"...Let me go! I want to go home!"
Zhou Zhijun held her tightly in his arms, refusing to let go. His hoarse, deep voice lingered by her ear, "I won't!"
When Zhou Zhijun was building the wall outside, the men would tell dirty jokes while working.
Someone mentioned a rough, widowed man in his village who had finally managed to buy a wife from out of town and doted on her endlessly.
Zhou Zhijun had scoffed at the idea.
But later, when he saw Chuntao, he fell for her at first sight, and only then did he realize that what the man said was probably true.
"Don't. I came out to look for a chicken. I can't go back too late..."
"Be good!"
Zhou Zhijun wrapped her in a quilt, bypassed the river dam in front of the village, and strode toward the back of the village.
He was like a freshly fueled tractor—even if the tank wasn't completely full, he had an endless supply of energy coursing through his body.
At some point, the moon had hidden behind thick clouds, leaving the surroundings pitch black with nothing in sight.
When they were almost at the Wang family courtyard, Zhou Zhijun took off his shoes, walked stealthily to the door of the main room, and slowly set her down.
Chuntao slowly pushed the door open and leaned against the wall as she shuffled toward Wang Xiaohong's room. With every step she took, her legs felt so weak and jelly-like that she was on the verge of collapsing.
Despite her utter exhaustion, she felt no sleepiness at all.
For the sake of her elderly grandmother and her cross-eyed brother, she had no choice but to endure.
Your brother's eyes were injured because of you. You can't be heartless. You must accept God's arrangement and live your life dutifully.
Her fingertips dug into the coarse cotton bedsheets until the pads of her fingers ached, and only then did she drift into a hazy sleep.
Early the next morning, she was woken up by Wang Xiaohong. "Sister-in-law, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Having been in the Wang family for four years, waking up before dawn had long become a habit.
Early that morning, when Wang Xiaohong returned from Zhou Hongxia's house, she didn't see any sign of Chuntao.
She thought she had gone to fetch water, but when she walked into the kitchen, the two water buckets were still there, and the carrying pole was hanging on the courtyard wall. Her heart immediately leaped into her throat.
She first ran to Wang Jieshi's room to look for her, only to see him lying in bed with red eyes, staring at the ceiling. There was no sign of Chuntao.
She hurried back to her own room and found Chuntao still fast asleep.
Her small face was flushed with an unnatural red, her eyelashes were clumped together with moisture, and teardrops still hung on her cheeks.
Thinking she had a fever, Wang Xiaohong called out to her while reaching out to feel her forehead.
Chuntao jolted awake and snapped her eyes open. Seeing that it was already broad daylight, she tried to sit up, but her body was too weak to support herself.
Wang Xiaohong quickly helped her sit up and lean against the wall at the head of the bed. "Sister-in-law, your head doesn't feel hot. Where does it hurt? I'll go get Uncle Qingjiang to take a look!"
"I'm fine," Chuntao replied in a very low, weak voice. "We lost one of our old hens. I went out last night to look for it and came back very late. I'm just a little tired."
Wang Xiaohong complained, "Why didn't you wake me up when the chicken went missing? I would have looked for it with you!"
"I searched half the night but still couldn't find it. What a pity."
There were quite a few petty thieves in the village, as well as eagles circling above, so losing a chicken wasn't unusual. Still, it broke her heart after raising it to be so big.
Wang Xiaohong comforted her, "Sister-in-law, if it's lost, it's lost. Next spring, we'll have a hen hatch a clutch of chicks and raise even more!"
Hearing the grunts of the sow and the flapping and clucking of the hens, Chuntao knew they were hungry. She struggled to get out of bed, but Wang Xiaohong held her arm down.
"Sister-in-law, sleep a little longer. I'll go feed the pigs first and call you when breakfast is ready!"
Chuntao's body was truly too weak to prop herself up, so she had no choice but to lie back down.
Wang Xiaohong had returned home to work right after finishing elementary school. Cooking, washing clothes, and feeding the pigs and cows were all a piece of cake for her.
She quickly finished feeding the pigs, scattered some sorghum for the chickens, and turned to head to the kitchen.
She lifted the lid of the water vat and saw that only a shallow layer remained at the bottom, so she grabbed the carrying pole and buckets to fetch water.
As soon as she walked out of the courtyard, she saw their neighbor to the west, Wang Chunxiao, returning with buckets of water.
Fetching water had always been Chuntao's chore, so Wang Chunxiao asked, "Xiaohong, where's your sister-in-law?"
Wang Chunxiao was known as a loudmouth. Wang Xiaohong lowered her eyes, avoiding her gaze, and gave a perfunctory reply, "My sister-in-law is in the house." With that, she carried her buckets and walked briskly toward the well at the front of the village.
There were quite a few people fetching water in the morning, gossiping as they worked. Seeing Wang Xiaohong approach, their eyes glinted with probing curiosity.
"Xiaohong, you're fetching water today?" a man asked.
"Yeah, my sister-in-law is at home cooking."
A woman sidled up to her, a mischievous glint in her eyes, and lowered her voice. "Xiaohong, let auntie ask you something. Are your sister-in-law and your brother getting along?"
Wang Xiaohong detested this kind of gossip more than anything. Ignoring her completely, she filled her buckets and walked away with them.
In truth, she had her own doubts. Her brother had been back for a few months now, but the two of them barely spoke to each other, acting like complete strangers.
When she went to sleep at Zhou Hongxia's house, Chuntao would sleep in her room, clearly showing that she still hadn't forgiven her brother.
She could understand Chuntao, but she also felt pity for her brother.
Just as Wang Xiaohong carried the water through the courtyard gate, she heard Wang Jieshi's hushed, suppressed voice coming from the main room. "Where did you go last night?"
Wang Xiaohong froze in her tracks, and her water bucket bumped into the threshold with a loud clatter. The voices in the main room abruptly stopped.
Chuntao's voice trembled. "I went... I went looking for a chicken..."
"Looking for a chicken?" Wang Jieshi's voice turned cold. "And it took you until the middle of the night?"
He pointed at the pieces of wheat straw clinging to her hair and said, "Were you looking for a chicken, or...?"
Chuntao's heart tightened, and she instinctively reached up to feel her hair, but she didn't find any wheat straw.
"...I went to the threshing floor to look for the chicken, and it accidentally got stuck on me!" She felt incredibly guilty, and even her voice was trembling.
Wang Jieshi leaned against the head of the bed, one hand tightly gripping a stick, while his other hand pressed down on Chuntao's collarbone.
"What is this?"
