Chapter 22

What she had never imagined was that the child would be raised this well.

Chen Yuanyuan looked up at her and thought it strange. This granny was frightening. One moment she meant her harm and the next she didn't. Then she turned and hurried off.

The woman who had spoken saw Wang Fen standing there blankly.

"That's the one they took in. Say what you like, it must be a year or two now, and the girl gets prettier all the time. And the third Chen son's doing better and better. Another job in the county, I hear, and he's going off with the lorry." There was no small amount of sourness in it. Everyone in Baijia Village knew the third Chen son had wanted that girl from the city because she was good-looking and educated, and had married her in spite of her background, and they had all been waiting to see him come a cropper. Nobody had expected him to get this far.

Wang Fen's head buzzed, she couldn't think why. She stuffed the sweets into her pocket and went home rather quietly, and only when she had her grandson in her arms did her mood lift again. A girl, that was all it was. A grandson in your arms was the best thing in the world, and never mind any girl. She comforted herself until she believed it.

Yu Lili's parents heard their daughter had a boy the night before, and gathered a few things together and came over at midday.

Yu Lili had come to Baijia Village as an educated youth. Her father, Yu Gun, kept the gate at the county government. It wasn't much of a job, but it was a proper post, and he drew coupons every month. That was what Yu Lili's mother, Wang Yujuan, had married him for. The pair of them had four children, and over the last few years, coupons or not, there had been nothing to buy with them. You did better working in the countryside, where at least you stayed alive, so Yu Lili had simply married into a village.

Wang Fen had been pleased to see her son's in-laws, and then she looked at what was in their hands. Five eggs and nothing else. Her face changed.

Yu Gun and his wife came in without saying much. A whole household on his wages alone could never be enough, and five eggs had not been easy to find.

"Dad, Ma, you're here. Come in, Lili and the baby are in this room." Zhao Fangsong came out and ushered them in warmly enough.

Yu Gun looked in on his daughter and his grandson, then sat outside talking to his son-in-law, while Wang Yujuan stayed in the inner room with Yu Lili.

"Oh, look at my grandson's little face. He'll be a lucky one." Wang Yujuan played with him a while, then lifted an eyelid and glanced at Yu Lili. "Your mother-in-law will be waiting on you hand and foot now, I expect."

Yu Lili's mouth went up at the corners. Wasn't that the truth. A son was the thing. It took a son to bend that mother-in-law of hers into looking after her, and that hadn't been easy.

"When I had the fourth, I never saw her this keen."

Wang Yujuan remembered the fourth granddaughter too. "I'll tell you this. She wasn't sent far. When she's grown you go and claim her, and she'll take your side, won't she. You're her own mother." She thought the baby had been left in the next village, and she was giving her daughter advice.

Yu Lili pulled a face. The fourth girl, she hadn't even looked at her before she was thrown out. She didn't want to claim her. And look at the girls at home, every one of them born contrary. The sight of them wore her out.

Wang Yujuan tried a little more and then let it drop, and remembered the children she had seen in the yard.

"Those girls of yours. You ought to take them in hand."

Yu Lili had had enough. It was supposed to be a happy day. "That's enough, Ma, don't start on them. They're a plague."

Wang Yujuan muttered a bit and didn't dare say more, then remembered what she had really come for. "Here. Ask your mother-in-law whether they've any potatoes or sweet potatoes going spare. We haven't enough at home."

Yu Lili thought of her two elder brothers and her younger brother, all without work and all big eaters.

"All right. I'll ask her in a bit."

The weight came off Wang Yujuan. So her five carefully hoarded eggs hadn't gone to waste after all. A few jin of sweet potato and potato made it worth it.

After the midday meal Yu Gun and his wife had what they came for, picked up the sweet potatoes and potatoes and off they went.

Wang Fen was furious. A pinched, scraping pair, come to see the baby and leaving with the food.

Yu Lili wasn't afraid of her mother-in-law any more. She had a son.

Wang Fen could do nothing about her daughter-in-law, so she took it out elsewhere. That afternoon she found people going that way and sent word to her two daughters to come and visit, and, more to the point, to remember to bring something.

Wang Fen thought the best decision she had ever made was marrying her eldest daughter into the county town. The man had a bad leg, but he was a proper factory worker, and who could match that?

Old Mrs. Chen was at home making a secret offering before a picture. Her third son had made something of himself. To be picked by the county was astonishing, and she felt she could walk round the village several times with her head up.

Chen Yuanyuan had just come running in from outside. She could only manage single words so far, nothing longer.

"Gran, Gran."

It made old Mrs. Chen jump, and she put the picture of her god away quickly. If somebody outside caught her at that and reported it, there would be no end of trouble.

Chen Yuanyuan's eyes were like two grapes, bright and rolling.

"Zhuang. Brother. Scare. Me." It took several breaths to get all of it out.

Old Mrs. Chen smoothed down the hair that had come loose with all that running. By now she thought of Yuanyuan as her own granddaughter and nothing less.

She laughed and rubbed her head. "All right. Granny will go and see to him, and he won't dare do it again."

That was enough to make Chen Yuanyuan happy. She put a small hand up and patted her hair bunches, then thought for a moment and waved both hands quickly.

"No, no, hit. Him." And then she hiccupped, and clapped a hand over her mouth and giggled.

Old Mrs. Chen laughed and laughed. Yuanyuan was a soft-hearted little thing. She hadn't come to get him in trouble at all.

She did go to the yard and shout a couple of times, though. "Chengzhuang. Chengzhuang. Have you been frightening your sister again?"

Chen Chengzhuang was bottom-up and grunting over a little hole he was digging by the gate. He heard his granny, and wouldn't look up. She was going to tell him off again.

Old Mrs. Chen saw him, and seeing the state of him she pretended she hadn't, and winked at Chen Yuanyuan.

Chen Yuanyuan had what she came for and was satisfied.

Spring came in 1970, around the third month by the old calendar.

Chen Yougong was to go out with the county's lorry to buy timber. A trip like that would widen his eyes and teach him new skills besides.

A man with a trade can't live off what he already has. He always wants to learn more. They were going to Hai province, the leading place for timber work, where there was fine hand-carving of all kinds that sold for high prices and went to foreigners at the Canton Fair.

On the second of the third month old Mrs. Chen was up past five. She had arranged it with her third son's wife the night before, that she would get up and griddle him some flatbreads and boil some eggs. There was nothing better in the house, and this counted as the best of it.

Yao Shangqing was dressing too, and Chen Yougong wasn't idle either. He was up splitting firewood in the yard.

Chen Yuanyuan had been asleep in Yao Shangqing's arms and the noise woke her.

"Mum, Mum, where go?" She could talk, but she was still fuddled with sleep, and rubbed her eyes.

Yao Shangqing said nothing, only patted her gently until she was asleep again.

Chen Yuanyuan was dreaming, and sleeping badly with it. Her dad was sitting in a thing with four wheels, and then something struck it.