◎ A Strange Dream ◎

The night was dim, and the man’s heavy breathing echoed in the woman’s ears. His dark eyes were like the deep sea, and it only reflected Liang Baozhen’s blushing face. 

The two were pressed tightly together, their warm breaths mingling with each other, as if they were squeezing the air into thinner fragments. 

Liang Baozhen felt unbearably hot, with the tall man covering her body.

As she caressed around with her right hand, she felt a scar on the man’s waist. The scorching temperature startled her, and she quickly retracted her hand. 

When their eyes met, the handsome man curled his lips into a smile and stared at her as he gradually moved down and when he’s about to capture her reddened lips… 

“Baozhen.” A loud voice from outside the room woke her from her dream, “Are you feeling better? Are you still dizzy?” 

Liang Baozhen sat up suddenly, her eyes blurry, her long black hair loose and a bit messy at the top. She rubbed her eyes, still feeling dizzy, her small face flushed as she remained in a daze. 

She had dreamed again, and it was another strange dream. 

Half a month ago, the director of the state cotton factory came to propose marriage. They exchanged betrothal gifts and matched their birth chart. That very night, she had a strange dream. 

In her dream, she and a tall, handsome man were laughing and living together, a man she had never seen before. 

Liang Baozhen was shocked and couldn’t understand what was happening. Who was the strange man in her dream? She had seen almost everyone in Damei Village, and there was definitely no such person. 

Unable to make sense of it, Liang Baozhen kept it to herself and never mentioned it to anyone. However, the dream felt too real, which made her uneasy. 

Fortunately, for the next few days, that strange man did not appear in her dreams again… 

Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, the man appeared again in Liang Baozhen’s dream a week later. 

This time, he brought a basin of water to soak her feet. His large, well-defined hands with calloused thumbs gently massaged her fair, jade-like feet. He softly asked if the water was too hot or if the pressure was just right. 

The dream felt so real that upon waking, Liang Baozhen’s feet felt hot. 

And then today, her fiancé was supposed to visit for the second time to discuss the wedding arrangements. Liang Baozhen had a fever last night and took a pill from the barefoot doctor in the village. After taking the medicine, she slept until nearly noon. 

As a result, the man appeared in her dreams again, and this time his behavior was even more intense. The two of them acted intimately… 

Song Chunhua pushed open the door and saw her daughter sitting on the bed in daze. She reached out to touch her forehead, “The fever’s gone, get up quickly, your fiancé will be here soon, and I still need to pick some vegetables.” 

Perhaps due to the fever and the dream, the already charming Liang Baozhen looked even more delicate and pitiful. Her usually bright and spirited eyes were misty, her fair oval face looked lovely, her almond-shaped eyes watery, her cheeks flushed from sleep, and her nose tip slightly red. Only the color of her lips had faded, giving her a sickly appearance. 

“Okay.” She agreed quickly but didn’t move. After Song Chunhua left, she continued to sit and ponder for a while. 

Having lived for nineteen years and being envied by the whole village for her engagement to the state cotton factory director, Liang Baozhen couldn’t understand why she had such dreams. How could she dream of another man after being engaged? 

However, there was no answer to any of it. Shaking her head, Liang Baozhen got dressed and got out of bed. She opened the half-open glass window to the outside.

The summer breeze, with a hint of coolness, blew in and finally chased away the heat in the room. 

***

In the midsummer of Hongqi Commune’s Damei Village, the heat was everywhere. 

“The scorching sun hung high in the sky, roasting the earth. On the narrow paths between the fields of Damei Village, Aunt Hu, wearing straw sandals, jogged home for dinner.”

The work she was assigned today was easy—cutting four baskets of pigweed in the morning. If she worked again in the afternoon, she could earn six work points, so she felt light on her feet as she walked. 

In Hongqi Commune, Aunt Hu was known for her loud voice. As she passed by the Liang family house and saw Liang Baozhen’s mother, she couldn’t resist making a sarcastic remark, “Chunhua, why are you still cooking? Shouldn’t you be in the city enjoying the good life?” 

The news that the third daughter of the Liang family, Liang Baozhen, was going to marry the director of the state factory had become the latest hot topic in Hongqi Commune, alongside the news of a severely ill educated youth returning to the city.  

However, for the villagers, the prospect of Liang Baozhen marrying into the city and enjoying a good life was far more intriguing than the return of the educated youth. After all, they had watched this girl grow up, drinking the same river water as them, so why was her fate so different? 

It could only be said that 1976 was destined to be an eventful year. 

Liang Baozhen’s mother was picking tomatoes in their private plot. The tomatoes weren’t very big at this time of year and didn’t look particularly red, but only by eating them would one know their taste—both sour and sweet, with plenty of juice. Song Chunhua carefully selected four large tomatoes to serve to the city guest who was visiting today. 

Upon hearing Aunt Hu’s remark, she didn’t take it to heart. This person just loved to meddle. Though her words were congratulatory, inwardly she was undoubtedly feeling jealous and sour. 

After all, everyone had been neighbors for decades. How could they not know each other well? They could predict what the other was thinking just by their actions. 

“What’s there to enjoy? Our Baozhen is going to be someone’s daughter-in-law, so she won’t have it easy. There are many rules in the city. I think it’s better to marry someone from the village, someone we know well, so we can look out for each other. But our son-in-law proposed sincerely, and my husband approved after meeting him once.” 

Though Song Chunhua spoke modestly, she was overjoyed inside. Her daughter marrying into the city meant she wouldn’t have to work in the fields anymore. Maybe in the future she could even find a way to work in a state-owned factory and get food rations. 

She didn’t have such fortune, but if her daughter could have an easier life, that would be enough. 

Aunt Hu secretly spat in her heart but kept a calm face. She thought to herself that this old woman was pretending to be modest while actually feeling smug. With a forced smile, she headed home. 

After Aunt Hu left, Song Chunhua also took a few tomatoes to the kitchen. She was planning to cook an egg and make tomato egg drop soup. It wasn’t a festival, and she would have been reluctant to add eggs before, but today her son-in-law from the city was visiting, so she had to grit her teeth and spend the money. 

“Mother, when are we going to eat?” Her youngest daughter, Liang Baoling, ran in from outside. Her face and hair were wet with sweat as she complained about being hungry. 

“Eat, eat, eat—all you do is eat. And you run around and act wild, don’t you? Just wait until your dad gets home to deal with you.” Song Chunhua felt really helpless with her daughter. She had been looking forward to this meal all day. It was only because the harvest had improved slightly in the past two years that the commune could distribute grain and give her 20 or 30 yuan at the end of the year. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have enough to eat at all. 

However, this is also because their family has enough labor and earns a lot of work points. Some people in the village only get a few yuan from their work points. Worse, some families even owe money to the commune and have to buy work points to cover their debts. 

Liang Baoling came back from playing outside and was busy acting cute in front of her mother, breaking the eggs into a bowl. The eleven-year-old girl smiled sweetly, which made it hard for anyone to stay angry. 

“Go check on your sister. I just called her. I don’t know if she’s up yet.” 

Liang Baoling was used to running around in the fields every day, so her skin was tanned. She also had short hair; she cut it into short pieces because she didn’t want it to be in the way, which made her look younger.

She rushed straight to her sister’s room and almost bumped into her halfway there.

“Sister, are you feeling better?” She stood on tiptoe to touch her sister’s forehead, but she was too short, which made Liang Baozhen laugh. 

“I’m better now; I don’t have a fever anymore.” Ruffling her younger sister’s hair, Liang Baozhen looked out into the yard, which was empty. “Father and brother haven’t come back yet?” 

“Hmm, they should be back soon.” Liang Baoling, being a child, always got off work early. 

Liang Baozhen had grown up in Hongqi Commune’s Damei Village. Her family had six members: her father, Liang Zhigao, was a well-known carpenter in the village, and her mother, Song Chunhua, was a skilled worker in the fields. Though she was in her forties now, she still had the same vigor as when she was young, and Liang Baozhen inherited much of her beauty. 

The Liang family has one son and three daughters. Liang Baozhen is the third child, with an older sister, an older brother, and a younger sister. Every household in the village has several children. Liang’s father felt that one son alone wouldn’t be enough to support the family. But after his son was born, followed by two more girls, he gave up on having more children. 

Liang Baozhen was smart and beautiful from a young age and being one of the few high school graduates in the commune made her parents proud. Even in the village, she received many compliments, and the neighboring family’s eldest son used to say he wanted to marry her when they were young. 

However, an unexpected suitor named Chen Siming from the city’s State Cotton Factory showed up. 

Half a month ago, Liang Baozhen went to the county town with Song Chunhua. The two of them went to the market to trade goods. Liang Baozhen was good at making clothes, and she would often make some clothes for others to earn a little extra for the household. 

It was during this trip that Chen Siming saw a girl at the market who looked like a fairy and couldn’t take his eyes off her. He inquired about her and soon found a matchmaker to propose marriage. 

Liang Zhigao saw that Chen Siming was handsome, courteous, and well-mannered. After hearing from his educated son-in-law in the capital about Chen Siming’s good reputation in the city, he felt that this was an impeccable match and immediately agreed. 

Liang Baozhen, who is nineteen this year, stayed at home after graduating from high school last year. She occasionally did some farm work or made clothes to trade for some eggs and rice. Recently, there had been quite a few people from the commune inquiring about her. 

With her good looks and high education, she was highly sought after. Only a few envious people would say a few mean things behind her back. 

They would complain that Liang Baozhen was too thin and not good for childbearing, but Song Chunhua chased them off with a broom a few times, which finally shut them up. 

Aunt Hu was one of those people. 

Liang Baozhen was beautiful, and even wearing a plain gray short-sleeved blouse, she couldn’t hide her good looks. As she braided her hair, she walked outside, ready to help Song Chunhua in the kitchen, when her little sister signaled her to stop. 

Liang Baoling, who was going to the fifth grade in the second half of the year, was a genuine elementary school student. 

“Sister, wait a minute.” 

When she got closer, Liang Baozhen saw that her little sister was holding a frosty yellow fruit candy on a gray checkered handkerchief, which made her mouth water. 

There was no helping it; these days, sweets are too scarce. They ate nothing but cornmeal or sorghum flour every day, so anyone who saw a piece of candy would crave it. 

“Where did you get the candy?” Liang Baozhen knew about this candy; it sold for one cent a piece at the supply and marketing cooperative. Half a month ago, someone in the village got married and bought a dozen pieces of candy, which made many children drool with envy. 

Liang Baoling blinked, a smile spreading from the corners of her eyes, and whispered, “Brother-in-law gave it to me.” 

“Oh~” 

Liang Baozhen understood. Her eldest sister married a city youth, Song Jianguo, five years ago. Song Jianguo was from the city in Beijing, so having some candy on hand was normal. It was lucky for little Liang Baoling, who often got some treats. 

Liang Baoling wrapped it with a handkerchief, placed it on the edge of the yard, and picked up a nearby stone to smash the candy. 

In an instant, the piece of candy was shattered into fragments. 

Each person got a small piece. Liang Baoling arranged it well and even generously gave the largest piece to her third sister.

Sucking on the piece of candy in her mouth, the sweet flavor filled her mouth. Liang Baozhen reminded, “Give a piece to mother.” 

“Okay, I’ll go right now!” 

As Liang Baozhen watched her little sister walk to the kitchen, she heard some noise behind her. She turned around and saw her father, Liang Zhigao, coming back, with a scholarly young man standing beside him. 

“Father.” 

“Baozhen, Xiao Chen is here.” 

Seeing her fiancé standing at the gate, Liang Baozhen suddenly remembered the strange man in her dream and felt a bit shy.