Chapter 25

Yue Chuan put his bicycle stand down in a rush and came hurrying in. He had ridden so fast there was sweat on his forehead.

Only old Mrs. Chen and a few of the children were at home. The older ones were at school and everyone else was out at work. The weather was just right, neither cold nor hot, and by the fifth or sixth month it would turn warm.

Old Mrs. Chen was at home washing clothes and hanging them out.

"Auntie, Yougong's all right. He's all right."

Old Mrs. Chen had been certain in her own mind, but hearing it said was another thing, and she broke into a grin on the spot, deepening every crease at the corners of her eyes.

"Heaven be thanked. My Yougong's coming home."

On the other side of the wall Zhao Qinhua doubted her own ears. The third brother was back? It had been a month. They had all given up on it, and the man could still come home?

Yue Chuan was laughing too. He had watched what this family had been through, and it had given him blisters in his mouth from worrying.

Chen Shao'er came running out of the room. "Granny, is my dad coming back?" He bit his lip to keep from crying.

Yue Chuan came over and rubbed his head. "He is. Your dad will be home soon."

Chen Yuanyuan came trotting out behind him. There, she had said her dad was coming back.

Chen Shao'er's eyes were swimming.

"You're a little man. It's all right to cry." Yue Chuan said it looking at him.

Old Mrs. Chen took Yue Chuan by the arm to bring him into the main room. There had to be a cup of tea at the very least, and when the third son was home they would thank him properly.

"No, auntie, I'd better get back. There's other business in the village." Yue Chuan waved it off and went, and got on his bicycle.

Old Mrs. Chen couldn't hide the smile on her. She saw him to the gate, humming, shut it and turned to go back in.

"Come on, inside and play." Her mood was so good that even her voice had gone soft.

Next door, Zhao Qinhua was regretting it now. They shouldn't have split so quickly. They should have waited, and instead her mother-in-law had got rid of her as easily as that.

Yue Chuan rode off with a grin all over his face.

"What's got the brigade leader so cheerful today? Good news from above?" A young man he got on with asked it teasingly. Since the business with the third Chen son there hadn't been much of a smile on him.

Yue Chuan didn't even stop. "Good news it is. Yougong's coming home."

The news that the third Chen son was coming home grew legs and went round the whole of Baijia Village in no time.

Yao Shangqing was working in the fields when she heard, and couldn't believe it, and then she was crying. The young wives she was friendly with crowded round to comfort her.

"Don't cry, it's good news. He's coming back, and things will get easier."

"That's right. Survive a thing like that and good fortune follows. You've only to sit back and enjoy it now."

...

Yao Shangqing nodded through the crying and the laughing.

Li Yue'e had been sent west of the river to weed that day, and the news delighted her too. She had been bracing herself for hard years, and the third brother coming home was a great thing.

"Is it true? Don't let me be glad for nothing." She caught the woman beside her and made her say it again.

"Of course it's true. From the brigade leader's own mouth." The woman patted her shoulder. "You're a good soul and this is your reward. Everyone knows Yougong is a capable man."

Li Yue'e hadn't thought that far. She was grasping and mean about small things, but on anything that mattered she had judgement.

"As long as he's safe. What's the rest of it."

By four in the afternoon the older Chen children came back from school.

Chen Shaoyuan came home like a gust of wind, shouting before he was through the gate.

"Granny, Granny, have they found my dad?"

Old Mrs. Chen looked at her grandson, running with sweat and out of breath. "They have. He's not home yet, so you'll have to wait."

Chen Shaoyuan let out a whoop and jumped, very high. His dad was coming home.

Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu went straight next door after school. They had heard on the way as well.

Chen Chengcai was in the second year now.

"When's my third uncle coming back?"

Old Mrs. Chen hung the clothes out. "No telling. Your uncle Chuan only said they'd found him and he's safe. He didn't know any more than that."

Chen Chengcai said oh, and took his bag to his room. He rather looked up to his third uncle, in fact. Everyone in the village said he could earn.

Chen Yuanyuan was over by the cage feeding her rabbits. In a month they had grown a good deal, with more meat on them, fat little things.

Past five the bell went and the people in the fields started home.

They walked back in twos and threes.

What was remarkable today was the Chen business. With Chen Yougong coming home, things in that house looked different again, and there was no telling whether the eldest Chen regretted being in such a hurry to split.

Yao Shangqing got home first, with the gladness all over her face, and asked the moment she saw her mother-in-law.

"Ma, what did the brigade leader say? When is Yougong coming home?"

Old Mrs. Chen was happy too, and went through it again.

Knowing he was safe was enough for Yao Shangqing. He would be home soon, one way or the other.

Li Yue'e and Chen Youliang and his wife were delighted as well. The third brother safe was worth more than anything.

Yao Shangqing cooked that evening, mung bean noodles, a big bowl each for the grown-ups and most of a bowl for the children, and with happy news in the house everyone at the table was livelier than usual.

Zhao Qinhua's little kitchen was up by now, and they had carried their bowls and chopsticks across, so there was no coming over to this side to cook.

Chen Yougang had heard the news too, of course. He and his elder brother had both been digging the channel that day and neither had said a word to the other. He was the eldest and wasn't going to be the one to bend first. Now the third brother was coming back, and he couldn't have said what he felt. The more able the third one was, the more it showed up the eldest as useless. Better if he hadn't come back at all.

In the kitchen, Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu were cooking together. They had come home and been sent straight in without even doing their schoolwork. Their parents were in a bad mood.

Chen Xiaoyu was at the fire and Chen Dayu was washing sweet potatoes.

"Dayu, now our third uncle's coming back, will he still pay for us to go to school?" Chen Xiaoyu looked up at her.

Chen Dayu's hands paused, then went back to the washing. She shook her head honestly. With the household split there was no saying. But she wanted to go to school, to hear the teacher's stories about the big cities. She longed for it.

Chen Xiaoyu looked down and thought her own thoughts.

The next morning everyone in the Chen house felt the difference.

Chen Shaoyuan had stopped frowning, Chen Shao'er was back to his tricks, and Chen Shaozhi, three and a bit, didn't say much, but you could feel the air in the house had changed.

The older Chen children went off to school together, and old Mrs. Chen went out for work points too. Village children ran about everywhere, so she wasn't worried, beyond adding one instruction.

"Shao'er, you watch Yuanyuan. Don't let her knock herself." Old Mrs. Chen stood at the gate putting her woven hat on.

Chen Shao'er thumped his small chest. He was the big brother. He could watch her.

Once she had gone, there was only Chen Shao'er in charge of his brother and sister, and Chen Juanjuan, who was too young for it as well. She was born the same year as Chen Shao'er and already had the manner of an older sister.

Chen Shao'er put his small basket on. They had to go to the river for pig grass and wild greens. There was a great deal in that house to feed.

Chen Juanjuan carried one too, with Chen Shaozhi and Chen Yuanyuan behind them.

Yuanyuan stood out among them. Her clothes were nothing much and patched at that, but her face hadn't browned in the sun the way the others had, her cheeks were round, her eyes bright and quick, and her smile was sweet. People passing had wondered at first whose child in the village she was, and the older she got the less she looked like any of them.

The four of them had just crossed the little bridge when they met Zhao Qingqing coming the other way. Her basket was full and she was heading home.

Zhao Lanlan was behind her.

Chen Juanjuan was much the same age as Zhao Qingqing, and ran ahead when she saw her friend.

"You don't come and play any more. Where's your big sister?" Chen Juanjuan looked about as she said it and couldn't see her.

Zhao Qingqing looked at Chen Juanjuan's clean clothes, then at the brothers behind her, and stepped back without thinking. She had heard the third Chen uncle was coming home, and her grandmother had been cursing about it at home for days.

"She'll be at home. I don't know where she goes." Zhao Qingqing looked down and pinched at her own hands.

Chen Juanjuan said oh, and was going to say something else.

"Juanjuan, hurry up, there's work to do." Chen Shao'er didn't play with little girls. It was too much effort. Juanjuan at home cried at nothing, and luckily Yuanyuan wasn't a crier.

Chen Juanjuan said oh again, waved to Zhao Qingqing and ran off.

Zhao Qingqing hitched the basket up on her back and took her sister away.

Chen Shao'er found a place with plenty of pig grass and set to.

Chen Yuanyuan and Chen Shaozhi played beside him.

Chen Juanjuan worked too, for a while, then stopped and went off to play with some flowers she had seen.

Chen Shao'er saw it, pulled her basket over with a sigh and went on working.

By the time the pig grass was cut he was worn out. He gave Chen Juanjuan the lighter basket and took the heavier himself, and the four of them started back.

At the river he thought of the duck eggs from last time, which his sister had spotted, and an idea began to turn. "Yuanyuan, have a look and see if there are any duck eggs here."

Chen Yuanyuan said oh and looked, then shook her head, disappointed. Her brother wanted them and she couldn't see any.

He had only been trying it on and hadn't expected much, and he was about to move off when a fish came up out of the river and landed on the bank, flapping. A good-sized one, about three jin.

Chen Yuanyuan's eyes lit up and she pointed at it. "Fish, fish."

Chen Shao'er was on it at once, into the basket, covered over with pig grass.

They were all delighted.

They set off home quickly, and before they reached the gate they saw a crowd of people round it.