Chapter 18

Chen Shaoyuan came into the room and looked Chen Yuanyuan over before anything else. Only when he saw she was fine did he relax.

Chen Dayu helped Chen Chengzhuang up.

"What are you crying for?" She brushed the dirt off him.

Chen Chengzhuang went on crying.

Chen Yuanyuan stood to one side with the egg in her arms, head tilted, watching him cry. Then she pulled Chen Shaoyuan's hand over and put the egg into it. Afraid of tripping, she held on to the table, walked over to Chen Chengzhuang, raised a small hand and slapped him, then turned and hurried back into Chen Shaoyuan's arms.

Chen Chengzhuang had missed out on the egg, then fallen over, and now he had been slapped. He opened his mouth wide and howled.

Chen Shaoyuan looked at the egg in his hand and had a fair idea why she had hit him.

"Yuanyuan, you mustn't hit people. It isn't nice." Chen Shaoyuan tried reasoning with her.

Chen Yuanyuan shook her head. She understood what was said to her, she simply couldn't say anything back. He had cried before, and her aunt and her granny had both smacked him, and after a smack he stopped. Why did hers make him cry more? She pulled at Chen Shaoyuan's hand, wanting her big brother to give him one too.

Naturally Chen Shaoyuan didn't follow any of that.

Chen Xiaoyu was worried. If her little brother went on crying, their mother would hit the two of them when she got back.

"Dayu, take him outside first."

Chen Dayu nodded and heaved Chen Chengzhuang out.

Chen Yuanyuan was dying of curiosity. She put her short legs to work and hurried after them.

Chen Shaoyuan looked at the egg, put it in his pocket and followed.

Chen Chengcai and Chen Juanjuan hadn't come. They were in the kitchen eating.

Out in the yard Chen Chengzhuang went on crying and tried to throw himself on the ground with it.

Chen Dayu wasn't strong enough to hold him. He was like a bull calf.

"Let's eat. I'm starving. He'll stop on his own. Granny says the more you soothe him the louder he gets." Chen Shao'er was four. He didn't like this cousin, because their aunt didn't like his family.

That left Chen Dayu rather awkward. "You go and eat. I'll watch him." She still didn't dare leave her brother out here alone, or her mother would thrash her when she got home.

Chen Xiaoyu gave her sister a worried look and went to eat, meaning to be quick about it so she could take over and let Dayu eat.

Chen Shaoyuan scooped Chen Yuanyuan up. "Come on. Food."

Chen Yuanyuan's attention had been on Chen Chengzhuang down in the dirt, but at the word food she laughed and clapped her hands.

Before long everyone in the yard had gone into the kitchen.

Only Chen Dayu stayed outside with Chen Chengzhuang.

Chen Chengzhuang's eyes rolled round a few times. Seeing nobody there, he cried more quietly, then stopped for a good while, then stopped altogether and picked himself slowly up.

Chen Dayu came over and beat the dirt off him, though his clothes were filthy by now.

Once he was brushed down, Chen Chengzhuang trotted off into the kitchen.

Chen Dayu hurried after him.

Chen Yuanyuan had finished her gruel and was sitting quietly to one side. Her eyes lit up when Chen Chengzhuang came in. The two of them were the only ones in the house who couldn't talk properly.

She made several noises at him and reached for his hand, then saw the dirt on it and pulled her own hand back.

"There you are. I said not to soothe him and he'd stop." Chen Shao'er took a long noisy pull at his gruel, finding time to say it.

Chen Xiaoyu passed Chen Dayu the food they had kept for her. "Eat, Dayu."

Chen Shaoyuan finished feeding Chen Yuanyuan and passed the bowl to Chen Shaozhi. The gruel had cooled, and he could hold the bowl himself and finish it.

Chen Dayu ate, fed Chen Chengzhuang, then gathered the bowls and washed them.

Chen Shaoyuan and the older ones put baskets on their backs to go and gather sticks at the foot of the hill.

Chen Chengcai didn't want any work and ran off with Chen Juanjuan to play.

"Xiaoyu, you stay with your brother and Yuanyuan. We won't be long." Chen Dayu thought the two of them were too small to take along.

Chen Yuanyuan heard that and grabbed hold of Chen Shaoyuan, shaking her head hard.

Chen Shaoyuan looked at her and sighed like a little old man. "All right, you can come. Let go, stop hanging on me."

Only then did she let go, and then she took his hand and held it tight.

"I'll stay with my brother, then. Be quick." Chen Xiaoyu kept Chen Chengzhuang with her at home.

Chen Yuanyuan liked going out, especially anywhere closer to the hills.

The three brothers, Chen Yuanyuan and Chen Dayu made five of them.

"Don't go wandering off. Play near here, understand?" Chen Shaoyuan took the basket off and set it aside, to fill once they had the firewood.

Chen Yuanyuan nodded hard, obedient.

"Shaozhi, you stay here with your sister." Chen Shaoyuan didn't trust it, and kept Chen Shaozhi there too.

Chen Shaozhi was three. Small, but sensible enough.

The two of them stood by the basket and played.

Chen Shaozhi found some foxtail grass for Chen Yuanyuan to hold.

Chen Yuanyuan shook her head. She didn't want it. Foxtail grass was ugly. She looked about for something else and saw a flower that was quite pretty, and set off on her short legs towards it.

Chen Shaozhi was busy with the grass in his hand and didn't notice her go.

A few steps and she was there. She crouched down and reached for the flower, and saw beside it a white rabbit sitting perfectly still. She threw herself on it and had it in her arms, squeezed the soft of it with both hands, and laughed and laughed.

Chen Shaozhi hurried over. The sight of the rabbit in her arms nearly made him drool. It was a long time since they had eaten meat.

He helped her get it into the basket, and the two of them leaned over the edge and stared at it without blinking.

When Chen Shaoyuan and the others came back with armfuls of wood, there they were, bottoms up, leaning over the basket.

Chen Shaoyuan came over laughing, saw a fat rabbit, and was delighted.

"Who caught that?"

Chen Shaozhi pointed at Chen Yuanyuan.

Chen Yuanyuan tipped her head back and looked up at Chen Shaoyuan, the picture of a child waiting to be praised.

He laughed and rubbed her head, put the firewood in on top, then a handful of pig grass over that, which covered it.

Chen Dayu was delighted too when she heard, and they hurried home with the wood.

It was nearly dark before old Mrs. Chen and the others finished work.

Chen Yuanyuan had been to the gate to look several times with nobody coming. When they did come she went stumbling out to them.

She took old Mrs. Chen's hand and towed her towards the basket.

Old Mrs. Chen saw the fat rabbit in it and broke into a grin. "Did our Yuanyuan catch this?"

Chen Yuanyuan nodded, rather proud of herself.

That drew the rest of the household over for a look.

"That's a good big rabbit. We'll have it tonight." Chen Yougong said it without thinking.

Old Mrs. Chen gave her son a look. "Don't listen to your dad, Yuanyuan. Granny's asking you. Do you want to keep it or eat it?"

Chen Yuanyuan looked at the rabbit in the basket and got it out in a hurry, and what came out was one word. "Eat."