Chen Qiaoyu stood in the kitchen, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
Had she just… traveled to the old house several decades in the future?
Qiaoyu instinctively looked at the spot on the stove where nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She couldn’t help but reach out and try again. But no matter how she tried, the stove remained completely still.
Qiaoyu almost wondered if she had a fever and was hallucinating.
Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly heard Chen Qingyang’s voice from the yard.
“Hey, whose firewood is this?”
Qingyang set down the firewood he’d been carrying on his back and looked curiously at the two bundles of wood in front of the west side room.
Qiaoyu glanced back at the stove, decided to try again when no one was around, and turned to go outside.
In the yard, Qingyang was unloading his firewood.
When Qiaoyu saw it, she asked, “Isn’t this what you gathered? It was here when I got back.”
Qingyang shook his head. “No, I went with Daniu and Erniu to the brick factory in Dalugou Village this morning to pick up broken bricks. I didn’t go gather firewood until four o’clock. I just got back.”
Then he remembered something, quickly set down the firewood, and reached into his pocket. “The three of us gathered a cartload and a half of broken bricks. We sold them for one yuan. I got three mao!”
Qingyang’s face glowed with the pride of saying, “Sis, I can earn money too.” He continued, “I’ll go every day! Maybe we can pay back the money for the old house before winter even comes!”
Qiaoyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Broken bricks aren’t that easy to come by. You just happened to catch them after a kiln firing, didn’t you?”
Qingyang grinned sheepishly. “Yeah. Daniu said the brick factory was opening a kiln today, so we went.”
He understood in his heart that even broken bricks—no, even bricks crushed to powder—were wanted by someone.
People used them to pave roads or fill mud pits.
He just wanted his sister to know that he could earn money too. He didn’t want her to bear all the pressure alone.
Qingyang handed over the three mao, made up of small-denomination notes. “Sis, you keep it. We’ll save up slowly.”
Seeing the money, Qiaoyu felt another pang in her heart.
She had actually saved up some money before. But she’d spent it all searching for Qingnan and Qiaoli. Now that they’d split from the family, all their possessions together—including this three mao—came to just two yuan, one jiao, and eight fen.
After a simple dinner, Qiaoyu turned in early. On her tattered little bed, she counted the money over and over, worrying.
Forget paying back the money for the house—right now, even food and drink were a struggle.
“A broken family is worth ten thousand” wasn’t just an empty saying. She could borrow Zhou Quan’s pot and kitchen knife once or twice, but she couldn’t use them every day, could she?
It wasn’t just cooking utensils. Even their rations would have to be borrowed from the brigade.
Even if Zhou Quan and Uncle Jinbao were willing to lend, Qiaoyu still had to spend money on salt and oil.
It wasn’t that she was picky. She had no choice.
Without salt, she’d have no strength.
Without oil, she couldn’t… relieve herself.
Every needle and thread cost money. And right now, she and Qingyang had nothing.
The more Qiaoyu thought about it, the more anxious she became. She pulled the ragged blanket over her face. The blanket, too short, immediately left her feet sticking out at the bottom.
This bitter life, stretching endlessly before her—where was the way out?
Wait—a way out?
Qiaoyu sat up abruptly in bed and thought of that other old house.
Maybe that was the way out.
Once the thought took root, she couldn’t sleep at all. She threw on her clothes, got up, and felt her way to the kitchen.
In the moonlight, the kitchen was utterly still. It almost looked like that other kitchen.
Chen Qiaoyu took a deep breath, placed her hand on the spot from before, closed her eyes, and waited for a miracle to happen.
However, several minutes passed. Nothing moved.
She tried again and again, until she began to doubt herself—had she lost her mind? Was she really sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night, fantasizing about traveling to the future?
Disappointed, Qiaoyu came out of the kitchen and tried to console herself. “It’s fine that nothing changed. At least I don’t have to worry about this place being strange and sucking Qingyang in someday.”
But thinking that was one thing. The disappointment still lingered.
The next day, Qiaoyu was up early again, heading to the fields.
Qingyang was too young to work the fields. He could only help with odd chores alongside other kids his age in the village.
After another exhausting day, Yu Laifu showed up in the evening.
“Uncle? Auntie? What are you doing here?”
Both Qiaoyu and Qingyang had already gone to bed. Hearing the noise, they quickly got up and opened the yard gate.
Yu Laifu carried a large sack on his back. Tu Huidong had an old bamboo basket on her arm. They set the things down in Qingyang’s room, wiped their sweat, and said, “We wanted to come yesterday.”
Aunt Tu Huidong looked around the bare, desolate old house, gulped down a whole gourd ladle of cold water, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Your uncle came back the night before last and said you’d split from the family. I knew you wouldn’t get anything good out of it.”
She looked disdainfully at the rammed-earth brick house. “This broken shack is worth thirty yuan? You’re awfully generous.”
Qiaoyu knew her aunt had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. She just smiled. “At least we have a place to sleep peacefully. The house may be run-down, but it’s big. Later, we can gather some bricks and fix it up. It won’t be worse than any other.”
Tu Huidong turned to look at Qiaoyu. She didn’t say anything, just asked, “What have you been eating these two days?”
A little embarrassed, Qiaoyu said, “Pumpkin…”
Seeing her aunt’s expression sour, she quickly added, “Aunt Jin brought us some vegetables, and pickled vegetable chunks, and duck eggs too!”
Even though those duck eggs never made it into her stomach, they’d existed nonetheless.
Qingyang also patted his belly. “I’ve been eating my fill!”
Only then did Tu Huidong’s expression soften a little, though she still wasn’t exactly cheerful.
She opened the hemp sack Yu Laifu had carried and showed Qiaoyu. “You know your uncle and I are still paying off debts from your grandparents’ medicine. We don’t have much grain at home either. This is twenty jin of coarse grains. Make them last.”
Qiaoyu started to say something, but before she could open her mouth, Tu Huidong shut her down. “Don’t be wishy-washy. If we give it, you take it. Anything else you want, your uncle and I don’t have to give.”
Qiaoyu had no choice but to stay quiet.
Among the twenty jin of coarse grains were four or five jin of cornmeal, four or five jin of rice, and the rest sweet potatoes.
Tu Huidong then took out the contents of her basket. “I knew those two black-hearted wretches wouldn’t give you anything good. Here are some needles and thread, a little bit of salt in this plastic bag, some soybean paste in that bowl…”
“Oil and sugar—we don’t have any right now. It all went to your sister Dahong. She’s about to give birth. We barely scraped together two liang of brown sugar. I don’t even know if that’ll be enough.”
As she spoke, a worried look crossed her face.
Finally, she pulled two eggs out of the basket. “Same with the eggs. We’re saving them all for Dahong’s postpartum month. These are the only two freshly laid ones. There’s nothing else.”
Qiaoyu took Qingyang’s hand, deeply grateful. She bowed deeply to Yu Laifu and Tu Huidong. “Uncle, Auntie, thank you so much.”
Tu Huidong picked up her now-empty basket and curled her lip dismissively. “Alright, alright. What’s there to thank? If you two don’t do well, it’ll be your uncle and me worrying anyway. Take care of yourselves. Just don’t cause us any more trouble.”
Qiaoyu smiled. She knew her aunt had always been like this.
Tu Huidong and Yu Laifu didn’t linger. “It’s the busy season. We have to be in the fields early tomorrow. We won’t stay. We’re heading back. We’ll talk after things settle down.”
“All right. Uncle, Auntie, be careful on the road.” Qiaoyu took Qingyang’s hand and walked them out.
Tu Huidong didn’t look back. “Alright, alright. You don’t need to tell us. Don’t see us out. Go back inside!”
After seeing off her uncle and aunt, the two siblings went back to bed. But Qiaoyu couldn’t sleep. Instead, she grew more and more awake.
The two eggs in her hand sparked an idea in her mind—could it be that traveling to the future had something to do with those two missing duck eggs?
If so… would chicken eggs work?