Wang Yunzhi set the plate of vegetables on the table and excitedly told Shen Guozhong about Shen Yao.
“Our Yaoyao has become sensible. Really!”
Shen Guozhong looked at the two children following behind her.
Unlike Wang Yunzhi, he was not so optimistic.
Noticing that his daughter had grown thinner during the summer, he asked,
“Yaoyao, have you been craving meat that badly?”
Shen Yao felt somewhat embarrassed.
A noble young lady from a marquis’s household craving meat, it was rather shameful when she thought about it. But it was the truth.
She nodded and honestly admitted,
“I wanted us to raise more chickens so we could eat more meat and eggs.”
Shen Guozhong looked at her.
She really was starting to think things through on her own.
Wang Yunzhi’s eyes lit up.
“See? I told you I was right. Our Yaoyao is getting smarter.”
Such a small incident did not necessarily prove anything, and Shen Guozhong still found it hard to believe.
But Shen Yao was skilled at reading people.
With an innocent smile and a playful expression, she snuggled up to Wang Yunzhi and said,
“I really have gotten smarter. At the literacy class the day before yesterday, I learned a character.”
Even Shen Gang found that difficult to believe.
When he had first started school, he had tried teaching his sister to read. But she simply could not grasp it. No matter how hard he taught, she could not learn. Even when she managed to remember a character, she would forget it almost immediately.
He had accompanied her to the literacy class. She had not paid much attention during that lesson and had only listened casually.
And now she had learned a character?
Shen Yao demonstrated through action that not only could she recognize it, she could write it too.
Proudly, she used her finger to trace the character 主 (“master” or “main”) on the tabletop.
It was one of the characters Song Jincheng had taught during class that day.
This was no small matter.
Shen Guozhong nearly jumped to his feet.
Looking at Shen Yao excitedly, he asked,
“Yaoyao, do you know any other characters?”
Shen Yao understood the importance of taking things gradually.
She shook her head.
“I only remembered this one.”
Shen Guozhong burst into laughter.
“Remembering even one is remarkable. Is this what you learned at the literacy class?”
Shen Gang, who had attended with her, nodded.
“That day it was Educated Youth Song teaching, and he did teach this character.”
The news thrilled Shen Guozhong and Wang Yunzhi so much that they forgot all about lunch.
The food was growing cold, yet neither of them cared about eating.
Wang Yunzhi asked eagerly,
“Then are you going again tonight to study?”
Shen Yao nodded.
Then she added,
“Gangzi can teach me too.”
Shen Gang immediately became enthusiastic.
Right there and then, he taught her the character 天 (“heaven” or “sky”).
Shen Yao copied it several times convincingly. Before long, she could write it on the table with her finger.
To Wang Yunzhi, her daughter seemed like a genius.
Perhaps she had always been too clever.
Maybe geniuses simply had difficult paths in life, which was why she had spent more than ten years appearing foolish first.
If not for the current campaign against feudal superstition, Wang Yunzhi would have wanted to burn incense and offer thanks to the ancestors.
The more she rejoiced, the more tears streamed down her face.
Everything else in her life had been manageable. Only this daughter had caused her endless worry.
Now Shen Yao could recognize characters.
If she could learn to read, was a full recovery really that far away?
In the eyes of rural people, literacy was a tremendous accomplishment. Village cadres could read. Commune officials could read. The educated youths from the city could read.
“Guozhong, do you see this? Our Yaoyao is getting better. I always said she wasn’t foolish. She just matured later than everyone else.”
Seeing Wang Yunzhi crying, Shen Guozhong, a grown man, felt his own nose sting with emotion.
They had poured too much love and devotion into their eldest daughter.
They had always feared she would be looked down upon.
Over the years, the couple had cherished Shen Yao like a treasure in their palms. Whenever there was something good in the household, it went to her first.
But Shen Yao was growing up.
She was already a seventeen-year-old young woman.
What sort of man she would marry had become the couple’s greatest worry.
Good families would not want Shen Yao. Yet families with poor prospects or disabled sons were equally unacceptable to them.
At one point, the couple had even prepared themselves to support their daughter for the rest of her life if no suitable match could be found.
“Yes, this is a good thing. Don’t cry.”
“Today when I go to work, I’m going to tell everyone. Our Yaoyao can read now. She’s better.”
Wang Yunzhi had completely lost interest in eating. Her mind was occupied with how to erase the label of “fool” that had followed her daughter for so many years.
In her eyes, her daughter was perfect in every way. Now even her one flaw was gone.
There was not a single girl in the village who could compare to her daughter.
Shen Yao had never expected that merely revealing the slightest sign of improvement would excite Wang Yunzhi to this extent.
Before she could say anything, Shen Guozhong patted Wang Yunzhi’s shoulder and urged her to calm down.
Glancing toward the courtyard outside, he said,
“Don’t go announcing it yet. Let’s observe for a while longer.”
Wang Yunzhi could not understand.
Why observe longer?
Hadn’t her daughter carried the reputation of being foolish for over ten years already? Wasn’t that enough?
Shen Guozhong asked,
“Do you really want our daughter working in the fields every day like us? Even if you could bear it, Yaoyao has never done this kind of work since she was little. Can she endure that hardship? The day before yesterday, carrying one basket of pig fodder gave her several huge blisters on her palms. Weren’t you heartbroken over that?”
At once, Wang Yunzhi calmed down.
Beside her, Shen Yao took Wang Yunzhi’s hand and added that carrying the snail scoop that morning had left her shoulder sore.
When it came time to act spoiled and win favors, Shen Yao never hesitated.
Among the three Shen siblings, her eldest sister had entered the imperial palace as a Noble Consort and borne the Emperor’s second prince, enjoying considerable imperial favor. Her elder brother had made a name for himself at a young age and earned military merit on the battlefield. As for Shen Yao, aside from her beauty and reputation, there was little else that particularly distinguished her.
Yet she was the most pampered member of the family.
Even her elder brother and sister doted on her excessively, and that had much to do with her personality. When she wanted to win someone over, she would cling to them and act coquettishly. It was very difficult not to give in to her.
Shen Yao felt absolutely no obligation to help earn work points for the family.
Her goal in recovering was to find a better path for herself. She knew her own limitations. The farm work in the fields was beyond her capabilities, and she had no intention of forcing herself to endure such hardship.
Naturally, Wang Yunzhi could not bear it either.
After more than ten years, spoiling her daughter had become as instinctive as breathing.
She said blankly,
“Then… are we just going to let Yaoyao keep carrying the reputation of being foolish? How will we talk about marriage prospects in the future?”
The mention of marriage inevitably reminded Shen Yao of her mother.
Before the accident, her mother had already begun selecting potential marriage candidates for her.
She had compiled a long list, evaluating everything from family influence and personal abilities to temperament and character. She even investigated whether they frequented brothels, whether there were already women in their households, and for the most promising candidates, she would have gladly examined every detail from the tips of their hair to the soles of their feet.
Shen Yao wondered how the war on the frontier had turned out.
Had her father and brothers returned to the capital?
What had become of her own body?
Had she died?
Or was the Shen Yao of this world now living in her place?
As her thoughts drifted away, Shen Guozhong was already explaining things to Wang Yunzhi.
“The authorities are promoting late marriage and late childbirth these days. Yaoyao can stay at home for several more years. Let her learn from Gangzi first. Don’t publicize it outside. Even when she goes to the educated youth compound, people can think she’s only there to watch the excitement.”
“If our daughter gets married, it’ll be much harder for us to spoil her. What mother-in-law truly dotes on a daughter-in-law? So let her enjoy a few more good years before marriage. If Yaoyao really recovers, we’ll have to find her a good husband. We can’t let her suffer.”
Inwardly, he was already making plans.
If Yaoyao recovered completely, he would teach her more characters. Then perhaps he could find a way to get her into a factory. Even temporary factory work would be far better than farming in the countryside.
With his daughter’s beauty, if she could marry a factory worker as well, that would be even better.
Just like that, after Shen Yao had learned to write two characters, Shen Guozhong was already planning several years into her future.
Lunch that day, as usual, consisted of sweet potato rice and a plate of watery stir-fried greens with barely a trace of oil.
Watching his daughter pick through the rice as though counting grains one by one, Shen Guozhong smiled and comforted her.
“We’re having snails tonight. They taste good too. This evening I’ll go down to the stream and see if I can catch a soft-shelled turtle. Tomorrow your mother can cook it for you.”
Shen Gang’s eyes immediately lit up.
“Dad, take me with you!”
Shen Guozhong had a special knack for catching soft-shelled turtles with his bare hands. By examining claw marks and droppings along the stream bank, he could roughly determine where the turtles entered and left the water.
Only through fragments of the original Shen Yao’s memories had Shen Yao learned that the so-called tuanyu was actually a soft-shelled turtle.
It really was considered a delicacy.
She found herself looking forward to it as well.
During the entire meal, Shen Yao alone found the food bland and uninspiring.
Shen Guozhong, Wang Yunzhi, and even Shen Gang were all delighted by the fact that Shen Yao seemed to be growing smarter. In their good mood, even plain vegetables tasted delicious.
After lunch, while resting, Shen Guozhong privately said to Wang Yunzhi,
“It won’t do for her to eat vegetables without any oil every day. I’ve noticed that Yaoyao doesn’t like sweet potato rice either. We’ll be receiving grain allocations soon anyway. From now on, make a separate portion of rice for her without mixing in dried sweet potatoes.”
“After the double-harvest season is over, I’ll make another trip.”
Wang Yunzhi knew exactly what kind of trip he meant.
Her heart tightened.
After thinking about the children, she nodded.
“Just be careful.”
This was not the first time Shen Guozhong had done it.
Although he was the production team leader, only he and his wife earned work points in the family, so money was always tight.
He was bold.
During the agricultural off-season, he and the team’s storekeeper, Li Jieyong, would secretly climb onto freight trains bound for neighboring provinces, buy noodles there, then resell them on the black market for profit to supplement the family’s income.
That evening after work ended, Wang Yunzhi stayed home to prepare dinner while Shen Guozhong took Shen Gang to the stream.
Shen Gang had always admired his father’s skill at catching soft-shelled turtles barehanded. Following beside him, he kept asking how one could tell where the turtles might be hiding.
After searching along the stream for over half an hour, Shen Guozhong actually managed to catch one.
He carried the turtle home first.
Meanwhile, Shen Gang took the opportunity to swim in the stream and wash himself clean before heading back.
Since they already had snails for dinner that evening, Wang Yunzhi saved the turtle for the next day.
Before work ended, Shen Gang had already clipped the tails off the snails. When Wang Yunzhi cooked them, she deliberately added extra oil and even picked some wild mint from the fields.
The fragrance was wonderfully fresh and savory.
Shen Gang was delighted.
“Big Sis, Grandpa used to say snails are the best food. One snail can help you eat three mouthfuls of rice. Lick it once and you can finish a mouthful of rice. Suck out the snail meat and that’s another mouthful. Then suck the broth left inside the shell and that’s a third mouthful. It tastes amazing.”
In truth, this was Shen Yao’s first time eating snails.
She watched Shen Gang and tried copying him.
The snail she picked happened to be difficult to suck out. No meat came out at all, leaving her momentarily stunned.
Drawing on the original Shen Yao’s memories, she used the end of a chopstick to push the meat inward, then sucked again.
This time it came right out.
The meat itself was good, but the broth inside the shell was truly delicious.
After enduring more than ten days of hardship, Shen Yao felt as though she could taste happiness itself.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Wang Yunzhi.
“Mom, I want this again tomorrow. I want to eat it forever.”
Wang Yunzhi laughed.
“How could you eat this every day? Even tonight, don’t eat too much. It’s hard to digest if you overdo it.”
Besides, snails required a lot of oil to cook properly.
There were countless snails in the streams, so why didn’t more people collect them?
Because oil was precious, and few could bear to use so much of it.
What Shen Guozhong loved most about his daughter was the lively vitality she possessed.
He turned to Wang Yunzhi.
“Last time we received that medicinal ointment from Educated Youth Song, and afterward there was the candy too. Didn’t you say we hadn’t found a proper way to thank him?”
“Now that we’ve caught a soft-shelled turtle, I think Gangzi should gather some more snails tomorrow morning. With those two dishes, plus a plate of scrambled eggs and two vegetable dishes, the meal will look respectable enough. Let’s invite Educated Youth Song over for dinner.”
“Since Gangzi is taking Yaoyao to the literacy class tonight, he can mention it to him.”
Wang Yunzhi immediately brightened.
That really was perfect.
Their daughter would get to eat good food, and they could repay Song Jincheng’s kindness as well.
It could not be a better idea.
As it happened, that evening’s literacy class was once again being taught by Song Jincheng.
After class ended, Shen Gang relayed his parents’ invitation.
The moment Xu Xiangdong, who had already convinced himself that He Shi liked Shen Yao, heard about it, he returned and gleefully gossiped to He Shi.
“This is serious, really serious. That guy Song might be about to steal your girl right out from under you.”
“Once or twice might be a coincidence, but this is the third time already, isn’t it? It’s obvious Shen Yao has feelings for Song. Ah Shi, show a little of your charm. If you’ve set your sights on a girl, you can’t let her switch allegiances. That would be too embarrassing.”
He Shi glanced at him and laughed.
“Since when was Shen Yao one of my people?”
Still stubbornly refusing to admit it.
The corner of Xu Xiangdong’s mouth curled up.
“Fine, if you say she’s not, then she’s not. I’m just giving you a heads-up. It’s been a long day, I’m going to sleep.”
With that, he walked out and casually closed the door behind him.
Lying back with his hands behind his head, He Shi’s usual carefree smile disappeared. His tongue pressed against his teeth, and his expression turned slightly cold.
It was rare for him to meddle in someone else’s affairs, yet the person involved clearly did not appreciate it.
He was not some selfless saint. Was he really supposed to keep worrying about a little fool’s problems again and again?
What exactly was Shen Yao to him, anyway?