Chapter 3 IOU
The morning mist had not yet dissipated, but the adobe house of my third sister was already crowded with villagers who came to watch the fun.
When Xu Yao stepped into the courtyard gate on the dew, she saw her third sister standing on tiptoe to hang bacon on the window frame, and her silver bracelet was dazzling in the morning light.
"Third sister, this bacon is really well smoked." Xu Yao's fingertips traced the oil stains dripping from the bamboo pole, and suddenly grabbed the rope, "It's just that the hanging rope is too sloppy, be careful that it will be taken away by wild cats at night."
The bamboo pole fell to the ground with a thud, startling three chicken feathers that flew out from the chicken coop.
Sun Zhiqiang kicked away the stones at his feet, and his shoes rolled over the sweet-scented osmanthus prints that had not dried last night: "What are you making a fuss about so early in the morning?"
"Noisy?" Xu Yao took out a brown paper bag from her army green satchel, peeled off the layers of oil paper to reveal a yellowed account book, "On the 23rd of last year's twelfth lunar month, my third sister said that Grandma Sun had an asthma attack, so she borrowed 20 kilograms of food coupons from my family."
She touched the ink stain with her fingertips and suddenly looked up at the back of her third sister's neck, "That was the blue shirt that she was wearing at the time, right?
One of the buttons on the collar is broken. “
The silver bracelet on my third sister's wrist clanged against the enamel basin. The dark red scratch mark from last night glowed a suspicious purple in the morning light.
The village chief squatted beside the millstone, smoking a pipe, the sparks of which flickered on the bulging right pocket of his coat.
"Xu's sister, you must have remembered it wrongly, right?" The third sister picked up a bamboo brush and scrubbed the pickle jar, water splashing onto Sun Zhiqiang's trouser legs, "That winter, my fourth child got malaria..."
"The fourth child died at the age of five, and the third sister has been a widow for ten years." Xu Yao suddenly shook out a piece of dried osmanthus from the account book, which fell on the cracks of the bricks that were blackened by kerosene last night. "But the grandmother of the Sun family died three years ago."
The crowd was buzzing with discussion, and Sun Zhiqiang blushed as he pulled Xu Yao's arm: "Don't you just want to cancel the engagement?
Bringing up these old rotten accounts... "
"Chen Nian?" Xu Yao shook off his hand, the moss on the blue brick wall rubbing against her moon-white shirt, "Last month, my third sister said she wanted to buy new clothes for Brother Zhiqiang, and borrowed another fifteen yuan." She turned and stared at her third sister's trembling fingertips, "I stuffed the money into your bamboo basket for steamed bread with my own hands, and patched a piece of plum blossom cloth at the bottom of the basket-"
Before he could finish his words, there was a sound of paper tearing on the village chief's coat.
The basket of pickled radishes in the third sister's hand fell over with a clang, and the red peppers rolled into the bamboo plate where the blood-stained gauze had been drying last night, staining the white gauze as if it were soaked in rouge.
"You want money, right?" Xu Yao suddenly took out a stack of banknotes from his trouser pocket and slapped them on the millstone. The newly issued workers, peasants and soldiers banknotes shocked Sun Zhiqiang's throat. "I'll give you fifty yuan to sign a document. From now on, stay away from the Sun family."
The third sister's pupils shrank into needle points in the morning mist, and the silver bracelet on her wrist clinked against the enamel jar.
Xu Yao saw the village chief touching the hard leather in his coat and about to stand up, but suddenly he grabbed the bamboo rake next to the stone mill and said, "Third sister's pickled spicy radish is really delicious, let me try it..."
The tip of the bamboo rake hooked the clothesline and pulled it hard, and the blue cloth shirt that the third sister washed last night fell over her head.
While the cloth was fluttering, Xu Yao saw the bright red official seal of the commune health center printed on the cover of the hardcover book that the village chief took out of his coat.
"Yao girl, stop making trouble!" The village chief finally stood up and patted the dried radish on his coat, and the hard crust fell into the pickle jar with a plop.
When the third sister rushed over to retrieve the notebook, the scratch on the back of her neck was facing Xu Yao's eyes.
Xu Yao suddenly chuckled and picked up the banknotes covered with chili powder: "Third sister, it's fine if you don't want the money, but..." Her fingertips brushed across the village chief's cuffs stained with sauce, "The spider web that the swallow broke last night is still hanging in the account book of the advanced production team."
The morning breeze swept across the threshing yard, carrying the fragrance of herbs that had been dried last night. Suddenly, the melody of "The East is Red" floated out of someone's radio.
The third sister retreated to the firewood pile clutching the wet hardcover book, her nails digging deeply into the crease of the IOU she had given to the village chief last night.
The third sister's silver bracelet made a crackling sound on the firewood pile. She lowered her head and stared at the hardcover book floating in the pickle jar. Her throat moved, "Xu's sister, what you said is really ridiculous..." Suddenly she grabbed a piece of bluestone to hold down the floating account page, "I misremembered the twenty kilograms of food coupons. You should take the money back."
Xu Yao's fingers that were twisting the banknote suddenly tightened, and the sharp edge of the new banknote left a white mark on her palm.
She clearly saw that when her third sister was speaking, the corner of her eyes was drifting towards the bulging pockets of the village chief's coat.
The raincoat hung under the eaves last night was dripping with water, which happened to fall on the cloth shoes that my third sister had mended the night before, leaving a dark plum-shaped spot.
"Third sister, don't you want the money?" Xu Yao suddenly turned and walked towards the main room, her cloth shoes rolling over the kerosene stains spilled last night. "Then I have to look through that red wooden box - the satin quilt you borrowed from my house last autumn, you should return it, right?"
Sun Zhiqiang suddenly jumped up and grabbed Xu Yao's pigtails: "Xu Yao, you are crazy!" The Shanghai watch on his wrist hurt Xu Yao's ear. "Isn't it just breaking off the engagement? I'll go and file a report right now..."
"Let go."
Xue Han's voice sounded like it was fished out of an ice hole.
He was standing outside the fence at some point, his trouser legs were still stained with fresh mud from the back hill, and the sea buckthorn fruit in his palm was squeezed to produce dark red juice.
The morning mist condensed on his brow, making the scar across the left side of his face even more terrifying.
The pickled radish in the third sister's hand fell into the chili powder with a plop.
She remembered that in the late winter of last year, when Xue Han knocked down three grain thieves with one hand, the tip of his bayonet also glowed coldly.
"Isn't Xue Han meddling too much?" Sun Zhiqiang said toughly, but his hand loosened Xu Yao's braid.
The collar of his brand new military uniform rubbed against the red mark on the side of his neck - the mark left by the thimble when his third sister helped him to adjust his size last night had not yet disappeared.
Xue Han's footsteps over the threshold startled the swallows on the beams, and the spider webs made last night fell into the third sister's hair.
He bent down to pick up the red hairband that Xu Yao had dropped. When his rough fingertips brushed against her wrist, he brought a burst of warmth mixed with the scent of grass: "Comrade Sun, haven't you studied the newly issued 'Marriage Autonomy Ordinance'?"
The village chief suddenly started coughing violently, and a rustling sound of paper rubbing against each other came from his coat pocket.
Xu Yao caught a glimpse of the familiar indigo corner - it was the bacon wrapping paper that her third sister sent to the village chief's house last night.
"Look! Look anywhere you want!" The third sister suddenly pounced on the mahogany box, and her silver bracelet made the copper lock clang. "The things in the box are all the things Zhiqiang gave me over the years..." She choked and pulled out an army green shirt with "Sun Zhiqiang" embroidered crookedly in red thread on the collar.
The women watching were immediately furious.
Aunt Wang pinched the half-finished sole of a shoe and sneered, "I was wondering why Third Sister didn't get married at the age of thirty. I guess she's waiting to become a military dependent."
Xu Yao suddenly laughed out loud, her fingertips brushing across the yellowed "Barefoot Doctor's Handbook" at the bottom of the box: "Third sister, this book looks familiar." She flipped to the page with the dried hibiscus flowers, and shook out a piece of paper with red fingerprints, "Last year during the spring plowing, you said you wanted to buy seeds, and the ten kilograms of grain coupons you borrowed were written to be returned today."
The third sister's nails dug deep into the skin of her palms, and the scars caused by the wild cat's scratches last night were oozing with blood.
She suddenly cried to Sun Zhiqiang: "I saved all this for you! You said that the Xu family's daughter is delicate, if you want to cancel the engagement, you have to get enough..."
"Enough!" Sun Zhiqiang kicked over the pickle jar, and the broken porcelain pieces splashed onto Xue Han's shiny military boots.
The veins on his neck bulged, and his watch chain got stuck on the protruding joints. "Xu Yao, you're going to the commune with me right now to file for divorce!"
Xue Han suddenly took half a step forward, and his tall figure completely enveloped Xu Yao in shadow.
Half of a pen wrapped with red string was sticking out of his shirt pocket, and the mark on the pen cap made Sun Zhiqiang squint his eyes - that was a reward only for models.
"Comrade Sun may have remembered it wrongly." Xue Han's voice was neither hurried nor slow, as if he was reading a combat report, "You and Comrade Xu haven't got your marriage certificate yet." He tapped the hem of the military uniform sticking out of the mahogany box with his fingertips, "But this six-piece suit..." Suddenly he reached out and picked up the clothes and shook them, and three food coupons floated down and fell at the feet of the village chief.
The crowd suddenly became quiet; even the roosters in the threshing yard fell silent.
Xu Yao saw the bacon oil stains in the village chief's coat pocket slowly spreading onto the indigo wrapping paper.
"Three national food coupons for ten kilograms." Xue Han picked up the bill with the tip of his bayonet. "It's exactly the equivalent of the thirty kilograms Comrade Xu mentioned." He suddenly turned to look at Xu Yao, his cold and hard features softened by the morning light. "Is the amount correct?"
Xu Yao's nose suddenly felt sore.
In her previous life, when she was kneeling in the hospital corridor to borrow money, Xue Han's demobilization money was also wrapped in newspaper and quietly stuffed into the cloth bag containing her medical records.
"No." She suddenly grabbed the banknotes on the millstone, "and the fifteen yuan I borrowed last December." The cuffs of her blue shirt slipped down, revealing the purple marks on her wrists - they were caused by herself when she dreamed of her daughter pulling out the oxygen tube last night.
The third sister suddenly collapsed to the ground, and her silver bracelet hit the blue bricks and broke into two pieces.
She ripped open the lining of her cotton-padded jacket like crazy, and the yellowed IOUs fell like snowflakes: "I'll give you all of them! Even the letter of guarantee that Zhiqiang wrote to me!"
She pointed her fingernails, which were stained with balsam juice, at Sun Zhiqiang, "He said that when he is promoted to deputy battalion commander..."
"Third sister!" Sun Zhiqiang rushed over to snatch it, but Xue Han handcuffed his hands behind his back and pressed him on the millstone.
The Shanghai watch face was cracked with spider-web cracks, reflecting his distorted face.
Xu Yao bent down to pick up the IOU that was stained with spicy radish, and suddenly found small words written in pencil on the back of a receipt - it was from the snowy night when Sun Zhiqiang said "go to answer an important call" when her daughter was born in her previous life.
The village chief finally took out the wrinkled seal: "Since there is evidence..." He deliberately knocked over the chili can when dipping the ink, and the bright red ink mixed with the chili flowed all over the table, "Comrade Xu, think it over, if this marriage is cancelled..."
"Thank you for your justice." Xu Yao pressed the IOU into the ink pad, and suddenly turned to Xue Han and smiled, "Captain Xue, are you willing to be a witness?" There was still morning mist on her eyelashes, but two clusters of quenched gold were burning in her eyes.
Xue Han's Adam's apple moved, and the second button on the collar of his military uniform suddenly opened, rolling to Xu Yao's feet.
The wild ginseng he had spent half the night digging in the back mountain was now quietly lying in Xu Yao's military green shoulder bag, wrapped in the signed marriage report.
When the bright red official seal was stamped on the divorce agreement, a rooster from somewhere suddenly crowed.
Under the eaves where the morning mist had dissipated, Xu Yao threw the broken silver bracelet into the pickle jar, startling the tadpoles sleeping at the bottom of the jar, who then wagged their tails and swam towards the light.
Xu Yao carefully folded the IOU into her inner pocket, and the patch on her coarse cloth rubbed against the red line on Xue Han's military uniform pocket.
The village chief was stuffing the seal dipped in chili into his coat when the smoke from the roof of the Sun family's house in the distance suddenly trembled, as if the wind was strangling its throat.
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