1940s: I supported my wife and sister-in-law by hunting.

There are only a few households at the west end of the village, the most dilapidated being those two low, crumbling mud-brick houses, their eaves blackened by smoke.

Just then, the wooden door of the mud-brick house creaked open, and a woman who looked to be about twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old walked out.

She was wearing an old, patched cotton-padded coat. The blue cotton-padded coat had been washed until it was white, and the stiff cotton wadding was showing through the holes.

The woman was chopping wood at the doorway, her back bent, holding an axe.

This woman was the village's famous widow, whose real name was Liu Chuncao.

During a famine in her early years, she fled from another place and fainted from hunger at the door of this family's house. The kind-hearted man of the family, who was short-lived, rescued her, gave her some coarse grain cakes, and provided her with shelter from the wind.

In order to survive and avoid starving to death on the roadside, Liu Chuncao followed this man and started living together. They didn't have a proper wedding, but that was considered getting married.

Less than a year after their marriage, Liu Chuncao gave birth to her daughter, Daya. Although life was hard, at least she had someone to rely on.

But when Daya was only six months old, the man saw that she was weak and thought he should go down to the river to catch some fresh fish to make fish soup for her to nourish her body, so he went to the shallow river at the edge of the village.

Who could have predicted that water that barely reached the calves would drown a person? It was just fate; when one's lifespan is over, there's no stopping it.

After her husband passed away, Liu Chuncao became a widow, living in two dilapidated mud-brick houses. She also had a blind and hard-of-hearing old woman in the family, plus five acres of land that depended on the weather for a living. The widow and her child were struggling to support the old woman, making life even more difficult.

We worked day and night, barely managing to raise our daughter to one year old.

Normally, the men in the village would avoid her when they saw her. Even if they bumped into her, they wouldn't dare to say a word to her, for fear of being gossiped about by the villagers and accused of having an affair with the widow. They were even more afraid of being scolded by their wives when they got home.

The women in the village disliked her even more, partly because they thought she was a refugee from another place and her origins were unknown.

Secondly, they all cursed her behind her back, saying she was a jinx who would kill men, and everyone ostracized her and wouldn't associate with her.

During the day, the men in the village dared not touch her, but once it got dark, there was never any peace and quiet in front of her house.

For the past six months or so, there have been restless men sneaking over, all looking at her as an orphan and a widow who are easy to bully. They want to sneak into her bed at night, take advantage of her, and force her to become their lover.

The little money left by the short-lived man was not enough to support the elderly and feed the young. Every expense, from firewood to rice and oil, cost money. Even if she wanted to live a dutiful life, reality had left her with no way out.

Just as he was worrying, his eyes suddenly fell on Chen Gaoshan, who was wandering around not far away.

Chen Gaoshan was tall and sturdy, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. He was strong and capable of fighting. His family were hunters, so he certainly didn't lack food or clothing. Look at how bulging his body was.

Compared to those shifty-eyed men, Chen Gaoshan looked reliable and dependable. Just looking at him made Liu Chuncao's heart race.

Chen Gaoshan was walking slowly when he suddenly felt a gaze fixed on him, burning hot. He subconsciously turned his head to the left and saw that it was Widow Liu from the village.

In his memory, although he didn't interact with her much on a daily basis, he didn't look down on her like the other villagers did. He just felt that it wasn't easy for a woman like her, so he greeted her politely.

"Sister Chuncao, have you finished eating?"

Liu Chuncao tightened her grip on the axe and quickly shook her head.

"Not yet, I need to chop some firewood to cook. What are you busy with, Brother Gaoshan?"

"I just finished eating at home and had nothing to do, so I came out for a walk to get some fresh air."

Chen Gaoshan smiled and replied, then lifted his foot to continue walking, not wanting to linger and cause gossip.

Seeing Chen Gaoshan turn to leave, Liu Chuncao's heart skipped a beat, and she made up her mind instantly.

Since we'll have to go through this sooner or later anyway, it's better to find someone we like and who is reliable than to get entangled with shady characters.

She swallowed hard, and without hesitation, she made up her mind in the blink of an eye and quickly called out to him.

"Brother Gaoshan, don't go yet. My wife needs your help. Could you come inside and take a look? Our chimney isn't burning well lately. It backs up smoke every time we cook, and it's so choking! Could you take a look and see what's wrong?"

Chen Gaoshan glanced at her appearance and tone, and his heart skipped a beat. Damn, what is this sister-in-law up to?

Suddenly, he remembered the plumbers and roofers he had seen.

Is that what he thinks?

The little girl, Liu Chuncao, had a rosy face from the cold, giving her a pitiful yet endearing look.

She had willow-leaf eyebrows, cherry-like lips, and a small face.

Her clothes were especially bulging, probably because she was still breastfeeding.

Her hesitant, bashful demeanor was quite alluring, leaving one feeling intrigued.

Chen Gaoshan stood there, hesitant.

If you were to step inside, it wouldn't be as simple as just helping to ventilate the kang (heated brick bed).

If we hand over the grain here and then can't return it by nightfall, that would be a disaster.

Just as he was pondering this, Liu Chuncao quickly scanned her surroundings and, seeing that there wasn't a single pedestrian on the road, she immediately strode out of the fenced yard, reached out and grabbed his arm. Her grip wasn't strong, but it was soft and yielding, making it impossible for him to break free.

"Brother Gao, you won't even help your wife with this small favor?"

"You saw your brother Gouzi is gone, and now you're bullying me, a widow and orphan, because I have no one to back me up, aren't you?"

Once those words were spoken, Chen Gaoshan couldn't refuse. It would be too inhumane to refuse a widow who had said it to his face.

"Sister-in-law, look at what you're saying, I never said I wouldn't help."

He quickly followed up on the conversation.

"Come on, I'll go in with you and take a look. If the kang (heated brick bed) is hard to heat, it's probably because it's been around for a long time and there's too much soot accumulated in the kang's firebox. It needs to be thoroughly aired out."

He followed Liu Chuncao into the courtyard, and as soon as he pushed open the door and entered the house, he heard a series of intermittent coughs coming from the inner room.

"Springgrass, who's here?" It was her blind old woman.

Liu Chuncao turned her head and answered loudly towards the inner room, knowing that her mother-in-law was hard of hearing and blind, so she deliberately raised her voice a little.

"Mother, it's Chen Gaoshan and his brother! Our kang (heated brick bed) is hard to heat, so he came over to fix it. Please wait a little longer, the food will be ready soon."

"Well, thank you, young man Chen."

The old lady was groping around in the inner room.

"Chuncao, we don't have anything good at home, but I'll pour her a bowl of water to quench her thirst."

Chen Gaoshan followed Chuncao into the west room and immediately saw a little baby lying on the kang (a heated brick bed).

The child neither cried nor fussed, but stared at him with his round eyes without blinking.

His heart softened, and he sat down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), reaching out to tease the little one. (No...)

To his surprise, the child wasn't shy at all. He immediately grinned and reached out his little hand to grab his big hand, babbling incoherently.

"Ah~ Ah~"

Liu Chuncao turned and went out, bringing in a rough porcelain bowl filled halfway with water, and handed it to him.

"Brother Gaoshan, we're poor and don't have much to offer you. Please have some water."

After walking around, Chen Gaoshan was indeed a bit thirsty. He took the bowl, tilted his head back, and gulped it down in one go, then casually placed the empty bowl on the kang table.