“Still talking about city kids? Bah! You don’t have a mother, and kids without mothers deserve to be beaten,” Nie Xiaoqiang said, throwing a clod of dirt that hit Nie Weimin on the head.

Nie Weimin gritted his teeth, refusing to call out to Nie Xiaoqiang despite being punched and kicked.

He tightly protected his younger brother, unwilling to let Nie Xiaoqiang kick him.

Chen Lina, who could never stand unruly kids, grabbed Nie Xiaoqiang by the ear. “Whose kid are you? No one teaches you proper manners, just hitting people like this?”

Kids always fear adults.

Seeing someone step in, Nie Xiaoqiang immediately let go of Nie Weimin and ran off.

But the stubborn Nie Weimin, pulling his two younger brothers, quickly ran away.

A woman in her fifties appeared in the distance, coming from the fields.

She saw Nie Weimin running past and grabbed him, starting to scold him with her finger. “I told you not to run around! Don’t you know shoes cost money? Running so much will make you hungry! Food costs money too! Your father works hard to earn money to support you, and here you are fighting outside. Who’s going to mend your torn clothes, huh?”

“Grandma, it was Nie Xiaoqiang who started it,” Nie Weimin explained.

“Nie Xiaoqiang’s dad is the village secretary. If your dad was the village secretary too, I’d let you hit him back,” the woman replied.

It had been many years, and Chen Lina didn’t recognize this woman.

After all, she’d left her hometown in her previous life around this time, and while she could still recognize some people from her village, she didn’t know anyone from the neighboring village.

However, Nie Weimin had called her “Grandma,” which was a local term for grandmother, and that made Chen Lina curious.

Though she had lived in Qi Sixiang for nearly 20 years, she had never heard of anyone named Nie Bozhao from the neighboring village of Niejia Village.

In the future, when she asked about Nie Bozhao or his family, she would be told that they were all dead, but since his son was here, that meant there were still relatives alive.

“Oh, isn’t this the second daughter of Teacher Chen? Your elder sister is home, right? I heard you and Guozhu have broken off your engagement. For people like you, it’s hard to find someone these days, isn’t it?” the woman asked with a smile.

Chen Lina replied politely, but since she didn’t recognize her, she didn’t engage in further conversation.

Later, when she returned home, she found the woman sitting in her house, eating slices of the pig’s head that her mother had been stewing for hours.

“Hey, look, my son sent a telegram from the frontier four days ago. He traveled three days and nights by train, and half a day by bus. He’ll be here tomorrow. Your eldest daughter needs to prepare. After all, he only has ten days of leave. Eight days were spent traveling, and when he gets here, he’ll only have two days before he has to leave,” the woman said.

He Lan’er hesitated. “Huang Dasao, my daughter, Lili, doesn’t want to work as a nanny. After all, she has three children, all boys, and it’s hard to manage them. Besides, we haven’t even met your eldest son, so rushing to send her away like this doesn’t seem right.”

“But your daughter has already used 20 yuan of mine, He Lan’er. Twenty yuan isn’t a small amount nowadays. A worker’s monthly salary is only about ten yuan at most,” Huang Dasao persisted.

“What if we change our minds and don’t want to go?” He Lan’er said through gritted teeth.

“Then you’ll have to return the money. That 20 yuan must be returned,” Huang Dasao said, her tone now cold.

She pushed the plate of pig’s head meat aside and refused to eat.

“Fine, we’ll think it over. When the eldest daughter comes back, I’ll ask her what she thinks,” He Lan’er said.

“Just asking isn’t enough, He Lan’er. Nobody’s money grows on trees. This was a deposit. If the deal doesn’t go through, the money must be returned,” Huang Dasao said as she stood up to leave.

He Lan’er sat for a while in silence, then slapped her thigh and groaned. “Oh no, this is bad. How can we return the 20 yuan? We don’t have it.”

Chen Lina, having just returned from university and unaware of the family matters, asked, “Mom, what’s going on?”

“It’s all your sister’s fault,” He Lan’er said angrily, with no other choice. “That woman who just came is Huang Guilan from the neighboring Nie family in Niejia Village.

She has an eldest son working in the oil fields at the frontier. His first wife had three sons, but they all died.

Now no one can look after them, so she wanted to hire a nanny to take care of the three boys.

At the time, your sister had just divorced Wang Hongbing and agreed to go, even borrowing 20 yuan from Huang Guilan as an advance for four months’ salary.

Now Huang Guilan has come to claim either the money or your sister’s agreement to go to the frontier. She wants one of them.”

“My sister? Where did she go?” Chen Lina asked.

She couldn’t recall her sister wanting to work as a nanny.

“Mom, little sister, I’m back,” a voice from the yard suddenly called.

He Lan’er, still upset, pointed her chin and said, “Oh, here she is.”

“Big sister, Huang Dasao from Niejia Village came earlier and said you need to prepare to go to the frontier to be a nanny. How are you preparing?” Chen Lina asked.

“I told you to turn it down! The frontier is a terrible place. It’s all sand and wind, no water, and desert everywhere. I’m not going, why hasn’t Mom turned it down yet?” Chen Lina’s elder sister, Chen Lili, came in wearing worn-out clothes, her hair tied tightly, with dark circles under her eyes, panting as she sat down on the kang (a traditional heated platform).

“But you’ve already used the money,” He Lan’er said.

Chen Lili plopped down onto the Kang (a traditional Chinese heated bed) with a thud, biting her lip without saying a word.

After a long silence, she grit her teeth and said, “Mom, I’ve spent all the money. What should I do now?”

“Twenty yuan, my daughter. Your father’s monthly salary is only five yuan. That’s not a small amount. Tell me, where did the money go?” her mother asked.

“Didn’t Wang Hongbing break the legs of those little soldiers? He stayed in the hospital for ten days. The twenty yuan is all gone, but at least his leg was set. He’s not completely disabled,” Chen Lili said as she rubbed her stomach. “Mom, do we still have any bread? I haven’t eaten in two days. I’m so hungry I can feel my stomach sticking to my back.”

“Bread, you still want bread. Our family’s monthly ration of food is running low. Now there’s only five jin (about 2.5 kg) of fine flour left. I couldn’t bear to steam any bread. All we have are cornmeal cornbreads. They’re hard and taste awful, but at least they’ll fill your stomach.”

The so-called “composite flour” was made by mixing crushed buckwheat husks with cornmeal and steaming it.

It was hard, unpleasant to eat, and it caused stomach discomfort.

Eating it wasn’t a big deal, but getting rid of it afterward was a real challenge.

In modern terms, it could be described as a real pain.

But in these hard times, food was scarce, and composite flour was rare even for most people.

“Then, Mom, please get it quickly. I’m starving,” Chen Lili said, collapsing onto the Kang in exhaustion.

“How about Wang Hongbing? Didn’t you two get divorced? He’s getting his punishment, why are you still helping him?” He Lan’er asked.

Chen Lili didn’t respond.

She just gritted her teeth, staring at the blackened wooden beam in the ceiling.

After a long pause, she said, “Those capitalist roaders are always being punished. He divorced me so I wouldn’t be dragged down. Now that his legs are broken, how can I not take care of him?”

“You can’t just borrow money from everywhere. Our family is already struggling. If you borrow more, how can we repay?” He Lan’er was even more upset.

Chen Lili’s ex-husband, Wang Hongbing, had an aunt who ran off to Taiwan in 1949, so he was labeled a capitalist roader.

Wang Hongbing had always been loyal, and he divorced Chen Lili to avoid dragging her down.

However, the Chen family was also struggling with their own issues.

Chen Lili recalled the past, realizing that the wave of revolution was soon to hit Qishixiang, and both she and her sister would be criticized.

Political struggles would alternate between ideological and physical confrontations, and there would be public denouncements.

That suffering nearly killed them.

He Lan’er handed her eldest daughter, Chen Lili, a hard black cornbread, and then broke another in half for the younger daughter, Chen Lina, handing her half.

She herself bit into the other half, thinking for a moment before slapping her thigh and saying, “Well, if Lao Nie is coming back, it’ll only be for two or three days. I really have no money to repay this debt. How about we lock the door, head to your uncle’s place in Zhang County, and avoid this debt for now? What do you think?”

Chen Lili immediately sat up. “Good idea, Mom. Let’s hide for now. I really have no way to repay the debt.”

“Mom, isn’t it wrong to hide like this? We owe people money, and now we’re running away? What will Dad say if he finds out?” Chen Lina asked.

She recalled that in her past life, He Lan’er had indeed locked the door and taken the whole family to visit their relatives in Zhang County.

They stayed for half a month before returning.

In fact, they were just hiding from creditors.

“How else can we do it? Huang Guilan is well-known for being difficult in all of Qishixiang. Our family has no way to repay the debt. Won’t she just swallow us up? Don’t worry about your father. We’ll just take him along when we leave,” He Lan’er said as if Chen’s father was just a piece of luggage that could be picked up and carried away.

“Why don’t I go and meet Lao Nie instead?” Chen Lina suggested. “If not, I’ll go as a nanny.”

“You?” He Lan’er and Chen Lili said in unison. “You’re a university student and so young. What would you do as a nanny?”

“I disagree. You stay at home and wait. I’ll take the pig’s head to Nie Guozhu and keep your marriage safe,” He Lan’er said.

Chen Lina didn’t respond but instead asked her sister, “Do you think the current situation is serious?”

Of course, it was serious.

Her ex-husband Wang Hongbing and she had been a loving couple.

But when the struggle began, the little soldiers wanted them to each denounce each other.

Wang Hongbing wouldn’t denounce her, so he divorced her and set her free.

However, he had his legs broken, and the little soldiers still criticized him for not having enough depth in his education and not writing a good enough self-criticism.

“There’s no revolution in the borderlands, no armed struggle. If we want to escape the revolution, we’ll have to go to the borderlands,” Chen Lina said.

Being a nanny was one thing, but the oil fields were a critical national industry, and they were less affected by the revolutionary wave.

Nie Guozhu worked in the oil fields and was insulated from the revolutionary turmoil, which was exactly why Chen Lina considered him a potential escape route.

She thought that no matter what Nie Guozhu was like, someone from their family had to go to the borderlands.

The borderlands were the best escape route for their family to avoid the revolution.

If she went first and then brought her sister along, maybe they could escape the struggles this lifetime.

As for Nie Guozhu, wasn’t he possibly Nie Bozhao?

Otherwise, why would Nie Weimin call Huang Guilan(Huang Dasao) “grandmother”?

But then again, maybe she was mistaken.

Perhaps the child she saw wasn’t Nie Weimin after all?

After all, after marrying Nie Bozhao in her previous life and living together for more than ten years, she had never heard that his mother was Huang Guilan from Niejia Village.

Nie Bozhao was supposed to be from the provincial capital of Hongyan, the child of veteran revolutionary soldiers.

“Lili, what do you think? Should we meet him or not?” He Lan’er asked. “Since you and Wang Hongbing are divorced, why not just be bold and go to the borderlands? Maybe you can bring us all along. I’m tired of eating these composite flour cornbreads. What if we get to eat real white bread in the oil fields?”

Chen Lili was actually thinking about getting Chen Lina to be a nanny for Nie Guozhu, but she didn’t want to say that outright in front of her mother.

After all, Chen Lina was a good student and the couple’s precious daughter.

After thinking for a moment, she said, “Alright, tomorrow, I’ll go with Lina to meet Nie Guozhu. Let’s meet and see what happens. What do you think, Mom?”

Meanwhile, at the Nie family home, the so-called “Lao Nie,” or Nie Bozhao, had just returned home after a three-day train journey and a long bus ride.

He was dusty and tired.

As soon as he entered the door, his three sons were waiting by the wall.

“Say hello to your dad,” Huang Guilan, his mother, instructed.

“Hello, Dad!” The three children said in unison.

They looked clean, though their clothes were old and patched up.

Nie Bozhao stared at them for a while before suddenly reaching out and gently touching his eldest son Nie Weimin’s forehead.

The child hissed in pain and turned his head away.

Sure enough, there was a large bump on his head, clearly from being hit.

Although Nie Bozhao didn’t say anything, his mother saw him frown in concern.

He was clearly upset.

These three children had been sent back to the countryside after Nie Bozhao’s wife passed away six months ago.

He had no choice but to send them back, worried that his elderly mother might not be able to take care of them properly.

Nie Bozhao didn’t often visit this rural hometown.

Huang Guilan was his biological mother, but when he was nine years old, she sold him to someone else, and he grew up in the provincial capital, so he wasn’t very close to his relatives here.

Besides him, Huang Guilan had two sons and a daughter.

His second brother had six daughters, and his other siblings were still studying.

With so many children in the family, Nie Bozhao worried his mother wouldn’t be able to care for them properly.

After his wife’s death, he was desperate.

After hearing about a potential nanny who could go to the borderlands, he took ten days off from work to go back and bring his children home.

“Mom, will that nanny be here tomorrow? I only have two days of leave. We need to leave with the children the day after tomorrow,” Nie Bozhao said.

Huang Guilan didn’t really want to find a nanny for the children, but out of her son’s repeated requests, she had hired Chen Lili.

At this point, she wasn’t in the best mood: “How many times have I told you? Just let me take care of the kids. We can all move the whole family to the base and live together. It’d be nice to have everyone together. You refused to listen and insisted on hiring a nanny. Fine, we’ll meet her tomorrow.”