Chapter 7

The woman was straightforward about it. Meat coupons were no use to her if there was no meat to buy with them. Better to pay a bit over and take a chicken home for a treat.

"Go on, then. But what I offered is a fair price."

Zhao Wanwan nodded and ran off.

Zhao Fangsong was still standing where she had left him, holding the sack. When she told him, his eyes went round.

"Really? Go and tell her yes. Yes. That's a good deal."

The village wasn't like the town. Town people worked in factories, drew wages and got coupons, and when they wanted meat they took their coupons and bought it. In the village, meat came once a year from the pig share-out and that was that. Nobody had meat coupons. With coupons in hand they could buy from the big New Year stock that came into the co-op shop.

It hadn't occurred to Zhao Wanwan that in this era this counted as a lot.

"Give me the sack, then, Dad. I'll go and trade with her. A grown man walking over draws too much attention."

Zhao Fangsong had no other worry about it and handed her the sack.

Zhao Wanwan took it back.

The woman had been craning her neck watching for her.

"There you are, pet. I thought you'd never come back."

Zhao Wanwan was still glowing with how well her first bit of business had gone. "Here's the chicken, auntie. My dad says yes to your price."

The woman brought out the grain and meat coupons she had ready, then opened the mouth of the sack a little and looked. It was a good-sized bird. She had done well out of this. She would feed her son and daughter-in-law up properly. It had been a while since they had meat.

Zhao Wanwan handed it over smiling, took the coupons, and watched the woman walk away. Then she quietly slipped some of the grain coupons out and put them aside for herself, and gave the meat coupons and the rest to Zhao Fangsong.

He held them tight and could hardly contain himself. He had never had this many coupons in his hand before. They always went straight to his wife and his mother.

The two of them left the housing block and set off home on foot.

They were nearly at the state-run restaurant.

Zhao Wanwan remembered that smell from earlier. She blinked up at him. "Dad, I'm hungry."

Zhao Fangsong put a hand on his own stomach. He was hungry too. Two trips to the county town in half a day and nothing to eat. "Hold on a bit. There'll be food when we get home."

Zhao Wanwan looked at this father of hers. Honest, yes, genuinely honest, and useless with it. She had seen enough. He wanted sons and nothing else, he had given away his own newborn daughter on a word, and family meant very little to him.

In that way the two of them were rather alike. In her old life her mother had gone off with another man, and her father couldn't stand the sight of her and wouldn't speak to her, though there was never any shortage of money. Not that she had been any better. Her own life was miserable, so she went about making a mess of other people's. She bullied classmates at school, and at university she took other girls' boyfriends. It had been an eventful run. Now she was here, and she was here to be the heroine. Being cannon fodder was off the table. She cared about herself, and other people could look after themselves.

"Dad, I want a bun. I haven't had white flour in ages. Granny has me working and working at home, and my clothes aren't warm, and my hands are all cracked from the cold water." She started to cry while she said it.

Something did turn over in Zhao Fangsong, but he frowned and said nothing.

Zhao Wanwan kept at it. "Dad, I want a bun. You'll buy me one, won't you?"

He sighed. They had come away with a good many coupons today, and he could afford a bun. His mother wouldn't know about it once they were home.

"All right. I'll get you one. Wait here."

She nodded quickly and stood where she was, good as gold.

Zhao Fangsong went in, bought one bun, came out and handed it to her.

She bit into it at once. The buns in this era were generous, she had to admit.

Zhao Fangsong looked at that big bun and still felt the loss of the grain coupons.

Zhao Wanwan finished it on the road and felt better for it. She was working out how to go after the Chens. In all those books, the girl who comes through gets justice for the one whose place she took, and then there was the brother she was supposed to be saddled with. By her reckoning there were two years before the book's heroine came back. She would settle the Zhao family business first, get her own footing in the house, and then make her plans for the fight with her.

At the Chens', Chen Shaoyuan and his brothers had eaten their fill. One wild duck egg was left over and nothing would make him eat it.

"Mum, you have this one."

Yao Shangqing pressed her lips together and smiled. She knew her own son. "All right, I'll eat it. Take your brothers out to play."

He thought no more about it and went off with the two of them.

She put the duck egg in a bowl and covered it, to give to Chen Yougong when he came in from work.

It was nearly dark when he finished. Zhao Qinhua and Li Yue'e made the evening meal.

Yao Shangqing kept out of their way. She wrote a few characters out for Chen Shaoyuan to learn while Chen Shao'er and Chen Shaozhi played beside her, and she sat mending a piece of cloth Li Yue'e had brought over that afternoon. It was old, but unpicked it would make a pair of little trousers.

"The eldest's wife and the others cooking again tonight?"

Chen Yougong was at the basin in their room. He had been at it all afternoon and he was covered in sawdust and filthy.

Yao Shangqing handed him the towel. "Mm. It's their turn."

He went over to look at the little girl on the bed. "Was she good today?"

Yao Shangqing smiled at the sight of her. "She was. No trouble at all. Eats and sleeps, sleeps and eats, easy as anything. And the thing is, when I look at her I feel strong all over, and much happier in myself."

Chen Yougong agreed entirely. "That's just how it feels to me." Then he went to look at Chen Shaoyuan, bent over the table hard at his writing, and rubbed his head. "Oh, and no word from the brigade leader about anyone claiming her, so she's ours for good. She should be on our household register tomorrow."

Yao Shangqing had spent the whole day uneasy about it. One way or another, it was settled now.

After supper Yue Chuan came over and made it official with the family. He thought about the other thing he had heard that day, turned it over, and in the end said nothing. Whatever the truth of it, the child was innocent, and the Chens were one of the few sensible families in the village. She would do better with them.

Chen Yougong walked him out.

Everyone else went back to their own rooms. The thing was decided.

For all Zhao Qinhua's grievances, the brigade leader himself had come and said it, and she knew it couldn't be overturned. She could only mutter and curse.

Li Yue'e wasn't going to say anything. Her family still owed the third brother money, and this was the moment to be the good one.

Old Mrs. Chen waited until they had all gone, then called Yao Shangqing back.

"I made this little jacket this afternoon, out of cloth from my chest. The child's in our house now, so we treat her the same as the rest." Yao Shangqing was still standing there, so she added, "Well, take it."

Yao Shangqing stepped forward and took it. "Thank you, Ma."

Old Mrs. Chen couldn't be doing with all that thanking. "That'll do. Get back and see to the baby."

Yao Shangqing had been married into this family six or seven years and it felt as though she were only now meeting her mother-in-law. She had been lucky. Her parents were safe, she had married a steady man, she had a good mother-in-law, and what more was there? She had everything, and now a son and a daughter both.

Old Mrs. Chen watched her go. Put herself in the girl's place, and she could understand it. She had been young, her family had come apart, and anyone would have turned a little hard over it.

Chen Yougong came back to the room and saw the new clothes on the bed. "Did Ma give you these?"

Yao Shangqing nodded. "I've been round her more, with Yuanyuan. She's a good woman, really."

Chen Yougong sat on the edge of the bed and put his arms round her. "She is. Sharp tongue, soft heart. I've thought it all out. When we split the household one day, I want to bring Ma with us. What do you say?"

Of course she was willing. She nodded straight away, then sighed. "I was foolish before."

He laughed, and looked over at his little daughter, awake on the bed. Everything had gone smoothly since she came. That reminded him of the news.

"The brigade leader told me just now. The job making desks and chairs for the county, the one that was going to the next village, has come to us instead. I'll be busy for a good while. The house will be on you."

Yao Shangqing brightened at once. They had been saying only recently that when this job finished there was no knowing where the next would come from. Work like that paid nearly what a town worker earned. Chen Shaoyuan would start school next year and the household costs were about to jump, and she had been fretting over it.

The weight Chen Yougong had carried for days came off him too. He hadn't said much about it, but he had been asking around everywhere, and with no work coming in he had been anxious. Now it was all right.

"Oh, and this is from the duck eggs at dinner. The boys kept the last one for you."

Yao Shangqing got up and took the covered egg out.

Chen Yougong looked at it, then at his son writing in the inner room. "The little wretch has a conscience after all." Then he looked at his wife. "You eat it. I won't."

She pushed it straight back. "I've had one. Shaoyuan made me eat one at midday."

He knew her too well. He peeled it, broke it in half and put half in her hand. "One each, then."

She looked at him with her eyes smiling.

Chen Yougong let out a breath. "Wife. I'll give you a good life one day. Eggs at every meal."

Beside them Yuanyuan made a small sound with her eyes still shut.