Chapter 19

Zhao Qinhua had an ear out for all of it. A white rabbit as fat as that was a rare thing. Keep it and it would only get thin. Eat it and be done. What was the use of asking a toddler?

Old Mrs. Chen heard what Chen Yuanyuan said and frowned.

"Yuanyuan, if we eat the rabbit, you can't eat much of it anyway. What a waste." She crouched down and spoke to her with great fondness.

That worried Chen Yuanyuan. She wanted her dad to eat, and her mum to eat, and her granny to eat, and her brothers to eat. She put a hand out quickly and pointed at Chen Yougong. "Eat."

Old Mrs. Chen understood her then. The things going on in this little head, at her age.

"All right. We'll do as our Yuanyuan says." And she took Chen Yuanyuan's hand.

"Eldest, go and kill the rabbit. We'll have it with cakes baked round the pan tonight."

Chen Youliang's honest face broke into a grin. Who didn't want meat in those days? He gave his face a rough wipe, went over and took the rabbit up by both ears, and fetched the knife from the kitchen.

It was nearly dark, but you could still see well enough.

Zhao Qinhua took Chen Dayu by the arm and pulled her into their room.

"That rabbit. Did that little brat really catch it?"

Chen Dayu rubbed her arm. Her mother's grip was too strong.

"She did. I went for firewood and when I came back the rabbit was in the basket."

Zhao Qinhua's face fell and she jabbed a finger hard into Chen Dayu's forehead. "Look at you. She can catch a rabbit and you can't do a thing."

Chen Dayu couldn't help rocking backwards. She hadn't even been there. "Mum, that hurts."

Zhao Qinhua snorted. Chen Chengzhuang ran into the room, and she scooped him up, which let Chen Dayu off.

Chen Dayu went out holding her forehead.

"Mum. Rabbit. Dead." Chen Chengzhuang burst out crying. He had wanted to play with it.

Zhao Qinhua rocked him and hushed him.

"There now. We'll have meat in a bit. Lovely meat."

Chen Chengzhuang didn't think meat was up to much. He went on kicking and demanding the rabbit.

Old Mrs. Chen heard it from the yard and let it go. She went to the kitchen to cook with Yao Shangqing.

Chen Yougong washed and came over, swept Chen Yuanyuan up and lifted her high.

Chen Yuanyuan laughed and laughed.

"We've got our Yuanyuan to thank for meat today. Dad's much obliged to you. Any time I want meat I'll come to you." Chen Yougong wasn't bothered about meat. He was playing with her.

Chen Yuanyuan patted her own chest with a small hand. "Eat, eat."

He rubbed her head, laughed out loud, put her down again and let her go off and play.

Li Yue'e had finished her own work, and the kitchen didn't need her, so she went to tidy the chicken and duck pens.

"Ma, Ma, come and look. There's something wrong with this chicken." She lifted a wing as she spoke. The bird had no life in it and stood drooping.

Old Mrs. Chen put the knife down in the kitchen and came out with the wind behind her.

Chen Yuanyuan came over on her own legs too. She played with the chickens every day. What could be wrong?

Old Mrs. Chen opened the pen door and went in, crouched and looked it over. There was no spirit in it. She went straight to her room for what was left of the medicine they gave the chickens, a country remedy.

Li Yue'e mixed it with water and got it into the bird.

"Well, we'll see." Old Mrs. Chen sighed, and the worry started. A chicken dead meant months raising a new one, and by then winter would be in, and there would be no eggs to think about. Last year they had been lucky. Would the laying hold like that again this year?

Li Yue'e put the drooping hen on its own in a coop, then cleaned the pen out.

Chen Yuanyuan stayed standing by the pen the whole time. Once Li Yue'e had gone and nobody was watching her, she dawdled her way inside, crouched by the coop and put her small hand through to touch the hen's head.

"You'll get better. Nothing bad will happen." She said it over in her mind.

"Yuanyuan, what are you doing in the pen? Come out, it's filthy in there." Old Mrs. Chen had the meal ready and came out looking for her, and there she was in the pen with a hand through the coop, stroking the sick hen.

She went and picked her up.

"There now. Dinner's ready. Go and eat your meat. You were the one making a fuss about it."

Chen Yuanyuan only opened her eyes as she was lifted. There was no strength in her and she wanted to sleep, and she shut her eyes and was asleep.

Old Mrs. Chen carried her into the main room and only then found she was asleep.

"Shangqing, put Yuanyuan back in the room. She'll have worn herself out playing today, that's all, and gone straight off."

Yao Shangqing took her, carried her to the room and tucked the quilt round her carefully before coming out.

The sick hen had put old Mrs. Chen out of sorts. One hen short, and raising a chick to laying took weeks, and how many eggs was that? With this many mouths in the house, all of them waiting to be fed.

"Ma, let's eat." Chen Yougang was starving. He had never worked like this, but he couldn't say so, with the third brother back from the county to work the fields.

Old Mrs. Chen took the big ladle and started sharing out the meat, and the thought that Yuanyuan wouldn't get any of it stopped her up like a blockage, so she gave the third son and his wife extra, and the three children a few more pieces besides.

Zhao Qinhua had known this was coming. She stuck her lip out and in the end said nothing, or her mother-in-law would be at her again.

With the meat divided, the family ate with their bowls in their hands, and Chen Youliang simply took his out to the yard.

Yao Shangqing and the three children sat on their stools to eat.

Where his wife and children were was where Chen Yougong was.

Chen Chengzhuang got meat this time and learned how good it was, but he ate fast and a lot, and his share was gone in no time.

Zhao Qinhua looked at it for a long while, and couldn't bring herself to take meat out of her husband's bowl for her son. She tapped Chen Dayu's bowl with her chopsticks and gave her a look.

Chen Dayu had been happily eating, and now she was miserable. Still, she picked her meat up quietly and gave it to Zhao Qinhua.

The sight of it put old Mrs. Chen out of temper. This performance again. Nothing anyone said to this eldest daughter-in-law ever changed her.

"That'll do. He shouldn't eat much meat in the evening. Chengzhuang's small, and too much is bad for his stomach."

Zhao Qinhua smiled and nodded quickly. She still put the meat in her own bowl, though she didn't ask Chen Dayu for any more.

After the meal there was visiting round the village, or people sitting out on the threshing ground in the moonlight to talk.

Yao Shangqing went back to her room. She had the children's clothes to mend and Chen Shaoyuan's schoolwork to check over. She looked at Chen Yuanyuan asleep with her cheeks flushed, and felt her forehead. Not a fever.