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“Mom, Mom!”

“Oh, my dear daughter, you’re finally awake! Thank our ancestors! Hey, old man, old man! Yinyin¹This is a nickname for Xu Yin. is awake! What are you doing? Did you faint in there? You’ve been there for so long and you haven’t come out yet—are you smoking again in there!? When I catch you, you’re dead, I’m telling you!”

Hearing these words, Father Xu, who was indeed hiding in the toilet and smoking his pipe, hurriedly hid his pipe. He put his pants on and walked out.

Seeing his daughter, who was as beautiful as a flower, the wrinkles on Father Xu’s face deepened.

“Dad!” Xu Yin cried out.

Father Xu’s eyes crinkled because of his smile. “Ah! This is great. You’re awake!”

Xu Yin walked with her parents towards the living room. She saw her nephew sitting on a small stool under the eaves, holding his dandelion dumplings still. Xu Yin smiled and waved at him, saying “Come here, Doudou. Let’s wash our hands and eat.”

Little Douding²This is a nickname for Doudou., who was three and a half years old, timidly looked at his aunt.

When he heard what she said, he sniffled the snot that had come out of his nose. He shuffled his little butt and the stool towards the corner, too scared to come closer.

He was very afraid of his aunt.

Often, she would smile in one moment and be pinching his arm and scolding him for being a dirty leech in the next. 

Mother Xu was still immersed in the joy of her daughter waking up, so she was in a particularly good mood. 

Moreover, he was her only grandson. When her daughter-in-law was not around to annoy her, she could still show her grandson a lot of affection.

“Listen to your aunt. Wash your hands and eat,” she said.

Little Douding then got on his legs and obediently ran into the house to wash his hands.

Xu Yin saw how thin his arms were and how short his legs were. He could barely reach the washbasin and had to tiptoe to wash his hands a couple of times.

She was worried that he couldn’t wash his hands cleanly, and wanted to help. However, when she saw the frightened look on his face, she gave up.

Oh, well. Rome wasn’t built in a day, either. She’d take her time.

In any case, she couldn’t let her nephew lose his mother at such a young age and eventually be spoiled rotten by his stepmother only so he could become an example to his younger step-siblings.

Over on the dinner table, Mother Xu was swiftly scooping the rice porridge, into three big bowls and one smaller one, and placing them on the table.  

Xu Yin felt a bit speechless. She looked through the kitchen window to the backyard, and said, “Mom, what about Sister-in-law?”

“She’ll come eat when she’s done whatever she’s doing right now.”

“…”

This was indeed how Mother Xu’s mind had always worked. 

Not only that, she nearly emptied the pot of porridge.

The three large bowls were filled to the brim, leaving only a thin layer of porridge at the bottom of the pot.

Xu Yin: …

Was she feeding an ox or something? 

Xu Yin hurriedly stopped her. “Mom, I can’t finish such a full bowl. I’ll call Sister-in-law so she can share it with me now. After eating, I want to ask her for help with some work.”

“What help? If there’s any work for your sister-in-law to do, it’s only right for her to do it! Just leave it there. When she’s done chopping wood, I’ll talk to her. If she dares not to do it, I’ll skin her alive!”

“But I’m in a hurry! I have to go back to school tomorrow and my pants have holes in them. They are my only pair for school.”

Mother Xu was unhappy to hear this. “You’ve just got better from your illness. Why not take a few more days off before going back to school?”

“I’ve already missed two days.”

During the cropping season break last week, the original host and a few of her classmates who came from the same village as her, had gone home together.

Though, of course, it wasn’t like the original host could work in the field. At most, she could help by boiling water and delivering food to the field. 

Whether she wanted to take care of her nephew at home depended on her mood, too. When she was in a bad mood, she would pinch and scold him.

Still, she did the little bit of work that was assigned to her, though haphazardly.

She nearly sprained her foot when she went to deliver food. While her foot was eventually fine, she hit her head on a tree.

She fainted and stayed unconscious for an entire day, but fortunately, it didn’t turn out to be a big deal. 

They had visited a doctor, though, which cost them money. Mother Xu felt sorry for her daughter and couldn’t bear to scold her, so she vented her anger on her daughter-in-law.

In the rural areas of the 70s and 80s where the norm was to favour sons over daughters, the Xu family’s unbridled indulgence of their daughter was truly rare.

Xu Yin used her skills as a designer to spout bullshit to her customers and persuaded her mother with all her might. “Mom, I only have one year left in high school. I have to work hard so that I can attend a good university. Firstly, to make you and Dad proud, and secondly, because the best universities are in big cities, and of course the best ones are in the capital. I want to take you and Dad to the capital to climb the Great Wall and see Tiananmen Square!”

Mother Xu was immediately won over by her daughter’s words. She couldn’t stop smiling. 

Even though Xu Yin’s bowl already had the most porridge, she scooped out some of her porridge and gave it to Xu Yin. “Eat more! You fainted because you didn’t eat enough, you little glutton.”

“…”

In a rural household, no rule required its members to sit at the table to eat. 

After adding a few pickles to his porridge, he took his big bowl and squatted at the entrance of the courtyard. He looked at the field in the distance while he ate.

Mother Xu also walked around and went towards the chicken coop while she ate.

She checked how many eggs they could harvest today and whether the chickens were well.

She occasionally sprinkled some porridge as a treat for the chickens.

Little Douding also wanted to slip off the table, but he was a bit afraid of Xu Yin.

However, since his hands were too small to hold his bowl, he had to sit on the edge of his chair and lean against the table. He secretly glanced at Xu Yin before taking two bites of his porridge. 

Xu Yin couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. She got up to add half a salted duck egg yolk to his bowl. “Here, eat it. Save the other half for your mom.”

Without waiting for her nephew’s reaction, she went to the backyard to call her sister-in-law to eat.

“Sis, Mom said we have enough firewood. You should eat first and then help me mend my pants. I need to wear them to school tomorrow.”

If Xu Yin had only said her first sentence, her sister-in-law might not have stopped to listen. 

However, as soon as she heard that Xu Yin needed help fixing her clothes for school tomorrow, she exclaimed ‘Oh!’ and quickly put down her hatchet.

She piled up the firewood that she had chopped into the firewood basket, then washed her hands and went to the kitchen.

She thought it would be the same as usual—that there’d be just a little bit of porridge left on the bottom of the pot. The porridge was always either too little without adding water or too watery, and every day, she couldn’t make it until noon without feeling hungry.

Unexpectedly, this time she was left with a bowl of thick porridge, so full that it was about to overflow, and with the addition of half a salted duck egg on the table.

“Mom, eat it! It’s from Auntie.”

Seeing that his aunt wasn’t around, Little Douding became a lot bolder.

His mom’s eyes grew a little hot.

She had been married to the Xu family for four years. This seemed to be the friendliest that her sister-in-law had treated her, and it was also the fullest breakfast that she’d ever eaten.

She finished without needing to be prompted. Then, she quickly washed the dishes and cleaned the stove. She pushed the chairs against the wall, swept the floor, then went back to her room and changed into a clean outfit before coming to her sister-in-law’s room.

“Yinyin, where are the pants you need to repair? Shall I take them to my room and fix them there?”

She looked at the clean and tidy bedroom, with its neatly folded sheets and spotless floor, and fidgeted with her rough hands.

“No, Sis, just mend it here in my room. It’s brighter here. Come in, Doudou.”

Xu Yin beckoned to the mother and son.

Her room was the west-facing room. Before her brother married, the room had been split into two, for her and her brother. However, after he got married, the partition was opened and the room was entirely for her to use.

The layout of the room was the same as the old couple’s, the main bedroom, with windows on its three sides. The room was very bright.

On the other hand, the room of her older brother and his wife was an addition built before their marriage.

Although it was larger, the foundation was not as high as the main house.

It also only had windows on its east and west sides, making it relatively dim.

Moreover, the original owner liked to decorate. She had curtains made of simple tie-dyed cloth. The red paint on the lattice window edges was newly painted by Father Xu. The dressing mirror, writing desk, and chest of drawers were also new additions made in recent years. 

Although the wood was old, they were painted with new paint and looked no different from new ones. 

With such decorations, the room looked even brighter.