1976, Yuan Family Village.
“Yuan Xiu, right? No letter for you.”
After leaving these words with the girl standing dazed in place, the postman mounted his bicycle and rode off along the bumpy mountain road, leaving the village behind.
The first words Yuan Xiu heard after regaining consciousness were this seemingly nonsensical statement directed at her.
What shocked her even more than the words was the bumpy, yellow dirt road before her. Hadn’t this very road been paved with asphalt by the town just last year?
When the road was completed, the town had even hired a yangge dance troupe, who rode on a tractor from one end to the other, performing all the way.
Looking into the distance, the surrounding mountains stretched one after another. In the fields, the wheat had already sprouted ears. Nearby, on a mud wall where most of the plaster had peeled away, several large, partially faded characters were painted in white lime: “Prepare for Famine, Prepare for War, Serve the People!”
Yuan Xiu quickly raised her hands before her eyes. On her young, fair hands, only a few thin calluses marked her palms.
These were her hands, but not the hands she had at forty-five.
“Yuan Xiu, what are you doing standing here?” Auntie Wang from the same village, carrying a hoe over her shoulder, passed by her. Seeing Yuan Xiu standing foolishly at the village entrance with an odd expression on her face, she couldn’t help but ask with concern.
Yuan Xiu turned her face toward her and stammered, “A-Auntie Wang?”
Auntie Wang nodded. “It’s me, what’s wrong? Suddenly don’t recognize your Auntie Wang?”
Yuan Xiu quickly shook her head. “No, I just wanted to say, you look really well today.”
Auntie Wang chuckled. “You young ones, your mouths are so sweet!”
With that, she hoisted her hoe and headed toward her own field.
Yuan Xiu stared blankly as Auntie Wang jumped down from the ridge, spat into her palms, and with vigorous energy, began hoeing the ground with hearty grunts.
Just a few days ago, she had seen Auntie Wang hobbling along with a cane, dragging her legs stiffly after a stroke, struggling step by step as she took a walk in the village.
At this moment, Yuan Xiu clearly sensed that something extraordinary had happened to her.
It seemed she had suddenly returned to twenty-seven years ago.
The postman’s parting words made it clear to her: she was currently waiting for a letter.
In her over forty years of life, the only letter she had ever waited for was that one reply letter intercepted by Yuan Juan’s father!
Thinking of this, Yuan Xiu turned and walked into the village.
Over twenty years had not brought much change to the paths within Yuan Family Village. After entering the village, she followed the main road for about three minutes, then turned into the small path on the right. The house with a pomegranate tree at the courtyard gate was her home.
It was still that row of four brick-and-tile rooms. Her father had used his demobilization fee to tear down the old house and rebuild it after retiring from the army. Two rooms belonged to the eldest branch, one was for the old couple, and the remaining one was for Uncle Yuan’s family.
Yuan Xiu recalled last night—or rather, the words the old woman had spoken twenty-seven years later—that the house would all be left to her. Yet from her mouth, it had sounded like charity.
The courtyard gate was slightly ajar. Old Mrs. Yuan sat in the yard, directing Old Man Yuan to catch the free-range chickens in the courtyard, then checking each one by feeling their rear ends to see if they had laid eggs.
“Once we gather thirty, we’ll send them to our youngest. They live in town, where everything costs money. Saving a little here and there helps.”
Old Man Yuan coughed. “Have Xiu go to the field and pull some radishes to send to town as well.”
Neither of them noticed Yuan Xiu standing at the doorway, but even if they had, it wouldn’t have changed anything. Because the current Yuan Xiu, just like the one who had spent over twenty years unaware of her family’s true nature, found this to be a perfectly normal occurrence.
The chickens she raised at home, the vegetables and grains she grew, had to be delivered to her uncle’s family in town from time to time, earning her a reputation for filial piety in return.
“Xiu’er, you’re back?” Old Lady Yuan smiled when she saw Yuan Xiu, beckoning her into the courtyard. “How did it go? Any reply?”
Yuan Xiu looked at the old woman before her and shook her head.
Old Lady Yuan sighed, took Yuan Xiu’s hand, and patted it gently. “It’s alright. They probably didn’t take a liking to us. Otherwise, the letter would’ve arrived by now. After all, it’s been so many years without contact—who knows what that family is thinking? Your father was just too honest, leaving you with those words before he passed. To be frank, even if they did reach out, I wouldn’t feel at ease letting a young girl like you marry so far away. It’s much better to stay by your grandparents’ side. If anything happens, our family can be there in no time. But if you really marry that far away and someone mistreats you, your grandpa and I wouldn’t be able to stand up for you. It would break our hearts.”
Old Man Yuan chimed in from the side, “Your grandma’s right. You’re still young, no need to rush into marriage. In a couple of years, let your grandma and uncle find you a good match. Whether you marry in the village or in town, it’s better than marrying far away.”
“That’s right. Your uncle knows a lot of people. When the time comes, he can find you a family in town, so our Xiu’er can marry into town too…”
The old couple spoke enthusiastically, unaware that Yuan Xiu had remained expressionless the entire time.
These words sounded all too familiar.
Over those twenty-some years, she had heard them countless times, always with similar content.
Yuan Xiu, of course, couldn’t remember exactly what the old couple had said at this moment in her Previous Life. She was only eighteen then, and because she never received a reply, she felt rejected—ashamed and resentful, walking with her head down. Whenever her family brought it up, she would hide in her room. It took her some time to accept reality.
Now, hearing these words again, she found them laughable. They claimed to worry about her marrying far away, yet they had no qualms about letting Yuan Juan marry in her place, using her name.
This was how they had brainwashed her step by step—with words of reluctance and concern—turning her into the family’s workhorse for half a lifetime.
“Xiu’er, your grandpa has a bit of a cough. Brew him a bowl of that herbal tea you made last time,” Old Lady Yuan said.
Hearing this, Yuan Xiu instinctively started toward the kitchen but stopped after two steps. “We’re out of licorice root. If Grandpa’s coughing is bad, he should go to the clinic.”
With that, she went into her room.
Old Man Yuan stared at Yuan Xiu’s retreating figure and muttered to Old Lady Yuan, “Cough, cough… I think Xiu’er seems a bit off today?”
In the past, whenever he felt unwell, Xiu’er would notice immediately, rushing to brew medicine or tea for him. Even if they ran out, she would hurry up the mountain to gather more.
“Young girls are at that age where they care about face. She’s probably just embarrassed because that family didn’t take a liking to her,” Old Lady Yuan didn’t find anything unusual. “And don’t go to the clinic either—no need to waste the money. Just cover up more at night, sweat it out, and you’ll be fine.”
“Cough, cough… Alright then…”