In under two hours the Yan family’s split was settled. It was the quickest one the village head and the others had presided over in all their time doing it.
There had been no arguing over who got more or less, and no quarreling over supporting the old, it was the most straightforward of all. If only other families’ splits could be as harmonious as this. Thinking of it, the village head couldn’t help sighing.
With everything settled, the village head and the clan elders were ready to leave, and Grandmother Yan quickly called them back to eat something at the house, with the business of the split having put them to trouble, it wouldn’t do not to give them a meal.
The clan head could see Grandmother Yan meant it sincerely, and he wasn’t one to stand on ceremony, so he agreed straight away. The village head had been about to say something, but seeing they had all sat down he could only sit down with them.
Before long the Yan family’s two daughters-in-law brought the food out. For a farm household this counted as good: there was a dish of chives and eggs, and a few slices of cured pork stewed with cabbage, a saucer of pickles, two-flour sorghum steamed buns, and there was even a pot of wine warmed. The clan elders’ eyes went straight at the sight of it. You had to know that at home they only got a meal like this at New Year, it seemed the Yan family really had gone all out.
Grandmother Yan had her two sons keep the men company for a couple of cups. You had to know wine was a good thing, ordinary farm households grudged buying it, since it wasted grain, and now that they could drink some the clan head and the others were all very pleased.
The meal took till the start of the hai hour, and the sky was dark. Grandmother Yan had her grandsons see the men home, in case the drink had left them unsteady and they fell.
The next day the village heard that the Yan family had split, and everywhere people said the two brothers were unfilial: their father had only just died and they were in such a hurry to split the household, one look and you knew they didn’t want to support the old woman.
There were also people who said the two Yan brothers must have wanted to split long ago, the other time you could hear them quarreling across the yard, and it had almost come to blows. This was the wife of Yan An next door to the Yan house, a relative already outside the five degrees.
The village talked about it busily for two days, and not one of the Yan family came out to speak. They went on doing whatever they had to do. It was all guesswork to begin with, and with nobody taking it up it gradually passed.
The days went by one after another, and on the day of Duanwu Grandmother Yan called the whole family to her and said, “Second son, we said before that you’d move out when the weather got warm. Today is Duanwu, and after today go and find the village head and get the house plot approved. Putting up a mud-brick house won’t cost much, and the family will all lend you a hand. From now on your life is your own to live.”
Everyone was very quiet over dinner that day. Although they had already split the household, they were still eating out of one pot, and now it really had come to the time to part. Once the house plot was there, putting up a mud-brick house wouldn’t take two months, and then they really would be two families.
The next day Yan Xi’s father went out very early, carrying a box of pastries and some brown sugar, and went to the village head’s house.
Seeing what Yan Xi’s father had in his hands the village head knew what he had come for, and without wasting words he said, “There aren’t many house plots left in our village now, and the places near your old house are none of them big. If you want somewhere bigger, there are a few patches of wasteland over at the back hill, you could open them up yourselves and then report it to the government office.”
Yan Xi’s father thought it over and said, “That will do, we’ll choose the back hill. Building small now would be enough to live in, but in a few years the grandsons will be grown and a new house will have to be built anyway, so better to build big in one go and save the trouble later.”
Yan Fusheng said, “You won’t lose by choosing the back hill. Although there are no households there now, there are always going to be more splits in the village. A lot of people see that your split went well and want to split too. The clan head and I have been to several houses already. Choosing first you certainly won’t lose out, it won’t be long before someone else chooses the back hill too, and then it won’t be a matter of choosing however they like.”
He stayed at the village head’s house an hour, and when the matter had been talked over he declined the village head’s wife’s offer of a meal and hurried home to tell the family where the house plot would be.
Grandmother Yan said, “The back hill isn’t bad either. There’s plenty of room there, and Fusheng says more people will go there later, so after you’ve eaten go and pick a suitable patch first, and tomorrow go to the government office and register the place.”
“Yes, Mom.”
After the midday meal the two brothers went with the village head to the back hill, and in the end they talked it over and chose a spot at the foot of the hill a little way from the back hill. Although it was called the foot of the hill, the ground wasn’t low, or the rain would certainly pool there, which in the long run wasn’t safe. The wasteland was overgrown with weeds and had a lot of broken stone in it, and it would have to be cleared before the foundations could be laid, the suitable stones would be kept for building the house.
The house plot as finally approved came to nearly a mu. Don’t be fooled by that mu of land being no small thing: there were a lot of people in the family, and setting aside two fen of vegetable plot and walling in a yard, there wasn’t much space left to build on. Besides where the people lived there had to be a place for the animals, and reckoning it all up, being able to build 250 square meters of living space would be doing well.
With the place chosen the village head went back first, and the two brothers went home and called people to come and clear the weeds and level the broken stone, working until the end of the xu hour before it was more or less done. All that remained was to wait for the registration and then find people to start digging the foundations.
At that time getting people to help in the village cost nothing. They were all from the same village, and later when something came up in their house you would have to go and help too. You only had to feed them one midday meal, and good or not, you had to fill them up.
When the family got home Grandmother Yan already had the food ready, a saucer of pickled vegetables, wild greens porridge, and a basin of black-flour buns, and the family ate their fill.
At first light Yan Xi’s father took the money and got to the village head’s house early, and then he and the village head drove the ox cart to the county office. Even so, when they reached the county office it was only the start of the wu hour, and when they arrived the registrar had just gone off duty, with only a few petty clerks on duty.
There was nothing for it, the two of them could only find somewhere to rest first, and took out the dry food they had brought from home and made a rough meal of it.
At about the middle of the wei hour the two of them went to the county office and gave the clerk at the gate ten wen to pass word for them.
After a while the clerk came back and led the two of them twisting and turning to where the registrar had his office, and then withdrew.
“What business brings you two to the county office?” the registrar asked in a low voice.
“Reporting to your honor, this humble one is Yan Fusheng, the village head of Yanjia Village, come to register the building of a house plot.” So saying he gave Yan Xi’s father a look, and seeing it Yan Xi’s father quickly took two mace of loose silver from his pocket and handed it to the registrar.
Registrar Qian saw the two of them were so obliging and didn’t intend to make things difficult for them. He took the money and called in a clerk, and had the two clerks go back to the village with them, and after the measuring was done to come back and register it. At this point the matter counted as done, and both of them let out a breath.
“If there’s nothing else, you may withdraw!” Registrar Qian sent them off, and himself went on going through his documents.
By the time the two of them had brought the clerks back to Yanjia Village it was the middle of the you hour and the light was fading, and at that hour it wasn’t convenient to go on to the back hill, so they took the two of them to the village head’s house, with the village head and Yan Xi’s father to keep them company.
Yan Xi’s father even went home and brought over the wine left from the other time, and all four of them drank happily, and the two clerks even promised to be a little generous in the measuring.