Sha Zhu's Rebirth in the Courtyard: Starting with Hitting Someone in the Head

Chapter 101 Shen Zhixia

When Ma Hua returned from gathering information at the resettlement site, he told his teacher's wife that the girl's name was Shen Zhixia, from Cao County, Shandong Province, and she was nineteen years old. The people at the resettlement site said that she had no family left and had fled the famine with several older women from her village, a journey that had taken them several months.

Lou Xiao'e took Ma Hua to the subdistrict office to complete the procedures and get Director Zhang's stamp. A day later, she led him into the courtyard.

She took Shen Zhixia's hand and led her out of the west wing, walking to the pomegranate tree. He Yuzhu was sitting on a stool reading a newspaper when he heard footsteps. He looked up and glanced over the newspaper, first seeing Xiao'e, then noticing a tall, slender girl following behind her.

She had an oval face, a high nose, and large, determined eyes. She wore a clean, long-sleeved blue shirt, an old garment that Xiao'e had found in the closet. Xiao'e was half a head shorter than her, and the shirt was a bit too short on Shen Zhixia at the cuffs, revealing a section of her slender, white wrist.

"Brother He, this is Zhixia, Shen Zhixia. She's Ma Hua's distant cousin. Her hometown suffered a disaster, so she came to Beijing to stay with relatives. I want her to stay in the west wing so she can keep the rain company." Lou Xiao'e gently pushed Shen Zhixia's hand forward.

Shen Zhixia stood in front of He Yuzhu, looked up at him, her face slightly flushed, and her lips moved as she called out, "Brother He." Her voice was soft, but her pronunciation was clear, with a slight Shandong accent.

He Yuzhu glanced at Xiao'e, Lou Xiao'e avoided his gaze for a moment, bent down to pick up He Xiao from the bamboo cart next to her, lowered her head to kiss her son, and avoided looking at him.

"Alright. The west wing room is still empty, so you can stay there for now."

In the evening, He Yuzhu cooked a few dishes as a welcome dinner for Shen Zhixia. When the dishes were served, Shen Zhixia stood by the table, not daring to sit down. Yuzhu pulled her to sit down and put a piece of braised pork in her bowl.

Shen Zhixia stared at the meat in her bowl, her chopsticks motionless for a long time. Yu Shui nudged her with her elbow, "Zhixia, eat up! My brother's braised pork is delicious."

Shen Zhixia picked up the piece of meat and took a small bite. As she chewed, tears started falling. She quickly wiped them with her sleeve, pretending not to see the rain, and then put another piece of rib on her plate.

He Xiao fell asleep that night. He Yuzhu came out of the bathroom, dried his hair, and went into the bedroom. Lou Xiao'e was already lying on the bed, her back to him, the electric fan was on, and she was covered with a blanket.

He Yuzhu threw off the blanket and lay down, reaching out to put his arm around her waist. She stiffened for a moment. The room remained quiet for a while.

"Brother He, Zhixia is the... concubine I chose for you." Lou Xiao'e's voice came from the other side of the pillow, growing softer and softer until the last few words were almost inaudible.

"My mom taught me how to choose her. You're so good to me, I'm afraid you'll feel stifled. She's grateful, beautiful, and has a good constitution. You should take care of her first, until you recover..."

He Yuzhu remained silent for a long time. He pulled her into his arms from behind, resting his chin on the top of her head. "Silly girl. Having married you, no other woman will ever catch my eye."

Lou Xiao'e's shoulders trembled slightly, and she remained silent. He Yuzhu turned her around to face him, and by the moonlight, he saw that her eyes were red. He lowered his head and kissed the corner of her eye, whispering: I only want you.

Xiao'e raised her face and kissed his lips. That night, He Yuzhu was extremely gentle, as if he wanted to melt his tenderness into his wife's body. Xiao'e bit her pillow, her suppressed sobs filled with unprecedented emotion.

The next morning, He Yuzhu got up and practiced Xingyi Quan in the courtyard. Shen Zhixia came out of the west wing, stood under the pomegranate tree and watched for a while. After he finished practicing, she walked up to him, bowed slightly, and said that she wanted to say a few words to Brother He.

He Yuzhu wiped his sweat with a towel and helped her sit down on the stone bench. Lou Xiao'e came out of the main room, hugged He Xiao, and sat down beside her.

Shen Zhixia sat down, placing her hands on her knees and straightening her back. She spoke of her family background in a steady voice, her gaze slightly lowered.

Her family was a well-known scholarly and farming family in Cao County, Shandong Province. Several of her ancestors had passed the imperial examinations, and her father was a local gentry known for his integrity. Before the liberation, when she was seven years old, soldiers came to the town in winter. A few ruffians rushed into the village to rob grain and livestock. Her father led the able-bodied men of the village to block the entrance and argue with them. He was hit on the temple with a rifle butt and died the next day after being carried home.

She lost her father when she was seven, and her mother raised her alone, relying entirely on the care of the villagers. Her mother didn't make it through last winter, leaving her all alone at home.

This year, her hometown village couldn't hold on any longer, so everyone fled the famine. Most of the able-bodied men starved to death or got separated from their families. She went with five elderly women she knew from the village. The five women had six children in total, the youngest being an eight-year-old boy named Gou Dan.

His father starved to death on the way, and his mother carried him for hundreds of miles. Of the six children, only Gou Dan survived and made it to Beijing. Of the other five, four died of dysentery on the way, and the other was kidnapped while sleeping under a wall. The old women chased after him for miles but couldn't find him. That old woman cried all night, but the next day she had to grit her teeth and continue on her journey, protecting Gou Dan and herself tightly.

Along the way, it was unsafe for her, a young woman, so the older women told her to paint her face and hide in the middle of the group. They never spoke to or traveled with strange male migrants or aimless drifters, preferring to take a longer route rather than squeeze into crowded areas. In this way, they supported each other and barely made it to Beijing.

"Brother He, Sister Lou, you saved me. I want to ask you for a favor." Shen Zhixia raised her head, her eyes slightly red, but her voice remained steady.

"Those five elderly women and Gou Dan are being repatriated, and they're waiting to join the other repatriated people going in the same direction. I beg you, could you please give them some dry food? Not much, just enough for them to eat on the way. Cornbread will do, anything will do." Her voice trembled as she finished speaking. "They saved my life, I can't watch them starve to death on the way."

Lou Xiao'e hugged He Xiao, her eyes reddening, and turned to look at He Yuzhu. "Brother He, please help them. Zhixia only has these few relatives left in this world."

He Yuzhu stood up. "Don't rush. Sending dry rations is easy. But how much should we send? Giving too much won't be safe on the repatriation journey."

Shen Zhixia looked up at him, but didn't dare to ask any further questions.

"I'm going to the steel rolling mill now." He Yuzhu picked up his coat from the back of his chair. "The factory canteen should be able to arrange a few temporary workers. They'll give us some leftovers and an internal subsidy, so we won't have to use up our official food rations. As long as we have food to eat and work to do, we won't be considered migrant workers. I'll go ask Brother Li for five spots."

Lou Xiao'e's eyes lit up, and she took two steps forward while holding He Xiao. "What about the resettlement site? Without a temporary residence permit, they'll still check." (Such temporary permits did exist in 1960.)

"I'll smooth things over with the neighborhood committee and the local police officer. The reason I gave was that I'm temporarily staying here and have temporary work, and I'll try to get them to let me return to my hometown as soon as possible. I'll get them to issue me a temporary residence permit so I can stay in the three south-facing rooms of their house."

Shen Zhixia stood up to kowtow to him, but He Yuzhu reached out to help her up. "Don't kneel. Ma Hua, prepare a dry food package, twenty mixed flour buns, each filled with pickled vegetables and cured meat. You and the old women wait at the resettlement point."

Ma Hua responded and ran into the kitchen.

He Yuzhu hopped on his three-wheeled motorcycle and returned at noon with five temporary worker registration forms in his hand. He went directly to the resettlement site, handed the certificates to the elderly woman in charge, and exchanged a few words with the people from the neighborhood committee.

The old women held the few pieces of paper stamped with red seals, their hands trembling so badly they couldn't utter a word for a long time. Gou Dan, standing nearby, was gnawing on a steamed bun, choking but unwilling to spit it out, his cheeks puffed out as he forced down the food.

After settling the elderly women and Gou Dan in, we ate rice porridge, steamed fish, and vegetables for dinner. We didn't dare let them eat too much.

The courtyard quieted down at night. A young woman moved into the west wing, and warm lights shone in the three south-facing rooms. In this courtyard, another group of people had come to protect.