Gênio Literário 1982

“Jun, come out for a moment.”
“Auntie has really found a bride for you this time, no joke.”

Wang Guifen’s voice, tinged with urgency and joy, pierced through the thin wooden door of the inner room and drilled straight into Lin Junsheng’s ears.

Lin Junsheng was sitting at a worn wooden table, fiddling with a pencil worn down to just the length of his thumb.

Hearing Wang Guifen’s call, he was momentarily startled. Slowly standing up, his left leg still limping from a meniscus surgery, he walked with a noticeable limp.

The doctor had said the treatment options here were limited and suggested trying Shanghai. But his family was in Baigou Village, Yuzhou—how could they afford to go to Shanghai?

They already owed relatives and neighbors over two thousand yuan for his leg treatment. In this era, over two thousand yuan was no small sum; pork cost just 0.73 yuan per jin. And there were still follow-up treatment expenses to consider—astronomical for his family.

It was partly his own fault for being a veterinarian who was too kind-hearted. During the last heavy rain, he had tried to help deliver a calf in the neighboring village. On the way, he fell badly and ended up with this crippled leg.

*Creak.*

Pushing open the creaking wooden door, Lin Junsheng stepped out of the house, dressed in a blue work uniform.

Sunlight filtered through sparse clouds and bathed the humble mud-and-tile house in a warm glow. Shielding his eyes from the glare, Lin Junsheng saw Wang Guifen standing outside the fence, clad in a br