Chapter 20

Before she went to bed old Mrs. Chen looked in on the drooping hen. It was no better, and she sighed and went to sleep.

She got up in the morning, poured water and washed her face and hands, and didn't go and look at the hen at all. It was going to die anyway.

The other households were up one after another. It was the busy season and nobody could afford to lose any of it.

Li Yue'e had the hen on her mind, though, and went to look the moment she was up. "Well, I never. That's a piece of luck."

Old Mrs. Chen heard her second daughter-in-law going on about it, and went to look after all, with no hope in her.

"Ma, see for yourself. Not only has she come right, she's laid an egg."

Old Mrs. Chen looked it over and over, taken aback. So she had. Last night when she looked there was nothing in it, and then, thinking back, there was her good little granddaughter with a hand in there stroking it for a long while, and after it the child fell asleep. Thinking about it now, it was strange enough. Surely her good granddaughter hadn't fallen asleep from saving a hen?

She slapped her own thigh, and regretted it. A hen, and Yuanyuan suffering for it. She turned to go to her third son's room to look in on her, then turned back to Li Yue'e.

"Second son's wife, steam that egg for Yuanyuan. And don't forget the sesame oil this time."

Li Yue'e was with her for the first half of that and startled by the second. Sesame oil. They didn't bring it out for cooking except at New Year, and those two liang had cost the third brother no end of trouble to get hold of. But her mother-in-law had said it, so she wasn't going to argue.

"Right you are."

Zhao Qinhua had just come out of her room and nearly dropped the basin she was carrying. She was still mourning the meat that went the other way yesterday, and now it was sesame oil. She watched her mother-in-law turn straight into the third family's room, which needed no explaining, off to see that little brat again. She flung the water out and dropped the basin on the ground.

Chen Youliang frowned at his wife. "What's got into you first thing in the morning? Go and dress Chengzhuang."

Zhao Qinhua snorted and went back inside.

Old Mrs. Chen went in. The third son and his wife had been up a long while, and Chen Yougong had already gone out. He had gone to find Young Wang. He thought well of that apprentice, and there was a job in the county that would suit him. Hard work, but it paid in money and coupons, which was a great deal. Plenty of people had their eye on that place, and getting it hadn't been easy.

"Ma, what is it?" Yao Shangqing looked at her mother-in-law, all in a rush.

Old Mrs. Chen went straight to Chen Yuanyuan. "How is she? How many times did she wake in the night? How much did she have?"

Yao Shangqing couldn't follow any of it, but she answered plainly.

"She didn't wake. I thought she couldn't be hungry. And she'd played herself to a standstill with her brothers, so she was worn out."

That gave old Mrs. Chen a jolt. Not awake once, and it was her own doing. Yuanyuan was a good child. She must have seen how worried her granny was, and that was why the hen was up and about. Then she thought of the ones in this house who thought of nothing but their own stomachs, and her heart leaned further still.

"Go and help your sister-in-law in the kitchen. And get the white flour out, and roll half a bowl of noodles." Old Mrs. Chen looked at Yuanyuan's little face and tried to think what else there was in the house worth giving her.

Yao Shangqing simply stared. "Ma, what's this for? Who's it for?" She knew what there was: three jin of white flour in this house, never seen from one month to the next. The last of it was the dumplings at New Year, and her mother-in-law had been careful to the last grain.

Old Mrs. Chen looked at Yuanyuan and was full of regret. She should never have fretted over one hen. And there was a kind of gladness in it too. Look at Yuanyuan. A child who did right by her elders.

"For Yuanyuan. She went a whole night without waking to eat, so she'll be starving when she does." Then she waved it away. "Go on, get on with it."

Yao Shangqing was still somewhere else, but she said nothing more. "Shaoyuan, get your brothers dressed." Having settled that, she went out.

Old Mrs. Chen sat by the bed looking at Yuanyuan, and marvelled a little. The child really was meant for the Chen family.

In the kitchen, Yao Shangqing passed on what she had been told.

That gave Li Yue'e a jolt as well. What was going on, that it took white flour?

Zhao Qinhua, just reaching the door, nearly lost her footing. What was this? Good white flour sitting there, not for her mother-in-law's own grandson, but for an outsider, and a girl at that.

Yao Shangqing paid no attention to what either of her sisters-in-law thought. She opened the cupboard, took out the bag of white flour and measured out enough for half a bowl of hand-rolled noodles, slowly.

Li Yue'e didn't understand it, but cooking was cooking. She started the steamed egg and broke the egg into the bowl.

Zhao Qinhua felt the sky was coming down. Eggs and white-flour noodles both. If only Chengzhuang could have had the lot of it.

It had been a long time since Yao Shangqing made hand-rolled white noodles. For a bit of chew in them, the best thing was a little egg white worked into the dough.

In the north room, old Mrs. Chen finally saw Chen Yuanyuan wake.

Chen Yuanyuan rubbed her eyes with both small hands, and the first thing she saw today was her granny.

Old Mrs. Chen was over at once with a run of fond noises, and dressed her in the clothes she had just warmed.

Chen Yuanyuan smiled all the way through it, then leaned over and kissed her granny's face.

Old Mrs. Chen laughed out loud.

Then Chen Yuanyuan's stomach spoke up. She was so hungry. She seemed to have used up everything she had yesterday, and then she had fallen asleep.

Old Mrs. Chen heard it too, and felt she had seen this coming.

"Come on, sweetheart. Granny will carry you to the kitchen and we'll see if your mum has the food ready."

Since she had learned to walk, Chen Yuanyuan didn't want carrying. She pointed at the floor and made two noises, which meant down.

Old Mrs. Chen worried about it, but she let her down. She felt now that her granddaughter was made of glass, and was forever afraid of her knocking into something.

"Is that egg steamed?" Old Mrs. Chen started asking before she had even reached the kitchen.

Chen Yuanyuan stood in the kitchen doorway. She could smell it, and her small stomach felt emptier than ever, and rumbled.

Everyone in the kitchen heard it.

Zhao Qinhua couldn't hold it in any longer and was about to say something, then turned and saw Chen Yuanyuan's little face, and couldn't get it out.

"Coming, coming, Ma, wait while I put the sesame oil on." Li Yue'e lifted the lid with a cloth and brought the steamed egg out, then took up the sesame oil she had ready and, with her mother-in-law watching, let two drops fall. The egg in the bowl was steamed soft and tender, and with the oil on it you could have drooled where you stood.