Chapter 35

It was the first time Chen Dayu had ever done anything like it, and she was worked up.

Chen Xiaoyu had all sorts going through her head. She knew what was coming in the years ahead, but study and knowledge came before any of it. Since her third uncle could send her to school now, she would work at school properly and not go chasing after this and that. She knew quite well that she was not one of the clever ones. All she could do was try harder and keep her mind on the work.

"You study properly too, sister. There aren't many chances at school. It's the only way we get out, and then things will be different."

Chen Dayu thought Chen Xiaoyu had changed lately. She seemed much more sensible, which was all to the good.

"Yes, I know. We'll both work at it."

Chen Xiaoyu made herself remember the last time round. Her elder sister had stopped after primary school. For one thing their mother wouldn't let her go on, since Chengzhuang was starting primary school by then and the house needed hands. For another she thought it a waste of their third uncle's money, and went and asked him to pay Chengzhuang's school fees instead.

None of it did any good.

You treat them as family and you are nothing to them at all.

The two of them walked home talking.

School hadn't started again and there was no work in the fields. Most people were standing about outside with their hands in their sleeves, talking. It was still a bit cold.

---

Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu had only just got home when Zhao Qinhua planted herself in the yard with her hands on her hips and started on them.

"Where have you two been off to this time? Doesn't the firewood want gathering? Don't the hens want feeding, and the ducks? Don't you eat the eggs they lay?"

Chen Dayu had known it would be like this, and put her head down and went to get the basket.

Chen Xiaoyu had been holding a breath in her chest, and she wasn't afraid of Zhao Qinhua in the least. There was nothing in her eyes but disgust. "We don't eat the eggs they lay, as it happens."

That tipped Zhao Qinhua over. She snatched up the broom beside her. "If I don't beat you to death today I'm not your mother."

Yuanyuan had been playing in the yard. When they started quarrelling she dragged a stool over and leaned on the low mud wall to watch. Seeing it turn to blows, she got down off the stool fast.

"Granny, hitting. Hit, ting." She shouted it all the way into the main room.

Old Mrs. Chen was in there cutting out shoe patterns, unlined shoes for the spring. Everyone in the house needed a pair.

Hearing her granddaughter shout outside, she went cold. Who would dare hit her granddaughter? She put her work down and went out.

"Who hit you? Who would dare?"

Yuanyuan shook her head and pointed at the yard next door.

One look and old Mrs. Chen understood. She went over to the wall half walking, half running.

"Zhao Qinhua, what do you think you're doing? Going to hit someone again?" There was plenty of voice behind it.

Zhao Qinhua was certainly afraid of her. She was her mother-in-law, and old Mrs. Chen had been widowed young with a houseful of children, which had made her a name in the village as a woman not to cross.

Yuanyuan saw how her granny stood when she quarrelled and copied it, hands on her hips, two round eyes glaring, her small mouth pushed out.

"Ma, I'm bringing my children up. I was only giving them a fright." Zhao Qinhua wasn't looking for a fight with her mother-in-law. What galled her was that the household was split and she was still being told what to do.

Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu stood to one side and said nothing.

Old Mrs. Chen snorted. She had seen through it a long time ago. Try it on with me and you'll find you're not old enough.

"Let me tell you this, Zhao Qinhua. If you dare hit Dayu or Xiaoyu again, I'll go to the commune and report you, and we'll see how a vicious daughter-in-law gets on."

Zhao Qinhua was choking on it. Since when could she not manage her own children? But she put the broom down.

Only then did old Mrs. Chen snort again. "There's one wall between us. No more of this nonsense in future."

She turned to go, and turning round she saw Yuanyuan doing an imitation of her, and groaned.

"What are you at? You mustn't copy Granny. Granny's being bad." Inside, old Mrs. Chen cursed herself. She was no sight to look at when she quarrelled, and Yuanyuan was no ordinary child. This she absolutely must not copy.

Yuanyuan thought her granny had looked very grand just then. Quarrel like that and you wouldn't lose. She always lost to Juanjuan, because she talked too slowly and had no weight behind it.

It took old Mrs. Chen a good deal of coaxing to get Yuanyuan to stop copying her, and then her mind was easy again. It was all Zhao Qinhua's fault. But for her, how would Yuanyuan ever have seen it?

---

Yuanyuan watched old Mrs. Chen go inside and then trotted over to the gate next door. Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu had their baskets on and were about to go to work.

The two of them were out of the gate before they saw her hiding by it.

"What are you doing here?" Chen Dayu touched her cheek.

Yuanyuan blinked up at her. Her eldest brother was at home doing his homework and the other two had gone off to play, and nobody was minding her.

"Playing."

Chen Dayu looked at her and went soft all through.

"We're going for firewood. We can't take you to play."

Yuanyuan put out a small hand and caught the hem of her jacket. "Go on. Go on."

Chen Dayu gave Chen Xiaoyu a helpless look.

Chen Xiaoyu nodded. She would count it as minding a child.

"All right then. Come on." Chen Dayu put out her hand for her.

Yuanyuan grinned.

The three of them went slowly. New Year was only just over and it was cold, but it was a fine day.

They walked up the slope behind the hill, to where Yuanyuan had picked up the gold bar. This was near the edge of Baijia Village, close to Zhoujia Village next door.

"Yuanyuan, you play here. We'll gather firewood over there. Don't wander off, do you hear?" Chen Xiaoyu told her.

Yuanyuan nodded obediently. She was always the good one.

The two of them went off to their work with easy minds.

Yuanyuan put her head down and poked at the grass beside her. There was nothing much on the hill now, mostly dead branches.

A squirrel came hopping over, dropped an apple and was gone in a blink.

Yuanyuan stood up puzzled, took two steps forward, then squatted with her bottom in the air and got her arms round the apple with a good deal of effort. It was nearly as big as her face.

She meant to turn and find her two sisters, but she couldn't see them, so she sat down on the ground again. After a while two more people came along with baskets on their backs. They had come to cut pig fodder.

Yuanyuan watched them without moving.

Yao Zhizhao put his basket down and was turning to go and help Zhou Xingyue when he saw the little girl ahead of him. Her clothes weren't much, but they were clean, and the string tying her hair was red, which looked cheerful. She was a pretty child, pale and clean, with a plump face, not at all like the children here.

Zhou Xingyue came over on her own and set her basket down.

"Whose child is that?" She had seen her too. In all the years they had been here she had never seen a child like that.

Yao Zhizhao looked round and saw no grown-ups. "She can't have got lost, can she? She looks on her own to me."

Zhou Xingyue looked and thought the same. Where were the adults?

"I'll go and ask."

Yao Zhizhao nodded. The point was there was nobody about, and a child alone up here was dangerous.

Zhou Xingyue walked slowly over.

Yuanyuan didn't shrink away, because she felt nothing bad coming off them.

"Whose little girl are you? Where are your people?"

Yuanyuan held the big apple tighter and turned to point the way Dayu and Xiaoyu had gone.

Zhou Xingyue looked along her arm and saw nobody.

"Your mother and father are over that way, are they? Then don't move from here. Wait for them to come back for you."

Yuanyuan nodded obediently and went on squatting, one small hand on the big apple in her lap.

Only then did Zhou Xingyue take in what she was holding. She frowned, puzzled, and went back to Yao Zhizhao.

"Why don't we cut here? We can keep an eye on the child."

Yao Zhizhao looked round.

"All right. Here, then."

Zhou Xingyue took her sickle and started cutting. The sun was strong and they were working, and before long their faces were running with sweat.

Yao Zhizhao looked at his wife and thought she really was not strong. "Go and rest over there in the shade. I'll do it."

Zhou Xingyue wiped her face. "It's nothing. I can manage this much." She put her head down and carried on.

Yuanyuan sat beside them with the apple in her arms and her head on one side, watching.

Zhou Xingyue glanced up at her and smiled. The child was lovely, and not shy of strangers. What were the parents thinking, not coming to look? Country children ran loose, but leaving one this small up here was careless.

Yuanyuan felt the apple in her hands, and then stood up all at once. She didn't get her feet under her and swayed, though she didn't fall.

Yao Zhizhao was nearest and made to catch her without thinking, and only let it go when he saw her steady.

Yuanyuan came slowly towards them over the grass.

Yao Zhizhao and Zhou Xingyue straightened up and watched her.

Yuanyuan walked up to Zhou Xingyue, lifted both arms and held the apple out to her.

Zhou Xingyue saw what she meant, and it warmed her. She put out a hand and tried stroking the child's head.

"I don't want it. You keep it and eat it yourself." She could not place the child. One that age, carrying an apple that size about as if it were nothing, and at this time of year. It was plainly expensive.

Yao Zhizhao watched her do it, and it warmed him too.

Yuanyuan kept holding it up. She would not give way. "You eat. I'm not hungry."

The small milky voice and the earnest little face put Zhou Xingyue in a very good mood.

---

Chen Dayu had her pig fodder cut by now. She turned and couldn't see Yuanyuan and had a fright, thinking she had wandered off, then looked at the ground under her feet and saw that she had worked along as she cut and lost track of where she was.

"I'll go and find Yuanyuan. You stay here." She ran back the way they had come.

Chen Xiaoyu waited where she was.

"Yuanyuan, we're going home." Chen Dayu saw her before she reached her, and saw her talking to somebody, and called out.

Yuanyuan heard Dayu calling and put her apple in the basket at Zhou Xingyue's feet, then turned and ran.

Zhou Xingyue didn't catch what Dayu called her, but from the way she went it was somebody of hers.

Yao Zhizhao looked at the big red apple in the basket beside his wife and meant to go after her. The child had looked as if she couldn't walk straight, and now she ran fast enough.

Zhou Xingyue looked at the apple and sighed. "She's gone and given it to us. I wonder if she'll be scolded at home."

Yao Zhizhao shook his head. "I shouldn't think so. She didn't look to me like a child from an ordinary family."

---

Chen Dayu ran the last two steps and gathered Yuanyuan in.

"Who were you talking to?"

Yuanyuan thought about the big apple. That was done for. She had forgotten Dayu, and she had given it to that granny. She decided to keep it to herself and simply not let Dayu know.

"A granny. She was working." Yuanyuan said it very seriously.

Chen Dayu thought nothing of it. There were only the two villages, and there were no strangers about.

The three of them set off home.

Yuanyuan turned and looked back before she went, but there was nothing to see.

The squirrel was up a tree, and when it had watched them go it went hopping home itself.

Old Mrs. Chen was looking for her, and came hurrying over when she saw her back.

"Where have you been? Why didn't you tell Granny? I've been looking for you this long while." She knew nothing could happen to her, and she was anxious all the same.

Chen Dayu saw how worried she was and owned up at once. "Granny, I forgot to tell you. I took Yuanyuan out with us."

Old Mrs. Chen waved it away. "I know it wasn't you. She'll have pestered you into it."

Yuanyuan grinned and giggled. "Granny, I wanted to play."

Old Mrs. Chen looked at her and couldn't raise a temper. "All right. Not again, though. You tell Granny when you go out."

Yuanyuan nodded hard.

Chen Xiaoyu, beside them, found it all very strange. This child of her third uncle's had not existed at all in the last life. So much had changed this time, and her granny thought the world of her.

Old Mrs. Chen took Yuanyuan's hand and led her in.

Chen Dayu and a thoughtful Chen Xiaoyu carried their loads home.

Chen Shaoyuan had gone out looking for Yuanyuan, and came back after a circuit of the village and found her already at home, which settled him.

Then he gave her a talking-to as well.

---

Two days later the village primary school was due to open.

Chen Dayu kept thinking about the letter at the commune, afraid it would come to nothing. Nobody had come.

"Xiaoyu, do you think it worked? It's been two days." Chen Dayu had no idea.

Chen Xiaoyu was sure it would. They were very strict about this sort of thing now.

Sure enough, after the midday meal Yue Chuan came into Baijia Village with people from the commune.

A crowd were sitting under the big tree below the village entrance, passing the time. One look at who Yue Chuan had with him and they could tell it was serious, and every one of them stopped talking.

Yue Chuan took them straight to the Zhao house.

Zhao Wanwan had been at home waiting for a chance to get alongside Chen Xiaoyu. The girl ought to be making a move soon, finding a way to sell things on the black market in the county. But Wang Fen watched her closely and wouldn't let her go anywhere. At home she minded the children and worked.

"Anyone in?" Zhao Wanwan was feeding the hens in the yard and ran to open the gate, and found Yue Chuan there with two people behind him.

"Uncle Yue, is something the matter?" Zhao Wanwan looked up at him. What was happening?

Yue Chuan saw Zhao Wanwan at home. She wasn't at school right enough.

"I want your grandmother. Where is she?"

Zhao Wanwan pointed at the main room. "Granny, Uncle Yue's here for you."

Wang Fen was counting eggs in her room. Once she had enough she could take them to the co-op shop and change them for money.

She came straight out when she heard.

"What brings the brigade leader here?" Wang Fen came out smiling, and then saw the two neatly dressed people behind him who looked like officials, and hurried them inside.

"Go and pour them some tea."

Zhao Wanwan had meant to listen in, and was packed off with that one sentence.

The woman official sitting there was the one who spoke. "You're Comrade Wang Fen, is that right?"

Wang Fen's heart was thumping. She nodded.

"We've had a letter of report. Your granddaughter is of age and isn't at school. Is that so?"

Something dropped in Wang Fen, and she started cursing inside. Who had been poking their nose in where it wasn't wanted? If she wanted the girl at school she would send her. Why were people so fond of other people's business?

"Comrade, look, children in the country generally start late. We hadn't got round to it, that's all. This year, this autumn when the term starts, I mean to send the child to school. I don't know what wicked soul would go and report us."

Zhao Wanwan brought the tea in and set it down without a word.

The woman did not believe a word of it. "Child, when are you going to start school?"

The question left Zhao Wanwan blank. When was she starting school? How would she know? She didn't want to go to school.

That told the woman what she needed. She turned a few pages of her notebook and went on, her face unchanged. "Your household was also suspected of trading on the black market, and now you're keeping your children out of school. There's a great deal wrong with your thinking. I hope you'll correct it. I'll be keeping a particular eye on your household, and if the children of age aren't at school when the autumn term starts, we'll use compulsion."

Wang Fen went white with fright on the spot. She was a bold enough woman, but the sight of anyone in authority, any rank at all, finished her.

The people Yue Chuan had brought were hard, and he never got a word in. They didn't touch the tea that was poured for them. It was business, and when it was said they left.

Wang Fen's legs went under her.

Zhao Wanwan couldn't believe it. So this was what the heroine could do. In this book she was the one luck favoured, and anything she set her hand to came off. It gave Zhao Wanwan a thrill. If all that were hers, how much better would it be?

Zhao Qingqing heard about it too, and she was glad. She could go to school now as well, with Juanjuan this year.

Wang Fen's eyes were poisonous, fixed on Zhao Wanwan. She was certain the little wretch had told, or why would they have come?

The look made Zhao Wanwan shake. That was Wang Fen. Touch her money and you had touched her life, and this was money to be spent on the granddaughter she liked least.

"I never told anyone. I've no time to leave the house. It's two hours there and back to the commune. I'm at home all day every day."

Put like that, it cleared away most of Wang Fen's doubts.

---

Zhao Fangsong had gone to his wife's mother's house that day with his wife and children.

He only heard about it when they came back in the afternoon.

"It's only school, isn't it? Let them go. Ma, the way you treat your granddaughters, you should hear what people say about us behind our backs." Zhao Fangsong had been unhappy with his mother a long time.

Wang Fen could have burst. Who had she done it all for?

"Have you any idea what it costs to put one child through school? Can you earn? Can you match the third Chen boy?"

Zhao Fangsong had plenty bottled up himself.

"All day long it's money and money. Can't you talk about anything else? The minute something happened to Chen the third you took me out of school, and now you make that my fault too." He got it all out in one breath and turned and walked off, sick of it. Money, money, all of it money.

Wang Fen put a hand to her chest and watched him go, and thought he would be the death of her all over again.

Zhao Wanwan got well clear of the quarrel. She had made up her mind. School was all right, really. At least it would put her nearer Chen Xiaoyu, and perhaps she would hear sooner when the girl did her black market trading. She had the plot out of the book, but being at her side was better still.

The business at the Zhaos went round fast. Everyone talked about it for a while and then it passed.

---

In April 1971 something wonderful happened to the Chens.

Chen Yougong joined the county furniture works properly. His household registration was moved into the town, and from now on he was on the state grain ration.

When old Mrs. Chen heard, she went off alone into her room, got the portrait out and bowed to it again and again. She had always known the Chens would go from strength to strength.

When Chen Yougong came back from the county, half of Baijia Village came to talk to him. A worker, no less. The only man in Baijia Village who had ever become one was Chen Yougong. No, that wasn't quite right. There was old Mrs. Chen's eldest brother as well, who worked in the county, only the two families were said to have cut ties long ago.

Watching all that from next door, Zhao Qinhua nearly choked.