It was a sweltering summer day.
At ten in the morning, the villagers of Hongxing Production Brigade gradually finished their work and began heading home.
At the western end of the village stood a newly built courtyard house. Beneath a tree in the yard, a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy sat doing his homework.
He was dressed in black cotton clothes covered with patches.
Just then, a middle-aged woman walked out of the kitchen in the main house and called out to him.
“Yu Qiang, where’s your sister? I haven’t seen her all day.”
Shen Mei’s voice was crisp and straightforward.
Yu Qiang looked up at his mother.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen Sis all day either. I have no idea where she went.”
Shen Mei was a woman in her forties. Years of farm work had left her skin somewhat rough, but she had naturally fair skin and attractive features. Even years of hard labor hadn’t completely hidden her beauty.
She wore a black-and-white floral jacket with a front opening. Though it was covered in patches upon patches, she kept it clean and neat. From the way everything about her was kept in order, it was obvious that she was a capable, efficient woman.
After asking her youngest son, who was doing his homework in the courtyard, Shen Mei turned and went back into the kitchen.
But she couldn’t help wondering where that girl had gone. It was nearly noon, yet she still hadn’t come home.
It’s so hot today. Could she have gone into the mountains? But she didn’t mention anything about it this morning.
Afraid she might have forgotten, Shen Mei thought carefully for a moment and confirmed that Yu Qiao hadn’t said anything about going into the mountains.
Yu Qiao often went into the mountains to hunt game and had even managed to bring down wild boars before. But that was usually during winter. After bringing down a wild boar, they could clean and butcher it, then bury the meat in the snow and eat it throughout the winter.
Still, whenever Yu Qiao went into the mountains, she always told her family beforehand.
The mountains around their area extended all the way into the deep wilderness. If they stayed near the outer areas, someone could leave early in the morning and return before lunch. But going into the deep mountains meant being gone for the entire day.
So whenever Yu Qiao went into the mountains, she always made sure her family knew, so they wouldn’t worry.
Yu Qiao was seventeen that year. She had a delicate, almost fragile appearance, but she was actually very strong.
On top of that, she had secretly practiced martial arts for years, so she was far from helpless.
Even her own mother, Shen Mei, and the rest of the family only knew that Yu Qiao was unusually strong. They had repeatedly warned her not to let others find out.
What they didn’t know was that Yu Qiao was hiding far more than just her strength.
The Yu family lived in the Northeast. Although they had often gone hungry during the famine years, the mountains behind their home had helped the siblings survive.
All of them had also attended the village elementary school for several years. However, Yu Qiao’s older brothers weren’t particularly good at studying, so they left school early and began earning work points.
Yu Qiao, on the other hand, had always been an excellent student. That year, she had just graduated from high school.
Over the past few years, the family’s circumstances had actually become fairly comfortable because her older brothers were all capable workers who earned plenty of work points.
They had built a new house the previous year, and before spring planting that year, her eldest brother had gotten married.
Her eldest brother, Yu Dahe, was twenty-two.
Her second brother, Yu Dashan, was one year younger, twenty-one. Although they were a year apart, one had been born at the beginning of the year and the other toward the end.
Her third brother, Yu Dalin, and fourth brother, Yu Dagang, were twins. Both were nineteen.
Yu Qiao was seventeen, while the youngest, her little brother Yu Qiang, was only thirteen.
Yu Qiang had originally been named Yu Daqiang. Yu Qiao thought the name sounded awful, so she deliberately started calling him Yu Qiang instead.
Eventually, the rest of the family followed suit, and Yu Qiang’s name stuck.
In the Northeast, the kitchen was located immediately inside the entrance of the house. There were bedrooms on either side, each equipped with a kang—a traditional heated brick bed.
A single room could sleep four or five people. During winter, they would light a fire underneath the kang to heat it up, making the bed wonderfully warm and comfortable for the entire night.
The Yu family had built their new house the previous year, constructing three large main rooms at once. The layout was very similar to a traditional courtyard residence.
Yu Qiao lived in the main room with her parents.
After the eldest brother got married, he and his wife occupied the northern half of the large room on the west side, while the third and fourth brothers shared the southern half.
Yu Qiang and the second brother occupied the southern half of the large room on the east side.
The northern half was still empty. Since the second brother was also about to get married, they would simply clean it up and turn it into his new marital room.
Building houses in the countryside was still relatively inexpensive in those days, provided a family had enough able-bodied workers willing to put in the effort.
If they spent two years stockpiling adobe bricks, they could build themselves a house. Families with better means would use roof tiles.
Poorer families who couldn’t afford tiles would cover their roofs with dried yellow grass instead.
It was still considered a new house, but the roof would need to be replaced every couple of years.
Not long after Shen Mei finished talking with Yu Qiang, Yu Qiao finally returned home beneath the blazing summer sun.
She was wearing a military-green outfit that was still in fairly good condition. Her family had had it made for her when she was in high school.
She normally took very good care of it. Today, because she had been visiting a classmate in the neighboring production brigade, Yu Qiao had decided to wear it.
She entered the courtyard and, as she approached the main house, called out while walking,
“Mom, I’m home!”
Hearing Yu Qiao’s voice, Shen Mei came out of the kitchen.
The moment she saw her daughter standing there, drenched in sweat yet still smiling at her, Shen Mei suddenly thought that her daughter was a little silly.
“You actually decided to come home! What have you been doing all morning? You didn’t even bother coming home.”
Though her words were reproachful, her tone was gentle.
Yu Qiao walked up to Shen Mei.
“I went to meet my future second sister-in-law.”
“What future second sister-in-law? You heard one thing from your second brother and immediately decided that girl was definitely going to marry into our family? You even went running over there to find her.”
As she spoke, Shen Mei used her sleeve to wipe the sweat from Yu Qiao’s forehead.
Yu Qiao immediately protested.
“Mom, I’m not that foolish. I went to visit my classmate. It had nothing to do with Liu Xiaomei.”
It just so happened that Liu Xiaomei was from Hongri Production Brigade, so Yu Qiao had taken the opportunity to ask her classmate about her.
Liu Xiaomei was a good girl. She had a pleasant personality and was hardworking and efficient.
The problem was that she had a pair of extremely sexist parents who favored sons over daughters.
She was already nineteen, but because her family demanded such a high bride price, no one had been willing to come forward and ask for her hand in marriage.
Yu Qiao didn’t know when exactly her second brother had met her. He had only come home and told their parents to ask around about the girl.
What else could that mean?
It was obvious that her second brother had taken a liking to her.
Hongri Production Brigade was next to Hongxing Production Brigade, so it wasn’t particularly far away. It took Yu Qiao about an hour to walk there.
On the other side of Hongxing Production Brigade was Hongqi Production Brigade, which was about a two-hour walk away.
All three production brigades belonged to the same people’s commune.
Yu Qiao genuinely cared a great deal about the matter of finding her brothers wives.
After all, her parents had five sons. If one of their future daughters-in-law turned out to be calculating and petty, would her parents ever be able to live peacefully?
“What are you thinking about?”
Seeing Yu Qiao lost in thought again, Shen Mei poked her on the forehead.
Yu Qiao snapped back to reality.
“Nothing. I was just thinking about my future second sister-in-law.”
“What future second sister-in-law? You’re always talking nonsense. Listen, I had your father go see the brigade leader today. We’re going to ask whether they can let you work as the brigade’s scorekeeper. Since you don’t want to look for a job in the city, you can find yourself an easier position here in the brigade.”
The young wife who had been working as the scorekeeper was due to give birth that day, leaving the position vacant.
When Shen Mei saw the opportunity, she had sent Yu Qiao’s father, Yu Shu, to ask the brigade leader whether the position could be given to Yu Qiao.
When Yu Qiao heard this, she nodded without objection.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to find a job in town. She simply didn’t want to invite unnecessary trouble.
Things were quite chaotic outside these days.
Shen Mei checked the time. Yu Shu and the others should be coming home soon.
She reached out and gave Yu Qiao a little push.
“Go take a look outside the gate. See if your father is back yet.”