Chapter 8

Yao Shangqing pressed her lips together and smiled.

From the inner room Chen Shaoyuan called out. "Dad, Dad, look what my brother's doing."

Chen Yougong went straight through in case the boys were making trouble.

Something in Yao Shangqing's chest went warm. She wiped her damp eyes, ate her half of the egg, and followed him in.

Chen Yougong was up early the next morning. He had a meeting at the brigade office, where everyone on the job would go over it together. He skipped breakfast, washed his face and left.

When Yao Shangqing came to cook, old Mrs. Chen was already in the kitchen getting things out. She had looked in at the chicken pen and the duck pen on her way, and the laying had gone back to normal. Four hen's eggs, three duck eggs. She was satisfied with that. In deep winter, birds that busy were doing well.

"You're up. Where's Yougong?" Old Mrs. Chen locked the cupboard again.

Yao Shangqing realized the news might not have reached her.

"Ma, the brigade leader told Yougong last thing yesterday. That job in the county making desks and chairs has come to our village. He went off to the brigade office first thing for the meeting." Thinking of it still lifted her.

Old Mrs. Chen put her palms together and murmured. "Thank heaven. Yougong will make good money out of this. Heaven watch over him."

Yao Shangqing was happy too. She rolled up her sleeves and set to.

"Make the gruel thicker today. And boil an egg for Yougong on his own. We'll call it celebrating early." Old Mrs. Chen was beaming. Everyone in the village knew what that work paid.

Yao Shangqing was more than willing. She washed the egg her mother-in-law had just taken out and put it in the pot.

Chen Shaoyuan was on the bed dressing his two brothers. Chen Shao'er was manageable. Chen Shaozhi was too small, and the boy wasn't making a good job of him.

Old Mrs. Chen pushed the door open and came through to the inner room. She saw Chen Shaozhi struggling, went over and gave the clothes a few tugs, and that sorted it.

"Granny." All three of them piped it at her.

She couldn't have been more pleased with these three grandsons. Her whole face creased up. "Why aren't you having a lie-in? It's freezing. What are you up for?"

Chen Shaoyuan shook his head. "I couldn't sleep. And Mum taught me some characters yesterday and I've forgotten a bit. I lay there and couldn't get them back, so I came to look."

She rubbed his head, satisfied with him. "Go on, then. See your brothers get their shoes on. I'll go and look at your sister."

She went through to Yao Shangqing's bed and leaned slowly over the little girl. Looking at her, she seemed changed again. She really was lovely. The registration would go through today, most likely. She was sound asleep. Old Mrs. Chen hadn't been born into good times herself. It had been a poor life from the start, and her own mother had favoured her elder brother and her third brother. Even then she had decided that when she had children of her own she would do right by them, and never favour one over another.

"You. When your dad earns, he'll buy you nice things. Nobody goes short in this house."

The little girl seemed to hear her. Her mouth worked, and her small fists moved.

Old Mrs. Chen laughed out loud. Then she thought about the eldest's family and sighed. She would have to talk that one over with her third son, or it would be awkward.

Chen Shaoyuan got his shoes on and went straight to the table to look at the characters he had written the night before. He meant to have them properly.

Chen Shao'er took Chen Shaozhi and the pair shot out into the yard.

Old Mrs. Chen saw the baby was all right and went out herself. She wandered about a bit, then came into the kitchen.

Yao Shangqing was getting the pickles out and dressing them.

Old Mrs. Chen sat down to help with the fire. She saw the pickles too. She had taught Yao Shangqing to make them, and the girl made them better than she did, so she had simply taught her the lot.

"Shangqing. There's something I want to talk over with you."

It was the first time her mother-in-law had spoken to her in that tone.

"Ma, just say it. There's no need to talk anything over with me."

Old Mrs. Chen sighed. "With Yougong taking this job, we'll have a good deal more room in this house. Dayu is seven and she still hasn't been to school. There's Xiaoyu too, she's five, same as Shaoyuan. I was thinking that when the autumn term starts next year, all three of them should go."

Yao Shangqing looked down. School fees were three yuan a year each. Three children came to nine, and that was before books and the rest.

"Ma, I've no objection. It depends on Yougong."

Old Mrs. Chen knew she was putting her in a difficult position. But the eldest son earned nothing beyond his bare work points, and school was out of reach for his children.

"Shangqing, I know you're a good girl. This is me doing wrong by the pair of you." It was hard for her to say.

Yao Shangqing could see her side of it, though it did sit uncomfortably. Whatever the eldest brother and his wife were like, Dayu and Xiaoyu were good children. Washing clothes, gathering firewood, first to any job in the house. It was their mother who wanted sons and nothing else. Thinking of that, most of the discomfort went.

"Don't say that, Ma. What matters in this family is that we're at peace with each other. Dayu and Xiaoyu are good girls. It won't be wasted."

While she talked the pickles were done. She took the buns out of the pot, put them in a basket and covered them with a cloth so they wouldn't go cold, then started on the gruel.

Old Mrs. Chen judged it about ready, drew some of the firewood back and stood up. "Shaoyuan. Go to the brigade office and call your dad in for breakfast."

Chen Shaoyuan had just finished washing his brothers' hands. "Yes, Granny, I'll go now."

She had hardly finished speaking when Zhao Qinhua and Li Yue'e both came out. The eldest and second brothers had been up long since for the early shift, and they would come back when the bell went.

Old Mrs. Chen looked at the pair of them and gave a cold snort.

Dayu minded Chen Chengzhuang while Zhao Qinhua washed.

Before long the Chen yard was lively.

Chen Shaoyuan brought his father back.

Yao Shangqing got a moment to tell Chen Yougong what had been said.

He understood his mother. He only thought it was hard on his wife.

"Don't take it to heart. My brother's an honest man, it's his wife who can't speak civilly. I've no objection to it. I only worry it's unfair on you."

Instead it was Yao Shangqing who comforted him, and that was the end of it.

The village bell went and the early shift came back.

Li Yue'e saw Zhao Qinhua still limping and hid a smile. "Sister-in-law, when's that foot of yours going to get better?"

Zhao Qinhua had been laughing happily a moment before. She wasn't laughing now.

"What business is it of yours?"

Li Yue'e pulled a face. "Can't I ask after you out of kindness? That's gratitude for you."

Zhao Qinhua snatched up her son. "What are you standing there for? Go and wash." She couldn't out-talk Li Yue'e, but she could still snap at her daughters.

Chen Dayu held her mouth shut tight so she wouldn't cry, and went off with her head down to wash her face and hands.

Old Mrs. Chen watched her. She couldn't understand how Zhao Qinhua had got so unreasonable. Before she had a son her temper hadn't been bad. These last six months it had got worse and worse.

Chen Youliang and Chen Yougang came back, washed their hands, and the whole family sat down together to eat.

Old Mrs. Chen shared the food out first, as always.

"I've got good news for you all. The third son has picked up a good job and should make decent money out of it."

The family blinked, then started congratulating him. Money and coupons coming in meant an easier life for everyone.

"It's all right, it's all right. As long as this family pulls one way." Chen Yougong didn't crow about it. He had bigger plans in him than this.

Old Mrs. Chen looked round and went on. "And when the autumn term starts next year, the children in this house are going to school."

Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu glanced carefully at each other. They weren't old, but they had grown up early. School meant Chen Shaoyuan. It had nothing to do with them.

"There'll be a few of them next year. Chengcai started this year, and next year Shaoyuan, Dayu and Xiaoyu all go. That's a good number. I'm not expecting any of you to come out of it a great scholar. I only want them not to be blind with their eyes open." Old Mrs. Chen said it cheerfully, and reached over to rub the heads of Chen Dayu and Chen Xiaoyu, sitting beside her.

The two girls were astonished.

Chen Shaoyuan was simply delighted. He could go to school too. Chen Chengcai was forever showing off about going. He had only been too young, and next year he would be six and could go as well.

Zhao Qinhua was the first to react. "Ma, send those two to school? That's money down the drain. Girls. They do a few years' work at home and then you find them a husband's family, and that's that. What's school to them?"

Old Mrs. Chen slammed her chopsticks down on the table. She had put up with Zhao Qinhua a long time.

"What sort of talk is that? Zhao Qinhua, who are you running down? Six months of a better life and you've got above yourself. Anything goes wrong and you take it out on a child. She's a child, not something for you to vent on. Do you call that being a mother?"

Her face was stern and she went at it line by line. "And you, eldest. All day long you think doing your work is enough. Look at your own two girls. They're old enough, and you haven't once raised the question of school. Where do you put them? Zhao Qinhua, before you had Chengzhuang I told you. This family does not favour boys over girls. Now look at yourself."

Chen Youliang's face was scarlet. "Ma, I understand. I'll do better."

Zhao Qinhua sat to one side with Chen Chengzhuang, mouth twisted, saying nothing, until it burst out of her anyway.

"Ma, if that's how you're going to talk, then I don't accept it. The second brother and the third brother both have sons, so you're not short of grandsons. I'm the one short of a son. Who doesn't want a son? Look at the Zhao family over the way. Three girls already, and another one born the other day, and they're saying the birth went wrong and the baby died. It was probably another girl and they smothered it."