Great Rui, the eleventh year of the Hongjing era, mid-winter.
In a small mountain hollow on the border between Yuanzhou and the Great Desolation of Mobei, the entire village of Yuxi lay silent, blanketed in white snow.
It was the season for farming families to “overwinter,” and as it was just after noon, the women, having finished their lunch, gathered together with their sewing baskets. They huddled around fires to ward off the cold while gossiping about local affairs. Even the thick smoke rising from the fire could not stifle their enthusiasm for idle chatter.
For the past two days, the most talked-about topic in the village was the Lin family at the end of the village.
“She really is a little babe who fell from the heavens. She landed right on the haystack next to the Lin family’s kitchen. It’s a girl, looks to be three or four years old, and she’s got such delicate features.”
Granny Li lived right next door to the Lin family, so she was the first to know. She had rushed over the moment she heard the commotion and was now describing the scene with great flourish, spit flying as she spoke. “You have no idea how pitiful that child looked. She didn’t have a single scrap of warm cloth on her, and her whole body was frozen purple. The Lins had to light a brazier and rub her body down for ages before she finally caught her breath…”
This matter had actually been circulating in the village for two days, yet the women and elders still spoke of it with great gusto.
In this remote and impoverished place, there were few other pastimes during the idle season. When they visited each other to chat and ran out of things to say, they could talk for half a day about whose dog barked too much in the morning or whose chicken flew into someone else’s coop—let alone a major event like the Lin family picking up a child.
Aunt Zhang rubbed her embroidery needle against her scalp and lowered her head to stitch skillfully. “Their Erhe and Lin Jiang took a few men from the village and went through all the neighboring villages. They even went to the town to inquire, but not a single family is missing a child. Last night, when my man came back from the Lins, he said Aunt Lin has made the final call—she’s decided to adopt that little babe. Early this morning, Dashan went to the town yamen himself to register the child’s household status. She’ll be listed under his branch; from now on, she’s his and Sulan’s daughter.”
“That’s for the best. Dashan and Sulan have been married for seven years without a child. Now that they’ve happened upon one, perhaps it’s fate.”
“That whole family has soft hearts. They took in Sulan before, and now they’ve taken in a little daughter… Sigh, their hearts are good, but how can raising a working adult be the same as raising a small child? What is their situation like now? Old Man Lin has been paralyzed in bed for three years—he’s a medicine jar that only takes money in and never lets any out. Dashan is disfigured and half-blind. Most tragic is Lin Jiang; those heartless former in-laws of his broke his hand and turned him into a cripple, and he even lost his job as an accountant’s clerk in town… Currently, only the second branch of the Lin family has sound limbs. They’ve added another mouth to feed for no reason; mark my words, Erhe’s wife is bound to make a scene.”
“What scene would she make? If Dashan hadn’t saved her husband, would he have been disfigured? Would he have almost lost an eye?”
“Before Old Man Lin’s accident, the Lin family lived well. They had savings, land, and fields. The three sons were all filial and capable, and the whole family was harmonious. Back then, who in the village didn’t envy them? How did it come to this? Truly…”
As the conversation turned to the past, the women could only sigh.
…
The Lin family home sat at the end of the village. The spacious fenced yard was kept tidy. There were three main mud-brick rooms, with a wide central hall separating two rooms on either side.
To the left of the yard stood the kitchen and the woodshed.
This was the foundation the Lin family had built in better times. Aside from this shelter, the most valuable assets they had left were three acres of paddy fields and two acres of dry land. The food they grew in a year required the whole family to tighten their belts just to barely keep their stomachs full.
Two heavy snows had already fallen since the start of winter. The weather was so cold that even the dogs were unwilling to leave their dens.
A fire had been lit in the Lin family’s central hall as well. They chose well-dried firewood so the smoke wouldn’t be too thick.
This was one expense they couldn’t spare. Without something to provide warmth, let alone the adults, the little ones in the house wouldn’t be able to endure it.
“Jiang’er, it’s too cold. Hurry inside and warm yourself by the fire, or your hand will start hurting again.” Granny Lin walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of red-dyed eggs. She was thin and short of stature, but her back was straight. Her grey-blue coarse cloth jacket had been washed until it was pale, and her hair was pinned back in a neat bun with a thorn hairpin. She looked clean and efficient.
“Mother, I’ll come in after I finish sweeping this bit of snow. It’s no trouble,” Lin Jiang looked up and smiled, surreptitiously tucking his aching right hand into his sleeve. The youth had just turned twenty; his figure was tall and slightly thin, and his face was refined and handsome. When he smiled, he looked gentle and elegant.
The yard, which had been cleared in the morning, was covered in a thin layer of fine snow by noon. If it wasn’t swept away, it would be easy to slip.
“Alright, hurry up. Your eldest and second brothers should be back from town soon. Leave the heavy labor like clearing snow and chopping wood to them later.” Between their exchange, Granny Lin stepped onto the porch of the central hall, brushed the kitchen ash off her clothes, and then walked inside.
The fire in the central hall was burning brightly. The dry wood was stacked together with space beneath for air, and orange flames roared upward. The blue smoke produced by the burning wood was like a mischievous child, chasing after the Lin family’s two five- or six-year-old boys, making their eyes water.
“Mother, Mother! Why does the smoke always chase me and big brother?”
“Why does it chase you? It must be because you two didn’t wipe your bottoms clean in the latrine. This smoke follows whoever is smelly.”
“I did too! I wiped clean! It’s big brother who’s smelly!”
“It’s clearly you! I haven’t even gone to the latrine today!”
In the blink of an eye, the two brothers were arguing until their faces were red.
“Giggle, giggle!” The little girl sitting on a maza stool was tickled pink by the scene and laughed uncontrollably.
The little one’s uneven, messy hair had been combed neatly and tied into two little pigtails on the sides of her head. Her features were as delicate as if carved from jade. She was wrapped in an old jacket belonging to one of the Lin boys; the sleeves and pant legs were rolled up twice, barely revealing her tiny hands and feet. At first glance, she looked like a little snowball buried in a jacket. She was incredibly adorable.
Li Sulan sat beside her daughter, her needle flying as she rushed to make a new set of clothes. Hearing her daughter’s laughter, she couldn’t help but reach out and pinch the girl’s little cheek. Worried her cold fingertips would chill the child, she pulled away as soon as she touched her.
The little child immediately turned her head, looking up at her with eyes curved like half-moons. In a sweet, soft voice, she called out, “Mother!”
Li Sulan also turned to look at her, a smile touching her lips and her eyes softening as she replied earnestly, “Yes, Mother is here.”
Zhang Cuie, the wife of the second son, watched this scene from the side. When the little girl’s attention drifted elsewhere, she quietly nudged her sister-in-law and leaned into her ear. “Sister-in-law, are we really adopting her? Don’t blame me for speaking harshly, but she isn’t your own blood after all. What if we raise a white-eyed wolf—”
“Cuie!” Li Sulan immediately interrupted her. She glanced to make sure her daughter hadn’t noticed and breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to her sister-in-law with a serious expression. “Cuie, Dashan should have finished registering Baixiang’s household status by now. From now on, Baixiang is our child. Mother has already made the final decision on this.”
At the mention of their mother-in-law, Zhang Cuie slumped back sulkily and picked up her scissors to unpick the seams of an old garment. “Sister-in-law, you know I’m blunt. I don’t mean any harm by saying these things…”
It wasn’t that she didn’t like Baixiang.
In such freezing weather, for such a small child to fall into their yard—if they were to throw her back out and let her freeze or starve to death… she wasn’t that cold-hearted.
It was just that their family’s situation was already difficult. Raising another child would make things even harder. Putting that aside, if her eldest brother and sister-in-law exhausted themselves raising the child and she turned out to be an ingrate, or if she got married and never returned, or if her blood relatives showed up and she left with them, it would be like gouging out their hearts.
She truly was thinking of her brother and sister-in-law, but once the words were out, she ended up looking like the villain.