Chapter 32

Yao Shangqing had no view on it. Her mother-in-law had decided, and there was nothing more to say.

Early the next morning old Mrs. Chen had only just got up when she saw an extra hen and an extra duck in her own pen.

Zhao Qinhua was standing in her yard with a smile on her face that was worse to look at than crying. She didn't want to keep the birds. They ate and did no work, and who could afford to wait on them. Better to send them back, and get a little credit with her mother-in-law out of it.

"Not keeping them, then?" Old Mrs. Chen asked it with something that was not quite a smile.

Zhao Qinhua coughed twice. "You were right yesterday, Ma. Youliang and I haven't been looking after you, so I've sent the hen and the duck back. It's our duty as children."

Old Mrs. Chen laughed coldly twice and turned into the kitchen. As if she believed a word of it.

Zhao Qinhua's face set. She had got nothing out of it, and there was no fun in that.

---

Once the village had its autumn sowing done, the slack season had started. There was very little work in the fields.

Every household had time on its hands, and the slope behind the hill filled up with people. It was autumn, and any dry branches could be gathered and carried home. Some wild fruits ripened in autumn too, and with luck you might come on them. On top of that there were always wild ducks over that way, so there were wild duck eggs to be picked up. Nobody would have thought of the duck eggs at all if they hadn't seen the third Chen family's children pick some up.

By November Baijia Village was bitterly cold, and the difference between day and night was wide. Hills on three sides will do that.

Li Guilan came over to ask old Mrs. Chen for the pouch.

Yuanyuan was in the kitchen looking at her rabbits. It was cold now, and the kitchen was the one room where the warmth didn't go straight out.

Old Mrs. Chen had her well wrapped, and the cotton inside the padding was half new. That was cotton coupons Chen Yougong had traded for in the county.

The children's clothes nearly all had new wadding stuffed in. The grown-ups took the old, since grown-ups can stand the cold.

Old Mrs. Chen went into the kitchen and took the pouch off Yuanyuan.

Yuanyuan was sorry to see it go. She had worn it a long time.

"Granny's taking it for your Auntie Danju. I'll get your Granny Li to make you another. She needs this one." Old Mrs. Chen explained it to her patiently.

Yuanyuan nodded her little head. "All right then."

Old Mrs. Chen brought the pouch out. "Here. Take it home and put it on Danju. Let's hope it helps."

Li Guilan held the pouch and was full of thanks. It was bound to help.

"I'll get on and embroider Yuanyuan another. There's nothing else to do at home."

Old Mrs. Chen nodded and went back to shelling pumpkin seeds.

Li Guilan took the thing and hurried home.

---

Chen Yougong came back from the county on the winter solstice, as it happened. He had been a long while at the county furniture works this time. The newest batch of furniture had come out in new patterns, and the works manager was pleased with it. Now they would see how it sold. Nobody was thinking about the Canton Fair this time. Getting it out of the county at all would be good.

Chen Yougong had earned a fair bit of money and coupons, and he came back carrying five jin of meat. The house hadn't had meat in a long while, so he had traded for meat coupons on purpose and queued early to buy it.

Old Mrs. Chen took the thick bundle of coupons and felt a deep contentment. Now her mind was easy. There were all the children, and two more starting school next year, Shao'er and Juanjuan. That all took money.

"Right, we'll eat well today. It's the solstice as it is. If you hadn't come back I was going to make plain dumplings. Now there's meat we'll have meat ones."

The village set great store by the turns of the year. On the solstice you had to eat dumplings. Whatever else was in the house, dumplings there had to be, or your ears would freeze off. Chen Shao'er had got up that morning holding his ears in case they dropped off, and had talked Yuanyuan into it as well.

Yuanyuan copied him and went about holding her ears, afraid that if she let go for a moment they would fall.

Chen Yougong went over and scooped her up. "Have you missed your dad?"

Yuanyuan burst out laughing and nodded. Of course she had. It had been a long time.

Something came back to Chen Yougong. "Ma, Yuanyuan's two now, isn't she? What was the date, that year? I've forgotten."

Old Mrs. Chen nodded. "Second son's wife, chop the filling. We're making dumplings today."

Li Yue'e hadn't come out of her room. It was cold and there was nothing to do, so she had stayed in there and didn't even know the third brother was back.

"Oh, Yougong's back." Then she saw the great piece of meat and her face lifted further. "Ma, are we chopping all that?"

Old Mrs. Chen nodded. "Cut a little of the fat off, but leave plenty in the filling. It tastes better."

Li Yue'e said yes and went into the kitchen. What a day this was. Meat dumplings at the solstice. There was no end to it.

Yao Shangqing was sorting clothes in their room. Chen Yougong had brought a pile back himself, some of it given by kind-hearted women. She picked through it, washed and put away whatever could be worn, and the rest went into layered soles.

"By the time you remember, it's long past." Old Mrs. Chen sat in the main room with her hands tucked in. "It was a few days ago. I gave her half a bowl of noodles and boiled her an egg. Don't you worry, she won't go short."

Chen Yougong laughed and pinched Yuanyuan's little cheek. "The days do go. Yuanyuan's two already."

Old Mrs. Chen remembered something. "You put your back into it next year and the year after and we should be able to get our house up."

Chen Yougong sat down and set Yuanyuan on his knee. "All right. Only after New Year I'll likely be busy. If this batch from the works sells well, I'll have to be there for the long run, keeping an eye on it."

Old Mrs. Chen lowered her head and made a noise. "Be careful, though. Mind yourself. Didn't the furniture works catch fire last year? Where they keep the timber. That wants watching."

Chen Yougong knew it. He would certainly keep himself safe. There was a whole family at home.

Yuanyuan kicked her little legs and wanted down.

Chen Yougong put her on the floor.

Yuanyuan ran fast. She ran into the bedroom and flopped onto the bed, knocked her two small feet together, and her shoes came off.

Yao Shangqing was at the table sorting clothes and watched her. "Yuanyuan, what is it?"

Yuanyuan pulled out the pouch she kept under her pillow. "Ma, this. For Dad."

Yao Shangqing came over, got her shoes back on and lifted her down.

"Off you go."

Yuanyuan gripped the pouch tight in her small hand and ran back to the main room.

"Dad. For you."

Chen Yougong was telling old Mrs. Chen about the work, and the little pouch in front of him took him by surprise.

"What's this, then?"

Old Mrs. Chen had seen it too. "Your Auntie Li embroidered that for Yuanyuan. She wears it every day."

Yuanyuan had her face turned up, in a bright red hat that set her face off nicely, white with pink in it.

"Safe." She didn't know why she had to give it to her dad, only that she had to. Safe.

Chen Yougong looked at the little swallow embroidered on it. "Dad doesn't need it. This is Yuanyuan's. You wear it."

This time Yuanyuan's small face went firm and serious. She kept pushing it at him and shaking her head. "I don't want it. It's for Dad."

Old Mrs. Chen watched with a smile. "She's giving it to you, so take it. I'll get your Auntie Li to embroider Yuanyuan a new one."

Chen Yougong didn't know whether to laugh. He looked at the little thing and put it in his pocket. "All right. Dad will keep it safe."

Only when she saw it put away did Yuanyuan nod, and then she went out to play.

Old Mrs. Chen watched her run off. "That reminds me. The day the village shared out the fish, Yuanyuan picked up a gold bar on the hill behind. I've put it away. It's hers. She gets it when she's grown."

Chen Yougong's head rang with it. A gold bar? Did his mother mean what he thought she meant?

"Really?"

Old Mrs. Chen nodded, pleased with the whole business. Her son hadn't seen much of the world. What was there to look so shaken about.

"Ma, come and tell me how much white flour to put in." Li Yue'e called from the kitchen.

Old Mrs. Chen said yes and got up and went through.

---

Zhao Qinhua was washing vegetables in her own yard and heard Li Yue'e. It wasn't New Year, and the Chens were putting white flour in their dumplings. Then she thought back to the white-flour meat dumplings at New Year last year, and the taste of them. Lovely. She went and had another look round her hen pen. She had raised these birds herself and they should be laying by now, but like everyone else's they had dropped right off once winter came in. Meanwhile she watched the house next door picking up eggs every single day, and she could not work it out.

Yao Shangqing had finished in the room, rolled her sleeves up and came into the kitchen to help.

"Ma, is all this pork going in?"

Zhao Qinhua had her ears only on what was being said next door. Meat filling, still. Then Chen Yougong came out of the main room and the two of them looked straight at each other.

Zhao Qinhua gave an awkward smile.

Chen Yougong had been thinking about the gold bar and she gave him a start. By the look of her she was standing there listening for whatever was going on at their place. He couldn't be bothered with her and turned into the kitchen.

Zhao Qinhua picked up her things and went quickly into her own kitchen.

Chen Youliang was in there waiting to light the fire.

"How can it take you that long to wash a few vegetables?"

Zhao Qinhua pulled a face. "Do you know what they're eating next door today?"

Chen Youliang glanced at her and said nothing.

She hadn't expected him to say anything, and went on. "Meat dumplings. And I heard the second brother's wife say they're adding white flour. How did I never see what the second lot were like? They've attached themselves to the third brother good and proper, and they're living well on it. Of the second's children, Chengcai's first year at school was paid with money Li Yue'e borrowed from her mother's house. The second year it was the third brother's money, wasn't it?"

"What's the use of saying it? Dayu and Xiaoyu spend his money too. He wants a good name." Chen Youliang had a stick of firewood in his hand.

Zhao Qinhua finished cutting. "We can't earn, can we. And I've nephews at my mother's house, and there isn't enough to go round. Besides, the third brother hands the money over himself. Who's to blame for that?"

Chen Youliang had always known his third brother was sharp. A good name, money coming in, a dutiful son. He got the lot.

---

Old Mrs. Chen had the kitchen going hard. Yao Shangqing came in and made up the dough, then picked some spring onions. They couldn't all be meat ones. She cut a bunch of chives from the vegetable plot, and chive and egg was a good filling in the village too.

When the fillings were ready, old Mrs. Chen rolled the wrappers and Yao Shangqing and Li Yue'e made the dumplings. Chen Yougong was off to one side sorting Yuanyuan's rabbit hutch. The rabbits had to be separated. They kept growing and they fought easily.

"Third son, when we've made them you take some out to freeze, and tonight you go quietly over to her parents with them." Old Mrs. Chen said it without troubling to keep it from Li Yue'e. There was no need to hide how things stood in this house.

Chen Yougong agreed. "I'll go and speak to him first, then."

Yao Shangqing's hands stopped over the dumpling she was making. She bent her head and her eyes reddened. She really was not one for crying. It was only that thinking of her parents went straight through her.

Li Yue'e saw her sister-in-law like that and patted her hand and gave her a look of comfort. She admired this sister-in-law. The woman had said she would go down with them and had gone, and could bend without breaking. In her place she could never have done it.

Old Mrs. Chen thought about it and put the rolling pin down. "I'll get a few things together in the room and you take them over to him. We can't keep troubling the man like this. It isn't decent."

Chen Yougong tried to stop her and couldn't. The truth was that while he was working at the county works a temporary post had come up, and he had already put forward the brother of Zhou Jiefang's wife. He hadn't said so. When a man does you that sort of favour, it is hard to pay back whatever you do.

Li Yue'e took the rolling pin and carried on with the wrappers.

Yuanyuan came pattering in from outside and leaned on Yao Shangqing's leg. "Ma, it's snowing." She pointed outside.

Chen Yougong was fixing the hutch and heard his daughter. He looked up and out. "Snow's good. Let it come a few more times, and come spring there'll be water enough for the wheat."

Yuanyuan didn't follow that and went on with her complaint. "Brother. Second brother. He won't come in."

Yao Shangqing pressed her lips on a smile. She understood it. It was snowing and he was still outside playing.

"Never mind. We'll let the snow rain on him. Leave him to it. When his clothes are wet he can go without and lie in the quilt."

Yuanyuan covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.

Li Yue'e looked at Yuanyuan and thought of Juanjuan. "Yuanyuan, where's your sister Juanjuan? Is she out there too?"

Yuanyuan clapped her hand over her mouth harder. She mustn't say. Juanjuan had told her not to say. No telling.

One look and Li Yue'e knew. "You. You little article."

---

Old Mrs. Chen got the things together in her room. She put in a length of cloth and ten eggs, which was a handsome present. Everyone knew how hard cloth was to come by in the country. Eggs the house had plenty of, but if she sent too many they might not take them.

"Just take this over and say it's a solstice present."

Chen Yougong took the cloth bag. It was dark grey, and you couldn't see a thing inside it.

"I'll go now, then, and tell him how things are."

Old Mrs. Chen waved him off.

Yuanyuan leaned against Yao Shangqing. She could feel how much was moving in her mother, and some of it was sad. She knew her dad had gone to see her mother's mother and father. Oh dear, it was all tangled up and hard to think about.

"Ma, don't be sad." Yuanyuan held Yao Shangqing tight with her little arms.

With her daughter holding her like that, something in Yao Shangqing let go, and she couldn't have said why. She believed it would all come right in time.

Li Yue'e watched from the side, and the dumplings in her hands lost their savour. She envied them that girl who keeps you warm when you're old. Her own was outside in the snow.

Old Mrs. Chen came back and the wrappers came fast after that. Before long there was a board of them, round and fat and white, good to look at.

---

Chen Yougong set off with the things. It was snowing and there were almost no grown-ups on the road, only children running about.

He walked fast and was there in no time.

The Zhou house was making dumplings too. This year his wife's brother had brought over two liang of meat. He was going to be a temporary worker after all, and that was twenty yuan a month, never mind the other things that came with it, oil and all sorts.

"Brother Zhou, are you in?" Chen Yougong stamped his feet at the door before he knocked.

Zhou Jiefang knew the voice and came straight out of the kitchen.

His wife Wang Xiang got up too and clapped the flour off her hands.

"Brother Chen, what brings you over, and in this snow?" Zhou Jiefang got the door open and pulled him towards the main room, then turned and raised a hand at his wife. "Pour my brother Chen a cup of hot water. It's a cold day."

Wang Xiang had never seen Chen Yougong, but one word told her this was the man who had found her brother the job, and she moved faster. She turned into the kitchen to pour the tea, and put brown sugar in it.

Zhou Jiefang and Chen Yougong were getting on better and better. Each thought the other a good man, loyal and willing to carry his share.

"It's the solstice, isn't it. My mother wanted me to bring my wife's parents some dumplings, so they can boil them for themselves."