The official document dissolving the betrothal was signed on the ninth day of the fifth lunar month.
Retesting the drugged water at the county level took time and the falsified accounts at the supply cooperative were being handled as a separate matter. The engagement however could not hang unresolved indefinitely. The commune agreed to settle the undisputed gifts and items first recording the decision as voluntary. All remaining responsibilities would be determined once investigations concluded.
Seven or eight people from the Zhao family arrived early.
Ma Guifen did not weep. Her hair was combed perfectly smooth. She held the bolt of red cloth against her chest as though clutching the last shred of the family’s dignity.
“Twenty two yuan and six cents is not correct” she said. “We gave twenty when the engagement was made ten at New Year and ten again for Qinghe’s birthday. It comes to at least forty.”
“Who received the ten yuan given at New Year?” Comrade Chen asked.
“Shen Yumei.”
“She had already passed away by then.”
A hush fell over the courtyard.
Ma Guifen spoke before she thought and slipped on the date. She quickly claimed Shen Qinghe had received it instead yet could not name the place or a single witness.
Shen Qinghe laid out the exact amount she had prepared. Coins clinked onto the table each note clearer than the last.
Twenty yuan as formal betrothal gift one yuan twenty cents for pastries six cents for buttons and the red cloth neatly folded exactly as it had been received. She even brushed away a stray hair and aligned the corners.
“I return only what was truly given.”
Second Uncle Zhao spoke up. “Our families have been connected for years. Chengliang took your mother to the hospital fetched water and chopped wood for you. How do we account for his labor?”
“Then my sewing harvesting and nursing Xing’er through illness should also be counted.”
“Surely such work is expected of a woman.”
“Not when one is not yet married. And even after marriage it is not owed for free.”
Second Uncle Zhao fell silent his face flushing red.
Luo Youtian suppressed a smile and urged both parties to review the document. It stated clearly all gifts had been returned and the engagement was dissolved effective that day. Shen Qinghe and Zhao Chengliang were free to marry others from that time onward. Neither side would harass detain or spread false claims about the other. The poisoning arranged marriage and accounts would be investigated separately.
Zhao Chengliang did not look at the money once. He watched only Shen Qinghe.
“Must you sign this?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What if I say we will separate from my family and let my mother have no say in our home?”
“Only yesterday you called her merely confused.”
“If she has wronged you I will make amends.”
“How?”
“I hold a position at the cooperative and can be transferred to the county seat. You would come with me. You would not stay in the village forever.”
In her past life those very words had swayed her.
A life in town a proper house steady employment all like bright signs held just out of reach. She had believed enduring the present hardship would lead her there. Zhao Chengliang did eventually move to the county yet she remained behind caring for his family and asking him for money even to buy a ticket.
“Your future is yours to keep” she said.
Zhao Chengliang lowered his voice. “You think that man Zhou will give you a better life?”
“Who I rely on is no longer your concern.”
“He has a child and his family holds themselves high. Do you truly believe someone of his standing would choose a girl whose engagement has been broken?”
“You still imagine I am leaving you to find another man.”
“A woman needs a husband.”
“Then wait and see if that is my only path.”
She picked up the brush.
Zhao Chengliang pressed his hand over the paper. “Qinghe once you sign there is no turning back.”
She looked at his hand.
“Let go.”
“This is my last chance to ask you.”
“And this is my last answer. Let go.”
Comrade Chen spoke sharply and Zhao Chengliang withdrew his hand. A faint damp mark remained exactly beside the words free to marry others.
Shen Qinghe took a fresh brush signed her name and pressed her thumbprint.
As the red seal settled there was no thunderclap nor sudden brightening of the sky. Outside someone hung bedding to dry a donkey brayed in the distance and the wind lifted the corner of the paper gently.
Freedom in the real world was nothing more than a thumbprint left on a page.
Zhao Chengliang took the brush. He hesitated a long moment then spoke. “If the county tests find nothing definite in the medicine will you regret this?”
“No.”
“And if the ledger proves it was not my writing?”
“Still no.”
“Why?”
“Because when you saw they were about to send me away your first thought was not to ask if I was unharmed. You told me to drink the water and go through with the wedding.”
Some truths required lab tests and ledgers.
Others needed only one sentence.
Zhao Chengliang set the brush to paper leaving a slight tear where the tip pressed too hard. He signed with heavy strokes as though etching his name into something that still belonged to him.
Three copies were made. Shen Qinghe folded hers and tucked it into a cloth pouch. As Ma Guifen reached for the money she suddenly flung the twenty yuan note toward her face.
The edge brushed Shen Qinghe’s chin harmlessly yet several onlookers stepped back as though the money carried something unclean. She understood then that many who had urged reconciliation did not do so out of kindness.
They feared what would happen if a girl treated an engagement as a transaction and dared to ask why things must be as they always had been. If she succeeded their own daughters and daughters in law might begin asking the same questions. Standing before her was not merely Ma Guifen but a whole way of life accepted so long it had come to feel like natural law.
“You ill omened thing!” Ma Guifen shouted. “Do you think you will find happiness after breaking your word? I will wait and watch you come crawling back!”
Notes fluttered to the ground and coins rolled into the dirt.
All eyes turned to Shen Qinghe expecting anger or tears.
She knelt and gathered them one by one. The money was not an insult it was simply what had been given and received. Once returned the Zhao family would have no further claim over her.
She placed the sum back on the table and set an empty bowl atop it.
“Please record this Comrade Chen. The Zhao family has refused to accept the returned gift. The money will remain held by the village committee and I will receive a receipt for it.”
Ma Guifen fell silent.
She had hoped for a scene shouting or tears or money forced back into her hands. Any of those would mean the break was not complete.
Shen Qinghe wanted only a receipt.
The clerk prepared the temporary holding slip. Shen Qinghe verified the amount and date then placed it safely in her pouch.
“From this day forward” she told them “your refusal to take the money is your choice. I owe you nothing further.”
She stepped out into bright sunlight that stung her eyes.
Aunt Sun hurried after her. “Qinghe where will you stay? They have changed the lock on your mother’s old house.”
Her steps slowed.
Ma Guifen’s voice carried from the courtyard. “Walk away so freely then see if you have a roof over your head!”
Shen Qinghe did not look back.
Only after walking several paces did her knees begin to tremble. She paused beside the stone mill and declined Aunt Sun’s arm. She waited until the wave of weakness passed before continuing. Rebirth had not erased the fear from her body. It had only given her the strength to finish what needed to be done even while afraid.
The account of the twenty yuan was settled.
Next she would reclaim her home.