The old woman glanced at Cong Yingzi standing behind him, then looked at Xia Mingyuan. Her voice was weak and listless, carrying an indescribable weariness.
“Mingyuan, I’m not blaming Yingzi… I’m just afraid of her mother. She stole money today—what will she do tomorrow? And the day after that? Yingzi is softhearted and can’t tell right from wrong…”
After saying this, the old woman turned her head away and closed her eyes, refusing to look at him again.
“Grandma… I…” Seeing how frail she looked, Xia Mingyuan swallowed the rest of his words. He knew this was not the time to discuss any of that.
Behind him, Cong Yingzi bit her lower lip so hard that it nearly turned white, her eyes rimmed with red. She wanted to step forward and say something, but Dong Feng gently tugged her arm and led her out of the room.
Xiao Mandong pulled out the silver needles one by one. Taking advantage of the cloth pouch concealing her movements, she retrieved a pill from her space and handed it to Xia Mingyuan.
“Take it in four doses, once a day. I still have things to do, so I’ll be leaving.”
With that, she turned and walked away. The Xia family clearly had matters to discuss, and it would be awkward for her to keep standing there.
“Wait!”
Xia Mingyuan called out to Xiao Mandong. He hurriedly reached into his pocket for money, but after fumbling around for quite a while, he managed to produce only a little over five yuan. He stuffed it all into her hand.
“Thank you. I know this isn’t nearly enough. Don’t worry—I’ll find a way to pay you back in the future.”
He understood that without this woman, his grandmother would most likely have been in grave danger. But he truly had no money at the moment, and could only lower his head in embarrassment.
Only then did Xiao Mandong remember why she had come today. She glanced out through the window toward the courtyard, but saw no sign of Dong Feng. She returned the money to Xia Mingyuan and took out the coupons that were about to expire.
“You don’t need to pay me. I have some coupons here that are about to expire. Can you help me sell them at a low price? I also need to buy some coal briquettes. Any amount will do.”
The medical fee wasn’t much to begin with. It would be better to owe her a favor instead. People who dealt on the black market usually had a few connections. If she ever needed their help someday, she would at least have someone to turn to.
Xia Mingyuan was astonished when he saw the thick stack of coupons in his hands. Even if they were close to expiring, he had never seen so many coupons before. But he wasn’t a talkative man and did not ask any questions.
“All right, leave it to me. But how can I get in touch with you when I have the money?”
“I’ll come back in a few days to check on your grandmother. We can discuss it then.”
They were still strangers, so there was no way she could tell him where she worked or lived. Besides, she would be coming back in a couple of days to deliver the grain anyway.
Xiao Mandong gave a few more instructions about the old woman’s condition before finally leaving the Xia family’s home.
She had only just reached the corner at the end of the street when she spotted Hu Liu. He had his backside sticking up in the air, his neck hunched as he furtively watched another direction. Xiao Mandong walked over and followed his gaze. Not far away, she saw Dong Feng talking to Cong Yingzi.
“Is that woman Xia Mingyuan’s wife?” Xiao Mandong asked curiously.
“You—you—you… Are you crazy?” Hu Liu patted his chest, trying to calm his racing heart. Lowering his voice, he gritted his teeth. “When did you get here? You woman—are you trying to scare me to death?”
At that moment, Dong Feng’s furious roar rang out from across the street:
“Cong Yingzi, do you think this is fair to Mingyuan?” Footsteps followed. Hu Liu grabbed Xiao Mandong by the sleeve of her padded coat and ducked into the alley.
Only after they had gone some distance did Hu Liu let out a breath of relief.
“Sister Yingzi really is going to get Brother Mingyuan killed,” Hu Liu muttered, shaking his head.
“Why?” Xiao Mandong caught the scent of juicy gossip.
Seeing the eager look on her face, Hu Liu became interested too.
“That one was Sister Yingzi.” He nodded toward the figure ahead, just about to disappear from view. “She’s Brother Mingyuan’s girlfriend. They grew up together, and they’ve always been very close.”
As they walked, he continued telling her the story.
Cong Yingzi and Xia Mingyuan had been neighbors and had grown up together. They could be considered childhood sweethearts. But when they were ten, Xia Mingyuan’s father and Cong Yingzi’s father went down to the river to catch fish. Xia Mingyuan’s father suddenly got a cramp in his calf and sank beneath the water. Cong Yingzi’s father went in to save him, but he never came back up either.
Both children lost their fathers that day, and two families were destroyed.
Cong Yingzi’s mother was very pretty, and her maternal relatives soon arranged another marriage for her. A year later, she remarried. On the day she left, Cong Yingzi clung to her mother’s hand, crying and begging her not to go. But her mother pried her fingers loose and left without looking back.
From then on, Cong Yingzi lived with her grandmother. Her mother never appeared again.
Out of guilt, the Xia family had supported the Cong family all these years. Even Cong Yingzi’s school fees had been earned by Xia’s mother, who made money sewing shoe soles.
The Cong grandparents were good people. They did not blame the Xia family for what had happened to their son. But when Cong Yingzi was sixteen, her grandfather and grandmother passed away one after the other, leaving her without a single relative in the world.
She went to find her remarried mother and knelt outside her door, begging to be taken in. Cong’s mother drove her away, saying, “I can barely manage my own life. How am I supposed to take care of you?”
The Xia family took her in. Xia’s mother told her, “From now on, this is your home.”
Cong Yingzi was deeply grateful to the Xia family. She was especially filial to Grandma Xia, and her relationship with Xia Mingyuan grew closer and closer. Grandma Xia, who had watched the girl grow up, was very pleased with her as well.
For several years, life went on like that. But then, two months earlier, Cong’s mother suddenly showed up. She brought along two half-grown boys—Cong Yingzi’s younger brothers through her mother—and went straight to the Xia family’s doorstep.
Grandma Xia refused to let them in, so Cong’s mother sat outside the door and wailed that her life was miserable: that her husband had been killed because of the Xia family, that her daughter refused to acknowledge her own mother, and that the Xia family wanted to gain a daughter-in-law without spending a cent. Her crying drew all the neighbors out to watch the spectacle.
Cong Yingzi did not want to see her. After being abandoned at ten and thrown out again at sixteen, that woman had long ceased to be a mother to her.
But Cong’s mother knelt before her and wept. She said that her remarriage had been forced by her own family. She said she had later refused to take Yingzi in only to protect her—that the man’s family was no good, that she had been afraid Cong Yingzi would be mistreated and taken advantage of if she entered their household. She said there had not been a single day when she had not missed her daughter...
Cong Yingzi knew she should not believe her. But she wanted a mother so badly. She begged Grandma Xia to let her mother stay for just a couple of days.
Grandma understood Cong Yingzi’s feelings and felt sorry for the girl, who had grown up without parents. She agreed to let Cong’s mother stay for two days, but who could have guessed that she would settle in and refuse to leave? After making some inquiries, they learned that the man she had recently taken up with had also drowned not long before. The villagers all cursed her as a jinx, and her in-laws had driven her out.
Cong Yingzi had no choice but to let Cong’s mother and the two boys move into the courtyard her grandmother had left behind.
Once she moved in, Cong’s mother began asking Cong Yingzi for money, expecting her to support the two boys through school.
Cong Yingzi knew all too well how hard Xia Mingyuan worked for his money. Earning money on the black market was truly a matter of risking one’s life. After thinking it over, she decided that providing them with a place to stay would at least fulfill the bond between mother and daughter.
