Shen Yao no longer had any desire to linger outside.
Even if it was the original Shen Yao who had liked He Shi, even if it was the original Shen Yao who had climbed into his bed, could she and the original Shen Yao truly be considered separate people now?
The moment she closed her eyes, she could recall the feeling of He Shi sleepily pulling her into his arms.
Even though no one had seen it.
Even though He Shi had immediately jumped out of bed once he woke up.
In the upbringing she had received since childhood, being held by a man in bed meant that if anyone found out, she could only marry him.
The original Shen Yao’s memories were influencing her emotions in a very real way.
She searched through those memories.
The original Shen Yao had not understood many basic matters, but through the things she had seen and heard, Shen Yao knew that in this era, especially in recent years, such an incident becoming public would be a major scandal.
A year earlier, a girl from the Third Production Team had fallen into the stream and been rescued by a male educated youth.
Because everyone had witnessed him carrying her, the girl’s family insisted that he marry her. Otherwise, they would accuse him of hooliganism.
The matter had grown so serious that even officials from the commune’s Revolutionary Committee had become involved.
In the end, it was resolved through marriage.
This was 1970.
The charge of hooliganism was still something ordinary people could not afford to face, and the Revolutionary Committee remained the last authority anyone wanted to offend.
Only now did Shen Yao understand why He Shi had been so furious that night.
He had probably believed she was trying to trap him.
Despite how unpleasant he was, despite his sharp tongue and cruel words, Shen Yao still felt grateful that he had not publicized the incident.
Even if he had done so only for his own sake.
Seeing her pale expression, Shen Gang glanced at the small bundle of fiddlehead ferns in his hand. There was enough for half a plate once stir-fried.
He decided not to stay on the mountain any longer and led his sister back down.
On the bridge, they encountered a mother and son from the riverside settlement. Judging by the peaches they carried, they had just received their share and were heading home.
The young man walking in front came face-to-face with Shen Gang and Shen Yao.
Without a second thought, he turned around and told his mother to step back so the siblings could cross first.
The woman glanced at her son and smilingly complied.
Only after they had crossed back over the bridge and reached an area near their own home, with no one else around, did she voice the suspicion she had been harboring.
“Do you have feelings for Yaoyao?”
The young man’s face immediately reddened.
“No, of course not.”
The woman gave him a look and lowered her voice.
“Good. Because let me tell you, Yaoyao may be beautiful, but I would never agree to having her as a daughter-in-law. It doesn’t matter that her father is the team leader. Our family may be poor, but we’re not bringing home a foolish wife to support. If you’re entertaining thoughts like that, stop right now.”
The young man’s expression stiffened.
He was about to say something when they rounded a hillside and spotted someone ahead.
Startled, he swallowed his words and greeted the newcomer instead.
“Educated Youth He, have you gone to collect your peaches yet?”
“What did you mean by what you were saying just now?” He Shi asked instead of answering.
The young man frowned, unwilling to respond.
His mother, however, was more than willing to curry favor with He Shi.
After glancing around to make sure nobody else was nearby, she lowered her voice mysteriously.
“It’s no secret. Everyone in the village knows it. The team leader’s daughter, Yaoyao, she’s…”
She pointed to her head.
“She’s not quite right here. She’s about the same as a five- or six-year-old child.”
After saying that, she added a reminder.
“The team leader’s family treasures Yaoyao. They can’t stand hearing people call her foolish. I only let it slip because I got carried away. Educated Youth He, just keep it in mind. Whatever you do, don’t call Yaoyao stupid to her face.”
A faint crease appeared between He Shi’s brows.
Foolish?
Shen Yao?
How was that possible?
Even though he disliked her for what he believed was scheming, he still could not reconcile the idea of such a beautiful girl being mentally impaired.
She looked completely normal.
Seeing his disbelief, the woman continued:
“They only discovered it when she was seven or eight. Her mother took her to who knows how many doctors and fed her all kinds of medicine. None of it worked. Eventually they stopped taking her to hospitals.”
“Fortunately, she doesn’t go mad or hurt people. Apart from being naive and easy to deceive, there isn’t really anything wrong with her.”
“You know how their son Gangzi is already thirteen but still doesn’t work in the fields? That’s because he’s always looking after Yaoyao.”
Then she sighed.
“It’s not that I’m heartless. Life is hard for everyone. Who could afford to marry someone like that and spend a lifetime taking care of her? Don’t you agree, Educated Youth He?”
Listening to her words made He Shi uncomfortable.
Especially hearing Shen Yao spoken of in the same breath as madness and violence.
The comparison felt deeply wrong.
It was true that Shen Gang did not work in the fields.
And now, with the knowledge that Shen Yao’s mental development was impaired, many small details he had previously observed about the siblings suddenly made sense.
Not wanting to hear any more, he gave a perfunctory response and prepared to leave.
The woman quickly stopped him.
“Educated Youth He, I heard that you and Educated Youth Xu have been eating at Sixth Uncle Shen’s house lately?”
Without waiting for an answer, she continued enthusiastically.
“I mean, it’s not good to keep troubling one family all the time, right? You could always rotate between different households. I’m quite a good cook. A few years ago, when the village cooked communal meals, I was the head cook.”
He Shi glanced at her.
“We’ve gotten used to eating at Uncle Sixth’s place. It’s quite good. No need to trouble you, Auntie.”
The woman thought to herself, Trouble? I’d be delighted if you troubled me.
He Shi had only been in the village for a little over ten days, yet the aroma of meat had drifted from Shen Laoliu’s house several times already.
Even if you didn’t get any meat yourself, once a pot had touched meat and grease, adding a ladle of water would still make a flavorful soup.
She called after him.
“It’s no trouble at all! You educated youths came to the countryside to support rural development. Doing a little for you is only right…”
But He Shi had already walked away.
Standing nearby, the young man had listened to his mother speak so harshly about Shen Yao in front of an outsider, all in an attempt to lure He Shi away from Shen Laoliu’s household.
His expression darkened.
Yet there was nothing he could do about his mother.
In the end, he simply turned and left as well.
When Shen Yao returned to the riverbank, Wang Yunzhi had already taken the fish home.
The bamboo baskets and bucket had been returned to their owners.
Shen Guozhong told the siblings to head home first.
Only after arriving home did Shen Gang remember the handful of candy Song Jincheng had given him.
He pulled it all from his pocket and handed it over to Wang Yunzhi.
Even Wang Yunzhi had never seen such candy in the supply and marketing cooperative.
Knowing that Song Jincheng was from Shanghai, she said,
“These must have been mailed from Shanghai by Educated Youth Song’s family. They can’t have been cheap. He’s far too polite. We only sent a few peaches to thank him, and he gave us such a large handful of candy in return.”
Wang Yunzhi said Shen Gang should not have accepted the candy, and Shen Gang looked embarrassed. He had simply been tempted by the sweet milky aroma and lacked the willpower to refuse.
Wang Yunzhi put the candy away and locked it in a cabinet. She planned to show it to Shen Guozhong that evening. Receiving such an expensive gift made it difficult to think of a suitable return gift.
Besides, their family was already struggling to get by. How could they possibly afford to reciprocate something like this?
Work had ended early that day, and it was only a little after four in the afternoon.
To save kerosene, most rural families cooked early. They ate dinner while there was still daylight, sat outside for a while to enjoy the evening breeze, and then went to bed.
Distributing the peaches and calculating work points had taken quite some time. The villagers had finished work early, but as team leader, Shen Guozhong did not return home until after five.
When Wang Yunzhi asked why he was so late, he explained that he had gone to inspect the fields and discuss plans for the upcoming double harvest with the team’s accountant and storekeeper.
“That’s what today’s commune meeting was about. Harvesting and planting are major matters. If we’re delayed even a little, not only could the harvest suffer and leave us unable to meet our grain quotas, but the people on our team wouldn’t be able to make a living.”
That evening’s meal was better than usual because of the fish and fiddlehead ferns Shen Yao and Shen Gang had gathered, along with the braised pork gravy Shen Guozhong had brought home.
As a result, Wang Yunzhi did not cook the string beans she had picked from their private plot.
Each household in the village was allotted a small private plot of land according to family size. Besides growing vegetables, most families planted sweet potatoes as a staple food source. Vegetables were never abundant, so anything that could be saved was worth saving.
After washing his hands, Shen Guozhong sat down with the family for dinner.
The fish soup had been made by boiling the small fish with a few slices of ginger. It was undeniably fresh, but there was almost no oil or fat in it.
When Wang Yunzhi heard that one of the fish had been caught by Shen Yao herself, she praised her over and over, as if she had accomplished something truly remarkable.
She could not stop marveling at it.
Most of the fish meat with fewer bones was placed into Shen Yao’s bowl under the pretense that eating fish would make her smarter.
As for the braised pork gravy and the small piece of pork, Wang Yunzhi tried to give them to Shen Yao.
Shen Yao pushed them away.
“I already had some at noon. Let Gangzi have it.”
When she had given way at lunchtime, Wang Yunzhi had thought it was a one-time occurrence.
Now, seeing her do the same thing again at dinner, she was astonished.
She repeatedly remarked that Shen Yao had become more sensible and had learned to care for her younger brother.
It was such a small matter, yet both parents were delighted.
Only then did Shen Yao realize that the original Shen Yao had never understood such things.
Deep down, she had viewed herself as the youngest member of the family, someone who was meant to be cared for by everyone else.
Watching the sincere happiness on their faces, Shen Yao felt a strange mixture of sadness and warmth.
She did not know whether the emotion belonged to the body she now inhabited or to herself.
Still, after six days with them, she could see how deeply this poor couple loved their children.
Inevitably, she began thinking of her own parents.
After dinner, Wang Yunzhi washed two peaches and brought them out, giving one each to Shen Yao and Shen Gang.
When Shen Yao noticed that neither Wang Yunzhi nor Shen Guozhong had one, she asked,
“Aren’t you and Dad eating any?”
Shen Guozhong waved a hand and smiled.
“We don’t like those things. Peaches are for children.”
The original Shen Yao probably would have believed that.
The current Shen Yao did not.
They simply treasured the peaches and wanted to save them for their children.
She bit her lip.
After all, she was not truly Shen Yao. Receiving such wholehearted love made her feel less than entirely at ease.
If…
If she truly could not return home, then at the very least she could not allow them to discover that the real Shen Yao was gone.
Only then would they be spared grief and heartbreak.
Shen Yao made a decision.
For a while, she would continue pretending to be simple-minded, gradually becoming more sensible step by step until she could return to being a normal person.
If she could never go back, she would take good care of Shen Yao’s parents and honor them as her own.
And if Shen Yao had somehow arrived in her world, she hoped the girl could remain by her parents’ side, bringing them comfort in their old age rather than forcing them to bury a child.
As for the worst possibility, if the real Shen Yao was dead, then Shen Yao hoped that by living well here and doing good deeds, Heaven might bless and protect her own family.
She took a small bite of the peach.
Although it was called a honey peach, it was not especially juicy, and the flesh was somewhat firm.
Even the poorest peach she had eaten in her former life had been better than this one.
Yet this sweet-and-sour peach left an extraordinarily deep impression on her.
Meanwhile, Shen Gang had already wolfed down half of his peach.
Seeing how carefully his sister was savoring hers, he slowed down and looked at her several times.
Thinking of the braised pork gravy at noon and the piece of pork at dinner, he steeled himself despite the pain and declared,
“There are still six peaches left. Sis, I’ll only eat one more. You can have the rest and eat them slowly.”
The moment he made this heroic declaration, it felt as though he had personally pushed a delicious peach out of reach.
His heart ached a little, but he felt even happier.
Shen Gang thought that spoiling his sister like this made him seem especially manly.
Shen Yao could not help laughing.
She had enjoyed countless luxuries in her previous life. How could she possibly let a little boy deprive himself of food for her sake?