Chapter 39.1

Lu Yu looked ahead at the road in silence for a moment before saying, “It’s getting late today. We won’t make it to catch the 6 o’clock train in the city. Let’s leave early tomorrow and arrive at the army on the eighth.”

Jiang Nian nodded. “Alright.”

As they neared the entrance to their home, Lu Yu spoke again, “You go back first. I’ll go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some goods. After lunch, we’ll go visit Big Brother and the others.”

Jiang Nian opened the courtyard gate and smiled, “Okay.”

She entered the kitchen and glanced at the cornmeal Lu Yu bought yesterday, still untouched. She made scallion pancakes with it, leaving some cornmeal to make hand-pulled noodles for dinner. After preparing lunch, Lu Yu returned.

After they ate, they went to visit Xu Cheng and father Xu.

Their graves were together, with some weeds growing. Lu Yu cleaned up the gravesite while Jiang Nian knelt to burn paper for both of them, recounting her experiences of the past six months, how well she was doing in the army, and how well Lu Yu took care of her.

After saying these things, she looked up at Lu Yu, who was filling in the holes with a shovel. She lowered her head sincerely towards Xu Cheng’s grave and said, “We managed to reclaim the money stolen by my mother, and things are going well on Lu Yu’s end too. He’s been promoted to deputy commander, and I believe he will rise even higher in the future.”

Lu Yu raised his eyes to look at Jiang Nian who had bowed her head. When Jiang Nian finished speaking, he also burned some paper for Xu Cheng and father Xu, his voice deepened with a sense of solemnity. “Big Brother, Uncle, I will take good care of my sister-in-law.”

He bowed his head and watched the flames burn, feeling an unexpected sense of responsibility.

Sister-in-law was Big Brother’s wife, and she was someone he should respect.

Thinking of the strange thoughts and inappropriate actions he had towards Jiang Nian recently, Lu Yu closed his black eyes lightly, suppressing all his thoughts, and bowed twice to Xu Cheng and father Xu.

He would stick to his duties and take care of his sister-in-law.

On the way back, Jiang Nian noticed that Lu Yu seemed much quieter than when they had come, and she thought he must be missing Xu Cheng and father Xu.

Along the way, they met people passing by. Everyone knew about the changes in the Xu family’s daughter-in-law, but few greeted Jiang Nian. They all asked Lu Yu, “Lu Lao’er, when are you going back?”

Lu Yu replied, “We’re going back tomorrow.”

After exchanging a few words, they returned home. The first thing Lu Yu did when he got home was to clear the snow from the roof and clean up the courtyard. By the time he finished, it was almost dark.

Jiang Nian cooked in the kitchen and saw through the window that Lu Yu had taken the bedding and gone to Xu Cheng’s room. The bedding in Xu Cheng’s room was still damp, with only a small part that could be slept on.

Was he going to sleep in Xu Cheng’s room tonight?

Jiang Nian withdrew her gaze, put the noodles into the pot, and heard footsteps behind her but didn’t ask anything.

After they finished eating, Lu Yu finally said, “I’ll sleep in Big Brother’s room tonight.”

Jiang Nian lowered her head to prepare the vegetables for the next morning, pursed her lips at his words, and replied, “Okay.”

She felt it might be because of her poor sleeping habits that Lu Yu couldn’t sleep well.

After washing the pots and pans and tidying up the kitchen, it was already pitch black outside. Jiang Nian carried the kerosene lamp into the house and lay down on the heated brick bed, unexpectedly finding herself unable to sleep.

Turning over, she glanced at the thin light outside the window obscured by dark clouds, her mind drifting aimlessly.

She realized that her state of mind had completely changed after returning to the Xu family after half a year.

Turning over again, Jiang Nian restlessly rolled around on the heated bed, feeling how comfortable it was to have such a large bed all to herself.

She slept through until dawn. When she woke up, Lu Yu had already prepared breakfast. There was only one potato and some radish left in the house. He fried them with a dish of vegetables and they ate breakfast with scallion pancakes. Just then, Zhao Gang came over and knocked on the door, hurrying them to catch the donkey cart to the county town.

On the way, Zhao Gang asked, “Lu Lao’er, are you coming back by the end of this year?”

Lu Yu replied, “We’ll see how things go.”

He planned to come back in the summer and renovate the house.

Zhao Gang looked over at Jiang Nian, who seemed different from before, and asked curiously, “How’s life in the army for the Xu family daughter-in-law?”

Jiang Nian smiled, “It’s pretty good.”

Zhao Gang thought the change in the Xu family daughter-in-law was significant. He remembered the few pastries she had brought, which everyone in their family found exceptionally delicious. They had never tasted such fragrant pastries before. Even at the supply and marketing cooperative, you couldn’t find anything like it.

Plus, with his wife expecting, her appetite was also quite good. After eating the pastries made by the Xu family daughter-in-law, she had been craving them all night. He wanted to ask how she made them so that he could ask his mother to learn, but he held back.

It was better not to ask.

Arriving in the county town, Lu Yu bought bus tickets. They boarded the bus to the city and managed to purchase tickets for the 6 o’clock train in the evening. Although nowadays it was discouraged to adhere to old superstitions, many people still observed the tradition of not traveling during the seventh and eighth day, so the train was not too crowded today.

After a day’s journey, Jiang Nian lay down next to her bunk and fell asleep.

Lu Yu carried a hot water bottle and looked at Jiang Nian, who was leaning against the window and looking outside. “There are scallion pancakes left from this morning in the backpack. Have a bite if you’re hungry.”

Jiang Nian nodded, “Okay.”

Listening to the rumbling of the train, Jiang Nian closed her eyes and fell asleep. When Lu Yu returned and looked at the two men sitting in the aisle seats, he noticed the young man occasionally glancing at Jiang Nian.

Furrowing his brows slightly, Lu Yu placed the hot water bottle on the table, pulled up the blanket to cover Jiang Nian, and sat at the edge of her bunk. He glanced again at the young man who had been looking this way, and after a brief pause, the young man withdrew his gaze and continued talking to the person opposite him.

He had just come over thinking that the woman on the bunk was alone.

She was very beautiful, looking serene and clean. Originally intending to greet her and ask where she was going, he didn’t expect to see the man returning with water.

Judging by their relationship, they should be husband and wife.

The young man coughed awkwardly and stood up, saying to his companion, “I’ll go get some hot water.”

The companion replied, “I’ll come too.”

The scenery outside the train window rapidly retreated. Lu Yu had been looking out of the window for a long time. Hearing the movement of turning over beside him, he lowered his eyes and looked at Jiang Nian, who had turned over and placed her feet on his legs.

Lu Yu’s body suddenly tensed. He lightly pursed his lips, coughed lightly, looked out the window, and shifted Jiang Nian’s ankle away from his side, feeling a slight abnormality creeping up to his ears.

They arrived in the city at 9 o’clock the next morning.

Jiang Nian hadn’t eaten a bite last night, and she slept until dawn. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, washed her face, and got off the train with Lu Yu. They went to the state-run restaurant for breakfast and finally went to the state-run embroidery shop.

Ge Mei said that when she returned to the city, she should come over first.

The cooperation with the Hongcheng boss had been settled. She now had a stable job, and in this era, she could support herself with her skills.

When they arrived at the state-run embroidery shop, Ge Mei wasn’t there. It was the same girl as last time, Zhang Xiao, who stood up immediately upon seeing Jiang Nian and Lu Yu, saying with a smile, “You’ve finally come. Sister Ge waited for you all day yesterday.”

Jiang Nian asked, “Where is Sister Ge now?”

Zhang Xiao replied, “She’s gone to check the embroidered cloth. She should be back around lunchtime. Do you want to sit down and wait?”

There was no other choice now.

Jiang Nian nodded, “Alright.”

The state-run embroidery shop wasn’t particularly large. Separated by two rooms, there were embroidered patterns displayed outside and hung on the walls. There was a compartment in the corner with a curtain bearing the words “State-Run Embroidery Shop.” The curtain was half-drawn, revealing the legs of an embroidery frame inside.

That should be where the embroidery was done.

They sat by the window, at the old-style table and chairs. On the table was a bunch of artificial flowers, like the kind Jiang Nian had seen in her mother’s photo album when she was young. Zhang Xiao brought two white enamel cups and placed them on the table. “Have some water first.”

It was about eleven o’clock, and there were quite a few people passing by.

Jiang Nian picked up the enamel cup to warm her hands and asked Lu Yu, “You’ve been out all day, is it alright?”

Lu Yu replied, “I’ll explain the situation to the regiment when I get back. Everything’s fine.”

Only then did Jiang Nian feel relieved. She held the enamel cup and took a sip of hot water.

Zhang Xiao sat at the counter with an embroidery pattern in her hand, handed over by Ge Mei for her to study. There were a few stitches she just couldn’t get right, so she looked over at Jiang Nian, who was sitting by the window, and walked over, “Sister Jiang, could you help me take a look at this? I’ve tried two stitching methods, but I still don’t think it’s right.”

Jiang Nian turned her head to look at Zhang Xiao, the young girl with her hair parted and tied with a red string at the end. She wore a gray-blue striped cotton jacket and appeared quite young. Jiang Nian lowered her head to look at the circular embroidery pattern inside the embroidered booth, “Let me try.”

Zhang Xiao was embroidering mandarin ducks. The stitches were a bit uneven, and the colors of the front and back of the embroidery were not consistent. Looking good from the front, but unpleasant from the back, Jiang Nian took the needle and adjusted a few stitches on the embroidery pattern. Zhang Xiao bent over and tilted her head to carefully inspect it. She didn’t know how Jiang Nian did it, but the awkward and uneven spots suddenly smoothed out, looking natural and beautiful again.

At first, she had doubts about Jiang Nian’s embroidery skills. Even Sister Zhai, who considered herself skilled in embroidery at the Embroidery Pavilion, thought that Sister Ge was exaggerating. However, after two Hongcheng bosses came to collaborate with Sister Ge and she handed the embroidery design to Jiang Nian, Sister Zhai caused a fuss twice because of it.

When Jiang Nian finally handed over the embroidery design, Sister Ge was truly impressed. Although Sister Zhai still looked down on it, Zhang Xiao knew that she secretly admired it.

Lu Yu turned his head and looked at Jiang Nian, who was embroidering with her head down. The light from outside the window reflected on her face, which was fair and rosy, and he could see the fine hair on her skin.

Her thoughts were focused on the embroidery, her eyebrows slightly furrowed, her fingers deftly holding the needle and embroidering on the design.

Lu Yu noticed that when his sister-in-law touched the embroidery design, she exuded a quiet confidence, which was completely different from her previous timid appearance.

Or perhaps, now his sister-in-law had gradually shed her previous demeanor.

“Thank you, Sister Jiang.”

Zhang Xiao took the embroidery design, touched the embroidery with her fingers, and turned it over to find that Jiang Nian’s stitches were exactly the same in the front and back.

She was even more impressed.

“No problem.”

Jiang Nian smiled faintly, hugging the small cloth bag to her chest again.

To others, this was just a patched-up small cloth bag, but to Jiang Nian, it contained two thousand yuan—over a thousand from Lu Yu’s last payment, another hundred from Jiang’s family this time, plus Lu Yu’s wages over the past few months, adding up to over two thousand.

In this era, it was quite a sum of money.

She knew that Lu Yu’s last payment of over a thousand yuan might have been earned at the cost of his life; he had lost a lot of weight in those two months, clearly suffering.

Jiang Nian pinched the money in the cloth bag, thinking that she should deposit it while Ge Mei hadn’t returned yet. She originally wanted to ask Zhang Xiao, but after some consideration, she turned to Lu Yu instead. “Do you know where the bank is?”

Lu Yu glanced at the small cloth bag in her arms, a faint smile in his eyes. “I know.”

Jiang Nian told Zhang Xiao that she was going out for a while and would be back soon, then went to the bank with Lu Yu to deposit the money.

They spent the whole morning going through procedures, and by the time they came out, it was lunchtime. They went to the state-run restaurant for lunch. When they returned to the state-run embroidery shop, they coincidentally met Ge Mei returning.

Ge Mei put down her bag. “Jiang Nian, I finally caught up with you.”

She saw Lu Yu behind Jiang Nian and asked, “Have you eaten?”

Lu Yu nodded. “We’ve eaten.”

Ge Mei then picked up her bag and said to Lu Yu, “Comrade, please sit for a moment. I need to talk to Jiang Nian inside.”

With Lu Yu’s consent, Ge Mei led Jiang Nian into the compartment behind the door curtain, where there were two embroidery frames—one with a half-finished embroidery and another blank one, reserved for Jiang Nian.

Ge Mei took out a letter enclosed in a paper envelope from her bag. “This is your reward for the last embroidery design, forty yuan. Take it.”

Jiang Nian took the envelope with a smile. “Thank you, Sister Ge.”

This was her second earned wage.

Ge Mei smiled. “No need to thank me; you deserve it.”

She took out a drawing from the cabinet next to the wall and laid it flat on the table. “This embroidery design is larger this time, with a deadline of two months. Can you handle it?”

Jiang Nian glanced at the drawing and nodded. “No problem. I’ll go back and pack things up first, and I’ll come over the day after tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

She didn’t ask why Jiang Nian had changed her plan from coming on the seventh to the eighth; she just asked her to familiarize herself with the embroidery frame first.

Jiang Nian looked at the embroidery frame. It was one of those old-fashioned, quite bulky ones, with legs that couldn’t be disassembled and a small stool placed beside it. She sat on the stool and tried the feel of it; the stool was a bit low, so she’d need a cushion.

Ge Mei put the two small embroidery sheds on the table together and said, “We have two female comrades here at the embroidery shop with good embroidery skills. One is Zhai Peipei.”

She pointed to a half-finished embroidery on one frame. “This is hers.”

Ge Mei hesitated for a moment and then mentioned Zhai Peipei’s situation: “She’s quite proud. When you interact with her, don’t take what she says to heart.”

Jiang Nian smiled. “I won’t let Sister Ge worry.”

She was here for two months to earn money. She didn’t care about the personalities of the people in the embroidery shop as long as they didn’t cause trouble in front of her; she would pretend not to see.

Ge Mei smiled again and said, “There’s also Lu Xiaoqing. She’s a bit temperamental, but her embroidery skills are decent. She should be a few years older than you. When you arrive, I’ll introduce you to her.”

“Okay.”

After talking with Sister Ge, Jiang Nian left with Lu Yu.