's face, she even smiled and returned his words to him.
It is useless to tell this kind of naughty kid that you can't make fun of others' flaws because it will hurt their self-esteem. Their parents don't care, saying that it is just a joke between children and blame her for making a big deal out of nothing.
She was too lazy to help others educate their sons, so she simply joked with the other person every time she saw him, to see when he would learn his lesson.
Seeing that the man was obviously choked, Yan Xue even raised her hand and said, "If you think I hit you too hard, I'll do it again. I promise it will be gentler this time."
There was no way Yan Jizong would dare to ask her to do it again. Last time, he believed her and almost made her slap him to the ground.
He covered his head and ran away, "I'm not a fool."
It seems that he has a bad memory.
Yan Xue then stepped inside and asked her brother, who was standing at the door to the inner room, "Did Ji Zong come to play with you?"
It wasn't that she was asking unnecessary questions. Yan Jizong couldn't sit still. He had come here a few times and found that Yan Jigang didn't like to go out or talk, and he hadn't been here much for a while.
When Yan Xue said this, her speech was slow, and her tone was natural and relaxed, as if she was just asking casually.
This is what she heard in her previous life: a relaxed and slow language environment can help patients let go of their tension and effectively improve their speaking difficulties.
Actually, it had been a year since she'd traveled through time, or maybe even longer. Ever since she'd hit her head a year earlier, another set of memories had appeared in her mind. The two memories had been constantly fighting in her head, making her sick for about half a year. She still hadn't figured out whether she'd traveled through time through her soul or her womb.
However, the two memories are nearly sixty years apart, but they do have some similarities, as both had just lost their fathers.
The only difference is that one is her biological father and the other is her stepfather; one left her alone and the other left her with a half-brother.
As for her mother, the one from her previous life had left her early and she didn't remember much; in this life, the one she loved her child dearly, never abandoning her no matter what situation she fell into. Unfortunately, she didn't live long, and died of illness a few years after giving birth to Yan Jigang, leaving her a member of the non-Yan family who changed her surname to Yan, and half of her stepfather raised her.
So Yan Xue and her brother truly depended on each other. During the two months when she was most seriously ill, it was Yan Jigang who took care of her despite enduring panic.
Without the outsiders around, Yan Jigang was indeed less nervous. He imitated her and spoke slowly, "No, he came... to give me something. He said it was... from my aunt."
Although it was still difficult, at least I didn't stutter.
Following the direction of her brother's finger, Yan Xue saw four golden bean flour cakes placed in coarse porcelain plates on the stove next to the big earthen pot.
This was quite unusual. Although Yan Xue was only seventeen when her father passed away, the custody of both her and her brother fell to Uncle Yan's family. But whether it was making ends meet or repaying the money Yan Xue had borrowed from the team for medical treatment, it was all Yan Xue's own responsibility. They had never received a single grain of rice from the team.
Moreover, Yanjiazhuang was renowned for its sweet potato fields. Its deep, loose soil and excellent drainage made it ideal for growing sweet potatoes, with over 70% of the crop produced being sweet potatoes. Even steaming dry food required making a sweet potato starter. Peeled, cooked sweet potatoes were placed in a dough starter, allowed to rise, and then white flour was added to rise again. Women and children rarely saw any other food; the dry rations were reserved for the men who worked in the fields.
The bean flour cake is made with a solid mixture of corn flour and one quarter to one third of soybean flour. It is baked on the edge of the pan. It is soft on the top and crispy on the bottom, and especially fragrant. Would the aunt be willing to give this to them?
Yan Xue’s first reaction was that if someone was being too nice to her for no reason, he was either a traitor or a thief.
Yan Jigang had clearly lost his affection for his uncle's family. Worry was evident on his face. "What are they thinking about now?"
The family had a criminal record. When Yan's father died in an accident, the responsibility was traced back to Wangjia Village, a neighboring village that used explosives to quarry rocks in the mountains. After all, it was a life lost, so Wangjia Village paid some compensation. Yan's aunt went to collect it, but when she returned, she didn't even mention it to the siblings, pocketing the entire amount.
If it weren't for this, Yan Xue wouldn't have gone to argue with them, hit her head, and had to lie on the kang for half a year.
"It's okay. No matter what she plans, we have to cooperate."
In her two lifetimes combined, Yan Xue had encountered countless difficulties, but she had managed to overcome them all, so she wasn't that worried.
She took off her backpack and put it on the ground. "It just so happens that the peanuts over there in the Zhao family are a cent more expensive than here, 1.9 cents per pound. I bought some salted fish at the market. I'll soak it and fry it with radish tomorrow. It'll go well with this pancake, so I don't have to bother making it."
During the planned economy period, materials were scarce and it was difficult to have enough food to eat. Salted fish became the best of all good things.
When he heard that there was something delicious to eat, Yan Jigang's eyes lit up.
But soon, he hesitated again, "Sister, how much money do we still owe the team?"
"You won't eat if you owe me money?" Yan Xue touched his head. "I've walked dozens of miles today. I'm starving. Come and help me light a fire."
After all, she was a child, so Yan Jigang's attention was immediately diverted. He responded and ran to light the fire, pulling the bellows in his hand, while still caring about her, "How about... Sister, you eat... a cake first?"
"It won't take a little longer." Yan Xue packed up her backpack and took out the money she had earned today to start counting the money.
Yanjiazhuang does not have a quarry like the neighboring Wangjia Village. They rely entirely on the land for their livelihood. After the autumn harvest every year, grain is distributed to each family according to their work points.
If the family earns a lot of work points or has a good private plot of land, the surplus can be sold to the purchasing station for a small income; if the family has many children and few laborers, and has to buy food from the team, it may end up owing money to the team.
Yan Xue spent the better part of last year recuperating from illness. She raised a dozen chickens at home, relying on selling eggs to barely make ends meet, and she couldn't even think about repaying the debt. In those days, speculating was still illegal. Even if she dared to take the risk and resume her old business, buying fish from the seaside and selling them in various villages, the profit margin would be minimal, a drop in the bucket.
And the most difficult issue now is not money, but Yan Jigang’s psychological problem.
He didn't go to school last year. He had already paid the tuition, but he ran away secretly. When she found him, his face turned pale. He would be ten years old after the Chinese New Year. He couldn't not go to school, right?
Even if she could teach him to read and do math at home, could he still hide at home and never see anyone for the rest of his life?
Thinking of this, Yan Xue slowed down her chewing of the biscuit. Yan Jigang, who was sitting across the table, saw this and thought she was reluctant to finish it. He looked down at his own, broke off the unbitten side and handed it to her, "I can't finish it."
"I can't eat it either." Yan Xue came to her senses and pushed the pancake back.
She took a sip of the cabbage soup at hand and asked her brother thoughtfully: "Jigang, if we move to another place, would you dare to try to go out?"
Yan Jigang paused, opened his mouth to say something but couldn't, so he could only lower his head, his face full of shame.
Yan Xue didn't mention it again. After dinner, she cleaned up the dishes and the earthen pot. When she came back, Yan Jigang had already wiped the table clean. He took out a notebook and a pencil and put them on the table, waiting for her to teach him how to read.
That night, Yan Jigang had another nightmare.
Yan Xue noticed when the person next to her started breathing heavily. She reached out and patted him gently through the quilt. After the person woke up completely, she put on her cotton jacket and poured a cup of warm water on the ground.
Yan Jigang thanked him quietly, drank his drink and lay back down under the covers. He was obviously terrified, but he closed his eyes and pretended that he could still sleep.
For a moment, Yan Xue thought of her father in her previous life.
In her previous life, before she traveled through time, she had been taking care of her seriously ill father in the hospital. It was the same when her father was hospitalized before his death. He was clearly suffering from the pain and couldn't sleep all night, but he was so stiff that he didn't dare to even turn over for fear of disturbing her.
I don’t know if it was because God saw that she was the only one left, so he kicked her back to the 1960s and gave her a blood relative.
It can't be that the girl who was sleeping with her in the next bed dragged her into reading a novel, right?
Although there is also a character named Yan Xue in that novel, she is luckier than her. Not only is she reincarnated, but her husband is also a senior engineer in the research institute.
Her only misfortune was that she'd broken off her child marriage during the initial years of the turmoil, and it was as if the man had followed a script for breaking off an engagement: before the 30-year cycle had changed, he'd returned for revenge in 20 years. Her husband, a senior engineer, not only failed to protect her but deepened their hatred for her, falling into disgrace before she did, landing a stable job pasting paper boxes...
When I think about it this way, it’s not so bad to not be trendy and wear a book.
Feeling the breathing around her gradually become steady, Yan Xue went back to sleep. The next morning, she counted the days on the calendar, put on her backpack and went out for a walk.
When he came back, Yan Jigang had already fed the chickens and swept the house clean. He was also puffing up his little face, wiping the wooden lid of the big earthen pot carefully, like a hardworking Thumbelina.
As long as he stayed at home and didn't talk to anyone, he felt quite comfortable in his own small mud house.
Yan Xue felt helpless and went to the private plot behind the house to dig up a radish. She had soaked the salted fish she bought last night, and now it was just soaked and ready to be cut into pieces and put into the pot.
Just as I was about to add oil to the stove, the door of the main room opened and my aunt-in-law Bai Xiuzhen walked in wrapped in the cold wind.
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