Chapter 5: Money or life?
When Xu Yao's back of her hand felt the roughness of the crack of the pottery jar, Xue Han's military boots had already stepped over the threshold.
There was a thin layer of dust on his epaulettes, and dark brown scabs formed on the joints of his right index finger, as if he had just unloaded a cart.
"Are your eyes blinded by the stove ash?" Xue Han knocked on the window frame with his pencil cap, and the blue light of the plastic jumped twice on Xu Yao's tear-stained face.
Seeing that she didn't answer, he took off the military water bottle and placed it on the polished eight-immortal table. At the bottom of the bottle was a yellowed copy of "Reference News", with the date stopped three days before she died in her previous life.
Xu Yao stared at the words "Preferential Treatment for Martyrs' Widows" on the corner of the newspaper, and suddenly the smell of the magic water poured by the midwife rose in her throat: "The Sun family converted the ten kilograms of food coupons for the engagement into cash, and said that if I cancel the engagement, I have to pay double the amount."
"Money or life?" Xue Han suddenly drew a parabola on the blank space of the newspaper with a pencil, and poked the tip of the pen at the roof of Sun Zhiqiang's house. "Last month, the commune lost two bags of fertilizer. The custodian was his cousin."
The sour smell of the cornmeal was intensified by the draft.
Xu Yao recalled that in her previous life, Sun Zhiqiang always ran to the commune granary on rainy nights, saying that he was afraid that the public seeds would be soaked by leaks, but he always came back with insoles embroidered by her third sister.
Her hand holding the tin candy box suddenly felt hot - the food coupons given by Xue Han were hidden inside, and the serial numbers on the coupons and the serial numbers on the fertilizer bags stolen by Sun Zhiqiang were both written in blue ink starting with "1974".
Xue Han's Adam's apple moved under the collar of his shirt: "The only child of Widow Li at the east end of the village was diagnosed with pneumonia last month. The barefoot doctor prescribed penicillin..." Before he finished speaking, Xu Yao had already rushed into the inner room and dug out the prescription stub.
Next to Sun Zhiqiang's flamboyant signature, there was the fee stamp of the county hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department.
The chirping of cicadas suddenly exploded at noon, and Xu Yao's ears were buzzing.
The fragments of memories from the past life flake off like a raincoat cracked by the sun - the persistent low-grade fever of my daughter when she was one year old, the imported pills sent by my third sister, the extra bicycle tickets that Sun Zhiqiang suddenly had...
It turned out that the sugar coating that smelled of disinfectant was actually wrapped in the chronic poison of her own flesh and blood.
"Marriage medical examination report." Xue Han suddenly drew a circle on the back of the prescription with a pencil. "The medical records archived in the county hospital are better than the family tree in the ancestral hall." The tip of his pen paused heavily on the last four characters of "1974". The ink penetrated the back of the paper and formed a twisted question mark, which looked very much like the white silk that was hanged on the beam of the ancestral hall in the previous life.
Xu Yao touched the aluminum shell of the kettle and her fingertips were numb from the cold.
There was a dent on the body of the pot caused by a bullet, which matched perfectly with the scar on Xue Han's left eyebrow.
She suddenly remembered that in the morgue in her previous life, when this body covered with white cloth was pushed into the incinerator, the same cold metallic light flashed at the furnace mouth.
"The lame blacksmith made a new sickle last month, and used the commune's grinding machine to sharpen the blade." Xue Han suddenly stood up, and the hem of his shirt swept the locust flowers on the corner of the table. "His daughter's quota in the county textile factory was replaced by Sun Zhiqiang's niece."
As the sun was setting, Xu Yao squatted under the soapberry tree at the entrance of the village and scrubbed her shirt that was stained yellow by corn paste.
There were a few strands of dark red blood floating in the soap foam - they were splashed when her daughter in her previous life scratched her wrist with broken porcelain pieces.
Widow Li's bright red hairband swayed in the shadow of the tree, and the mallet in Xu Yao's hand suddenly made a dull sound.
"Accountant Sun said this was a work-related injury." Widow Li dipped her scabby index finger into the soapberry juice. "They said it was God's will that the grinding wheel broke, and I had to pay two feet of coarse cloth as compensation." The silver bracelet on her wrist suddenly slid to her elbow. The inner ring was engraved with the initials of her third sister's name, and it shone like the cold light of scissors in the delivery room in the setting sun.
Xu Yao stuffed the last three candies from the tin candy box into Widow Li's apron pocket. The transparent candy wrappers made the crisp sound of commune award paper in the evening breeze.
The three White Rabbit milk candies that the daughter secretly hid in her previous life also had the logo of this candy factory printed on the wrapping paper.
As dusk fell, Xu Yao stopped the lame blacksmith in the threshing ground.
His newly made hoe was wedged with a rusty piece of iron, and the blue paint remaining on the gap was exactly the same as the serial number paint on the commune's farm machinery.
The thousand-layer cloth shoes that the blacksmith's daughter had made overnight were still brand new. Stuffed inside the shoe upper was an employment letter from Zhang County Textile Factory. The ink on the name column had been blurred by tears into a black hole, which looked very much like the hole that was burned by a cigarette butt on the photo of his daughter's marriage certificate in her previous life.
"Tomorrow at noon, the commune will hold a spring ploughing mobilization meeting." Xue Han's voice suddenly came from behind the haystack. A half-cut red and blue pencil appeared in his jacket pocket, and the pen cap was a creepy blue in the moonlight. "The microphone on the rostrum is connected to the loudspeakers of the three villages."
Xu Yao touched the uneven peony pattern on the lid of the candy box and suddenly remembered the elegiac couplets at the memorial service in her previous life.
Xue Han's medals flashed a cold light on the altar, and the mourning cloth that was torn off by the third sister when she fainted from crying covered the corners of Sun Zhiqiang's smiling mouth.
And now, the iron box is neatly packed with Widow Li's bloody gauze, the blacksmith's rusty iron sheet, and the prescription stub that smells of obstetrics and gynecology disinfectant.
The night dew wet the straw ropes in the threshing ground. When Xu Yao turned around, she heard Xue Han's military boots crushing green walnuts.
The walnuts scattered at my daughter's wedding in my previous life were of this variety, and the shells were dyed a cinnabar-like red, just like the blood soaked on the mattress of the delivery bed.
When the evidence bag tied with straw rope was shining in the morning dew, Xu Yao was already standing in front of the mottled wooden door of the village committee.
The mark Xue Han drew on the door frame with red and blue pencils last night glowed faintly, like a red-bellied snake spitting out its tongue.
"Accountant Li's abacus beads are about to jump onto the beams." The lame blacksmith was leaning on his newly made iron crutch, and the employment letter stuffed in his shoe upper was half exposed, rustling in the morning breeze.
The thousand-layer sole that his daughter had made overnight was standing on the abacus of Sun Zhiqiang's cousin - the edge of the abacus frame was still stained with the blue numbered paint of the commune's fertilizer bags.
The enamelware pot in the village chief's office suddenly made a sharp scraping sound.
When Xu Yao pushed the door open, she saw the old village chief crushing three licorice slices with the bottom of an enamel jar. The dark brown powder spread on the newspaper with the words "Preferential Treatment Policy for Martyrs' Widows", looking very much like the residue of the magic water that her daughter had fed her in her previous life.
"That year when smoke was coming out of the Sun family's ancestral grave, I helped burn the handkerchief your father used to cough up blood."
Widow Li suddenly untied her water-red hairband, and the silver bracelet on her wrist knocked against the glass plate of the desk. The initials of her third sister's name on the inner ring were facing the village chief's cloudy eyes. "The midwife's scissors that night were not as recognized as my bracelet."
When Mr. Xu squeezed in with his back hunched, he knocked over the metal dustpan behind the door.
He was holding a faded red velvet bag in his hand, and the silver bracelet he shook out jingled as it hit Widow Li's. The unique bloody smell of a delivery room suddenly filled the room.
Xu Yao recognized the bracelet - it was worn by her third sister in her previous life. She held her daughter's hand and pulled out the oxygen tube.
"The old man of the Sun family saved your grandfather..." The tail end of Mr. Xu's voice was cut off by the sudden pigeon whistle outside the window.
Xu Yao suddenly opened the tin candy box, and three fruit candies wrapped in the commune's award certificate paper rolled under the tip of the village chief's pen. The transparent candy wrapper reflected Sun Zhiqiang's flamboyant marriage examination signature, which was superimposed on the red seal of the obstetrics and gynecology department's fee stamp.
The sound of Xue Han's military boots rang regularly at the end of the corridor, as if setting the rhythm for the confrontation.
Xu Yao felt the bullet-shaped dent on the candy box lid. The cold touch reminded her of the temperature of the metal door of the incinerator. "Dad, do you remember what Mom said before she died? She said..."
The sparrows in the threshing ground suddenly fluttered up and covered Mr. Xu's face, which turned pale in an instant.
The bloody memory of the delivery bed twenty years ago overlapped with the bloody gauze in the candy box in front of him, and his hunched back finally collapsed on the long bench.
The old village chief fiddled with the rusty iron sheet with the cap of a fountain pen, and the blue paint on the gap glowed with the unique cold light of a cold weapon in the morning light.
When Xue Han's kettle appeared on the windowsill, Sun Zhiqiang was pressing the insoles embroidered by his third sister into the incense burner in the ancestral hall.
The unburned prescription stub in the ashes was suddenly blown up by the draft and stuck to the back of his neck, which was covered in cold sweat.
The crystal buttons on the collar of the third sister's cheongsam suddenly broke off and rolled into the gap of the merit box - which also contained a copy of the employment letter from Zhang County Textile Factory.
"The commune will show "Red Lantern" tomorrow night." Xue Han casually knocked on the kettle with his pencil cap, and the rust from the bullet marks was floating towards the village chief's teacup.
A half-broken red and blue pencil protruded from his shirt pocket. The dark blue of the pen cap formed an odd contrast with the faded red silk on the beam of the ancestral hall, just like the elegiac couplets at the memorial service in his previous life that no one could understand.
When Xu Yao walked out of the village committee holding the application for divorce, the old millstone in the threshing ground was creaking as it turned.
The fresh mud prints on Xue Han's boots meandered like a snake, ending in a newly painted slogan on the back wall of Sun Zhiqiang's house - "Prepare for war and prepare for famine", with the word "famine" still stained by rain, exactly like the pesticide stains on the hem of the third sister's cheongsam.
As dusk climbed up the mottled brick wall of the supply and marketing cooperative, Xu Yao discovered that there was an unfamiliar fruit candy in the candy box.
The production date on the cellophane was scratched, but the pesticide bottle pattern on the edge of the sugar factory logo was clearly visible.
She remembered that in her previous life, at her daughter's wedding, her third sister had similar dark green stains in her fingernails when she toasted.
Xue Han's cigarette butt flickered at the end of the alley. When the smoke passed over the epaulettes on his shirt, a sickle shape with a notch was vaguely revealed.
The moonlight suddenly illuminated the porcelain Guanyin statue broken into eight pieces at his feet - it was the one that had been enshrined in the Sun family ancestral hall for thirty years.
The old-fashioned wall clock in the village chief's office began to chime, and the sound of abacus beads colliding suddenly stopped.
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