Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Give her a little something extra?" Zhou Rui curled his lip. "If you give her a little something extra, will your mother take Yan'er back and then go to work in the pigsty at the team's farm?"

"Pay more attention? You know you and your older brother don't get along, yet you still leave Yan'er with your sister-in-law?"

Zhao Dazhu staggered back half a step after being asked the question, his neck turning purplish-red, and it took him a long time to choke out a sentence.

"Let's go inside and talk," Zhou Rui sighed.

Those were Zhao Dazhu's parents; he couldn't say too much more.

Zhao Dazhu followed Zhou Rui inside, while Wang Xinghua turned her face away, not wanting to look at him even once.

Little Yan'er climbed up from the kang (a heated brick bed) and stretched out her hands to Zhao Dazhu: "Dad, hug me."

Zhao Dazhu immediately shamelessly walked over and picked up Xiao Yan'er, saying, "Hey, she's really my daughter. Give me a kiss, muah!"

"What biological daughter? Didn't your sister-in-law say she was a money-losing brat?"

Zhao Dazhu's smile froze abruptly, his hands holding Xiao Yan'er stopped in mid-air, and his lips, which had just kissed the child, opened but couldn't utter a word of rebuttal for a long time.

He held Xiao Yan'er in his arms, her little hand still clutching half a steamed egg that she hadn't finished eating, the yolk smeared onto his stubble-covered chin.

"Don't glare at me like that, I didn't make that up."

Wang Xinghua shifted closer to the kang (a heated brick bed), leaned her back against the wall, and spoke in a voice filled with the smell of alcohol mixed with the anger she had suppressed all day, directly hitting Zhao Dazhu in the face.

"When I went to the old house today, Luo Sujuan stood with her hands on her hips by the stove and said that it was a waste of money to eat eggs, and that it was more proper to save them for the Zhao family's grandson to nourish his body."

"So, my daughter isn't part of the Zhao family? Only his son has the Zhao surname."

"She's really scheming, using my daughter's food rations to feed her son."

As soon as Wang Xinghua finished speaking, An'an jumped up with a loud yelp, waving her little hand high in the air.

"I'm a little girl too, but I'm not a money-loser. Every time my second brother goes hunting and earns money, he buys me candy."

Little Rice Cake, still chewing on the fish he hadn't swallowed, shouted, "Candy! Eat fish!"

The two children sang in unison, making Zhao Dazhu so angry he wanted to disappear into the ground, his head almost touching his chest.

Zhao Dazhu lowered his head and rubbed Xiao Yan'er's soft head, his voice soft and hoarse.

"Yan'er, tell your father, did Grandma and Auntie not give you a hot steamed bun today?"

Little Goose nodded as if she understood, pointed to her little belly with her tiny finger, and mumbled, "Hungry, the sweet potato is cold."

These words were like a fine needle, piercing Zhao Dazhu's heart.

He spent the whole day carrying grain in the team.

I thought that with my parents' promise to help take care of the child, my wife and I could work hard and earn work points. I never expected that our daughter would suffer such a great injustice.

He recalled seeing his eldest nephew sitting on the doorstep eating eggs when he returned to the old house in the evening.

I casually asked him about it at the time, and his older brother said it was given by his sister-in-law's family. He didn't even think about his own daughter.

Zhao Dazhu's voice carried a hint of guilt: "Tomorrow I'll go back to the old house and clear things up about those two eggs, and have Luo Sujuan apologize to you and Yan'er."

From now on... from now on, every day when we go to work, we'll send Yan'er to Ruiwa's place, and we'll never leave her with her parents again.

Wang Xinghua looked up at him for a long time, her eyes reddening again: "Zhao Dazhu, I'm not trying to cause trouble for your parents."

"But Xiaoyan'er is also your own daughter. Why can't she even get a hot meal in her own old house?"

"In the years since we got married, I've worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk to take care of the elderly and the young, without a single complaint."

"Your older brother disliked that we were occupying the old house, so I moved out with you and lived on my own."

"I've said it before, I'm not afraid of hardship or doing more work in the fields, but I'm afraid that if my children stay with us, they won't even get a warm breath."

Wang Xinghua's voice trembled, and she gently wiped the corner of her eye with her fingertips, swallowing back the grievances that were about to come out.

"You told me before that my parents are getting old and I should be more considerate of my older brother and sister-in-law, and I tolerated it."

"But when I went to pick up Yan'er today, I saw her huddled behind the kitchen doorway eating sweet potatoes, and my heart ached so much."

"I know, I know."

Zhao Dazhu nodded hurriedly, picked up Xiao Yan'er and moved closer to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed). He reached out to take Wang Xinghua's hand, but she shook him off.

Lin Qiuyue smiled and moved aside, making room for Zhao Dazhu on the edge of the kang (heated brick bed): "Alright, sit down and talk."

"The food is still warm. Let's add another pair of chopsticks and have a couple of drinks together."

"A couple shouldn't hold grudges overnight. Don't bring the unpleasant things from the old house back to your own little home and make yourself angry. It's not worth it."

Zhou Rui then handed over a bowl of warm white wine: "Brother Dazhu, you know your father has been biased for most of his life."

"Now your sister-in-law is bringing her family's old ways back to the old house, saying that once a daughter grows up, she becomes an outsider. Life there is becoming more and more chaotic."

"Don't go there too often in the future. Just stay home and live your life with Xinghua and Xiaoyan. That's better than anything else."

"I know," Zhao Dazhu nodded.

"When we were little, my brother and I had a pretty good relationship. When my dad bought him some snacks, he would share a little with me."

"After marrying Luo Sujuan, things changed. She's always wary of me."

"Later, after he had a son, he used the excuse of not having enough housing to separate me from the family."

As Zhao Dazhu finished speaking, he picked up the wine bowl and took a big gulp, the wine dripping down his chin and onto his patched coarse cloth jacket.

"On the day the family was divided, I didn't fight for anything. They got to choose all the grain and cloth coupons first. In the end, I only got a bag of cornmeal and an old quilt with three or four patches."

"At the time, I thought, we're brothers, so it's okay to suffer a little loss. Anyway, Xinghua and I are young and strong. We can earn back everything by digging in the fields for two years."

"You're generous, but they don't appreciate it." Zhou Rui pushed a plate of pickled radishes towards him.

"The more you give in, the more Luo Sujuan thinks you're easy to bully. Today she dares to take away Yan'er's eggs, tomorrow she'll dare to secretly move the half-bag of grain you left at the old house to her own room."

Zhao Dazhu's face turned bright red: "I used to always cherish the friendship we had when we were kids, but now I realize how foolish I was."

Luo Sujuan doesn't treat me like a brother, so why should I treat her like a sister-in-law?

"Tomorrow I'm going there, not only to get back Yan'er's eggs and food rations, but also to bring up the thirty catties of grain coupons my father secretly gave to my eldest brother when we divided the family property."

"Don't be impulsive." Zhou Rui picked up a piece of hot food with his chopsticks and put it into his bowl.

"Let's clarify Yan'er's matter first, and we can deal with other things later."

"If you go up there and bring up old grievances, your mother will definitely cry on the spot and say that you are unfilial. Then all the neighbors will gather around to watch, and even if you are right, you will be wrong."

Zhao Dazhu was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and took a bite of the food in his bowl before realizing that he had almost lost his temper again.

He looked up at the kang (a heated brick bed). Little Yan'er and Little Niangao, having filled their bellies, had snuggled together and fallen asleep sometime earlier.

Their little faces were pressed together, and even their breathing was even.

An'an held a worn palm-leaf fan and sat quietly beside them, her little arms rising and falling.

The breeze from the fan was gentle and soothing, neither too hot nor too cold, and it dissipated most of the tension that had filled the room.