Song Chuan’s mouth fell wide open, and then he scrambled away clutching his head, giving up on catching fish entirely and just running off ahead: “Mom! That scared me to death! I’m never catching fish again, I’m scared! I want to go home!”
My brother hurried over and grabbed Song Chuan to keep him from falling into the river again: “That’s enough! It’s fine, we’re here protecting you, you’re okay.”
“Let go of me, I’m going home!”
“Think first about where your home is. Your home is on the east side of the village—are you running out of the village?”
Song Chuan thought about it and plopped down on the ground. The ground was covered in mud, and his clothes were completely ruined, but at least he hadn’t died—he was still in one piece.
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least in this lifetime, he wouldn’t repeat the tragedy.
I crouched down in front of him and said: “Chuan-zi, from now on, when it rains, stay away from the river. It’s dangerous. And if there’s a fire or anything like that, you can’t go either.”
Song Chuan looked at me and nodded seriously, then glanced at the river water and shivered. His face was already pale, and now he looked even more frightening—like a zombie, with a blank, vacant stare. I could barely stand to look at him.
At that point, the girl came over too: “Thank you all, you’re really good people.” Only then did I notice her appearance—she was quite pretty. Unlike the village women, she didn’t wear braids but a ponytail instead, and the clothes under her raincoat were quite nice too. She must be from the city.
My brother said: “No problem. Where’s your aunt’s house? We’ll walk you back.”
“No need, it’s just the Xiejia at the back of the village, I’ll be there in a moment.” she said hurriedly.
“Huh? Xiejia? Are you…”
“My aunt is called Liu Cuizhi. My uncle is Xie Facai. They’ll be sure to thank you properly!” After saying this, she smiled at us.
My brother and I were both a bit speechless—she was actually a relative of the Xiejia!
The girl noticed something was off and asked quickly: “What’s wrong? Don’t you like my aunt?”
Before I could speak, Song Chuan grabbed a big clump of mud from the ground and hurled it at the girl’s face. My brother quickly pulled the girl aside to dodge it, and the mud hit my brother’s back instead.
“Song Chuan! Why are you hitting my brother?!” I shouted angrily.
Song Chuan grabbed another big clump of mud to throw: “The Xiejia people bullied Zhenzhen! I’ll fight you to the !”
I was stunned—he was standing up for me?
My brother hurriedly held Song Chuan back: “Stop going crazy. Don’t you know bullying women is the most despicable thing?”
“But Zhenzhen was bullied!”
“Zhenzhen wasn’t bullied by her. Don’t bully women.”
Song Chuan gave a snort, dropped the mud, put his shoes back on properly, and glared at the woman.
I walked over and said: “Thank you for caring about me, for wanting to catch fish for me, and for standing up for me.”
Song Chuan broke into a grin, his face covered in rainwater.
I laughed: “Silly boy. From now on, you’re not allowed to come to the riverside on rainy days. Hurry home, don’t make your mom worry.”
“Mm!” Song Chuan nodded, his face earnest: “I’ll listen to you, big sister. I’m going back now, Zhenzhen. Don’t worry—I’ll protect you, I won’t let anyone bully you!”
“Okay, thank you.”
“Mm. Zhenzhen, I’ll make things good for you.” With that, he ran off at top speed. The road was so slippery that he fell on his bottom, but he got up again right away.
I watched him run off and couldn’t help smiling, feeling warm inside. Song Chuan was so good to me. He’d even given me a Gu Niao when he saw me earlier that day—so even when I didn’t know it, someone was quietly caring about me.
But my brother frowned. “Don’t get too close to him from now on.”
I knew what he was worried about. I was already divorced; if I got tangled up in rumors with a kid, it would be even harder for me to find a match.
There were a lot of rules in the village, and nearly every one of them was a shackle on women. It was pitiful, really.
Just then, the girl came over. “Excuse me, what’s going on between you and the Xiejia? It seems like something happened—could you tell me about it?”
“Nothing much. My sister had a marriage arrangement with Xie Yanlai, but some other problems came up, and now the two of them have called off the engagement… no, by village rules, it counts as a divorce. That’s the situation between our two families,” my brother said calmly.
The girl looked a little surprised, then said, “You look like good people at a glance. There must be some misunderstanding here. Would you like me to help smooth things over?”
“No need. We’re already divorced—what’s the point of smoothing anything over? Let’s not talk about this anymore,” my brother said coldly.
Watching the girl’s disappointed expression, I suddenly remembered that in my past life I’d heard Xie Yanlai had a cousin, but she’d gone abroad for further study right after graduating high school, so I never met her even once.
Back then, Xie Yanlai had bragged about it for ages, counting on his cousin making it big abroad and pulling him up along with her.
Unfortunately, word was she hadn’t done well abroad either. She’d found a partner who was no good, someone who relied entirely on her to support him. She struggled alone overseas and never came back, and Xie Yanlai stopped bragging about her after that.
Was this that cousin—Zhao Yunzhu?
“Well, I’ll head back. You should hurry home too. Saving two people in one night—you’ve really worked hard,” she said, then sneezed.
She’d caught a chill. We urged her to go back quickly.
The girl nodded, turned, and started walking. My brother watched her slip with every step, hesitated, then said, “I’ll walk you back. It’s not safe at night.”
Zhao Yunzhu declined a few times but eventually agreed. We followed behind, not saying much. Whenever she was about to fall, my brother caught her, quickly letting go afterward—but the moment she slipped, he was always there to steady her.
We walked her all the way to the Xiejia’s gate. She glanced back at us, and my brother waved her inside.
“My name is Zhao Yunzhu.” She looked at my older brother. “What’s yours?”
“It doesn’t matter what my name is. Go on back, drink some ginger soup right away so you don’t catch a cold. Oh—and don’t tell them we saved you.”
Zhao Yunzhu hesitated, then nodded in agreement.
“Go on. Be careful.” My older brother turned to leave.
I nodded to Zhao Yunzhu and followed.
My brother walked so fast the whole way that I struggled to keep up.
“Brother, I think that Zhao Yunzhu seems quite taken with you,” I said, panting. A debt of saving someone’s life like that easily turns into a beautiful story—and when that girl looked at my brother, her eyes were full of stars.
“Don’t talk about that person,” my brother said, waving his hand. “Nothing could ever happen between her and me. What’s our relationship with the Xiejia?”
“But she’s not even a Xiejia, so what does it matter?”
My brother smiled. “You really have grown up, worrying about my marriage already. Don’t you worry. I’ve been introduced to someone outside, and I’ll introduce her to you when the time comes.”
I just pursed my lips and said nothing. That woman was called Fan Meiyun—I knew her, and she was no good. She’d always been one to scorn the poor and fawn over the rich, always complaining that my brother couldn’t make money. Later she ran off with a rich man. My brother was heartbroken. Afterward, someone introduced him to another woman, but before the wedding, because my child got sick and my brother kept helping me, that woman got upset and dumped him. After that, my brother stayed single, and later he died of a serious illness.
In this life, I’ve been reborn. Can I help my big brother avoid his troubles? At the very least, I can give him some advance warning.
My brother said, “What’s wrong? You seem unhappy. Are you thinking about Xie Yanlai?”
“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
The two of us stopped talking and hurried home. By then the rain had dwindled to almost nothing. It really had come fast and gone fast too.
When I got to my room and pulled the door open, I got a huge shock—the outer room was full of water, all rushing out the door.
My brother said, “This won’t do. Your roof leaks far too badly.”
I looked up at the ceiling. Sure enough, the storage area outside already had a layer of water on it.
My brother grabbed my arm. “Come stay in my room tonight. Otherwise it’s too damp—you’ll break out in welts.”
That had always been the case with me: whenever it got too damp, the welts on my back would flare up in big patches.
So I went to my brother’s room with him.
He found some firewood and lit the stove, then had me change into dry clothes. He boiled a kettle of hot water, and the two of us soaked our feet, wiped the rain off our bodies, and each drank a big bowl of hot water before we finally warmed up.
“Just make do sleeping on this kang tonight. We’ll tidy up your room tomorrow morning.”
I waved my hand. “No need. We’re leaving tomorrow anyway—what’s there to tidy up? I’m not planning on coming back. Besides, Zhao Qin would love to see me suffer. Why would she bother tidying up my room?”
“Zhenzhen…” My brother was startled that I’d called out our mother’s name.
I said with a grin, “It’s fine, Ge. Even though things are hard for me right now, sooner or later I’ll live well.”
Without that woman, I’ll do even better.
My brother looked troubled—probably unsure how to persuade me, wanting me to show Mom a little more respect—but in the he couldn’t get a single word out.
I yawned. “I’m sleepy.”
My brother quickly said, “Then hurry up and get some sleep.” He had me sleep at the very inside of the kang, where it was warmest, then placed a kang table in the middle as a divider, and he lay down fully clothed on the other side.
We’d both struggled so long in the rain that we were exhausted, and without much more talk, we quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, we were woken by Zhao Qin’s shouting.
I sat up on the kang and looked through the glass window. Zhao Qin and my father were standing at my door, and Xie Yanlai’s parents were there too. I immediately felt irritated. What was this all about?
Could it be that they didn’t want me to leave the village with my brother? Did Zhao Qin still want me to go back obediently and suffer?
“How utterly annoying!”
I glanced at the edge of the kang, grabbed the broom used for sweeping the kang mat, and made to get down.
“I’ll drive them away!”
My brother pressed down on my shoulder. “Don’t rush. Let’s first see what they’re actually trying to do.”