Li Xiangdong answered and went back into the rundown house to pack his things. The old man followed him inside.
As soon as he entered, he saw the wolf lying on the ground and exclaimed in surprise, “Well, would you look at that! How come there’s a wolf here?”
“Two wolves followed me when I was heading toward the village last night. I managed to kill one!” Li Xiangdong replied with a smile.
“You killed it? With what?”
Li Xiangdong pointed at the broken half of a wooden club on the ground. “With this. I didn’t have anything else!”
The old man was even more astonished. The way he looked at Li Xiangdong had changed a little. “Young man, you’re something else. You killed a wolf with nothing but a stick!”
“I just got lucky,” Li Xiangdong said modestly with a smile.
“That’s not something just anyone can do by getting lucky. All right, not bad at all. Let’s go. Put out the fire, and we’ll head to your aunt and uncle’s place!”
After packing his things, Li Xiangdong carried his luggage in one hand and the frozen wolf in the other, then followed the old man outside.
Shuangjing Village wasn’t very big to begin with. It had only about thirty households and a little over a hundred people, all of whom had gradually settled here after the reclamation effort began in the mid-1950s.
At first there had only been a few households. It took more than ten years for their numbers to grow to around thirty.
They hadn’t walked far along the village road before the two of them stopped at a courtyard.
“All right, here we are!” The old man pushed open the wooden gate and led Li Xiangdong inside, calling out as he went, “Qingfeng, are you home? Come on out! You’ve got a visitor!”
Li Xiangdong set down his luggage and the wolf, which he had been carrying, and fixed his eyes on the doorway.
“I’m home, I’m home! Oh, it’s you, Second Granduncle. Who’s come to visit?”
Someone answered from inside. The door soon opened, and two people came out.
They were none other than Li Xiangdong’s aunt, Li Guihua, and her husband, Sun Qingfeng.
Old Man Sun stepped aside to reveal Li Xiangdong, then pointed at him and said, “Qingfeng’s wife, this young man says he’s your nephew and came from your Shandong hometown. Take a look—is that right?”
Li Guihua studied Li Xiangdong. A thoughtful look flashed across her eyes before she ventured, “You’re Dongzi, right?”
“Aunt, Uncle, it’s me, Dongzi!” Li Xiangdong replied with a grin, stepping forward.
As soon as Li Guihua saw Li Xiangdong, her eyes reddened. She hurried over and grabbed his arm. “Dongzi, you finally made it! I’ve been worrying about you all these days. Wait, why did you get here at this hour? Did you travel through the night?”
“No, I arrived last night. I just didn’t know where your home was, so I spent the night in that rundown house at the edge of the village!”
“Oh, you silly child! This village is so small—you could’ve asked anyone and found out. No one’s lived in that rundown house for years. It must have been freezing!”
Li Xiangdong gave a sheepish smile. “It’s all right, Aunt. I had a fire going, so it wasn’t too bad. Oh, and I killed this wolf on the way here last night. Consider it a gift for our first meeting!”
“You ran into a wolf last night?! Did you get hurt?” Only then did Li Guihua notice the dead wolf on the ground behind Li Xiangdong, beside his bedding roll. She quickly felt him over to check for injuries.
Li Xiangdong smiled. “I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt. See, Aunt? I’m perfectly all right!”
“Good, as long as you weren’t hurt. That was so dangerous! You don’t know how many wolves and black bears there are in the woods around here. You have to be careful, understand?”
“Mm, I understand, Aunt. Don’t worry, I’m fine! Where should I put the wolf?”
“Don’t worry about that. Your uncle can put it in the storage shed first. We’ll skin it in a little while, and I’ll stew some meat for you!”
After putting the wolf in the storage shed, Sun Qingfeng and Li Guihua invited them into the main house.
Old Man Liu waved a hand. “All right, as long as he’s your relative, that’s settled. You two go ahead and talk. I still have to bring in firewood and get the fire going, or my little grandson will freeze when he wakes up. I’d better head back!”
Sun Qingfeng answered as he walked Old Man Liu out. “All right, Second Granduncle. Come over for a drink at noon!”
Li Xiangdong thanked him as well, then went back inside with his aunt and uncle.
After sitting down in the main room, Li Guihua eagerly asked about how things were back home. Li Xiangdong told her everything he remembered about the family.
After listening, Sun Qingfeng lit a cigarette and took several puffs. “Mm, there are too many people and too little land back home. Life’s been hard for everyone these past few years. It’s good that you came here. We’ve got plenty of land and not many people. As long as you’re willing to work, you won’t go hungry!”
“That’s right, that’s right. Now that you’re here, you won’t have to worry about going hungry. In the next couple of days, your uncle will talk to the production team leader in the village and take you into town to get your household registration settled. Then you’ll be able to collect your ration grain!”
Li Xiangdong nodded. “Thank you, Aunt. Thank you, Uncle!”
“Oh, you silly child. We’re family—there’s no need to thank us! You haven’t eaten breakfast, have you? Wait here, and I’ll make something for you!”
Aunt and nephew are family; even if their bones are broken, their sinews remain connected.
An aunt on one’s father’s side is different from a maternal aunt. Since an aunt and her nephew share a surname, she is an elder in the family and tends to take a greater interest in her nieces’ and nephews’ upbringing, actively involving herself in their education.
A maternal aunt, being the mother’s sister, usually maintains her relationship with her nieces and nephews through their mother. If the mother passes away or remarries, that bond tends to grow much more distant.
That is why an aunt on one’s father’s side is called “aunt’s husband,” while a maternal aunt’s husband is called “maternal aunt’s husband.”
Their husbands also play different roles in these relationships.
Of course, this is not an absolute rule. In some families, a maternal aunt is closer than an aunt on the father’s side.
The idea that a paternal aunt is closer than a maternal aunt is simply a traditional belief.
While Li Xiangdong and Sun Qingfeng were chatting inside, the curtain over the door to the west room was lifted, and a girl of about thirteen or fourteen stepped out.
When she saw Li Xiangdong, she stood timidly in the doorway.
“Girl, what are you standing there for? This is your maternal uncle’s son, Brother Xiangdong. Call him Second Brother!” Sun Qingfeng said when he saw his daughter standing frozen in the doorway.
The girl shyly called out, “Second Brother!”
“Hey, Xiaolan!” Li Xiangdong replied with a smile.
Li Xiangdong’s aunt had two children. The older one was the girl standing before them, Sun Xiaolan, who was thirteen. The younger one was a boy named Sun Xiaolei, who was nine.
“Girl, don’t just stand there. Come help me cook. Is your brother still asleep?” Li Guihua asked as she worked by the stove.
“Yeah, he’s still sleeping like a little pig!” Sun Xiaolan replied. She came over, sat on a stool beside the stove, and added a few pieces of firewood to the stove pit.
“Uncle, I just heard Aunt say there’s plenty of game in these woods. Are there any hunters in our village?” Li Xiangdong asked Sun Qingfeng.
“There’s plenty of game—wild boar, roe deer, wolves, you name it. But it’s not like you can just decide to hunt and come home with something. No one in our village goes mountain hunting. People here just set snares in the fields when they’ve got nothing else to do, hoping to catch pheasants, rabbits, and such.”
After answering, Sun Qingfeng looked at Li Xiangdong. “What’s the matter, Dongzi? You thinking of taking up mountain hunting?”
“Dongzi, you can’t do that! Hunting is too dangerous. I heard someone from the neighboring village went into the mountains to hunt and never came back. They didn’t even find his bones!” Li Guihua quickly objected to Li Xiangdong’s idea.