Chapter Ninety-Six: Reading

Before dawn the next day, the village party secretary’s two sons ran down the mountain to help carry things up.

After nine o’clock, the two boys came back carrying two bags on their backs. They ran to the Zhang house and said the man had already taken the train last night, but had left a letter for Brother Zhang.

“For me?” Zhang Debing glanced at Chen Xin, looking a little at a loss.

“Take it and see. He probably has something he wants to explain to you.”

Chen Xin was not at all ceremonious. She took the letter at once, opened it in front of Zhang Debing, and scanned it.

“Here. It’s a warning to you. Read carefully and see what your brother-in-law wrote.”

After stuffing the letter into Zhang Debing’s hands, Chen Xin called Zhang’s second sister over to help open the two bags. It was not that they did not know the rules; mainly they were worried the other side might be up to something, and if anything went wrong it would ruin the wedding, which would be far too ugly.

Besides, with so many people here, they were opening the bags in full view. No one could accuse them of stealing anything from Yan Chunhua.

Inside the two bundles was a set of clothes, along with some separately wrapped items.

The clothes were all brand-new, even the tags had not been removed. They were not luxury goods, but it was obvious that Yan Chunhua’s mother had specially bought them as her wedding outfit.

They did not open the other things. Instead, they asked someone to take them over to Yan Chunhua. Chen Xin was uneasy and followed along, while Bai Mengqing stayed behind to help Zhang’s second sister tidy up and decorate the bridal room.

Over at the village head’s house, the banquet had already begun. Besides the people from their own village, there were also some from neighboring villages who had come to join the excitement. It did not really matter whether they brought gifts or money. Those who were particular about it would give a few yuan and a backbasket of vegetables; those who were not would come empty-handed and still eat a meal, and no one would say anything.

A while back, Yan Chunhua had also helped the other two villages think through their livestock-breeding problems, so this time all those who had benefited from her had come to support her, acting as her family from the bride’s side. At the very least, the feast looked lively and festive.

Sister Jia and her husband had come too, and they simply sat with the bride’s relatives. When the things were delivered, Sister Jia happened to be there as well. After hearing what had happened, she pulled Yan Chunhua straight into the room to help her open the bundles.

Besides the new wedding clothes Yan Chunhua’s mother had bought for her, there were also two skirts her mother had sewn herself. There were likewise some customary dowry items from their side, such as bed covers and the like. Hidden inside one of the covers was a pair of jade bracelets. Yan Chunhua said her mother had worn them on her wrist all the time; they had originally been part of her grandmother’s dowry to her mother, and now her mother had passed them on to her.

Seeing the bracelets, Yan Chunhua could not hold back her tears. Sister Jia comforted her for quite a while before she finally stopped crying.

“See? It’s not as though you haven’t received your family’s blessing. No matter what anyone else thinks, at least your mother cares for you, and your brothers came all this way to bring you your dowry. Don’t be sad now.”

Standing on tiptoe in the courtyard, Chen Xin watched for a while. Seeing that Sister Jia had finally consoled Yan Chunhua, she let out a quiet breath of relief and hurried back to keep helping with the bridal chamber.

When she returned, Liu Chunyan happened to be talking with Bai Mengqing. Speaking of Yan Chunhua’s family troubles, Liu Chunyan felt especially strongly about it. She even gave Bai Mengqing a solemn lecture, warning her that when it came time to fall in love and get married, she must not only look at a man’s character, but at his entire family as well. She should not foolishly think that if a man was kind to her, she should marry him. If she ended up unable to get along with his in-laws, a man could change his mind in a flash, and by then it would be too late to regret anything.

Liu Chunyan spoke so fast and with such animated expression that Bai Mengqing and the two village girls who had come to help were laughing so hard they could barely stand straight.

“Come off it, Chunyan. You make it sound like you’re some sort of expert. Everyone knows your husband treats you well, and even if your mother-in-law has a few little faults, she’s still decent to people,” Chen Xin said with a smile, cutting them off. “But I do think one thing Sister Chunyan said is absolutely right. Marriage is a matter for two families, and you have to be careful.”

In a setting like this, of course they could not keep talking about that subject. Chen Xin smoothly changed the topic and brought it back to Yan Chunhua’s family.

“Chunhua is such a good person. It’s a pity her family wouldn’t agree to her marrying here. This time, not a single person from her side came to the wedding. How pitiful.”

Xiangmei was nineteen this year. She had stopped going to school after middle school. In the past, she had worked outside the village, earning only two or three hundred yuan a month after exhausting labor. Even after saving for a whole year, it still would not have been enough to pay for her younger brothers and sisters’ schooling. After the Spring Festival this year, she had not gone out again. Instead, she followed Yan Chunhua to learn how to manage the livestock farm and worked for the Zhang family for half a year, earning as much as she had in an entire year before. The village was close to home, and she could learn a skill too. In another two years, when her family had some money, she also planned to start a farm of her own and raise pearl chickens. By then she would marry into one of the nearby villages. Whether she came back to help at home or worked together with her family, it would still be better than going out and being bullied by others.

The other girl was even younger. She had started school late and was only in ninth grade at sixteen. Her family was a little better off, so she was still hesitating whether to go on to high school or follow the older girls and go out to work. Before, she had thought that studying more was useless; in the end, she would still have to go out to earn money, then come home and get married, just like her mother and grandmother, revolving around the men of the family. But after seeing Yan Chunhua, she had become deeply envious. Especially since even her father and brother said Yan Chunhua was capable and impressive, she too wanted to be like her: study some, learn a skill, and later not work for others, but start something of her own. That would be promising too.

“In the past, very few girls in the village could even finish middle school. Later, when compulsory education was made widespread, after middle school both boys and girls liked going out to work and make money, because the village was too poor and simply could not afford high school fees. But now things are better. The village plans to take a certain percentage from the first income it receives and save it up, specifically to pay for the children’s high school expenses. Not all of it—based on their grades. Just like, well, that thing... that bonus thing.”

“A scholarship!” the younger girl said with a giggle. If nothing unexpected happened, she ought to be among the first group of children to benefit.

“Yes, a scholarship. The village head and the party secretary both said that if you do well on the exams, the village will pay all your tuition and miscellaneous fees for one year. If you do so-so, it will pay half. If you do badly, only a quarter. In any case, whether your family has to spend less depends on how well you study.”

Not everyone in the village agreed, of course, but the majority ruled. Besides, the money would be there; whether you could get it depended on whether your child worked hard or not. It was not as though anyone was deliberately withholding it.

Once this policy was announced, the village children immediately grew a little more tense. Before, when school let out, they would come home and play to their hearts’ content. Now they all bent over their books under the watchful eyes of their parents’ bamboo switches.

“This year there are three kids in our village taking the college entrance exam. The village head also said that if anyone gets into a university, they’ll be rewarded with four thousand yuan; if they get into a junior college, two thousand; and if they only get into a vocational school, five hundred.”

The aunt speaking lowered her voice, but she was smiling so hard her whole body shook. “You didn’t see how the onion boy from Aunt Guihua’s family has been, with his mother watching him every day while he studies and does practice problems. He hasn’t even stepped out of the house for a month. His grades are the worst, so whether he can even get the five hundred is hard to say. Aunt Guihua is furious, but she doesn’t dare say the village head is wrong. She scolds the child at home every day. She’s even gotten thin!”