Chapter 11

Old Mrs. Chen went over and opened the basket, looked in, and was so startled she covered it with the pig grass again without thinking. "How did you get all this?" Under the grass lay two fish. One was fat, three or four jin by the look of it. The other was smaller, but between them it was more than the family could eat.

Baijia Village had hills on three sides. There were none to the south, only a small road, and that was the way everyone went out, to the commune, and from the commune on the bus that came once in a long while to the county town.

The little river at the foot of the slope ran a bit below the private plots. The water came down off the hill.

Baijia Village was poor and hardly a household in it had enough to eat, so when somebody found food around the village the brigade leader turned a blind eye. As long as it didn't get outside, they were all one village and he let it alone. But the little river had everybody scooping at it. What was left in it?

Even Yao Shangqing was surprised at a fish that size.

"How did you get it out?" She wasn't doubting him, exactly, but she looked at those small arms and legs, and then at that fish.

Chen Shaoyuan frowned and thought back over it. "Mum, I wasn't even trying to catch fish. I was going past with the basket on my back and I saw this big one lying by the bank not moving. I went over and it still didn't move, so I scooped it up. There was another one next to it, so I took them both."

Yao Shangqing could hardly believe it, but she knew her own son. He didn't lie. She turned to old Mrs. Chen.

"Ma. Can we eat these?" She was uneasy. The brigade leader turned a blind eye, but if somebody minded to make trouble reported it, that was another thing.

Old Mrs. Chen set her teeth. "We eat them. Who in this village doesn't eat what they find?"

She lifted the fish out of the basket. "Go on, take your brother and feed the pig."

The job steadied Chen Shaoyuan a little.

Chen Shao'er already knew that meat was a good thing, and he was nearly drooling. He couldn't remember what it tasted like, but Dahe had eaten a meat bun in front of him the other day and it had smelled wonderful.

Chen Shaoyuan gathered up the pig grass from the basket and off he went.

Old Mrs. Chen carried the fish to the pump, still turning over what her grandson had said. Did things like that happen in this world? She thought about what she had said to her old friend. Perhaps it really was true. Since Yuanyuan came, her household had been doing better than before.

Once she had it straight in her head she didn't hesitate. She took the knife and started scaling and gutting, one smooth movement into the next, without a stumble.

Up at the temple on the hill, an old man with a white beard had a pained look on his face.

A half-grown child beside him tugged at his own little beard. "Hurts, does it? Too late. They're dead."

The old man snorted, and his white beard shook with it. "It does not hurt. I'll put in for it anyway."

The child held his stomach and laughed. "Put in for it? Good luck. Everyone knows the Jade Emperor is the biggest miser going." Then something seemed to strike him and he felt at the few whiskers on his head. "Let's hope she doesn't want anything else, or mine won't be safe either."

The earth god cheered up considerably at the thought that he wasn't the only one in trouble. Besides, he owed Little Eight this.

"Right, don't just stand there. Get back to your bamboo grove and see whether the rest of the fish in your pond are all right." The child was kind enough to remind him.

The earth god's face went serious again. He had one simple wish, which was that when Little Eight came back from her mortal trial the fish in his pond would still be alive. This delivery, though, counted as a reward for the Chens. Good people deserved it.

Old Mrs. Chen had just finished with the fish when Zhao Qinhua came back with Chen Chengzhuang. She had been out visiting the whole afternoon.

"Oh my, Ma, where did you get fish?" Zhao Qinhua was drooling herself as she said it. Honestly, apart from town people, who could bring themselves to eat meat these days?

Old Mrs. Chen glared at her. "What are you bawling for? Afraid somebody might not hear you?"

Zhao Qinhua laughed awkwardly and coughed a couple of times.

"It doesn't matter, there's only Auntie Li's family next to us, and she's friendly with us."

Old Mrs. Chen couldn't be bothered with her and turned straight back.

"You cook it. You've the best hand in this house." She looked at the fish, as eager as anyone.

Yao Shangqing nodded. Before her family came apart she had often cooked at home, and she had taken lessons for a while from a proper chef because she liked it. Not that anybody was doing well now.

She chopped the fish up. There was little in the way of seasoning, so it would be soup and braised pieces.

Zhao Qinhua normally dreaded the kitchen, in case she got made to work, and kept as far from it as she could. This time was different. She wouldn't move half a step away.

As it was getting dark the Chen men came home.

Chen Yougong had worked all day and couldn't lift his arms. He changed first, then looked in on his daughter, and felt much better for it.

Chen Youliang had done a full day too, not in the fields but digging a channel.

Chen Yougang had gone to the county town. He had found a way to make money and reckoned he could pay his third brother back soon.

Yao Shangqing ladled out the fish soup.

Old Mrs. Chen fetched a bowl, picked out several pieces of fish and poured in half a bowl of the broth.

"Yougong, take this over to Auntie Li's."

He knew what his mother meant the moment she finished. He took the bowl and went out.

Zhao Qinhua wasn't pleased. A minute ago she was being told to keep her voice down, and now they were sending food over there, several good pieces of it.

"Ma, I know you're close with Auntie Li, but that's a lot to send."

Old Mrs. Chen looked at her the way you look at a fool. Why had she ever thought this eldest daughter-in-law was the obedient one?

"Shut your mouth. Hers is the only house next to ours. Do you think they can't smell it? And after that bellow of yours, they probably heard it anyway."

Zhao Qinhua pressed her lips together, unhappy. She thought about what her own mother had told her, and couldn't see where it had gone wrong. Before she had a son, her mother had said to keep her mouth shut, and once there was a son she could stand up straight and speak firmly to her mother-in-law. She thought her mother was right. Her own sister-in-law at home was the same.

Old Mrs. Chen had no interest in tracking Zhao Qinhua's state of mind. The fish was ready, and she set her sons and their wives to work.

When Chen Yougong got there, Li Guilan's family was at supper. She had been widowed young as well. Her husband had gone down the mine with Chen Yougong's father and they were crushed together, and the two women had held each other up from their young days to this one. Only she had not been as lucky as old Mrs. Chen. Her eldest son fell ill in his childhood and there was no money to treat him, and he died. Her little daughter, Qian Danju, had a fever as a child that left her muddled, and at twenty she was still like a child. Her younger son, Qian Jin, was eighteen and worked in the county on a temporary job.

Li Guilan hadn't heard the noise in the Chen yard earlier. Seeing what Chen Yougong had brought over, she thought of her old friend's temper and kept it without a fuss.

Then she went to the cupboard, took out a few White Rabbit milk sweets and pressed them into his hand.

"For the children, something sweet." Her younger son had brought them from the county.

Chen Yougong thanked her and went home.

Li Guilan looked at the fish in the bowl and sighed, then looked at her daughter, who was waiting for her to say they could eat.

"All right, stop watching me. Eat."

Qian Danju grinned, grabbed her chopsticks and got started.

The meal was about to go on the table when Chen Yougong got home. It was all laid out: mixed-grain buns, the fish soup, and braised fish with pickled greens on top, pickles Yao Shangqing had put up herself.

The whole family was sitting in good order.

Old Mrs. Chen picked several pieces of fish into Yao Shangqing's bowl first, for her to bone and feed to the baby, and gave the third family's three children most of a bowl of soup each.

"You all know where this came from. Shaoyuan found it by the river when he went to cut pig grass. So they get a bit more today. That's not unfair, is it?"

Chen Youliang nodded first. There was nothing wrong with it. You reward the one who earned it. His mother had it right.

Then Chen Yougang nodded as well. There wasn't a thing to pick at in it.

"Good. If we all think it's fair, let's eat." And with that old Mrs. Chen was done.

The chopsticks went in, though with her sitting there nobody dared go too far. The most anyone did was finish a piece and get quickly on to the next.

By the end even the pickled greens were gone and the broth had buns soaked in it, and every one of them was uncomfortably full.

After supper, Zhao Qinhua and Li Yue'e cleared up.

Li Yue'e had eaten very well. She had to admit the third brother's wife could cook. That soup was so good it would take your tongue off.

Zhao Qinhua washed bowls and turned to her. "Yue'e, don't you think Ma's getting more and more partial?"

Li Yue'e didn't follow at first. "What did you say?"

Zhao Qinhua decided there was something wrong with her hearing. "I said, Ma's partial."

Li Yue'e stared at her. "You're joking. Partial how?"

Zhao Qinhua decided there was something wrong with her head too, if she couldn't see a simple thing like that.

"Look at it. Ma gave the fish to the third family first. If that's not partial, what is it?"

Li Yue'e had been in an excellent mood, full, and with meat in her. Hearing that put her back up, and it was Zhao Qinhua she was annoyed with.

"Shaoyuan found the fish. What's wrong with them having a few more pieces? If you'd found it, you'd think you should eat the lot." Li Yue'e was shrewd, and she gave it straight back without sparing her.

Zhao Qinhua couldn't get a word out. She decided that in the end she was the only one in this house who understood anything.