The village official arrived sooner than the barefoot doctor.
Luo Youtian’s cloth shoes were caked in mud. Stepping into the yard he told both sides to lower their sticks then had someone bring the large square table out.
“Speak one at a time. Anyone who strikes first gets tied up first.”
The Cao and Zhao families stood apart against the east and west walls. Red paper scraps were trampled into the dirt between them.
Luo Youtian looked at Shen Qinghe in her red dress. “Qinghe this is your wedding day. You speak first.”
“This is not my wedding day.”
Shen Qinghe set the glass jar on the table then asked Aunt Sun and Aunt San to place the two enamel mugs on opposite sides.
“Let us start with the eight hundred yuan from the Cao family.”
The leader of the Cao group was Cao Daqing cousin of Cao Yougen. He spread the betrothal list open and tapped the words with his finger. “It is written plainly. Zhao Xing’er nineteen to be wed on the first day of the fifth month. Four payments totalling eight hundred yuan. Not one cent less will do.”
Luo Youtian frowned. “Where is Yougen himself?”
“Waiting at the village gate. He had too much to drink and I did not want him causing trouble here.”
“You knew he would make trouble yet you let him drink?”
Cao Daqing looked faintly embarrassed. “We were happy to welcome a bride into the family.”
“If you thought she was too old you should not have taken the money.” The Cao family shot back at once. “We never forced anyone at knifepoint!”
Luo Youtian turned to Ma Guifen. “Did you take the money or not?”
“It was a loan!” Ma Guifen held her chin high. “Chengliang works at the supply and marketing cooperative. The Caos asked him to place goods on their behalf and the money was left with us temporarily. This list was written up without our knowledge by the Caos themselves.”
“Where is the loan note?” Shen Qinghe asked.
“Quiet you!”
“Were the goods ever purchased?”
“This is none of your business!”
“Why were all four sums recorded under Zhao Xing’er’s name? Why was the final three hundred yuan paid just yesterday right before today’s ceremony?”
Ma Guifen’s forehead glistened with sweat. She pointed an angry finger at Cao Daqing. “They forced this on me! I am only a woman with little schooling. They tricked me into pressing my thumbprint. I did not know what it said!”
Cao Daqing pulled another folded paper from his breast pocket.
“I knew you would deny it. The first two entries were written by your son. He can read and write can he not? It says Younger sister Xing’er betrothal plainly in his own hand.”
The paper was passed to Luo Youtian.
Zhao Chengliang’s expression shifted before he composed himself. “Uncle Cao I kept those accounts for you. The reference to betrothal concerned the supplies you asked us to buy for the wedding feast. It had nothing to do with my sister’s marriage.”
“Why write Younger sister Xing’er then?”
“Accounts were mixed up at the time. It was just a note.”
He spoke calmly and evenly. This was how Zhao Chengliang always smoothed over lines with casual words like just a note or a mistake.
“If they were payments for supplies,” Shen Qinghe said, “where are the delivery receipts?”
Zhao Chengliang met her gaze. “Cooperative records cannot be shown to outsiders.”
“The Caos paid the money. Are they outsiders too?”
“Work regulations apply.”
“Then send for someone from the cooperative to verify. We do not need their accounts. We only need to confirm whether purchases matching these four sums were ever made.”
Luo Youtian nodded. “That is fair.”
Zhao Chengliang’s jaw tightened.
Ma Guifen lunged at the table and snatched both papers to her chest. Cao Daqing was ready and pulled back. The red list tore along a half-inch gash. The yard erupted again.
“Put them down!” Luo Youtian slammed his palm on the table. “Tear anything else and I will call the militia!”
Zhou Yanchuan did not step forward. He stood beside Xiao Man watching Shen Qinghe.
Instead of breaking into tears as the Zhao family expected she fetched a piece of charred wood from the kitchen and drew four straight lines across the back of an old newspaper.
“Last twelfth lunar month one hundred yuan.”
The first line.
“First month of this year two hundred yuan.”
The second line.
“Third month two hundred yuan.”
The third line.
“Yesterday three hundred yuan.”
The fourth line.
“For each payment tell us who brought it who received it and who else was present. Speak one at a time. Do not all shout together.”
The first payment was delivered by Cao Daqing and the matchmaker with Second Aunt Zhao present.
The second was brought by Cao Yougen himself and a neighbour saw him carrying two bottles of wine.
The third was handed to Zhao Chengliang at the commune tea stall and the tea seller could confirm it.
The final three hundred arrived at the Zhao home yesterday afternoon. Aunt Sun had come to borrow a sieve and saw Ma Guifen lock the money in the cabinet.
“I did not count it,” Aunt Sun said. “But I saw a thick stack of bills.”
“You ungrateful old thing,” Ma Guifen snapped. “Have you not eaten at our table enough times?”
Aunt Sun’s face hardened. “I returned your sieve the very next day. Not a single meal was a gift from you. I saw what I saw and I would say I did not see it if I had not.”
All four payments were accounted for yet not a single purchase record existed to support the claim of temporary loans. The Zhao family’s story began to fall apart.
“Even if we accepted this was Xing’er’s dowry,” Second Uncle Zhao said suddenly, “what does it have to do with Qinghe? She is marrying Chengliang. Let each couple marry separately. Do not confuse matters.”
“They would remain separate if you had not made them so,” Shen Qinghe said. “Why then were the Caos told to wait for me at the village gate?”
Cao Daqing answered. “The matchmaker said the Zhao family would send a girl dressed in red out the back lane with her face covered. We were told to ask no questions until after the ceremony.”
“That is a lie!” Ma Guifen shouted.
“Who gave you this message?” Luo Youtian asked.
Cao Daqing hesitated. “Xing’er herself. She came to our home last night and said her mother had changed her mind. We were told to look for the dress not the face.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
Shen Qinghe’s heart sank.
She had assumed Zhao Xing’er was only silent. She had not realised Xing’er was willing to send another woman in her place.
Ma Guifen turned and stormed into the west room. “Get out here you ungrateful girl!”
Cabinet doors slammed inside then silence fell.
Two women went in and found Zhao Xing’er huddled behind the wardrobe. She wore no wedding dress only an old floral tunic and her face was drained of colour.
“I never said that.” She shook her head as they led her out. “They are making it up. I was home all night.”
Cao Daqing laughed bitterly. “You wore a blue headscarf and had a blister on the back of your right hand. Shall I describe it in more detail?”
All eyes turned to Zhao Xing’er’s hands.
She jerked her right hand behind her back.
Ma Guifen slapped her hard across the cheek. “Who told you to go to the Cao home!”
Zhao Xing’er covered her face and tears spilled over. She looked at Shen Qinghe her lips trembling as if to ask for help yet too afraid to speak.
Shen Qinghe said nothing on her behalf.
“There were two sedan chairs arranged,” she said and drew two small boxes beneath the four lines. “One to receive me openly and another waiting at the gate for Zhao Xing’er. Yet the Zhao family planned to send me out the back door all along.”
She lifted the glass jar.
“And before I left I was given water that Zhao Chengliang dared not drink.”
Luo Youtian fell silent for a long moment then ordered the Zhao family members separated and watched.
“We wait for the doctor. We also send people to the cooperative the Cao home and the matchmaker to verify everything.”
Ma Guifen began to protest but he spoke firmly. “This is no longer a simple matter of returning dowry money. If someone was drugged and swapped no one will be protected.”
The wind blew outside and the wedding suona fell silent. On the table the four lines two torn papers and two intended brides were finally brought together in the same account.
Shen Qinghe set down the charcoal and her fingertips were stained black.
She knew this was only the beginning.
The truth hidden deepest in the Zhao family’s hearts had yet to be drawn out.