In the days before the New Year, Zhou Hongxia had gone on quite a few matchmaking meetings before finally meeting someone she liked.
The entire Zhou family was delighted for her. Smiles appeared more often on her parents’ faces, and even their steps seemed lighter.
Since both sides were willing, the next step was to formally arrange the engagement. But with the New Year just around the corner, they could only wait until after the holiday. After discussing it, both families agreed to hold the engagement ceremony on the sixth day of the new year.
The New Year arrived right on schedule amid the children’s eager anticipation, and before long, the sixth day had arrived.
Han Wenke had finally found a girl he liked, and Old Man Han and his wife were so delighted they could hardly keep their mouths shut.
They had started preparing the engagement feast several days earlier. On the sixth day, they specifically invited the village’s best cook to prepare the dishes.
The engagement gifts had also been prepared well in advance. There was a large chest with a red double-happiness character pasted on the top.
Inside were two jin of bright red wool yarn and four bolts of cloth—one for each season: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
There were also towels, toothpaste, toothbrushes, face cream, a scarf, shoes, socks, and other items.
At the bottom of the chest lay a neat stack of ten-yuan bills wrapped in a red handkerchief—a full five hundred yuan.
In those days, rural engagement gifts usually amounted to only two or three hundred yuan. Han’s family was offering five hundred, which showed just how highly they valued the match.
Zhou Zhiguo and his wife felt that as long as the two children truly wished to be together, the amount of the betrothal gifts did not matter. They left it entirely up to Han’s family.
The Han family was straightforward as well. They valued the marriage and were very satisfied with Hongxia as their future daughter-in-law. They felt that raising a daughter was no easy thing.
Since the other family was so generous and undemanding, they could not afford to be stingy themselves. Otherwise, they would feel they had wronged them.
With both families being sincere and honest people, everything naturally went smoothly.
According to local custom, the girl’s uncles, aunts, and maternal aunts all had to attend the engagement ceremony.
The Han family prepared two large banquet tables and even readied red envelopes for every relative.
Wang Haiying had told Zhou Zhimin and Huang Meili in advance that Hongxia would be getting engaged on the sixth day and asked them to come along.
Huang Meili had once been jealous only of Chuntao, but now she was jealous of the entire Zhou Zhiguo family. She did not give Wang Haiying a pleasant response, speaking instead with barbs in her words.
“I’m not good with words. If I really go, I’ll only embarrass the rest of the Zhou family!”
Wang Haiying knew that she was feeling resentful, but she still patiently tried to persuade her. “You’re her aunt. You don’t need to say much. Just go over there to give your niece some courage and show that she has family backing her. That’s all.”
“I’m an aunt nobody likes. Hongxia has more than one aunt anyway!”
“Technically, both you and the other aunt should go. But the weather’s so cold, and Chuntao has two children to look after, so it isn’t convenient for her to go out. You’re the elder aunt. We’ll still need you to hold up appearances…”
Wang Haiying tried to persuade her for a long time, but Huang Meili refused to give in.
Zhou Zhimin had been listening nearby. He wore an expression of reason and concern for the bigger picture and said, “Hongxia’s engagement is a major event in her life. As her uncle and aunt, we must be there.
“If we don’t go, outsiders will say that the Zhou family doesn’t understand proper etiquette and isn’t united.”
Then he turned to Wang Haiying and spoke in an open, hearty tone. “Sister-in-law, don’t worry. Meili and I will definitely go that day. We won’t delay Hongxia’s business.”
Zhou Zhimin was a calculating man, and he had to keep up appearances.
He was afraid that people would find something to gossip about and say that he was a stingy, coldhearted uncle who could not even be bothered to attend his niece’s engagement.
If Hongxia married well in the future, her family might resent him. He would not receive even the slightest benefit and would instead earn himself a bad reputation. What would be the point of that?
For the next several days, Zhou Zhimin kept urging Huang Meili. He came out with one argument after another.
“If we don’t go, it won’t just make the elder brother’s family look bad. We’ll also lose face in the village and be looked down on.”
Huang Meili immediately shot back, “The elder brother’s family has one person in the army and another working in the oil field. Now they’re even getting a station manager as a son-in-law. They’ve already had more than enough chance to show off. How could they possibly lose face?
“Our family has nothing. If we go, we’ll only embarrass ourselves.
“That girl Zhou Hongxia doesn’t even treat you like an uncle or me like an aunt. Why should I go and put on a show for her?”
“She’s your junior. Why are you holding a grudge against her? When you deal with people, you have to look ahead instead of focusing only on the grudges right in front of you…”
He nearly wore out his tongue, but Huang Meili still refused to agree.
In the end, it was a single sentence from Zhou Xiaomei that changed her mind.
“Ma, why aren’t you going? You’ll get to eat a feast, and they’re giving out red envelopes too! If our whole family goes, we can collect several of them!”
Huang Meili had completely forgotten about that. Once Zhou Xiaomei reminded her, she immediately changed her mind. After all, one should never pass up a bargain.
“Fine. I won’t stoop to arguing with them. I’ll go put on a show for that ungrateful girl, so no one will look down on her when she goes to her husband’s family!”
On the sixth day, Zhou Zhimin and his wife, along with Hongxia’s two maternal aunts, went to the Han family’s home.
Zhou Zhijun usually did not like joining this sort of merriment, but this was his own niece’s engagement. Chuntao had to stay home with the children, so as her uncle, he had to attend.
Zhou Xiaoying and her sisters clamored to go along to eat the feast, but Zhou Zhimin did not let a single one of them go.
The children did not understand proper etiquette. If they caused a scene in front of the relatives, it would be his face that suffered.
Because of that, Huang Meili went home and berated him for several more days.
Now that Zhou Hongxia and Han Wenke were engaged, both of them were old enough to marry, and the next step was to discuss the wedding.
But standing in their way was a very practical problem: they lived and worked in different places.
Zhou Hongxia traveled everywhere with the drilling crew and had no permanent place to live. If they married, they would inevitably have to live apart.
That might be manageable for a short time, but in the long run, their life together would never be stable.
Hongxia had mentioned this problem on the day they met, explaining that her work was unstable and that she had to travel from place to place with the drilling crew.
At the time, Han Wenke had simply said, “It’s fine. I’ll go see you whenever I have time, and you can come home when you’re free.”
Hongxia had not thought too deeply about it then. But now that they were engaged, she was truly beginning to worry.
On the eighth day of the new year, Zhou Hongxia returned to the oil field for work, and Han Wenke rode his bicycle to see her off.
Along the way, Hongxia turned the matter over and over in her mind, but she never found the courage to bring it up.
Han Wenke understood the problem as well. Living apart for years after marriage was ultimately not a long-term solution. But he had not brought it up lightly either.
The New Year was now completely over. Those who needed to work returned to work, and those who needed to study returned to school.
The farmers also began plowing the fields and digging furrows as they busied themselves with preparations for spring planting.
Zhou Zhijun had to take care of both the farmwork and the fish pond by the river.
The pond already had water in it, so there was no need to pump in more. He first repaired and tamped down the loosened and collapsed sections of the embankment, then plugged the gaps where water was leaking. At the inlet, he tied up a mesh screen to keep out wild fish and other debris.
Next, he roughly cleared away the weeds in the water, disinfected the entire pond with quicklime, and then scattered well-fermented livestock manure to enrich the water.
He rose early and worked late every day, remaining busy until the Qingming Festival, when he finally finished all the preparations for stocking the pond with fish fry.
Fish farming was meticulous work, and there was even less room for carelessness after the fry had been released.
Zhou Zhijun stayed by the pond all day. Chuntao brought him nearly all three meals.
At night, he slept in a small hut beside the pond to keep watch. Although the two of them were not far apart, they had to sleep separately, and neither of them felt entirely at ease.
The twins were already more than a year old, and the weather was gradually warming up.
To make it possible for Chuntao to go to the pond and stay with Zhou Zhijun, Aunt Zhou suggested that they wean the twins.
Zhou Zhijun immediately agreed. “They should’ve been weaned long ago. If they keep nursing like this, it’ll wear the adults down.”
He had only meant that he was worried about Chuntao, afraid that nursing for so long would wear her down. But Chuntao misunderstood him, thinking that he was the one who could no longer endure it. Her cheeks flushed at once, and she lowered her head, too embarrassed to say anything.
The two babies clung to their mother all day long, making it impossible to wean them. The only solution was for them to sleep separately from her.
Aunt Zhou couldn’t manage both children by herself, so she had Nuannuan stay with Wang Haiying for a few nights.
With neither child at her side, Zhou Zhijun urged Chuntao to move into the little house by the riverbank.
Chuntao was still a little bashful. “I’m not going. Once the babies are weaned, I’ll bring them and move over with you.”
“Don’t you miss me? Once the babies are weaned, there won’t be anyone around to disturb us. I want to be close to you…”
Spring had arrived, bringing new life and energy everywhere.
It wasn’t just Zhou Zhijun—Chuntao’s heart had softened too. Unable to resist his teasing coaxing, she finally nodded.
The moment they left the village, Zhou Zhijun bent down, scooped her up into his arms, and hurried toward the two little houses beside the riverbank.
All the longing and regret he had accumulated during this time—he intended to make up for it all tonight.
