Chapter 28
◎You Live at the Head of the Yangtze River◎
The day after the agricultural learning activity ended, Su Juesheng brought his classmate home.
It was almost evening, and the sky was a dusky yellow. The boy before them was in his teens, slightly taller than Su Juesheng. He was wearing a crisp, navy blue tunic suit, a watch on his wrist, and his collar and cuffs were spotless. He had a gentle smile and a scholarly air about him.
“Hello, Uncle and Aunt. I’m Zhou Shunian. Sorry to bother you.”
“So you’re Little Zhou. I’ve long heard from Juesheng that you often look out for him at school! You’ve finally come to our home. Come in, come in. Don’t be a stranger, just make yourself at home. Auntie has made several of her specialty dishes. You must try them!” Yu Juanfang warmly welcomed him into the house, while telling Tangtang and the others to take his bedding and luggage inside.
Tangtang and Su Juesheng greeted him at the door. “Hello, Brother Shunian.”
“This is my third brother, Juesheng, and my little sister, Tangtang. I also have a second brother who is at Hongqi Commune Middle School and only comes back on weekends,” Su Juesheng introduced him.
“Hello, little brother and sister.”
Zhou Shunian looked at the two children before him. The boy seemed a little shorter than the girl. The boy was wearing a blue striped short-sleeved shirt and had a dark complexion. The girl was wearing a grass-green long-sleeved shirt with white polka dots, her hair in two shiny black pigtails. When she looked at people, her eyes sparkled.
Zhou Shunian took out a few pieces of chocolate he had been reluctant to eat from his pocket, squatted down, and stuffed them into the two children’s hands. “I bought these in the city before. Have a taste!”
Tangtang looked at the square piece of candy in her hand. It was different from the candies they had eaten before. The outside was a yellow paper wrapper with the words “Happiness Brand Chocolate” printed on it, and the candy inside was black.
After Tangtang unwrapped the paper and took a bite, her eyes lit up the moment the chocolate touched her tongue. This candy was different from the fruit-flavored hard candies the family had bought before. It melted in her mouth, with a very fragrant and mellow aroma, and a hint of bitterness in its rich flavor.
Yu Juanfang had already prepared dinner. This meal was undoubtedly made according to their family’s New Year’s Eve dinner standards. There was a cold salad with three kinds of shredded vegetables—shredded carrots, shredded cucumbers, and vermicelli mixed with an oil and vinegar dressing; stir-fried eggplant with tomatoes; potato stew with vermicelli; and a vegetable and egg drop soup.
The most eye-catching dish was the bowl of red, shiny, and tempting braised pork. The meat in the clay pot was trembling, the skin was cooked until it was translucent, and each piece was coated with a thick sauce, glistening with an amber-colored oil under the kerosene lamp.
“Hurry up and eat while it’s hot!” Yu Juanfang first served a piece of braised pork to Zhou Shunian.
Zhou Shunian picked up a piece of braised pork and took a bite.
The braised pork was soft and glutinous with a hint of elasticity. It melted in his mouth with a light touch. The rich and mellow flavor of the sauce spread on his tongue. The sweetness and saltiness were just right. The fatty part was not greasy at all, but full of the aroma of fat. The lean part was not dry at all, but fresh, tender, and juicy.
“Auntie’s braised pork is so delicious, even better than a restaurant chef’s.”
“How can I compare to a state-run canteen chef? Eat more. Just make yourself at home, don’t be formal.” Hearing this, Yu Juanfang’s eyes crinkled with a smile, clearly proud of her cooking skills.
“Brother Shunian, try this. I picked these cucumbers and carrots from the fields myself.” Su Juesheng served him a mouthful of the cold salad with three kinds of shredded vegetables.
Tangtang served Zhou Shunian a bowl of vegetable and egg drop soup. “Brother Shunian, eat more.”
After dinner, Tangtang brought him a basin of water to wash his feet.
Because Zhou Shunian was Su Juesheng’s friend, Tangtang naturally treated him like an older brother. “My mom said that soaking your feet before bed makes you sleep more comfortably.”
Zhou Shunian had originally thought he would feel constrained, but this family’s attitude was like the warm sun that melts the frozen earth in spring, making one feel warm and comfortable. “Thank you, little sister Tangtang.”
Hearing his words, Tangtang’s eyes were full of smiles. “Brother Shunian, you can just call me Tangtang.”
Hearing this, the smile on his face deepened. “Thank you, Tangtang.”
…
The agricultural learning activity was in full swing. During the day, the students went to the fields to help the villagers and learn about spring plowing. At night, everyone would gather around a bonfire to sing and tell stories. The atmosphere was full of youthful vigor. After leaving school, they discovered that the world outside was so vast.
After finally getting out of school, Su Juesheng was in a hurry to go back and play marbles, running very fast. Tangtang chased after him with her schoolbag. “Brother Juesheng, Third Brother, wait for me…”
Not paying attention, she tripped and fell to the ground, and the textbooks in her schoolbag also fell out.
Zhou Shunian happened to be returning from outside the mountain. Seeing this, he quickly handed the farm tools in his hand to a classmate next to him, went forward to help her up, and then helped her put the textbooks back into her schoolbag. “Are you okay?”
Tangtang patted the dust off her clothes and gave him a smile, the pink silk flower hair tie on her pigtail swaying and creating fine shadows of light. “I’m fine, thank you, Brother Shunian. I didn’t get hurt at all.”
“Brother Shunian, I’ll go back first. I still have to go back and do my homework.”
“Alright.”
This scene happened to fall into Zhang Chunni’s eyes.
The bamboo basket she was carrying was filled with freshly picked ferns, the stalks still dripping with water. Zhang Chunni waved at Tangtang, signaling her to come over.
“Sister Chunni, what do you need?”
Zhang Chunni glanced in the direction Zhou Shunian had left several more times, until the navy blue figure disappeared around the corner of the adobe wall. She withdrew her gaze and asked with a blush, “Tangtang, who was that boy just now?”
“Oh, that’s Brother Zhou Shunian. He’s Big Brother’s classmate at Yuanlin Middle School. He’s here in our Yuhuai Village for agricultural learning.”
Zhang Chunni had also heard about the students from Yuanlin Middle School coming to Yuhuai Village for agricultural learning. She had secretly observed several groups of students who came into the village with their bedrolls. Their clothes were patched, and the toes of their shoes were worn white. They had a timid, rustic air about them, clearly children from ordinary rural families. They would probably have to go back to toiling in the fields after graduating from high school. She looked down on them.
But the boy who was talking to Tangtang just now had a clearly different temperament.
“Hey, hey, he’s a high school student? What do his parents do? He doesn’t look like a child from a rural family, but more like the child of a cadre in the city.” Zhang Chunni was a little shy at the thought of asking a little girl about these things.
Tangtang recalled seriously. She had heard Su Huimin ask about it during a casual chat yesterday. “I heard his dad works in the county party committee office, something like a secretary. He should be a high-ranking cadre. His mom is an ordinary woman who takes care of the family.”
“Doesn’t that mean he’s from a high-ranking cadre’s family?” Zhang Chunni was overjoyed to hear her words. She had seen the watch on Zhou Shunian’s wrist and the leather shoes on his feet just now. Those were not things an ordinary family could afford.
Tangtang was not interested in these things. She gave Zhang Chunni a strange look. “Perhaps.”
…
A while ago, Su Huimin had already cultivated the family’s vegetable patch. Yu Juanfang had sown cucumber seeds in the patch, and tender yellow sprouts had emerged in the past few days.
Cucumbers were their family’s most popular vegetable in the summer. They were delicious in a cold salad, as pickles, and stir-fried with eggs. But she didn’t know if it was because the soil at the base of the wall of the old Su family’s house was not suitable for growing cucumbers. Every year, either the survival rate was extremely low, or the cucumbers that grew were small and deformed. This year, with a new vegetable patch, Yu Juanfang decided to try again.
Tangtang’s most important task every day now was to water the vegetable patch and check for insects. If any insects came to bite, she would catch them and feed them to the chickens. She fetched a bucket of water from the well to water the vegetables and, while she was at it, recited the ancient poem the teacher had taught in class today. “I live at the head of the Yangtze River, you live at the tail of the Yangtze River…”
“When the great flood comes one day, we’ll be ghosts of the Yangtze River together!” Su Juesheng made a funny face.
“Su Juesheng!” Tangtang was interrupted by him and forgot the rest. She was so angry that she threw down the water ladle with a clang and chased Su Juesheng around the courtyard.
While the brother and sister were fooling around in the courtyard, they saw Zhang Chunni tuck the hair at her temples behind her ear. “Tangtang, I heard from Wani that you drew the embroidery pattern for her. Can you give me a copy for me to trace?”
Zhang Chunni had specially dressed up. She was wearing a green and white checkered top and brown-gray trousers. She had even put a little hair oil on her hair and rouged her lips.
Seeing someone come over, Tangtang stopped and temporarily let the deserving-of-a-beating Su Juesheng go. “Alright, Sister Chunni, wait for me. I’ll go in and get it for you.”
Her dad, Su Huimin, had many books. Books were not cheap in those days, and she didn’t know where he had gotten them. One day, while flipping through a geography book, Tangtang discovered that some of the pages had illustrations. Although the illustrations were in black and white, they were particularly beautiful and exquisite.
Tangtang had traced the illustrations on a piece of white paper, colored them with colored pencils, and then pasted them on the wall or clipped them in her textbooks. One day, Wani saw them and asked Tangtang for two to trace and embroider on a handkerchief.
After Tangtang went into the house, Su Juesheng also ran out to play. Only Zhou Shunian was left in the courtyard, repairing the bicycle chain at the base of the wall. When he was repairing the bike, he had taken off his watch and placed it on a stool next to him.
The boy had a high-bridged nose, and his slightly messy short hair swayed past his delicate eyebrows and eyes.
Zhang Chunni lifted her hand, revealing a section of her fair wrist, and blushed slightly. “I’m Tangtang and Su Juesheng’s cousin. We should be around the same age. You can just call me Chunni.”
Hearing this, Zhou Shunian finally looked up. “Hello, I’m Zhou Shunian.”
His hands were covered in oil from the bicycle chain and couldn’t be washed clean right away, so he just nodded slightly, as if to acknowledge her.
Zhang Chunni squatted down next to him, less than an arm’s length away. She felt as if she could smell the faint scent of herbal soap on the boy. Seeing the watch he had placed on the stool, she picked it up and examined it. “This watch is so impressive. What brand is it?”
Zhou Shunian’s fingers paused, and he imperceptibly moved to the side. “It’s just an ordinary Shanghai brand.”
His voice was cold, and he didn’t even raise his eyes.