Chapter 1: From Now On, Your Name Will Be Tangtang
The dead of winter had arrived, and the world was a sheet of ice and snow. The biting wind that howled through the mountain hollow felt sharp enough to freeze a person to death. The normally bustling village was now shrouded in silence as every family huddled indoors, with only the occasional clucking of a chicken or the bark of a dog breaking the stillness.
Su Huimin, a man in his early thirties with a pair of black-framed glasses perched on his nose, pulled his wrinkled cotton-padded jacket tighter around himself. He was pushing a Phoenix-brand “28-bar” bicycle. Though he wore gloves, his hands gripping the handlebars were nearly numb with cold.
With everything blanketed in snow, every house looked the same. It had been years since Su Huimin had last visited Waguan Village. He stopped a villager carrying a hoe. “Excuse me, does Su Yandi live around here?”
The villager shot him a curious glance before pointing. “Cross the bridge up ahead. The house with the broken stone millstone by the gate is Su Yandi’s.”
Su Huimin’s second-oldest sister, Su Yandi, had a near-total falling out with their mother, Old Madam Zhu, years ago. As a result, the families hadn’t been in contact for a long time.
Su Huimin thanked the villager and pushed his bicycle across the bridge. Just as he approached, he saw a crowd of villagers gathered in front of a wattle-fenced yard with a stone millstone. From inside, a woman’s shrill, cursing voice cut through the air.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?! I tell you to do a chore, and you slack off and hide! How can you take so long just to wash some clothes? Don’t you even know to come home and cook when it’s getting dark? I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to give birth to a wretch like you! I have to work and manage everything inside and out, and on top of that, I have to serve you like you’re some pampered young miss, is that it?! Why don’t you look in a mirror and see if you have the life of a young miss?!”
Su Yandi brandished a rattan cane, her plump, sturdy body trembling with rage. She brought it down without a shred of mercy.
The little girl, Sanya, clutched a wooden basin full of clothes. Each strike of the cane landed squarely on her arms, making her grimace in pain. Her face was pale as she tried to explain, “Ma, I wasn’t slacking off on purpose. I just felt dizzy and sick, so I slept in the grass for a little while…”
Outside the fence, a few gossiping villagers clicked their tongues. “That Third Brother’s wife is really vicious with Sanya. No matter what, the girl is her own flesh and blood.”
“You know how Su Yandi is. She treats her sons like the apples of her eye, but her daughter is worth less than the weeds on the roadside. The boys get to eat chicken legs, while this girl can’t even get a bone to gnaw on! In this freezing weather, when the river is turning to ice, she makes Sanya wash the whole family’s clothes all by herself. On top of that, the girl has to gather firewood from the mountains and scrub the pots and pans. She does it all alone.”
“I heard she even tried to sell Sanya to the Huang family’s twelve-year-old idiot son as a child bride a while back. It’s only because Sanya was clever enough to fight and cling for dear life that the deal fell through!”
“Stop it!” Su Huimin couldn’t watch any longer. He rushed forward and blocked the descending cane. “Even if a child made a mistake, there’s no need to beat her like this! If-if you keep this up, you’ll seriously injure her!”
“Third Brother Su?!” Su Yandi narrowed her eyes. She looked at Sanya, who was cowering behind Su Huimin, and rolled up her sleeves viciously. “It’s my god-given right to discipline my own daughter! Since when do you get to meddle in my family’s affairs? Get out of my way! If I don’t beat this damn girl until she learns her lesson today, then my surname isn’t Su!”
The deal with the Huang family had been going so well. They were willing to pay one hundred yuan for this slip of a girl, and Su Yandi had spent three whole days planning how to spend the money. This heaven-sent opportunity had been ruined by this wretched girl, and the resentment in Su Yandi’s heart had only festered.
Crack!
Su Huimin snapped the tough rattan cane in two and threw the pieces to the ground. “Today, I am going to meddle!”
“Pah! You, Third Brother Su, are a dog trying to catch mice—a busybody! When did my family’s business become your concern?!” Su Yandi’s anger flared as she saw Sanya being thoroughly protected behind him. A cruel sneer spread across her fleshy face. “Fine, fine! You want to meddle, is that it?!”
Su Yandi spat on the ground. “Then you can meddle all you want! I don’t want this girl anymore. From now on, she can stop calling me ‘Ma.’ If you want her, take her home. If you don’t, then toss her into the mountains for the wolves to eat!”
After saying this, Su Yandi snatched the wooden basin from Sanya’s hands, giving her a hard shove in the process. Sanya fell to the ground, scraping a layer of skin off her palm. It stung fiercely, but she ignored the pain, scrambling back to her feet to hug Su Yandi’s leg. “Ma, I know I was wrong… I’ll be better, I promise. I’ll never be lazy again…”
Su Yandi kicked her away. “You wretched girl, I’ve raised you all these years for nothing! Open your eyes and look closely! From now on, this Third Brother Su is your father. Go find your mother somewhere else!”
With that, Su Yandi stormed back into the house. BOOM! The door slammed shut with a deafening noise. She completely ignored Sanya’s desperate pounding and loud sobs.
The sky gradually darkened, and snow began to fall heavily again. The onlookers, having had their fill of the novel spectacle, slowly dispersed, chattering amongst themselves.
Sanya’s hands, which had just been soaking in the icy river water, were purple with cold. The tears and snot on her face froze into tiny icicles. Her voice slowly grew hoarse from shouting. After a long time, she heard Su Yandi’s voice from inside, calling her brothers to come eat.
Sanya felt the last thread of hope she had been clinging to finally snap. Tears welled up, falling in large drops onto the snow. She knew now. Her mother truly didn’t want her anymore.
A sigh came from behind her. Sanya turned, her eyes red and swollen, and looked at the uncle who had been waiting with her for two whole hours.
“Uncle…” Sanya’s voice was timid. She knew Su Yandi truly didn’t want her anymore. If her uncle didn’t take her in, she would have no other way to survive.
Su Huimin sighed. “Come back to your grandma’s house with me for now.”
With that, Su Huimin lifted Sanya onto the back seat of his “28-bar” bicycle.
Yuhuai Village was separated from Waguan Village by a mountain and two other villages. The Su family home was a mud-brick house with a tile roof. Besides the kitchen and a room used for storage and meals, there were five other rooms. The courtyard wall, which had once collapsed, had been repaired just this year.
A small vegetable patch had been cleared at the base of the wall, though nothing grew there at this time of year. A few chickens roamed freely, leaving droppings scattered on the ground. A jujube tree was planted by the gate, its branches bare and stark now that it was no longer the fruit-bearing season.
Before entering the house, Su Huimin lifted the little girl off the bicycle seat. He patted her messy hair, which felt like a clump of foxtail grass. “Sanya, Uncle is going inside to talk to your grandma and the others. You wait for me out here by the door, okay?”
Sanya licked her dry lips and looked up at him with sparkling eyes. “Uncle, I’ll wait for you right here at the door.”
Su Huimin let out another heavy sigh and walked into the house, his shoulders slumped.
“What? You just brought that girl back with you?”
“We don’t have any extra grain! Third Brother, you know how tight food is for every family right now. Why should we raise a girl with a different surname?”
“Third Brother, you’re being completely irrational!”
His wife, Yu Juanfang, shook her head, her brows tightly furrowed. It was clear she didn’t support his decision to bring the child home either.
It was already dark outside. Sanya twisted her ten fingers, which were so pale the veins were visible beneath the skin. She bit down hard on her lip, tasting the faint tang of blood before realizing she had been so nervous she’d broken the skin.
A long time passed. Sanya had given up all hope. Wiping away the tears that had frozen into tiny icicles on her cheeks, she turned and started walking toward the edge of the village, the north wind howling against her face.
“Sanya! Sanya!” Holding a flashlight, Su Huimin came chasing after her, his footprints deep and uneven in the snow.
“Didn’t I tell you to wait for me outside? Why did you just leave?” Su Huimin caught up and took the child’s hand. A small smile touched his face. “Come on, Uncle is taking you home.”
Su Huimin’s palm was broad, dry, and a little warm. Sanya licked her lips, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. A timid smile appeared on her face. “Uncle, I’ll go home with you.”
This was the first time in her life that Sanya had ever been to her maternal grandmother’s house. She clutched the wrinkled hem of her clothes, her head bowed as she endured the family’s scrutiny.
The Su family had a total of four sons. The eldest, Su Jianjun, was married to Zhang Guixiang from the neighboring Xiashan Village. She was the sharpest and most calculating of the wives, and the two of them had two sons. The second son, Su Xinguo, was married to Yu Yahong, and they had three sons and one daughter. The third son was Su Huimin. His wife, Yu Juanfang, from a nearby village, was known for her fiery temper and nimble hands. While most of the Su family had little education, Su Huimin had been admitted to a normal school¹ and now taught at the Yuhuai Village Primary School. He and his wife had three sons. The fourth son, Su Qinggang, was married to a woman named Wu Fangmei, and they had a son and a daughter.
Su Huimin and Yu Juanfang’s three sons were: the eldest, Su Juesheng, ten years old; the second, Su Juexiao, eight years old; and the third, Su Juesheng, seven years old, one year older than Sanya.
The Su household was large. In addition to the nine adults, there were also ten children.
The house was a cacophony of noise, with adults and children all crammed together, waiting for dinner to be served.
After a long silence, it was the old matriarch, Zhu Fengxia, who finally sighed. At the end of the day, the girl was still her own granddaughter. “You’re Sanya, is that right? Your Third Uncle says that from now on, you’ll be his and your Third Aunt’s daughter. You’ll call your Third Uncle ‘Dad’ and your Third Aunt ‘Mom.’ From now on, you must work hard in our home, and when you grow up, you must be filial to your parents. Now, go wash your face and get ready to eat.”
Sanya was overjoyed. She looked up at Su Huimin, her dark pupils shining brightly, and her voice was clear and sweet. “Dad!”
“Yes, good girl,” Su Huimin responded without hesitation. Sanya then turned to Yu Juanfang and called out, “Mom!”
Yu Juanfang turned her face away. “Don’t call me Mom. It’s not like I gave birth to you.”
Sanya’s gaze fell, a wave of disappointment washing over her. Then she heard her grandmother, Old Madam Zhu, speak again. “From now on, you won’t be called Wang Sanya anymore. You’ll be Su Sanya, understand?”
Su Huimin, being an educated man after all, frowned. “Su Sanya doesn’t sound very good. Since we’re changing her surname, we might as well change her given name too. Let me think of a good name…”
Yu Juanfang’s eyes landed on half of a crispy candy wrapper lying next to the stove. She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t our surname Su? Just call her Su Xintang, why don’t you!”
Su Huimin thought for a moment before speaking. “Let’s use the ‘Tang’ from haitang—the crabapple flower. Spring is coming, and the crabapple blossoms will be blooming soon. We’ll call her Tangtang for short.”
And just like that, Sanya’s name was decided. She was no longer Wang Sanya, but Su Xintang.
Translator’s Notes:
-
“28-bar” bicycle (二八杠): This refers to a classic, sturdy men’s bicycle model with 28-inch wheels, very common in China during that era. It’s a small detail that firmly grounds the story in its time period.
- Su Xintang (苏心糖): Yu Juanfang’s sarcastic suggestion. 酥心糖 (sū xīn táng) is a type of flaky, crispy candy.