Chapter 10: Three Generations of Poor Peasants in the Sun Family
When the morning mist floated over the threshold, Xu Yao was holding an enamel cup to warm her hands.
The red dates floated in the brown sugar water, and the rising heat blurred the arched back of my father as he coughed violently.
She gently pushed over the account book of last night's threshing ground, and the blood-stained handkerchief in the pottery jar happened to be lifted up by the wind.
"Each bag of relief grain is three pounds short. This is the case for all the relief grains handled by Sun Zhiqiang." Xu Yao's fingertips traced the crooked signature on the account book. The last stroke of the word "qiang" looked very much like Sun Zhiqiang's back every time he slammed the door and left home. "Dad, I'm canceling this marriage."
Mother Xu's hand, which was holding her blue apron, trembled, and the enamel spoon made a crisp sound when it hit the edge of the medicine jar.
She looked at the lingering pinch marks on her daughter's neck - they were left by Sun Zhiqiang when he was drunk last month - and suddenly slapped the palm-leaf fan she was using to boil medicine on the edge of the kang: "Back off! When we proposed marriage, the Sun family was reluctant to give even half a pound of flour, yet they dared to steal the public grain!"
"But the Sun family has been poor peasants for three generations..." Father Xu coughed until his chest was buzzing, but his skinny hands firmly held down his wife who wanted to stand up, "Yao, are you really not afraid of drowning me with your saliva?"
The box of peach cakes that Xue Han had sent last night on the windowsill was suddenly blown open by the wind. Twelve pieces of cakes were neatly stacked in the oil paper, and at the bottom was a yellowed food coupon.
Xu Yao looked at the purple-red powder on the corner of her father's handkerchief and recalled that in her previous life, when she was kneeling in the snow begging Sun Zhiqiang to buy medicine for her father, this man was carrying roasted wheat to her third sister's house.
"I'd rather be a shrew than pretend to be respectable while starving."
She smiled and stuffed the food coupons into her father's palm. The red dates at the bottom of the enamel cup suddenly hit the wall of the cup, making a light thumping sound.
When the sun climbed to the top of the old locust tree, the sound of Xue Han's military boots stopped outside the fence on time.
Xu Yao folded Niuniu's jacket into her luggage, and the bloody tooth mark happened to be on her palm.
The smell of burnt cabbage stew wafted from the Sun family's courtyard, mixed with Sun's mother's sharp curses: "You want to cancel the engagement when you are the unlucky star who brought death to your mother's family?"
"Brother Han, please be a witness."
When Xu Yao stepped over the threshold, she deliberately crushed a piece of soil, just like she crushed the food coupons that Sun Zhiqiang had hidden in her previous life, "If a fight breaks out later..."
"Stand still." Xue Han suddenly pulled his belt, and the copper buckle shone so brightly in the sunlight that people could not open their eyes.
Half a red rope was vaguely visible in the pocket of his military uniform. It was the same red rope that was wrapped around the medicine bag when Xu Yao had a miscarriage in her previous life.
Sun's mother was sitting on a bamboo chair eating melon seeds. When she saw them come in, she threw the melon seed shells at them.
Xue Han moved sideways to block Xu Yao, and all the broken shells fell on his back and dropped into the grooves of the copper buckle of his belt.
"My Zhiqiang is the best young man in the whole village!" Sun's mother slapped her bamboo chair and jumped up and down, the silver bracelet on her wrist jingling. "Your father hasn't paid back the twenty yuan he owed for his medical treatment, and now you've learned to be an ungrateful person?"
Xu Yao threw the relief grain account book on the millstone, shaking the corn kernels that were drying on top and rolling down. "Last December, you said that Third Sister's family was in dire straits and asked Brother Zhiqiang to send us five catties of wheat. Was that deducted from this account?"
She deliberately raised her voice, and sure enough, she heard the sound of an enamel basin falling to the ground in a panic coming from the wall of the next courtyard.
When Sun Zhiqiang rushed out of the wing room, he was still wearing cloth shoes and holding a copy of "How the Steel Was Tempered" in his hand.
He pretended to be heartbroken and was about to shake Xu Yao's hand: "Yaoyao, you must have listened to my instigation. Our five years of friendship..."
"Comrade Sun, why don't you explain the matter of the mill key first?"
Xue Han suddenly took out a shiny brass key and said, "Last year, every snowy night, the diesel engine at the West Mill was two hours louder than other places."
The crowd of onlookers suddenly went wild, and a few sharp-eyed villagers pointed at the "three" mark on the key and whispered.
Xu Yao took the opportunity to unfold the small jacket, and the bloody teeth marks glowed brown in the sunlight: "Last year, Niuniu had a high fever, and Comrade Sun said he went to the clinic to borrow medicine, but he stayed up all night..."
"Nonsense!" Sun's mother suddenly rushed over to grab the clothes, but was stopped by Xue Han.
She sat on the ground and slapped her thigh: "Oh come and see! Someone is bullying ordinary people!"
Aunt Wang from next door squeezed in with a vegetable basket. The fresh shepherd's purse in the basket was covered with yellow dust.
She pointed at Xu Yao's nose and cursed: "It's better to destroy ten temples than to ruin a marriage! Why didn't your father say to cancel the engagement when he was lying on the kang drinking medicine?"
Several old ladies with bound feet nodded, their cloudy eyes gleaming with joy as they watched a show.
Xu Yao felt a fishy-sweet taste in her throat, just like the taste of rust in her mouth when she was pushed out of the delivery room in her previous life.
She touched the red dates that Xue Han had stuffed into her pocket, and suddenly remembered that on a rainy night last month, this man had braved the danger of landslides and traveled twenty miles along the mountain road just to bring antipyretic medicine to her father.
As dusk fell, the loudspeaker at the entrance of the village suddenly blared.
Xu Yao looked at the growing crowd and saw a men's sweatshirt hanging on the clothesline at her third sister's house - it was the one that Sun Zhiqiang often wore.
Just as she was about to speak, Xue Han suddenly unbuttoned his collarbone, and the old scar on his Adam's apple looked like a hideous crack in the setting sun.
"On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month last year..."
His deep voice mixed with the roar of a diesel engine in the distance, and the copper buckle on his belt suddenly reflected a bright light.
Xu Yao's hand, which was tightly clenched around the hairpin, was suddenly hit by something. She looked down and saw that a red date had disappeared from the bottom of the enamel cup.
When the last dead leaf from the old locust tree at the entrance of the village swirled and fell, Xu Yao heard a strange shattering sound mixed in with her grandson's mother's wailing.
She turned her head and saw the mottled shadows of trees on the wall of her yard. She felt as if the swaying branches looked very much like the oxygen tank tube beside the hospital bed in her previous life.
The night wind blew wheat husks from the threshing floor into the yard, and the diesel engine from the mill next door suddenly let out a sharp whistle.
Xu Yao closed her eyes in the deepening dusk, letting the wind carrying the aroma of roasted wheat pass over the bloody teeth marks, over the purple-red powder on her father's handkerchief, and finally stop at her palm which was holding half a red date.
Xue Han slammed his knuckles heavily on the edge of the millstone. The crisp sound of metal hitting bluestone startled the sparrows under the eaves.
The account book he unfolded was soaked in twilight. The last ray of setting sun fell right on Sun Zhiqiang's crooked signature, turning the word "Qiang" into a dark red like a blood scab.
"The extra diesel consumed by the mill on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is worth three yuan and twenty cents at market price."
Xue Han's boots rolled over the melon seed shells on the ground, and the copper buckle brushed against Sun's mother's head, causing a gust of wind. "If Comrade Sun wants to learn from Lei Feng, why doesn't he put his own food rations into the public account?"
There was a low booing from the crowd.
Sister Chun Xing, who was carrying a bamboo basket, suddenly squeezed to the front, and the cotton wool stuck to the end of her braids fell on the account book: "I was wondering how come the Sun family got half a bag of extra flour when the team distributed grain last year!"
Her husband worked as a custodian at a grain station. This statement immediately attracted the agreement of seven or eight other women.
It was at this moment that the third sister rushed in.
There were grass scraps on her temples, and she was holding an enamel pot wrapped in floral cloth in her arms. Tears flowed before she spoke: "If the Xu family's sister wants to cancel the engagement, she should just say so. Why throw dirty water on Zhiqiang?"
The tears hit the enamel can with a tinkling sound. The aroma of roasted wheat wafting from it mixed with the smell of clam oil on her collar made Xu Yao's throat tighten.
Xu Yao touched the red date in her pocket, and only when the sharp thorns pierced into her palm did she suppress the nausea that was surging in her heart.
In her previous life, the tears stained with the fragrance of roasted wheat tricked her into giving her new cotton-padded jacket to her third sister in the cold winter, and she herself wrapped herself in a tattered padded jacket to carry river mud.
"Third sister, this can of fried wheat is really precious."
Xu Yao suddenly chuckled, her fingertips hooked on the red knot of the enamel pot, "Last autumn harvest, you said the child was crying from hunger, and you borrowed five kilograms of wheat seeds from my family. Now you have food to fry and eat as snacks?"
The third sister's crying stopped abruptly.
Xue Han suddenly kicked over the bamboo basket next to the millstone, and yellow wheat grains mixed with a few red dates rolled out, drawing a crooked golden line on the yellow earth.
Xu Yao recognized the blue cloth bag containing the red dates - it was the cloth bag that Sun Zhiqiang said was for his father's health last month, but disappeared when he turned around.
"Oh my wheat!" Sun's mother screamed and rushed forward, and the silver bracelet on her wrist hit the millstone, sparking sparks.
She grabbed the wheat grains and stuffed them into her arms so quickly that half of the food coupons hidden in her sleeve fell out.
The sharp-eyed Accountant Wang bent down to pick it up, but was hit on the back of his hand by the enamel can thrown by the third sister.
Xue Han's belt suddenly appeared across the crowd, and the reflection from the copper buckle startled several villagers who were pushing forward and made them take a step back.
Xu Yao looked at the red dates that rolled to her feet, and suddenly remembered that when Xue Han rushed into the courtyard with a medicine basket on his back on a rainy night, the hem of his straw raincoat was also stained with such mud spots.
"Stop it!"
The village chief's pipe knocked against the door frame, shaking off some years of dust.
The militia captain who followed behind him held up a kerosene lamp, and the jumping flames stretched the shadows of the people long and short, "What's the point of making so much noise!
Go to the village committee tomorrow at noon and explain everything clearly. ”
The sound of Xu's father's coughing mixed with the gurgling sound of the boiling medicine jar floated from the next yard. Xu Yao was about to speak while holding the half red date, but when she saw the village chief bending down to pick up the food coupon, his cloudy eyes moved between Sun's mother and third sister.
This subtle movement sent a chill down her spine, just like the bone-chilling chill she felt in her previous life when she saw her daughter sprinkling incense ash into the medicine.
The night wind carried the residual heat of the diesel engine across the threshing ground. When Xu Yao turned around, she caught a glimpse of her third sister stuffing something into Grandmother's hand.
The moonlight brushed past Sun's mother's suddenly clenched fist, and the old crack on the inside of the silver bracelet suddenly flashed a strange light, very much like the metal reflection on the valve of the oxygen tank in the previous life.
The sound of Xue Han's military boots paused on the bluestone road. Amid the light sound of the copper buckle of his military belt colliding with his keychain, Xu Yao heard his barely audible sneer.
This laugh reminded her of the landslide on the mountain road during a rainstorm. This man also sneered and chopped the broken wood blocking the road, as if nothing in the world could block his way.
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