Chapter 50
◎Paper Mulberry Jam◎
The paper mulberry fruit in the mountains was ripe all over the branches, red and tempting, like rouge sprinkled on green satin, glistening with a moist and crystalline light. Yu Juanfang and Tangtang, the mother and daughter, carried bamboo baskets and soon picked a full basket of paper mulberry fruit.
After returning home, Yu Juanfang used a small basin to pick out a portion to eat, and the rest were washed with water, ready to be made into fruit wine and jam.
Yu Juanfang first made the fruit wine. She added a spoonful of salt to the water, washed the paper mulberry fruit, and soaked it for two hours. After draining the water, she wiped the fruit dry and let it air dry. Next, she prepared a clean wine jar, laid a layer of paper mulberry fruit at the bottom of the jar, sprinkled a large handful of white sugar, laid a layer of paper mulberry fruit and sprinkled a layer of white sugar, and finally poured in the white wine she had gotten from the supply and marketing cooperative. The fruit wine was then ready. She moved it to a cool, dark place to be stored properly, and it would be ready to drink in three months.
Next was to make the jam. She mixed the paper mulberry fruit with sugar and let it marinate for two hours. The moisture from the fruit came out. After marinating, she started to cook it in a small pot. She first added a small bowl of lemon juice so that the jam would not change color and would have a richer taste. After reducing the juice of the paper mulberry jam on high heat, she turned to low heat and simmered it slowly. The whole kitchen was filled with the sour and sweet aroma of paper mulberry fruit.
When the jam became thick and translucent red, Yu Juanfang dipped her finger in it to taste. The sour, sweet, and soft pulp of the paper mulberry fruit, mixed with the clear acidity of the lemon, exploded on her tongue. The sugar melted into a thick honey, feeling so sweet it could reach the heart.
Tangtang leaned against the stove. “Mom, is it ready?”
Yu Juanfang’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “It’s ready.”
As she spoke, she scooped up a spoonful and brought it to Tangtang’s mouth. “How does it taste?”
Tangtang took a light sip and was so amazed by the taste that her eyes widened. She hadn’t expected the paper mulberry fruit to be so delicious when made into jam. The smooth pulp of the paper mulberry fruit was coated with the clear acidity of the lemon, sour and sweet. “Mom, this jam tastes so good!”
Yu Juanfang looked at her shining eyes, smiled, and scraped her nose. She used a wooden spoon to scoop the jam into a jar. “You can use it to spread on buns, mix with congee, make rice cakes, and steam sugar triangles! You can also use it to make sugar water!”
“Then I’ll use it to mix with my congee tonight!” Tangtang swallowed her saliva excitedly.
Yu Juanfang’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “Alright, you can eat it however you want, as much as you want.”
…
At the end of the month, Su Juexiao, who was in high school in Yuanlin County, sent a message saying that their school was going to rehearse a program this month, and he would not be coming home for the holiday this month.
When Su Juexiao went to school, he had only brought one month’s living expenses. If he was frugal, it could probably last until the middle of next month, but it definitely wouldn’t last until the end of the month. Tangtang and Juesheng happened to be on vacation at home, so they volunteered to go to the county town to send Su Juexiao his living expenses.
“Can you two do it?” Yu Juanfang looked at them with suspicion.
“We can definitely do it! Don’t forget that Tangtang and I have been to Xiangyang City to tell stories. You can count on us!” Su Juesheng patted his chest and guaranteed.
Looking at the two children, Yu Juanfang gave them a bag of dry rations prepared for Su Juexiao and twenty yuan for his living expenses. She also reminded them, “Be careful on the road and take care of your sister.”
“Alright.”
Su Juesheng pushed the family’s 28-inch Phoenix brand bicycle out of the courtyard. This bicycle had been in their family for almost ten years and had always been their closest comrade. A few years ago, when Yu Juanfang and her daughter Tangtang went to the black market to sell tofu and braised meat, they had relied on these two bicycles. They were light and easy to ride, and it wasn’t tiring to go uphill. When going downhill, the wind would blow on their faces, which was very pleasant.
But now, the paint on it was almost all gone, and the chain had broken several times. It was always difficult to pedal. Su Huimin wanted to buy a new bicycle, but he had been unable to get a bicycle coupon, so he had to give up.
Their dad, Su Huimin, had gone to the city for a meeting and study session these past two days, so the bicycle was left at home.
Tangtang sat on the back seat, and Su Juesheng pedaled in the front. After going up a slope, the bicycle quickly started to move.
Su Juexiao hadn’t expected his younger brother and sister to come to the city to visit him. He was very happy and took them to the canteen for a good meal.
The canteen was mainly composed of three parts: a queuing area, a kitchen, and a simple dining area. Behind a wooden door with a cloth curtain was the kitchen. Several large stoves took up more than half of the space. A man-high iron pot was bubbling with steam. The chef in charge had his sleeves rolled up and was stirring the stew in the pot with a long-handled wooden spoon. Cabbage stalks, potato chunks, and a few pieces of fatty meat were tumbling in the cloudy meat broth. A layer of oil floated on the surface, reflecting the flickering flames in the stove.
Next to the kitchen was a simple dining area. Dozens of elm wood dining tables were crowded together. Men and women sat separately. The “ding-dong” sound of enamel mugs hitting the tabletops, the “whoosh” sound of chopsticks turning over the vegetable basins, and the slurping and choking sounds during the meal were constant.
The students, holding their rice bowls, had already formed several long queues in the open space.
Su Juexiao led them to the school’s large stove to get their food. There was potato stew with pork ribs, sweet and sour cabbage, and the staple food was fragrant, fluffy, and soft white flour buns. The potatoes were stewed until they were soft and mushy, and they were soaked in meat juice.
After eating, during the short lunch break, Su Juexiao took Tangtang and Juesheng to the shops in the county town for a good look. He bought each of them a bottle of orange water and a pack of salted biscuits. These biscuits were made from wheat flour and salt. They were crispy and were wrapped in yellow oil paper. The more you chewed, the more fragrant they became.
After Tangtang and Su Juesheng had finished browsing the shops, they set off back. Su Juexiao still had classes in the afternoon. The brother and sister rode their bicycles out of the county town and followed a road to the west to go home. It was more than forty li from Yuanlin County to Yuhuai Village. It was almost the Dragon Boat Festival, and the afternoon wind in summer was hot on their faces. The leaves of the poplar trees on both sides of the road rustled, and the cicadas were chirping loudly in the branches.
The tire was flat, and they couldn’t continue to ride no matter what. Juesheng jumped off the bike and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Tangtang, let’s take a rest.”
Tangtang and the others rarely came to the county town, so they didn’t know where they were. They could only roughly estimate that they were about halfway from Yuhuai Village. It would be very tiring to walk. She saw a village not far away. “Brother, let’s go to that village and ask if they have a pump.”
Juesheng thought this was a good idea, so he pushed the bicycle and went into the small village with his sister.
Tangtang and Juesheng knocked on the door of a house at the edge of the village. A stooped old man in his fifties or sixties came out. He raised his eyelids listlessly. “Who are you looking for?”
“Uncle, we are from the Yuhuai Village production brigade of the Hongqi Commune. Our bicycle tire went flat on the way home. We were wondering if we could get a bowl of water from your house.” Tangtang said.
The old man glanced at the bicycle behind them and knew their intention. “Our brigade leader’s house might have a pump. I can go and borrow it for you. You can come in first.”
The old man led them into the house.
Only after entering the house did Tangtang realize that it was even more dilapidated than it looked. It was dark, and a musty smell mixed with the damp, earthy smell hit her face.
The window frame was crookedly hanging on the wall, and the lower half of the glass was long gone. The thatch on the roof was sparse, and the door was also rickety. If a wild wolf came to snatch someone, it probably wouldn’t last for five minutes.
After her eyes adjusted to the light in the room, Tangtang realized that there was also a teenage boy in the room. His eye sockets were very sunken, probably from hunger. An old woman was lying on the kang, on the verge of death, letting out long and short groans of pain from time to time. Next to her was a five- or six-year-old girl. Perhaps because of long-term malnutrition, she looked much shorter than other girls her age. She was so thin that only her bones were left, and her face was a sallow, vegetable color. She was pulling at the old woman on the kang. “Grandma, wake up, wake up…”
This scene was undoubtedly a huge shock to Tangtang. She was so shocked that she couldn’t make a sound for more than ten seconds, and her almond-shaped eyes soon filled with tears.
Her gaze fell on the scrawny little girl, and she seemed to see herself from many years ago.
“Maomao, we have guests.”
Hearing the old man’s words, the little girl named Maomao climbed down from the earthen kang, went into a small room next to it, and came out with two bowls of clean water in a chipped bowl. “Brother, sister… have some water.”
“Thank you.” Tangtang took the water.
Remembering something, she took out the pack of biscuits she had bought from the shop in the county town from her schoolbag and stuffed it into the little girl named Maomao’s hand. “Eat it, eat it quickly.”
The moment Maomao’s fingertips touched the biscuits, an instinctive desire made her swallow her saliva constantly. She looked up at Tangtang again. Seeing her nod in affirmation, she excitedly took the biscuits, jumped back onto the kang, broke the biscuits into pieces, and stuffed them into the old woman’s mouth. “Grandma, eat some biscuits!”
The old woman’s eyelids moved, and her withered hands fumbled towards the edge of the kang. Maomao quickly broke off a piece of biscuit and put it in the old woman’s mouth.
The fragrance of the salted biscuits constantly wafted into their noses. Maomao could no longer hold back. The young man also came over. The three generations of the family desperately swallowed this pack of biscuits.
The old man seemed to be in a better condition. He did not go forward to fight for them. There were hot tears in his eyes, and his lips trembled. “Thank you, thank you…”
At this time, not to mention a pack of biscuits, even a piece of dried sweet potato was their lifesaver.
“Uncle, did your production team also plant that fake grain seed that was advertised to have a tenfold yield?” Su Juesheng thought of the messy wheat seedlings that were thrown around on the field ridges when they passed by the village just now.
“Who says it wasn’t? That fake grain seed has killed people! Our whole production team planted this damn thing. We can’t harvest any grain. We haven’t had any grain in the pot for three days!” The old man covered his face and cried. “If this continues, not only will my old wife and I die, but I’m afraid the two children won’t be able to live either!”
Juesheng clenched his fists. “The commune just lets you die without helping? Is there no relief grain?”
“Relief grain…” The old man wiped away his tears. “The two children are named Zhu Qing and Maomao. A couple of years ago, to support Zhu Qing’s studies, their father secretly sold a few packs of rat poison and was made an example of. Not to mention there’s no relief grain, even if there was, it wouldn’t be our turn…”
Coming out of this small village, the brother and sister’s hearts were unspeakably heavy.
Their family had grain to eat, but there were so many people in this world who had no food.
Even if their mouths were full of white sugar, the thought of people starving to death every day made the taste bitter.
On the way back, Tangtang and Juesheng did not speak. When they returned to the village entrance, Tangtang saw a woman bending over to pick up a small wooden horse on the ground. She was holding a one-month-old baby in her arms, and her movements were very inconvenient.
Tangtang quickly went forward to help her pick it up.
“Thank you.”
The moment she saw the woman, a trace of surprise appeared in Tangtang’s eyes. “Sister Axiu?”
Next to the old Su family’s house lived a family with the surname Zhang. Zhang Axiu was the fifth daughter of the old Zhang family. When Tangtang was little, she had gone with Wani to find her to play rubber band skipping. Sister Axiu had been a capable worker since she was young. After dropping out of school in the second grade of primary school, she had been helping out at home. At the age of sixteen, she married into a poor peasant family in Xiashan Village.
Tangtang saw that she was also carrying a three- or four-year-old boy on her back. Her eyes were dark, and her steps were unsteady. She was carrying a bamboo basket in her hand. It was not difficult to guess that she had come back to her parents’ home to borrow grain.
The entire production brigade of Xiashan Village had planted the fake grain seeds. The floral cloth covering the basket was flat. Auntie Zhang’s family was also living a hard life. They probably didn’t have much grain to lend her.
A forced smile appeared on Zhang Axiu’s face. “There’s no grain in the pot at home. The two children are crying from hunger. If it weren’t for the fact that I had no other choice, I wouldn’t have come back to my parents’ home to borrow grain. It’s a pity. I thought that even if I had married into someone else’s family, my family would still think of me a little. After all, I had done so much hard work for the old Zhang family for so many years. Who knew that the phrase ‘a married daughter is like spilled water’ would block me at the door, and I didn’t even get to see anyone…”
As she spoke, the baby in Zhang Axiu’s arms began to cry.
She found a stone slab and sat down. She untied the baby from her back and began to breastfeed him without avoiding Tangtang.
Tangtang’s heart was filled with mixed feelings. She stood in front of Zhang Axiu with her arms outstretched, trying her best to block the view of the passing villagers.
The child suckled for a long time but couldn’t get any milk and cried even harder. Zhang Axiu rocked the baby with a pained expression, her face full of sorrow.
Uncle Zhang was a drunkard. He liked to hit people after drinking. When Sister Axiu was at her parents’ home, she had suffered a lot from her father’s fists. Tangtang had thought that Sister Axiu’s life would be better after she got married, but she didn’t expect it to be so hard.
Zhang Axiu gave Tangtang a smile. “I still have some things to do at home, so I’ll go back first.”
After saying that, she held the baby in her arms again and walked towards Xiashan Village with the empty bamboo basket.
Tangtang turned and ran towards home.
Zhang Axiu was holding a baby in her arms and was not walking fast. After about ten minutes, Tangtang, carrying something in her hand, quickly caught up.
“Sister Axiu! My mom asked me to give this to you. She measured out two liters of wheat and a dozen eggs.” As she spoke, Tangtang moved the wheat and eggs from her bamboo basket into Zhang Axiu’s bamboo basket. The empty bamboo basket was instantly filled.
“This… I can’t accept this…” Zhang Axiu stared at the things in the bamboo basket, her lips trembling.
Tangtang stopped her from refusing and said seriously, “Sister Axiu, don’t refuse. Even if you don’t think for yourself, you should think for your two children. You’re still breastfeeding, and you need nutrition the most.”
Zhang Axiu suddenly turned her face away, her shoulders trembling violently. There was no one around. She could no longer hold back and covered her mouth and cried loudly.
Last night, the child was crying from hunger. She could only put her own finger in the baby’s mouth. She had gone back to her parents’ home to borrow grain, and her big brother had blocked her at the door, saying that a married daughter was like spilled water. Eggs, wheat… these were such precious things.
She had not expected that the Tangtang family, who were not related to her by blood, would lend her a helping hand.
Seeing their mother cry, the children on her back and in her arms also began to cry, not knowing what to do.
After crying for a long time, Zhang Axiu finally stood up and wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve. “Go back and thank your mom for me…”
Tangtang watched as Zhang Axiu’s thin figure gradually disappeared around the corner, her heart filled with mixed feelings. Even if their family could give Sister Axiu two liters of wheat and a dozen eggs today, what about tomorrow?
How much grain did their family have to give away?
As the saying goes, you can help the needy but not the poor. But in these years of famine, where was the end to the needs of the poor?
…
Zhang Guixiang had witnessed the process of Tangtang giving grain to Zhang Axiu. After the fake grain seed incident was exposed, Zhang Guixiang had taken out all her family’s belongings, but by the time they arrived, the grain had all been snatched up. They had only managed to buy coarse grain at five times the price. Now, the whole family was just adding water to the coarse grain paste, adding wild vegetables, and tightening their belts to live a tight life.
She couldn’t help but frown, wondering. Now, every household’s grain was tight, and the grain at the grain station had long been sold out. Even if Su Laosan issued grain coupons on time every month, they couldn’t buy any grain. Where did Su Laosan’s family get the grain to help Zhang Axiu?
Could it be… that they still had grain hidden at home?
Thinking of this possibility, Zhang Guixiang’s heart felt as if it were being scratched by a cat. She wrung the corner of her clothes and paced back and forth, her nails almost digging into the calluses on her palm.
“No, I have to go and see!” She gritted her teeth, threw the wild vegetables in her hand back into the basket, and quietly followed behind Tangtang.
The Su family’s courtyard gate was not closed. It was usually not closed during the day. Zhang Guixiang quietly sneaked into the Su family’s courtyard, lay on the wall of the kitchen, and poked a hole in the window paper with her finger.
She saw Yu Juanfang take a handful of dried sweet potatoes from a sack. Tangtang next to her was picking wild vegetables. It looked as if they were going to cook a wild vegetable paste congee. Just then, she heard that girl Tangtang ask Yu Juanfang with a puzzled expression, “Mom, we don’t have much grain at home ourselves. Why do we have to give grain to Sister Axiu?”
Yu Juanfang sighed. “Your Sister Axiu is having a hard time, and she’s still breastfeeding. We should help as much as we can. I’ll go to the mountains tomorrow to dig some more wild vegetables.”
“Alright.” Tangtang looked aggrieved.
Coming out of the Su family’s courtyard, Zhang Guixiang was so happy she almost laughed out loud. So the third branch’s family was about to run out of grain, and they were still rushing to give grain to Zhang Axiu. This family was really a bunch of fools.
Seeing that Zhang Guixiang had left, Yu Juanfang and Tangtang put away the dried sweet potatoes and wild vegetables in their hands and closed the courtyard gate. “Mom, I didn’t expect you to be so good at acting… You said yesterday that you were going to make chive and egg dumplings tonight.”
Tangtang had long discovered that Zhang Guixiang was following her. She and Yu Juanfang had put on a show. Their family’s grain could still last for a long time.
Yu Juanfang gave her a playful look and poked Tangtang’s head. “Alright, alright, I’ll make you chive and egg dumplings.”