Going Home
She still prefers the kind from her hometown: plenty of lamb, bright red chili oil, a symbolic sprinkle of cilantro or chopped scallions on top, and large chunks of flatbread torn into the bowl.
The flatbread soaks up the broth, and taking a bite of meat followed by a bite of bread—the flavor is truly unbeatable! Then, when she finishes every last drop of the lamb broth, she feels full of energy for the rest of the day!
Although she isn’t used to the style of stewed flatbread in Xi’an, this version still tastes quite good, and Li Lanlan eats every last bite.
Born in the 1970s, she had witnessed the country’s transformation from abject poverty and weakness to an era of material abundance.
Although her family was relatively well-off compared to her peers when she was a child, she had still experienced hunger. She had a natural appreciation for food—just like those homemade, water-rinsed flatbreads she used to make. They were truly awful; the children wouldn’t touch them, so she and Wang Dashan would eat them at every meal.
Later, they came up with a trick: slicing the flatbreads paper-thin and frying them as pancakes. Finally, no one turned their noses up at them, and they managed to polish them off quickly.
Unleavened flatbreads and pancakes are tasty, but unleavened flatbreads are truly awful! One bite and they’re so dense and hard, you can’t even pull your teeth out!
After finishing her meal, it was time to catch the bus. Li Lanlan packed her luggage and boarded the bus back to Ningzhou County.
Wang Dashan had gotten up very early that morning. He wasn’t going out to look for work today; instead, he and his father-in-law were tending to the fields. With final exams approaching, the eldest son had also gotten up early to study with his two cousins.
The second child was picking chives for her grandmother. She picked every last leaf—luckily, her mother-in-law’s family had plenty of vegetables to eat; otherwise, with the way this kid was picking, she’d surely have gotten a spanking.
The child’s hands were small, so she couldn’t pick much. Wang Dashan joined in, and they quickly finished picking the chives, washed them clean, and took them inside for his mother-in-law. Today they’re making chive pancakes.
After breakfast, Li Lanlan called yesterday to say she’d arrive in An City around seven or eight in the morning. That means she wouldn’t get back to Ningzhou until two or three in the afternoon at the earliest. Since his father-in-law was planning to go sell vegetables anyway, Wang Dashan decided to tag along later and lend a hand.
Once the vegetables are sold out, they’ll come back for a bite to eat, and then it’ll be just the right time to go pick up Li Lanlan.
Wang Dashan and his father-in-law loaded the vegetables onto the handcart. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. Leaving his younger son and mother-in-law at home, Wang Dashan pulled the handcart while his father-in-law pushed from behind, and they slowly made their way into town.
It took only about ten minutes to get there. It was summer, and the vegetables in the fields were growing in wave after wave. With so many factories and people in Ningzhou City, so there was no shortage of buyers!
Sales went quite fast today as well; they sold out before noon. When they returned, dinner was already ready. During the week, the children were all at school, so they usually ate around noon. Today’s meal was noodles with minced meat topping—Wang Dashan’s favorite dish made by his mother-in-law, with its smooth, chewy texture
The broth was excellent too. He was in the prime of his life and did heavy physical labor, so he could eat three large bowls in one sitting—two bowls of soup noodles and one bowl of dry noodles.
Knowing Li Lanlan was coming home today, his mother-in-law had rolled out an extra batch of noodles and set aside some of the broth.
By now, everyone had finished eating, and they’d poured Li Lanlan’s portion of broth back into the pot to keep it warm. It was nearly one o’clock, and the children still needed to nap for a while.
Wang Dashan was pulling his handcart toward Ningzhou Station!
As they neared Ningzhou City, Li Lanlan felt so sick she was about to vomit. It was already hot outside in the summer, and someone had just thrown up on the bus. Although the conductor had given her a plastic bag, the bus was moving slowly, the road conditions were poor, and the constant jolting made the ride truly miserable.
She pulled a piece of mint-flavored gum from her bag. The strong flavor cut through the nausea, and after one bite, she felt much better. The bus did have air conditioning, but it reeked of a stale, musty smell—it was absolutely awful!
Li Lanlan quietly opened her window a crack to let in a breeze. The cool air on her face made her feel a bit better, and when she turned to look around, she saw that many others were doing the same!
When the train arrived at Ningzhou Station, Li Lanlan grabbed her bag and hopped off, standing outside the baggage car and keeping a close eye on her luggage.
It wasn’t that she was overly cautious; it was just that in those days, thieves were everywhere.
In later times, many children would draw a circle around their luggage on the beach or leave it right outside a police station, and it would still be safe.
That was mainly because surveillance cameras were everywhere back then; if something went missing, they could actually track it down for you, which is why so many thieves ended up out of work.
But in this era, if you did that, they’d steal the police right along with it—they’d leave you with nothing but the clothes on your back!
After Li Lanlan grabbed her luggage and was about to turn away, she suddenly felt someone tugging at her bag. She immediately became alert, spun around, and saw it was Wang Dashan. She breathed a sigh of relief, punched him playfully, and then let him take the luggage.
She had to pee badly and hurried to find a restroom. The restrooms at the bus station charged a fee—two mao per visit. If she went a couple more times, she could buy a pack of instant noodles with that money.
By the time she came out, Wang Dashan had already loaded her luggage onto a handcart and was waiting for her right by the main entrance!
Li Lanlan was a bit thirsty, so she bought a bottle of soda. She wasn’t really hungry, though—the smell on the bus had killed her appetite. She took a couple of sips and handed it to Wang Dashan. After he finished, he put the bottle on the handcart to take it back.
“How long are you staying this time?” Wang Dashan asked as he pulled the handcart.
“Two or three days, I guess. You should come with me this time.”
“What about the kids? Your mom definitely can’t handle them all, and mine certainly won’t. The second one cries every night when he goes to sleep—I think Dad’s head is already starting to ache from the noise! She has to see me every single day now. If I come home even a little late, she starts crying, and there’s no way to calm her down. You know how it is.”
Just thinking about the second child gave Wang Dashan a headache. The kid was well-behaved and obedient, but constantly sought out their mother. If they didn’t see her, they’d cry—you can imagine what kind of life he was living day after day!
“We’ll take them with us. What else can we do? How could my mom possibly keep an eye on four kids left here? Plus the two from my second sister’s family, and the ones from my older brother’s family who often come over—we’ll just have to take them with us!”
Li Lanlan had already figured out how to handle the kids and wasn’t worried at all. Not to brag, but even though her own kids were a bit mischievous, they were actually quite well-behaved and listened to what the adults said.
“So all six of us are going? You’ve got everything sorted out?”
“Why else would I come back? Just to look the part?” Li Lanlan said, exasperated.
Wang Dashan hadn’t expected his wife to have everything arranged before leaving, but now he felt reassured.
The two walked home together. It was the hottest time of the year, and back then, most people weren’t in the habit of carrying umbrellas.
Most relied on hats and straw hats for shade. Although both were wearing the straw hats Wang Dashan had brought from home, beads of sweat still streamed down their faces.
Li Lanlan’s clothes had already become wrinkled from the car ride over the past couple of days, and now they were even more crumpled and damp, clinging to her body—it was incredibly uncomfortable!
It wasn’t until she saw the small hill leading up to their front door that Li Lanlan felt as if she’d come back to life. She gave him a gentle push from behind, and Wang Dashan pulled the luggage up the slope.
The slope wasn’t very steep—it was the kind that sloped gently upward. Halfway up the hill was the village elementary school, where she had once attended classes. Many children still went to school there, though in a few years they would be moving to the flat land nearby.
Li Lanlan didn’t linger; the couple walked home together.
Hearing Li Lanlan return, Jia Fanghua came out to take a quick look, exchanged a greeting, and went back inside to cook noodles. The fire on the stove had never gone out, so the meal was ready in no time.
Li Lanlan didn’t even change her clothes; she just ate two bowls of noodle soup. After finishing, she worked up a light sweat, and only then did she feel truly alive again!
Wang Dashan had already put away everything Li Lanlan had brought back.
It was hot outside, so after eating, they sat for a while and chatted a bit before each went off for an afternoon nap. Li Lanlan drew some hot water, wiped herself down, changed into clean clothes, and washed the ones she’d taken off.
It was hot out, so summer clothes dried very quickly.
The family still lived in a mud-brick house on the hillside—truly cool in summer and warm in winter—so Li Lanlan rested on the heated brick bed in the main room.
After sleeping for over an hour, she felt much less tired. Her mother, Jia Fanghua, was watching the two younger children in the kitchen, and was now asleep herself. Li Lanlan quietly placed the second child’s hand on the blanket beside her, freeing herself.
Ever since she’d returned, the second child had been clinging to her side. This child had always been very independent as an adult, constantly working hard away from home, and had long since lost that clingy nature she’d had as a child.
Who would have thought that the cool girl she was now had once been such a clingy little thing!
Her father and Wang Dashan had both gone out to work in the fields. It was already past four o’clock, and the heat had subsided. Although there wasn’t much heavy farm work left to do at this time of year, the fields were still planted with corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and the like.
These were all important autumn crops that needed careful tending; come harvest time, whether they were for their own consumption or to sell to grain buyers, they would bring in a good yield.
She got up to sort through the things she’d brought back. She’d bought a few new outfits for each of the children—two sets for each of her own kids, and one set each for her nephew and niece.
She bought one outfit each for her parents and Wang Dashan, plus one for her eldest sister; she didn’t buy anything for the others. She also got a box of pastries for each family—that was pretty much it.
Hardly anyone around here had ever been to Beijing, and even those who had weren’t close to her. These goods were quite a treat!
She also bought some toys based on the number of children. The wholesale market in Beijing really was cheap, so she got each of the girls a doll and each of the boys an Ultraman figure. She handed all these items over to her mother to distribute.
Of course, she didn’t forget to slip her mother some money—after all, taking care of the kids is incredibly hard work! And since they’re all still little, it’s even more of a hassle!
She’d be staying for about a week this time. Once her eldest son finished his exams, she’d head over in a day or two. In the meantime, she needed to sort out the family’s farmland. They weren’t going to farm it anymore; an acre only brought in fifty yuan a year—the rent was very low, but that was just the going rate.
Even after more than a decade, the price hadn’t gone up much; the highest it ever reached was two or three hundred yuan per acre.
Although the price wasn’t high, they still had to rent it out. Farmers can’t stand seeing land lie idle. If they left it uncultivated and didn’t rent it out, they’d be cursed to death!