Chapter Ninety-Five: Her Family Home

There were still two days before the wedding, not nearly enough to call it generous time. In their part of the country, the custom was to begin the banquet the next morning: three meals for the bride’s party, six for the groom’s, a full three days of continuous feasting.

Yan Chunhua’s family was not here. She had only informed them once she decided to marry. Her household registration and everything else had already been transferred back when she was in school, so the formalities of registration were convenient now.

In truth, Yan Chunhua still hoped, somewhere in her heart, that her family would come. But by now there had been no word at all, and she had finally given up hope. Zhang the Elder and Chen Xin had originally discussed whether they should rent a car and go pick up Chunhua’s natal family, but Second Sister said it was best not to. If the other side were reasonable, that would be one thing; if they were the sort to make trouble, this marriage might not even be able to go forward.

“I say we needn’t bother with Chunhua’s family side. Treat her as my own daughter, and I’ll send her off myself,” the village chief’s wife said. She had spent these days with Yan Chunhua and had grown very fond of the diligent young woman. Later, after learning from Second Sister why Chunhua had fallen out with her family, the village chief’s wife was instantly filled with indignation.

“Such a good girl, and all because she cares about her family she gets nothing for it? Those parents are utterly worthless. If she were my daughter, I’d cherish her to the marrow. Just look at her—she even protects her cousin so much; would she really fail to protect her family? That boy, Zhang Debing, we watched him grow up. He’s honest and decent, just a little lame, but look at him now—is he really any worse than those with healthy legs and feet? The few widowed old folks and old dependents in the village, who among them has not received help from Old Zhang? By that measure, the two of them are truly made for each other.”

The village chief’s wife was an capable woman; with just a few words she comforted Yan Chunhua. She told them to marry first, and once the child was born, with a child in her arms and better conditions at home, she could go back to see her mother directly. If her mother still refused to acknowledge her, then she could come back. From then on, their own home would be her maternal home.

Yan Chunhua was not coy either. A few nights before the wedding, under the witness of the village elders, she bowed down and acknowledged a foster father and foster mother. The brothers who escorted the bride were the village’s own sons, and even those in the village who were envious of Zhang Da formed a bride-escort party as well, saying they wanted to put Zhang Da through his paces. Who told him to marry such a beautiful and capable girl?

The village chief’s wife, having gained a daughter for nothing, was not stingy in the least. She took out the wedding dress she had worn when she married, from the very bottom of her chest, and put it on Yan Chunhua.

This was, after all, a place of mixed communities, though the majority were Han. In daily life, habits, speech, and everything else were more or less the same, but only at weddings did they still hold fast to tradition.

The Zhang family were Han, and so was the village chief, but the village chief’s wife belonged to a minority nationality. So when she learned that Yan Chunhua belonged to the same ethnic group as she did, only more thoroughly assimilated into Han customs and even without a single set of her people’s traditional clothes, she thought of the wedding dress she had cherished for decades.

With the bright, still-vivid skirt and headdress, and the silver waist sash that should properly have been prepared by her natal family, Yan Chunhua in her full bridal finery looked tender and lovely as a flower. Zhang Debing, who had come to deliver things, saw his fiancée so beautiful that he could scarcely tear his eyes away; it was only his younger sister who chased him out.

“Today the village is so lively.” Chen Xin and Bai Mengqing were strolling through the village toward the Zhang house. Zhang Zhang had already run off with the village children and disappeared from sight. “When I first came a year ago, conditions were not really much worse than they are now, but there was just no spirit to the place, as if a crowd of people were all but ready to die. How good it is now. Everyone is smiling. Even if conditions are still harsh, everyone has a dream now, and they’re straining forward toward the future.”

“Yes. Poverty is the source of all nightmares.”

Having traveled so many places with Chen Xin, Bai Mengqing had seen, heard, and felt things she had once known only from books. Back then it had all seemed so unreal that at most she could sigh over it; she could never truly feel it in her bones. But now it was different. Only after experiencing it, after touching it, did she understand why so many people chose to leave their wives and children behind and go far from home, returning only once in a blue moon.

“If everyone could earn money right at their own doorstep, there wouldn’t be so many elderly people and children left behind in impoverished villages.”

“It’s impossible for everyone to make money at their doorstep. But the problem of those left behind can still be improved. It’s just not realistic right now, whether from the national level or in terms of what people can bear economically. Still, I believe life will get better and better, and by then there definitely won’t be anything like the incident we heard about in the stockade.”

Chen Xin knew Bai Mengqing was still grieving for the old man in the stockade who had died of illness at home without anyone knowing. Even she, when she first heard about it, had been shaken. She had heard of such things before, but never so close at hand. That was also why Pujia had chosen to stay in the village, making a daily round to the homes of those widowed old people and lonely elders to look in on them.

The two of them were chatting as they walked until they were only a dozen or so meters from the Zhang house, when Chen Xin’s phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID: an unfamiliar number. At first she did not want to answer, but on impulse she picked up.

“You say you’re Yan Chunhua’s brother?” Chen Xin exchanged a glance with Bai Mengqing, who leaned in close to listen at the phone. “Are you coming over?”

“No, I’m not going up there. I brought some things for Chunhua and left them at the guesthouse in the town below your mountain. Have Chunhua come down and get them herself. Also, tell her not to blame Mother. Mother has cried in secret several times, but she knows what the family situation is like. She can’t do anything about it either. Once Chunhua is married and has her own family, Mother and I will be able to rest easy.”

Yan Chunhua’s brother seemed to be crying as he spoke, his voice thick with emotion. He hurried through the words and hung up.

Later, when Chen Xin called back, the other side said he was the front desk clerk at the guesthouse, and that the man had already left, crying like an idiot as only a grown man could.

Chen Xin was anxious, but it was too late and there was no way to go down the mountain now. She could only hurry back to the Zhang house with Bai Mengqing. After telling Zhang the Elder, the Zhang family also grew anxious. If they had already reached the foot of the mountain but still refused to come up, what on earth had happened? It was enough to drive a person mad.

In the end, the village Party secretary said they would send someone down the mountain first thing in the morning to bring the things back before deciding anything else. Since the other side said Yan Chunhua understood in her heart, there was no need to think further. They could see later how that girl intended to proceed. Once she married into the Zhang family, she was a person of Zhangjia Village; if she needed help, all she had to do was say so.

Bai Mengqing had been running back and forth the whole time, but she never interjected. It was only when they were getting ready for bed that she let out a sigh and said she finally understood why Chen Xin had been willing to reconnect with this branch of her family.

“The Zhang family are plain and honest, and everyone in their village is good. Even if they have a few shortcomings, that’s understandable. Even ten fingers are not all the same length. All in all, they’re much more reliable than city people.”