The next morning, Li Long woke up and felt the room was already freezing. He rubbed his hands and feet to warm them, got dressed quickly, and went over to the stove. He poked around with a fire poker and realized the fire had completely burned out.

Exhausted from the previous night, he hadn’t bothered to add more coal before bed, so now he needed to restart the fire.

He opened the door and jogged out to the coal shed. Grabbing some reeds to use as kindling, he scooped a handful of corn cobs and a few sticks of split wood and hurried back to the house. Even in that short time, his ears had gone red from the cold.

He opened the stove door, cleared out the ashes, layered the reeds, corn cobs, and firewood, and then placed the lid on top. Taking out his kerosene lighter, he leaned down, igniting a piece of reed sticking out, and watched as the fire caught. Satisfied, he closed the stove door.

As he was cleaning out the ashes, his nephew, Li Qiang, came in rubbing his hands to warm them. “Uncle, my mom says it’s time to wash up and get ready for breakfast.”

“What’s for breakfast?” Li Long asked, as he brushed ashes into the dustpan.

“Cornmeal mush, pickled vegetables, corn flatbread—and oh, there’s steamed buns too!” Li Qiang’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“That’s nice,” Li Long said with a smile.

“It’s okay… but I still want meat,” Li Qiang mumbled, looking a little guilty. “My sister doesn’t like me saying it, but I know she does too…”

“Well, let’s have meat for lunch then,” Li Long said, as he took the dustpan outside. “How does that sound?”

“Really? What kind of meat, Uncle?” Li Qiang asked, his eyes brightening even more. “Are we having sparrow again? That was good, just not much meat.”

“Guagua chicken,” Li Long said, patting him on the head. “But don’t worry about that yet; first, let’s have breakfast.”

“What’s a Guagua chicken? Mom won’t let anyone touch our chickens, she says they’ll lay eggs next year.”

“It’s not from home,” Li Long replied, taking the dustpan outside and emptying the ashes before leading Li Qiang back to the kitchen.

The steam from cooking filled the kitchen with warmth, and Liang Yuemei was frying pickles when they came in. Seeing them, she called out to Li Long, “Quick, wash up so you can eat.”

“Alright,” Li Long answered, heading to the washstand in the corner. Seeing there was fresh water in the basin, he washed his face quickly.

Meanwhile, Li Qiang had run to his sister Li Juan’s room. “Sister, Uncle said we’re having guagua chicken for lunch!”

“What?” Li Juan was in the middle of tidying up their bedding and hadn’t heard him clearly.

But their father, Li Jianguo, overheard and called out, “Guagua chicken? Where can you catch a Guagua chicken now?”

Feeling a bit aggrieved, Li Qiang stood his ground. “Uncle promised! He said we’ll have Guagua for lunch.”

Both Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei turned to look at Li Long.

“I caught a few last night,” Li Long said, pointing outside. “I left them buried in the snow. I’ll pluck and clean them after breakfast.”

“A few?” Li Jianguo’s eyebrows went up, surprised. He knew his younger brother wasn’t exactly the hunting type—he didn’t even help out when they slaughtered a chicken at home. How did he manage to catch Guagua chicken?

“Five,” Li Long replied proudly, holding up five fingers.

“Let’s see them then!” Li Jianguo said, still skeptical.

“I want to see too!” Li Qiang said, eagerly following his uncle.

Li Juan didn’t say anything but followed along as well.

Liang Yuemei was tempted to go too, but she had food on the stove and settled for listening in.

Outside, Li Long led them to a snowdrift by the wall and used a snow shovel to clear the top layer of snow. After a few scrapes, the pheasants he’d caught were revealed.

“One, two, three… five! Sister, there really are five!” Li Qiang counted as Li Long pulled each guagua chicken out of the snow.

“Alright, enough,” Li Jianguo said, casting him a glance. Then he leaned in closer to Li Long and asked in a lower voice, “Where’d you catch these?”

“Out by the fields,” Li Long said, gesturing eastward and about to explain when footsteps and a dog’s bark came from outside.

Before he could put the guagua chicken away, someone had already reached the doorway. A young woman stood there.

Li Long glanced at her but said nothing.

Li Jianguo gave a polite smile and called out, “Shufen, you’re here?”

Wu Shufen hadn’t expected both brothers and the kids to be outside, and she hesitated for a moment. But when she saw the guagua chicken at Li Long’s feet, her mouth watered. She’d thought about what she wanted to say all the way over, but now the words were stuck in her throat.

Looking at the guagua chicken, Wu Shufen thought to herself, it’s actually fine to delay bringing up the breakup for a day or two.

To be honest, Wu Shufen was quite beautiful. Although she was wearing a floral cotton jacket, her cotton pants were clearly tailored to be slim-fitting, and she wore trendy cotton rubber shoes. The floral headscarf she had on was also fashionable. At the time, Li Long had been attracted to her beautiful face and how she dressed up.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t realized that behind that pretty face was a heart inclined to abandon the old for the new, preferring the rich over the poor.

Li Jianguo saw Wu Shufen intently staring at the “guagua chicken,” and thinking this was his younger brother’s girlfriend, he smiled and said:

“Well… Shufen, you see, this guagua chicken was caught by Xiao Long yesterday, so…”

“Big Brother,” Li Long interrupted, having already guessed his brother’s intent. He glanced at Wu Shufen and continued, “Let me ask her a few questions first.”

Knowing his brother was usually in the weaker position in this relationship, Li Jianguo thought it was good to see him speaking up for once. “Alright, go ahead,” he said, then turned to the children. “You two, back inside.”

He then stepped back, giving the couple some space.

Li Long didn’t care if others were around or not. He got straight to the point with Wu Shufen. “So, you heard from Gu Ermao that I got fired and came to break up with me. Isn’t that right?”

Break up?

Li Jianguo stopped and turned back, surprised, first looking at his brother, then at Wu Shufen.

Caught off guard by how direct he was, Wu Shufen didn’t quite know what to say. She’d planned to break things off anyway, but she worried Li Long might say something unpleasant. She rushed to get her words out.

“Yes, I think we should end it,” she said. “If you’ve been fired, you must’ve done something really bad. We started dating because you were persistent and seemed promising, but I had no idea you had such poor character. Being fired will affect your whole life. I don’t want to be… implicated in the future…”

At this point, Wu Shufen stopped talking.

She knew Li Long’s temperament—vain and concerned about his image. If they were to break up, then let it be. It was just a shame about the “Guagua Chicken”—if they hadn’t broken up, Li Long would have surely given her two, or even three chickens.

Maybe, to win her back, he might even give her all the chickens directly? Should she accept it?

Li Long could tell from her expression what she was thinking.

She wanted to break up, but was still hoping for some chicken?

No way.