Auntie Gao forced down the bitterness rising in her throat. Her eyes settled on Gao Zhuangxu as she tried to keep her voice calm.
“Do you have something else to say? Then just say it.”
Gao Zhuangxu licked his dry lips, hesitating. He instinctively glanced at his wife. Doctor Fu stared at him, urging him to speak.
“Mom… I…” Gao Zhuangxu’s Adam’s apple bobbed, but he still couldn’t get the words out.
“What exactly are you trying to say?” Looking at her son, Auntie Gao understood everything. The two of them had already made their decision; they had merely come to inform her.
“No… nothing. I have to go to work. Eat your meal later.” With that, Gao Zhuangxu hurriedly stood up.
Doctor Fu could no longer stand by and watch. She stepped forward to block Gao Zhuangxu, then forced a smile.
“Mom, your injury requires plenty of rest. The children are too noisy at home, which won’t help your recovery. And since they need someone to take them to and from school, as you know, neither Zhuangxu nor I have the time. So we were thinking of having my mother come stay for a while to help with the children and cook. You know what our home is like—we simply don’t have room for so many people. Zhuangxu and I discussed it, and we thought you could go back to the old village to recuperate properly.”
Auntie Gao didn’t even look at Doctor Fu. She had nothing to say to her. Her gaze remained fixed on Gao Zhuangxu, the son she had raised all by herself through years of hardship.
Gao Zhuangxu shifted uncomfortably beneath her stare and rubbed his hands together.
“Mom… don’t worry. Once you go back, I’ll repair the house in the village and prepare plenty of firewood for you…”
Auntie Gao looked at him. Her lips trembled as she tried to speak, but the words stuck in her throat. Her chest rose and fell violently. After taking several deep breaths, she finally managed to say one word:
“All right.”
She closed her eyes and refused to look at him anymore. She had been strong her entire life, and she was afraid that one more glance would make the grievances she had buried for half a lifetime come pouring out.
Gao Zhuangxu knew he was in the wrong, and he felt miserable too. His eyes were red, but he said nothing more and turned to leave the ward.
Doctor Fu bit her lip and followed him out. Xiao Mandong trailed behind them and gently closed the door.
The ward fell silent.
Auntie Gao opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Her husband had died thirty years earlier in an explosion at the machinery plant. At the time, she had been more than seven months pregnant.
After the child was born, the factory arranged a job for her. The wages were meager, but enough to keep food on the table. Back then, many people had tried to introduce her to potential husbands, but she was afraid that a stepfather would treat her child badly. So she never remarried, raising Gao Zhuangxu alone.
After Gao Zhuangxu graduated from high school, the factory arranged for him to take over his father’s job. But Auntie Gao had been deeply traumatized by the casting workshop.
She used the money she had saved over her entire life and pulled strings to have Gao Zhuangxu transferred to the finished-goods warehouse.
Later, Gao Zhuangxu happened to meet Fu Ying and insisted on marrying her. Fu Ying had a job, and her family also had a younger brother. Her family demanded three hundred yuan in bride price without batting an eye.
Auntie Gao had just managed to secure her son’s new job and simply couldn’t come up with that much money.
Fu Ying’s family also opposed the marriage. They hoped she would find a man from a better-off family so they could demand a larger bride price. But at the time, Fu Ying was utterly devoted to Gao Zhuangxu and insisted on being with him.
So the Fu family demanded that Gao Zhuangxu marry into their household, thinking this would make him back down.
Who could have imagined that Gao Zhuangxu would agree without Auntie Gao’s knowledge? He even stole the household registration booklet from home and secretly asked his unit leader to issue him a letter of introduction. Then he went and registered the marriage.
At the time, Auntie Gao felt as if the sky had collapsed. The son she had raised through so much hardship had become a live-in son-in-law. She had no idea how she would ever face her dead husband in the afterlife.
She and her son didn’t speak for two years. Later, after his own son was born, Gao Zhuangxu brought the child to visit Auntie Gao. He knelt before her, begging for forgiveness, and promised that if they had another child, that child would carry the Gao family name.
After all, he was the son she had raised with so much effort, and now there was already a grandchild. What else could she do? She could only accept the arrangement.
Now that she had raised her grandson, she was being sent back to the old village simply because she was injured and could no longer take the children to and from school. It felt as though a heavy stone had lodged in her chest.
Auntie Gao closed her eyes and pulled the blanket over her head. The quiet sound of her sobbing came from beneath it.
Meanwhile, Xiao Mandong walked out of the hospital and glanced at her watch. The time she had arranged to meet the Brigade Leader was drawing near, so she went to wait at the entrance of the residential compound.
About ten minutes later, a tractor from Red Flag Brigade arrived, its trailer packed with firewood. The Brigade Leader and several others jumped down.
“Educated Youth Xiao, where should we unload it? The villagers heard you’d bought firewood and were worried you wouldn’t be able to chop it all by yourself, so everyone volunteered to help. They’ve already chopped the whole lot.”
Only then did Xiao Mandong take a closer look at the trailer. Sure enough, all the firewood had been chopped and neatly stacked. She thanked the Brigade Leader, registered the vehicle with the gatekeeper, and had Shunzi drive the tractor into the residential compound.
Before the tractor had even come to a stop, several neighbors came running over.
“Oh my, what’s that tractor hauling? Firewood? So much of it?”
“Good heavens, every piece has been chopped so neatly. Doctor Xiao, you’re living quite comfortably, aren’t you?”
Everyone chattered away, their eyes fixed on the firewood in the trailer. In those days, city residents bought firewood by hauling bundles on handcarts. Who had ever seen anything like this—a whole tractor-load, and all of it already chopped?
Chen Guixiang pushed her way to the front. With her large belly thrust forward, her eyes widened, and her jealousy was written plainly across her face.
“Doctor Xiao, where did you buy all this firewood? Look at how much there is—you certainly can’t use it all by yourself. We’re all neighbors, after all. How about giving us a few bundles?”
Xiao Mandong glanced at her and was just about to refuse when Shunzi spoke first.
“That won’t do. If you want some, buy it yourself. We stayed up half the night chopping this wood. Why should we give any of it to you?”
The smile vanished from Chen Guixiang’s face. She immediately darkened her expression and raised her voice.
“I’m talking to you, Doctor Xiao! How can you be so heartless? You’re hoarding an entire cartload of firewood, yet you won’t even spare your neighbors a single bundle. That’s a failure to unite with the poor and lower-middle peasants. It’s downright capitalist behavior!”
“Go ahead and report me, then. Turn left after you leave the compound, walk six intersections, and you’ll find the Revolutionary Committee on the right.”
With that, Xiao Mandong opened the rear gate.
“Uncle, please help me unload it in the backyard.”
Chen Guixiang felt as if a breath had been lodged in her chest. Her face turned livid. Gritting her back teeth, she nodded fiercely.
“Fine, fine, fine! Since you’re going to act this way, don’t blame me for making you lose face. And as for the man driving the tractor and these people unloading the firewood—they’re privately selling state supplies. That’s clearly profiteering!”
She had never expected Xiao Mandong not to be afraid of such a serious accusation. Just as she thought, she really was the daughter of a capitalist—arrogant and selfish to the bone, with not the slightest sense of collective responsibility.
The Brigade Leader cast Chen Guixiang a sidelong glance and couldn’t help sneering.
“Comrade, you should have evidence before you speak. Don’t throw accusations around carelessly. I’m the Brigade Leader of Red Flag Brigade. This firewood belongs to our collective. The commune has approved the brigade’s sale of it. Since when is it your place to interfere?”
“Got nothing better to do after stuffing yourself than meddle in other people’s business. What a piece of work,” Shunzi muttered under his breath, his face full of disdain.
