Chapter 6: Mama’s Boy

Seeing her so worried, Feng Mian didn’t know what to say and just kept her head down, warming herself by the fire.

But to Zhang Shi, it looked like Feng Mian was stubbornly determined to marry a man to inherit her three thatched rooms.

Zhang Shi grew worried too, and after a long moment, she sighed helplessly. “Fine, I can’t control you anymore.”

She stood up and said, “I’m off now. Go to bed early. Tomorrow the brigade will be calculating work points; remember to line up early.”

“Okay, I know. Thank you, Grandma.”

Feng Mian thought Zhang Shi had dropped the idea of arranging a marriage for her when she said she couldn’t control her.

What Feng Mian didn’t know was that Zhang Shi had taken the matter to heart and planned to ask the matchmaker if there were any young men raised by stepmothers nearby.

…

Feng Mian was used to staying up late and waking up late. At night, she would scroll on her phone and watch live streams, which made her restless.

But those things weren’t something you could just buy on a whim—if you bought too much, there’d be nowhere to put it, and pretty dresses couldn’t be worn outside.

She forced herself not to look at them too much, and if she did, she’d mostly browse nostalgic items she could use in this era.

The next day she slept until dawn, only to be woken by a knock on the door.

“Mianmian, are you up yet?”

It was Grandma’s voice.

Feng Mian glanced toward the window. It was just barely getting light—so early!

“I’m coming.”

At this time, farmers had to record their work points for their labor.

Calculating the time, if nothing unexpected happened, the work point system would start being gradually phased out next year.

Full attendance earned ten work points daily, and whatever you worked that day was recorded. At the end of the year, everything was settled.

After deducting grain borrowed during the spring and autumn seasons, you’d receive the remainder.

Feng Mian quickly got dressed and went with Grandma Zhang Shi to the production team to exchange work points.

They arrived fairly early, but neighbors came even earlier, so the line was quite long.

No one complained about the long wait. Everyone’s face was bright with happiness.

Because this year was a bountiful harvest, once the accounts were settled, every villager was beaming.

Men carried grain on their shoulders; women held thick stacks of tickets and money.

“Old Zhang, why are you lining up again? Didn’t you already get yours earlier?” an elderly woman who had just finished claiming her points asked.

Zhang Shi smiled, “My family did get theirs. It’s just my granddaughter hasn’t collected hers yet.”

“You’re lining up twice then?”

Feng Mian felt a little embarrassed. Grandma had told her to come early, and villagers had started lining up in the middle of the night. Coming just as dawn broke was already considered late.

Feng Mian received about ten jin (approximately five kilograms) of grain, along with cloth coupons and the village’s meat coupons.

Zhang Shi worried she’d be burdened carrying the grain alone, so she came to help her carry it.

Once home, after putting down the grain, Zhang Shi hurried to leave.

Feng Mian stopped her, “Grandma, wait a bit, eat before you go.”

Zhang Shi walked toward the door, saying, “No, no, I’ve been gone most of the day already. Your grandpa probably doesn’t even have water to drink.”

Since Grandpa’s leg was bad, their lives had become harder.

Feng Mian sighed.

Watching her leave, she closed the door behind her.

She put the ten jin of grain into the storage jar, carefully put away the money, meat coupons, and cloth coupons, stuffing them into her space.

Thinking about that cloth coupon made her speechless—there wasn’t enough to make a pair of pants, only enough for a half skirt.

The meat coupon was handwritten by the team leader, just a single voucher to exchange for meat within the village.

The production team raised pigs and had to hand over half of the pigs; they could keep and slaughter the remaining half themselves.

There was a handful of loose change—quite a bit of small coins, some jiao (dime) coins too, but not many yuan (full unit) coins.

Counting it all up came to 28.6 kuai (yuan).

Working hard all year round, and that’s all they got.

After tidying up her things, Feng Mian’s stomach grumbled twice.

She had gotten up at dawn to line up, and now it was nearly noon—and she hadn’t eaten anything yet.

So she quickly took out her phone and ordered a box of eight-treasure porridge, along with shrimp crackers and steamed buns.

The New Year was approaching, and the weather was still quite cold, so she steamed the food in a pot to heat it up before eating.

Full and satisfied, Feng Mian then took out a hoe and cleared the weeds by the front door, planning to buy some vegetable seeds to plant next year.

The three thatched rooms weren’t much, but her courtyard was pretty big, plus there was a small piece of personal land outside the yard—so the place was still fairly spacious.

Next door, Lu Lan was also pulling weeds and greeted her with a smile, chatting for a bit.

Lu Lan had married into the village and had a daughter with her husband, but she had injured her body and the doctor said she couldn’t have more children.

After that, the three of them were kicked out by her in-laws and forced to live in an abandoned cowshed. Their current three thatched rooms were only earned after years of hard work by the couple.

Like Feng Mian, Lu Lan was an orphan who had grown up with her uncle and aunt.

Perhaps because of this shared hardship, they helped each other whenever they could and had a good relationship.

That day Lu Lan’s face was bright with happiness—probably their harvest that year had gone well.

At night, just as Feng Mian was sound asleep, she was woken by a knock on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Auntie, it’s me. My parents are fighting again.”

It was Lu Lan’s daughter.

Feng Mian quickly put on her shoes and opened the door, seeing Feng Rongrong standing there with blood all over her face.

Startled, she asked, “What happened? Where did you get hit?”

Feng Rongrong wiped the blood away and shook her head. “I’m okay. When I ran out, I bumped my nose on the door—it’s a nosebleed. Please come see my mom.”

Feng Mian hurried next door and saw the room scattered with overturned pots, bowls, and pans.

Lu Lan sat expressionless in the middle of the room, her hair messy and her clothes dirty.

Her vacant eyes looked quite frightening.

“Lan, what’s going on?”

Hearing Feng Mian’s voice, Lu Lan slowly turned her head, mumbling, “I can’t live anymore, I can’t live anymore.”

“Today is supposed to be a good day for exchanging work points, why say things like that? Could it be…” Thinking of Feng Erge’s behavior, Feng Mian quickly asked, “Is it late at night again and Feng Erge has stolen grain? Did he give the grain to his parents?”

Lu Lan looked utterly hopeless.

Feng Rongrong cried, “Exactly! We just got the money and grain back, and my dad stole it to take to my grandparents’ place.”

Feng Mian’s heart sank. “How much did he take?”

“There was only 100 jin of grain left. He took the rest. Money, meat coupons, cloth coupons—all gone.”

Feng Mian gasped.

She didn’t even know how to survive alone with sixty jin of grain, and they still had 100 jin left. If that’s all gone—someone’s going to starve!

That mama’s boy Feng Erge was too much.

“Waaah, I might as well be dead,” Lu Lan sobbed.

“Mom, don’t die! What am I going to do if you die?” Feng Rongrong hugged her, crying together.

Feng Mian crouched down and comforted them, “Lan, don’t say that. Not just for yourself, but think of Rongrong too. Without you, she’d be even more miserable than me.”

Lu Lan looked at Feng Mian, then burst into even louder tears.

She held Feng Rongrong with her left hand and pulled Feng Mian close with her right—crying pitifully.

“You know, the three of us, why do we have to be so unlucky?”