Widow Li’s house had only two rooms. Liu Honghua and Chen Zhixue, both from Haicheng, naturally shared one room. The remaining two—Su Qing from Beijing and Wei Hongling from Shan Province—roomed together.
Widow Li’s house was made of mud and thatch, with a low roof. Both rooms had kang beds. One room, however, served as the main hall and was more spacious. The other, where the couple used to sleep, was smaller but had a cabinet for storage.
The bossy Liu Honghua grabbed Chen Zhixue’s hand as soon as they entered and made a beeline for the larger room. The other two exchanged a glance and silently chose the smaller one.
Wei Hongling felt a bit resentful. Once inside the room, she asked Su Qing, “Comrade Su, why didn’t we take the big room? Why should we be afraid of Liu Honghua?”
Su Qing surveyed the room. It had a small kang facing the door, a faded cabinet on the left, and an equally worn-out set of table and chairs on the right. A pile of thatch lay on the kang. The ceiling was low and oppressive. If it weren’t for the thatch roof, sleeping there would feel like half a death sentence.
“Instead of fighting with her, we’d be better off figuring out how to fix up this room. Before I came, I asked the elders at home. They said the weather here stays cold for a long time. We only brought one quilt each—that’s definitely not enough.”
Su Qing pointed at the bare kang and continued, “This kang looks like it’s been used regularly—the flue is probably clear. But the one in the main hall looks like it hasn’t been touched in years. The flue might even be blocked. Those two from Haicheng don’t know anything about that. When they have to ask a villager to come unblock their flue, that’ll be a whole other problem.”
Wei Hongling looked at her with admiration. “Comrade Su, I really didn’t think that far ahead. Can you teach me what to do?”
While the two of them discussed things cooperatively, Liu Honghua had already started complaining.
“What is this? Why is there thatch up there? Are there going to be bugs? Is this really where we’re supposed to sleep?” A string of grumbles followed.
Chen Zhixue rolled her eyes inwardly at Liu Honghua’s words. “Honghua, I don’t know how to deal with this either. Maybe we should go find the brigade captain and ask for a different place? This doesn’t look fit for people to live in.”
Hearing that, Liu Honghua, who already despised the room, grabbed Chen Zhixue and headed out to find the brigade captain.
“Brigade Captain, we came here to help build the countryside, and this is the kind of place you give us?” After finally tracking down where the captain lived, Liu Honghua barged into his yard. Seeing the spacious courtyard and clean, tidy environment, she grew even more agitated.
“That house was built just a few years ago. It’s already quite decent. Just make do for now,” the brigade captain said gently, not wanting to argue with a young woman.
“I don’t care. I don’t want to stay there. Xiaoxue and I have never lived in a place like that.” Then she pointed at Liu Shiguo. “Why does he get to live here while we have to stay in that run-down shack?”
“Comrade Liu, you’re being unreasonable. I’m a male comrade, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to live with you women. The brigade captain kindly offered me this place to stay,” Liu Shiguo said smugly. He hadn’t expected the captain to be so generous. He knew he had to seize the opportunity to get on the captain’s good side.
Seeing Liu Shiguo’s smug, petty face, Liu Honghua was furious and stamped her feet. “Brigade Captain, we want to live here too. We’re not staying in that broken-down house.”
The captain’s wife, who had been working in the kitchen, came out when she heard how unreasonable the conversation had become. “You’re a young woman. Our family has only one son. It wouldn’t be proper for you to live here.”
Liu Honghua didn’t care about that. She threw a tantrum, and with Chen Zhixue occasionally fanning the flames, the situation grew rather unpleasant.
It wasn’t until the brigade captain slammed his pipe on the table several times in anger that the three finally stopped.
“You two female comrades go back first. I’ll send a couple of people over to take a look later. As for you, Comrade Liu, go back to your room and organize your things. All of you are starting work tomorrow. Let’s see if you still have the energy to argue then.” With that, he went out to find help, leaving the three educated youths to regret their actions.
When the two women dejectedly returned to their new home, they found that Su Qing and Wei Hongling had already tidied up their room and were about to go ask where to fetch water for cleaning. The two sheepishly walked over. “Wait a moment. We just went to see the brigade captain. He said he’d send someone over to help fix up the house.”
After a short while, two aunts pushed open the door and entered. One was the brigade captain’s wife, the other the accountant’s wife.
Liu Honghua and Chen Zhixue shrank back and dared not speak when they saw the captain’s wife.
Su Qing, however, smiled and said, “Hello, Aunties. My name is Su Qing. This is Wei Hongling, Chen Zhixue, and Liu Honghua.” Su Qing introduced all four of them, then pulled out a few White Rabbit candies—rare in the village—from her bag and pressed them into the two aunts’ hands.
The two aunts weren’t strangers to good things and tried to refuse. In the end, they each took one candy and let the matter go.
“I know you four young city girls are not used to being in our village. The lodging may be basic, but no one here has ever starved. As long as you work hard and show up for labor diligently, you’ll be fine.”
The three from modest backgrounds felt relieved hearing the captain’s wife say they could have enough to eat. Only Liu Honghua didn’t look thrilled at the mention of work.
The captain’s wife, seeing that these four were around her own son’s age, didn’t say anything harsh. She went straight to the main hall and began teaching them how to fix up the kang.
The accountant’s wife went to the kitchen and started a fire to check the flue.
Su Qing noticed that both aunts were the type who worked without much talk. She asked, “Auntie, our room is almost ready, but we don’t have water. Could you tell us where to fetch some?”
The accountant’s wife thought for a moment, then set down what she was doing and took the two of them to the water source.
Meanwhile, Liu Honghua and Chen Zhixue stayed behind. Under the captain’s wife’s direction, they finally managed to clean up their room.
“Later, come with me to get some clean straw to put on the kang before you lay down your bedding, or you’ll freeze at night. Also, there’s nothing in the kitchen. You should go to the county town this afternoon if you have time and buy a pot for boiling water and cooking. You’re having dinner at my place today, but starting tomorrow, you’ll need to cook for yourselves. Get your kitchen supplies ready as soon as possible. When those two girls come back, sort this all out together—water-fetching, cooking, everything.” The captain’s wife could tell that Liu Honghua had never done housework before and couldn’t help but fuss.
Though Liu Honghua had a bad temper, she listened seriously to the captain’s wife, who had come to help. For a moment, she even neglected Chen Zhixue.
Su Qing and Wei Hongling carried a bucket of water back together—the bucket was borrowed from the accountant’s wife. Following behind them were the accountant’s wife and Hongqi.
Seeing her own son, the captain’s wife asked, “Hongqi, what are you doing here?”
“Auntie said the flue here was blocked and asked me to come help take a look,” he said, then went to the kitchen to get tools and start working.
For a while, everyone was busy.