Chapter 5

The people of Wanyer Village lived along a river bend. Because the river meandered and often flooded, the villagers built their homes on level ground a short distance away, on higher ground.

The widest and broadest place was the village center, where more than twenty of the earliest households lived. Two rows of courtyards faced each other, with a well-trodden road in between.

The villagers often called this place the Old Hamlet.

Now, after several decades, Wanyer Village had grown considerably, with fifty to sixty households in total—large enough to be considered a big village.

Most of these families had branched out from the Old Hamlet, mixed with a few outsiders.

But even the most recent outsiders had already lived in Wanyer Village for over twenty years. Though they had once been weak and bullied in the early days, by now they had two or three generations. They were completely native-born villagers of Wanyer Village.

Zhao Lianxing and Zhao Lianwang, however, were not from Wanyer Village. They were from Zhaoli Village, the neighboring one.

Wanyer Village was closer to the mountains, situated upstream on the Qingmei River. Zhaoli Village lay downstream, and because of the river’s winding path, the two villages were some distance apart.

When the donkey caravan reached Zhaoli Village, it followed the lead mule inside and unloaded all the remaining goods at Zhao Lianxing’s house.

He was the head of the caravan, and all the goods belonged to him.

Other than Zhao Lianwang, the rest of the men each provided a donkey or mule. On the journey, Zhao Lianxing supplied all the grain, food, and fodder for both men and animals. In essence, he hired these men and their animals to trade with him.

Naturally, he also took the biggest share of the profits.

Following him on one trip, even though meat and oily dishes were scarce, the coarse pancakes and buns were more than enough to fill one’s belly.

For ordinary folk, meat and oil weren’t things they saw often at home anyway. So, going out on such a trip during the slack winter season not only saved their households some food but also brought home extra earnings. No matter how hard the trading journey was, there were always people willing to do it.

Once the goods were unloaded, Pei Youwa, like the others, led his animal home.

He had contributed a cart to the caravan—his family’s own cart, pulled by their donkey. On it sat Changxia, with a bundle beside him that held Pei Youwa’s clothes and belongings.

As for Changxia himself, aside from the clothes on his back, he had brought nothing when he left.

Leading the donkey forward, Pei Youwa felt a sense of relief when he finally saw the lamplight of the outermost household in Wanyer Village. The sky was darkening fast, and his steps quickened.

They passed through the still tidy and bustling Old Hamlet, and beyond it, poplars, willows, elms, and mulberries stood scattered about, sheltering several households hidden behind the trees in quiet seclusion.

By the faint light, Changxia could only stare, finding everything around him unfamiliar.

Wanyer Village spread outward from the Old Hamlet, expanding either in front or behind the main settlement. Some plots of land were large, housing two or three families together.

Others stood alone—single households separated from their neighbors by sparse groves of trees, or by poor, narrow patches of land.

Because of the terrain, the families that branched out were scattered all around the Old Hamlet…

Fortunately, the houses weren’t too far apart. Even those living alone could simply stand at their doorway, call out loudly twice, and the neighbors would hear them.

The moon had come out, the dark clouds had cleared, and the moonlight shone cold and bright, bringing with it a biting chill.

The donkey cart stopped in front of a solitary household. The outer bamboo gate was shut tight, and through the gaps in the bamboo fence one could see a neat vegetable patch inside—though not much was growing.

Behind the garden stood several thatched huts. Muffled voices could be heard from within, but no lamps were lit.

“Woof!”

A yellow dog suddenly barked in alarm. It sprang from its nest but, being tied up, could only bark toward the outside.

Suppressing a trace of excitement, Pei Youwa stepped forward, pounded on the door, and shouted loudly:
“Dad, I’m back!”

In an instant, the dog stopped barking, wagging its tail and whimpering in welcome. From the thatched house came a flurry of noise.

Hearing her son’s voice, Old Lady Pei quickly sat up and called out toward the window:
“Youwa?”

Old Man Pei had already thrown on clothes. Slipping into his shoes, he hurried out to open the gate.

Meanwhile, in the west room, Chen Zhi also heard the commotion. He quickly climbed down from the heated brick bed. The moment the door opened, a gust of icy wind blew in, and he hastily shut it again, rushing outside two steps as he called:
“Youwa?”

“It’s me,” Pei Youwa replied, leading the donkey cart into the yard.

Seeing his son back safe, Pei Zao’an—the old father—took in his travel-worn, dust-covered figure. But since he was whole, with all limbs intact, his heart finally sank back into place, no longer worried.

Yet when he caught sight of a silent child sitting on the cart, Pei Zao’an was startled.

He hadn’t been prepared at all, and with the darkness making the face hard to see, he nearly thought it was some wandering ghost. His eyelids twitched, his whole body shivered, and he even gave a violent start.

Chen Zhi was just as frightened, his voice trembling as he stammered:
“On the cart… there’s a child?”

In his haste to return home, Pei Youwa hadn’t explained about Changxia. Seeing the two of them so spooked, he hadn’t expected this reaction. Smiling, he said:
“Let’s go inside first—we’ll talk inside.”

The donkey, freed from its harness, no longer burdened, seemed to recognize home as well. It settled down peacefully in the livestock shed lined with thick straw.

Once the donkey was secured, the cold of the winter night stung their heads like ice. Pei Zao’an hurried back in from the rear courtyard.

An oil lamp lit the main room. Changxia, uneasy and nervous, could only cling closely to Pei Youwa.

Chen Zhi set down the bundle on the table, touched the teapot, and found the tea long since gone cold. As he walked out, he said:
“I’ll go boil water right away. Have you eaten on the road?”

Pei Youwa sat down on a chair to rest his legs, pulling over a wooden stool for Changxia to sit as well. He nodded and replied:
“We ate in town before heading back. No need to cook again. Just boil more water. After tea, I’ll soak my feet to ease the fatigue.”

Pei Zao’an pushed open the main room door and came in. His gaze naturally fell on Changxia. Even while tying up the donkey, he had been wondering—why had his son brought back a child?

Pei Youwa reached into his chest and pulled out a small pouch…

Pei Youwa took out the marriage contract and said,
“This is Changxia, a child bride for Pei Yao.”

“What?”

Old Man Pei froze, then scratched his head, mouth open, suddenly at a loss for words.

Chen Zhi was equally stunned by the words, so much so that he forgot all about boiling water and just stood there.

Old Lady Pei, Dou Jinhua, came out of her room after putting on her clothes. Hearing this sentence, her expression was also blank.

---

The Pei family bustled about for a while, but none of them could read. Each person turned the marriage contract over a few times, squinting at it, but couldn’t make sense of anything.

Pei Youwa pointed at each person, telling Changxia to recognize them:
“This is your grandpa, this is your grandma, this is your father. Pei Yao is asleep. Tomorrow, when that rascal wakes up, if you want to play, let him take you around.”

Changxia was timid. Whatever “Father” said, he followed, calling each person one by one.

Since the child was already this big, and there was even a marriage contract signed openly, it was impossible that he was given away for nothing. So Pei Zao’an asked:
“How much did it cost?”

Pei Youwa glanced at Changxia, then at his father, but said nothing.

Pei Zao’an fell silent, realizing he had spoken too hastily.

Old Lady Pei, Dou Jinhua, sat nearby. She had originally wanted to chat with her son, but since Changxia was sitting beside her, she forgot all about that.

Her hair was already streaked with gray, and her eyesight wasn’t very good. The dim oil lamp didn’t provide much light, so she squinted for a while but still couldn’t see clearly. She could only tell that the child was thin and frail.

“How old are you?” Dou Jinhua asked Changxia.

Her expression was honest and gentle, and her tone carried no harshness—just like asking in casual conversation.

Changxia’s voice was faint and weak:
“Eight years old.”

Eight years old. Yet he didn’t look very tall. Compared with their little Yao’er, who was only five, he was smaller. Their boy was already chubby and tall.

Dou Jinhua thought it over and realized Pei Yao was indeed taller than most children his age.

It wasn’t unusual for children who never ate their fill to grow up thin and small.

She didn’t talk much. After a moment’s silence, she turned to ask Pei Youwa:
“What’s his name again?”

Pei Youwa answered:
“Changxia—Chang as in long, Xia as in summer.”

He himself was illiterate. When the Jiang family wrote the marriage contract, he had only heard them say it and memorized it.

Chen Zhi, having finished boiling water, quickly refilled the teapot. Then, noticing Changxia, he poured him a bowl of warm water and handed it over.

Changxia stretched out his skinny little hands to receive it. Under everyone’s gaze, he drank nervously, almost choking.

A child this big, one they had never seen before, had suddenly become part of their family.

It really was, as people said—utterly catching them off guard.

Chen Zhi couldn’t help glaring at Pei Youwa.

The kitchen was just outside the main room, and in the quiet of the night, he had heard every word just now.

Since he had brought the child back, and the marriage contract was already written, he—

For a moment Chen Zhi was at a loss. He also blamed Pei Youwa for making such a big decision on his own while outside. Still, he waved to Changxia and said,
“Come, it’s cold out here. Go inside and warm up. You should soak your feet too. As for the rest, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

“Listen to your father,” Pei Youwa said, jerking his chin toward him, before settling into the main room to chat idly with his parents.

The west room had a heated kang bed, much warmer than the main room.

Changxia, still very timid, held his water bowl carefully and dared not move around. Chen Zhi took a candle from inside, lit it at the oil lamp outside, and came back in.

Holding up the candlelight, he studied Changxia closely for a while, then felt the thickness of his clothes, touched the back of his neck, and finally his hands.

The old clothes were at least thick enough. Beneath the collar there was a bit of warmth, and the patches were sewn neatly, showing some care.

But when his fingers brushed over the thin, cracked, rough little hands—already marked with swollen chilblains—he sighed inwardly. He didn’t say anything, only had Changxia sit down on the edge of the kang and went to the kitchen to fetch water.

There was already someone sleeping on the bed, curled up in a ball with head tucked under the quilt.

Changxia set his bowl on the edge of the kang, then propped himself up with both hands and climbed onto the higher surface.

The kang was warm. He lowered his head, staring for a moment, then placed his palms carefully on the edge, quietly savoring the heat.

Chen Zhi came back in carrying a basin of water. He pulled over a tall wooden stool, just the right height for resting the basin on.

That was how Pei Yao usually washed up. Changxia was a bit bigger, but even so, his feet still couldn’t touch the ground.

When he slipped his feet into the warm water, before long his whole body began to thaw.

Chen Zhi opened the large wooden cabinet and brought out a quilt. After laying it on the kang, he thought for a moment, then turned back and pulled out a smaller quilt.

He spread it out on the bed. Seeing that it was long enough to cover Changxia, he locked the cabinet again.

Pei Yao was a restless sleeper; right now, if he shared a quilt, Chen Zhi knew well enough his son would kick it off in the night.

The small quilt was one he had remade last year from an old one, planning that in a year or two, when Pei Yao grew a bit bigger, he’d have a quilt of his own.

Forget it, forget it—this will do for now.

---

That night, Changxia slept on the far right side of the kang, under his own quilt.

It was stuffed full of cotton, heavy across his chest, giving him a sense of security.

For so long he had only ever slept on cold beds; rarely had he ever slipped beneath blankets that were warm the moment he crawled in. Something unnameable welled up in his chest. He opened his mouth, breathing soundlessly.

His feet were warm. His face and hands had just been washed, and they were warm too.

In a haze, he caught faint whiffs of a cozy, heated scent. But before he could seek it out, his eyelids grew so heavy he couldn’t keep them open, and in a moment he was asleep.

---

The oil lamp in the main room had been snuffed out, but the candle in the west room still burned.

After soaking his feet, Pei Youwa felt completely at ease.

Chen Zhi glanced over at the sleeping Changxia. His breathing was deep and steady—clearly, the boy was exhausted.

Only then did Chen Zhi quietly ask,
“The two taels of silver I gave you to take along…”

Pei Youwa had just taken off his outer coat. At those words, he lowered his voice and said,
“I gave his family two taels and five qian. The extra five qian I borrowed from Brother Lianxing.”

“Forget the money for now, it’s already spent. But such a big matter—and you just made the decision all on your own.” Chen Zhi reproached him.

Pei Youwa defended himself in a low voice,
“We were so far away, there was no time to consult. And it happened that I ran into the chance.”

He paused, then added,
“Look at the state of our household. We scrape and save through the year, and we can’t spend recklessly. Ten years from now, when Pei Yao grows up and it’s time to arrange his marriage, Father and Mother will already be getting old. If they fall ill or something happens, everything takes money. With the little we have at home, who can say what things will be like then?”

“…Two taels and five qian wasn’t easy to save,” he went on with a quiet sigh. “But it’s still cheaper than arranging a formal betrothal, paying the bride price, and holding a wedding banquet. There’s not even any need to prepare the return gift for her family.”

Having a child bride meant that when Yao’er was sixteen or seventeen, he could marry without delay.
“It won’t hold him back from anything,” Pei Youwa said softly.

That reasoning was sound. Chen Zhi turned it over in his mind, and in the end, he too let out a sigh.

---

The Pei family was not one of the wealthiest households in the village. In earlier years, they had been poor indeed, though in recent years things had improved. Now they had enough firewood for winter and could afford cotton to make warm clothing.

They still had to live frugally, but compared to the Jiang family’s utter destitution, their situation was much better.

Pei Youwa was already twenty-nine this year. Chen Zhi was two years younger, married to him when Pei Youwa was twenty-two.

Chen Zhi was a husband-wife (a male spouse). Bearing children was never as easy for men as it was for women; it took two years after marriage before he conceived.

Their firstborn was Pei Yao. He had been raised well enough. But two years ago, he miscarried once, and only this year had his health returned somewhat.

The Pei family had few descendants. From his grandfather down to him, three generations had only a single male heir to hold up the household.

In the early years, they had been too poor to marry, and bachelors endured mockery. Even his parents had to suffer the humiliation of others’ sneers.

In Bay Village, half the people bore the Pei surname. His own household was small, but they still had relatives in the village and kept up some contact. Aside from being laughed at occasionally, they weren’t bullied.

Still, without close uncles or brothers, and with little wealth, they were somewhat isolated.

Later, through connections on his mother’s side, he went out with Zhao Lianxing to do business in the off-seasons. At home he worked diligently, farming, digging medicinal herbs, chopping firewood, and fishing. Whenever possible, he also took work at the town docks.

With what he earned, he managed to marry Chen Zhi. From then on, life gradually became smoother.

Having once endured the sting of ridicule, he didn’t want his son to grow up facing the same.

Now, having secured a child bride for his son early on, Pei Youwa finally felt at ease.