Fang Yu, fearing her mother would be bullied, hid by the door and listened. "Second Aunt, I won't marry him!" she shouted as she rushed out, her face flushed red.
"What do children know!" the second sister said sternly. "This is all for your own good!"
Yu Jihong pulled Fang Yu behind her, saying, "Second sister, we won't trouble you with Fang Yu's affairs."
"You just want to take over our things!" The eldest sister pointed at Yu Jihong.
Yu Jihong pointed at her and said, "Your things? Where are you from now? Don't try to have things from both sides."
"You want everything from everywhere? Either you don't remarry, or you stay here and keep this house. After you leave, this house will still belong to our family's descendants."
The second sister came over to play the good guy and continued to persuade, "Jihong, in my opinion, marrying Fang Yu to our Feihao is the most appropriate thing to do."
"I won't marry him!" Yu Jihong roared. A surge of anger rose from the bottom of her heart, and Yu Jihong clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug deep into her palms. She really wanted to scream and cry like she did when she was young, to vent all the grievances and anger in her heart.
But that won't work now. Fang Yu is already 18 years old. We can't let people say that her mother is crazy, otherwise it will be difficult for her to find a husband.
Yu Jihong took a deep breath, suppressing the sob in her throat, and said, word by word, "The house is ours. Fang Yu and I are registered here, and we have a lot of influence wherever we go. So don't even think about touching this house. Fang Yu won't marry into it anyway, and you can't make that decision. My third brother just passed away. If you still have any brotherly affection for him, then don't come here and cause trouble."
The neighbors called over several relatives, who also advised, "What are you doing? Where are Jihong and Fangyu going? What you're doing will be bad news in the village."
"Uncle, we didn't do anything. We just came to talk to Jihong. If she's staying here, she can stay in the house. It's not right for her to bring other people in to live here, is it?"
"Your third brother just left, so the house needs to be quiet. You also have things to do at home, so please go home first." Several cousins pushed and shoved their two aunts back home.
"Jihong, don't overthink it. You've been working hard lately, so just rest at home!"
The room finally quieted down. Yu Jihong leaned on the edge of the table, and Fang Yu helped her sit down.
Yu Jihong took a deep breath. "Fang Yu, do you know about some of the things your second aunt mentioned earlier?"
Fang Yu nodded. "I've heard it, Mom. Is it true?"
Yu Jihong touched Fang Yu's face and said, "Fang Yu, since they've brought it up, go and close the door. Mom has something to say to you."
“Okay,” Fang Yu said, then closed the door. The two sat side by side on bamboo chairs, with Fang Yu listening to Yu Jihong speak.
After the Spring Festival in 1980, a stranger came to the village. He was wearing a faded blue cloth jacket with a neat collar and cuffs. He stood at the village entrance asking for directions to the commune, speaking in clear Mandarin, with an old canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
Yu Jihong's house was not far from the village entrance. She was carrying a wooden basin to the river to wash clothes when she happened to hear this unfamiliar accent. She stopped and looked over curiously. The man turned around; he was tall and upright, with eyes as bright as mountain spring water, and a shallow dimple at the corner of his mouth when he smiled. His hair was neatly combed, unlike the messy hair of the other young men in the village.
Later, I learned that the man's name was Lian Wuliang, and he had come to the countryside to investigate silkworm breeding techniques.
The commune arranged for him to live in the old supply and marketing cooperative at the entrance of the village, and specially arranged for several families in the village with rich experience in silkworm breeding to cooperate with his work, including Yu Jihong's family.
Yu Jihong's family has two silkworm houses. She started raising silkworms with her mother when she was twelve or thirteen years old. She was skilled at everything, from feeding them mulberry leaves and removing the sand to setting up the cocoons.
Lian Wuliang would arrive at her silkworm house on time every morning. He would always carefully observe the growth of the silkworms while chatting with Yu Jihong. Yu Jihong thought his Mandarin voice was very pleasant to hear.
“Jihong, look at these silkworms,” he pointed to a tiny silkworm wriggling on a mulberry leaf, “You need to control the temperature. It’s getting cool at night, so you have to keep the windows closed.” As he spoke, his breath brushed against Yu Jihong’s ear, and he had a faint scent of soap on him. Yu Jihong blushed, lowered her head, and whispered, “I know.”
He would squat in the silkworm rearing room, feeding the silkworms with mulberry leaves alongside Yu Jihong. His movements were gentle, as if afraid of harming the delicate silkworms. Sunlight streamed through the window of the rearing room, illuminating his focused profile. Yu Jihong would steal a glance at him, her heart pounding like a rabbit's. Sometimes, their fingertips would accidentally touch, and they would both recoil as if electrocuted, then exchange a knowing smile, the atmosphere thick with an unspoken ambiguity.
Besides their interactions in the silkworm rearing room, Lian Wuliang would also find excuses to see Yu Jihong. He would draw diagrams of silkworm anatomy on paper and explain new scientific silkworm rearing techniques to Yu Jihong; his slender fingers captivated her.
Or he would tell her about the city's happenings, about the sea, about standing on the beach, feeling the sea breeze, and seeing endless blue water. Yu Jihong's hometown was surrounded by mountains, keeping the wind out. She listened, chin in hand, completely absorbed, her heart filled with longing for that city with wind and sea.
As they spent more time together, the two became increasingly familiar with each other. Lian Wuliang would invite Yu Jihong to go to the mountain valley behind the village at dusk, where there was a wild peach grove.
In May, the silkworms began to spin their cocoons. Lian Wuliang was busier than usual, spending every day in Yu Jihong's silkworm house, recording the cocoon-spinning process.
"Jihong, wait until I finish writing my report, then I'll come back to pick you up in the fall. I'll take you to see the sea, okay?"
"good."
Lian Wuliang gently hugged her, his voice as tender as the evening breeze, "When the time comes, we'll settle down by the sea."
But this tenderness was like fireworks; after the excitement, only desolation remained. Not long after, Lian Wuliang packed his bags and prepared to leave.
Yu Jihong stood at the village entrance to see him off, watching his figure disappear at the end of the road until he could no longer be seen.
Not long after Lian Wuliang left, Yu Jihong realized something was wrong. She felt nauseous every morning, couldn't stand the smell of cooking oil, and her period was late. She counted the days, her face flushing red – could she be pregnant?
Yu Jihong started secretly eating an extra bowl of rice, wrapped her growing belly in a loose coarse cloth shirt, and even slept on her side, afraid of pressing on the baby in her belly.
But as her belly grew bigger, she couldn't hide it any longer.
Looking at the bulge under her loose clothes, Yu Jihong's mother was so angry that she grabbed a rough porcelain bowl from the table and smashed it on the ground. "Whose child is that bastard in your belly?"
Yu Jihong bit her lip and refused to speak. Her mother scolded her for being "shameless" and "disgracing the family."
Yu Jihong's father smoked his pipe in silence for a long time, then suddenly threw it to the ground and slapped her across the face. "Tell your mother to take you to get an abortion, or I won't have you as my daughter!" The slap was so forceful that Yu Jihong's face swelled up instantly.
Good news doesn't travel far, but bad news spreads like wildfire. The villagers knew she was pregnant. When neighbors passed by her house, they always lowered their heads and whispered amongst themselves, their eyes filled with a piercing contempt. Some said she was "seducing an outsider," others said she would "be abandoned sooner or later."
Every night, Yu Jihong thinks of Lian Wuliang and dreams that he comes back to take her to see the sea, but when she opens her eyes, there is only an empty, dark night.
The constant questioning and pressure from her family to abort the child, coupled with the gossip from her neighbors, drove Yu Jihong to a desperate attempt to protect herself and her unborn child. She feigned madness. Whenever her family tried to reason with her, she would scream and shout, even rolling in the mud. If she saw others looking at her strangely, she would curse them.
The villagers gradually grew afraid of her, and they avoided her when they came near her house. Her mother was both angry and anxious looking at her crazy behavior, but she was helpless.
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