She was carrying vegetables home when, unexpectedly, as soon as she entered the large courtyard of the Tusi government office, a child jumped down from the wall.

“Mom, something big has happened!” Goudan’s big eyes were wide open, his face filled with seriousness as though facing a great enemy. “It’s really a big deal!”

“My grandma’s here!” Don’t be fooled by the nickname, “Lu Dan” was back in action, holding a stick in his hand. With a swift motion, he made a slash and planted the stick behind him. “But don’t be afraid, I’ll protect you.”

The two mischievous kids, one on the left and the other on the right, tightly clung to their mom, united like never before, as if they were about to go up the mountain to hunt a tiger, and escorted her into the courtyard.

As they say, it’s like a rare sight—a century-old iron tree blooming.

Grandmother Song came to visit her son, and astonishingly, she even brought a bamboo basket. In the basket were a few ears of tender corn.

Immediately, Su Xiangwan applauded herself for her earlier wise decision, because she had also bought some tender corn.

One for fifty cents was an expensive price, but it was worth it.

When Old Lady Song saw Su Xiangwan entering, she was so startled that she quickly jumped to her feet.

Of course, the old lady was scared. She feared this strong and tough daughter-in-law would once again point her finger and scold her.

Unexpectedly, Su Xiangwan just sat down at the stone table in the yard and began peeling the onions. “Where did you get this, Mom?”

Being called “Mom” made the old lady even more fearful.

“This is the tender corn from our village. We used the fertilizer from Qingshan, so it’s huge and sweet. It’s sweeter than any corn anywhere.”

The old lady had been silent for a while, but now, it seemed she was speaking quite fluently.

Su Xiangwan turned around and saw Lu Dan still holding his stick, Dogdan with his arms crossed, and Li Chengze with his hands in his pockets, all standing around her.

They looked like a scene straight out of Journey to the West, and she, perhaps, was like the monk Tang Seng facing monsters.

The three boys were on guard, seemingly afraid she was going to be feed by Grandma to the monsters.

“Since you’re here, go rest on the kang in the main room,” Su Xiangwan said. “I’ll make dinner.”

The old lady visibly relaxed. “Cook some corn for the kids to eat. Lu dan and Gou dan haven’t had tender corn, right? Let them taste it today.”

Yes, back in the day, when there was tender corn, only Song Fu and Jin Gui got to eat it. The leftover corn cobs were all chewed on by the old lady herself, never given to the two kids.

Su Xiangwan gently opened her own bamboo basket. “I have some too, Mom. You keep yours for yourself.”

The old lady looked inside and realized that Su Xiangwan’s corn was even better than hers.

Carrying her basket, the old lady went into the kitchen, followed by Lu Dan. Seeing Su Xiangwan putting the corn into the coal stove pot, he started humming a tune, “The skies of the Liberated Areas are bright, and the people of the Liberated Areas can eat corn too.”

The child said, “Mom, this is great! We have our own corn, so we don’t have to be jealous of my grandma’s corn.”

Li Chengze, upon opening the basket Su Xiangwan had brought in, remarked, “What’s this? Ugh, so disgusting. It looks like snot. Hurry up and throw it out!”

When the three kids saw Grandma He coming to deliver Zhi Zhi, Li Chengze immediately blocked her path, saying, “Grandma He, take Zhi Zhi back with you! There’s going to be a big fight at our house today.”

In the children’s minds, they thought Su Xiangwan was about to grab a cleaver and start chopping everything up. But surprisingly, Su Xiangwan was calmly working in the kitchen, as if nothing was wrong.

Grandma Song lay on the kang (a heated platform bed), wiping her eyes, and to the children’s surprise, she was crying.

Gou Dan and Lu Dan thought this was strange. Normally, Grandma, who was so strong and imposing, was now in tears.

Gou Dan hurried into the kitchen. “Mom, Grandma is definitely scheming. She’s using the ‘sacrificial move’ (acting weak to gain sympathy).”

Grandma Song had taken a few cobs of corn and was now acting out this “sacrificial move.”

Su Xiangwan gave a soft grunt, turned around, and saw the little one with bright eyes. She patted his head and said, “Go get some lye water for me, and I’ll prepare the liangfen (cold noodles) for you.”

Li Chengze stubbornly said, “It looks like snot. I won’t eat it.” He then announced, “Fine, I won’t eat dinner today. After finishing my homework, I’m going to bed.”

“Well, hurry up and go to sleep then, stop bothering me,” Su Xiangwan replied.

Gua Gua, Ran Ran, and Liangfen were all signature snacks from Qinzhou.

Gou Dan and Lu Dan had never tried them, mainly because they were born in a tough time, and the scarcity of resources meant that these snacks didn’t exist back then. Now, with increased grain production, these local treats were starting to make a comeback.

When Su Xiangwan was a child, the most common dish at home was to mix green onions with lye water and then add liangfen and gua gua—such a delicious and fragrant combination.

Sure enough, Li Chengze, who had been loudly protesting not eating, didn’t leave. When it was ready, he was the first to grab a bowl.

He took a bite of the liangfen, and immediately covered his mouth, exclaiming, “Mom, this tastes amazing!”

Gou Dan, too, took a chopstick of liangfen and was amazed by its smoothness, better than vermicelli but chewier than noodles. On a hot summer day, it was refreshing, tangy, and cool. He eagerly devoured an entire bowl of it, licking up the green onions completely.

Su Xiangwan was also eating a bowl, feeding Zhi Zhi, who had sneaked back into the house.

Gou Dan, always ready to kick out anyone who seemed unreliable—especially Song Qingshan—looked confused by the current situation. “Mom, you’re not planning to make up with Grandma, right? After all, she nearly caused our deaths before, and I can never forget how badly she treated you.”

Thinking about the time when his mother was so hungry she had to feed Zhi Zhi her own blood, Gou Dan’s heart ached.

He couldn’t imagine getting along peacefully with Song Qingshan’s mother.

Su Xiangwan replied, “That’s an issue between the adults. No matter what, she is still your grandmother. Take this bowl of food to her.”

When Gou Dan delivered the food to Grandma Song, she refused to eat it.

She said to him, “Fuwa and Jinguai from the village don’t have liangfen or gua gua to eat. I can’t eat it.”

Gou Dan returned the bowl to the kitchen. “Mom, Grandma says that because Fuwa and Jinguai don’t have liangfen, she can’t eat it either.”

“Well, take it out and feed it to the dogs,” Su Xiangwan replied. “After feeding them, bring the bowl back and I’ll wash it.”

Soon, they heard the dog, Da Shan, barking happily because it had liangfen to eat. Grandma Song, lying on the kang in the other room, suddenly started crying loudly.

The children were in the kitchen, busy feeding little Zhi Zhi, who had been stubbornly refusing to eat.

Gou Dan fed her a bite, and Zhi Zhi threw it up, refusing to swallow it.

Li Chengze, the one who usually had the most control over Zhi Zhi, fed her a bite of liangfen and pointed at her nose, warning, “Song Nanxi, if you spit this out again, I’ll spank your bottom.”

As a three-year-old, Zhi Zhi usually wasn’t considered a person to be taken seriously, but now that she was full, she simply refused to eat.

So, after holding it in for a while, she grabbed Li Chengze’s hand and spit the liangfen out onto it.

Li Chengze lifted his hand, but Zhi Zhi stared at him fiercely, her small teeth clenched.

Despite the spit, Li Chengze eventually ended up eating the liangfen himself, deciding not to waste the food. After all, when he had been begging for food outside, he had eaten trash, and wasting food was unthinkable.

Grandma Song lay on the kang well into the evening, hungry but unable to get up.

She finally got up and saw the four cobs of tender corn on the stone table.

She asked, “Xiangwan, how can you waste so much? If you don’t eat it soon, the corn will get old. Don’t the kids feel hungry or crave it?”

Gou Dan, still holding part of a cob of corn, replied, “Mom bought some for us. We have enough to eat, and we don’t want your corn.”

Grandma Song stretched out her hand, clearly still used to scolding and controlling, and seemed ready to strike. However, Gou Dan quickly picked up a stick and said, “Try hitting me, and I’ll show you. I’m not afraid of you.”

Grandma/Aunty He, the local gossip, had heard that an old lady from next door was visiting under the pretext of bringing clean clothes for Zhi Zhi.

She sneaked in and saw Grandma Song and Gou Dan, ready to clash. She went into the kitchen to persuade Su Xiangwan, “No grandchild should hit their grandmother, right? Little Su, quickly talk to the kids.”

Su Xiangwan, holding the clothes for Zhi Zhi that Aunty He had carefully washed and ironed, asked, “Did any of my three kids ever hit or scold you?”

Aunty He replied, “Well, they did once, but it was because they wanted to steal some apricots.”

Su Xiangwan then asked, “So, did they really steal?”

To be honest, the kids in the Song family were among the best-behaved children Aunty He had ever seen.

“If the old lady really had self-respect, then after not seeing the kids for half a year, would she immediately start fighting and arguing as soon as they meet?” Su Xiangwan said.

Aunty He thought about it too. If the old lady were truly a worry-free type, she wouldn’t start fighting with the kids right after meeting.

Just then, Grandma Song came out and immediately grabbed Aunty He by the arm. “You’re the mother of the mayor from the neighboring county, right? Do you know my brother, Cao Jinwang? He’s the head of the County Revolutionary Committee. Whether adults or children, anyone who doesn’t follow the Party’s policies can be taken in by the authorities.”

The old lady was using her conversation with Aunty He to send a message to Su Xiangwan.

If she really wanted to cause a ruckus, she could call Cao Jinwang over and have him berate Su Xiangwan, just to see if she’d accept it.

But, people like Aunty He, who had been around high-ranking officials in the Provincial Military Region and in Beijing, weren’t as easily intimidated as the old lady thought.

She shook her head, curling her lips. “Big sister, the children are cadres, they work for the government. The way you’re speaking is a bit low-level.”

Unable to control her daughter-in-law, the old lady turned her family’s internal issues into a workplace problem.

A mother-in-law like this, if not muddled in the head, was at least excessively biased.

Aunty He quickly ran next door to gossip with Li Yifan about the neighbors.

When Song Qingshan came home, he happened to find his mother telling
Aunty He about the troubles and how she was bragging about her brother, Cao Jinwang, and his power.

For Song Qingshan, this was as unsettling as hearing the wolf is coming.

Gou dan and Lu Dan had a smug look on their faces, waiting to watch the storm unfold.

Li Chengze, a bit older and more mature, handed Song Qingshan a piece of corn. “Uncle, take care. I’ll take Zhi Zhi out to play.”

Seeing that Su Xiangwan was busy cleaning the pot, Song Qingshan didn’t dare speak loudly. He turned and pulled the old lady into the house.

Of course, when the son arrived, the old lady burst into tears, sniffing and wailing as she began to complain to her son.

After listening to her, Song Qingshan hesitated before entering the kitchen. Once inside, he felt too awkward to speak. He grabbed a stick of tender corn and began to peel it.

They were children who had grown up hungry, and they cherished food. They didn’t bite into corn cobs; they always peeled them and ate the kernels one by one, clean as a whistle.

“What’s wrong? Speak up,” Su Xiangwan said.

The tall man, who was braver on the battlefield, seemed especially tense in this moment.

“Mom wants to move into the city to live with us. She says living in the countryside is inconvenient.”

Su Xiangwan chopped down on the cutting board with her knife. “Today it’s your mom, tomorrow your dad, the next day Song Fu and Jin Gui, and then Qingyu—are they all coming?”

Song Qingshan sighed. “I told her the house is tight, and this is a work unit’s house, there’s no room. But she refuses to go back. She even says she’ll bring my uncle to talk about this matter.”

The old lady didn’t dare act tough in front of Su Xiangwan, but she was more than bold enough to try it with Song Qingshan.

Earlier, the old lady had complained about the hardships of rural life, how difficult it was to raise children, and how hard her life had been.

Essentially, she was saying that since the third child had gone to prison, and no one was looking after Jin Gui, Song Qingshan should take them all in, because it was only right that he should support them.

She even said that if Song Qingshan refused, Cao Jinwang would come to their house to handle it personally.

In short, the old lady was determined to move the whole family to Song Qingshan’s house.

“You said my uncle, isn’t he the big leader of Fang Jinhun? Have you found his bones yet? Haven’t you always said he fell into the reservoir? Song Qingshan, don’t try to fool me. No matter how many pieces someone’s body is broken into after falling into water, it’ll still float to the surface. Haven’t you even looked for Fang Jinhun?”

“I found him. I really did find him. It was too ugly, so I buried him myself, right next to the reservoir. And my uncle doesn’t know about it,” Song Qingshan replied.

“You said Jin Huan killed someone in Jiangxi. Do you remember that in 1966, the Provincial Military District was attacked by Jin Huan and his people? He was young back then, but he went with them. Have you thought about where the weapons came from? Could they have been brought by Jin Huan from the Provincial Military District?” Su Xiangwan casually mentioned.

But as soon as Song Qingshan heard this, his face changed immediately.

Yes, he had been thinking about it all along—where did the explosives and weapons come from?

He and Song Tingxiu had always been investigating the spy angle, but they hadn’t considered this.

Cao Jinwang’s father was a well-known feng shui master around Qingshui County before the liberation.

Who else would care about feng shui except for Cao Jinwang?

And indeed, Fang Jinhun could very well have weapons, and if they were still outside, they were likely in Cao Jinwang’s hands.

Song Qingshan handed half the corn to Su Xiangwan. “I don’t want my mom to move in, but I think you’ll have to play the bad cop this time. After that, I’ll kneel on the washboard for you for a whole night. There’s an urgent matter I need to deal with.”

If the explosion incident was planned by his uncle, then there must still be weapons in the County Revolutionary Committee’s warehouse.

If they could find similar weapons, they could almost certainly identify the criminals.

Barely able to steady himself, Song Qingshan turned and rushed out. He started the car and sped off.

The saying “A man you can rely on will make even a pig climb a tree” suddenly made sense to Su Xiangwan.

“Qingshan’s wife.”

“Xiangwan.”

“Let me help you take care of the kids. It’ll be lively with the whole family in the city. How nice!” The old lady, unable to wait any longer, ran into the kitchen.

Su Xiangwan put down her chopsticks. “Crying, arguing, and now laughing—Mom, don’t you get tired of it all day long?”

“We’re family after all. You’re an official now, and your uncle said that if you’re willing to bring our whole family to the city, he’ll support you fully in whatever work you do with the Women’s Federation,” Grandma He said.

Su Xiangwan replied coldly, “If Qingshan wants to go back and see you, I won’t stop him. But as for my family, even if you bring gold, silver, or a thick piece of fat meat, don’t bother. You and I are enemies. Do you understand? We’re not even strangers anymore.”

Su Xiangwan’s tone was light, but her eyes reflected clear disdain and indifference.

This woman was tough, capable, and could manage a household, but there was one thing that would never change: she would never have any further dealings with the Song family.

“You have so many children. As long as you’re not overly biased, there’ll be plenty of people to take care of you and send you off when the time comes. Whether I’m there or not, it doesn’t matter. But even if you die and are wrapped in mourning clothes, I won’t go. You and I are enemies.”

Grandma He wiped her eyes, “So, you mean I don’t even have the right to stay one night in my son’s house?”

“Sleep, then. Sleep in your son’s bed. As for me and Zhi Zhi, we’ll squeeze in with the kids tonight, but only for tonight,” Su Xiangwan responded.

She stepped outside to throw some water, and as she did, she saw four kids gathered outside, all laughing. They really looked like four round apples. Zhi Zhi had something in her mouth, her little lips always moving like a small hamster, nibbling, licking, and chewing slowly.

“Mom, are you really going to sleep with us tonight?” the three naughty boys asked, their sweat still fresh from their playtime. Especially Gou Dan and Lu Dan, who never bothered with cleanliness and always got sweaty after a bath.

Li Chengze, being the more sensible one, added, “If you do this, she’ll take advantage of it.”

Su Xiangwan wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “If she takes advantage, that’s fine. We can deal with it step by step.”