Yan Sisi suddenly being called out made her pause and look over hesitantly. It was a middle-aged woman she didn’t recognize. Seeing the woman staring closely at her, she asked uncertainly, “Are you calling me?”
“Aren’t you the young woman who fell into the water here a few days ago? I thought something had happened to you.”
Yan Sisi didn’t expect that simply coming to look around would lead her to someone who had witnessed the incident that day. She immediately stepped closer and questioned the woman in detail. Only then did she piece together what had actually happened when she fell into the water.
According to Aunt Chen, she had been washing clothes by the riverbank some distance away at the time. She suddenly heard a splash, the sound of something falling into the water. Ripples spread across the surface in the distance. At first she thought it was some mischievous children throwing stones into the water. She was just about to go over and scold them when she heard another splash.
Since she had been looking in that direction the whole time, she saw a tall man jump into the water. By the time she walked along the riverbank and got closer, she saw the man who had jumped in holding up a young woman with braided hair and swimming toward the shore. Only then did she realize that someone had fallen into the water.
There happened to be another man on the shore who pulled the girl out of the water. Then that man looked around suspiciously. Just as the man who had jumped in was about to climb onto the bank, he suddenly kicked him, sending him back into the river. After that, he picked up the unconscious girl from the ground and placed her onto a nearby handcart.
At this point in her story, Aunt Chen raised her voice angrily. “I hurried after him and shouted, but that brat pushed the cart and ran faster than a rabbit. In no time he disappeared somewhere.”
“When I turned back, the young man who saved you had just climbed out of the river. We went to report it to the police together and searched around for a long time but still couldn’t find you. We thought you might have…” Aunt Chen didn’t finish the sentence. She simply squeezed Yan Sisi’s hand firmly, feeling relieved in her heart. “Fortunately, girl, you’re alright.”
“Auntie, did you see what that man looked like?” Yan Sisi asked with a trace of hope. She didn’t expect that she had really been deliberately set up, first pushed into the river, then taken away.
“Even if that brat turned into ashes I’d still recognize him,” Aunt Chen said through clenched teeth. “Someone like him should be sent straight to prison and shot. That way he won’t harm anyone else.”
Yan Sisi felt a surge of joy. If someone had clearly seen his face, then things would be much easier. As long as she could confirm whether the man who came to her house to propose marriage was the same person who had taken her away from the riverbank, there would be hope of resolving the whole matter.
With that in mind, Yan Sisi began telling Aunt Chen everything that had happened in her family recently. By the end she couldn’t help letting her voice tremble slightly as she said, “In the end they even threatened my family, saying that if we didn’t agree, they’d go outside and spread rumors about me.”
“Those heartless scoundrels! Isn’t that deliberately ruining a girl’s reputation?” Aunt Chen cursed angrily. Thinking about how her own daughter might encounter something like this outside one day made her feel even more indignant.
Fortunately, this girl had run into her. Otherwise, her reputation might truly have been destroyed. Aunt Chen anxiously grabbed Yan Sisi and started pulling her along. “Come on, I’ll go with you and see if it’s that brat.”
Yan Sisi quickly held her back and said apologetically, “Auntie, wait until I go back and find out where his family lives. Then I’ll ask you to help me take a look.”
“That works too.” Aunt Chen pointed toward a row of single-story houses on the west side of the park. “My house is over there. Once you find out where he lives, come find me right away. A girl’s reputation is the most important thing, you can’t let those scoundrels ruin it so easily.”
“My name is Chen Guihua. Just ask around over there and people will know.”
Yan Sisi chatted with the aunt for a while longer before leaving the park. With this new development, her mood improved quite a bit.
When she arrived at the seed station, she saw many burlap sacks and cloth bags placed on the shelves as soon as she entered. The shop clerk, Li Daqiang, heard the noise and glanced up. Seeing that it was just a young girl, he lowered his head again and continued reading the newspaper in his hands.
Yan Sisi walked along the shelves, looking at the seeds one by one, soybeans, corn, rice, wheat, peanuts, and many others she didn’t recognize. Inside the glass counter were also many seeds wrapped in kraft paper.
After looking around for a while, Yan Sisi asked, “Comrade, do you have vegetable or fruit seeds?”
Li Daqiang looked up at the girl in front of him. Once he confirmed she was really there to buy seeds, he stood up and asked, “Greens, tomatoes, chili peppers, sesame, spinach, cucumbers, loofah gourds, muskmelons, sweet melons, watermelons, strawberries, what kind do you want?”
“I’d like a little of each. How much do they cost?”
Li Daqiang replied, “Vegetable seeds are two cents per jin, except for tomatoes which are four cents per jin. All the melon seeds are four cents per jin. How much do you want?”
Yan Sisi quickly estimated the amount of pocket money she had. “Half a jin of each kind you mentioned.”
Li Daqiang took a balance scale and began weighing them one by one. After weighing them, he wrapped each type separately in pieces of old newspaper. Yan Sisi borrowed a pen and wrote the name of each seed on the newspaper packages.
After more than ten minutes of busy work, Yan Sisi took out her cloth coin purse, counted out eighteen cents, and handed it to the clerk. Then she left the seed station carrying a plastic bag containing eleven small packets of seeds.
The first thing Yan Sisi did when she returned home was store all the seeds she had bought in her space. She opened each packet and separated a small portion from each type, planting them one seed at a time in the soil using her mind. After planting only twenty-three seeds, she began to feel dizzy. Every time she used her mental power, her head started to ache.
Yan Sisi had no choice but to stop and rest for a while. She didn’t dare continue planting with her mind, so she planted the rest by hand, one seed at a time. It took more than an hour before she finally planted all the separated seeds in a circle around the ancient tree.
When she left the space, the clock on the wall was already pointing to ten o’clock. It was about time to cook lunch.
Yan Sisi went into the kitchen. First, she opened the stove door under the coal burner and slowly lit a new honeycomb coal briquette. When the new briquette began glowing red, she turned to the cabinet, grabbed some rice and sorghum, and mixed them together. She lowered her head and carefully picked out the small stones and rice husks from the grains, then rinsed them two or three times with water before pouring them into the iron pot.
Cold tap water slowly flowed into the pot. Yan Sisi held up one finger and gently placed it on top of the rice grains. When the water level just covered her fingernail, she turned off the tap.
Next, she used the sharp edge of a knife to carefully scrape the skins off the sweet potatoes. Before long, three sweet potatoes of different sizes were peeled clean. After washing them, she placed them on top of the rice, covered the pot with a lid, and set it onto the burning coal stove to cook.
Suddenly, Yan Sisi had a thought, what if she tried planting rice in the space?
After thinking about it for a moment, she dismissed the idea. The space was too small. If she planted rice, there wouldn’t be enough room for other plants. Besides, harvesting, drying, and husking rice would all be major problems. Doing it all by herself would exhaust her to death, not to mention that she would have to keep it hidden from her parents.
Yan Sisi hesitated for a moment about whether she should tell her parents about the space. But she was also afraid that if they found out, they might doubt her, or even become afraid of her.
“Creak—” The sound of the door opening interrupted Yan Sisi’s thoughts. She poked her head out from the kitchen. “Mom, you’re back. What did they say about Dad?”
Seeing her daughter in the kitchen, Mother Yan hurried over, speaking as she walked: “Don’t worry about making lunch, just rest properly. The factory manager said taking two months off at once is too long; the factory’s been busy lately, so it’s hard to get leave.”
“What should we do then?”
“Your dad’s arm is broken, so going there wouldn’t help anyway. The manager said we could temporarily hire someone to fill in until your dad recovers,” Mother Yan said as she grabbed a metal bucket by the cabinet and added some tap water. She placed three of the four fish she had brought into the bucket, leaving one on the cutting board.
“Mom, do you already have someone in mind? And don’t you dare give the job to Uncle’s family,” Yan Sisi warned repeatedly, afraid that her mother might let her guard down and hand the work over.
After all, Uncle’s family had taken countless things from them over the years without ever returning anything. If her dad’s work fell into their hands, it would be nearly impossible to get it back.
Mother Yan replied, “I know, don’t worry. Your dad’s manager recommended someone, and I couldn’t refuse, so I agreed.” She moved deftly, using the back of the knife to strike the fish on the cutting board. Within a few strikes, the fish that had been wriggling moments ago lay motionless.
Yan Sisi hesitated. “That person isn’t a relative of the manager, is he?”
“How did you know?” her mother said. “He’s a distant nephew of the manager.”
“He won’t take over Dad’s job, will he?”
Mother Yan cleaned and gutted the fish without looking up, replying calmly, “Impossible. The job is still under your dad’s name, and the salary will go to him. Why would he take it away?”
“What if the manager changes the name on the job to his nephew’s?”
“That won’t happen. You’re just a kid, don’t worry about it. Go back to bed and rest,” her mother said, ushering her out of the kitchen and focusing on cooking the fish soup to give the two injured family members some nutrition.
As Yan Sisi leaned against the doorframe, she remembered the aunt she had met that morning at Cuihu Park. She turned back to her mother and asked, “Mom, do you know where the family who came to propose yesterday lives?”
“Right next door at the staff housing of the furniture particleboard factory. The father’s name is Zhou Hua. Why are you asking?” her mother said, turning the spatula toward her daughter. “Did that family come again? Did they cause any trouble?”
Seeing her mother’s anxious expression, Yan Sisi quickly waved her hand. “No, they didn’t come. I’m just asking.”
After saying this, she nervously turned and walked toward her room.
She still wasn’t sure whether the person who came to propose was the same one the aunt had mentioned, so she decided not to tell her parents yet, better to handle it herself and only ask for her mother’s help if absolutely necessary.
After finishing lunch, Yan Sisi took the lunchbox to see her mother off to work. Before she even reached the hospital room door, she heard her cousin’s voice coming from inside.
She quickened her pace and saw her cousin Yan Xiangdong talking with her father. “Brother, what are you doing here?” she asked.
Yan Xiangdong, who was chatting with her second uncle, looked up, saw his cousin approaching, and immediately stood up with a smile. “Sisi! I heard Uncle got injured, so I came to check on him.”
Yan Sisi handed the lunchbox to her father, then turned to her cousin and asked cautiously, “How did you know my dad got hurt?”
Thinking she might be implying he was late, Yan Xiangdong awkwardly scratched his head. “I only heard from a friend today; otherwise, I would’ve come to see Uncle earlier.”
“From that person?”
Her father, already sitting and eating, interrupted with a smile: “He’s not a criminal, Sisi. Why so many questions?”
Yan Xiangdong laughed lightly. “It’s nothing, Uncle. Since Sisi’s here, I’ll head back now.”
Her father replied, “Alright, I won’t see you off. Once my arm heals, I’ll call your dad over for a meal.”
Now, Yan Sisi couldn’t help but feel suspicious of everyone who came. Seeing her cousin about to leave, she hurried after him. “Dad, I’ll see Brother off.”
As she walked out of the hospital with her cousin, her curiosity made her glance at him carefully, studying his appearance. Noticing her gaze, Yan Xiangdong smiled. “It’s only been a short while, but you act like you don’t recognize me.”
He then noticed the bandage on her head, frowned, and asked, “I haven’t asked yet, what happened to your head? Which little rascal hurt you? Tell me, and I’ll go give him a lesson.”
Yan Sisi withdrew her gaze, listening to his familiar concern, and replied softly, “I just bumped my head accidentally. Brother, does Uncle know Dad got hurt?”
“Probably not. I only just heard from someone myself,” Yan Xiangdong said, stopping and turning to look at his cousin. He understood what she was implying. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him. Uncle’s alone in the room, you should go back and keep him company.”
“Alright, take care on your way back, Brother.”
Yan Xiangdong watched her retreating back, only turning away once she reentered the hospital.
Once inside, Yan Sisi quietly lingered in a corner, watching him walk away. She then slowly followed him, keeping him in sight for over an hour before returning to the hospital.