He City.
Qiao Xiaohong had cried herself hoarse half the night, and Mrs. Lin had stayed with her the entire time. When morning came, both of their faces were swollen.
“What happened?”
Mr. Lin had just returned from his night shift when he saw his wife looking like that.
“Honghong came back. They say that poor mountains and bad rivers produce treacherous people—and they weren’t wrong. They insisted on accusing Honghong of stealing the betrothal gift money, and the poor girl cried in misery for most of the night.”
Mr. Lin stopped drinking his water. “What was Lin Dong doing? He just stood by while his sister was bullied?”
“It’s not that he didn’t care. Your son was bought off too. You know how close he is to An’an—he believes everything she says, and he even admitted to owing them seven hundred yuan.”
Because of his girlfriend, Lin Dong had never had a good relationship with his parents. They knew that the reason he had returned to the countryside this time was entirely because of Lin An’an.
Mrs. Lin sat beside Mr. Lin and discussed finding Qiao Xiaohong a job.
“You’re a mid-level cadre. It shouldn’t be difficult for you to arrange a job for Honghong, right?”
“The minimum requirement for recruitment is a junior middle school education. Honghong doesn’t meet it.”
“What’s so difficult about getting her a junior middle school diploma? Use Lin An’an’s school records. She even graduated from high school.”
Mr. Lin suddenly saw the light. “That’s right. Honghong should be the one called Lin An’an. I’ll ask someone to take care of it.”
…
That afternoon, the family went to the fields to plant wheat. It was both physically demanding and technical work, and Lin An’an was good at neither. After making only a few trips back and forth, she was already exhausted.
Just as Lin An’an was worrying over what to do, Ji Cheng’s Father and Ji Cheng’s Mother arrived. The only seed drill in the entire village capable of planting one furrow with three plows belonged to their family.
The two families had only just broken off the engagement, yet Ji Cheng’s family had come to help without holding a grudge. Jiang Xiu felt very apologetic.
“What’s there to feel bad about? Don’t forget that Shulin once saved Ji Cheng’s life. A life-saving favor outweighs everything.”
Jiang Xiu had nothing to say to that. It was all thanks to the good karma her late husband had forged.
The three adults did the main work, while Lin An’an helped on the side by picking up stones and, imitating Shanzi, scraping soil over the wheat seeds that had been exposed.
Whenever Ji Cheng’s Mother took a break, she kept staring at Lin An’an.
Embarrassed, Jiang Xiu said, “An’an has never done farm work. The fact that she came to help me is already more than enough. I don’t expect her to do much.”
Girls of Lin An’an’s age in the countryside were expected to be capable in both the kitchen and the fields. Jiang Xiu was also afraid that others would laugh at her daughter.
“An’an is a good girl. She doesn’t look down on our poor rural life, and as long as she can live peacefully, that’s all that matters. She can learn farm work gradually. If she can’t do farm work, she can always run a small business. The policies are good these days. As long as a person isn’t lazy, she can make a decent life for herself.”
Those words truly touched Jiang Xiu’s heart. Her daughter had delicate skin and soft hands, and she couldn’t bear to see her suffer. An’an was clever, too. If she ran a small business, she could probably earn quite a bit.
On the way back after finishing the work, Jiang Xiu pointed out several more plots of land for Lin An’an to look at. They all belonged to their family, and they would plant peanuts there the following year.
For now, they were nothing but barren, unused plots.
Lin An’an studied the land for a moment before saying, “Mom, I want to plant some spinach and sell it for money. People in the cities buy their vegetables, so why don’t we try selling it to them?”
Jiang Xiu felt that her daughter could already earn quite a bit by selling apples and little toys for children. There was no need for her to sell vegetables, too. What if she couldn’t sell them and they all went to waste?
“People in the city have fewer vegetables in autumn and winter. Aside from cabbage and radishes, there isn’t much available. Spinach is cheap, so it’ll definitely sell well.”
Jiang Xiu couldn’t bear to disappoint her daughter. “All right, then. We’ll plant some.”
Of course, Lin An’an had no intention of planting just a little. She intended to grow vegetables for profit, and the first thing she needed was quantity.
Every rural household kept its own spinach seeds, and many had more than they could use. Lin An’an had Jiang Xiu buy all the excess from the villagers. In the end, they had more than two pounds.
They sowed the seeds the next day and left them to grow naturally in the fields.
Once she had finished with the farmland, Lin An’an went into the city again. The weather was beginning to cool, and the golden season for selling apples had already passed. She wanted to start a clothing business.
The county’s economy was poor, so Lin An’an traveled several hundred li to a city to purchase her stock. It would later become the largest clothing wholesale market in the north.
Her target products were knitted sweaters, pullovers, cardigans, one-piece sweater dresses, as well as towel scarves, headscarves, decorative ribbons, and the like.
After comparing goods and prices at several stores, Lin An’an ultimately bought items from more than a dozen different categories. She spent every bit of money she had brought with her.
By the time she reached the town, carrying bundles on her shoulders and backs, the sky had already grown dark. She had arranged to meet Shanzi at the bus station, but there was no sign of him.
Lin An’an looked at the deserted street and felt dejected. Was she supposed to carry everything back to the village herself? It was three li away!
“Put-put-put…”
Lin An’an looked up and saw Ji Cheng driving a three-wheeler. She had no idea where he had suddenly appeared from.
“Why are you here? Have you seen Shanzi?”
“I came to have my leg examined. Since I could bring you back on the way, I had Shanzi go home first.”
Ji Cheng got out and tossed both large bundles of goods into the bed of the vehicle.
“You brought all of this back by yourself?”
“Of course. People are too busy to deliver goods all the way here. You earn more when you do the work yourself.”
“You’re pretty capable.”
She could endure hardship, and she was willing to throw herself into anything.
She was a city girl, after all. She had once been innocent and carefree, but now she seemed to understand life so thoroughly. Was it because of the changes in her family background?
“Get on.”
At Ji Cheng’s command, Lin An’an nimbly climbed into the vehicle.
The three-wheeler chugged toward home, belching black smoke all the way.
“By the way, Ji Cheng, how did the examination go?”
Ji Cheng couldn’t hear her over the noise, so he shouted, “What did you say?”
Lin An’an moved closer and asked again.
“It’s fine. The doctor said it’s healing very well. I won’t end up lame.”
Lin An’an wondered whether Qiao Xiaohong would regret it if she found out. How could Ren Jie, that weak little man, compare with Ji Cheng?
Ren Jie had connections, but unfortunately, he was useless. Later, he even imitated rich men by keeping a woman outside his marriage. Someone reported him to his workplace, and the matter grew serious enough that he was fired.
Qiao Xiaohong had never had children. In hopes of having someone to rely on in her old age, she had tearfully raised an illegitimate son for more than a decade. Once the boy grew up, he went off to find his birth mother, leaving Qiao Xiaohong with nothing.
In her previous life, she, Lin An’an, had failed to live with any dignity, but Qiao Xiaohong hadn’t been a winner in life either. She had been a hundred steps away, while Qiao Xiaohong had been fifty steps away.
Neither of them had any right to laugh at the other.
After they arrived home, Ji Cheng and Shanzi carried the goods into the house.
“Where’s Mom?”
“She went to the village entrance to wait for you. Didn’t you see her?”
“I didn’t. Did you hear wrong?”
Shanzi cried out in protest, “I’m not deaf!”
Shanzi was still young and didn’t understand, but Lin An’an immediately thought of many possibilities. Naturally, she was worried.
“I’m going to take a look.”
“Wait. I’ll go with you,” Ji Cheng said.
“No need. Shanzi and I can go together.”
“You two? One of you is a woman, and the other is a child…”
The sound of hurried, disordered footsteps approached from a distance. Jiang Xiu’s voice followed.
“An… An’an, are you back?”
Jiang Xiu’s breathing was ragged and hurried. Lin An’an’s heart gave a sudden jolt.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
Only after Jiang Xiu saw that her daughter was completely unharmed did she urge everyone into the house.
“You’re back—that’s all that matters. You never came home, so of course I was worried.”
When she learned that Ji Cheng had brought Lin An’an home, Jiang Xiu insisted on keeping him for dinner, but Ji Cheng refused.
“I need to head home. If there’s any work to be done, Auntie, just tell me. Don’t stand on ceremony.”
After seeing Ji Cheng off, Jiang Xiu washed her face and busied herself preparing dinner.
With the money Lin An’an had given her, Jiang Xiu had really gone and bought meat: stir-fried pork belly with bok choy, along with flatbreads made mostly from wheat flour and a little cornmeal.
Lin An’an couldn’t eat fatty meat. She could barely stand to look at it, so she picked all the fat out and put it in Jiang Xiu’s bowl.
“Why aren’t you eating? Doesn’t it suit your taste?”
“I don’t like fatty meat.”
Jiang Xiu used her chopsticks to separate the fat from the lean meat, then put the lean portions back into her daughter’s bowl.
“You’re always running around outside and going hungry one meal, then stuffing yourself the next. Don’t let yourself get too thin. You look so pretty now.”
There was a kind of thinness called “what your parents think is thin.”
In reality, Lin An’an was doing fine. She was 1.63 meters tall and weighed 116 pounds—slightly plump.
After clearing away the dishes, Jiang Xiu followed Lin An’an back to the west room.
“Mom, is something wrong?”
Jiang Xiu gripped Lin An’an’s hand tightly.
“An’an, you must be careful from now on. Don’t walk anywhere alone.”
There had to be a reason Jiang Xiu was saying this. It was evident from her hurried footsteps and anxious tone.
“Mom, did you run into bad people?”