The wheat began to sprout, and a thin layer of green appeared on the ridge.
On the weekend, Bian Feifei carried her schoolbag and walked for two hours on the muddy road to return home.
Before entering the house, she heard someone talking inside.
The voice was loud, it was Aunt Li.
Aunt Li was Uncle’s wife.
She was quick-tongued and not bad-natured, but she was always meddling in other people’s affairs.
She sat on a small stool in the main room, cracking peanuts, and when she saw Feifei enter, she looked around her eyes: “Oh, Feifei has come back?
She has reached the second grade of junior high school?”
Feifei gave a “mhm” sound and put down her schoolbag, going to the stove room to help her mother add firewood.
Aunt Li followed her, leaning against the door frame: “Sister-in-law, I’ll tell you something honest.
This girl Feifei, will she get married by the time she finishes junior high school?”
Zhao Guiying couldn’t hear, but she just smiled.
Her hands were busy embroidering a cushion, the stitches were dense and close together.
“Girls from families like yours, what’s the use of all that studying?” Aunt Li sneered at Feifei and said, “Look at the daughter of Old Li’s family in the village.
She didn’t finish junior high school and went to work in Guangdong.
She earns over a thousand yuan a month, and when the Spring Festival comes, she buys a color TV for her father.
Your family’s situation, supporting her to study, is only a few hundred yuan a year.
What’s the point of that?”
Feifei didn’t say anything.
She stuffed the firewood into the stove and the fire “popped” loudly.
Aunt Li talked more excitedly: “Go out earlier and earn more money, and it can also help the family.
When your father and mother get old, who will support the family?
”
“I don’t get married.” Feifei suddenly spoke.
Aunt Li was stunned: “What?
”
“I want to study.” She raised her head, her face turned red, her voice trembling, “I study, I can earn money in the future, I can buy a color TV for my parents, I can…
I can take them out of this village.”
The stove room fell silent.
Aunt Li laughed out loud: “You little girl, your heart is big.
You father’s leg, your mother’s ear, you don’t know what’s going on in the family?
With what can you study?”
Bian Shoutian was then coming back from the field, with a cane in his hand, as soon as he entered the house, he heard the last part.
His face darkened and he leaned the cane against the wall: “Feifei!
Why are you talking to Aunt Li?
When adults are speaking, you have no right to interrupt?”
Feifei’s eyes turned red: “I didn’t interrupt…”
“Still stubborn!” Bian Shoutian’s voice was even higher, “Go back to the room!”
Aunt Li hurriedly stepped in to mediate: “Oh, Shoutian, don’t blame the girl.
I’m just being kind.
You two think about it together.”
She didn’t understand, what was wrong with studying?
She just didn’t want to be like those sisters in the village, getting married at the age of sixteen or seventeen, living a life surrounded by just a few acres of land, with the days ending at a single well.
She was crying so hard that she heard her father and Aunt Li still talking outside.
Her father’s voice lowered: “Sister-in-law, I know you mean well.
But my daughter…
She has always been stubborn since childhood.
With my leg broken, I want her…
I want her to know more words, so that she won’t be laughed at by others in the future.”
“You two have high spirits.” Aunt Li sighed, “But this life is truly lived.”
Later, Aunt Li left.
It was dark outside, and a lamp was lit inside.
Feifei curled up on the bed, refusing to come out for dinner.
Zhao Guiying brought a bowl of hot porridge in and sat by the bed, touching her head.
She couldn’t hear her daughter crying, but from the up-and-down movement of her shoulders, she understood everything.
She placed the porridge on the bedside table and took out a handkerchief from her bosom, slowly unfolding it – inside were two embroidered cushion covers, a peony, a pair of magpies, the stitches were so fine they were like water ripples.
Feifei looked at it, and her tears fell even harder.
Mother couldn’t speak, but her hands said everything for her.
That night, she cried until very late.
The moon outside was blocked by clouds, and the courtyard was dark.
She didn’t know that for the word “studying”, she would have to exchange many things in the future.
She didn’t know that under her mother’s pillow, there was an old silver bracelet.