A gentle breeze brought coolness, blowing the golden sun leaping among the mountains. As the sun set in the west, the commune members who had gone into the mountain to hunt wild boars gradually disappeared from sight.
Aunt Hongmei arrived at the foot of the mountain treading on the setting sun’s afterglow, and among the dense crowd of blue-gray coarse cloth and hemp garments, she found that one different figure.
Lin Cui’s figure was slender, her limbs long and soft. Her waist was concealed by a loose white floral-print garment, but when the wind blew, one could still make out a hint of unusual slimness. Anyone who saw her would stare.
“Cuicui, Auntie hasn’t been idle these past few days. I’ve been asking around every village within ten miles, looking for blind date candidates according to your requirements.” Aunt Hongmei had practically scouted every young man of talent within dozens of miles, then filtered them again according to Lin Cui’s requirements. She had truly done her utmost.
These days, what rural girls dreamed of most was marrying into the city. Being able to eat commodity grain was a dream many people couldn’t reach in a lifetime.
But nowadays, which city family was willing to marry a rural girl? A girl with rural household registration who married into the city couldn’t get the monthly ration of grain, oil, rice, and flour. It was equivalent to an extra mouth eating free food. Even future children’s household registration followed the mother, also without rationed grain, oil, rice, and flour. This single point already blocked the vast majority of rural girls’ dreams of marrying into the city.
Among the city families willing to marry rural girls, nine out of ten were men on their second marriage, with several children below waiting to be raised. Ask one, and there was no escape.
Zhao Hongmei naturally couldn’t do something as unconscionable as introducing Lin Cui to be a stepmother. After repeated screening, she brought two candidates.
“Cuicui, you’ve met Accountant Zhao from our brigade headquarters, right? He’s quite tall. His parents have formal jobs at the town’s sugar factory. They’ve raised him well—a head taller than the people in our village. And he doesn’t work in the fields. He sits in an office. His prospects are great.”
Commune positions were like one radish to one hole, mostly held by elders of some age. Young people who could enter the commune and sit in an office usually needed decent education—at least middle school or high school graduation—plus some background connections. Otherwise, even if one studied, one could only return to the village to farm.
Therefore, young people who could enter the commune office were considered to have bright prospects.
Lin Cui had indeed seen this Accountant Zhao. Every year at year’s end, the brigade calculated work points, and Accountant Zhao was responsible for calculating and distributing grain amounts. He looked honest and simple.
Zhao Hongmei went on in one breath to introduce the second candidate: “Do you know Educated Youth He from the educated youth point? I don’t know if you’ve seen him, but he’s seen you. He has that kind of interest in you and asked me to propose on his behalf. This person’s family is in the capital city. His parents are both workers at a state-owned factory. At the end of last year, it was precisely because Educated Youth He couldn’t find suitable work after graduating high school that he went to the countryside for construction. Given his family’s conditions, when he returns to the city in the future, he’ll surely take you back too. Going to the city to eat commodity grain—how many people would envy that?”
Being able to enter the city and eat commodity grain was indeed the dream of countless villagers. Every month, fixed quantities of grain coupons, meat coupons, sugar coupons, cloth coupons, oil coupons, soap coupons were issued… Unlike in the village, where there was nothing and everything was tight.
Educated Youth He?
The educated youth point of the Red Star Production Team was at the eastern end of the village—a low, single-story house divided into two large bunk rooms, one for male educated youths and one for female educated youths. Lin Cui hadn’t had much dealings with the educated youths. She’d only met them at the brigade’s collective activities, and couldn’t really remember who was who. After all, in the villagers’ mouths, the educated youths mostly had the negative image of not loving work and coming to eat the brigade’s grain.
“Look, that one.” Zhao Hongmei raised her hand and pointed. A fair-skinned man in the crowd fell into Lin Cui’s view.
A young man with delicate features and clear eyes, decent-looking, carrying a faint scholarly air. Memories gradually flowed into her mind. This Educated Youth He seemed quite famous in the brigade—after all, not many people could go to the state-run restaurant three or four times a month to treat themselves. That required grain coupons.
“How about it? These two are pretty good. Good conditions, good-looking too.” Zhao Hongmei stood shoulder to shoulder with Lin Cui. Looking up, she saw the girl’s tender face, like a freshly peeled egg—smooth and slippery. This looked far prettier than so many people weathered by sun and rain. “Auntie looked all around. There were plenty of crooked melons and cracked dates too—not worthy of you.”
“Aunt Hongmei, thank you for your trouble.” Lin Cui had her own thoughts about Accountant Zhao and Educated Youth He and planned to consider further. After all, the pressing matter right now was the wild boar meat on the mountain. “I’ll think it over for two days, then get back to you.”
“Alright!” Aunt Hongmei was just waiting for Lin Cui to choose someone, and then she’d arrange a meeting and blind date with that person.
Blind dates and marriage were major matters. They couldn’t be decided hastily. At this moment, Lin Cui was more concerned about whether she could eat wild boar meat.
So gluttonous. She hadn’t eaten meat in over a month.
“Comrade Lin Cui.” A voice carrying a hint of stickiness suddenly sounded by her ear, startling Lin Cui into withdrawing her gaze. Her eyes landed on the fair-featured man’s face.
This was the Educated Youth He that Aunt Hongmei had just pointed out.
“You came to watch the wild boar hunt too?” Educated Youth He had seen Lin Cui several times before. He had come from the distant capital city and never imagined that this small mountain village could have such a beautiful female comrade. His original depression about being sent to the countryside had turned into anxious longing. Then, upon learning Lin Cui already had a betrothal, he became worried again. Hearing that Lin Cui’s engagement was gone and she was about to have blind dates, he personally sought out Aunt Hongmei to declare his determination. “There’s nothing interesting about these wild boars. Why not go look at flowers? Many flowers are blooming on the slope over there. I’ve recently read a few poems that fit the scene quite well…”
An educated youth from a well-off family didn’t understand her longing for meat. Lin Cui smiled and politely declined: “Educated Youth He, my second brother also went up the mountain. I need to go wait for him.”
“Ai, Comrade Lin Cui…” Educated Youth He watched the beautiful figure departing into the distance with disappointment, still unwilling to give up.
The wild boar hunting squad had gone up the mountain in the evening, moving at night with torches and kerosene lamps. The commune members, however much they worried, could only return home in the darkness.
Lin Cui reluctantly left with her family. The night was deep, making it hard to see. Everyone parted ways by muscle memory, each heading home. Suddenly, a faint, fragmented glimmer of light swayed ahead. Lin Cui abruptly turned back, only to see Accountant Zhao from the brigade headquarters trailing beside her, neither far nor near.
“Lin—Comrade Lin Cui, my home is almost there. You take this kerosene lamp to use.” Accountant Zhao’s face was hidden in the night. No one saw his blush or heard his heartbeat. “Just come to the brigade headquarters again tomorrow.”
Lin Cui didn’t have a deep impression of this seemingly simple and honest Accountant Zhao. At this moment, she instead recalled Aunt Hongmei’s words and politely declined: “No need, thank you. I’ve walked this road thousands of times. I could walk back with my eyes closed. You carry it for your own use.”
Especially since she hadn’t yet replied to Aunt Hongmei, there was no need to give the man hints in advance and cause misunderstandings.
Lin Cui wasn’t just being polite. She had truly walked these village roads since childhood. To put it exaggeratedly, she really could walk home with her eyes closed. With the faint moonlight, it was naturally even less of a problem.
That night, carrying worry for the commune members who had rashly gone up the mountain and longing for wild boar meat, Lin Cui slept fitfully—until she was startled awake by banging on the door.
The sky was still dim. Only at the horizon did it seem as if a slit had been torn open, with faint, subtle light seeping through, revealing a pale blue.
Lin Cui listened as the commune member sent to deliver the message stammered, barely able to speak clearly.
“They’re back! The group that went up the mountain is back. Two people got their legs bitten by a wild boar. The injuries are serious!”
Whoever had family members who’d gone up the mountain—how could they not be anxious hearing this? They threw on clothes and hurried to the foot of the mountain. Lin Cui didn’t lag behind either. The whole family set out one after another.
Wild boars on the mountain were fierce—far stronger than domestic pigs. A single one weighed four or five hundred catties, its whole body thick with muscle. When charging, it was fast and powerful. It could snap a bowl-thick tree trunk and bite through a hunter’s flesh and bones.
In the past, hunting wild boars required seven or eight people with hunting rifles, long spears, and wire snares, expending tremendous effort to catch one. Even then, injuries were common.
But even with their heads tied to their belts, everyone still had to go. After all, people were starving to death—what was there to fear? As long as they caught a wild boar, every household could get a few catties of meat, and the hunting heroes could get extra.
“Lin Wei! Are you hurt?” Lin Xiang spotted his younger brother at once in the crowd—he was helping carry a commune member who had been bitten and injured by the wild boar down the mountain.
“No, eldest brother. It was Brother Zhang and Uncle Liu who got bitten. I’m helping carry them to the health clinic first.” Lin Wei had gone up the mountain with the group and fought hard most of the night. He was utterly exhausted.
Even a hot-blooded young man like him couldn’t withstand the wild boar’s charging force. Though he hadn’t suffered major injuries, there were inevitably bumps and scrapes during the hunt. Some small wounds were nothing to fear. It was just that his strength was spent, and he felt deeply tired.
“Second brother, eat something to fill your stomach.” Seeing this, Lin Cui hurried to catch up and stuffed a steamed sweet potato into Lin Wei’s hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the two commune members being carried away—their thighs and calves mangled with blood and flesh. Truly alarming.
“Only Cuicui knows how to care for me.” Lin Wei raised his hand and took a bite of the sweet, soft sweet potato. He said regretfully, “Too bad we tired ourselves out all night for nothing. The injured are injured, and the wild boars still got away. Mainly, those two were too fierce. That speed, that force—no matter where a few men stood, they couldn’t hold it off.”
“What about the person who went up the mountain alone?” Though it was a pity they hadn’t caught the wild boars, Lin Cui suddenly remembered there was still someone unafraid of death who had dared to go up alone.
“Didn’t find him.” Lin Wei sighed. If he really ran into the wild boars alone, it was likely more danger than safety.
The moment the words landed, Lin Wei was still lamenting and mourning for the commune member he didn’t really know, when a shocking scene suddenly appeared in his line of sight.
Lin Cui followed her second brother’s gaze into the distance. At the foot of the mountain, a tall figure came from far to near, like a mountain, like a wall, striding forward. And his two hands seemed to be effortlessly dragging something, raising clouds of dust along the way.
Looking closely, two wild boars of several hundred catties were already lifeless. Their lethal tusks had lost their bared-fangs ferocity. Like two rags, they were being dragged along.
The originally noisy foot of the mountain suddenly fell silent—so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Until someone muttered softly: “Th—that’s Wan Feng.”
Lin Cui stared at the newcomer, her gaze contracting. He seemed somewhat familiar.
The newcomer was about 1.9 meters tall. Even against the backdrop of the distant mountains, his outline was still clear. His shoulders and back were broad, making an ordinary black garment look stiff and crisp. His arms hung down at his sides, muscles taut with power from dragging the wild boars. His legs were steady and strong. Every step seemed to raise dust as he strode forward, and a sense of pressure followed close behind.
As he came closer, one could clearly make out the man’s contours—sword-like brows and starry eyes, heroic and rugged. His sharp jawline seemed carved by axe and knife. Yet there was not the slightest expression on his face. Facing the stares of the villagers eyeing his food from all directions, the man swept his cold eyes heavily forward, without a trace of emotion.