“Duoduo, Duoduo… wake up. We’re here.”
Zhou Rong gently shook Xu Duoduo awake.
Opening her eyes, Xu Duoduo realized everyone else had already gotten off the bus. Only their family remained onboard.
Xu Ergen carried the luggage on his back while Xu Bu held Xu Ting’s hand. Zhou Rong helped Xu Duoduo down from the vehicle.
“Zhangqi Village Supply Cooperative.”
Six large characters were painted across the outer wall of a long single-story building with six tiled rooms.
Red lettering on a white background.
Impossible to miss.
The scenes from memory felt far less real than seeing them with her own eyes.
Rows of small houses stretched into the distance, with towering mountains visible everywhere.
This era was genuinely poor.
But everything was solid and authentic, and unlike the apocalypse, there was no constant danger threatening to kill you at any moment.
Xu Duoduo took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air.
In the apocalypse, breathing air this clean had been an unimaginable luxury.
“Whoa there… Ergen, why are you all back?”
An old man smoking a pipe while driving an ox cart stopped nearby after spotting Xu Ergen’s family.
“Grandpa! How did you know we were coming back today? I missed you so much!”
Xu Ting flew over like a butterfly and wrapped herself around the old man’s arm.
“Dad, I…”
Xu Ergen lowered his head awkwardly, too ashamed to explain.
“Duoduo! What happened to my Duoduo’s head?!”
Old Man Zhou finally noticed the bandages wrapped around Xu Duoduo’s head behind Xu Ergen.
“Grandpa, I’m fine. Don’t worry.” Xu Duoduo immediately leaned affectionately against his other arm. “Are you heading back to the village? Then I’m lucky — I don’t have to walk home!”
“Get on first. We’ll go home and talk there.”
Old Man Zhou motioned everyone onto the ox cart.
Zhou Rong had been Xu Ergen’s childhood sweetheart from the same village as the Xu family.
So returning to the village was also like returning to Zhou Rong’s maternal home.
“Hyah!”
“Dad, why are you out here at this hour?” Zhou Rong asked curiously.
The production team’s ox cart normally wouldn’t be allowed out for private use.
“I just came back from the commune,” Old Man Zhou explained while driving the cart. “A new group of educated youth is being sent down to the countryside next week. The village youth dormitory is practically collapsing already, and there’s no room left for more people.”
“The team leader plans to repair the youth quarters these next few days.”
“We applied to the commune earlier for roof tiles, so today the team leader had me come check whether the request was approved. If it was, I’d haul them back.”
“Haha! Looks like we’re lucky then.” Xu Bu grinned playfully. “Clearly the request wasn’t approved yet, otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten a free ox cart ride home.”
“You little clever thing.” Old Man Zhou chuckled fondly.
“The commune secretary said they didn’t have enough stock. They gave us a permit instead and told us to buy tiles directly from the kiln at Shangma Production Team tomorrow.”
“Grandpa,” Xu Duoduo suddenly asked, “you said new educated youths are arriving next week?”
“Exactly.” Old Man Zhou’s face darkened immediately. “Can’t handle heavy work, complain light work earns too few work points. One by one they just want free grain from the village.”
Next week, huh?
Xu Duoduo’s thoughts immediately began spinning.
They could arrange for Xu Bu to become an educated youth here instead.
Being sent down to her own home village would practically be the same as staying home.
And next year the political movement would truly begin.
Ten whole years.
With Old Xu and Old Madam Xu still in the county town, staying there was like living beside ticking time bombs.
Far too dangerous.
“So why exactly did you all come back? And how did Duoduo get hurt?” Old Man Zhou asked after tapping out the ash from his pipe.
“Grandpa, I’ll tell you!”
Xu Ting immediately launched into a lively retelling of everything:
How Xu Duoduo had been injured.
How she remained unconscious for two days before finally going to the hospital.
How Eryou and Sanyou were arrested.
How the family split happened.
She described every detail vividly, even imitating everyone’s facial expressions.
“Xu Ergen! You let that old hag bully my granddaughter like this?!”
Old Man Zhou became so furious that he stopped the ox cart entirely, grabbed Xu Ergen by the collar, and yanked him straight off the cart.
“Dad, look…” Zhou Rong hurriedly jumped down to stop him. “Before the family split, Ergen really didn’t have a choice. But now we’ve already separated. Everything will get better from now on. Nobody can bully our family anymore.”
“Grandpa, don’t be angry!” Xu Bu cried.
“Grandpa, don’t hit Dad!” Xu Ting shouted too.
“Grandpa, hit him harder — just don’t hit his face,” Xu Duoduo helpfully added from the side.
Old Man Zhou had truly been furious, but he hadn’t genuinely intended to beat Xu Ergen.
After years of farm labor, his hands were too heavy.
If he accidentally injured Xu Ergen for real, it would still be his daughter who suffered afterward.
But hearing Xu Duoduo’s “encouragement” made him burst into laughter instead.
“Hmph. Since the girls are pleading for you, I’ll postpone this beating for now.” Old Man Zhou finally released Xu Ergen. “But if that old hag Xu ever dares bully my daughter again, I’ll beat both you and your father together.”
He climbed back onto the cart and continued driving.
As the ox cart rolled forward again, Xu Ergen sat quietly behind them, watching Xu Duoduo lean comfortably against Zhou Rong while swinging her legs back and forth.
His heart felt painfully blocked.
Just now, his own daughter had encouraged her grandfather to beat him.
Deep down, she still resented him as her father.
And honestly…
she had every right to.
He truly had failed them.
Xu Ergen silently swore to himself again:
Never again.
He would never let his wife and daughters suffer like this anymore.
“If they won’t give separation money, then forget it.” Old Man Zhou spoke while driving the cart. “When we get home, I’ll have your mother give you some money to use first.”
“Tomorrow I’ll also speak with the team leader when we buy roof tiles. We’ll get some extra for your place.”
“The old Xu family house in the village has been well maintained by your mother this past year. Once we replace the thatched roof with tiles and patch the walls, it’ll feel just like a new house.”
“At least now you’ll finally have a home of your own.”
He paused before sighing worriedly.
“But what about Ergen’s job? The factory’s pretty far from here. And since you women’s household registrations aren’t in the village, you can’t earn work points either.”
“Dad, I’ve already thought about it.” Xu Ergen quickly explained his plans. “I’ll apply for a factory dormitory first. I get one rest day every week, so I can come home then.”
“And when I go back to work, I can bring along the matchboxes and paper boxes that Rong and the girls make during the week and deliver them to the paper goods factory.”
“That way Rong can still earn money while living in the countryside without needing to work the fields.”
“Mhm. As long as you’ve got a plan in mind, that’s enough for now.” Old Man Zhou nodded. “We’ll take things one step at a time.”
The ox cart continued steadily toward their production team as Old Man Zhou chatted and joked with Xu Bu and the girls along the way.
The village had once been called Daheyan Village.
Now it was known as Daheyan Production Team.
By the time the sun had sunk halfway below the horizon, Old Man Zhou finally drove the cart into the village and stopped in front of the Zhou family home.
“Rong, you take Ergen and the children inside first,” he instructed. “Your mother definitely already prepared dinner. Eat first and don’t wait for me. I’ll return after putting the ox cart away.”
“Alright, Dad. It’s getting dark, so walk carefully,” Zhou Rong replied.
“Yeah, yeah, stop nagging already.” Old Man Zhou waved dismissively as he slowly drove the ox cart away.
“Grandma! Grandma! We’re back!”
Xu Ting bounced excitedly into the Zhou family courtyard.
The moment the family entered the house, Old Madam Zhou saw Xu Duoduo’s injury.
Then Xu Ting immediately reenacted the entire story all over again.
Her two uncles, aunts, cousins, and younger relatives all gasped repeatedly while listening.
The Zhou family was enormous too.
Old Man Zhou had two sons and three daughters.
The eldest daughter, Zhou Yan, had married Wang Shixiang from neighboring Xiaoheyan Village, whose family background was listed as “three generations of poor peasants.” They had three sons:
The second son, Zhou Qiang, married Sun Zhaodi from the neighboring village and had four sons:
The third daughter was Zhou Rong.
The fourth son, Zhou Zhuang, married Wu Meihua from the same village and had two daughters and one son:
The youngest daughter, Zhou Qin, married the son of a small postal office official in the commune. Her husband Zhao Changgui also worked at the post office. They had:
The Zhou family was equally massive.
In those years, almost nobody had small families.
By the time dinner ended, the sky had already gone fully dark.
Old Madam Zhou refused to let Zhou Rong’s family help with cleanup and instead shooed them toward the old Xu family house to rest.
They could discuss repairs tomorrow.
Xu Ergen and Zhou Rong swept away dust and ash.
Xu Bu and Xu Ting heated the kang bed.
Xu Duoduo’s only responsibility was sitting still and resting.
Then, after days of poor sleep and exhaustion…
the moment they lay down on the warm kang bed,
the entire family fell asleep instantly.