Xu Ning waited for the cakes to cook and the bones to stew until they were tender. She used a basin to serve the vegetables, placed the cakes in a small basket, and just as the three of them were about to eat, they heard Sun Hao shout, “Xu Zhiqing, come over to get your remittance slip.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Ning stood at the doorway and responded to Sun Hao, who was standing behind the youth camp. She then went back inside, took a large bowl, scooped a spoonful of meat and a spoonful of blood sausage, topped it with a layer of pickled cabbage, and grabbed three cakes from the basket along with a pair of chopsticks.

Xu An asked, “Sister, are you going to take it to the youth camp to eat?”

“No, it’s already past one o’clock, and it’s so cold. The postal worker probably hasn’t eaten yet. I’ll take him a bowl of food to tide him over. You two go ahead and eat; you don’t have to wait for me,” she replied before heading to the camp with the food.

When Xu Ning arrived, the postal worker was warming up in Sun Hao’s room. Upon seeing her, he handed her the remittance slip along with a letter, asking her to sign it. Nowadays, a signature was required to acknowledge the receipt of the remittance slip.

After signing, Xu Ning said to the postal worker, “Thank you for bringing it to me in this cold weather. You haven’t eaten yet, have you? I just finished cooking, so I brought you a bowl of food to fill your stomach.”

With that, she handed the bowl of food and cakes to the postal worker.

The postal worker quickly waved his hands and said, “No, no, it’s fine! I can eat when I get back. You should hurry and take it back.”

With that, he started to walk outside. Rations were limited these days, and most people wouldn’t take food from others.

Xu Ning pulled him back and urged, “Uncle, it’s not anything special, just something to tide you over. It’ll warm you up a bit—don’t be polite, just eat it before it gets cold.” Sun Hao and the others also encouraged him to eat before leaving.

Feeling shy but persuaded by their insistence, the postal worker accepted the bowl of food and cakes from Xu Ning. Chen Xiangdong offered him a seat at the table to eat.

Hearing that Xu Ning had arrived, Wei Lanlan and Yang Xiaomei from the next room came out. Xu Ning asked them if they were going to buy pears that afternoon.

Wei Lanlan asked, “Where are we going to buy them?”

Xu Ning replied, “Just to the next production team. A lot of people from the village are going this afternoon. The pears there are really sweet; I bought fifty pounds last year.”

“I’ll go buy some too,” Wei Lanlan said, then asked the others if they were going as well.

Everyone agreed to go together in the afternoon, and soon the word spread that all the youth in the camp planned to head to the next production team to buy pears.

Meanwhile, the postal worker was eating in Sun Hao’s room. After finishing the pickled cabbage on top, he noticed that the bottom of the bowl was filled with meat and blood sausage. He paused for a moment, then glanced out at the young girls talking outside. Feeling a warmth in his heart, he lowered his head and continued eating. After finishing the big bowl of food and three cakes, he felt much warmer.

He picked up the bowl and chopsticks to wash them, but Xu Ning saw him and quickly took them from him. “Uncle, wait a moment! I’ll wash these; you should head back. It looks like it’s going to snow.”

The postal worker looked at her and said, “Xu Zhiqing, thank you.” Then he reached into his pocket to pull out some ration tickets and money.

Xu Ning hurriedly pushed his hand back, saying, “Uncle, what are you doing? It’s such a cold day, and you delivered my letter. I’m just treating you to a bowl of food; you don’t need to give me money. Just take it back!” With that, she ran off with the bowl.

Wei Lanlan smiled and advised him, “Uncle, Xu Zhiqing won’t accept your money. Just head back; it’s freezing out here.” The postal worker had no choice but to put the money and tickets back in his pocket and rode away.

When Xu Ning returned home, she found that the other two had not yet eaten. “Why aren’t you two eating? I told you to start without me!”

Xu Mo said, “Sister, we wanted to wait for you to eat together. It’s more delicious when we eat as a group.”

Seeing his sister return, Xu An quickly brought out the hot dishes from the pot, and the three of them gathered around the table, enjoying their meal happily.

While eating, Xu An asked, “Sister, why did you bring food to that postal worker? Isn’t delivering our letters part of his job?”

Xu Ning smiled and replied, “Little An, even the same job can vary depending on how dedicated the person is. Do you know how many people I see at the post office who’ve lost their remittance slips and letters? Do you have any idea how many remittance slips and letters are lost each year? Some people try to save on postage by sticking money and tickets inside their letters. Where do you think all those lost letters end up?

Look at our elder brother, Brother Lu, and Sister Xiaoran’s letters and remittance slips—have we ever been shorted? Even if there’s no remittance slip and just a letter, the postal worker makes a special trip to deliver it to us instead of dropping it at the village committee to save himself some time. Don’t you think his thoughtfulness is worth me bringing him a bowl of food and a few cakes? Little An, being kind to others within our means doesn’t harm us at all.”

Xu An thought for a moment and asked, “Sister, then why did you give him so much meat? Doesn’t that just let him know we have plenty of meat to eat?”

Xu Ning replied, “Who knows best how much money we receive each month?”

Xu An pondered for a moment and asked, “The postal worker?”

“Yes, the postal worker. With all the money our brother sends us every month, it stands out too much. We need to let others think we’ve used it all up, especially since we’ve been short on food for days. Next time the postal worker delivers mail, you can ask him if there’s a remittance slip for us. Just say that I’ve run out of money and that we’ve been going hungry for several days. You should say the same thing to others in the village, understand?”

Xu An suddenly realized, “That way, the postal worker will know that the thirty yuan we receive each month has all gone to buying meat.”

Xu Ning laughed, “Little An, you’re really clever! But the food I brought him was a sincere thank you. If it were someone irresponsible, I’d let him know we’re eating meat but wouldn’t give him any.”

With that, the three siblings all laughed together.

After finishing their meal, Xu An headed off to school. Xu Ning took Xu Mo to the cattle shed and then retrieved her large basket, securing it to the back of her bike. Grandpa Qi had put some hay inside for her. Last year, she had made the mistake of buying pears without enough experience, causing many of them to get bruised.

This time, she planned to layer the pears with hay to prevent them from getting damaged. She intended to buy a hundred pounds this year, knowing one trip wouldn’t be enough and she’d have to make two trips.

Since Xu Ning couldn’t ride her bike with the youth from the camp, she instructed them to wait at the village entrance for the aunts to join them.

It took Xu Ning two trips to bring back the hundred pounds of pears.

Once she returned, she took out the pork from yesterday to cure it as bacon, leaving one pig at the cattle shed. After dinner last night, Father Xu and Uncle Lu had helped her move this pig over.

Today, she gave twenty pounds to Grandpa Wang and two pounds to Zhao Jianshe and Su Hongying’s family. After setting aside the pig’s head and internal organs, she had nearly one hundred eighty pounds left.

Her dad and Uncle Lu had already cut the meat into small pieces, so all she needed to do was rub them with salt. She didn’t finish curing all of it, saving several dozen pounds to make jerky for Xu Yang and Lu Xiaotang to send.

That evening, after dinner, the three siblings sat on the kang reading letters. The remittance slip had come from Lu Xiaotang, along with two letters—one from Lu Xiaotang and the other from Lu Xiaoran.

Now, Lu Xiaoran wrote a letter every month, mostly addressed to Xu Ning. Last month, she had even sent twenty yuan.

Xu Ning knew that she was working as a teacher there, earning very little, mostly credited as work points. In her reply, Xu Ning had told her not to send money anymore, saying it was enough and that she and Xu An were still young; receiving so much money every month wasn’t safe.

Xu An opened Lu Xiaotang’s letter and found several tickets tucked inside the paper. He handed the tickets to Xu Ning.

When Xu Ning took a look, she saw industrial tickets, fabric tickets, sugar tickets, and even a ticket for three pounds of wool yarn.

Everyone in the family already had sweaters, and Xu Yang had one too, so she thought maybe Lu’s aunt could use the three pounds to knit a sweater for him.

Lu Xiaotang’s letter was only about half a page long. He wrote that he had received the items sent and requested not to send anything in the future, suggesting they should save it for themselves since everything was available in the army. He ended with greetings for the whole family.

Xu Ning thought to herself, You tell me not to send anything anymore, yet you keep sending money every month.

Lu Xiaoran’s letter was much more expressive than her brother’s, filling two large sheets of paper.

In her letter, she explained that she wouldn’t be able to visit them this year, expressing her longing and gratitude toward Xu Ning.

After the siblings finished reading the letters, Xu Ning noticed it was getting late and decided to wait until tomorrow to show the letters to Uncle Lu and Aunt Lu.

Ever since Xu Ning brought the first letter from Lu Xiaoran for them to read, Uncle Lu and Aunt Lu had stopped letting her take letters over. They preferred to hear about it from Xu Ning instead of reading them themselves, and they never wrote to their two children.

Her parents were the same; after sending a brief note to Xu Yang to let him know they were safe when they first arrived in Yushu Village, they hadn’t written to him again.

Still, Xu Ning always took the letters over for them to read. After they finished, she would bring them back. Even if they couldn’t see the person, just looking at the words offered a sense of comfort.