Chapter 81

The Sujia Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and in winter, the temperature could go very low. Even the aunts and uncles prefer to spend more time indoors and less time outside, even though they enjoy gathering to chat at the village entrance.

The collective farmland in the village is no longer busy, and each household is now concentrating on its self-sustaining plots.

Li Yufeng is a diligent woman who has cultivated a large area of self-sustaining land on the mountainside, growing various grains. 

At this moment, Li Yufeng came back carrying a load of cassava. On her way, she runs into a mailman, and he stops her and asks if she is Li Yufeng and says there is mail for her.

Li Yufeng doesn’t need to think twice to know that it must be a letter from her daughter. After thanking the mailman, she walked home with lighter steps.

Before entering her house, Li Yufeng looked around to ensure that no one was watching, then sneaked into the backyard and put a few cassavas in a dilapidated courtyard. Speaking softly to the person inside. “After cooking, soak them in water for two days before eating, or you might get dizzy.”

After saying that, She didn’t care if anyone inside heard her; she just walked around to the other side and went back to her own courtyard.

Xiao Bao has become more diligent in his studies since returning from his aunt’s house. His aunt told him that studying hard would be beneficial for him in the future. 

He sometimes heard others say, ‘So what if your aunt ranks first every year in exams? At the end of the day, she can only be a stepmother to someone else’s children.’ 

If it were him in the past, Xiao Bao would get angry upon hearing such remarks, but now he no longer feels upset. 

His uncle is tall, handsome, kind, and knowledgeable. His brothers, “Fantuan” and “Xiao Zhuzi,” are very intelligent, and he also likes his beautiful and cute younger brother, “Xiao Doubao.

He loves everyone in his uncle’s family and doesn’t mind if his Aunt Su becomes a stepmother to his brothers.

When Li Yufeng returned, Xiao Bao had already fed the chicks with the little earthworms he dug up on the way home from school.

Xiao Bao was doing his homework diligently—he was so focused on his studies that he didn’t notice when someone entered the courtyard.

Su Weimin attended a meeting at the commune, and Su Zhenhua followed Zhang Chunying back to her parent’s home for a visit.

Xiao Bao was the only one at home, and Li Yufeng didn’t disturb her grandson.

After Li Yufeng put down her things, she went inside to read the letter from Su Xiaoxiao.

When Li Yufeng found out that her daughter was pregnant, she was so excited that she kept repeating the words, “Thanks to the heavens, thanks to the Bodhisattva for their blessings.

Han Cheng’s children were all good kids, but Li Yufeng always felt uneasy because Su Xiaoxiao didn’t have her own child. Now, it’s different. Since Han Cheng’s family has many boys, there is no pressure on Su Xiaoxiao to have a boy or a girl. Li Yufeng’s worries were finally put to rest.

Li Yufeng’s excitement startled Xiao Bao. He peeked into the room and saw his grandmother looking at the letter with teary eyes.

The clever Xiao Bao immediately guessed what it was about and rushed over, tiptoeing to reach Li Yufeng’s hand, and said, “Grandma, is it my aunt’s letter?”

Even though it appeared to be a question, Xiao Doubao was certain that the letter was from his Aunt Su.

Li Yufeng impatiently patted her grandson’s hand and said, “Yes, let go first. Fantuan, Zhuzi, and Xiao Doubao all wrote letters for you. I’ll give them to you.”

Xiaobao let go of his grandmother’s hand and waited with anticipation.

Fantuan, Zhuzi, and Xiao Doubao each wrote a separate letter to Xiao Bao. Li Yufeng took it out and handed it to him. Xiao Bao held the letters with great joy, exclaiming, “Grandma, are these mine? Just for me?”

Li Yufeng nodded and said, “Yes, they wrote it specifically for you.”

“Then I’ll keep them for myself!” Six-year-old Xiao Bao received the most precious first letters of his life. He was very careful while holding them, afraid of accidentally wrinkling the paper.

Fantuan’s letter was on top, and it mentioned first that his mom is pregnant and will give them a baby sister. Xiao Bao was astonished and looked at Li Yufeng in disbelief, asking, “Grandma, does it mean that Aunt is going to give us a little sister?”

Li Yufeng shook her head and said, “We’ll only know if it’s a sister or a brother when the baby is born. It seems like we don’t have a destiny for daughters in our family; who knows, it might be another little boy.”

Li Yufeng’s words were not baseless. Not to mention Han Cheng’s family; even in the Su family, giving birth to a daughter was something considered miraculous for them. 

Going back three generations, they had only Su Xiaoxiao as a daughter. Su Xiaoxiao’s elders, peers, and juniors, except for her, were all girls. That’s why not only Su Weimin and Li Yufeng cherished their daughter, but also other elders in the family. Even when her grandparents were still alive, they doted on Su Xiaoxiao, which was why they were willing to send her to the city to study in high school. Everyone in the family supported the idea of letting her attend college and leave the countryside.

Of course, part of it was because Su Xiaoxiao is also outstanding. She has a well-behaved and sweet personality, always smiling.

She consistently ranked first in her exams every year. The city high school only admitted three students from their county, and she managed to get in with her top-notch performance.

Back then, when the college entrance examination had not been canceled, many people envied her. They said that Su Xiaoxiao is already half a step away from entering a university.

Li Yufeng has always cherished her like a precious gem since she was a child.

It can be said that apart from that time when she couldn’t bear the idea of being sent to the countryside as an “educated youth,” Su Xiaoxiao has never caused her mother any trouble. Unfortunately, just as her daughter was about to take the college entrance exam, it was suddenly announced that college entrance exams were canceled.

At first, Li Yufeng wasn’t completely satisfied when her daughter wanted to marry Han Cheng. She felt that her daughter was being wronged.

However, after visiting Han Cheng’s family, Li Yufeng is now dissatisfied with anyone else except Han Cheng. Moreover, her daughter got pregnant so quickly, which makes Li Yufeng delighted, thinking that her daughter is really fortunate.

Xiao Bao read the letter carefully. Fantuan and Zhuzi used the simplest language to share many interesting stories about school and home. Some of the more difficult characters, Xiao Bao couldn’t recognize, but he could guess their meaning.

Xiao Doubao drew two adults and three children in a rather crooked manner, and Fantuan wrote down the names of each family member beside them, adding the line “We miss you.” Xiao Bao read the letter repeatedly, and tears almost fell before he carefully folded the letter and treasured it.

After reading his own letter, Xiao Bao stood on tiptoe to look at the letter in Li Yufeng’s hand and said, “Grandma, I really miss my aunt, Fantuan, and the others. My uncle promised me that he would come back during the Chinese New Year. Did your letter mention anything about it?”

Li Yufeng showed the letter to Xiaobao and nodded her head. “Your aunt said she wants to come back, but your uncle said it depends on her physical condition. Don’t worry, even if your aunt can’t come back, your uncle will bring Fantuan and the others to pick you and your older brother up for the Chinese New Year.”

“Really? “Xiao Bao was overjoyed and trying to find the part his uncle wrote. However, the family letter was too long, and after searching for a while, he couldn’t find it. Nevertheless, he believed his grandmother’s words.

In the letter, Su Xiaoxiao detailed everything about Li Yufeng’s crops, how many times they had eaten bean sprouts, and how they had four big roosters named Zhou, Fen, Mian, and Fan and eight newly hatched chicks. Han Cheng even mentioned that they would raise the chickens until Su Xiaoxiao finished her postpartum confinement period. Such trivial matters made the letter quite long.

However, Su Xiaoxiao didn’t mention a word about the difficult part of her pregnancy. She’s afraid that her mother would worry too much, which is why she never reported her worries. She still wants to follow the idea of “reporting happiness, not worries.”

Li Yufeng was at ease with Han Cheng and not overly concerned about her daughter. The only issue was that there were no elders in Han Cheng’s family, so Li Yufeng needed to plan her visit around Su Xiaoxiao’s postpartum period.

After putting away his letter, Xiao Bao said to Li Yufeng, “Grandma, I won’t help you with cooking today. I need to practice calligraphy and also reply to Fantuan and the others.” Xiao Bao then happily trotted away to write multiple letters since each person wrote one for him, and he needed to reply to all of them.

Li Yufeng was a little puzzled, so she asked him, “Do you have that much homework to do today?”

Xiao Bao waved his hand back and sat down on his small stool without looking back. He said, “My Aunt and uncle have such beautiful handwriting; Fantuan and Xiao Zhuzi’s handwriting looks better than mine. If I don’t practice handwriting properly, what should I do if Xiao Doubao’s handwriting will look better than mine in the future? Next time, when Da Bao returns, I have to ask him to practice handwriting seriously. Fantuan doesn’t like to be friends with people whose handwriting is ugly. If he doesn’t write well, Fantuan might reject Da Bao when he comes back.”

Li Yufeng smiled and shook her head. It’s always a good thing for her grandson to make progress, but it’s a pity that even with a good education these days, they can’t even take the college entrance exam.

A few days ago, their village received some intellectuals who transferred from a frontier farm. It was said that their parents used to be university professors, and their son was also a college student. They were a highly educated family, but they couldn’t withstand the harsh cold of the frontier and got sick, so they had to move to their village.

Su Weimin saw that they were a pitiful family of well-mannered and educated people. He let them stay in the unused house at the back of his courtyard. Although it was not in good condition and was not repaired for a long time, it was still better than the leaking cowshed. He also moved some of the old, unused things from his house for them to use.

In this day and age, people are still wary of the city folks like them who were sent down and struggled in “p” ^[1]likely referring to “political struggle” during the Cultural Revolution for some unknown reason. 

The people in the village try to avoid them and minimize contact so as not to invite trouble.

Su Weimin, as a village leader, already showed great kindness by treating them with such tolerance.

Li Yufeng, in particular, would pick more vegetables and dig more sweet potatoes. When she comes back, she quietly puts them in their yard.

Sometimes, when they meet someone on the way, Li Yufeng will wait until it gets dark and then deliver the food to them.

The family of intellectuals knew how to avoid suspicion. Except for the first day they moved in when they sincerely thanked the villagers, they never interacted with them again, either openly or secretly.

Because of this, Li Yufeng was willing to share good things like peanuts and lotus roots with them.

Xiao Bao likes that “new family,” especially the grandparents. He believed they were far more knowledgeable than his teachers. Whenever he encountered a difficult problem, he would sneak over and ask for assistance. He even shared his large white rabbit milk candy, which had been given to him by his aunt.

Li Yufeng had caught him sneaking over several times and warned him not to go there too often, not to visit them in front of others, and not to spread the word. She wanted to avoid causing trouble for both parties.

Xiao Bao didn’t fully understand their situation, but he also knew that they were different from the others in the village. Xiao Bao still feels that everyone in the village doesn’t have as much knowledge as they do, but he doesn’t know why the villagers don’t seem to like them very much.

Every time he visited them, Xiao Bao would do it so secretly.

“Grandma, could you roast some sweet potatoes for me?” Xiao Bao, now with a good understanding of his secret friend’s preference, wanted to give some to the most knowledgeable grandparents in the village.

“Sure,” Li Yufeng agreed, aware that he would sneak over again, but she didn’t stop him. In these times, there were many unfortunate people, and if they could help, they would. She selected a few large sweet potatoes and placed them on the fire to roast.