In 1970, just as dawn was breaking, the villagers of Dahe Village gradually woke up. Conversations, shouting, and scolding slowly stirred the village from the silence of the night.
At that moment, in the small courtyard of the Su family, Mother Su carried a basin and shouted toward one of the rooms, “Su Wan, hurry and get up! Aren’t you supposed to take that boy from the Han family to the train station? If you don’t get up now, you’ll be late.” After speaking, Mother Su carried the basin into the kitchen.
“Got it, got it.”
Inside the room, Su Wan had been sleeping soundly on the bed, her little face flushed red from sleep. Hearing this, she suddenly sat up, grabbed the watch from the table, and saw it was already past seven o’clock. She quickly got dressed and got out of bed.
Facing the old-fashioned mirror on the table, Su Wan combed her hair. Her long black hair was smooth and shiny, braided into two plaits hanging in front of her chest.
Holding the mirror, Su Wan carefully examined herself. The girl in the reflection had fair skin, a delicate oval face, bright eyes, white teeth, and a pure, lively appearance. Looking at herself in the mirror, Su Wan nodded in satisfaction.
By the time Su Wan finally finished getting ready, Mother Su had already prepared breakfast.
That was also because the Su family was considered one of the wealthiest households in the production team. Otherwise, during seasons that were not busy farming periods, very few families would eat breakfast.
Father Su had lost his parents early and had no siblings, so he joined the army. He had been on the battlefield and fought against the Japanese. After liberation, he retired from the military due to injuries and illness and returned to the village. He received a monthly allowance, and later he was chosen as the production team leader. He had these spacious brick-and-tile houses built early on.
The villagers all said Father Su was capable and successful.
During the three years of famine, although the family still did not have enough to eat, they lived much better than most families. At the very least, none of them suffered too greatly.
Later, they supported Su Wan and her older brother Su Lei through high school. Su Lei had already been working as a driver in the county town for several years, while Su Wan graduated from high school last year and became a teacher at the village elementary school. Nowadays, the Su family’s life was getting better and better.
Seeing her daughter come in, Mother Su said, “Come quickly. I made fried eggs, your favorite, and even sprinkled white sugar on top.”
In those days, especially in the countryside, eggs, cooking oil, and white sugar were extremely precious items.
Eggs could be saved and sold to the supply and marketing cooperative, making them one of the main sources of income for rural families throughout the year. White sugar required sugar coupons, and for rural people without salaries, they only received a few sugar coupons at the end of the year, which had to last the entire year. As for oil, people usually just wiped the pan with an oil cloth when cooking.
If the villagers found out Su Wan was eating fried eggs sprinkled with white sugar, some people would definitely become jealous and call her wasteful.
“Mother treats me the best.” Su Wan blinked and said sweetly in a spoiled tone.
Seeing Su Wan acting spoiled, Mother Su felt as happy as if she had eaten honey. She smiled and said, “You really have a sweet mouth.”
Su Wan sat down, taking a bite of egg and a sip of porridge, smiling contentedly with satisfaction written all over her face.
Glancing at her watch and realizing she was almost out of time, she sped up her eating.
Watching Su Wan rush around, Mother Su said helplessly, “I told you to get up earlier, but you wouldn’t listen. Look at you now, rushing like this. Eat slowly, don’t choke.”
“I really planned to wake up early today, but last night I kept thinking about how Han Rui was leaving today, so I kept tossing and turning and couldn’t sleep…”
“Alright, alright, stop talking already. Why are you so shameless?” Mother Su quickly interrupted her. She finished the porridge in her bowl in a few gulps, set down the bowl, poked Su Wan on the head, and said, “Stop dawdling.”
Su Wan smiled ingratiatingly at Mother Su.
After tidying herself up, Mother Su wrapped a headscarf around herself while walking outside. “I’m heading to the fields now.”
After finishing breakfast, Su Wan scooped water to wash the bowls, returned to her room to get the package she had prepared for Han Rui, lightly closed the front gate, pushed her bicycle, and headed out.
On the road, small groups of villagers were walking toward the fields. Seeing Su Wan carrying a large package while pushing a bicycle, someone asked, “Isn’t that girl Su Wan? Where are you going with such a huge package?”
Before Su Wan could answer, an older woman beside them laughed and said, “Where else could she be going? The youngest son of the Han family is leaving for the army today. Su Wan must be going to see him off.”
As soon as the words fell, several older women laughed teasingly.
Su Wan smiled shyly on the surface, but inwardly she complained: Here we go again.
It wasn’t strange for her to think that way. Ever since getting engaged to Han Rui, every time she met a group of older women, they would always bring it up and tease her a few times.
The first few times, Su Wan had no experience and tried responding to them, but once she did, they just kept going endlessly.
So now she had learned her lesson. She simply smiled without speaking, and after teasing her a little, they would stop.
Sure enough, seeing Su Wan’s shy expression, the older women gave up teasing her further.
Across the small river next to Dahe Village was Han Family Village.
Those fairly new brick-and-tile houses on the eastern side of Han Family Village belonged to Han Rui’s family.
The house had mainly been built with the military allowance Han Rui had sent home over the years. It had only been completed last year, so it still looked very new.
Han Rui joined the army at sixteen. This year he was already twenty-five years old. Last year he had been promoted to battalion commander, and his monthly allowance had reached fifty or sixty yuan.
In this era, soldiers were deeply respected, and everyone was proud to wear a military uniform. As the saying went, “Not loving fine dresses, but loving military attire.”
So, every time Han Rui returned to the village, many families considered marrying their daughters to him. However, Han Rui’s mother looked down on those girls and wanted to find a cultured and good-looking wife for her son.
On top of that, Han Rui focused entirely on the military and had no thoughts about romance, so his mother never arranged anything. But seeing that Han Rui was already twenty-four, while his two older brothers already had children running around the mountains at that age, Mother Han became anxious and started asking around nearby villages for suitable girls.
After asking around for some time, she heard about Su Wan. Last year, she invited her cousin, who had married into Dahe Village, to quietly ask about her.
Father Su had once been a soldier himself, so he naturally had a favorable impression of soldiers. After hearing Han Rui had become a battalion commander and that military families could accompany soldiers to their postings, he was already sixty percent satisfied. In addition, there truly were no young men nearby who could compare to Han Rui, so he agreed to let the two meets.
So, when they met last year, they immediately liked each other. After spending a year together, they became engaged this year.
Now they were only waiting for Han Rui to return to the army, submit his marriage application, and come back at the end of the year for the wedding.