Things were different at Liu Manjin’s house. Their land was just the size of a standard residential plot, and not only were they packed in closely with their neighbors on both the east and west sides, but their neighbor to the west, old Mrs. Wang, happened to be one of the biggest loudspeakers in the Erhe Brigade.
If she found out about even the slightest thing, it was as good as everyone finding out. Luckily, she didn’t spread malicious rumors.
“Our Tiantian is simply amazing,” Old Mrs. Liu said with a face full of smiles, being completely unsparing with her praise for her precious little darling. Her eyes were filled with nothing but tender affection as she looked toward the west room.
Old Man Liu puffed on his large tobacco pipe and nodded in agreement, a wide grin causing the wrinkles on his face to bunch together.
When they reached the foot of the mountain this morning, they had run into a few other people from the production team who mocked him for spoiling his granddaughter, saying that bringing a two-year-old girl up the mountain was just asking for trouble.
What did they know?
He just liked spoiling his granddaughter, so what?
Feeling better and better the more he thought about it, Old Man Liu tapped his pipe against the sole of his shoe, stood up, straightened his spine, and walked into the house with his hands clasped behind his back.
As he walked, he said, “Old woman, let’s eat. Everyone’s starving, and we still have work to do after dinner.”
“Let’s eat. Set the table and fetch the bowls and chopsticks. Don’t wake Tiantian up, let her sleep. I’ll boil a few eggs and leave them by her pillow; she’ll find them and eat when she wakes up.”
Old Mrs. Liu never held back when it came to her granddaughter, offering several eggs right off the bat.
Turning back to poke at the fat pheasants and look over the rabbits, Old Mrs. Liu felt exceptionally satisfied. “Sufen, boil a pot of hot water after dinner. We’ll process the roe deer tonight. Don’t kill the rabbits and pheasants just yet; we’ll save them for the autumn harvest in a few days. Second son, make a cage tomorrow.”
The autumn harvest was exhausting, and they wouldn’t hold up without a bit of grease and meat in their bellies.
Liu Mangcang agreed. Although the weather was cooling down, it wasn’t freezing yet, so meat would spoil easily if left out. Besides, wild pheasants couldn’t be kept with the domestic ones, or they would start fighting.
Once the family finished their meal, the third son of the Liu family, Liu Manjin, arrived with his two boys, Liu Sinan and Liu Sibei.
Together, they first processed the roe deer. The boys spent a good while bragging about their grand achievements of the day—how they chased the pheasants, how they caught the rabbits, and how they ran like the wind—before finally heading back to their respective homes fully satisfied.
Before returning to her own room in the east wing, Old Mrs. Liu stopped by the west room to check on her precious granddaughter.
Seeing her granddaughter sleeping soundly with rosy cheeks, she touched her little hand and found it nice and warm. Satisfied, she carefully placed four boiled eggs by the pillow and went back to her own room to sleep.
The next morning.
“Tiantian, time to wake up. Grandma made you something delicious.”
A loving voice sounded beside Tiantian’s ear, accompanied by a gentle caress on her little cheek. Today was the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, a truly auspicious day.
“Grandma, I still want to sleep,” Liu Sitian mumbled, half-opening her eyes as she wrapped her little arms around Old Mrs. Liu’s neck, speaking in a sweet, babyish voice.
Turning her head to look at the sky outside, she guessed it was barely past five o’clock. The day hadn’t even fully brightened yet!
“Precious baby, sleeping too much isn’t good for you. It’s almost seven o’clock. It’s overcast and raining outside. Grandma made delicious food and is just waiting for my precious baby to get up. Did you forget what day it is today?”
As the old lady spoke, she hooked her hands under her granddaughter’s armpits and lifted her right out of the cozy nest of blankets.
Looking at her precious granddaughter’s half-closed eyes and sleepy little face, she loved her to pieces, kissing her cheeks twice before starting to dress her.
She had more than a dozen grandchildren, but only two granddaughters. The other one lived in Changchun and was nearly nine years old, but they hadn’t met even once. She used to feel a bit sad about it, but nowadays, she didn’t really care. Only Liu Sitian was the one she had raised with her own hands, and the one closest to her heart.
Now fully awake, Liu Sitian finally remembered—the eighth day of the eighth lunar month was her birthday! She was two years old today, a big girl now!
So she cooperatively extended her arms and legs, making it easy for the old lady to dress her.
For a birthday, one had to dress festively. Her top was a red floral shirt, her trousers were also red—a bold combination of bright red and loud floral patterns—and even her shoes were red tiger-head shoes, meticulously hand-stitched stitch by stitch by the old lady herself.
Liu Sitian stroked them fondly and grinned.
It was a bit rustic, sure, but it was a set of brand-new clothes nonetheless. In the 1960s countryside where food and clothing were scarce, this was considered incredibly fashionable. Paired with her adorable little face, she was guaranteed to be the most dazzling kid in the entire production brigade when she walked out.
Acting spoiled, she planted several kisses on the old lady’s face, making Old Mrs. Liu beam with joy. Thoroughly enjoying her little darling’s affection, she carried her straight out of the west room.
After washing her face and little hands with water, she carried her over to the east room and set her down on the kang bed right next to the dining table.
The layout of houses in Northeast China was mostly the same.
Usually, a house consisted of three rooms. The moment you entered, you were in the kitchen. The kitchen had a stove setup on both the east and west sides, which connected to the kang beds in the east and west rooms. The east room was typically occupied by the elders, while the west room was for the younger generation.
The old Liu family followed this exact layout, with the only exception being that their house actually consisted of six structures—four rooms and two kitchens. It was essentially two houses built flush against each other, saving the space of a middle wall.
In the western house, Liu Sitian slept alone in the west room, while the old couple, Old Man Liu and his wife, slept in the east room. In the eastern house, the four boys slept in the west room, while Liu Mangcang and Li Sufen slept in the east room.
When it was time to eat, everyone gathered in Old Man Liu’s east room. By the time Liu Sitian arrived, the family was already seated and scooping out the food.
Seeing her dressed all in bright red, everyone took turns praising how beautiful she looked.
Liu Sishu said, “Little sister, you look as beautiful as a red lantern right now.”
Liu Siwu disagreed, “She clearly looks like a firecracker, specifically a double-bang cracker. Look at her sky-pointing pigtail, it looks exactly like one.”
Liu Sitian thought: Both of you shut up!
“Grandpa, Grandma is here, please start eating!” Liu Siwei also thought his sister looked beautiful today, but he was far more anxious to eat meat. Seeing them chatting away, he couldn’t help but urge them on.
He had been starving since early morning. Day in and day out, it was sweet potato flour cakes, cornmeal窝窝头 (wowedou), coarse corn grits porridge, and boiled vegetables. He had grown thin from eating all that. Finally, they had roe deer meat to eat, yet his sister had to go and wake up late.
The Liu family didn’t know what was going through his head. If they did, they would have definitely given him a harsh smack on the neck. Had he really eaten that little meat? Over the past year or so, the amount of meat he had eaten matched what he used to get over several years combined.
Compared to the meals of other families in the brigade, he truly didn’t know how blessed he was. He complained about boiled vegetables, but which other family’s boiled vegetables had a thick layer of oil glistening on top?
Having narrowly escaped a beating without even knowing it, Liu Siwei kept his eyes fixed eagerly on Old Man Liu.
Li Sufen glared at her fourth son, who was practically scratching his heart out with impatience, finding it both frustrating and amusing.
This brat had started bawling in the kitchen just as the sky was barely turning grey, yelling at her to get up and cook, acting earlier than a rooster’s crow. She had been shocked right out of a dream, her heart pounding wildly, only to crawl out and find it was barely past three in the morning.
In her anger, she had put on her clothes, stormed out, and whacked him twice with the handle of a broom.