Chapter 31: Magazine Response (Part 2)

That Friday, Mu Fugui brought back a package. Mu Mian’s eyes lit up the moment she saw it—she knew right away it was from her brother. “Big Brother wrote back?”

What was inside didn’t matter. What mattered was that there was a letter!

In this era, making phone calls wasn’t easy. People relied on letters to report their well-being.

A letter meant peace of mind.

Mu Fugui took the package off the back seat of his bicycle and handed it to his daughter. “Go ahead and open it.”

Mu Mian carried the package into the house and immediately noticed a bright red pile beneath the letter.

Liu Shuangcui was surprised. “Where did all this red fabric come from? There’s quite a bit—at least ten feet, right?”

As she tore open the letter, Mu Mian replied, “Big Brother must have written about it. We’ll know once we read it.”

Mu Mian read the letter aloud while her parents and grandmother sat beside her, listening.

When she read that Mu Zhuo had won third place in a swimming competition, Mu Fugui chuckled. “All those fish he caught as a kid paid off! Among his group of boys back then, he was the fastest swimmer.”

Of course, he also got plenty of beatings for it. That brat was fearless, always daring to swim in deep waters.

Mu Mian chimed in, “Big Brother is good at everything!”

When they learned that five feet of the red fabric had been a gift from a fellow soldier, Liu Shuangcui leaned closer to the letter. “Which comrade? That’s some fine red cloth to just give away.”

Mu Mian tilted the letter toward her mother. “It says it was from the platoon leader in the neighboring unit. His name is Wen Zhan.”

Liu Shuangcui glanced further down. “Wow, this Platoon Leader Wen is one year younger than our Xiao Zhuo.”

Mu Zhuo’s letters were always long-winded, filling multiple pages. He wrote casually, jotting down whatever came to mind, as if he were chatting with them face-to-face.

Besides his own daily life, he often mentioned his comrades—where they were from and what funny things happened during training.

This was the first time he had mentioned Wen Zhan.

Mu Mian continued reading. “It says here that he even attended a military academy.”

Liu Shuangcui sighed in admiration. “Now, that’s impressive.”

By the end of the letter, it was all about Mu Zhuo talking to Mu Mian, suggesting that the red fabric could be used for a blouse, a skirt, or even a small vest—wishing his little sister could have a bit of everything.

As Mu Mian read, she could almost picture her six-foot-tall brother chattering in front of her.

Since her brother had prepared so much for her, she needed to think carefully about what to send him in return.

Before she could come up with anything, something unexpected happened the next day—the magazine’s response finally arrived.

—

It all started that afternoon.

As usual, Mu Mian and Xu Lele carried their small baskets up the mountain in search of hazelnuts.

The later in the season it got, the harder it became to find wild hazelnuts. Many trees had already been picked clean.

They walked further than usual and even ran into Shi Xiaolian along the way.

What started as two people wandering around soon became three.

Thinking about her submitted manuscript, Mu Mian leaned over to ask Shi Xiaolian, “Did you get a reply for the one you sent?”

Shi Xiaolian shook her head.

Mu Mian muttered a silly thought. “Do you think it’s possible that they changed mail carriers, and the new one doesn’t know how to get to our brigade?”

Usually, letters were delivered by a designated mail carrier who brought them straight to the brigade. Only heavier packages had to be picked up at the post office.

Shi Xiaolian said, “I saw Uncle Zhang at the post office last time.”

Uncle Zhang was the regular mail carrier. He had been delivering letters for years. He only came to their brigade occasionally—maybe once every month or two.

Xu Lele chimed in, “They will definitely reply. You guys are amazing!”

The little girl’s tone was filled with innocent optimism.

She knew that her two friends had sent letters out, but she didn’t fully understand the details and was still a bit confused about it.

All she knew was that it was like writing a school essay—once finished, they sent it out, and if they received a reply, it would be a really impressive thing.

She didn’t know exactly how impressive it was. She just knew she couldn’t do it herself and had no interest in trying. Reading books all day was so boring!

Playing on the mountain was much more fun. If she didn’t run around for a day, her legs would start itching!

Mu Mian had already prepared herself for the possibility of her letter never getting a response. In fact, she had mentally prepared for this quite thoroughly.

So, she only thought about it occasionally, and soon after, she would forget about it again.

The three of them wandered around, stopping and starting, and in the end, they only managed to fill half a basket.

By the time they returned, it was already getting late. Mu Mian looked at the sun, which was now only half-visible on the horizon, and quickened her pace.

But before they even reached home, they saw a crowd gathered by the roadside. Mu Mian vaguely spotted her father in the middle of the group. He looked excited, gesturing animatedly as he spoke about something.

Xu Lele craned her neck like a little groundhog and asked curiously, “What’s going on? What happened?”

Saying that, she was about to run toward the crowd, with Mu Mian following closely behind.

Before they could take more than a couple of steps, a loud voice rang out from the front. It was Cao Chunfeng.

“Aren’t those two girls over there?”

Her voice was so loud that Mu Mian heard it crystal clear from where she stood. As she instinctively wondered which two of the three of them she was referring to, several other women’s voices suddenly joined in, chattering excitedly.

“Oh my goodness! Mian girl, your article got published in the newspaper!”

“Not the newspaper! Fugui just said it’s something called a… a magazine!”

“What does it matter? It was published all the same!”

Though they were still a little far away and the voices overlapped, making it hard to hear every word clearly, the three girls grasped the main point.

Xu Lele was even more thrilled than the two who had actually written the articles. She jumped up with a loud “Wow!” and cheered, “See! I told you guys you were amazing!”

Mu Mian had never expected to receive a reply, so now that one had come, she was overjoyed. She grabbed Xu Lele’s hand and rushed into the crowd.

Mu Fugui, standing in the middle, was grinning from ear to ear. With a smug expression, he raised his hand and passed something in Mu Mian’s direction. Even his eyebrows were raised in excitement as he spoke.

“The reply is here! They even sent books! Lian girl, I haven’t opened the letter, but I felt it, and it seems just as thick as Mian girl’s. There’s probably a book inside too.”

The three little girls squeezed their way into the crowd.

Shi Xiaolian took the letter and said, “Thank you, Uncle Fugui.”

Mu Fugui laughed heartily. “No need to thank me! Hurry home and show your sister and mother. You girls have really made something of yourselves!”

As Mu Mian flipped through the book curiously, she asked, “Dad, where did you get this?”

Mu Fugui started chattering proudly, “I ran into Xiao Zhang from the post office on my way back. I had chatted with him before when I sent something to your brother, so he still remembered me.”

“He was supposed to deliver it to the brigade, but when he saw my name, he just handed it to me instead. Since Lian girl’s letter was also there, I brought hers back too.”

As he finished speaking, Mu Fugui handed over the envelope. “I think there’s even a remittance slip inside. Hurry and check how much it is!”

Mu Mian asked, “Dad, didn’t you check it earlier?”

Mu Fugui replied, “Why would I? I just opened it!”

One of the curious older women stretched her neck forward. “There’s money too? How much does one article pay?”

Almost as soon as she finished asking, the answer was revealed.

Mu Mian exclaimed, “Wow! Twenty-two yuan!”

Hearing this amount, the woman’s voice immediately shot up an octave. “How much? Over twenty yuan? That much?! That’s more than a temporary worker earns in a month!”

“Oh my! That’s incredible!”

“Lian girl, how much did you get?”

Shi Xiaolian answered, “Also twenty-two yuan.”

“My goodness! That’s a lot!”